Acoustic tag tracking: first experiments

Nowadays, the use of autonomous vehicles for ocean research has increased, since these vehicles have a better cost/performance ratio than crewed vessels or oceanographic ships. For example, autonomous surface vehicles can be used to localize underwater targets. Whereas different research works are focused in target tracking using acoustic modems (or USBL), in this paper a new method called Area-Only target tracking is presented, which uses the signal generated by acoustic TAGs. This document, the first tests are presented and their results discussed, which were conducted in the Monterey Bay.Peer Reviewe

Functional mechanisms underlying pleiotropic risk alleles at the 19p13.1 breast-ovarian cancer susceptibility locus

A locus at 19p13 is associated with breast cancer (BC) and ovarian cancer (OC) risk. Here we analyse 438 SNPs in this region in 46,451 BC and 15,438 OC cases, 15,252 BRCA1 mutation carriers and 73,444 controls and identify 13 candidate causal SNPs associated with serous OC (P=9.2 × 10-20), ER-negative BC (P=1.1 × 10-13), BRCA1-associated BC (P=7.7 × 10-16) and triple negative BC (P-diff=2 × 10-5). Genotype-gene expression associations are identified for candidate target genes ANKLE1 (P=2 × 10-3) and ABHD8 (P<2 × 10-3). Chromosome conformation capture identifies interactions between four candidate SNPs and ABHD8, and luciferase assays indicate six risk alleles increased transactivation of the ADHD8 promoter. Targeted deletion of a region containing risk SNP rs56069439 in a putative enhancer induces ANKLE1 downregulation; and mRNA stability assays indicate functional effects for an ANKLE1 3′-UTR SNP. Altogether, these data suggest that multiple SNPs at 19p13 regulate ABHD8 and perhaps ANKLE1 expression, and indicate common mechanisms underlying breast and ovarian cancer risk

Genome-Wide Association Study in BRCA1 Mutation Carriers Identifies Novel Loci Associated with Breast and Ovarian Cancer Risk

BRCA1-associated breast and ovarian cancer risks can be modified by common genetic variants. To identify further cancer risk-modifying loci, we performed a multi-stage GWAS of 11,705 BRCA1 carriers (of whom 5,920 were diagnosed with breast and 1,839 were diagnosed with ovarian cancer), with a further replication in an additional sample of 2,646 BRCA1 carriers. We identified a novel breast cancer risk modifier locus at 1q32 for BRCA1 carriers (rs2290854, P = 2.7×10-8, HR = 1.14, 95% CI: 1.09-1.20). In addition, we identified two novel ovarian cancer risk modifier loci: 17q21.31 (rs17631303, P = 1.4×10-8, HR = 1.27, 95% CI: 1.17-1.38) and 4q32.3 (rs4691139, P = 3.4×10-8, HR = 1.20, 95% CI: 1.17-1.38). The 4q32.3 locus was not associated with ovarian cancer risk in the general population or BRCA2 carriers, suggesting a BRCA1-specific associat

The Influence of Number and Timing of Pregnancies on Breast Cancer Risk for Women With BRCA1 or BRCA2 Mutations

