Monocular Depth Estimation through Virtual-world Supervision and Real-world SfM Self-Supervision

Depth information is essential for on-board perception in autonomous driving and driver assistance. Monocular depth estimation (MDE) is very appealing since it allows for appearance and depth being on direct pixelwise correspondence without further calibration. Best MDE models are based on Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) trained in a supervised manner, i.e., assuming pixelwise ground truth (GT). Usually, this GT is acquired at training time through a calibrated multi-modal suite of sensors. However, also using only a monocular system at training time is cheaper and more scalable. This is possible by relying on structure-from-motion (SfM) principles to generate self-supervision. Nevertheless, problems of camouflaged objects, visibility changes, static-camera intervals, textureless areas, and scale ambiguity, diminish the usefulness of such self-supervision. In this paper, we perform monocular depth estimation by virtual-world supervision (MonoDEVS) and real-world SfM self-supervision. We compensate the SfM self-supervision limitations by leveraging virtual-world images with accurate semantic and depth supervision and addressing the virtual-to-real domain gap. Our MonoDEVSNet outperforms previous MDE CNNs trained on monocular and even stereo sequences.Comment: Published in IEEE-Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, 2021 14 pages, 10 figure

Ambient Backscatter Communication Based Cooperative Relaying for Heterogeneous Cognitive Radio Networks

In this paper, a new network model is proposed to improve the performance of the secondary channel in cognitive radio networks (CRNs) based ambient backscatter communication systems. This model is considered as a cooperative system with multi-secondary transmitter (ST) and multi-relay. The ST backscatters data to both the secondary receiver (SR) and relay. Also it harvests energy from the signal emitted by the primary transmitter (PT) during the busy period. The relay activated by the ST user forwards the information from ST to SR. During the idle period, the PT broadcast is interrupted and ST also performs active data transmission using the energy it has harvested. We aim to maximize the number of data transmitted to the SR. Therefore, how long the ST will perform backscattering, energy harvesting and active data transmission is a problem to be solved. In such cooperative systems with multiple users, the solution of the problem becomes more complex. Therefore, the system model has been mathematically modeled and transformed into an optimization problem, considering that users are transmitting data using time division multiple access (TDMA) and non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) techniques. Numerical results showed that higher data rates were achieved in NOMA. Additionally, It has been seen that the proposed model performs better when compared to the existing approaches in the literature, where the ST can only harvest energy and transmit data actively or only transmit data with ambient backscatter communication

The socio-cultural perception of death in Turkish society recorded in lament epics (1955-1975)

This study explores the socio-cultural perception of death among Turkish people. For this reason, 210 published lament epics written by Turkish folk singers across all of Turkey concerning deaths between 1955 and 1975 were selected for analysis. These epics were published on single pages and were sold. The statistical analysis based on detailed content analysis was done at the univariate, bivariate, and multivariate levels. The results of the study provide a full picture of perception of cases of death in Turkish society. These results show Turkish society is especially sensitive to cases of death at young age and to the murdered. Further, a clear perception of the working of fate is encountered in deaths resulting from disaster and accidents; but the desire for vengeance is recorded in those laments concerning martyrs and the murdered. The statistical data show that most commonly cited reasons for death after road accidents, were a consequence of relationships with the opposite sex and from a sense of honor. © 2014, Baywood Publishing Co., Inc

Clinical spectrum of early onset “Mediterranean” (homozygous p.P131L mutation) mitochondrial neurogastrointestinal encephalomyopathy

