Indoor Location in WLAN Based on Competitive Agglomeration Algorithm

Abstract In the area of Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) based indoor localization, the k-nearest neighbors (KNN) fusion clustering algorithm has been studied extensively. But the number of the clustering and the value of K is set manually and fixed, so it can't adapt to the environment changes. Besides, the algorithm localization with a single Received Signal Strength (RSS), and ignored other deeper information such as the physical location information. Aiming at the shortcomings of the fusion algorithm, in this paper, we proposed a novel indoor localization algorithm based on competitive agglomeration (CA). The algorithm soft partition radio map based on RSS and physical location information in succession, and select the clustering number based on real time information in the environment to estimate user's position coordinates. Finally, based on the extensive experiments conducted in a real WLAN indoor environment, our proposed algorithm is proved to outperform traditional positioning algorithm

Data-fused urban mobility applications for smart cities

Though vehicles are becoming more advanced with added safety feature technology, we must still rely on our own instincts and senses to make decisions. This thesis presents two applications that can be utilized by drivers, passengers, or pedestrians and allow a wider range of visibility during commutes. The first application uses the concept of see-through technology to assist the driver with a real-time augmented view of a traffic scene that in reality may be blocked by the vehicle in front. The second application presents a mobile application that utilizes two sources to gather the user\u27s location information, one using absolute location from a Global Positioning System (GPS) enabled device and the other from merging the concepts of computer vision, object detection, and mono-vision depth calculation, and place each instance of an identified object on the mapping application. Currently, mapping items such as stores, accidents, and traffic conditions are very common, but this application takes into account the location of individual users to give a holistic view of people instead of places

Adaptive Mobility Mapping for People Tracking Using Unlabelled Wi-Fi Shotgun Reads

Mobility tracking plays an important role in identifying human activities and providing location-based services (LBSs). Up to now, with the help of special infrastructures or hardware devices, many existing tracking systems involve some cumbersome work of fingerprint or landmark calibration. In this letter, we present an adaptive mobility map construction scheme for large-scale Wi-Fi mobility tracking in indoor areas which does not require any off-line fingerprinting effort or deployment of landmarks. Our scheme works by collecting a large data-set of Wi-Fi received signal strength using a large number of cell phones carried by users during their normal daily activities