Background: Full-term pregnancy (FTP) is associated with a reduced breast cancer (BC) risk over time, but women are at increased BC risk in the immediate years following an FTP. No large prospective studies, however, have examined whether the number and timing of pregnancies are associated with BC risk for BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers. Methods: Using weighted and time-varying Cox proportional hazards models, we investigated whether reproductive events are associated with BC risk for mutation carriers using a retrospective cohort (5707 BRCA1 and 3525 BRCA2 mutation carriers) and a prospective cohort (2276 BRCA1 and 1610 BRCA2 mutation carriers), separately for each cohort and the combined prospective and retrospective cohort. Results: For BRCA1 mutation carriers, there was no overall association with parity compared with nulliparity (combined hazard ratio [HRc] ¼ 0.99, 95% confidence interval [CI] ¼ 0.83 to 1.18). Relative to being uniparous, an increased number of FTPs was associated with decreased BC risk (HRc¼ 0.79, 95% CI ¼ 0.69 to 0.91; HRc¼ 0.70, 95% CI ¼ 0.59 to 0.82; HRc¼ 0.50, 95% CI ¼ 0.40 to 0.63, for 2, 3, and 4 FTPs, respectively, Ptrend < .0001) and increasing duration of breastfeeding was associated with decreased BC risk (combined cohort Ptrend ¼ .0003). Relative to being nulliparous, uniparous BRCA1 mutation carriers were at increased BC risk in the prospective analysis (prospective hazard ration [HRp] ¼ 1.69, 95% CI ¼ 1.09 to 2.62). For BRCA2 mutation carriers, being parous was associated with a 30% increase in BC risk (HRc ¼ 1.33, 95% CI ¼ 1.05 to 1.69), and there was no apparent decrease in risk associated with multiparity except for having at least 4 FTPs vs. 1 FTP (HRc¼ 0.72, 95% CI ¼ 0.54 to 0.98). Conclusions: These findings suggest differential associations with parity between BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers with higher risk for uniparous BRCA1 carriers and parous BRCA2 carriers

A case-only study to identify genetic modifiers of breast cancer risk for BRCA1/BRCA2 mutation carriers

Breast cancer (BC) risk for BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers varies by genetic and familial factors. About 50 common variants have been shown to modify BC risk for mutation carriers. All but three, were identified in general population studies. Other mutation carrier-specific susceptibility variants may exist but studies of mutation carriers have so far been underpowered. We conduct a novel case-only genome-wide association study comparing genotype frequencies between 60,212 general population BC cases and 13,007 cases with BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations. We identify robust novel associations for 2 variants with BC for BRCA1 and 3 for BRCA2 mutation carriers, P < 10−8, at 5 loci, which are not associated with risk in the general population. They include rs60882887 at 11p11.2 where MADD, SP11 and EIF1, genes previously implicated in BC biology, are predicted as potential targets. These findings will contribute towards customising BC polygenic risk scores for BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers

Underwater Multi-Target Tracking with Particle Filters

5 pages, 8 figures, 1 table.-- © 2018 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other worksRobotic platforms communication and interoperability is of relevance for marine science and industrial monitoring. We present results of a particle filter study based on underwater Multi-Target Tracking (MTT) using Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV). The main goal was to assess the viability of using a single surface vehicle as a mobile landmark to track and follow a fleet of underwater targets, each one equipped with an acoustic tag where the slant ranges between the surface vehicle and the underwater targets are the unique input for the filtersThis work was partially supported by the project JERICO-NEXT from the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 research and Innovation programme under grant agreement No 654410. We also thanks the financial support from the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad under contract TEC2017-87861-R project RESBIOPeer Reviewe

Developing an acoustic tag with bidirectional communications capabilities

Special issue 9th MARTECH: International Workshop on Marine Technology: 16-18 June 2021, Vigo, Spain.-- 2 pages, 3 figuresThe study of marine animal behavior is crucial to manage fisheries stocks and to understand the climate change effect on them, especially their moving patterns. In order to achieve that, different methods have been developed during the last years, specially using acoustic tags. However, all the tags available nowadays are transmitters, and therefore, can only be used as a ¿listen method¿. Here, we present a new acoustic tag with bidirectional communications capabilities (i.e. can transmit and also receive acoustic signals). This approach will allow the possibility to use new techniques to study marine animals (e.g. range-only and singe-beacon methods with autonomous vehicles), and therefore, increase the knowledge of their behaviourThis work received financial support from the Spanish Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (contract TEC2017-87861-R project RESBIO, and RTI2018-095112-B-I00 project SASES), and from the Generalitat de Catalunya "Sistemas de Adquisición Remota de datos y Tratamiento de la Información en el Medio Marino (SARTI-MAR)" 2017 SGR 371. This work has been directed and carried out by members of the Tecnoterra-associated unit of the Scientific Research Council through the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, the Jaume Almera Earth Sciences Institute and the Marine Science Institute. IM was funded by a MSCA-IF-GF (ID:893089, H2020-EU.1.3.2, European Commission

