A Real-time Global Optimal Path Planning for mobile robot in Dynamic Environment Based on Artificial Immune Approach

This paper illustrates a method to finding a globaloptimal path in a dynamic environment of known obstacles foran Mobile Robot (MR) to following a moving target. Firstly, theenvironment is defined by using a practical and standard graphtheory. Then, a suboptimal path is obtained by using DijkstraAlgorithm (DA) that is a standard graph searching method. Theadvantages of using DA are; elimination the uncertainness ofheuristic algorithms and increasing the speed, precision andperformance of them. Finally, Continuous Clonal SelectionAlgorithm (CCSA) that is combined with Negative SelectionAlgorithm (NSA) is used to improve the suboptimal path andderive global optimal path. To show the effectiveness of themethod it is compared with some other methods in this area

A CNN cascade for landmark guided semantic part segmentation

This paper proposes a CNN cascade for semantic part segmentation guided by pose-specifc information encoded in terms of a set of landmarks (or keypoints). There is large amount of prior work on each of these tasks separately, yet, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first time in literature that the interplay between pose estimation and semantic part segmentation is investigated. To address this limitation of prior work, in this paper, we propose a CNN cascade of tasks that firstly performs landmark localisation and then uses this information as input for guiding semantic part segmentation. We applied our architecture to the problem of facial part segmentation and report large performance improvement over the standard unguided network on the most challenging face datasets. Testing code and models will be published online at http://cs.nott.ac.uk/~psxasj/

Measurements of scattering observables for the pdpd break-up reaction

High-precision measurements of the scattering observables such as cross sections and analyzing powers for the proton-deuteron elastic and break-up reactions have been performed at KVI in the last two decades and elsewhere to investigate various aspects of the three-nucleon force (3NF) effects simultaneously. In 2006 an experiment was performed to study these effects in $\vec{p}+d$ break-up reaction at 135 MeV with the detection system, Big Instrument for Nuclear polarization Analysis, BINA. BINA covers almost the entire kinematical phase space of the break-up reaction. The results are interpreted with the help of state-of-the-art Faddeev calculations and are partly presented in this contribution.Comment: Proceedings of 19th International IUPAP Conference on Few-Body Problems in Physics, Bonn University, 31.08 - 05.09.2009, Bonn, GERMAN

Physiology and coronary artery disease: emerging insights from computed tomography imaging based computational modeling

Improvements in spatial and temporal resolution now permit robust high quality characterization of presence, morphology and composition of coronary atherosclerosis in computed tomography (CT). These characteristics include high risk features such as large plaque volume, low CT attenuation, napkin-ring sign, spotty calcification and positive remodeling. Because of the high image quality, principles of patient-specific computational fluid dynamics modeling of blood flow through the coronary arteries can now be applied to CT and allow the calculation of local lesion-specific hemodynamics such as endothelial shear stress, fractional flow reserve and axial plaque stress. This review examines recent advances in coronary CT image-based computational modeling and discusses the opportunity to identify lesions at risk for rupture much earlier than today through the combination of anatomic and hemodynamic information

