Transformer point net: cost-efficient classification of on-road objects captured by light ranging sensors on low-resolution conditions

The three-dimensional perception applications have been growing since Light Detection and Ranging devices have become more affordable. On those applications, the navigation and collision avoidance systems stand out for their importance in autonomous vehicles, which are drawing an appreciable amount of attention these days. The on-road object classification task on three-dimensional information is a solid base for an autonomous vehicle perception system, where the analysis of the captured information has some factors that make this task challenging. On these applications, objects are represented only on one side, its shapes are highly variable and occlusions are commonly presented. But the highest challenge comes with the low resolution, which leads to a significant performance dropping on classification methods. While most of the classification architectures tend to get bigger to obtain deeper features, we explore the opposite side contributing to the implementation of low-cost mobile platforms that could use low-resolution detection and ranging devices. In this paper, we propose an approach for on-road objects classification on extremely low-resolution conditions. It uses directly three-dimensional point clouds as sequences on a transformer-convolutional architecture that could be useful on embedded devices. Our proposal shows an accuracy that reaches the 89.74 % tested on objects represented with only 16 points extracted from the Waymo, Lyft’s level 5 and Kitti datasets. It reaches a real time implementation (22 Hz) in a single core processor of 2.3 Ghz

Difficulties in establishing "truth" conditions in the assessment of addictive smartphone use in young adults

The smartphone revolution has placed powerful, multipurpose devices in the hands of youth across the globe, prompting worries about the potential negative consequences of these technologies on mental health. Many assessment tools have been created, seeking to classify individuals into problematic and non-problematic smartphone users. These are identified using a cutoff value: a threshold, within the scale range, at which higher scores are expected to be associated with negative outcomes. Lacking a clinical assessment of individuals, the establishment of this threshold is challenging. We illustrate this difficulty by calculating cutoff values for the Short Version of the Smartphone Addiction Scale (SAS-SV) in 13 Spanish-speaking samples in 11 countries, using common procedures (i.e., reliability, validity, ROC methodology). After showing that results can be very heterogeneous (i.e., they lead to diverse cutoff points and rates of addiction) depending on the decisions made by the researchers, we call for caution in the use of these classifications, particularly when researchers lack a clinical definition of true addiction—as is the case with most available scales in the field of behavioral addictions—which can cause an unnecessary public health alert

Individual quality assessment of autografting by probability estimation for clinical endpoints: a prospective validation study from the European group for blood and marrow transplantation.

The aim of supportive autografting is to reduce the side effects from stem cell transplantation and avoid procedure-related health disadvantages for patients at the lowest possible cost and resource expenditure. Economic evaluation of health care is becoming increasingly important. We report clinical and laboratory data collected from 397 consecutive adult patients (173 non-Hodgkin lymphoma, 30 Hodgkin lymphoma, 160 multiple myeloma, 7 autoimmune diseases, and 28 acute leukemia) who underwent their first autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (PBSCT). We considered primary endpoints evaluating health economic efficacy (eg, antibiotic administration, transfusion of blood components, and time in hospital), secondary endpoints evaluating toxicity (in accordance with Common Toxicity Criteria), and tertiary endpoints evaluating safety (ie, the risk of regimen-related death or disease progression within the first year after PBSCT). A time-dependent grading of efficacy is proposed with day 21 for multiple myeloma and day 25 for the other disease categories (depending on the length of the conditioning regimen) as the acceptable maximum time in hospital, which together with antibiotics, antifungal, or transfusion therapy delineates four groups: favorable (≤7 days on antibiotics and no transfusions; ≤21 [25] days in hospital), intermediate (from 7 to 10 days on antibiotics and 7 days on antibiotics, >3 but 30/34 days in hospital after transplantation), and very unfavorable (>10 days on antibiotics, >6 transfusions; >30 to 34 days in hospital). The multivariate analysis showed that (1) PBSC harvests of ≥4 × 106/kg CD34 + cells in 1 apheresis procedure were associated with a favorable outcome in all patient categories except acute myelogenous leukemia and acute lymphoblastic leukemia (P = .001), (2) ≥5 × 106/kg CD34 + cells infused predicted better transplantation outcome in all patient categories (P 500 mL) (P = .002), and (5) patients with a central venous catheter during both collection and infusion of PBSC had a more favorable outcome post-PBSCT than peripheral access (P = .007). The type of mobilization regimen did not affect the outcome of auto-PBSCT. The present study identified predictive variables, which may be useful in future individual pretransplantation probability evaluations with the goal to improve supportive care

