Visual servoing with respect to complex objects

International audienceThis paper presents new advances in the field of visual servoing. More precisely, we consider the case where complex objects are observed by a camera. In a first part, planar objects of unknown shape are considered using image moments as input of the image-based control law. In the second part, a pose estimation and tracking algorithm is described to deal with real objects whose 3D model is known. For each case, experimental results obtained with an eye-in-hand system are presented

Interethnic differences in pancreatic cancer incidence and risk factors: The Multiethnic Cohort.

While disparity in pancreatic cancer incidence between blacks and whites has been observed, few studies have examined disparity in other ethnic minorities. We evaluated variations in pancreatic cancer incidence and assessed the extent to which known risk factors account for differences in pancreatic cancer risk among African Americans, Native Hawaiians, Japanese Americans, Latino Americans, and European Americans in the Multiethnic Cohort Study. Risk factor data were obtained from the baseline questionnaire. Cox regression was used to estimate the relative risks (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for pancreatic cancer associated with risk factors and ethnicity. During an average 16.9-year follow-up, 1,532 incident pancreatic cancer cases were identified among 184,559 at-risk participants. Family history of pancreatic cancer (RR 1.97, 95% CI 1.50-2.58), diabetes (RR 1.32, 95% CI 1.14-1.54), body mass index ≥30 kg/m2 (RR 1.25, 95% CI 1.08-1.46), current smoking (<20 pack-years RR 1.43, 95% CI 1.19-1.73; ≥20 pack-years RR 1.76, 95% CI 1.46-2.12), and red meat intake (RR 1.17, 95% CI 1.00-1.36) were associated with pancreatic cancer. After adjustment for these risk factors, Native Hawaiians (RR 1.60, 95% CI 1.30-1.98), Japanese Americans (RR 1.33, 95% CI 1.15-1.54), and African Americans (RR 1.20, 95% CI 1.01-1.42), but not Latino Americans (RR 0.90, 95% CI 0.76-1.07), had a higher risk of pancreatic cancer compared to European Americans. Interethnic differences in pancreatic cancer risk are not fully explained by differences in the distribution of known risk factors. The greater risks in Native Hawaiians and Japanese Americans are new findings and elucidating the causes of these high rates may improve our understanding and prevention of pancreatic cancer

Magnetic Field scaling of Relaxation curves in Small Particle Systems

We study the effects of the magnetic field on the relaxation of the magnetization of small monodomain non-interacting particles with random orientations and distribution of anisotropy constants. Starting from a master equation, we build up an expression for the time dependence of the magnetization which takes into account thermal activation only over barriers separating energy minima, which, in our model, can be computed exactly from analytical expressions. Numerical calculations of the relaxation curves for different distribution widths, and under different magnetic fields H and temperatures T, have been performed. We show how a \svar scaling of the curves, at different T and for a given H, can be carried out after proper normalization of the data to the equilibrium magnetization. The resulting master curves are shown to be closely related to what we call effective energy barrier distributions, which, in our model, can be computed exactly from analytical expressions. The concept of effective distribution serves us as a basis for finding a scaling variable to scale relaxation curves at different H and a given T, thus showing that the field dependence of energy barriers can be also extracted from relaxation measurements.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Characterization of polyoxometalate I as an inhibitor of RNA-dependent RNA polymerase of Foot and Mouth Disease virus [abstract]

Abstract only availableFoot and Mouth Disease (FMD) is a highly contagious disease that affects a variety of domesticated cloven-hoofed animals including cattle, swine, sheep and goats, as well as several wild animal species. FMD outbreaks are currently controlled with mass-extermination of livestock. The financial cost of potential outbreaks would be immense. This disease is caused by foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV), a non-enveloped, single-stranded, positive-sense RNA virus. The purpose of our investigation is to identify chemicals that interfere with the replication of FMDV. As part of this effort we have identified a polyoxometalate inhibitor (polyoxometalate I). We have cloned, expressed and purified FMDV RdRp. We use steady-state kinetic experiments and polymerization assays to characterize the inhibitory activity of the polyoxometalate I, determining the precise inhibitory potential and the mechanism of inhibition. Preliminary results show that polyoxometalate I inhibits the FMDV RdRp surprisingly efficiently with an IC50 of 0.5uM. Current experiments are focusing on a detailed kinetic characterization of the mechanism of action for this inhibitor. This research may provide insights that lead to new treatment options to prevent the further spread of FMD to unaffected animals.USD

