Sensor Signal and Information Processing II

In the current age of information explosion, newly invented technological sensors and software are now tightly integrated with our everyday lives. Many sensor processing algorithms have incorporated some forms of computational intelligence as part of their core framework in problem solving. These algorithms have the capacity to generalize and discover knowledge for themselves and learn new information whenever unseen data are captured. The primary aim of sensor processing is to develop techniques to interpret, understand, and act on information contained in the data. The interest of this book is in developing intelligent signal processing in order to pave the way for smart sensors. This involves mathematical advancement of nonlinear signal processing theory and its applications that extend far beyond traditional techniques. It bridges the boundary between theory and application, developing novel theoretically inspired methodologies targeting both longstanding and emergent signal processing applications. The topic ranges from phishing detection to integration of terrestrial laser scanning, and from fault diagnosis to bio-inspiring filtering. The book will appeal to established practitioners, along with researchers and students in the emerging field of smart sensors processing

Redes cerebrales en quejas subjetivas de memoria y deterioro cognitivo leve: caracterización de las etapas de pre-demencia mediante magnetoencefalografía

Tesis de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Facultad de Psicología, leída el 22/03/2018. Tesis formato europeo (compendio de artículos)La demencia es un cuadro que puede ser originado por múltiples causas, produciendo un deterioro cognitivo muy marcado y limitando la independencia del paciente. La causa más común de demencia es la Enfermedad de Alzheimer (EA) que representa aproximadamente el 60% de los casos totales. Aunque existen numerosos factores que parecen modular el riesgo de desarrollar EA tales como factores genéticos (APOE, PS1, etc.) o variables relacionadas con el estilo de vida (estudios, ocupación, dieta, etc.), la edad es sin duda la variable más influyente y el mayor factor de riesgo ante la aparición de la EA. Por este motivo, el número de personas mayores afectadas por esta enfermedad no ha parado de aumentar durante las últimas décadas, y se espera que aumente su incidencia aún más. Debido al fracaso generalizado de los ensayos farmacológicos, numerosos esfuerzos en investigación se centran ahora en la detección temprana de la EA. El curso de la EA es lento e insidioso, y la acumulación de neuropatología puede comenzar hasta 15 años antes de su diagnóstico. A lo largo de esta etapa preclínica los pacientes atraviesan un estadio conocido como deterioro cognitivo leve (DCL). Esta etapa se caracteriza por alteraciones en uno o varios dominios cognitivos que no genera aún graves alteraciones del funcionamiento diario. Este estadio está altamente asociado al desarrollo posterior de EA y por tanto se considera bajo determinadas condiciones una etapa prodrómica de la enfermedad. Las personas mayores con DCL suelen presentar alteraciones a nivel cerebral o metabólico característicos de la EA, tales como atrofia cortical, alteraciones sinápticas o acumulación de proteínas relacionadas con la fisiopatología de la EA. La literatura científica reciente ha descrito una etapa anterior incluso al DCL que podría asociarse al desarrollo de demencia futuro. Las quejas subjetivas de memoria (QSM) se caracterizarían por la presencia de un sentimiento subjetivo de deterioro cognitivo en ausencia de afectación objetiva, es decir, la evaluación neuropsicológica de estas personas mayores se encuentra en el rango normal. Sin embargo, el estado de la actividad cerebral en esta etapa, o su integridad estructural aún no ha sido apenas descrito. Existen resultados contradictorios con respecto a si la presencia de QSM en personas mayores se asocia a un riesgo más elevado de desarrollar demencia. Además, mientras algunos estudios reportan alteraciones a nivel cerebral compatibles con EA en esta etapa, otros no encuentran tales signos. El objetivo fundamental de esta tesis es la caracterización de las alteraciones en las redes cerebrales en personas mayores sanas, personas mayores con QSM y personas mayores con DCL. El estado actual de la literatura nos permite anticipar la presencia de alteraciones cerebrales relacionadas con EA en el grupo con DCL, sin embargo este trabajo pretende estudiar si dichas alteraciones, o formas más sutiles, se encuentran presentes en el grupo con QSM. Esto nos permitirá en primer lugar clarificar si las QSM tienen alguna relevancia clínica y si se encuentran asociadas a cambios objetivos en la actividad cerebral. Además, se podrá describir el curso exacto de las alteraciones que tienen lugar a lo largo de las etapas preclínicas en la EA gracias a la inclusión del grupo con DCL, caracterizando así en cada estudio las dos etapas que anteceden a la EA descritas a día de hoy...Dementia is a clinical entity producing major cognitive impairment that interferes with daily living activities that can be caused by a variety of conditions. Among them, Alzheimer´s Disease (AD) represents around a 60% of the total dementia cases. AD risk is modulated by multiple variables such as genotype (APOE, PS1, etc.) or lifestyle variables (studies, occupation, dietary patterns, etc.), although age is the most crucial risk factor for AD development. As a consequence, the number of AD patients has rapidly grown over the last few decades and is expected to increase even more dramatically in the near future. Given the poor results obtained in pharmacological trials to cure or slow AD progression, early AD detection is receiving increasing research efforts over the last few years. Considering the slow and insidious progression of AD, brain pathology starts accumulating in the brain as soon as 15 years before clinical symptoms are severe enough to establish an AD diagnostic. Before reaching AD dementia, patients develop mild cognitive impairment (MCI). This stage is characterized by the presence of a significant cognitive impairment affecting one or more domains. However, this cognitive decline does not significantly limit patients’ daily functioning. MCI patients are known to show increased conversion rates to AD with respect to healthy elders and thus this stage is commonly accepted as a prodromal stage of AD according to recent MCI criteria. MCI patients are known to exhibit AD-like brain and metabolic alterations such as cortical atrophy or AD-related protein accumulation. Recent scientific literature has described a stage preceding MCI which could be associated with future dementia development. Subjective cognitive decline is defined by the presence of a subjective feeling of cognitive worsening in the absence of objective impairment in classical neuropsychological assessment. However, the integrity of brain activity or structure has been scarcely described yet. Furthermore, there exist some contradictory results regarding whether the presence of cognitive concerns is truly related to increased dementia risk. In the same vein, some studies have found brain alterations in SCD patients resembling of those associated with AD while others failed to find such signs. The main objective of this thesis is characterizing brain network alterations in healthy elders, elders with SCD and elders with MCI. The current state-of-the-art lets us anticipate the presence of brain disruption in the MCI group, nonetheless, this work aims to provide evidence of whether similar alterations are already present in the SCD stage. The results presented in this thesis will clarify the clinical relevance of SCD by discerning whether cognitive concerns are truly mediated by network disruption or not. Moreover, the exact course and development of electrophysiological brain alterations during the preclinical stages of the disease will be described by including also MCI patients. By including these three groups we will be able to characterize brain function in the different AD preclinical stages considered in current literature...Fac. de PsicologíaTRUEunpu

