Standard Distance Research Articles

Cluster Analysis for Housing Market Segmentation

Cluster analysis is often used to determine housing submarkets. However, commonly used methods cannot handle mixed-mode data when variables of different types and units are combined. We propose new similarity measures that handle both continuous and categorical variables using normalization and discretization steps and partial match criteria. These measures are used in agglomerative hierarchical clustering with a formulation where the optimal number of clusters is automatically determined without a priori information regarding the number of submarkets. The experiments using housing sales data show that the proposed measures perform better than the commonly used standardized Euclidean distance in identifying submarkets.

A Study of Deep Learning-Based Face Recognition Models for Sibling Identification.

Accurate identification of siblings through face recognition is a challenging task. This is predominantly because of the high degree of similarities among the faces of siblings. In this study, we investigate the use of state-of-the-art deep learning face recognition models to evaluate their capacity for discrimination between sibling faces using various similarity indices. The specific models examined for this purpose are FaceNet, VGGFace, VGG16, and VGG19. For each pair of images provided, the embeddings have been calculated using the chosen deep learning model. Five standard similarity measures, namely, cosine similarity, Euclidean distance, structured similarity, Manhattan distance, and Minkowski distance, are used to classify images looking for their identity on the threshold defined for each of the similarity measures. The accuracy, precision, and misclassification rate of each model are calculated using standard confusion matrices. Four different experimental datasets for full-frontal-face, eyes, nose, and forehead of sibling pairs are constructed using publicly available HQf subset of the SiblingDB database. The experimental results show that the accuracy of the chosen deep learning models to distinguish siblings based on the full-frontal-face and cropped face areas vary based on the face area compared. It is observed that VGGFace is best while comparing the full-frontal-face and eyes—the accuracy of classification being with more than 95% in this case. However, its accuracy degrades significantly when the noses are compared, while FaceNet provides the best result for classification based on the nose. Similarly, VGG16 and VGG19 are not the best models for classification using the eyes, but these models provide favorable results when foreheads are compared.

Gender Determination with Ischiopubic Index and Upper Pelvic Index in Iranian Adult Radiographic Stereotypes

Background: Different parts of the skeletal system have been studied in different studies to determine gender. The pelvis is one of the most important skeletal components for the determination of gender and identification of humans. Objectives: The current study aimed to determine gender using the ischiopubic index and upper pelvic index in the adult population of Iran. Methods: In this study, 140 individuals (70 male and 70 female subjects) referring to Athari Imaging Center in Tehran, Iran, for various medical reasons entered the study by giving written and oral consent using the convenience sampling method. Measurements were performed on digital anteroposterior pelvic radiographs (with standard conditions and radiographic stencil distance from the light source as 100 cm). The obtained data were analyzed using SPSS software (version 22). Results: The mean ischemic index of the whole population was 108.88 ± 13.75. The difference in the ischiopubic index between male and female subjects was significant (P < 0.05). The mean upper pelvic index of the whole study population was 81.70 ± 10.09; however, the difference in the upper pelvic index between the two groups of male and female subjects was not significant (P < 0.05). Conclusions: The pelvic ischemic index in Iranian women is higher than that reported for men. If the ischiopubic index is higher than 103, with 93% sensitivity and 73% specificity, it would be female. According to the study of graphs, if there is a special identity for diagnosis, there will be the possibility to match the graph before the death of the individual with the graph taken from skeletal remains.

Population genetic structure and evolutionary history of Psammochloa villosa (Trin.) Bor (Poaceae) revealed by AFLP marker.