Investigation of four-year chemical composition and organic aerosol sources of submicron particles at the ATOLL site in northern France

This study presents the first long-term online measurements of submicron (PM1) particles at the ATOLL (ATmospheric Observations in liLLe) platform, in northern France. The ongoing measurements using an Aerosol Chemical Speciation Monitor (ACSM) started at the end of 2016 and the analysis presented here spans through December 2020. At this site, the mean PM1 concentration is 10.6 μg m-3, dominated by organic aerosols (OA, 42.3%) and followed by nitrate (28.9%), ammonium (12.3%), sulfate (8.6%), and black carbon (BC, 8.0%). Large seasonal variations of PM1 concentrations are observed, with high concentrations during cold seasons, associated with pollution episodes (e.g. over 100 μg m-3 in January 2017). To study OA origins over this multiannual dataset we performed source apportionment analysis using rolling positive matrix factorization (PMF), yielding two primary OA factors, a traffic-related hydrocarbon-like OA (HOA) and biomass-burning OA (BBOA), and two oxygenated OA (OOA) factors. HOA showed a homogeneous contribution to OA throughout the seasons (11.8%), while BBOA varied from 8.1% (summer) to 18.5% (winter), the latter associated with residential wood combustion. The OOA factors were distinguished between their less and more oxidized fractions (LO-OOA and MO-OOA, on average contributing 32% and 42%, respectively). During winter, LO-OOA is identified as aged biomass burning, so at least half of OA is associated with wood combustion during this season. Furthermore, ammonium nitrate is also a predominant aerosol component during cold-weather pollution episodes - associated with fertilizer usage and traffic emissions. This study provides a comprehensive analysis of submicron aerosol sources at the recently established ATOLL site in northern France from multiannual observations, depicting a complex interaction between anthropogenic and natural sources, leading to different mechanisms of air quality degradation in the region across different seasons

Pressure-induced amorphization and polyamorphism in one-dimensional single crystal TiO2 nanomaterials

The structural phase transitions of single crystal TiO2-B nanoribbons were investigated in-situ at high-pressure using the synchrotron X-ray diffraction and the Raman scattering. Our results have shown a pressure-induced amorphization (PIA) occurred in TiO2-B nanoribbons upon compression, resulting in a high density amorphous (HDA) form related to the baddeleyite structure. Upon decompression, the HDA form transforms to a low density amorphous (LDA) form while the samples still maintain their pristine nanoribbon shape. HRTEM imaging reveals that the LDA phase has an {\alpha}-PbO2 structure with short range order. We propose a homogeneous nucleation mechanism to explain the pressure-induced amorphous phase transitions in the TiO2-B nanoribbons. Our study demonstrates for the first time that PIA and polyamorphism occurred in the one-dimensional (1D) TiO2 nanomaterials and provides a new method for preparing 1D amorphous nanomaterials from crystalline nanomaterials.Comment: 4 figure

Visual servoing with respect to complex objects

International audienceThis paper presents new advances in the field of visual servoing. More precisely, we consider the case where complex objects are observed by a camera. In a first part, planar objects of unknown shape are considered using image moments as input of the image-based control law. In the second part, a pose estimation and tracking algorithm is described to deal with real objects whose 3D model is known. For each case, experimental results obtained with an eye-in-hand system are presented

A computational analysis of lower bounds for big bucket production planning problems

In this paper, we analyze a variety of approaches to obtain lower bounds for multi-level production planning problems with big bucket capacities, i.e., problems in which multiple items compete for the same resources. We give an extensive survey of both known and new methods, and also establish relationships between some of these methods that, to our knowledge, have not been presented before. As will be highlighted, understanding the substructures of difficult problems provide crucial insights on why these problems are hard to solve, and this is addressed by a thorough analysis in the paper. We conclude with computational results on a variety of widely used test sets, and a discussion of future research