Explaining Defect Detection with Saliency Maps

E-print/Working paper (2021)

The rising quality and throughput demands of the manufacturing domain require flexible, accurate and explainable computer-vision solutions for defect detection. Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) reach state-of ... [more ▼]

The rising quality and throughput demands of the manufacturing domain require flexible, accurate and explainable computer-vision solutions for defect detection. Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) reach state-of-the-art performance on various computer-vision tasks but wide-spread application in the industrial domain is blocked by the lacking explainability of DNN decisions. A promising, human-readable solution is given by saliency maps, heatmaps highlighting the image areas that influence the classifier’s decision. This work evaluates a selection of saliency methods in the area of industrial quality assurance. To this end we propose the distance pointing game, a new metric to quantify the meaningfulness of saliency maps for defect detection. We provide steps to prepare a publicly available dataset on defective steel plates for the proposed metric. Additionally, the computational complexity is investigated to determine which methods could be integrated on industrial edge devices. Our results show that DeepLift, GradCAM and GradCAM++ outperform the alternatives while the computational cost is feasible for real time applications even on edge devices. This indicates that the respective methods could be used as an additional, autonomous post-classification step to explain decisions taken by intelligent quality assurance systems. [less ▲]

De la naissance de l’État luxembourgeois. Analyse et historique de la problématique

in Actes de la section des sciences morales et politiques de l'Institut grand-ducal (2021), Vol XXIV

Machine learning in the social and health sciences

E-print/Working paper (2021)

The uptake of machine learning (ML) approaches in the social and health sciences has been rather slow, and research using ML for social and health research questions remains fragmented. This may be due to ... [more ▼]

The uptake of machine learning (ML) approaches in the social and health sciences has been rather slow, and research using ML for social and health research questions remains fragmented. This may be due to the separate development of research in the computational/data versus social and health sciences as well as a lack of accessible overviews and adequate training in ML techniques for non data science researchers. This paper provides a meta-mapping of research questions in the social and health sciences to appropriate ML approaches, by incorporating the necessary requirements to statistical analysis in these disciplines. We map the established classification into description, prediction, and causal inference to common research goals, such as estimating prevalence of adverse health or social outcomes, predicting the risk of an event, and identifying risk factors or causes of adverse outcomes. This meta-mapping aims at overcoming disciplinary barriers and starting a fluid dialogue between researchers from the social and health sciences and methodologically trained researchers. Such mapping may also help to fully exploit the benefits of ML while considering domain-specific aspects relevant to the social and health sciences, and hopefully contribute to the acceleration of the uptake of ML applications to advance both basic and applied social and health sciences research. [less ▲]

Intergenerational Family Solidarity across Europe

in Albert, Isabelle; Emirhafizovic, Mirza; Shpigelman, Carmit-Noa (Eds.) et al Families and family values in society and culture (2021)

The global trend of ageing populations is particularly pronounced in Europe. In the wake of increased life expectancies, intergenerational family relationships have become more and more important over the ... [more ▼]

The global trend of ageing populations is particularly pronounced in Europe. In the wake of increased life expectancies, intergenerational family relationships have become more and more important over the last few decades. The COST Action INTERFASOL started from the claim that in light of these developments societies need to develop mechanisms, programs and policies that will support solidarity between the young, middle and older generations. Although considerable research activities in the field of intergenerational relations have been carried out in the last years, a lack in coordination and integration of different studies from different settings was noted. Bringing together research from different countries to coordinate studies and synthesize results is not an easy endeavor but it has turned out as a fruitful venture: INTERFASOL has been successful in bringing together researchers from 28 different countries meeting regularly, discussing current issues and not least producing a large number of publications and research proposals. One outcome of the COST Action is this volume which has the aim to become a reference for all those who are interested in intergenerational relations in Europe: the chapters will provide the basis and a starting point for further research. [less ▲]

Families and family values in society and culture

Book published by Information Age Publishing (2021)