Psammochloa villosa is an ecologically important desert grass that occurs in the Inner Mongolian Plateau where it is frequently the dominant species and is involved in sand stabilization and wind breaking. We sought to generate a preliminary demographic framework for P. villosa to support the future studies of this species, its conservation, and sustainable utilization. To accomplish this, we characterized the genetic diversity and structure of 210 individuals from 43 natural populations of P. villosa using amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers. We obtained 1,728 well‐defined amplified bands from eight pairs of primers, of which 1,654 bands (95.7%) were polymorphic. Results obtained from the AFLPs suggested effective alleles among populations of 1.32, a Nei's standard genetic distance value of 0.206, a Shannon index of 0.332, a coefficient of gene differentiation (G ST) of 0.469, and a gene flow parameter (Nm) of 0.576. All these values indicate that there is abundant genetic diversity in P. villosa, but limited gene flow. An analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) showed that genetic variation mainly exists within populations (64.2%), and we found that the most genetically similar populations were often not geographically adjacent. Thus, this suggests that the mechanisms of gene flow are surprisingly complex in this species and may occur over long distances. In addition, we predicted the distribution dynamics of P. villosa based on the spatial distribution modeling and found that its range has contracted continuously since the last interglacial period. We speculate that dry, cold climates have been critical in determining the geographic distribution of P. villosa during the Quaternary period. Our study provides new insights into the population genetics and evolutionary history of P. villosa in the Inner Mongolian Plateau and provides a resource that can be used to design in situ conservation actions and prioritize sustainable utilization.

Saddle to Incision Relationship: A Novel Approach to Localizing the Incision for Direct Anterior Hip Arthroplasty.

The direct anterior approach for total hip arthroplasty has grown in popularity over the last decade. Incision for this approach is often based on a standardized distance from the anterior superior iliac spine. Despite this method, wound complications remain a known complication during direct anterior approach. We describe a simple and reproducible technique using fluoroscopy to identify the incision during direct anterior total hip arthroplasty. This method allows for accurate placement of incision while adding only a minimal amount of time to the procedure. Using this technique helps minimize proximal skin maceration and lessens the need for extension of incision intraoperatively.

Mapping Urban Air Quality from Mobile Sensors Using Spatio-Temporal Geostatistics.

With the advancement of technology and the arrival of miniaturized environmental sensors that offer greater performance, the idea of building mobile network sensing for air quality has quickly emerged to increase our knowledge of air pollution in urban environments. However, with these new techniques, the difficulty of building mathematical models capable of aggregating all these data sources in order to provide precise mapping of air quality arises. In this context, we explore the spatio-temporal geostatistics methods as a solution for such a problem and evaluate three different methods: Simple Kriging (SK) in residuals, Ordinary Kriging (OK), and Kriging with External Drift (KED). On average, geostatistical models showed 26.57% improvement in the Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) compared to the standard Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW) technique in interpolating scenarios (27.94% for KED, 26.05% for OK, and 25.71% for SK). The results showed less significant scores in extrapolating scenarios (a 12.22% decrease in the RMSE for geostatisical models compared to IDW). We conclude that univariable geostatistics is suitable for interpolating this type of data but is less appropriate for an extrapolation of non-sampled places since it does not create any information.

Assessment of image generation by quantum annealer

Quantum annealing was originally proposed as an approach for solving combinatorial optimization problems using quantum effects. D-Wave Systems has released a production model of quantum annealing hardware. However, the inherent noise and various environmental factors in the hardware hamper the determination of optimal solutions. In addition, the freezing effect in regions with weak quantum fluctuations generates outputs approximately following a Gibbs–Boltzmann distribution at an extremely low temperature. Thus, a quantum annealer may also serve as a fast sampler for the Ising spin-glass problem, and several studies have investigated Boltzmann machine learning using a quantum annealer. Previous developments have focused on comparing the performance in the standard distance of the resulting distributions between conventional methods in classical computers and sampling by a quantum annealer. In this study, we focused on the performance of a quantum annealer as a generative model from a different aspect. To evaluate its performance, we prepared a discriminator given by a neural network trained on an a priori dataset. The evaluation results show a higher performance of quantum annealer compared with the classical approach for Boltzmann machine learning in training of the generative model. However the generation of the data suffers from the remanent quantum fluctuation in the quantum annealer. The quality of the generated images from the quantum annealer gets worse than the ideal case of the quantum annealing and the classical Monte-Carlo sampling.

