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Expected goals : the story of how data conquered football and changed the game forever
Football has always measured success by what you win, but only in the last twenty years have clubs started to think about how you win. Data has now suffused almost every aspect of how football is played, coached, scouted and consumed. But it's not the algorithms or new metrics that have made this change, it's the people behind them. This is the story of modern football's great data revolution and the group of curious, entrepreneurial personalities who zealously believed in its potential to transform the game.
Book
Optimal Search for an Astrophysical Gravitational-Wave Background
Roughly every 2–10 min, a pair of stellar-mass black holes merge somewhere in the Universe. A small fraction of these mergers are detected as individually resolvable gravitational-wave events by advanced detectors such as LIGO and Virgo. The rest contribute to a stochastic background. We derive the statistically optimal search strategy (producing minimum credible intervals) for a background of unresolved binaries. Our method applies Bayesian parameter estimation to all available data. Using Monte Carlo simulations, we demonstrate that the search is both “safe” and effective: it is not fooled by instrumental artifacts such as glitches and it recovers simulated stochastic signals without bias. Given realistic assumptions, we estimate that the search can detect the binary black hole background with about 1 day of design sensitivity data versus≈40months using the traditional cross-correlation search. This framework independently constrains the merger rate and black hole mass distribution, breaking a degeneracy present in the cross-correlation approach. The search provides a unified framework for population studies of compact binaries, which is cast in terms of hyperparameter estimation. We discuss a number of extensions and generalizations, including application to other sources (such as binary neutron stars and continuous-wave sources), simultaneous estimation of a continuous Gaussian background, and applications to pulsar timing.
Journal Article
Key Innovations and Technologies in Vertical Transportation Systems since 1980
Vertical transportation systems have been rapidly evolving since the 1990's. Lifts without machine rooms have become common, many buildings of 100 or more floors have been built or are planned and new technologies for lifts are being introduced. The common types of lifts produced in 1990 are explained as a baseline for explaining the innovations that have revolutionized lifts since then. These innovations include Variable Voltage Variable Frequency (VVVF) technology, the Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBT), Permanent Magnet Alternate Current Motors (PMAC), Independent Wire Rope Core (IWRC) ropes, and Machine Room Less (MRL) lift technologies. Two novel suspension means, coated steel belts and coated carbon belts, are new technologies that are changing lift designs are reviewed. Systems that employ more than one lift per hoistway are explained. These systems can use ropes or they can be rope-less and employ magnetic levitation. Two interesting new technologies that are profoundly changing the lift industry, Machine Learning and Robots are also examined.
Journal Article
OK Computer
Promising machine learning techniques can deduce the properties of merging black holes from gravitational wave signals a million times faster than current state-of-the-art methods.
Journal Article
Towards optimising experimental quantification of persistent pain in Parkinson’s disease using psychophysical testing
People with Parkinson’s disease (PD) may live for multiple decades after diagnosis. Ensuring that effective healthcare provision is received across the range of symptoms experienced is vital to the individual’s wellbeing and quality of life. As well as the hallmark motor symptoms, PD patients may also suffer from non-motor symptoms including persistent pain. This type of pain (lasting more than 3 months) is inconsistently described and poorly understood, resulting in limited treatment options. Evidence-based pain remedies are coming to the fore but therapeutic strategies that offer an improved analgesic profile remain an unmet clinical need. Since the ability to establish a link between the neurodegenerative changes that underlie PD and those that underlie maladaptive pain processing leading to persistent pain could illuminate mechanisms or risk factors of disease initiation, progression and maintenance, we evaluated the latest research literature seeking to identify causal factors underlying persistent pain in PD through experimental quantification. The majority of previous studies aimed to identify neurobiological alterations that could provide a biomarker for pain/pain phenotype, in PD cohorts. However heterogeneity of patient cohorts, result outcomes and methodology between human psychophysics studies overwhelmingly leads to inconclusive and equivocal evidence. Here we discuss refinement of pain-PD paradigms in order that future studies may enhance confidence in the validity of observed effect sizes while also aiding comparability through standardisation. Encouragingly, as the field moves towards cross-study comparison of data in order to more reliably reveal mechanisms underlying dysfunctional pain processing, the potential for better-targeted treatment and management is high.
Journal Article
Nickel-Decorated Carbocatalysts for the UV-Driven Photodegradation of Rhodamine B
Nickel-decorated carbocatalysts were synthesized by the evaporation-induced self-assembly (EISA) method. The influence of the metal content and pyrolysis temperature upon the photoactivity was assessed through rhodamine B degradation under UV irradiation. The characterization revealed a mesoporous framework with a granular morphology composed of amorphous carbon, where the pyrolysis temperature influenced the metal dispersion on the carbon surface. The primary metallic phases consisted of elemental nickel crystallites and nickel carbide phases. The kinetic parameters for adsorption and dye photodegradation under UV irradiation were determined and compared to TiO2-P25. Correlations were found between the adsorption parameters, photocatalytic activity, and nickel content, the pyrolysis method (one-step vs. two-step pyrolysis), and the pyrolysis temperature. The sample with a 1:1:0.25 tannin/Pluronic®F-127/Ni weight ratio pyrolyzed at 700 °C exhibited the highest photoactivity, achieving rhodamine B degradation rates up to 68 and 2.5 times greater than photolysis and TiO2-P25. In terms of the normalized weight of the catalysts, it can be concluded that the present Ni-based catalysts are up to two orders of magnitude more photoactive than TiO2-P25 under UV irradiation, opening a door for indoor UV-driven photoreactors. These findings demonstrate that the EISA method is an effective, low-cost, and ecofriendly approach for synthesizing Ni-decorated carbocatalysts.