Mitochondrial neurogastrointestinal encephalomyopathy (MNGIE) is an autosomal recessive mitochondrial disorder characterized by cumulative and progressive gastrointestinal and neurological findings. This retrospective observational study, aimed to explore the time of presentation, diagnosis and clinical follow-up of 13 patients with a confirmed MNGIE disease of Mediterranean origin. The mean age of symptom onset was 7 years (6 months−21 years) and the average diagnosis age was 15.4 years ±8.4. Four of 13 patients (30%) died before 30 years at the mean age of 19.7 years ±6.8. Cachexia and gastrointestinal symptoms were observed in all patients (100%). The mean body mass index standard deviation score at diagnosis was 4.8 ± 2.8. At least three subocclusive episodes were presented in patients who died in last year of their life. The main neurological symptom found in most patients was peripheral neuropathy (92%). Ten patients (77%) had leukoencephalopathy and the remaining three patients without were under 10 years of age. The new homozygous “Mediterranean” TYMP mutation, p.P131L (c.392 C > T) was associated with an early presentation and poor prognosis in nine patients (69%) from five separates families. Based on the observations from this Mediterranean MNGIE cohort, we propose that the unexplained abdominal pain combined with cachexia is an indicator of MNGIE. High-platelet counts and nerve conduction studies may be supportive laboratory findings and the frequent subocclusive episodes could be a negative prognostic factor for mortality. Finally, the homozygous p.P131L (c.392 C > T) mutation could be associated with rapid progressive disease with poor prognosis

Identifying hypothetical genetic influences on complex disease phenotypes

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Statistical interactions between disease-associated loci of complex genetic diseases suggest that genes from these regions are involved in a common mechanism impacting, or impacted by, the disease. The computational problem we address is to discover relationships among genes from these interacting regions that may explain the observed statistical interaction and the role of these genes in the disease phenotype.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We describe a heuristic algorithm for generating hypothetical gene relationships from loci associated with a complex disease phenotype. This approach, called Prioritizing Disease Genes by Analysis of Common Elements (PDG-ACE), mines biomedical keywords from text descriptions of genes and uses them to relate genes close to disease-associated loci. A keyword common to, and significantly over-represented in, a pair of gene descriptions may represent a preliminary hypothesis about the biological relationship between the genes, and suggest the role the genes play in the disease phenotype.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our experimentation shows that the approach finds previously published relationships, while failing to find relationships that don't exist. The results also indicate that the approach is robust to differences in keyword vocabulary. We outline a brief case study in which results from a recently published Type 2 Diabetes association study are used to identify potential hypotheses.</p

Acute Regulation of Cardiac Metabolism by the Hexosamine Biosynthesis Pathway and Protein O-GlcNAcylation

OBJECTIVE: The hexosamine biosynthesis pathway (HBP) flux and protein O-linked N-acetyl-glucosamine (O-GlcNAc) levels have been implicated in mediating the adverse effects of diabetes in the cardiovascular system. Activation of these pathways with glucosamine has been shown to mimic some of the diabetes-induced functional and structural changes in the heart; however, the effect on cardiac metabolism is not known. Therefore, the primary goal of this study was to determine the effects of glucosamine on cardiac substrate utilization. METHODS: Isolated rat hearts were perfused with glucosamine (0-10 mM) to increase HBP flux under normoxic conditions. Metabolic fluxes were determined by (13)C-NMR isotopomer analysis; UDP-GlcNAc a precursor of O-GlcNAc synthesis was assessed by HPLC and immunoblot analysis was used to determine O-GlcNAc levels, phospho- and total levels of AMPK and ACC, and membrane levels of FAT/CD36. RESULTS: Glucosamine caused a dose dependent increase in both UDP-GlcNAc and O-GlcNAc levels, which was associated with a significant increase in palmitate oxidation with a concomitant decrease in lactate and pyruvate oxidation. There was no effect of glucosamine on AMPK or ACC phosphorylation; however, membrane levels of the fatty acid transport protein FAT/CD36 were increased and preliminary studies suggest that FAT/CD36 is a potential target for O-GlcNAcylation. CONCLUSION/INTERPRETATION: These data demonstrate that acute modulation of HBP and protein O-GlcNAcylation in the heart stimulates fatty acid oxidation, possibly by increasing plasma membrane levels of FAT/CD36, raising the intriguing possibility that the HBP and O-GlcNAc turnover represent a novel, glucose dependent mechanism for regulating cardiac metabolism