State of the art of audio- and video based solutions for AAL

Working Group 3. Audio- and Video-based AAL ApplicationsIt is a matter of fact that Europe is facing more and more crucial challenges regarding health and social care due to the demographic change and the current economic context. The recent COVID-19 pandemic has stressed this situation even further, thus highlighting the need for taking action. Active and Assisted Living (AAL) technologies come as a viable approach to help facing these challenges, thanks to the high potential they have in enabling remote care and support. Broadly speaking, AAL can be referred to as the use of innovative and advanced Information and Communication Technologies to create supportive, inclusive and empowering applications and environments that enable older, impaired or frail people to live independently and stay active longer in society. AAL capitalizes on the growing pervasiveness and effectiveness of sensing and computing facilities to supply the persons in need with smart assistance, by responding to their necessities of autonomy, independence, comfort, security and safety. The application scenarios addressed by AAL are complex, due to the inherent heterogeneity of the end-user population, their living arrangements, and their physical conditions or impairment. Despite aiming at diverse goals, AAL systems should share some common characteristics. They are designed to provide support in daily life in an invisible, unobtrusive and user-friendly manner. Moreover, they are conceived to be intelligent, to be able to learn and adapt to the requirements and requests of the assisted people, and to synchronise with their specific needs. Nevertheless, to ensure the uptake of AAL in society, potential users must be willing to use AAL applications and to integrate them in their daily environments and lives. In this respect, video- and audio-based AAL applications have several advantages, in terms of unobtrusiveness and information richness. Indeed, cameras and microphones are far less obtrusive with respect to the hindrance other wearable sensors may cause to one’s activities. In addition, a single camera placed in a room can record most of the activities performed in the room, thus replacing many other non-visual sensors. Currently, video-based applications are effective in recognising and monitoring the activities, the movements, and the overall conditions of the assisted individuals as well as to assess their vital parameters (e.g., heart rate, respiratory rate). Similarly, audio sensors have the potential to become one of the most important modalities for interaction with AAL systems, as they can have a large range of sensing, do not require physical presence at a particular location and are physically intangible. Moreover, relevant information about individuals’ activities and health status can derive from processing audio signals (e.g., speech recordings). Nevertheless, as the other side of the coin, cameras and microphones are often perceived as the most intrusive technologies from the viewpoint of the privacy of the monitored individuals. This is due to the richness of the information these technologies convey and the intimate setting where they may be deployed. Solutions able to ensure privacy preservation by context and by design, as well as to ensure high legal and ethical standards are in high demand. After the review of the current state of play and the discussion in GoodBrother, we may claim that the first solutions in this direction are starting to appear in the literature. A multidisciplinary 4 debate among experts and stakeholders is paving the way towards AAL ensuring ergonomics, usability, acceptance and privacy preservation. The DIANA, PAAL, and VisuAAL projects are examples of this fresh approach. This report provides the reader with a review of the most recent advances in audio- and video-based monitoring technologies for AAL. It has been drafted as a collective effort of WG3 to supply an introduction to AAL, its evolution over time and its main functional and technological underpinnings. In this respect, the report contributes to the field with the outline of a new generation of ethical-aware AAL technologies and a proposal for a novel comprehensive taxonomy of AAL systems and applications. Moreover, the report allows non-technical readers to gather an overview of the main components of an AAL system and how these function and interact with the end-users. The report illustrates the state of the art of the most successful AAL applications and functions based on audio and video data, namely (i) lifelogging and self-monitoring, (ii) remote monitoring of vital signs, (iii) emotional state recognition, (iv) food intake monitoring, activity and behaviour recognition, (v) activity and personal assistance, (vi) gesture recognition, (vii) fall detection and prevention, (viii) mobility assessment and frailty recognition, and (ix) cognitive and motor rehabilitation. For these application scenarios, the report illustrates the state of play in terms of scientific advances, available products and research project. The open challenges are also highlighted. The report ends with an overview of the challenges, the hindrances and the opportunities posed by the uptake in real world settings of AAL technologies. In this respect, the report illustrates the current procedural and technological approaches to cope with acceptability, usability and trust in the AAL technology, by surveying strategies and approaches to co-design, to privacy preservation in video and audio data, to transparency and explainability in data processing, and to data transmission and communication. User acceptance and ethical considerations are also debated. Finally, the potentials coming from the silver economy are overviewed.publishedVersio

