Task priority control of underwater intervention systems: Theory and applications

This paper presents a unifying task priority control architecture for underwater vehicle manipulator systems. The proposed control framework can be applied to different operative scenarios such as waypoint navigation, assisted teleoperation, interaction, landing and grasping. This work extends the results of the TRIDENT and MARIS projects, which were limited to the execution of grasping actions, to other applications taken from the DexROV and ROBUST projects. In particular, simulation results show how the control framework can be used, for example, for pipeline inspection scenarios and deep sea mining exploration

UAV PHOTOGRAMMETRY WITH OBLIQUE IMAGES: FIRST ANALYSIS ON DATA ACQUISITION AND PROCESSING

In recent years, many studies revealed the advantages of using airborne oblique images for obtaining improved 3D city models (e.g. including façades and building footprints). Expensive airborne cameras, installed on traditional aerial platforms, usually acquired the data. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the possibility of acquire and use oblique images for the 3D reconstruction of a historical building, obtained by UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) and traditional COTS (Commercial Off-the-Shelf) digital cameras (more compact and lighter than generally used devices), for the realization of high-level-of-detail architectural survey. The critical issues of the acquisitions from a common UAV (flight planning strategies, ground control points, check points distribution and measurement, etc.) are described. Another important considered aspect was the evaluation of the possibility to use such systems as low cost methods for obtaining complete information from an aerial point of view in case of emergency problems or, as in the present paper, in the cultural heritage application field. The data processing was realized using SfM-based approach for point cloud generation: different dense image-matching algorithms implemented in some commercial and open source software were tested. The achieved results are analysed and the discrepancies from some reference LiDAR data are computed for a final evaluation. The system was tested on the S. Maria Chapel, a part of the Novalesa Abbey (Italy)

Emerging ethical issues regarding digital health data on the world medical association draft declaration on ethical considerations regarding health databases and biobanks

This is the final version of the article. Available from the publisher via the DOI in this record.All authors are affiliated with the Data and IT in Health and Medicine Lab which is coordinated at the Department of Social Science, Health & Medicine, King’s College London (datahealthmedicine.wordpress.com). This article builds upon a response submitted by the Lab to the World Medical Association consultation on the draft Declaration on Ethical Considerations regarding Health Databases and Biobanks in June 2015. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.3334.4163. Barbara Prainsack is a member of the Navigating Knowledge Landscapes (NKL) network led by Anna Lydia Svalastog (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4576744/)

Pediatric Cushing disease: disparities in disease severity and outcomes in the Hispanic and African-American populations.

BackgroundLittle is known about the contribution of racial and socioeconomic disparities to severity and outcomes in children with Cushing disease (CD).MethodsA total of 129 children with CD, 45 Hispanic/Latino or African-American (HI/AA) and 84 non-Hispanic White (non-HW), were included in this study. A 10-point index for rating severity (CD severity) incorporated the degree of hypercortisolemia, glucose tolerance, hypertension, anthropomorphic measurements, disease duration, and tumor characteristics. Race, ethnicity, age, gender, local obesity prevalence, estimated median income, and access to care were assessed in regression analyses of CD severity.ResultsThe mean CD severity in the HI/AA group was worse than that in the non-HW group (4.9±2.0 vs. 4.1±1.9, P=0.023); driving factors included higher cortisol levels and larger tumor size. Multiple regression models confirmed that race (P=0.027) and older age (P=0.014) were the most important predictors of worse CD severity. When followed up a median of 2.3 years after surgery, the relative risk for persistent CD combined with recurrence was 2.8 times higher in the HI/AA group compared with that in the non-HW group (95% confidence interval: 1.2-6.5).ConclusionOur data show that the driving forces for the discrepancy in severity of CD are older age and race/ethnicity. Importantly, the risk for persistent and recurrent CD was higher in minority children

Collapse Models

This is a review of formalisms and models (nonrelativistic and relativistic) which modify Schrodinger's equation so that it describes wavefunction collapse as a dynamical physical process.Comment: 40 pages, to be published in "Open Systems and Measurement in Relativistic Quantum Theory," F. Petruccione and H. P. Breuer eds. (Springer Verlag, 1999

SEIS: Insight's Seismic Experiment for Internal Structure of Mars.