Distribución de biomasa y fijación de carbono tras clareos mecanizados intensos en regenerado post-incendio de Pinus pinaster Ait. (Monte «Fraguas», Guadalajara, España)

An experience has been conducted on aPinus pinaster stand in Guadalajara (Central Spain) affected by a wildfire in 1992 to evaluate biomass allocation of different seedling fractions and to quantify the differences between two heavy pine seedling mechanical thinnings. Nine permanent plots (20 m 20 m) were installed in the study area, in 2000. After measuring initial seedling density (10,000 seedlings/ha), a completely randomized block design was used. Three plots remained as control, three were treated with a heavy pine seedling thinning and the other three were treated with a very heavy pine seedling thinning. In each plot, a yearly dasonomic inventory and a biomass destructive inventory every two years, removing 10 representative seedlings of each treatment, were carried out. Multiplicative models (y = axb) have been elaborated in order to relate dasometric variables with the biomass obtained through destructive samplings. The highest correlation coefficients (from 0.80 to 0.97) were obtained for the stem groundline diameter. Results show that biomass accumulation of different seedling fractions is significantly different among treatments, being the increment of C higher with the heaviest thinning. These changes were higher the two first years after thinning. Nevertheless, Carbon sequestration of the stand was significantly higher in the control plots. Consequently, heavy thinning on post-fire Pinus pinaster seedlings makes better their vigour, and decreases forest fire hazard, but at the same time, it produces an important extraction of Carbon sequestrated.Se ha llevado a cabo una experiencia en el monte «Fraguas» (Guadalajara, España) que fue afectado por un incendio en 1992, para evaluar la biomasa acumulada en las diversas fracciones de brinzales post-incendio dePinus pinaster y cuantificar las diferencias observadas como consecuencia de diferentes intervenciones de clareo mecanizado intenso y muy intenso. Se realizó un diseño por bloques al azar estableciendo 9 parcelas permanentes de 20 m x 20 m (3 repeticiones por bloque), en las cuales se llevó a cabo un inventario dendrométrico anual desde 2000 a 2004 y un inventario destructivo de biomasa cada dos años, extrayendo de cada tratamiento 10 pies representativos por clases diamétricas. Se han elaborado modelos de tipo potencial (y = axb) para relacionar las variables dendrométricas con la biomasa obtenida en los muestreos destructivos. Los mejores ajustes se obtuvieron para el diámetro de la base del fuste con los diferentes valores de biomasa (r2 entre 0,80 y 0,97). Los inventarios anuales permitieron establecer la evolución en la fijación de C a lo largo del período de estudio. Los resultados muestran que la biomasa acumulada en las distintas partes del árbol difiere significativamente entre los tratamientos efectuados, obteniendo unos incrementos de C tanto mayores cuanto más intenso fue el tratamiento, sobre todo los dos primeros años. Sin embargo, el C fijado en la masa (t/ha) fue significativamente mayor en el tratamiento testigo. Por tanto, si bien los tratamientos han aumentado el vigor de la masa de porvenir y pueden constituir una práctica interesante desde el punto de vista de la prevención de incendios, provocan una exportación importante de C fijado

Transcriptome-pathology correlation identifies interplay between TDP-43 and the expression of its kinase CK1E in sporadic ALS.

Sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (sALS) is the most common form of ALS, however, the molecular mechanisms underlying cellular damage and motor neuron degeneration remain elusive. To identify molecular signatures of sALS we performed genome-wide expression profiling in laser capture microdissection-enriched surviving motor neurons (MNs) from lumbar spinal cords of sALS patients with rostral onset and caudal progression. After correcting for immunological background, we discover a highly specific gene expression signature for sALS that is associated with phosphorylated TDP-43 (pTDP-43) pathology. Transcriptome-pathology correlation identified casein kinase 1ε (CSNK1E) mRNA as tightly correlated to levels of pTDP-43 in sALS patients. Enhanced crosslinking and immunoprecipitation in human sALS patient- and healthy control-derived frontal cortex, revealed that TDP-43 binds directly to and regulates the expression of CSNK1E mRNA. Additionally, we were able to show that pTDP-43 itself binds RNA. CK1E, the protein product of CSNK1E, in turn interacts with TDP-43 and promotes cytoplasmic accumulation of pTDP-43 in human stem-cell-derived MNs. Pathological TDP-43 phosphorylation is therefore, reciprocally regulated by CK1E activity and TDP-43 RNA binding. Our framework of transcriptome-pathology correlations identifies candidate genes with relevance to novel mechanisms of neurodegeneration

A Multi-Agent Control Architecture for a Robotic Wheelchair

Abstract: Assistant robots like robotic wheelchairs can perform an effective and valuable work in our daily lives. However, they eventually may need external help from humans in the robot environment (particularly, the driver in the case of a wheelchair) to accomplish safely and efficiently some tricky tasks for the current technology, i.e. opening a locked door, traversing a crowded area, etc. This article proposes a control architecture for assistant robots designed under a multi-agent perspective that facilitates the participation of humans into the robotic system and improves the overall performance of the robot as well as its dependability. Within our design, agents have their own intentions and beliefs, have different abilities (that include algorithmic behaviours and human skills) and also learn autonomously the most convenient method to carry out their actions through reinforcement learning. The proposed architecture is illustrated with a real assistant robot: a robotic wheelchair that provides mobility to impaired or elderly people

Optimización de las redes de tratamiento en drogodependencia mediante el uso de servicios cognitivos en la nube

La adhesión al tratamiento en el ámbito de la drogodependencia está fuertemente ligada al éxito del mismo. Sin embargo, la alta tasa de abandono en los programas relacionados con la adicción a la cocaína, es un rasgo común y creciente en la mayoría de los centros dedicados al seguimiento y recuperación de pacientes consumidores. Dado que el tratamiento de las adicciones implica un gran consumo de recursos socio-sanitarios y que los recursos especializados en drogodependencia son muy limitados, el abandono del tratamiento se convierte en un grave problema. La motivación de este trabajo es mejorar la planificación y selección de las redes terapéuticas disponibles en adicción a la cocaína. Aprovechando la tecnología de IBM, que facilita la integración de servicios cognitivos en la nube, se ha desarrollado una plataforma web que cumple dos funciones: (1) almacenar la información de cada expediente de forma precisa y homogénea; (2) mediante un modelo predictivo basado en dicha información, estimar la probabilidad de éxito de un paciente (entendida como la probabilidad de completar el tratamiento), evitando así el consumo inadecuado de recursos asistenciales

P-P Total Cross Sections at VHE from Accelerator Data

Comparison of P-P total cross-sections estimations at very high energies - from accelerators and cosmic rays - shows a disagreement amounting to more than 10 %, a discrepancy which is beyond statistical errors. Here we use a phenomenological model based on the Multiple-Diffraction approach to successfully describe data at accelerator energies. The predictions of the model are compared with data On the basis of regression analysis we determine confident error bands, analyzing the sensitivity of our predictions to the employed data for extrapolation. : using data at 546 and 1.8 TeV, our extrapolations for p-p total cross-sections are only compatible with the Akeno cosmic ray data, predicting a slower rise with energy than other cosmic ray results and other extrapolation methods. We discuss our results within the context of constraints in the light of future accelerator and cosmic ray experimental results.Comment: 26 pages aqnd 11 figure