Parallel stereo vision algorithm

Integrating a stereo-photogrammetric robot head into a real-time system requires software solutions that rapidly resolve the stereo correspondence problem. The stereo-matcher presented in this paper uses therefore code parallelisation and was tested on three different processors with x87 and AVX. The results show that a 5mega pixels colour image can be matched in 5,55 seconds or as monochrome in 3,3 seconds

Glasgow's Stereo Image Database of Garments

To provide insight into cloth perception and manipulation with an active binocular robotic vision system, we compiled a database of 80 stereo-pair colour images with corresponding horizontal and vertical disparity maps and mask annotations, for 3D garment point cloud rendering has been created and released. The stereo-image garment database is part of research conducted under the EU-FP7 Clothes Perception and Manipulation (CloPeMa) project and belongs to a wider database collection released through CloPeMa (www.clopema.eu). This database is based on 16 different off-the-shelve garments. Each garment has been imaged in five different pose configurations on the project's binocular robot head. A full copy of the database is made available for scientific research only at https://sites.google.com/site/ugstereodatabase/.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure, image databas

Polyelectrolyte complex based interfacial drug delivery system with controlled loading and improved release performance for bone therapeutics

An improved interfacial drug delivery system (DDS) based on polyelectrolyte complex (PEC) coatings with controlled drug loading and improved release performance was elaborated. The cationic homopolypeptide poly(l-lysine) (PLL) was complexed with a mixture of two cellulose sulfates (CS) of low and high degree of substitution, so that the CS and PLL solution have around equal molar charged units. As drugs the antibiotic rifampicin (RIF) and the bisphosphonate risedronate (RIS) were integrated. As an important advantage over previous PEC systems this one can be centrifuged, the supernatant discarded, the dense pellet phase (coacervate) separated, and again redispersed in fresh water phase. This behavior has three benefits: (i) Access to the loading capacity of the drug, since the concentration of the free drug can be measured by spectroscopy; (ii) lower initial burst and higher residual amount of drug due to removal of unbound drug and (iii) complete adhesive stability due to the removal of polyelectrolytes (PEL) excess component. It was found that the pH value and ionic strength strongly affected drug content and release of RIS and RIF. At the clinically relevant implant material (Ti40Nb) similar PEC adhesive and drug release properties compared to the model substrate were found. Unloaded PEC coatings at Ti40Nb showed a similar number and morphology of above cultivated human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSC) compared to uncoated Ti40Nb and resulted in considerable production of bone mineral. RIS loaded PEC coatings showed similar effects after 24 h but resulted in reduced number and unhealthy appearance of hMSC after 48 h due to cell toxicity of RIS

Farming in and on urban buildings: present practice and specific novelties of Zero-Acreage Farming (ZFarming)

Dieser Beitrag ist mit Zustimmung des Rechteinhabers aufgrund einer (DFG geförderten) Allianz- bzw. Nationallizenz frei zugänglich.This publication is with permission of the rights owner freely accessible due to an Alliance licence and a national licence (funded by the DFG, German Research Foundation) respectively.Considering global trends such as climate change and resource scarcity, a major challenge of future cities will be to reduce urban footprints. Moreover, cities have to become or remain livable for their inhabitants and offer social and economic opportunities. Thus, reconnecting food production and cities offers promising potential. The diffusion of urban farming reflects a rising awareness of how food and farming can shape our cities. A growing number of urban farming projects exist in and on urban buildings, including open rooftop farms, rooftop greenhouses and indoor farming. These projects are characterized by the non-use of land or acreage for farming activities. We use the term ‘Zero-Acreage Farming’ (ZFarming) to represent these farms. The objective of this paper is to: (1) illustrate and systemize present practices of ZFarming and (2) discuss specific novelties of ZFarming in the wider context of urban agriculture. We analyzed 73 ZFarms in cities of North America, Asia, Australia and Europe using a set of criteria, and developed a typology of ZFarming, complemented by in-depth interviews with pioneers in rooftop farming in New York. The results illustrate that ZFarming generates innovative practices that may contribute to a sustainable urban agriculture. Besides growing food, it produces a range of non-food and non-market goods. It involves new opportunities for resource efficiency, new farming technologies, specific implementation processes and networks, new patterns of food supply and new urban spaces

Catálogo sobre edad media y musicología

Sección: NoticiasEntre los catálogos informatizados de la Red de Bibliotecas del CSIC en Cataluña se puede consultar el de referencias bibliográficas sobre edad media y musicologíaN

An Aggregated Stakeholder Perspective on Potential Benefits and Challenges

How can buildings be combined with agricultural production and what are the major potential benefits and challenges for the introduction of zero-acreage farming (ZFarming) in Berlin from the relevant stakeholders’ perspectives? These questions were explored through a series of interviews and stakeholder workshops held between 2011 and 2013. The aim was to identify the most suitable building-integrated farming model for the Berlin metropolitan area and to develop guidelines for the model’s successful and sustainable implementation through a stakeholder-driven approach. This paper provides an aggregated synthesis of the outcomes derived from the qualitative interviews and stakeholder workshops. As the results reveal, the stakeholders perceive potential benefits and challenges related to the issue of ZFarming in all dimensions (economic, social, environmental and political). They largely agreed on the importance of focusing on local resources, using energy- efficient production—including social and educational aspects—and developing new market structures when introducing ZFarming to the city of Berlin. The stakeholders identified urban rooftop greenhouses (RTG) as the most promising farming model for Berlin. In a joint collaboration of all stakeholders, a manual for RTG was developed within the participatory innovation process that addresses the identified problems and challenges associated with future implementation and governance of RTG in Berlin and beyond

