An integrated geoarchaeological approach to the investigation of multi-period prehistoric settlements – the case of Neolithic Drenovac

A multi-method geoarchaeological investigation was performed to reconstruct multi-phase Neolithic settlement. Invasive and non-invasive surveys showed potential for providing archaeological and environmental landscape data in this complex setting. Large-area geophysical surveys showed potential for deriving stratigraphic information

Prolactin signaling and Stat5: going their own separate ways?

Miyoshi et al. compared the role of the prolactin receptor (PrlR) and its downstream mediator, the signal transducer and activator of transcription 5 (Stat5), in mammary epithelial cells in vivo by studying PrlR(-/-) and Stat5ab(-/-) mouse mammary epithelial transplants during pregnancy. At first glance, the two mutant epithelia appear to have similar defects in the differentiation of the alveolar epithelium. However, a closer examination by Miyoshi et al. revealed defects in the epithelial architecture of the smallest ducts of Stat5ab(-/-) transplants not apparent in the PrlR(-/-) transplants, suggesting that Stat5 is more than a simple mediator of PrlR action

Zur sichtsystemgestützten Demontage am Beispiel von Altfahrzeugen

Es ist Ziel der sichtsystemgestützten Roboterführung, den bisher durch fest vorgegebene Manipulationspositionen und -operationen geprägten Einsatzbereich von Robotern auf die Durchführung von individuelleren Aufgaben mit a-priori nicht festlegbaren Manipulationspositionen und -operationen zu erweitern. Die am Ende des Produktlebenszyklus stehende automatische Demontage von Produkten stellt eine solche Aufgabe dar, da die zu manipulierenden Objekte während ihres Gebrauchs teilweise verändert worden sein können. Der Einsatz eines Bildauswertungssystems erlaubt die Erkennung von derartigen Produktzuständen und stützt so die nachgeschaltete Bestimmung und Parametrierung von a-priori nicht bestimmbaren Einzeloperationen und Operationsfolgen. Nicht zuletzt wird die zur präzisen Anfahrt von Manipulationspositionen benötigte sichtsystemgestützte Führung von Robotern bei der Ausführung von Operationen möglich. Die vorliegende Arbeit wendet diese Vorgehensweise auf das industrienahe Beispiel der Demontage von Motorteilen von Altfahrzeugen an. Ein zur monokularen Positionsschätzung eines polyedrischen Objektes eingesetztes Verfahren wird dahingehend verallgemeinert, daß die modellbasierte Positionsschätzung von zeitveränderlichen, nichtpolyedrischen Objektkonfigurationen mit Hilfe von zeitveränderlichen Kamerakonfigurationen möglich ist. Trotz des mit dieser Verallgemeinerung einhergehenden gesteigerten Bedarfs an Rechenkapazität werden Zyklus- und Latenzzeit - unter Berücksichtigung der verfügbaren Rechenkapazität minimal gehalten. Beide Verbesserungen werden nur durch den Einsatz und die hochbandbreitige Integration von bestehenden Bildauswertungssystemen und Parallelrechnern erreicht. Das vorgestellte System zur sichtsystemgestützten Manipulatorregelung gehört derzeit zu den führenden Systemen bezüglich der Ausführung komplexer Bildauswertungsoperationen bei derart geringen Zyklus- und Latenzzeiten. Die vorgestellte Mehr-Kamera/Mehr-Roboter Kopplung erlaubt erstmalig die si chtsystemgestützte Durchführung von Manipuiationen an beliebigen starren Objekten in einem derart industrienahen Kontext

Old Stone Mill, Newport, Rhode Island, circa 1930-1948

The Old Stone Mill, Newport, Rhode Island, circa 1930-1948. Caption reads: ""The Old Stone Mill" Newport, Rhode Island Popularly supposed to be a Viking tower, but possibly the "Stone-Built Windmill" of Governor Benedict Arnold, ca. 1677.

Multi-level 3D-tracking of objects integrating velocity estimation based on optical flow and Kalman-filtering

This contribution describes an extensively tested approach to threedimensional tracking of a known polyhedral object at two levels of visual robot control, a position-based tracking level and a velocity-based tracking level. At the higher position-based level, an iterated extended Kalman-Filter is used to track a workpiece at a control-cycle of about two hundred milliseconds. This slower cycle operates on top of the video-rate tracking-loop of the velocity-based tracking level. While features such as vertices, edges, and ellipses extracted from gray-value images are used to adjust the 3D pose-estimate at the higher level of control, optical flow is used to initialise the velocity parameters of the upper level and to locally update poses at the lower level

Differential effect of cardiac resynchronization therapy in patients with diabetes mellitus: a long-term retrospective cohort study

AIMS Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) has become an important therapy in patients with heart failure with reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF). The effect of diabetes on long-term outcome in these patients is controversial. We assessed the effect of diabetes on long-term outcome in CRT patients and investigated the role of diabetes in ischaemic and non-ischaemic cardiomyopathy. METHODS AND RESULTS All patients undergoing CRT implantation at our institution between November 2000 and January 2015 were enrolled. The study endpoints were (i) a composite of ventricular assist device (VAD) implantation, heart transplantation, or all-cause mortality; and (ii) reverse remodelling (improvement of LVEF ≥ 10% or reduction of left ventricular end-systolic volume ≥ 15%). Median follow-up of the 418 patients (age 64.6 ± 11.6 years, 22.5% female, 25.1% diabetes) was 4.8 years [inter-quartile range: 2.8;7.4]. Diabetic patients had an increased risk to reach the composite endpoint [adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) 1.48 [95% CI 1.12-2.16], P = 0.041]. Other factors associated with an increased risk to reach the composite endpoint were a lower body mass index or baseline LVEF (aHR 0.95 [0.91; 0.98] and 0.97 [0.95; 0.99], P < 0.01 each), and a higher New York Heart Association functional class or creatinine level (aHR 2.14 [1.38; 3.30] and 1.04 [1.01; 1.05], P < 0.05 each). Early response to CRT, defined as LVEF improvement ≥ 10%, was associated with a lower risk to reach the composite endpoint (aHR 0.60 [0.40; 0.89], P = 0.011). Reverse remodelling did not differ between diabetic and non-diabetic patients with respect to LVEF improvement ≥ 10% (aHR 0.60 [0.32; 1.14], P = 0.118). However, diabetes was associated with decreased reverse remodelling with respect to a reduction of left ventricular end-systolic volume ≥ 15% (aHR 0.45 [0.21; 0.97], P = 0.043). In patients with ischaemic cardiomyopathy, survival rates were not significantly different between diabetic and non-diabetic patients (HR 1.28 [0.83-1.97], P = 0.101), whereas in patients with non-ischaemic cardiomyopathy, diabetic patients had a higher risk of reaching the composite endpoint (HR 1.65 [1.06-2.58], P = 0.027). The latter effect was dependent on other risk factors (aHR 1.47 [0.83-2.61], P = 0.451). The risk of insulin-dependent patients was not significantly higher than in patients under oral antidiabetic drugs (HR 1.55 [95% CI 0.92-2.61], P = 0.102). CONCLUSIONS Long-term follow-up revealed diabetes mellitus as independent risk factor for all-cause mortality, heart transplantation, or VAD in heart failure patients undergoing CRT. The detrimental effect of diabetes appeared to weigh heavier in patients with non-ischaemic compared with ischaemic cardiomyopathy