21,725 research outputs found
Elastic Registration of Geodesic Vascular Graphs
Vascular graphs can embed a number of high-level features, from morphological
parameters, to functional biomarkers, and represent an invaluable tool for
longitudinal and cross-sectional clinical inference. This, however, is only
feasible when graphs are co-registered together, allowing coherent multiple
comparisons. The robust registration of vascular topologies stands therefore as
key enabling technology for group-wise analyses. In this work, we present an
end-to-end vascular graph registration approach, that aligns networks with
non-linear geometries and topological deformations, by introducing a novel
overconnected geodesic vascular graph formulation, and without enforcing any
anatomical prior constraint. The 3D elastic graph registration is then
performed with state-of-the-art graph matching methods used in computer vision.
Promising results of vascular matching are found using graphs from synthetic
and real angiographies. Observations and future designs are discussed towards
potential clinical applications
Perceiving environmental structure from optical motion
Generally speaking, one of the most important sources of optical information about environmental structure is known to be the deforming optical patterns produced by the movements of the observer (pilot) or environmental objects. As an observer moves through a rigid environment, the projected optical patterns of environmental objects are systematically transformed according to their orientations and positions in 3D space relative to those of the observer. The detailed characteristics of these deforming optical patterns carry information about the 3D structure of the objects and about their locations and orientations relative to those of the observer. The specific geometrical properties of moving images that may constitute visually detected information about the shapes and locations of environmental objects is examined
From buildings to cities: techniques for the multi-scale analysis of urban form and function
The built environment is a significant factor in many urban processes, yet direct measures of built form are
seldom used in geographical studies. Representation and analysis of urban form and function could provide
new insights and improve the evidence base for research. So far progress has been slow due to limited data
availability, computational demands, and a lack of methods to integrate built environment data with
aggregate geographical analysis. Spatial data and computational improvements are overcoming some of
these problems, but there remains a need for techniques to process and aggregate urban form data. Here we
develop a Built Environment Model of urban function and dwelling type classifications for Greater
London, based on detailed topographic and address-based data (sourced from Ordnance Survey
MasterMap). The multi-scale approach allows the Built Environment Model to be viewed at fine-scales for
local planning contexts, and at city-wide scales for aggregate geographical analysis, allowing an improved
understanding of urban processes. This flexibility is illustrated in the two examples, that of urban function
and residential type analysis, where both local-scale urban clustering and city-wide trends in density and
agglomeration are shown. While we demonstrate the multi-scale Built Environment Model to be a viable
approach, a number of accuracy issues are identified, including the limitations of 2D data, inaccuracies in
commercial function data and problems with temporal attribution. These limitations currently restrict the
more advanced applications of the Built Environment Model
New evidence of visual space anisotropy with autostereograms
Postprint (published version
There are 174 Subdivisions of the Hexahedron into Tetrahedra
This article answers an important theoretical question: How many different
subdivisions of the hexahedron into tetrahedra are there? It is well known that
the cube has five subdivisions into 6 tetrahedra and one subdivision into 5
tetrahedra. However, all hexahedra are not cubes and moving the vertex
positions increases the number of subdivisions. Recent hexahedral dominant
meshing methods try to take these configurations into account for combining
tetrahedra into hexahedra, but fail to enumerate them all: they use only a set
of 10 subdivisions among the 174 we found in this article.
The enumeration of these 174 subdivisions of the hexahedron into tetrahedra
is our combinatorial result. Each of the 174 subdivisions has between 5 and 15
tetrahedra and is actually a class of 2 to 48 equivalent instances which are
identical up to vertex relabeling. We further show that exactly 171 of these
subdivisions have a geometrical realization, i.e. there exist coordinates of
the eight hexahedron vertices in a three-dimensional space such that the
geometrical tetrahedral mesh is valid. We exhibit the tetrahedral meshes for
these configurations and show in particular subdivisions of hexahedra with 15
tetrahedra that have a strictly positive Jacobian
On the origin of Phase Transitions in the absence of Symmetry-Breaking
In this paper we investigate the Hamiltonian dynamics of a lattice gauge
model in three spatial dimension. Our model Hamiltonian is defined on the basis
of a continuum version of a duality transformation of a three dimensional Ising
model. The system so obtained undergoes a thermodynamic phase transition in the
absence of symmetry-breaking. Besides the well known use of quantities like the
Wilson loop we show how else the phase transition in such a kind of models can
be detected. It is found that the first order phase transition undergone by
this model is characterised according to an Ehrenfest-like classification of
phase transitions applied to the configurational entropy. On the basis of the
topological theory of phase transitions, it is discussed why the seemingly
divergent behaviour of the third derivative of configurational entropy can be
considered as the "shadow" of some suitable topological transition of certain
submanifolds of configuration space.Comment: 31 pages, 9 figure
A flexible sensor technology for the distributed measurement of interaction pressure
We present a sensor technology for the measure of the physical human-robot interaction pressure developed in the last years at Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna. The system is composed of flexible matrices of opto-electronic sensors covered by a soft silicone cover. This sensory system is completely modular and scalable, allowing one to cover areas of any sizes and shapes, and to measure different pressure ranges. In this work we present the main application areas for this technology. A first generation of the system was used to monitor human-robot interaction in upper- (NEUROExos; Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna) and lower-limb (LOPES; University of Twente) exoskeletons for rehabilitation. A second generation, with increased resolution and wireless connection, was used to develop a pressure-sensitive foot insole and an improved human-robot interaction measurement systems. The experimental characterization of the latter system along with its validation on three healthy subjects is presented here for the first time. A perspective on future uses and development of the technology is finally drafted
- …