Science Mission Directorate TechPort Records for 2019 STI-DAA Release

The role of the Science Mission Directorate (SMD) is to enable NASA to achieve its science goals in the context of the Nation's science agenda. SMD's strategic decisions regarding future missions and scientific pursuits are guided by Agency goals, input from the science community including the recommendations set forth in the National Research Council (NRC) decadal surveys and a commitment to preserve a balanced program across the major science disciplines. Toward this end, each of the four SMD science divisions -- Heliophysics, Earth Science, Planetary Science, and Astrophysics -- develops fundamental science questions upon which to base future research and mission programs

Aerial Vehicles

This book contains 35 chapters written by experts in developing techniques for making aerial vehicles more intelligent, more reliable, more flexible in use, and safer in operation.It will also serve as an inspiration for further improvement of the design and application of aeral vehicles. The advanced techniques and research described here may also be applicable to other high-tech areas such as robotics, avionics, vetronics, and space

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

Air Force Institute of Technology Research Report 2020

This Research Report presents the FY20 research statistics and contributions of the Graduate School of Engineering and Management (EN) at AFIT. AFIT research interests and faculty expertise cover a broad spectrum of technical areas related to USAF needs, as reflected by the range of topics addressed in the faculty and student publications listed in this report. In most cases, the research work reported herein is directly sponsored by one or more USAF or DOD agencies. AFIT welcomes the opportunity to conduct research on additional topics of interest to the USAF, DOD, and other federal organizations when adequate manpower and financial resources are available and/or provided by a sponsor. In addition, AFIT provides research collaboration and technology transfer benefits to the public through Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs). Interested individuals may discuss ideas for new research collaborations, potential CRADAs, or research proposals with individual faculty using the contact information in this document

The Fifth NASA Symposium on VLSI Design

The fifth annual NASA Symposium on VLSI Design had 13 sessions including Radiation Effects, Architectures, Mixed Signal, Design Techniques, Fault Testing, Synthesis, Signal Processing, and other Featured Presentations. The symposium provides insights into developments in VLSI and digital systems which can be used to increase data systems performance. The presentations share insights into next generation advances that will serve as a basis for future VLSI design

NASA thesaurus. Volume 1: Hierarchical Listing

There are over 17,000 postable terms and nearly 4,000 nonpostable terms approved for use in the NASA scientific and technical information system in the Hierarchical Listing of the NASA Thesaurus. The generic structure is presented for many terms. The broader term and narrower term relationships are shown in an indented fashion that illustrates the generic structure better than the more widely used BT and NT listings. Related terms are generously applied, thus enhancing the usefulness of the Hierarchical Listing. Greater access to the Hierarchical Listing may be achieved with the collateral use of Volume 2 - Access Vocabulary and Volume 3 - Definitions