MONO-HYDRA: REAL-TIME 3D SCENE GRAPH CONSTRUCTION FROM MONOCULAR CAMERA INPUT WITH IMU

The ability of robots to autonomously navigate through 3D environments depends on their comprehension of spatial concepts, ranging from low-level geometry to high-level semantics, such as objects, places, and buildings. To enable such comprehension, 3D scene graphs have emerged as a robust tool for representing the environment as a layered graph of concepts and their relationships. However, building these representations using monocular vision systems in real-time remains a difficult task that has not been explored in depth.This paper puts forth a real-time spatial perception system Mono-Hydra, combining a monocular camera and an IMU sensor setup, focusing on indoor scenarios. However, the proposed approach is adaptable to outdoor applications, offering flexibility in its potential uses. The system employs a suite of deep learning algorithms to derive depth and semantics. It uses a robocentric visual-inertial odometry (VIO) algorithm based on square-root information, thereby ensuring consistent visual odometry with an IMU and a monocular camera. This system achieves sub-20 cm error in real-time processing at 15 fps, enabling real-time 3D scene graph construction using a laptop GPU (NVIDIA 3080). This enhances decision-making efficiency and effectiveness in simple camera setups, augmenting robotic system agility. We make Mono-Hydra publicly available at: https://github.com/UAV-Centre-ITC/Mono_Hydra

Sustainable Cities through Urban Agriculture Case of Developing Production and Socio-economic Environment within the Kurunegala Municipal Council Limits

The role of urban agriculture (UA) towards food security and nutrition is probably its mostimportant contribution, followed by its role as a source of income for a substantial number ofurban households leading to development of microenterprises, greening of cities andutilisation of urban wastes. However, in the recent past, these aspects have brought urbanagriculture into focus of players of the policy and development spheres of Sri Lanka. In lightof this, the paper reports the outcome of a research study carried out to develop a productionand socio-economic environment to promote urban agriculture within Kurunegala MunicipalCouncil Limits. With the support of the Provincial Department of Agriculture of the NorthWestern Province of Sri Lanka, 30 urban agricultural producers (UAPs) were selected as thecases for in-depth investigation for this purpose from June 2011. Face-to-face discussionssupported by structured interview schedules and visits to their farming areas as well ascapacity development workshops and provision of microfinance were carried out with theUAPs on regular basis. Primary data were gathered during this period to: (1) assess the needsof UAPs (Need Assessment); (2) recognize their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities andthreats to be in UA (SWOT); (3) explore the good agricultural practices in existence, and (4)evaluate the impact of UA on their livelihood (Impact Assessment), in particular. Theinformation gathered were subjected to various qualitative (e.g. N-Vivo) and quantitative(e.g. ranking, means, percentages) data analysis techniques. The outcome of analysesrevealed the existence of diversified forms, systems and types of urban agricultural practices.The need assessment suggests that the majority of UAPs wish to gain a better knowledge onnew technologies, waste management and animal feed production. The major strengths ofUAPs to engage in urban agricultural activities include the personal health benefits,household food security while their knowledge on marketing and banking were cited as majorweaknesses. Opportunities for value addition and market orientation among many producerswere also observed. Effective means of urban waste management, alternative sources ofenergy and self production of planting materials were highlighted as good practices whilelimitations in land and lower prices for products were cited as key constraints. It found thaturban agricultural activities exposed UAPs into many new areas of agricultural productionand marketing, which have an impact on their lifestyle, health and family environment

A multi-layered view of chemical and biochemical engineering

The contents of this article are based on the results of discussions the corresponding author has had since 2015 with the co-authors, who are members of academia and industry in Europe, on the scope and significance of chemical and biochemical engineering as a discipline. The result is a multi-layered view of chemical and biochemical engineering where the inner-layer deals with the fundamental principles and their application; the middle-layer deals with consolidation and expansion of the principles through a combination of science and engineering, leading to the development of sustainable technologies; and the outer-layer deals with integration of knowledge and collaboration with other disciplines to achieve a more sustainable society. Through this multi-layered view several important issues with respect to education, research and practice are highlighted together with current and future challenges and opportunities