Evaluation of Plant Nitrogen Use Efficiency in Different Crop Rotations

IntroductionThere is an urgent need to increase per capita food production to compete with high population growth while maintaining environmental sustainability. Because nitrogen plays a vital role in food production for humans and livestock, nitrogen management is essential in food production. In most cropping systems, nitrogen management seems to be a major challenge due to its high mobility and natural tendency for losses from the soil-plant system to the environment. Soil organic carbon plays a key role in improving soil ecological conditions. Adding organic matter to the soil is an excellent tool for improving physical, chemical and biological conditions and is almost always desirable. Soil organic carbon stock of crop ecosystems may be increased by improving farming practices. The application of green manure, fertilizer and the return of crop straw into the soil are known as management operations to increase soil organic carbon. Fertilizers, especially nitrogen, increase crop yield, and organic carbon is returned to the soil through roots and debris, which in most cases leads to increased soil organic carbon.Materials and MethodsThis study was conducted with the aim of utilizing a set of improving farming practices in diverse cropping systems to improve nitrogen efficiency during two crop years. Farming practices including removal of summer fallow were used by importing three crops of mung bean, corn and wild rocket in rotation plus nitrogen supply levels factor. The crop rotation factor was applied in four levels of Fallow-wheat, mung bean-wheat, corn-wheat and wild rocket-wheat and the factor of nitrogen fertilizer (0, 180 and 360 kg.ha-1) in a randomized complete block design as factorial. Soil mineral nitrogen (nitrate and ammonium) were measured before sowing wheat and grain, straw and total plant nitrogen after harvest. Uptake efficiency, utilization efficiency, agronomic efficiency and nitrogen harvest index were calculated.Results and DiscussionThe results of combined analysis of variance showed that the crop rotation and nitrogen were significantly effective (ρ ≤ 0.01) on plant nitrogen, harvest index and nitrogen efficiency. Increasing nitrogen fertilizer up to 360 kg.ha-1 increased grain nitrogen, straw nitrogen, total plant nitrogen and also nitrogen harvest index. While the best uptake, utilization and agronomic efficiency of nitrogen was observed on the treatment without nitrogen fertilizer. Comparison of the means showed that the wild rocket-wheat crop rotation had the best result among all measured traits except utilization efficiency, while the utilization efficiency in the corn-wheat crop rotation showed the best performance. The results clearly show the effect of increasing organic carbon on nitrogen availability and grain nitrogen concentration as well as the role of cover crops and legume, in increasing access to nitrogen. The amount of grain nitrogen was directly affected by the amount of nitrogen fertilizer. The highest correlation coefficient was seen between agronomic and uptake efficiency (r = 0.96**). There was also a significant inverse relationship between nitrogen harvest index and the types of calculated efficiencies. The amount of uptake efficiency and agronomic efficiency in all crop rotations except corn-wheat in the second year improved compared to the first year. The highest increase in efficiency in the second year was related to the wild rocket-wheat crop rotation. In the conditions of 360 and 180 kg.ha-1 nitrogen fertilizer, the nitrogen harvest index increased in the second year compared to the first year. While in conditions without nitrogen fertilizer, nitrogen harvest index has a significant decrease. Therefore, at least in the short term, to increase the nitrogen harvest index, the minimum supply of nitrogen fertilizer should be used, even under improving crop management conditions such as green manure, removal of fallow and introduction of legumes in rotation and return of crop residues.ConclusionContinuous cropping, removal of fallow, use of cover crops and legume and preservation of residues led to increased carbon and nitrogen sequestration in soil and consequently increase biomass and nitrogen concentration in plant tissue. On the other hand, crop rotations that increased soil organic carbon and improved soil fertility quickly improved nitrogen efficiency and nitrogen harvest index

Imaging data in COVID-19 patients: focused on echocardiographic findings

To assess imaging data in COVID-19 patients and its association with clinical course and survival and 86 consecutive patients (52 males, 34 females, mean age = 58.8 year) with documented COVID-19 infection were included. Seventy-eight patients (91) were in severe stage of the disease. All patients underwent transthoracic echocardiography. Mean LVEF was 48.1 and mean estimated systolic pulmonary artery pressure (sPAP) was 27.9 mmHg. LV diastolic dysfunction was mildly abnormal in 49 patients (57.6) and moderately abnormal in 7 cases (8.2). Pericardial effusion was present in 5/86 (minimal in size in 3 cases and mild- moderate in 2). In 32/86 cases (37.2), the severity of infection progressed from �severe� to �critical�. Eleven patients (12.8) died. sPAP and computed tomography score were associated with disease progression (P value = 0.002, 0.002 respectively). Tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (TAPSE) was significantly higher in patients with no disease progression compared with those who deteriorated (P value = 0.005). Pericardial effusion (minimal, mild or moderate) was detected more often in progressive disease (P = 0.03). sPAP was significantly lower among survivors (P value = 0.007). Echocardiographic findings (including systolic PAP, TAPSE and pericardial effusion), total CT score may have prognostic and therapeutic implication in COVID-19 patients. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. part of Springer Nature

