Driving Assistance System with Lane Change Detection

In this study, a simple technology for a self-driving system called “driver assistance system” is developed based on embedded image identification. The system consists of a camera, a Raspberry Pi board, and OpenCV. The camera is used to capture lane images, and the image noise is overcome through color space conversion, grayscale, Otsu thresholding, binarization, erosion, and dilation. Subsequently, two horizontal lines parallel to the X-axis with a fixed range and interval are used to detect left and right lane lines. The intersection points between the left and right lane lines and the two horizontal lines can be obtained, and can be used to calculate the slopes of the left and right lanes. Finally, the slope change of the left and right lanes and the offset of the lane intersection are determined to detect the deviation. When the angle of lanes changes drastically, the driver receives a deviation warning. The results of this study suggest that the proposed algorithm is 1.96 times faster than the conventional algorithm

Vehicle Path Planning with Multicloud Computation Services

With the development of artificial intelligence, public cloud service platforms have begun to provide common pretrained object recognition models for public use. In this study, a dynamic vehicle path-planning system is developed, which uses several general pretrained cloud models to detect obstacles and calculate the navigation area. The Euclidean distance and the inequality based on the detected marker box data are used for vehicle path planning. Experimental results show that the proposed method can effectively identify the driving area and plan a safe route. The proposed method integrates the bounding box information provided by multiple cloud object detection services to detect navigable areas and plan routes. The time required for cloud-based obstacle identification is 2 s per frame, and the time required for feasible area detection and action planning is 0.001 s per frame. In the experiments, the robot that uses the proposed navigation method can plan routes successfully

INVESTIGATING THE INFLUENCE OF AUTHORITARIAN LEADERSHIP AND SUPERVISOR SATISFACTION ON TURNOVER INTENTION: THE MODERATING ROLE OF EMPLOYEE UPBRINGING

Authoritarian leadership is prevalent in the Asian region, and previous research has found a positive correlation between authoritarian leadership and employees' intention to leave their jobs. However, there are employees in the workplace who can adapt to such supervisors. Therefore, we approach this study from the perspective of "fit theory" to explore whether employees with authoritarian family upbringing can match with authoritarian leadership. This study aims to investigate the impact of authoritarian leadership on employees' intention to leave, with supervisor satisfaction as the mediator and employees' authoritarian family upbringing as the moderator. A total of 232 valid questionnaires were collected in this study. The results revealed that the level of authoritarian family upbringing among employees has a moderating effect on the relationship between authoritarian leadership and supervisor satisfaction

An Error-Control Code with an Imbalance of Ones and Zeros to Provide a Residual Carrier Component

We consider in this paper a direct sequence spread-spectrum communication system employing an error-control code having an imbalance of ones and zeroes. The primary motivation for using such a code is to provide a carrier component for synchronization as an alternative to the transmisson of a separate pilot tone. We evaluate the performance of this system when a concatenated code whose inner code is a constant-weight subcode of the (24, 12) extended Golay code and whose outer code is a Reed-Solomon code. We consider the effects of both white Gaussian noise and burst jamming, and we evaluate several decoding algorithms with different complexities and different coding gains. Near-maximum-likelihood decoding can be realized at the lowest data rates of interest, while successively less complicated algorithms achieving corresponding smaller coding gains must be used as the data rate increases. The performance of this system compares favorably with that of a more conventional pilot-tone system

(Benzonitrile-κN)chlorido[hydrido­tris(pyrazol-1-yl-κN 2)borato](triphenyl­phosphine-κP)ruthenium(II) ethanol solvate. Corrigendum

Corrigendum to Acta Cryst. (2009), E65, m438

Sex-Specific Variation of Social Play in Wild Immature Tibetan Macaques, \u3ci\u3eMacaca thibetana\u3c/i\u3e