Optimizing setup of scan number in FTIR spectroscopy using the moment distance index and PLS regression: application to soil spectroscopy

Vibrational spectroscopy such as Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR), has been used successfully for soil diagnosis owing to its low cost, minimal sample preparation, non-destructive nature, and reliable results. This study aimed at optimizing one of the essential settings during the acquisition of FTIR spectra (viz. Scans number) using the standardized moment distance index (SMDI) as a metric that could trap the fine points of the curve and extract optimal spectral fingerprints of the sample. Furthermore, it can be used successfully to assess the spectra resemblance. The study revealed that beyond 50 scans the similarity of the acquisitions has been remarkably improved. Subsequently, the effect of the number of scans on the predictive ability of partial least squares regression models for the estimation of five selected soil properties (i.e., soil pH in water, soil organic carbon, total nitrogen, cation exchange capacity and Olsen phosphorus) was assessed, and the results showed a general tendency in improving the correlation coefficient (R2) as the number of scans increased from 10 to 80. In contrast, the cross-validation error RMSECV decreased with increasing scan number, reflecting an improvement of the predictive quality of the calibration models with an increasing number of scans.

The Forensic Utility of Photogrammetry in Surface Scene Documentation

Outdoor crime scene documentation needs to be accurate and precise to preserve evidence. Photogrammetry is a potential option. Structure from Motion (SfM) processes photographs into 3D models. As commercial software does not disclose this process, this documentation technique could be legally inappropriate. A potential solution to this problem is open-source software. A series of mock outdoor crime scenes were documented using SfM and total station mapping. Ten large surface scatter scenes containing plastic human remains and personal objects were laid out in 10 × 10 m units in a New England forested environment. The small surface scatter scenes consisted of a pig (Sus scrofa) mandible placed in different environments. The resulting models were built using PhotoScan by AgiSoft and MicMac by IGN. Accuracy was measured by the amount of variance in fixed-datum measurements, whereas visual qualitywas determined by comparison.
 The average total variance in fixed-datum lengths for six of the ten scenes was below 0.635 cm. The maximum differences in measurement between the total station and software measurements were 0.0917 m (PhotoScan) and 0.178 m (MicMac). Comparative histograms had low standard deviations and mean distances between points. Conditions such as light, ground foliage and topography affect model quality. This research shows that SfM has the potential to be a rapid, accurate and low-cost resource, but there are limitations that must be considered.

Na9Bi5Os3O24: A Diamagnetic Oxide Featuring a Pronouncedly Jahn–Teller‐Compressed Octahedral Coordination of Osmium(VI)

AbstractThe Jahn–Teller (JT) theorem constitutes one of the most fundamental concepts in chemistry. In transition‐element chemistry, the 3d4 and 3d9 configurations in octahedral complexes are particularly illustrative, where a distortion in local geometry is associated with a reduction of the electronic energy. However, there has been a lasting debate about the fact that the octahedra are found to exclusively elongate. In contrast, for Na9Bi5Os3O24, the octahedron around Os6+(5d2) is heavily compressed, lifting the degeneracy of the t2g set of 5d orbitals such that in the sense of a JT compression a diamagnetic ground state results. This effect is not forced by structural constraints, the structure offers sufficient space for osmium to shift the apical oxygen atoms to a standard distance. The relevance of these findings is far reaching, since they provide new insights in the hierarchy of perturbations defining ground states of open shell electronic systems.

Na9 Bi5 Os3 O24 : A Diamagnetic Oxide Featuring a Pronouncedly Jahn-Teller-Compressed Octahedral Coordination of Osmium(VI).

The Jahn–Teller (JT) theorem constitutes one of the most fundamental concepts in chemistry. In transition‐element chemistry, the 3d4 and 3d9 configurations in octahedral complexes are particularly illustrative, where a distortion in local geometry is associated with a reduction of the electronic energy. However, there has been a lasting debate about the fact that the octahedra are found to exclusively elongate. In contrast, for Na9Bi5Os3O24, the octahedron around Os6+(5d2) is heavily compressed, lifting the degeneracy of the t2g set of 5d orbitals such that in the sense of a JT compression a diamagnetic ground state results. This effect is not forced by structural constraints, the structure offers sufficient space for osmium to shift the apical oxygen atoms to a standard distance. The relevance of these findings is far reaching, since they provide new insights in the hierarchy of perturbations defining ground states of open shell electronic systems.

Relationships between Fitness Status and Match Running Performance in Adult Women Soccer Players: A Cohort Study.