Elastic proton-deuteron scattering at intermediate energies

Observables in elastic proton-deuteron scattering are sensitive probes of the nucleon-nucleon interaction and three-nucleon force effects. The present experimental data base for this reaction is large, but contains a large discrepancy between data sets for the differential cross section taken at 135 MeV/nucleon by two experimental research groups. This paper reviews the background of this problem and presents new data taken at KVI. Differential cross sections and analyzing powers for the $^{2}{\rm H}(\vec p,d){p}$ and ${\rm H}(\vec d,d){p}$ reactions at 135 MeV/nucleon and 65 MeV/nucleon, respectively, have been measured. The data differ significantly from previous measurements and consistently follow the energy dependence as expected from an interpolation of published data taken over a large range at intermediate energies.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, submitted to PR

Human PrP90-231-induced cell death is associated with intracellular accumulation of insoluble and protease-resistant macroaggregates and lysosomal dysfunction

To define the mechanisms by which hPrP90-231 induces cell death, we analyzed its interaction with living cells and monitored its intracellular fate. Treatment of SH-SY5Y cells with fluorescein-5-isothiocyanate (FITC)-conjugated hPrP90-231 caused the accumulation of cytosolic aggregates of the prion protein fragment that increased in number and size in a time-dependent manner. The formation of large intracellular hPrP90-231 aggregates correlated with the activation of apoptosis. hPrP90-231 aggregates occurred within lysotracker-positive vesicles and induced the formation of activated cathepsin D (CD), indicating that hPrP90-231 is partitioned into the endosomal–lysosomal system structures, activating the proteolytic machinery. Remarkably, the inhibition of CD activity significantly reduced hPrP-90-231-dependent apoptosis. Internalized hPrP90-231 forms detergent-insoluble and SDS-stable aggregates, displaying partial resistance to proteolysis. By confocal microscopy analysis of lucifer yellow (LY) intracellular partition, we show that hPrP90-231 accumulation induces lysosome destabilization and loss of lysosomal membrane impermeability. In fact, although control cells evidenced a vesicular pattern of LY fluorescence (index of healthy lysosomes), hPrP90-231-treated cells showed diffuse cytosolic fluorescence, indicating LY diffusion through damaged lysosomes. In conclusion, these data indicate that exogenously added hPrP90-231 forms intralysosomal deposits having features of insoluble, protease-resistant aggregates and could trigger a lysosome-mediated apoptosis by inducing lysosome membrane permeabilization, followed by the release of hydrolytic enzymes

Investigation of the Three-Nucleon System Dynamics in the Deuteron-Proton Breakup Reaction

Precise and large sets of cross section, vector A x , A y and tensor A xx , A xy , A yy analyzing power data for the 1 H(d, pp)n breakup reactions were measured at 100 and 130 MeV deuteron beam energies with the SALAD and BINA detectors at KVI and the Germanium Wall setup at FZ-Jülich. Results are compared with various theoretical approaches which model the three-nucleon system dynamics. The cross section data reveal a sizable three-nucleon force (3NF) and Coulomb force influence. In case of the analyzing powers very low sensitivity to these effects was found and the data are well describe by 2N models only. For A xy at 130 MeV, serious disagreements were observed when 3NF models are included in the calculations

Studies of the three-nucleon system dynamics in the deuteron-proton breakup reaction

One of the most important goals of modern nuclear physics is to contruct nuclear force model which properly describes the experimental data. To develop and test predictions of current models the breakup $^{1}H\left ( \vec{d}, pp \right )n$ reaction was investigated experimentally at 100 and 130 MeV deuteron beam energies. Rich set of data for cross section, vector and tensor analyzing powers was obtained with the use of the SALAD and BINA detectors at KVI and Germanium Wall setup at FZ-Jülich. Results are compared with various theoretical approaches which describe the three-nucleon (3N) system dynamics. For correct description of the cross section data both, three-nucleon force (3NF) and Coulomb force, have to be included into calculations and influence of those ingredients is seizable at specific parts of the phase space. In case of the vector analyzing powers very low sensitivity to any effects beyond nucleon-nucleon interaction was found. At 130 MeV, the $A_{xy}$ data are not correctly described when 3NF models are included into calculations