FusionFormer: A Multi-sensory Fusion in Bird's-Eye-View and Temporal Consistent Transformer for 3D Objection

Multi-sensor modal fusion has demonstrated strong advantages in 3D object detection tasks. However, existing methods that fuse multi-modal features through a simple channel concatenation require transformation features into bird's eye view space and may lose the information on Z-axis thus leads to inferior performance. To this end, we propose FusionFormer, an end-to-end multi-modal fusion framework that leverages transformers to fuse multi-modal features and obtain fused BEV features. And based on the flexible adaptability of FusionFormer to the input modality representation, we propose a depth prediction branch that can be added to the framework to improve detection performance in camera-based detection tasks. In addition, we propose a plug-and-play temporal fusion module based on transformers that can fuse historical frame BEV features for more stable and reliable detection results. We evaluate our method on the nuScenes dataset and achieve 72.6% mAP and 75.1% NDS for 3D object detection tasks, outperforming state-of-the-art methods

Patient and public involvement in palliative care research: What works, and why? A qualitative evaluation.

BACKGROUND: Public involvement is increasingly considered a prerequisite for high-quality research. However, involvement in palliative care is impeded by limited evidence on the best approaches for populations affected by life-limiting illness. AIM: To evaluate a strategy for public involvement in palliative care and rehabilitation research, to identify successful approaches and areas for improvement. DESIGN: Co-produced qualitative evaluation using focus groups and interviews. Thematic analysis undertaken by research team comprising public contributors and researchers. SETTING/PARTICIPANTS: Researchers and public members from a palliative care and rehabilitation research institute, UK. RESULTS: Seven public members and 19 researchers participated. Building and maintaining relationships, taking a flexible approach and finding the 'right' people were important for successful public involvement. Relationship building created a safe environment for discussing sensitive topics, although public members felt greater consideration of emotional support was needed. Flexibility supported involvement alongside unpredictable circumstances of chronic and life-limiting illness, and was facilitated by responsive communication, and opportunities for in-person and virtual involvement at a project- and institution-level. However, more opportunities for two-way feedback throughout projects was suggested. Finding the 'right' people was crucial given the diverse population served by palliative care, and participants suggested more care needed to be taken to identify public members with experience relevant to specific projects. CONCLUSION: Within palliative care research, it is important for involvement to focus on building and maintaining relationships, working flexibly, and identifying those with relevant experience. Taking a strategic approach and developing adequate infrastructure and networks can facilitate public involvement within this field.The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This study was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Collaboration for Leadership and Applied Health Research and Care South London (NIHR CLAHRC South London) Involvement Activity Funding and Research Capability Funding at King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. Support was also provided by the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) South London at King’s College Hospital Foundation Trust. LJB is supported through a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Career Development Fellowship (CDF-2017-10-009). CE is funded by HEE/NIHR Senior Clinical Lectureship. The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the funders, the NHS, the National Institute for Health Research or the Department of Health

Science Communication

Science communication encompasses communication about science, as well as communication of science, each with their own aims. The communication about science aims to involve the public in defining the boundaries of science, thus enabling them to shape and conduct science. The communication of science, on the other hand, conveys scientific information from scientific experts to the non-experts, and aims to promote behavior that is in line with science. Similar to science communication, health communication also involves the exchange of information with different populations – specifically health-related information – but with the aim to change or sustain a health behavior or practice that can improve public health outcomes. Health communication can draw on findings from science communication research to understand public health attitudes, and design effective health communication strategies. Various communication theories have been used to understand public attitudes toward vaccines and new technologies, such as novel foods and energy technologies. In the age of new media, science communication has become ever more complex. It needs to be considered in the context of this changing media landscape, where science and health misinformation can easily surface, and further reinforced in ‘echo chambers’, or ‘filter bubbles’.Submitted/Accepted versio

Flow-Based Control of Marine Robots in Gyre-Like Environments

We present a flow-based control strategy that enables resource-constrained marine robots to patrol gyre-like flow environments on an orbital trajectory with a periodicity in a given range. The controller does not require a detailed model of the flow field and relies only on the robot's location relative to the center of the gyre. Instead of precisely tracking a pre-defined trajectory, the robots are tasked to stay in between two bounding trajectories with known periodicity. Furthermore, the proposed strategy leverages the surrounding flow field to minimize control effort. We prove that the proposed strategy enables robots to cycle in the flow satisfying the desired periodicity requirements. Our method is tested and validated both in simulation and in experiments using a low-cost, underactuated, surface swimming robot, i.e. the Modboat.Comment: 7 pages. Published at 2022 International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA

Study on the Effect of Recycled Coarse Aggregate on the Shrinkage Performance of Green Recycled Concrete

Shrinkage property is a significant indicator of the durability of concrete, and the shrinkage of green recycled concrete is particularly problematic. In this paper, construction waste was crushed and screened to generate simple-crushed recycled coarse aggregate (SCRCA). The SCRCA was then subjected to particle shaping to create primary particle-shaped recycled coarse aggregate (PPRCA). On this basis, the PPRCA was particle-shaped again to obtain the secondary particle-shaped recycled coarse aggregate (SPRCA). Under conditions where the dosage of cementitious material is 300 kg/m3 and the sand rate is 38%, a new high-belite sulphoaluminate cement (HBSAC) with low carbon emission and superior efficiency was used as the basic cementitious material. Taking the quality of recycled coarse aggregate (SCRCA, PPRCA, and SPRCA) and the replacement ratio (25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%) as the influencing factors to prepare the green recycled concrete, the workability and shrinkage property of the prepared concrete were analyzed. The results show that the water consumption of green recycled concrete decreases as the quality of the recycled coarse aggregate (RCA) increases and the replacement ratio decreases, provided that the green recycled concrete achieves the same workability. With the improvement of RCA quality and the decrease of replacement ratio, the shrinkage of recycled concrete decreases. The shrinkage performance of green recycled concrete configured with the SPRCA completely replacing the natural coarse aggregate (NCA) is basically the same as that of the natural aggregate concrete (NAC)

Study on the Effect of Recycled Coarse Aggregate on the Shrinkage Performance of Green Recycled Concrete

Shrinkage property is a significant indicator of the durability of concrete, and the shrinkage of green recycled concrete is particularly problematic. In this paper, construction waste was crushed and screened to generate simple-crushed recycled coarse aggregate (SCRCA). The SCRCA was then subjected to particle shaping to create primary particle-shaped recycled coarse aggregate (PPRCA). On this basis, the PPRCA was particle-shaped again to obtain the secondary particle-shaped recycled coarse aggregate (SPRCA). Under conditions where the dosage of cementitious material is 300 kg/m3 and the sand rate is 38%, a new high-belite sulphoaluminate cement (HBSAC) with low carbon emission and superior efficiency was used as the basic cementitious material. Taking the quality of recycled coarse aggregate (SCRCA, PPRCA, and SPRCA) and the replacement ratio (25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%) as the influencing factors to prepare the green recycled concrete, the workability and shrinkage property of the prepared concrete were analyzed. The results show that the water consumption of green recycled concrete decreases as the quality of the recycled coarse aggregate (RCA) increases and the replacement ratio decreases, provided that the green recycled concrete achieves the same workability. With the improvement of RCA quality and the decrease of replacement ratio, the shrinkage of recycled concrete decreases. The shrinkage performance of green recycled concrete configured with the SPRCA completely replacing the natural coarse aggregate (NCA) is basically the same as that of the natural aggregate concrete (NAC)

Mapping risk and benefit perceptions of energy sources: comparing public and expert mental models in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore

Traditionally reliant on fossil fuels, Southeast Asian countries – Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore – plan to introduce cleaner energy (e.g., renewable energy) into their energy mix. To gauge public support, an understanding of their risk and benefit perceptions of energy technologies is necessary. In the absence of technical knowledge, lay people may form these perceptions based on existing mental models – these are individuals' internal representations of the external world that can affect how they perceive various issues. Using the mental models approach, the current study examines and compares the public's and energy experts' mental models in an attempt to understand how risks and benefits of energy technologies are perceived, as well as gaps in the public's understanding and information needs. We conducted online focus group discussions in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore with 78 members of the public and 26 energy experts. The public and energy experts were found to have broadly similar considerations about energy security, economic and environmental impacts, and safety of energy technologies, but they differed in how they thought about them. While energy experts had relied on their topical expertise and existing evidence to form risk and benefit perceptions, the public had relied on other contextual factors to do so, such as their place-identities, religious beliefs, and personal values. Misleading analogies were also found to have played a role. The findings' implications on public policies and communication strategies are discussed.National Research Foundation (NRF)Published versionThis work is funded by the Singapore National Research Foundation under the Nuclear Safety Research and Education Programme (NSREP)

Regional variations in geographic access to inpatient hospices and Place of death:A Population-based study in England, UK