Conflicting results of prenatal FISH with different probes for Down's Syndrome critical regions associated with mosaicism for a de novo del(21)(q22) characterised by molecular karyotyping: Case report

For the rapid detection of common aneuploidies either PCR or Fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) on uncultured amniotic fluid cells are widely used. There are different commercial suppliers providing FISH assays for the detection of trisomies affecting the Down's syndrome critical regions (DSCR) in 21q22. We present a case in which rapid FISH screening with different commercial probes for the DSCR yielded conflicting results. Chromosome analysis revealed a deletion of one chromosome 21 in q22 which explained the findings. Prenatally an additional small supernumerary marker chromosome (sSMC) was discovered as well, which could not be characterised. Postnatal chromosome analysis in lymphocytes of the infant revealed complex mosaicism with four cell lines. By arrayCGH the sSMC was provisionally described as derivative chromosome 21 which was confirmed by targeted FISH experiments

Longitudinal Effects of Subjective Aging on Health and Longevity:An Updated Meta-Analysis

This article updates and extends an earlier meta-analysis (Westerhof et al., 2014) on the longitudinal effects of subjective aging (SA) on health outcomes. A systematic search in different databases (APA PsycInfo, PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus) resulted in 99 articles, reporting on 107 studies. Participants: Studies had a median sample size of 1,863 adults with a median age of 66 years. A randomized effect meta-analysis showed a significant, small effect (likelihood ratio = 1.347; 95% confidence interval [1.300, 1.396]; p &lt;.001), similar in magnitude to the previous meta-analysis of 19 studies. Although the results showed high heterogeneity in the longitudinal link between SA and health outcomes, there were no differences in effects according to chronological age of participants, welfare state status (more or less developed social security system), length of follow-up, type of health-related outcome, or quality of the study. Effects were stronger for multiitem measures of self-perceptions of aging than for the frequently used single-item measures assessing subjective age, especially for indicators of physical health. Based on this meta-analysis, building on five times more studies than the 2014 review, we consider the associations of measures of SA with health and longevity across time as robust, albeit small in size. Future research should concentrate on the clarification of pathways mediating the relation between SA and health outcomes, as well as potential bidirectional effects.</p

Androgen receptor mutations are associated with altered epigenomic programming as evidenced by HOXA5 methylation

Male external genital differentiation is accompanied by implementation of a long-term, male-specific gene expression pattern indicating androgen programming in cultured genital fibroblasts. We hypothesized the existence of an epigenetic background contributing to this phenomenon. DNA methylation levels in 2 normal scrotal fibroblast strains from 46,XY males compared to 2 labia majora fibroblast strains from 46,XY females with complete androgen insensitivity syndrome (AIS) due to androgen receptor (AR) mutations were analyzed by Illumina GoldenGate methylation arrays®. Results were validated with pyrosequencing in labia majora fibroblast strains from fifteen 46,XY patients and compared to nine normal male scrotal fibroblast strains. HOXA5 showed a significantly higher methylation level in complete AIS. This finding was confirmed by bisulfite pyrosequencing of 14 CpG positions within the HOXA5 promoter in the same strains. Extension of the 2 groups revealed a constant low HOXA5 methylation pattern in the controls in contrast to a highly variable methylation pattern in the AIS patients. HOXA5 represents a candidate gene of androgen-mediated promoter methylation. The constantly low HOXA5 DNA methylation level of normal male scrotal fibroblast strains and the frequently high methylation levels in labia majora fibroblast strains in AIS indicate for the first time that androgen programming in sexual differentiation is not restricted to global gene transcription but also occurs at the epigenetic level

Accuracy of the Aspartic Acid Racemization Technique in Age Estimation of Mammals and the Influence of Body Temperature

The aspartic acid racemization (AAR) technique has been applied for age estimation of humans and other mammals for more than four decades. In this study, eye lenses from 124 animals representing 25 mammalian species were collected and D/L ratios obtained using the AAR technique. The animals were either of known age or had the age estimated by other methods. The purpose of the study was to: a) estimate the accuracy of the AAR technique, and b) examine the effect of body temperature on racemization rates. Samples from four of the 25 species covered the range of ages that is needed to estimate species-specific racemization rates. The sample size from a single species of known age, the pygmy goat (Capra hircus, n = 35), was also large enough to investigate the accuracy of ages obtained using the AAR technique. The 35 goats were divided into three datasets: all goats (n = 35), goats >0.5 yrs old (n = 26) and goats >2 yrs old (n = 19). Leave-one-out analyses were performed on the three sets of data. Normalized root mean squared errors for the group of goats >0.5 yrs old were found to be the smallest. The higher variation in D/L measurements found for young goats 0.5 yrs old was for three age groups of the goats: 0.934 yrs for young goats 8 yrs (n = 4). Thus, the age of an adult or an old animal can be predicted with approximately 10% accuracy, whereas the age of a young animal is difficult to predict. A goat specific racemization rate, as a 2kAsp value, was estimated to 0.0107 ± 3.8 x 10-4 SE (n = 26). The 2kAsp values from 12 species, four estimated in this study and another eight published, were used to examine the effect of core body temperature on the rate of racemization. A positive relationship between AAR and temperature was found (r2 = 0.321) but results also suggest that other factors besides temperature are involved in the racemization process in living animals. Based on our results we emphasize that non-species-specific racemization rates should be used with care in AAR age estimation studies and that the period of postnatal growth of the eye lens be considered when estimating species-specific D/L0 values and ages of young individuals