Journal Article
CCTV image‐based classification of blocked trash screens
This study introduces image‐based classification techniques to identify whether trash screens in urban rivers are blocked. The study obtained 755 images from a CCTV camera surveying a trash screen located on an urban river at Tongwynlais in Cardiff. Manual quality control reduced the dataset to 577 images, labelled as either blocked (80%) or unblocked (20%). The performance of a logistic regression for classification of images was investigated using three different subsets of the labelled images: (1) the original dataset, (2) a balanced but under‐sampled dataset with equal number of blocked and unblocked images, and (3) an augmented dataset with an equal number of blocked and unblocked images using Gaussian noise augmentation to increase the number of unblocked images. Results show that our data‐augmentation method enhanced model accuracy by 8%, successfully classifying images as blocked or unblocked with an accuracy of 88%; by overcoming the bias in the dataset these results also highlight potential solutions to overcome the challenges of operating this methodology across a network of cameras. This enables authorities in both data rich and data scarce regions the ability to take advantage of machine learning to open up the next generation of a distributed, data‐driven flood warning systems, protecting people, infrastructure and the environment.
Journal Article
Tracheobronchitis Due to Invasive Aspergillus fumigatus in a Male With HIV With Minimal Imaging Findings
Aspergillus tracheobronchitis (AT) is a rare manifestation of invasive aspergillosis. We present a case of tracheobronchitis caused by Aspergillus fumigatus in a 33-year-old male with neutropenia and known human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).A 33-year-old male with HIV/AIDS presented to the hospital with symptoms of productive cough for over two months associated with subjective fevers, chills, and body aches. Computed tomography (CT) of the chest was significant for scattered sub-centimeter bilateral upper lobe nodules but otherwise normal. The patient underwent an extensive evaluation for his respiratory symptoms, including an initial sputum culture, which grew Haemophilus parainfluenzae in addition to preliminary fungal growth, prompting further evaluation with bronchoscopy. Bronchoscopy revealed diffuse adherent obstructive pseudomembranous plaques in the trachea and bilateral upper lobe segmental bronchi. Bronchoalveolar lavage cultures later grew Aspergillus fumigatus. Tracheobronchitis due to Aspergillus species is a rare cause of infection in patients with HIV. We believe that this case underscores the importance of further evaluation utilizing bronchoscopy in patients with AIDS who have respiratory symptoms despite mild abnormalities on chest CT. This approach can be used to rule out atypical endobronchial infections such as tracheobronchitis due to Aspergillus species.
Journal Article
A Systematic Review Of COVID-19 Misinformation Interventions: Lessons Learned
Governments, public health authorities, and social media platforms have employed various measures to counter misinformation that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic. The effectiveness of those misinformation interventions is poorly understood. We analyzed fifty papers published between January 1, 2020, and February 24, 2023, to understand which interventions, if any, were helpful in mitigating COVID-19 misinformation. We found evidence supporting accuracy prompts, debunks, media literacy tips, warning labels, and overlays in mitigating either the spread of or belief in COVID-19 misinformation. However, by mapping the different characteristics of each study, we found levels of variation that weaken the current evidence base. For example, only 18 percent of studies included public health-related measures, such as intent to vaccinate, and the misinformation that interventions were tested against ranged considerably from conspiracy theories (vaccines include microchips) to unproven claims (gargling with saltwater prevents COVID-19). To more clearly discern the impact of various interventions and make evidence actionable for public health, the field urgently needs to include more public health experts in intervention design and to develop a health misinformation typology; agreed-upon outcome measures; and more global, more longitudinal, more video-based, and more platform-diverse studies.
Journal Article
A Delayed Diagnosis of Hemorrhagic Shock in a Patient with Alcoholic Cirrhosis and Ascites on Bedside Ultrasound
Undifferentiated shock is a common and challenging problem in critical care. We present a case of hemorrhagic shock due to splenic and hepatic lacerations diagnosed by bedside paracentesis, initially misclassified as septic shock due to suspected spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP). Case. A 47-year old man with a history of reported alcoholic cirrhosis and ongoing heavy alcohol use was brought to the emergency room after a syncopal event. He was found to be anemic (hemoglobin 9.9 g/dl) and hypotensive with a blood pressure of 64/34. Despite crystalloid infusion he remained hypotensive and required vasopressor support with norepinephrine. Bedside ultrasound revealed moderate ascites and as there was no evidence of active bleeding, his shock was attributed to sepsis due to SBP. A bedside paracentesis was performed which revealed gross blood. A repeat hemoglobin returned at 4.4 g/dl. Massive transfusion protocol was initiated and interventional radiology was emergently consulted due to concerns for intraabdominal hemorrhage; general surgery deemed the patient too unstable for surgical intervention. Angiogram revealed a splenic laceration and possible hepatic laceration, both embolized successfully. Internal medicine practitioners should keep the differential of hemorrhagic shock due to intraabdominal organ injury in mind for patients with undifferentiated shock.
Journal Article