This book which has been created in the framework of the EU-funded COST Action INTERFASOL brings together researchers from 22 INTERFASOL countries, who frame intergenerational family solidarity in the ... [more ▼]

This book which has been created in the framework of the EU-funded COST Action INTERFASOL brings together researchers from 22 INTERFASOL countries, who frame intergenerational family solidarity in the specific historical, cultural, social and economic context of their own country. Integrating different perspectives from social and political sciences, economics, communication, health and psychology, the book offers country-specific knowledge and new insights into family relations, family values and family policies across Europe. The volume is the product of a unique endeavor of researchers across Europe to provide up-to-date first-hand country-specific knowledge on family and intergenerational relations and will serve as a base for both country-specific as well as cross-cultural studies. [less ▲]

Smarter charging: Power allocation accounting for travel time of electric vehicle drivers

in Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment (2021), 97

Growing electric vehicle (EV) dissemination will increase charging infrastructure installation at home. Similar daily routines are associated with high peak loads due to simultaneous EV charging. However ... [more ▼]

Growing electric vehicle (EV) dissemination will increase charging infrastructure installation at home. Similar daily routines are associated with high peak loads due to simultaneous EV charging. However, predominantly residential power transmission is not designed for such high loads, yielding charging bottlenecks and restricting future charging at home. Addressing such bottleneck situations and including the EV driver perspective, we introduce a power allocation mechanism that considers the total travel time of the upcoming trip, consisting of actual driving time and time required for charging externally (including the detour to public charging facilities). Assuming that travel time generally negatively correlates with EV driver utility, our optimization model maximizes the resulting utility of EV drivers. Avoiding unnecessary external charging stops due to an insufficient state of charge at the time of departure, our approach generates travel time savings that increase overall EV driver utility. We illustrate our approach using exemplary cases. [less ▲]

Recent advances on plasmonic nanocavities for single-molecule spectroscopy

in Nanoscale Advances (2021), 3

Plasmonic nanocavities are able to engineer and confine electromagnetic fields into subwavelength volumes. In the past decade, they have enabled a large set of applications, in particular for sensing ... [more ▼]

Plasmonic nanocavities are able to engineer and confine electromagnetic fields into subwavelength volumes. In the past decade, they have enabled a large set of applications, in particular for sensing, optical trapping, as well as the investigation of physical and chemical phenomena at a few or single-molecule levels. This extreme sensitivity is possible thanks to the highly confined local field intensity enhancement, which depends on the geometry of the plasmonic nanocavities. Indeed, properly designed structures providing engineered local optical fields lead to enhanced optical sensing based on different phenomena like surface enhanced Raman scattering, fluorescence, and Förster Resonant Energy Transfer. In this mini-review, we illustrate the most recent results on plasmonic nanocavities, with specific emphasis on the detection of single molecules. [less ▲]

Social classroom climate and personalised instruction as predictors of students’ social participation

in International Journal of Inclusive Education (2021)

Previous research has repeatedly confirmed that students with special educational needs (SEN) are generally less accepted by their peers. Although inclusive teaching strategies and classroom ... [more ▼]

Previous research has repeatedly confirmed that students with special educational needs (SEN) are generally less accepted by their peers. Although inclusive teaching strategies and classroom characteristics are frequently hypothesised to improve students’ social participation, empirical evidence is scarce. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate classroom characteristics and teaching practices that can help foster social participation, in general, and reduce the effect of lower social participation among students with SEN, in particular. The sample includes 518 students in 31 Grade 4 and 7 classes from Austria, of whom 99 are students with SEN. The results show that students with SEN receive fewer peer nominations and perceive their social participation to be lower compared to their peers without SEN. However, the association between SEN and self-perceived social participation is moderated by the social classroom climate, i.e. the difference becomes smaller when the social classroom climate is more positive. Furthermore, the higher the personalised instruction was rated by a student, the higher was his or her social status. The results suggest that interventions should focus not only on the improvement of individual students (with SEN) but also on changing the whole classroom environment. [less ▲]