Background and Objectives: The aim of this study was twofold: (i) to analyze the relationships between fitness status (repeated-sprint ability (RSA), aerobic performance, vertical height jump, and hip adductor and abductor strength) and match running performance in adult women soccer players and (ii) to explain variations in standardized total distance, HSR, and sprinting distances based on players’ fitness status. Materials and Methods: The study followed a cohort design. Twenty-two Portuguese women soccer players competing at the first-league level were monitored for 22 weeks. These players were tested three times during the cohort period. The measured parameters included isometric strength (hip adductor and abductor), vertical jump (squat and countermovement jump), linear sprint (10 and 30 m), change-of-direction (COD), repeated sprints (6 × 35 m), and intermittent endurance (Yo-Yo intermittent recovery test level 1). Data were also collected for several match running performance indicators (total distance covered and distance at different speed zones, accelerations/decelerations, maximum sprinting speed, and number of sprints) in 10 matches during the cohort. Results: Maximal linear sprint bouts presented large to very large correlations with explosive match-play actions (accelerations, decelerations, and sprint occurrences; r = −0.80 to −0.61). In addition, jump modalities and COD ability significantly predicted, respectively, in-game high-intensity accelerations (r = 0.69 to 0.75; R2 = 25%) and decelerations (r = −0.78 to −0.50; R2 = 23–24%). Furthermore, COD had significant explanatory power related to match running performance variance regardless of whether the testing and match performance outcomes were computed a few or several days apart. Conclusion: The present investigation can help conditioning professionals working with senior women soccer players to prescribe effective fitness tests to improve their forecasts of locomotor performance.

Anti-demineralizing protective effects on enamel identified in experimental and commercial restorative materials with functional fillers

The aim of this study was to investigate whether experimental and commercial dental restorative materials with functional fillers can exert a protective anti-demineralizing effect on enamel that is not immediately adjacent to the restoration. Four experimental resin composites with bioactive glass and three commercial restorative materials were investigated. Enamel blocks were incubated in a lactic acid solution (pH = 4.0) at a standardized distance (5 mm) from cured specimens of restorative materials. The lactic acid solution was replenished every 4 days up to a total of 32 days. Surfaces of enamel blocks were periodically evaluated by Knoop microhardness measurements and scanning electron microscopy. The protective effect of restorative materials against acid was identified as enamel microhardness remaining unchanged for a certain number of 4-day acid addition cycles. Additionally, the pH of the immersion medium was measured. While enamel microhardness in the control group was maintained for 1 acid addition cycle (4 days), restorative materials postponed enamel softening for 2–5 cycles (8–20 days). The materials capable of exerting a stronger alkalizing effect provided longer-lasting enamel protection. The protective and alkalizing effects of experimental composites improved with higher amounts of bioactive glass and were better for conventional bioactive glass 45S5 compared to a fluoride-containing bioactive glass. Scanning electron micrographs evidenced the protective effect of restorative materials by showing a delayed appearance of an etching pattern on the enamel surface. A remotely-acting anti-demineralizing protective effect on enamel was identified in experimental composites functionalized with two types of bioactive glass, as well as in three commercial ion-releasing restorative materials.

Automatic Social Distance Monitoring system using Deep Learning Algorithms

In recent months, the worldwide outbreak of Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19) has created a panic situation for all human beings irrespective of the geographic location and economic status of the countries. The communal spread of the deadly virus can be prevented by maintaining the social distance between people and the wearing of face masks. This paper provides a prominent solution for monitoring using the Open-Source Computer Vision Library (Open-CV) and Deep Learning Algorithm to course people in public areas and to avoid crowding. This proposed project can be implemented using images taken from the Closed Circuit Television (CCTV). The distance between the people is detected with help of an object detection algorithm. The Euclidean distance is calculated and compared with the standard distance given. The persons with enough distance will be indicated in the green-colored bounding box and others with a red-colored bounding box. The total number of violations is also shown at the output feed. This project provides a solution to eradicate the spread of the deadly virus to an extent with minimum human effort and reduced risk of infection to the local athourities.