Theories proposed to explain social play have centered on its function in establishing social relationships critical for adulthood, its function in developing motor skills needed to survive, and promoting cognitive development and social learning. In this study, we compared variations in social play among infant and juvenile male and female Macaca thibetana. Given that this species is characterized by female philopatry and male dispersal, we hypothesized that immature females use social play as a mechanism to develop bonds that persist through adulthood whereas immature males use play to develop social skills needed to successfully enter new groups. The results indicated that social play steadily increased during the infant period and peaked at approximately 12 months of age. There were no significant differences in the frequency or types of social play exhibited between infant males and infant females. During the juvenile period, however, social play was found to decrease with age, with males engaging in social play more frequently than juvenile females. Moreover, whereas juvenile males engaged in more aggressive forms of play, juvenile females engaged in more affiliative forms of play. In addition, juvenile females engaged in higher rates of grooming than juvenile males. These results provide evidence of sex-specific differences and imply the functional variation of social play in Tibetan macaques, with immature males using social play to develop skills needed to enter and enhanced their dominance rank in a new social group and immature females using social play to develop long-term same-sex social bonds in their natal group

Outcomes and prognostic factors of simple partial cystectomy for localized bladder urothelial cell carcinoma

AbstractRadical cystectomy has remained the gold standard for recurrent superficial or muscle invasive bladder tumor. However, partial cystectomy still has a role in those who reject or have contraindications for radical cystectomy. In this study, we sought to identify predictors of bladder recurrence and overall survival after simple partial cystectomy. We included 27 patients with bladder tumor who received simple partial cystectomy without pelvic lymph node dissection between March 2000 and September 2013. Adjuvant chemotherapy or radiation therapy was prescribed according to the pathological results. Parameters were compared on the basis of bladder recurrence and overall survival. During a mean follow-up time of 39 months, five patients (18.5%) experienced bladder recurrence. An older age, a higher pathological stage, positive surgical margins, and distant metastases were significant predictors of overall survival (p = 0.031, p = 0.001, p = 0.001, and p = 0.011, respectively). Meanwhile, previous bladder instillation and positive surgical margins were significant predictors of bladder recurrence (p = 0.026 and p = 0.027, respectively). The rate of consecutive distant metastases (33.3%) was almost twice the rate of bladder recurrence (18.5%), and six patients developed consecutive distant metastases without first experiencing bladder recurrence. In patients who received a simple partial cystectomy as an alternative treatment, previous bladder instillation and positive surgical margins were significant predictors of bladder recurrence. Patients with an older age, positive surgical margins, and consecutive distant metastases had worse overall survival. Partial cystectomy with routine lymph node dissection may be a better option for achieving favorable long-term outcomes

Patients with Epididymo-Orchitis and Meteorological Impact in Taiwan: A Nationwide Population-Based Study

Background. Epididymo-orchitis is a common infectious disease among men, especially men aged 20 to 39 years. The aim of this study was to analyze possible associations of various meteorological indicators on the incidence of epididymo-orchitis in Taiwan. Methods and Materials. This nationwide population-based study collected data on cases of epididymo-orchitis that were newly diagnosed from 2001 to 2013 in Taiwan. Monthly meteorological indicators, including average temperatures, humidity, rainfall, total rain days, and sunshine hours, were collected from the Central Weather Bureau of Taiwan. Data for a total of 7,233 patients with epididymo-orchitis were collected for this study. Results. The monthly incidence of epididymo-orchitis was positively correlated with temperature, rainfall, and sunshine hours. The average monthly temperature had a linear correlation with the incidence of epididymo-orchitis (ß=0.11). The monthly average temperature is significantly related, with a positive linear correlation, to the incidence of epididymo-orchitis in Taiwan. Conclusion. This finding may constitute useful information in terms of helping physicians to distinguish between patients with epididymo-orchitis and testicular torsion in hot or cold weather

Mode-Dependent Loss and Gain: Statistics and Effect on Mode-Division Multiplexing

In multimode fiber transmission systems, mode-dependent loss and gain (collectively referred to as MDL) pose fundamental performance limitations. In the regime of strong mode coupling, the statistics of MDL (expressed in decibels or log power gain units) can be described by the eigenvalue distribution of zero-trace Gaussian unitary ensemble in the small-MDL region that is expected to be of interest for practical long-haul transmission. Information-theoretic channel capacities of mode-division-multiplexed systems in the presence of MDL are studied, including average and outage capacities, with and without channel state information.Comment: 22 pages, 8 figure