Accuracy and precision studies for range-only underwater target tracking in shallow waters

22nd IMEKO TC4 International Symposium & 20th International Workshop on ADC Modelling and Testing, 14-15 September 2017, Iaşi, Romania.-- 6 pages, 8 figures, 1 tableThis paper studies the precision, and the accuracy, of an underwater target tracking system, using range-only and single-beacon methods, in shallow waters environments. For this study, different field tests have been realized in the OBSEA test site, a well-known and monitored area at 4 km from the coast and at 20 meters of depth, in the Mediterranean Sea (Barcelona). The tests have been conducted using two acoustic underwater modems from the company LinkQuest Inc. Moreover, the autonomous underwater vehicle developed by the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (called Guanay II) have also used to perform the testsThis work was partially supported by the project NeXOS from the European Union’s Seventh Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under the grant agreement No 614102. We also had financial support from the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad under contract CGL2013-42557-R (Interoperabilidad e instrumentación de plataformas autónomas marinas para la monitorización sísmica, INTMARSIS) and CTM2015-68804-REDT (Instrumentation and Applied Technology for the Study, Characterization and Sustainable Exploration of Marine Environment, MarInTech)Peer Reviewe

Underwater acoustic slant range measurements related to weather and sea state

XXII World Congress of the International Measurement Confederation (IMEKO 2018), 3-6 September 2018, Belfast, United Kingdom.-- 4 pages, 6 figuresUnderwater range measurements are key factor in underwater acoustic positioning, used in Long Base-Line (LBL) or Ultra Short Base-Line (USBL) computing techniques. These measurements are commonly carried out through acoustic communications between modems and their accuracy can be affected by different factors, such as sea state, weather conditions, and obstacles in the line of sight propagation. This is especially important in shallow waters areas, where others phenomena such as multi-path have to be considered. Therefore, range accuracy and the associated position estimation errors are an important area of research. Here, we addressed the relation between range measurements variability and sea state (i.e. currents or waves height) as proxy of real-world conditions, affecting acoustic positioning performances. For that purpose, a long-term deployment have been carried out in the underwater cabled observatory OBSEA, which provide different measurements of the sea and weather stateThis work was partially supported by the project JERICO-NEXT from the EC-H2020 under grant agreement No 654410 (EvoLUL TNA sub-project). We also thanks the financial support from the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad under contract TEC2017-87861-R project RESBIOPeer Reviewe

Range-Only Single-Beacon Tracking of Underwater Targets From an Autonomous Vehicle: From Theory to Practice

18 pages, 13 figures, 10 tablesUnderwater localization is one of the main problems that must be addressed in subsea exploration, where no global positioning system (GPS) is available. In addition to the traditional underwater localization systems, such as long base line (LBL), new methods have been developed to increase the navigation performance and flexibility and to reduce the deployment costs. For example, range-only and single-beacon (ROSB) is based on an autonomous vehicle that localizes and tracks different underwater targets using slant range measurements carried out with acoustic modems. This paper presents different strategies to improve ROSB tracking methods. The ROSB target tracking method can be seen as a hidden Markov model (HMM) problem. Using Bayes' rule, the probability distribution function of the HMM states can be solved by using different filtering methods. Here, we present and compare different methods under different scenarios, both evaluated in simulations and field tests. The main mathematical notation and performance of each algorithm are presented, where best practice has been derived. From a methodological point of view, this paper advanced the understanding of accuracy that can be achieved by using the ROSB target tracking methods with autonomous underwater vehiclesThis work was supported in part by the JERICO-NEXT project of the EC-H2020 under Grant 654410, in part by the EvoLUL TNA sub-project, in part by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, through the RESBIO project, under Contract TEC2017-87861-R, and in part by the Generalitat de Catalunya Sistemas de Adquisición Remota de datos y Tratamiento de la Información en el Medio Marino (SARTI-MAR) 2017 SGR 376. The work of I. Masmitja was supported by the FPI-UPC Scholarship from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) under Grant Agreement 175/2015Peer Reviewe