Відповідність існуючого фонду закладів загальної середньої освіти України сучасним вимогам «Нової української школи»

Objective: We established the compliance of the existing fund of general secondary education institutions in Ukraine with the modern requirements of the new Ukrainian school (NUS) according to the hygienic criteria for the evaluation of the architectural-and -planning decisions. Results: Over a 30-years period, the number of schools has decreased by 30%. The main fund of the GSEI in Ukraine consists of the buildings built in the 1960-1990 years. According to the current standard documents of sanitary and town-planning legislation, the existing educational premises of the GSEI have basically a rectangular shape and an area 50 m². According to the requirements of the NUS, it is envisaged to create eight zones with different functional purposes at their interchangeable use in one class building space. By the results of the calculations, it has been established that in compliance with all regulatory distances between desks and internal structures in a single building space of the standard class with an area 50 m² there is only 26.4 m² of free space for single desks, while the last row of the desks will be close to the wall (which does not meet the standard distance 0.65 m). It should be noted that at the construction of the new GSEI according to the requirements of SBS V.2.2-3: 2018 with a class area 60 m2 with a compliance of the standard distances for the placement of the desks, 31.2 m2 remains, which allows you to place 20 desks. Conclusions: In order to adapt the existing fund of the GSEI of Ukraine to the needs of the reform of the NUS education and to provide conditions for the health protection of the students, a new indicator of the placement of 15 educational places with single desks was substantiated, which can be implemented at online training.

Future Climate Change Hotspots Under Different 21st Century Warming Scenarios

AbstractIdentifying climate change hotspot regions is critical for planning effective mitigation and adaptation activities. We use standard Euclidean distance (SED) to calculate integrated changes in precipitation and temperature means, interannual variability, and extremes between different future warming levels and a baseline period (1995–2014) using the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) climate model ensemble. We find consistent hotspots in the Amazon, central and western Africa, Indonesia and the Tibetan Plateau at warming levels of 1.5°C, 2°C, and 3°C for all scenarios explored; the Arctic, Central America and southern Africa emerge as hotspots at 4°C warming and at the end of the 21st century under two Shared Socioeconomic Pathways scenarios, SSP3‐7.0 and SSP5‐8.5. CMIP6 models show higher SED values than CMIP5, suggesting stronger aggregated effects of climate change under the new scenarios. Hotspot time of emergence (TOE) is further investigated; TOE is defined as the year when the climate change signal first exceeds the noise of natural variability in 21st century projections. The results indicate that TOEs for warming would occur over all primary hotspots, with the earliest occurring in the Arctic and Indonesia. For precipitation, TOEs occur before 2100 in the Arctic, the Tibetan Plateau and Central America. Results using a geographical detector model show that patterns of SED are shaped by extreme hot and dry occurrences at low‐to‐medium warming, while precipitation and temperature means and extreme precipitation occurrences are the dominant influences under the high emission scenario and at high warming levels.

Ordinality: The importance of its trial list composition and examining its relation with adults' arithmetic and mathematical reasoning.

Understanding whether a sequence is presented in an order or not (i.e., ordinality) is a robust predictor of adults’ arithmetic performance, but the mechanisms underlying this skill and its relationship with mathematics remain unclear. In this study, we examined (a) the cognitive strategies involved in ordinality inferred from behavioural effects observed in different types of sequences and (b) whether ordinality is also related to mathematical reasoning besides arithmetic. In Experiment 1, participants performed an arithmetic, a mathematical reasoning test, and an order task, which had balanced trials on the basis of order, direction, regularity, and distance. We observed standard distance effects (DEs) for ordered and non-ordered sequences, which suggest reliance on magnitude comparison strategies. This contradicts past studies that reported reversed distance effects (RDEs) for some types of sequences, which suggest reliance on retrieval strategies. Also, we found that ordinality predicted arithmetic but not mathematical reasoning when controlling for fluid intelligence. In Experiment 2, we investigated whether the aforementioned absence of RDEs was because of our trial list composition. Participants performed two order tasks: in both tasks, no RDE was found demonstrating the fragility of the RDE. In addition, results showed that the strategies used when processing ordinality were modulated by the trial list composition and presentation order of the tasks. Altogether, these findings reveal that ordinality is strongly related to arithmetic and that the strategies used when processing ordinality are highly dependent on the context in which the task is presented.

