Evaluation of spinal posture using Microsoft Kinect™: a preliminary case-study with 98 volunteers

This work proposes a novel approach to assess spinal curvature, by using Microsoft's Kinect™ to obtain 3D reconstructed models of subject's dorsal skin surface in different postures. This method is non-invasive, radiation-free and low-cost. The trial tests here presented intended to evaluate the reliability of this approach, by assessing the tendency of 98 volunteers to present scoliosis. The shoulder height difference was calculated for each subject's scan, by quantifying the angular slope of a line crossing both scapulae. The volunteers’ average age was 24.7 years. Results showed that 68.37% of the volunteers revealed differences higher than 1° between the shoulders, having that their record in what concerns to loads and lesions proved to increase the angular slope. This initial approach shall establish the grounds for assessing spinal posture in pre-clinical or industrial ergonomics scans. Further studies shall include comparison versus traditional imaging methods and experienced clinical evaluation.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

LED SCREEN RESOLUTION: A Lego Visualization

As a graphic designer, understanding the way a computer displays type and image is extremely beneficial. Before going into college, my knowledge of how a line of ones and zeros translates to a full color, high definition screen of pixels was abstract at best. This project serves to explore and demonstrate the meaning and process of LED screen resolution through a more playful and tangible lens of LEGO® bricks. LEGOS® encourage the creative, child-like side of us. The bricks become a doorway into another side of learning. It pushes us to not be afraid to explore and delve deeper into the framework of an idea. My hope is to clarify and explain the conflict that I wrestled with in attempting to understand LED screen resolution and unite science with art

A knowledge based architecture for the virtual restoration of ancient photos

Historical images are essential documents of the recent past. Nevertheless, time and bad preservation corrupt their physical supports. Digitization can be the solution to extend their \u201clives\u201d, and digital techniques can be used to recover lost information. This task is often difficult and time-consuming, if commercial restoration tools are used for the purpose. A new solution is proposed to help non-expert users in restoring their damaged photos. First, we defined a dual taxonomy for the defects in printed and digitized photos. We represented our restoration domain with an ontology and we created some rules to suggest actions to perform in case of some specific events. Classes and properties of the ontology are included into a knowledge base, that grows dynamically with its use. A prototypal tool and a web application version have been implemented as an interface to the database, and to support non-expert users in the restoration process

Content-aware : investigating tools, character & user behavior

Content—Aware serves as a platform for investigating structure, corruption, and visual interference in the context of present-day technologies. I use fragmentation, movement, repetition, and abstraction to interrogate current methods and tools for engaging with the built environment, here broadly conceived as the material, spatial, and cultural products of human labor. Physical and graphic spaces become grounds for testing visual hypotheses. By testing images and usurping image-making technologies, I challenge the fidelity of vision and representation. Rooted in active curiosity and a willingness to fully engage, I collaborate with digital tools, play with their edges, and build perceptual portholes. Through documentation and curation of visual experience, I expose and challenge a capitalist image infrastructure. I create, collect, and process images using smartphone cameras, screen recordings, and applications such as Shrub and Photoshop. These devices and programs, which have the capacity to produce visual smoothness and polish, also inherently engender repetition and fragmentation. The same set of tools used to perfect images is easily reoriented towards visual destabilization. Projects presented here are not meant to serve as literal translations, but rather as symbols or variables in experimental graphic communication strategies. Employing these strategies, I reveal the frames and tools through which we view the world. By exploring and exploiting the limitations of manmade technologies, I reveal the breadth of our human relationships with them, including those of creators, directors, users, and recipients

Vanadium redox flow batteries real-time State of Charge and State of Health estimation under electrolyte imbalance condition

This paper presents a novel observer architecture capable to estimate online the concentrations of the four vanadium species present in a vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB). The proposed architecture comprises three main stages: (1) a high-gain observer, to estimate the output voltage and its derivatives; (2) a dynamic inverter, to obtain a set of concentration candidate solutions; and (3) a static selector, to determine the actual concentrations. The methodology does not rely on the classic assumption of balanced electrolytes, thus significantly widening the application range in comparison with most of the literature previous studies. Furthermore, to perform the estimation, only a single voltage and current measurements are required, which eliminates the need of including complex and costly additional sensors. To validate the proposal, comprehensive simulation tests are conducted. These tests take into account typical side reactions that cause imbalance in VRFB systems, such as vanadium crossover and oxidation. The observer shows a remarkable performance when dealing with these realistic conditions, allowing to estimate with high accuracy and robustness the four vanadium concentrations, the State of Charge and the State of Health with a relative error below 2%.The project that gave rise to these results received the support of a fellowship from ”la Caixa” Foundation (ID 100010434). The fellowship code is LCF/BQ/DI21/11860023. This research was also supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, under the projects MAFALDA (PID2021-126001OB-C31) and MASHED (TED2021-129927B-I00). This work has been supported by the Spanish Ministry of Universities funded by the European Union - NextGenerationEU (2022UPC-MSC-93823).Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

PROFESSIONAL ENGLISH AVIATION ACTIVITIES

Навчальний посібник з англійської мови професійного спрямування. Складається з тематичних розділів, що містять базову термінологію, автентичні тексти, комплекс комунікативних лексико-граматичних вправ, передтекстовий термінологічний англо-український вокабуляр та додаткові тексти для самостійного опрацювання. Призначений для студентів вищих авіаційних навчальних закладів