2,877 research outputs found
Convex hull estimation of mammalian body segment parameters
Obtaining accurate values for body segment parameters (BSPs) is fundamental in many biomechanical studies, particularly for gait analysis. Convex hulling, where the smallest-possible convex object that surrounds a set of points is calculated, has been suggested as an effective and time-efficient method to estimate these parameters in extinct animals, where soft tissues are rarely preserved. We investigated the effectiveness of convex hull BSP estimation in a range of extant mammals, to inform the potential future usage of this technique with extinct taxa. Computed tomography scans of both the skeleton and skin of every species investigated were virtually segmented. BSPs (the mass, position of the centre of mass and inertial tensors of each segment) were calculated from the resultant soft tissue segments, while the bone segments were used as the basis for convex hull reconstructions. We performed phylogenetic generalized least squares and ordinary least squares regressions to compare the BSPs calculated from soft tissue segments with those estimated using convex hulls, finding consistent predictive relationships for each body segment. The resultant regression equations can, therefore, be used with confidence in future volumetric reconstruction and biomechanical analyses of mammals, in both extinct and extant species where such data may not be available
Computational Techniques in Multispectral Image Processing : Application to the Syriac Galen Palimpsest
Multispectral and hyperspectral image analysis has experienced much
development in the last decade. The application of these methods to palimpsests
has produced significant results, enabling researchers to recover texts that
would be otherwise lost under the visible overtext, by improving the contrast
between the undertext and the overtext. In this paper we explore an extended
number of multispectral and hyperspectral image analysis methods, consisting of
supervised and unsupervised dimensionality reduction techniques, on a part of
the Syriac Galen Palimpsest dataset (www.digitalgalen.net). Of this extended
set of methods, eight methods gave good results: three were supervised methods
Generalized Discriminant Analysis (GDA), Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA),
and Neighborhood Component Analysis (NCA); and the other five methods were
unsupervised methods (but still used in a supervised way) Gaussian Process
Latent Variable Model (GPLVM), Isomap, Landmark Isomap, Principal Component
Analysis (PCA), and Probabilistic Principal Component Analysis (PPCA). The
relative success of these methods was determined visually, using color
pictures, on the basis of whether the undertext was distinguishable from the
overtext, resulting in the following ranking of the methods: LDA, NCA, GDA,
Isomap, Landmark Isomap, PPCA, PCA, and GPLVM. These results were compared with
those obtained using the Canonical Variates Analysis (CVA) method on the same
dataset, which showed remarkably accuracy (LDA is a particular case of CVA
where the objects are classified to two classes).Comment: 29 February - 2 March 2016, Second International Conference on
Natural Sciences and Technology in Manuscript Analysis, Centre for the study
of Manuscript Cultures, Hamburg, German
The Syriac Galen Palimpsest::Research Methods and Latest Discoveries
In this article, we provide an update on the progress of the AHRC-funded Syriac Galen Palimpsest Project, which is directed by Peter E. Pormann at the University of Manchester. We also present a newly identified folio from Book 3 of Galenâs On Simple Drugsâa book hitherto not known to be represented in the manuscript. We offer some preliminary conclusions about the original medical manuscriptâs codicological structure, particularly the composition of its quires and the sequence of hair and flesh sides of parchment. Finally, we outline our approach to analysing the undertextâs palaeography, with reference to the methodology devised by Ayda Kaplan
Robust Magnetic Polarons in Type-II (Zn,Mn)Te Quantum Dots
We present evidence of magnetic ordering in type-II (Zn, Mn) Te quantum dots.
This ordering is attributed to the formation of bound magnetic polarons caused
by the exchange interaction between the strongly localized holes and Mn within
the dots. In our photoluminescence studies, the magnetic polarons are detected
at temperatures up to ~ 200 K, with a binding energy of ~ 40 meV. In addition,
these dots display an unusually small Zeeman shift with applied field (2 meV at
10 T). This behavior is explained by a small and weakly temperature-dependent
magnetic susceptibility due to anti-ferromagnetic coupling of the Mn spins
Minimum convex hull mass estimations of complete mounted skeletons
Body mass is a critical parameter used to constrain biomechanical and physiological traits of organisms. Volumetric methods are becoming more common as techniques for estimating the body masses of fossil vertebrates. However, they are often accused of excessive subjective input when estimating the thickness of missing soft tissue. Here, we demonstrate an alternative approach where a minimum convex hull is derived mathematically from the point cloud generated by laser-scanning mounted skeletons. This has the advantage of requiring minimal user intervention and is thus more objective and far quicker. We test this method on 14 relatively large-bodied mammalian skeletons and demonstrate that it consistently underestimates body mass by 21 per cent with minimal scatter around the regression line. We therefore suggest that it is a robust method of estimating body mass where a mounted skeletal reconstruction is available and demonstrate its usage to predict the body mass of one of the largest, relatively complete sauropod dinosaurs: Giraffatitan brancai (previously Brachiosaurus) as 23200 kg
Multibody dynamics analysis (MDA) as a numerical modelling tool to reconstruct the function and palaeobiology of extinct organisms
Recent advances in computer technology have substantially changed the field of palaeontology in the last two decades. Palaeontologists now have a whole new arsenal of powerful digital techniques available to study fossil organisms in unprecedented detail and to test hypotheses regarding function and behaviour. Multibody dynamics analysis (MDA) is one of these techniques and although it originated as a tool used in the engineering and automotive industry, it holds great potential to address palaeontological questions as well. MDA allows the simulation of dynamic movements in complex objects consisting of multiple linked components. As such, this technique is ideally suited to model biological structures and to obtain quantifiable results that can be used to test the function of musculoskeletal systems rigorously. However, despite these advantages, MDA has seen a slow uptake by the palaeontological community. The most likely reason for this lies in the steep learning curve and complexity of the method. This paper provides an overview of the underlying principles of MDA and outlines the main steps involved in conducting analyses. A number of recent studies using MDA to reconstruct the palaeobiology of fossil organisms are presented and the potential for future studies is discussed. Similar to other computational techniques, including finite element analysis and computational fluid dynamics, the nonâinvasive and exploratory power of MDA makes it ideally suited to study the form and function in vertebrates for which no modern analogues exist
Mutation-aware fault prediction
We introduce mutation-aware fault prediction, which leverages additional guidance from metrics constructed in terms of mutants and the test cases that cover and detect them. We report the results of 12 sets of experiments, applying 4 diâ”erent predictive modelling techniques to 3 large real world systems (both open and closed source). The results show that our proposal can significantly (p 0.05) improve fault prediction performance. Moreover, mutation based metrics lie in the top 5% most frequently relied upon fault predictors in 10 of the 12 sets of experiments, and provide the majority of the top ten fault predictors in 9 of the 12 sets of experiments.http://www0.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/F.Sarro/resource/papers/ISSTA2016-Bowesetal.pd
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