By the end of 2018, 42 years after the landing of the two Viking seismometers on Mars, InSight will deploy onto Mars' surface the SEIS (Seismic Experiment for Internal Structure) instrument; a six-axes seismometer equipped with both a long-period three-axes Very Broad Band (VBB) instrument and a three-axes short-period (SP) instrument. These six sensors will cover a broad range of the seismic bandwidth, from 0.01 Hz to 50 Hz, with possible extension to longer periods. Data will be transmitted in the form of three continuous VBB components at 2 sample per second (sps), an estimation of the short period energy content from the SP at 1 sps and a continuous compound VBB/SP vertical axis at 10 sps. The continuous streams will be augmented by requested event data with sample rates from 20 to 100 sps. SEIS will improve upon the existing resolution of Viking's Mars seismic monitoring by a factor of ∼ 2500 at 1 Hz and ∼ 200 000 at 0.1 Hz. An additional major improvement is that, contrary to Viking, the seismometers will be deployed via a robotic arm directly onto Mars' surface and will be protected against temperature and wind by highly efficient thermal and wind shielding. Based on existing knowledge of Mars, it is reasonable to infer a moment magnitude detection threshold of M w ∼ 3 at 40 ∘ epicentral distance and a potential to detect several tens of quakes and about five impacts per year. In this paper, we first describe the science goals of the experiment and the rationale used to define its requirements. We then provide a detailed description of the hardware, from the sensors to the deployment system and associated performance, including transfer functions of the seismic sensors and temperature sensors. We conclude by describing the experiment ground segment, including data processing services, outreach and education networks and provide a description of the format to be used for future data distribution.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1007/s11214-018-0574-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Current concepts of polymicrogyria

Polymicrogyria is one of the most common malformations of cortical development. It has been known for many years and its clinical and MRI manifestations are well described. Recent advances in imaging, however, have revealed that polymicrogyria has many different appearances on MR imaging, suggesting that is may be a more heterogeneous malformation than previously suspected. The clinical and imaging heterogeneity of polymicrogyria is explored in this review

Catalytic Function of PLA2G6 Is Impaired by Mutations Associated with Infantile Neuroaxonal Dystrophy but Not Dystonia-Parkinsonism

Mutations in the PLA2G6 gene have been identified in autosomal recessive neurodegenerative diseases classified as infantile neuroaxonal dystrophy (INAD), neurodegeneration with brain iron accumulation (NBIA), and dystonia-parkinsonism. These clinical syndromes display two significantly different disease phenotypes. NBIA and INAD are very similar, involving widespread neurodegeneration that begins within the first 1-2 years of life. In contrast, patients with dystonia-parkinsonism present with a parkinsonian movement disorder beginning at 15 to 30 years of age. The PLA2G6 gene encodes the PLA2G6 enzyme, also known as group VIA calcium-independent phospholipase A(2), which has previously been shown to hydrolyze the sn-2 acyl chain of phospholipids, generating free fatty acids and lysophospholipids.We produced purified recombinant wildtype (WT) and mutant human PLA2G6 proteins and examined their catalytic function using in vitro assays with radiolabeled lipid substrates. We find that human PLA2G6 enzyme hydrolyzes both phospholipids and lysophospholipids, releasing free fatty acids. Mutations associated with different disease phenotypes have different effects on catalytic activity. Mutations associated with INAD/NBIA cause loss of enzyme activity, with mutant proteins exhibiting less than 20% of the specific activity of WT protein in both lysophospholipase and phospholipase assays. In contrast, mutations associated with dystonia-parkinsonism do not impair catalytic activity, and two mutations produce a significant increase in specific activity for phospholipid but not lysophospholipid substrates.These results indicate that different alterations in PLA2G6 function produce the different disease phenotypes of NBIA/INAD and dystonia-parkinsonism. INAD/NBIA is caused by loss of the ability of PLA2G6 to catalyze fatty acid release from phospholipids, which predicts accumulation of PLA2G6 phospholipid substrates and provides a mechanistic explanation for the accumulation of membranes in neuroaxonal spheroids previously observed in histopathological studies of INAD/NBIA. In contrast, dystonia-parkinsonism mutations do not appear to directly impair catalytic function, but may modify substrate preferences or regulatory mechanisms for PLA2G6

Brainstem Respiratory Oscillators Develop Independently of Neuronal Migration Defects in the Wnt/PCP Mouse Mutant looptail

The proper development and maturation of neuronal circuits require precise migration of component neurons from their birthplace (germinal zone) to their final positions. Little is known about the effects of aberrant neuronal position on the functioning of organized neuronal groups, especially in mammals. Here, we investigated the formation and properties of brainstem respiratory neurons in looptail (Lp) mutant mice in which facial motor neurons closely apposed to some respiratory neurons fail to migrate due to loss of function of the Wnt/Planar Cell Polarity (PCP) protein Vangl2. Using calcium imaging and immunostaining on embryonic hindbrain preparations, we found that respiratory neurons constituting the embryonic parafacial oscillator (e-pF) settled at the ventral surface of the medulla in Vangl2Lp/+ and Vangl2Lp/Lp embryos despite the failure of tangential migration of its normally adjacent facial motor nucleus. Anatomically, the e-pF neurons were displaced medially in Lp/+ embryos and rostro-medially Lp/Lp embryos. Pharmacological treatments showed that the e-pF oscillator exhibited characteristic network properties in both Lp/+ and Lp/Lp embryos. Furthermore, using hindbrain slices, we found that the other respiratory oscillator, the preBötzinger complex, was also anatomically and functionally established in Lp mutants. Importantly, the displaced e-pF oscillator established functional connections with the preBötC oscillator in Lp/+ mutants. Our data highlight the robustness of the developmental processes that assemble the neuronal networks mediating an essential physiological function