Vision and Learning for Deliberative Monocular Cluttered Flight

Cameras provide a rich source of information while being passive, cheap and lightweight for small and medium Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). In this work we present the first implementation of receding horizon control, which is widely used in ground vehicles, with monocular vision as the only sensing mode for autonomous UAV flight in dense clutter. We make it feasible on UAVs via a number of contributions: novel coupling of perception and control via relevant and diverse, multiple interpretations of the scene around the robot, leveraging recent advances in machine learning to showcase anytime budgeted cost-sensitive feature selection, and fast non-linear regression for monocular depth prediction. We empirically demonstrate the efficacy of our novel pipeline via real world experiments of more than 2 kms through dense trees with a quadrotor built from off-the-shelf parts. Moreover our pipeline is designed to combine information from other modalities like stereo and lidar as well if available

Age, Multiple Chronic Conditions, and COVID-19: A literature review

BACKGROUND: Various patient demographic and clinical characteristics have been associated with poor outcomes for individuals with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). To describe the importance of age and chronic conditions in predicting COVID-19 related outcomes. METHODS: Search strategies were conducted in PubMed/MEDLINE. Daily alerts were created. RESULTS: A total of 28 studies met our inclusion criteria. Studies varied broadly in sample size (n=21 to more than 17,000,000). Participants mean age ranged from 48 years to 80 years and the proportion of male participants ranged from 44%-82%. The most prevalent underlying conditions in patients with COVID-19 were hypertension (range: 15% - 69%), diabetes (8% - 40%), cardiovascular disease (4% - 61%), chronic pulmonary disease (1% - 33%), and chronic kidney disease (range 1% - 48%). These conditions were each associated with an increased in-hospital case fatality rate ranging from 1% to 56%. Overall, older adults have a substantially higher case fatality rate (CFR) as compared with younger individuals affected by COVID-19 (42% for those \u3c 65 vs 65% \u3e 65 years ). Only one study examined the association of chronic conditions and the risk of dying across different age groups; their findings suggested similar trends of increased risk in those \u3c 65 and those \u3e 65 years as compared to those without these conditions. CONCLUSIONS: There has been a traditional, single condition approach to consideration of how chronic conditions and advancing age relate to COVID-19 outcomes. A more complete picture of the impact of burden of multimorbidity and advancing patient age is needed

An application of conditional logistic regression and multifactor dimensionality reduction for detecting gene-gene Interactions on risk of myocardial infarction: The importance of model validation

BACKGROUND: To examine interactions among the angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) insertion/deletion, plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) 4G/5G, and tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) insertion/deletion gene polymorphisms on risk of myocardial infarction using data from 343 matched case-control pairs from the Physicians Health Study. We examined the data using both conditional logistic regression and the multifactor dimensionality reduction (MDR) method. One advantage of the MDR method is that it provides an internal prediction error for validation. We summarize our use of this internal prediction error for model validation. RESULTS: The overall results for the two methods were consistent, with both suggesting an interaction between the ACE I/D and PAI-1 4G/5G polymorphisms. However, using ten-fold cross validation, the 46% prediction error for the final MDR model was not significantly lower than that expected by chance. CONCLUSIONS: The significant interaction initially observed does not validate and may represent a type I error. As data-driven analytic methods continue to be developed and used to examine complex genetic interactions, it will become increasingly important to stress model validation in order to ensure that significant effects represent true relationships rather than chance findings

Most Reported Genetic Associations with General Intelligence Are Probably False Positives

General intelligence (g) and virtually all other behavioral traits are heritable. Associations between g and specific single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in several candidate genes involved in brain function have been reported. We sought to replicate published associations between g and 12 specific genetic variants (in the genes DTNBP1, CTSD, DRD2, ANKK1, CHRM2, SSADH, COMT, BDNF, CHRNA4, DISC1, APOE, and SNAP25) using data sets from three independent, well-characterized longitudinal studies with samples of 5,571, 1,759, and 2,441 individuals. Of 32 independent tests across all three data sets, only 1 was nominally significant. By contrast, power analyses showed that we should have expected 10 to 15 significant associations, given reasonable assumptions for genotype effect sizes. For positive controls, we confirmed accepted genetic associations for Alzheimer’s disease and body mass index, and we used SNP-based calculations of genetic relatedness to replicate previous estimates that about half of the variance in g is accounted for by common genetic variation among individuals. We conclude that the molecular genetics of psychology and social science requires approaches that go beyond the examination of candidate genes.Economic

Kinematics of recreational male runners in "super", minimalist and habitual shoes

We conducted an exploratory analysis to compare running kinematics of 16 male recreational runners wearing Nike Vaporfly 4% (VP4), Saucony Endorphin racing flat (FLAT), and their habitual (OWN) footwear. We also explored potential relationships between kinematic and physiological changes. Runners (age: 33 ± 12 y, V _O2peak: 55.2 ± 4.3 ml · kg−1·min−1) attended 3 sessions after completing an V _ O2peak test in which sagittal plane 3D kinematics at submaximal running speeds (60%, 70% and 80% ʋ V _ O2peak) were collected alongside economy measures. Kinematics were compared using notched boxplots, and between-shoe kinematic differences were plotted against between-shoe economy differences. Across intensities, VP4 involved longer flight times (6.7 to 10.0 ms) and lower stance hip range of motion (~3°), and greater vertical pelvis displacement than FLAT (~0.4 cm). Peak dorsiflexion angles (~2°), ankle range of motion (1.0° to 3.9°), and plantarflexion velocities (11.3 to 89.0 deg · sec−1) were greatest in FLAT and lowest in VP4. Foot-ground angles were smaller in FLAT (2.5° to 3.6°). Select kinematic variables were moderately related to economy, with higher step frequencies and longer step lengths in VP4 and FLAT associated with improved economy versus OWN. Footwear changes from OWN altered running kinematics. The most pronounced differences were observed in ankle, spatiotemporal, and foot-ground angle variables

