Li Ming, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at DKU. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY An artificial intelligence system jointly developed by the 3rd Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou and the Duke Kunshan University has achieved an 80 percent accuracy rate in screening 120 toddlers who were diagnosed with autism, the team behind the system said during a forum at DKU last week. The system represents a major development in autism screening for children, which is considered a challenge in China due to the lack of experienced pedestrians who can perform an accurate diagnosis. Experts say that early detection and intervention could substantially improve the prognosis of patients. China has more than 10 million children with autism. In the US, the estimated autism prevalence in 2018 is one in 59. It's quite hard for doctors to tell whether a two-year-old is autistic or not as there is no single cause for identification or a biomarker, said Zou Xiaobin, director of Child Behavior Development Center of the 3rd Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University. A diagnosis is completely reliant on a doctor's observation of the toddler's behavior. The AI system was tested on 120 two-year-olds between last year and early this year. The toddlers were accompanied by their mothers in a room and their behaviors were recorded and analyzed by audio and video systems. Eye-tracking technology was also used. Doctors said that unlike normal children, an autistic child lacks the ability to pay attention to people's eyes. A number of indicators were included in the system for the screening, said Li Ming, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at DKU who is responsible for the development of the AI system. The indicators include whether the toddlers responded by raising their heads or answering when they were called by their names, whether they gazed at their mothers or stood up to follow when their mothers left the room, and whether they made eye contact or followed their mothers' visual cues, Li said. Li said he was confident that the accuracy rate will be improved by at least 10 percent following upgrades to the machine learning system and data processing technology. Obtaining a bigger pool of samples is crucial as well. The more the machine learns, the higher its accuracy will be, Li said. Contact the writer at [email protected]rubber wristbands custom cheapcustom silicone bandswellies and wristbands 2017cool wristbandsprinted bracelets
Customs staff check seized pangolin scales in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, on Nov 29, 2017. [Photo/Chinanews.com] Customs officials in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, announced on Wednesday that they had intercepted 11.9 metric tons of pangolin scales smuggled from Africa, the largest volume of any single case found by border inspectors. The scales were taken from an estimated 20,000 pangolins, a species listed last year in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna, which bans all international trading of pangolins and their products. Two suspects in the case, one surnamed Li from Shandong province and another, He, from Anhui province, were the subjects of arrest warrants, according to Chen Qunfang, deputy chief of Dapeng Customs, which is affiliated with the Shenzhen authorities. The case arose in July when customs officers found bags stuffed with charcoal in a container that had been declared as empty at Yantian port. The charcoal was used to cover 239 bags of pangolin scales. Lacking full information from the shipping parties on the bill of lading, customs officers spent a lot of time identifying the suspects, Chen said. Li and He were found to have made frequent money transfers totaling more than 5 million yuan ($758,000) around the time the case came to light. During an interrogation, He admitted that he helped smuggle the pangolin scales at the request of Li, officers said. Demand exists in China for pangolin scales as a food or as a traditional Chinese medicine ingredient, Chen said. Bozhou, Anhui province - He's native province - is home to one of the country's largest herbal medicine markets. The low cost of procuring pangolin scales overseas, especially from Africa, has made the illegal trade highly profitable, Chen said. The scales will be destroyed after the trial concludes. [email protected]