Ribosomal DNA copy loss and repeat instability in ATRX-mutated cancers

ATRX (alpha thalassemia/mental retardation X-linked) complexes with DAXX to deposit histone variant H3.3 into repetitive heterochromatin. Recent genome sequencing studies in cancers have revealed mutations in ATRX and their association with ALT (alternative lengthening of telomeres) activation. Here we report depletion of ATRX in mouse ES cells leads to selective loss in ribosomal RNA gene (rDNA) copy number. Supporting this, ATRX-mutated human ALT-positive tumors also show a substantially lower rDNA copy than ALT-negative tumors. Further investigation shows that the rDNA copy loss and repeat instability are caused by a disruption in H3.3 deposition and thus a failure in heterochromatin formation at rDNA repeats in the absence of ATRX. We also find that ATRX-depleted cells are reduced in ribosomal RNA transcription output and show increased sensitivity to RNA polymerase I (Pol I) transcription inhibitor CX5461. In addition, human ALT-positive cancer cell lines are also more sensitive to CX5461 treatment. Our study provides insights into the contribution of ATRX loss of function to tumorigenesis through the loss of rDNA stability and suggests the therapeutic potential of targeting Pol I transcription in ALT cancers.This work was supported by the Norwegian Cancer Society and the Research Council of Norway (to P.C.); an Australia Research Council Future Fellowship award (to L.H.W.); National Health and Medical Research Council Program Grant 1053792 (to R.B.P. and R.D.H.), senior research fellowships (to R.B.P. and R.D.H.), and a project grant (to L.H.W.); and a Cure Brain Cancer Foundation Australia project grant (to L.H.W. and H.P.J.V.)

Diverse Applications of Nanomedicine

The design and use of materials in the nanoscale size range for addressing medical and health-related issues continues to receive increasing interest. Research in nanomedicine spans a multitude of areas, including drug delivery, vaccine development, antibacterial, diagnosis and imaging tools, wearable devices, implants, high-throughput screening platforms, etc. using biological, nonbiological, biomimetic, or hybrid materials. Many of these developments are starting to be translated into viable clinical products. Here, we provide an overview of recent developments in nanomedicine and highlight the current challenges and upcoming opportunities for the field and translation to the clinic. \ua9 2017 American Chemical Society

Impact of COVID-19 on cardiovascular testing in the United States versus the rest of the world

Objectives: This study sought to quantify and compare the decline in volumes of cardiovascular procedures between the United States and non-US institutions during the early phase of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the care of many non-COVID-19 illnesses. Reductions in diagnostic cardiovascular testing around the world have led to concerns over the implications of reduced testing for cardiovascular disease (CVD) morbidity and mortality. Methods: Data were submitted to the INCAPS-COVID (International Atomic Energy Agency Non-Invasive Cardiology Protocols Study of COVID-19), a multinational registry comprising 909 institutions in 108 countries (including 155 facilities in 40 U.S. states), assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on volumes of diagnostic cardiovascular procedures. Data were obtained for April 2020 and compared with volumes of baseline procedures from March 2019. We compared laboratory characteristics, practices, and procedure volumes between U.S. and non-U.S. facilities and between U.S. geographic regions and identified factors associated with volume reduction in the United States. Results: Reductions in the volumes of procedures in the United States were similar to those in non-U.S. facilities (68% vs. 63%, respectively; p = 0.237), although U.S. facilities reported greater reductions in invasive coronary angiography (69% vs. 53%, respectively; p < 0.001). Significantly more U.S. facilities reported increased use of telehealth and patient screening measures than non-U.S. facilities, such as temperature checks, symptom screenings, and COVID-19 testing. Reductions in volumes of procedures differed between U.S. regions, with larger declines observed in the Northeast (76%) and Midwest (74%) than in the South (62%) and West (44%). Prevalence of COVID-19, staff redeployments, outpatient centers, and urban centers were associated with greater reductions in volume in U.S. facilities in a multivariable analysis. Conclusions: We observed marked reductions in U.S. cardiovascular testing in the early phase of the pandemic and significant variability between U.S. regions. The association between reductions of volumes and COVID-19 prevalence in the United States highlighted the need for proactive efforts to maintain access to cardiovascular testing in areas most affected by outbreaks of COVID-19 infection

Diverse Applications of Nanomedicine

© 2017 American Chemical Society.The design and use of materials in the nanoscale size range for addressing medical and health-related issues continues to receive increasing interest. Research in nanomedicine spans a multitude of areas, including drug delivery, vaccine development, antibacterial, diagnosis and imaging tools, wearable devices, implants, high-throughput screening platforms, etc. using biological, nonbiological, biomimetic, or hybrid materials. Many of these developments are starting to be translated into viable clinical products. Here, we provide an overview of recent developments in nanomedicine and highlight the current challenges and upcoming opportunities for the field and translation to the clinic