DEVELOPMENT OF A VOXEL BASED LOCAL PLANE FITTING FOR MULTI-SCALE REGISTRATION OF SEQUENTIAL MLS POINT CLOUDS

The Mobile Laser Scanner (MLS) system is one of the most accurate and fastest data acquisition systems for indoor and outdoor environments mapping. Today, to use this system in an indoor environment where it is impossible to capture GNSS data, Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) is used. Most SLAM research has used probabilistic approaches to determine the sensor position and create a map, which leads to drift error in the final result due to their uncertainty. In addition, most SLAM methods give less importance to geometry and mapping concepts. This research aims to solve the SLAM problem by considering the adjustment concepts in mapping and geometrical principles of the environment and proposing an algorithm for reducing drift. For this purpose, a model-based registration is suggested. Correspondence points fall in the same voxel by voxelization, and the registration process is done using a plane model. In this research, two pyramid and simple registration methods are proposed. The results show that the simple registration algorithm is more efficient than the pyramid when the distance between sequential scans is not large otherwise, the pyramid registration is used. In the evaluation, by using simulated data in both pyramid and simple methods, 96.9% and 97.6% accuracy were obtained, respectively. The final test compares the proposed method with a SLAM method and ICP algorithm, which are described further

Cerium Oxide Nanoparticles: Advances in Biodistribution, Toxicity, and Preclinical Exploration

Antioxidant nanoparticles have recently gained tremendous attention for their enormous potential in biomedicine. However, discrepant reports of either medical benefits or toxicity, and lack of reproducibility of many studies, generate uncertainties delaying their effective implementation. Herein, the case of cerium oxide is considered, a well‐known catalyst in the petrochemistry industry and one of the first antioxidant nanoparticles proposed for medicine. Like other nanoparticles, it is now described as a promising therapeutic alternative, now as threatening to health. Sources of these discrepancies and how this analysis helps to overcome contradictions found for other nanoparticles are summarized and discussed. For the context of this analysis, what has been reported in the liver is reviewed, where many diseases are related to oxidative stress. Since well‐dispersed nanoparticles passively accumulate in liver, it represents a major testing field for the study of new nanomedicines and their clinical translation. Even more, many contradictory works have reported in liver either cerium‐oxide‐associated toxicity or protection against oxidative stress and inflammation. Based on this, finally, the intention is to propose solutions to design improved nanoparticles that will work more precisely in medicine and safely in society

Transcriptome characterization and high throughput SSRs and SNPs discovery in Cucurbita pepo (Cucurbitaceae)

Background: Cucurbita pepo belongs to the Cucurbitaceae family. The "Zucchini" types rank among the highest-valued vegetables worldwide, and other C. pepo and related Cucurbita spp., are food staples and rich sources of fat and vitamins. A broad range of genomic tools are today available for other cucurbits that have become models for the study of different metabolic processes. However, these tools are still lacking in the Cucurbita genus, thus limiting gene discovery and the process of breeding.Results: We report the generation of a total of 512,751 C. pepo EST sequences, using 454 GS FLX Titanium technology. ESTs were obtained from normalized cDNA libraries (root, leaves, and flower tissue) prepared using two varieties with contrasting phenotypes for plant, flowering and fruit traits, representing the two C. pepo subspecies: subsp. pepo cv. Zucchini and subsp. ovifera cv Scallop. De novo assembling was performed to generate a collection of 49,610 Cucurbita unigenes (average length of 626 bp) that represent the first transcriptome of the species. Over 60% of the unigenes were functionally annotated and assigned to one or more Gene Ontology terms. The distributions of Cucurbita unigenes followed similar tendencies than that reported for Arabidopsis or melon, suggesting that the dataset may represent the whole Cucurbita transcriptome. About 34% unigenes were detected to have known orthologs of Arabidopsis or melon, including genes potentially involved in disease resistance, flowering and fruit quality. Furthermore, a set of 1,882 unigenes with SSR motifs and 9,043 high confidence SNPs between Zucchini and Scallop were identified, of which 3,538 SNPs met criteria for use with high throughput genotyping platforms, and 144 could be detected as CAPS. A set of markers were validated, being 80% of them polymorphic in a set of variable C. pepo and C. moschata accessions.Conclusion: We present the first broad survey of gene sequences and allelic variation in C. pepo, where limited prior genomic information existed. The transcriptome provides an invaluable new tool for biological research. The developed molecular markers are the basis for future genetic linkage and quantitative trait loci analysis, and will be essential to speed up the process of breeding new and better adapted squash varieties. © 2011 Blanca et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.Blanca Postigo, JM.; Cañizares Sales, J.; Roig Montaner, MC.; Ziarsolo Areitioaurtena, P.; Nuez Viñals, F.; Picó Sirvent, MB. (2011). Transcriptome characterization and high throughput SSRs and SNPs discovery in Cucurbita pepo (Cucurbitaceae). BMC Genomics. 12:104-117. doi:10.1186/1471-2164-12-104S1041171