Archive for the ‘General’ Category.
In looking up hand research for work, I came across this super-cool machine learning article. In brief: a computer can read an X-Ray and tell if a person is a boy or girl really accurately and (at least some) doctors can’t! Maybe by paying attention to what the computer sees, doctors can figure out how to determine the gender of the hand in the X-ray.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10278-018-0148-x
Abstract
Despite the well-established impact of sex and sex hormones on bone structure and density, there has been limited description of sexual dimorphism in the hand and wrist in the literature. We developed a deep convolutional neural network (CNN) model to predict sex based on hand radiographs of children and adults aged between 5 and 70 years. Of the 1531 radiographs tested, the algorithm predicted sex correctly in 95.9% (κ = 0.92) of the cases. Two human radiologists achieved 58% (κ = 0.15) and 46% (κ = − 0.07) accuracy. The class activation maps (CAM) showed that the model mostly focused on the 2nd and 3rd metacarpal base or thumb sesamoid in women, and distal radioulnar joint, distal radial physis and epiphysis, or 3rd metacarpophalangeal joint in men. The radiologists reviewed 70 cases (35 females and 35 males) labeled with sex along with heat maps generated by CAM, but they could not find any patterns that distinguish the two sexes. A small sample of patients (n = 44) with sexual developmental disorders or transgender identity was selected for a preliminary exploration of application of the model. The model prediction agreed with phenotypic sex in only 77.8% (κ = 0.54) of these cases. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that demonstrated a machine learning model to perform a task in which human experts could not fulfill.
Please help me find a good noisy-environment speech recognition microphone. I have students that want to use speech-to-text in their classroom, the microphone should pick up the student’s voice but not stray voices in the room. Best if it’s on a headset.
Megan, Abigail and I just saw the summer fireworks show at The Butchart Gardens near Victoria, BC. It was an even more beautiful show than we had seen 5 years ago on our honeymoon! The show is a gorgeous, playful, exposition of light-art, part representative, part interpretive, all pleasurable! A youtube search turns up some nice displays at Butchart Gardens but be forewarned that no fireworks show well on a screen.
I spoke with a few people in Victoria, BC about this and they said that Canadians use fireworks differently than Americans. American fireworks are almost universally a monosyllabic ejaculation of sound and color while Canadians use it as a medium. Curious! Wonderful!
How did it take me 20 years to figure out this “one weird trick” to know which way is up on a USB cable? All hail the sharpie clown nose!
Don’t buy a cheap cell phone, buy a used flagship phone! I was never really happy with the new $150 LG Charge android phone I got a year ago. I just got a used Pixel 2 from swappa.com for $190 and it’s a wonder! Fast, awesome camera (I got it pretty much exclusively so I could take better photos of Abigail), and a lot of nice features. Hurray and hurray!
For my birthday I asked for a potluck party. It was fantastic! We had some 20 friends and we were able to spread out in our big place on the little hill. The food was so much fun, the energy level great. There are definite plans to do this monthly-ish!
I like the plaque in front of the El Cerrito Library
El Cerrito Library
Where the individual may acquire
the wisdom to contrive
the strength to support
the beauty of the arts
that adorn man’s undertakings
Adopted by: El Cerrito Albany Masonic Lodge No 686
July 4, 1996
At my first reading aloud to Abigail, I saw it all spinny-aroundy:
Where the individual may
acquire the wisdom
to contrive the strength
to support the beauty
of the arts
that adorn
man’s undertakings
Possibly full of beautiful hidden meaning, or just my tired brain.
It looks like it’s an annual event around here. I have achieved inbox 0 at home! Celebrate! I should be getting my next email any moment now… waaaah!
Previously
Did you ever wonder how terrible it would be if you used that expired medicine in your medicine cabinet? In brief: far far less bad than you might think! Here’s an article from the Mayo Clinic about the US military Shelf Life Extension Program (SLEP). Nearly every drug tested out of the 122 drugs they tested maintained full potency 2-8 years after their expiration date. The only ones on their list that lost potency was Albuterol and Diphenhydramine (Benadryl). If you store your medicines in less than ideal conditions, your mileage may vary. Read it for yourself. Especially look at the tables.
Mayo SLEP
Did I mention that I have the most amazing, wonderful, daughter in the entire universe?
