Predicting

image sourceCan we tell whether kids are in school just from the viewing of certain TV shows on BBC iPlayer? Spoiler— yes! We can also identify when schools are closed due to snow!This was the first project I worked on at the BBC, and remains one of the most fun to have delivered!While the information on school holidays is available on the internet, it’s presented on local government websites which vary in format from council to council making web scraping impractical.The BBC produces a lot of content for children and…

As the old saying goes; when one door closes, another opens. In the case of Henry Cavill, he’s taken his shock exit as the DCU’s Superman in his stride to almost immediately sign on to develop a Warhammer universe for Amazon. The actor is noted (and also massive) fan of the source material, so we can at least expect the live-action to be about as faithful as it gets. However, there’s already an air of trepidation sweeping the internet that the former Man of Steel could end up ditching his plans to star in the project if…

Vegetation dynamics in 2016. Credit: Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology Climate change is changing the environmental condition of rivers; hence, it is no longer possible to manage modern rivers with methods that have been practiced under the past environmental conditions. A joint research team, including…

Credit: CC0 Public Domain Stress has a negative impact on physical health, reduces work productivity, and results in significant annual costs for industries and healthcare. While high stress is known to raise the risk of cardiovascular disease and have negative effects on mental health, It also has key effects on the ability of one to complete tasks by both excessively high or excessively low stress. There has been growing…

And the winner is…Image via Shutterstock under license to Frank Andrade (edited with Canva)Many people (including me) call football “the unpredictable game” because a football match has different factors that can change the final score.That’s true … to some extent.It’s hard to predict the final score or the winner of a match, but that’s not the case when it comes to predicting the winner of a competition. Over the past 5 years, Bayern Munich has won all Bundesligas, while Manchester City has won 4 Premiere…

Utilizing categorical and numerical features with BERT to improve modelPhoto by Florian Klauer on UnsplashWriting effectively has always been key in ensuring effective communication of ideas, critical thinking and persuasion. Writing as a skill is necessary for success in the modern world. However, while global literacy levels are slowly increasing, the growth is not equal amongst countries and social demographical group. For example, multiple studies have shown that there are existing examples of education inequality in…

Animation showing an aneurysm arising from a blood vessel bifurcation, progressively expanding and ending in rupture. Credit: Sajan Abdul Salam, Subash M. Nair, B. Jayanand SudhirPatient-specific data and a mathematical model determine how aneurysm shape and size influence growth and rupture.Cerebral aneurysms appear in approximately 5% to 8% of the general population. When they result in a blood vessel rupture, the ensuing blood leakage within the brain can lead to severe stroke or fatal consequences. Over one-quarter of…

A fluid lubrication calculation model between piston pin and connecting rod. Credit: Jun Ishimoto A research group has created an analysis method to predict wear and seizure locations in the sliding parts of engine piston pins. The breakthrough will help limit wear and tear on transportation and industrial machinery components and make them more fuel efficient.…

Building a machine learning model to predict the NBA MVP and analyze the most impactful variables.(Photo by Diane Picchiottino on Unsplash)Every season, there is always a huge discussion about the NBA’s Most Valuable Player, the biggest individual award a basketball player can receive. And it is hard to explain the criteria in this award for someone who is not acquainted with the sport.Something that already confuses some people is that the MVP is not an award for the best, but for the most valuable player in the regular…

Annual fire probabilities (Smith et al. this issue) and associated fire perimeters (purple) from the Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity dataset (Eidenshink et al. 2007) for representative yr: 1993, 1998, and 2006. Credit: Rangeland Ecology & Management (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.rama.2022.08.002 Scientists with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and the University of Montana have…