How imputation can mitigate SNP ascertainment Bias

BackgroundPopulation genetic studies based on genotyped single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are influenced by a non-random selection of the SNPs included in the used genotyping arrays. The resulting bias in the estimation of allele frequency spectra and population genetics parameters like heterozygosity and genetic distances relative to whole genome sequencing (WGS) data is known as SNP ascertainment bias. Full correction for this bias requires detailed knowledge of the array design process, which is often not available in practice. This study suggests an alternative approach to mitigate ascertainment bias of a large set of genotyped individuals by using information of a small set of sequenced individuals via imputation without the need for prior knowledge on the array design.ResultsThe strategy was first tested by simulating additional ascertainment bias with a set of 1566 chickens from 74 populations that were genotyped for the positions of the Affymetrix Axiom™ 580 k Genome-Wide Chicken Array. Imputation accuracy was shown to be consistently higher for populations used for SNP discovery during the simulated array design process. Reference sets of at least one individual per population in the study set led to a strong correction of ascertainment bias for estimates of expected and observed heterozygosity, Wright’s Fixation Index and Nei’s Standard Genetic Distance. In contrast, unbalanced reference sets (overrepresentation of populations compared to the study set) introduced a new bias towards the reference populations. Finally, the array genotypes were imputed to WGS by utilization of reference sets of 74 individuals (one per population) to 98 individuals (additional commercial chickens) and compared with a mixture of individually and pooled sequenced populations. The imputation reduced the slope between heterozygosity estimates of array data and WGS data from 1.94 to 1.26 when using the smaller balanced reference panel and to 1.44 when using the larger but unbalanced reference panel. This generally supported the results from simulation but was less favorable, advocating for a larger reference panel when imputing to WGS.ConclusionsThe results highlight the potential of using imputation for mitigation of SNP ascertainment bias but also underline the need for unbiased reference sets.

Exercise capacity in patients implanted with left ventricular assist devices for end-stage heart failure treatment

Abstract Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: None. Introduction Left ventricular assist device (LVAD) is an expanding therapy in end-stage heart failure today. Although LVAD therapy bears the potential to normalize cardiac output, a majority of patients show a severely impaired physical condition at the time of LVAD implantation. To date, no validated standardized training protocol is available, and established practices to effectively improve LVAD patients’ exercise tolerance is lacking. This study sought to investigate exercise capacity quantified by cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPX) and a standardized six-minute walk test (6MWT) in patients after LVAD implantation. Methods We enrolled 30 end-stage heart failure patients who had received an LVAD implantation 20.7 ± 7.6 days prior to examination, mean age 54.9 ± 7.8 years, 26 males (87 %). Exercise tolerance was assessed using cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPX) for maximal and submaximal exercise capacity, followed by a standardized (6MWT). Results Patients showed peak oxygen uptake values of 8.3 ± 2.4 ml/min/kg at a mean workload of 46.7 ± 11.3 watts and a mean anaerobic threshold of 6.7 ± 1.7 ml/min/kg at a workload of 32.6 ± 6.9 watts. Mean standardized 6-minute walking distance was at 183.8 ± 71.4 meters. There were no adverse events during exercise testing. Conclusions Cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPX) and standardized 6MWT show severely impaired cardiopulmonary exercise capacity in patients after LVAD implantation, warranting further studies for dedicated training protocols, specifically focusing on LVAD patients to improve exercise tolerance at an acceptable safety profile.

Observational constraint in f(R,T) gravity from the cosmic chronometers and some standard distance measurement parameters

In this work we perform an observational data analysis on the f(R,T) gravity with the aim of constraining the parameter space of the model. Five different models are considered and the 30 point z−H(z) cosmic chronometer data is used in our analysis. The χ2 statistic is formulated as a difference between the theoretical and the observed values of H(z) for different values of redshift z. Efforts have been made to minimize the statistic in order to get the best fit values for the free parameters models. We have also used some standard distance measurement parameters like BAO and CMB peaks along with the data for achieving better constraints on the parameter space. We have used the publicly available CosmoMC code for obtaining the bounds for the free parameters of the models in different confidence intervals like 68%, 95%, 99%. 1D distributions and 2D joint confidence contours for various confidence levels mentioned above are generated for the free parameters using the CosmoMC code. Finally our models have been compared with the standard ΛCDM model by some statistical techniques using the observational data and the support for the models from the data is probed.