State of the Art of Audio- and Video-Based Solutions for AAL

It is a matter of fact that Europe is facing more and more crucial challenges regarding health and social care due to the demographic change and the current economic context. The recent COVID-19 pandemic has stressed this situation even further, thus highlighting the need for taking action. Active and Assisted Living technologies come as a viable approach to help facing these challenges, thanks to the high potential they have in enabling remote care and support. Broadly speaking, AAL can be referred to as the use of innovative and advanced Information and Communication Technologies to create supportive, inclusive and empowering applications and environments that enable older, impaired or frail people to live independently and stay active longer in society. AAL capitalizes on the growing pervasiveness and effectiveness of sensing and computing facilities to supply the persons in need with smart assistance, by responding to their necessities of autonomy, independence, comfort, security and safety. The application scenarios addressed by AAL are complex, due to the inherent heterogeneity of the end-user population, their living arrangements, and their physical conditions or impairment. Despite aiming at diverse goals, AAL systems should share some common characteristics. They are designed to provide support in daily life in an invisible, unobtrusive and user-friendly manner. Moreover, they are conceived to be intelligent, to be able to learn and adapt to the requirements and requests of the assisted people, and to synchronise with their specific needs. Nevertheless, to ensure the uptake of AAL in society, potential users must be willing to use AAL applications and to integrate them in their daily environments and lives. In this respect, video- and audio-based AAL applications have several advantages, in terms of unobtrusiveness and information richness. Indeed, cameras and microphones are far less obtrusive with respect to the hindrance other wearable sensors may cause to one’s activities. In addition, a single camera placed in a room can record most of the activities performed in the room, thus replacing many other non-visual sensors. Currently, video-based applications are effective in recognising and monitoring the activities, the movements, and the overall conditions of the assisted individuals as well as to assess their vital parameters. Similarly, audio sensors have the potential to become one of the most important modalities for interaction with AAL systems, as they can have a large range of sensing, do not require physical presence at a particular location and are physically intangible. Moreover, relevant information about individuals’ activities and health status can derive from processing audio signals. Nevertheless, as the other side of the coin, cameras and microphones are often perceived as the most intrusive technologies from the viewpoint of the privacy of the monitored individuals. This is due to the richness of the information these technologies convey and the intimate setting where they may be deployed. Solutions able to ensure privacy preservation by context and by design, as well as to ensure high legal and ethical standards are in high demand. After the review of the current state of play and the discussion in GoodBrother, we may claim that the first solutions in this direction are starting to appear in the literature. A multidisciplinary debate among experts and stakeholders is paving the way towards AAL ensuring ergonomics, usability, acceptance and privacy preservation. The DIANA, PAAL, and VisuAAL projects are examples of this fresh approach. This report provides the reader with a review of the most recent advances in audio- and video-based monitoring technologies for AAL. It has been drafted as a collective effort of WG3 to supply an introduction to AAL, its evolution over time and its main functional and technological underpinnings. In this respect, the report contributes to the field with the outline of a new generation of ethical-aware AAL technologies and a proposal for a novel comprehensive taxonomy of AAL systems and applications. Moreover, the report allows non-technical readers to gather an overview of the main components of an AAL system and how these function and interact with the end-users. The report illustrates the state of the art of the most successful AAL applications and functions based on audio and video data, namely lifelogging and self-monitoring, remote monitoring of vital signs, emotional state recognition, food intake monitoring, activity and behaviour recognition, activity and personal assistance, gesture recognition, fall detection and prevention, mobility assessment and frailty recognition, and cognitive and motor rehabilitation. For these application scenarios, the report illustrates the state of play in terms of scientific advances, available products and research project. The open challenges are also highlighted. The report ends with an overview of the challenges, the hindrances and the opportunities posed by the uptake in real world settings of AAL technologies. In this respect, the report illustrates the current procedural and technological approaches to cope with acceptability, usability and trust in the AAL technology, by surveying strategies and approaches to co-design, to privacy preservation in video and audio data, to transparency and explainability in data processing, and to data transmission and communication. User acceptance and ethical considerations are also debated. Finally, the potentials coming from the silver economy are overviewed

Biotechnologies for Plant Mutation Breeding: Protocols

Plant Breeding/Biotechnology; Agriculture; Genetic Engineering; Plant Genetics & Genomic

Uncovering the Mechanisms Underpinning Melanoma Invasiveness at Single Cell Resolution

Metastatic cancer is responsible for 90% of cancer-related deaths, and a lack of effective therapies has seen survival rates remain bleak. Solid cancer cells escape the primary tumour mass and acquire invasive potential through an epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT), regulated by a set of master transcription factors (TFs) known as EMT-TFs. EMT-TF activity is in turn controlled by interacting signalling pathways, including the TGFß, Wnt and NF- κB pathways, which become dysregulated in cancer. Once escaped, metastatic cancer cells employ interchangeable modes of migration, transitioning between fibroblast-like mesenchymal migration and amoeboid migration, where cells display a rounded morphology and navigate the extracellular matrix in a protease independent manner. However, the key molecules that orchestrate the switch between mesenchymal and amoeboid migratory modes remain incompletely understood. This thesis describes a novel 3D spheroid invasion assay and single cell isolation technique that provides detailed 3D data on growth and invasion, and allows for the specific isolation of cells of a given phenotype. Via the expression of a photoconvertible fluorescent protein, compact epithelial cells at the edge of a tumour mass, elongated cells in the process of leaving the mass, and rounded amoeboid cells migrating away from the mass were tagged for isolation. Photoconverted cells were then single-cell sorted by flow cytometry and subjected to paired-end Illumina single cell RNA sequencing. 463 differentially expressed genes were identified via DESeq2 and enriched pathways determined by GSEA analysis. Delta opioid receptor and folate transporter SLC19A1 expression were upregulated in amoeboid migration and their functions investigated via pharmacological perturbation, while INKA1 expression was downregulated in amoeboid cells and its function investigated via inducible overexpression. This work describes a novel, adaptable and readily implementable method for the analysis of the earliest phases of cancer cell invasion, and its application to the identification of genes underpinning the invasiveness of malignant melanoma