Dependence as a Unifying Construct in Defining Alzheimer's Disease Severity

This article reviews measures of Alzheimer's disease (AD) progression in relation to patient dependence and offers a unifying conceptual framework for dependence in AD. Clinicians typically characterize AD by symptomatic impairments in three domains: cognition, function, and behavior. From a patient's perspective, changes in these domains, individually and in concert, ultimately lead to increased dependence and loss of autonomy. Examples of dependence in AD range from a need for reminders (early AD) to requiring safety supervision and assistance with basic functions (late AD). Published literature has focused on the clinical domains as somewhat separate constructs and has given limited attention to the concept of patient dependence as a descriptor of AD progression. This article presents the concept of dependence on others for care needs as a potential method for translating the effect of changes in cognition, function, and behavior into a more holistic, transparent description of AD progression

Related and unrelated donor transplantation for β-thalassemia major: results of an international survey.

We studied 1110 patients with β-thalassemia major aged ≤25 years who received transplants with grafts from HLA-matched related (n = 677; 61%), HLA-mismatched related (n = 78; 7%), HLA-matched unrelated (n = 252; 23%), and HLA-mismatched unrelated (n = 103; 9%) donors between 2000 and 2016. Ninety percent of transplants were performed in the last decade. Eight-five percent of patients received ≥20 transfusions and 88% were inadequately chelated. All patients received myeloablative-conditioning regimen. Overall and event-free survival were highest for patients aged ≤6 years and after HLA-matched related and HLA-matched unrelated donor transplantation. The 5-year probabilities of overall survival for patients aged ≤6 years, 7 to 15 years, and 16 to 25 years, adjusted for donor type and conditioning regimen were 90%, 84%, and 63%, respectively (P < .001). The corresponding probabilities for event-free survival were 86%, 80%, and 63% (P < .001). Overall and event-free survival did not differ between HLA-matched related and HLA-matched unrelated donor transplantation (89% vs 87% and 86% vs 82%, respectively). Corresponding probabilities after mismatched related and mismatched unrelated donor transplantation were 73% vs 83% and 70% vs 78%. In conclusion, if transplantation is considered as a treatment option it should be offered early (age ≤6 years). An HLA-matched unrelated donor is a suitable alternative if an HLA-matched relative is not available

The Promises and Pitfalls of Genoeconomics

This article reviews existing research at the intersection of genetics and economics, presents some new findings that illustrate the state of genoeconomics research, and surveys the prospects of this emerging field. Twin studies suggest that economic outcomes and preferences, once corrected for measurement error, appear to be about as heritable as many medical conditions and personality traits. Consistent with this pattern, we present new evidence on the heritability of permanent income and wealth. Turning to genetic association studies, we survey the main ways that the direct measurement of genetic variation across individuals is likely to contribute to economics, and we outline the challenges that have slowed progress in making these contributions. The most urgent problem facing researchers in this field is that most existing efforts to find associations between genetic variation and economic behavior are based on samples that are too small to ensure adequate statistical power. This has led to many false positives in the literature. We suggest a number of possible strategies to improve and remedy this problem: (a) pooling data sets, (b) using statistical techniques that exploit the greater information content of many genes jointly, and (c) focusing on economically relevant traits that are most proximate to known biological mechanisms.EconomicsSociolog

Single-cell RNA-seq supports a developmental hierarchy in human oligodendroglioma

Although human tumours are shaped by the genetic evolution of cancer cells, evidence also suggests that they display hierarchies related to developmental pathways and epigenetic programs in which cancer stem cells (CSCs) can drive tumour growth and give rise to differentiated progeny. Yet, unbiased evidence for CSCs in solid human malignancies remains elusive. Here we profile 4,347 single cells from six IDH1 or IDH2 mutant human oligodendrogliomas by RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) and reconstruct their developmental programs from genome-wide expression signatures. We infer that most cancer cells are differentiated along two specialized glial programs, whereas a rare subpopulation of cells is undifferentiated and associated with a neural stem cell expression program. Cells with expression signatures for proliferation are highly enriched in this rare subpopulation, consistent with a model in which CSCs are primarily responsible for fuelling the growth of oligodendroglioma in humans. Analysis of copy number variation (CNV) shows that distinct CNV sub-clones within tumours display similar cellular hierarchies, suggesting that the architecture of oligodendroglioma is primarily dictated by developmental programs. Subclonal point mutation analysis supports a similar model, although a full phylogenetic tree would be required to definitively determine the effect of genetic evolution on the inferred hierarchies. Our single-cell analyses provide insight into the cellular architecture of oligodendrogliomas at single-cell resolution and support the cancer stem cell model, with substantial implications for disease management

Identification of Amazonian Trees with DNA Barcodes

International audienc