BACKGROUND:There is much variation in hospice use with respect to geographic factors such as area-based deprivation, location of patient's residence and proximity to services location. However, little is known about how the association between geographic access to inpatient hospice and hospice deaths varies by patients' region of settlement. STUDY AIM:To examine regional differences in the association between geographic access to inpatient hospice and hospice deaths. METHODS:A regional population-based observational study in England, UK. Records of patients aged ≥ 25 years (n = 123088) who died from non-accidental causes in 2014, were extracted from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) death registry. Our cohort comprised of patients who died at home and in inpatient hospice. Decedents were allocated to each of the nine government office regions of England (London, East Midlands, West Midlands, East, Yorkshire and The Humber, South West, South East, North West and North East) through record linkage with their postcode of usual residence. We defined geographic access as a measure of drive times from patients' residential location to the nearest inpatient hospice. A modified Poisson regression estimated the association between geographic access to hospice, comparing hospice deaths (1) versus home deaths (0). We developed nine regional specific models and adjusted for regional differences in patient's clinical & socio-demographic characteristics. The strength of the association was estimated with adjusted Proportional Ratios (aPRs). FINDINGS:The percentage of deaths varied across regions (home: 86.7% in the North East to 73.0% in the South East; hospice: 13.3% in the North East to 27.0% in the South East). We found wide differences in geographic access to inpatient hospices across regions. Median drive times to hospice varied from 4.6 minutes in London to 25.9 minutes in the North East. We found a dose-response association in the East: (aPRs: 0.22-0.78); East Midlands: (aPRs: 0.33-0.63); North East (aPRs: 0.19-0.87); North West (aPRs: 0.69-0.88); South West (aPRs: 0.56-0.89) and West Midlands (aPRs: 0.28-0.92) indicating that decedents who lived further away from hospices locations (≥ 10 minutes) were less likely to die in a hospice. CONCLUSION:The clear dose-response associations in six regions underscore the importance of regional specific initiatives to improve and optimise access to hospices. Commissioners and policymakers need to do more to ensure that home death is not due to limited geographic access to inpatient hospice care

The role of service factors on variations in place of death: an observational study

Background: Previous studies have revealed that there is significant geographical variation in place of death in (PoD) England, with sociodemographic and clinical characteristics explaining ≤ 25% of this variation. Service factors, mostly modifiable, may account for some of the unexplained variation, but their role had never been evaluated systematically. Methods: A national population-based observational study in England, using National Death Registration Database (2014) linked to area-level service data from public domains, categorised by commissioning, type and capacity, location and workforce of the services, and the service use. The relationship between the service variables and PoD was evaluated using beta regression at the area level and using generalised linear mixed models at the patient level. The relative contribution of service factors at the area level was assessed using the per cent of variance explained, measured by R2. The total impact of service factors was evaluated by the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). The independent effect of service variables was measured at the individual level by odds ratios (ORs). Results: Among the 431,735 adult deaths, hospitals were the most common PoD (47.3%), followed by care homes (23.1%), homes (22.5%) and hospices (6.1%). One-third (30.3%) of the deaths were due to cancer and two-thirds (69.7%) were due to non-cancer causes. Almost all service categories studied were associated with some of the area-level variation in PoD. Service type and capacity had the strongest link among all service categories, explaining 14.2–73.8% of the variation; service location explained 10.8–34.1% of the variation. The contribution of other service categories to PoD was inconsistent. At the individual level, service variables appeared to be more useful in predicting death in hospice than in hospital or care home, with most AUCs in the fair performance range (0.603–0.691). The independent effect of service variables on PoD was small overall, but consistent. Distance to the nearest care facility was negatively associated with death in that facility. At the Clinical Commissioning Group level, the number of hospices per 10,000 adults was associated with a higher chance of hospice death in non-cancer causes (OR 30.88, 99% confidence interval 3.46 to 275.44), but a lower chance of hospice death in cancer causes. There was evidence for an interaction effect between the service variables and sociodemographic variables on PoD. Limitations: This study was limited by data availability, particularly those specific to palliative and end-of-life care; therefore, the findings should be interpreted with caution. Data limitations were partly due to the lack of attention and investment in this area. Conclusion: A link was found between service factors and PoD. Hospice capacity was associated with hospice death in non-cancer cases. Distance to the nearest care facility was negatively correlated with the probability of a patient dying there. Effect size of the service factors was overall small, but the interactive effect between service factors and sociodemographic variables suggests that high-quality end-of-life care needs to be built on service-level configuration tailored to individuals’ circumstances. Future work: A large data gap was identified and data collection is required nationally on services relevant to palliative and end-of-life care. Future research is needed to verify the identified links between service factors and PoD. Funding: The National Institute for Health Research Health Services and Delivery Research programme