353,894 research outputs found
Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry for Structural Health Monitoring of Bridges: Potentialities and Open Research Questions
The development of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) interferometry has provided unprecedented opportunities to remotely analyze the behavior of civil structures, transcending traditional limitations associated with in-situ methods. However, while the effectiveness of SAR technology in monitoring wide-area geohazards is demonstrated in several applications, its extension to civil structures, which have a much smaller footprint, requires further investigation of several aspects. This paper investigates the potentialities and challenges connected with the use of SAR technology for civil engineering artifacts, fostered by the availability of remote satellite open data. Recently, the European Space Agency has introduced the European Ground Motion Service (EGMS) under the Copernicus program. This innovative and freely accessible resource provides comprehensive information regarding ground motion across Europe through multitemporal interferometric analysis of Sentinel-1 images acquired since 2015. In this paper the focus is on the Palatino Bridge in Rome, Italy. Data from the ascending and descending orbit are combined to obtain vertical and longitudinal displacements of the structure, allowing for a better estimation of the bridge's response to varying environmental conditions. Results are then compared with those obtained processing high resolution data from COSMO-SkyMed of the Italian Space Agency, showing the consistency of findings
Optical Synoptic Telescopes: New Science Frontiers
Over the past decade, sky surveys such as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey have
proven the power of large data sets for answering fundamental astrophysical
questions. This observational progress, based on a synergy of advances in
telescope construction, detectors, and information technology, has had a
dramatic impact on nearly all fields of astronomy, and areas of fundamental
physics. The next-generation instruments, and the surveys that will be made
with them, will maintain this revolutionary progress. The hardware and
computational technical challenges and the exciting science opportunities are
attracting scientists and engineers from astronomy, optics, low-light-level
detectors, high-energy physics, statistics, and computer science. The history
of astronomy has taught us repeatedly that there are surprises whenever we view
the sky in a new way. This will be particularly true of discoveries emerging
from a new generation of sky surveys. Imaging data from large ground-based
active optics telescopes with sufficient etendue can address many scientific
missions simultaneously. These new investigations will rely on the statistical
precision obtainable with billions of objects. For the first time, the full sky
will be surveyed deep and fast, opening a new window on a universe of faint
moving and distant exploding objects as well as unraveling the mystery of dark
energy.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figure
A comprehensive survey of wireless body area networks on PHY, MAC, and network layers solutions
Recent advances in microelectronics and integrated circuits, system-on-chip design, wireless communication and intelligent low-power sensors have allowed the realization of a Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN). A WBAN is a collection of low-power, miniaturized, invasive/non-invasive lightweight wireless sensor nodes that monitor the human body functions and the surrounding environment. In addition, it supports a number of innovative and interesting applications such as ubiquitous healthcare, entertainment, interactive gaming, and military applications. In this paper, the fundamental mechanisms of WBAN including architecture and topology, wireless implant communication, low-power Medium Access Control (MAC) and routing protocols are reviewed. A comprehensive study of the proposed technologies for WBAN at Physical (PHY), MAC, and Network layers is presented and many useful solutions are discussed for each layer. Finally, numerous WBAN applications are highlighted
Long-term use of motion-based video games in care home settings
Recent research suggests that motion-based video games have the potential to provide both mental and physical stimulation for older adults in residential care. However, little research has explored the practical challenges and opportunities that arise from integrating these games within existing schedules of activities in these contexts. In our work, we report on a qualitative enquiry that was conducted over a three month period at two long-term care facilities. Findings suggest that older adults enjoyed playing video games, and that games can be a valuable means of re-introducing challenge in late life, but that the impact of age-related changes and impairment can influence people’s ability to engage with games in a group setting. We outline core challenges in the design for care context and discuss implications of our work regarding the suitability of games as a self-directed leisure activity
Empire State\u27s Cultural Capital at Risk? Assessing Challenges to the Workforce and Educational Infrastructure of Arts and Entertainment in New York
New York State is a world center for the arts and entertainment industry and its vast and uniquely diversified workforce is its main competitive advantage. Commissioned by the New York Empire State Development Corporation, this report examines the strengths and the challenges facing this industry and its workforce in the state, providing an assessment of the education and training infrastructure that supports this vital industry, and identifying issues that offer a potential role for public and private policy
The Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer Book 2018
(Abridged) This is the Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer 2018 book. It is
intended as a concise reference guide to all aspects of the scientific and
technical design of MSE, for the international astronomy and engineering
communities, and related agencies. The current version is a status report of
MSE's science goals and their practical implementation, following the System
Conceptual Design Review, held in January 2018. MSE is a planned 10-m class,
wide-field, optical and near-infrared facility, designed to enable
transformative science, while filling a critical missing gap in the emerging
international network of large-scale astronomical facilities. MSE is completely
dedicated to multi-object spectroscopy of samples of between thousands and
millions of astrophysical objects. It will lead the world in this arena, due to
its unique design capabilities: it will boast a large (11.25 m) aperture and
wide (1.52 sq. degree) field of view; it will have the capabilities to observe
at a wide range of spectral resolutions, from R2500 to R40,000, with massive
multiplexing (4332 spectra per exposure, with all spectral resolutions
available at all times), and an on-target observing efficiency of more than
80%. MSE will unveil the composition and dynamics of the faint Universe and is
designed to excel at precision studies of faint astrophysical phenomena. It
will also provide critical follow-up for multi-wavelength imaging surveys, such
as those of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, Gaia, Euclid, the Wide Field
Infrared Survey Telescope, the Square Kilometre Array, and the Next Generation
Very Large Array.Comment: 5 chapters, 160 pages, 107 figure
Aerial Vehicle Tracking by Adaptive Fusion of Hyperspectral Likelihood Maps
Hyperspectral cameras can provide unique spectral signatures for consistently
distinguishing materials that can be used to solve surveillance tasks. In this
paper, we propose a novel real-time hyperspectral likelihood maps-aided
tracking method (HLT) inspired by an adaptive hyperspectral sensor. A moving
object tracking system generally consists of registration, object detection,
and tracking modules. We focus on the target detection part and remove the
necessity to build any offline classifiers and tune a large amount of
hyperparameters, instead learning a generative target model in an online manner
for hyperspectral channels ranging from visible to infrared wavelengths. The
key idea is that, our adaptive fusion method can combine likelihood maps from
multiple bands of hyperspectral imagery into one single more distinctive
representation increasing the margin between mean value of foreground and
background pixels in the fused map. Experimental results show that the HLT not
only outperforms all established fusion methods but is on par with the current
state-of-the-art hyperspectral target tracking frameworks.Comment: Accepted at the International Conference on Computer Vision and
Pattern Recognition Workshops, 201
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