Nutrient Estimation from 24-Hour Food Recalls Using Machine Learning and Database Mapping: A Case Study with Lactose.

The Automated Self-Administered 24-Hour Dietary Assessment Tool (ASA24) is a free dietary recall system that outputs fewer nutrients than the Nutrition Data System for Research (NDSR). NDSR uses the Nutrition Coordinating Center (NCC) Food and Nutrient Database, both of which require a license. Manual lookup of ASA24 foods into NDSR is time-consuming but currently the only way to acquire NCC-exclusive nutrients. Using lactose as an example, we evaluated machine learning and database matching methods to estimate this NCC-exclusive nutrient from ASA24 reports. ASA24-reported foods were manually looked up into NDSR to obtain lactose estimates and split into training (n = 378) and test (n = 189) datasets. Nine machine learning models were developed to predict lactose from the nutrients common between ASA24 and the NCC database. Database matching algorithms were developed to match NCC foods to an ASA24 food using only nutrients ("Nutrient-Only") or the nutrient and food descriptions ("Nutrient + Text"). For both methods, the lactose values were compared to the manual curation. Among machine learning models, the XGB-Regressor model performed best on held-out test data (R2 = 0.33). For the database matching method, Nutrient + Text matching yielded the best lactose estimates (R2 = 0.76), a vast improvement over the status quo of no estimate. These results suggest that computational methods can successfully estimate an NCC-exclusive nutrient for foods reported in ASA24

Investigation of genetic variability related to the in vitro floral hermaphrodism induction in Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.)

This paper reports on a molecular analysis study conducted on Date palm flowers from the Deglet Nour cultivar to investigate putative genetic variability related to the in vitro floral hermaphrodism induction. Natural male and female as well as hermaphrodite ones that were produced in vitro through the hormonal treatment of female flowers were submitted to ISSR-PCR analysis. Microsatellite based amplification (ISSR) was applied on genomic DNA from inflorescences taken at different periods of hormonal treatment corresponding to the various deviation stages to search for putative variations that may have occurred on the initial genome due to the application of plant growth regulators. Several amplification bands were purified, cloned, and sequenced. The results revealed that hormonal treatment entailed no detectable genetic variation in the treated Date palm flowers. Two of the selected and ISSR-PCR amplified DNA fragments showed however, possible links with flowering regulation. The findings indicate that these sequences are potential candidate gene markers that may enhance our understanding of flower development and sex identification in this species.Key words: Date palm, female inflorescences, hermaphrodite flowers, in vitro culture, ISSR, sex identification

Model-Free Control applied for position control of Quadrotor using ROS

In this paper, an intelligent PD (iPD) controller named Model-Free Controller is proposed. Herein, it is used to control the position of a Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Quadrotor. This strategy increases the control performance as well as its robustness level with respect to the classical PD. This is due to the estimation principle provided by the ultra-local model that estimate the unknown disturbances and uncertainties each iteration. The efficiency of the proposed strategy is shown through various numerical simulations where a thorough analysis is provided. Moreover, a comparison study is elaborated between the iPD and the classical PD

Adaptive fuzzy model-free control for 3D trajectory tracking of quadrotor

This paper presents a novel adaptive control strategy with rejection ability for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), namely fuzzy model-free control (FMFC). It is based on the model-free control (MFC) concept, where the control parameters are tuned online using fuzzy logic. The controller assumes an ultra-local model that can compensate unknown/unmodelled dynamics, uncertainties and external disturbances, ensuring a good robustness level. Moreover, the fuzzy logic system is used to tune online the proportional-derivative terms due to its heuristic aspect. These compensation and adaptation mechanisms allow ensuring good compromise robustness-performance even in the presence of disturbances. Several experiments, using RotorS Gazebo micro aerial vehicle (MAV) simulator, are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed controller compared with other techniques. The fuzzy model-free controller shows superior performance without the time-consuming and tedious tuning task

Pattern formation

The Pattern Formation problem is one of the most important coordination problem for robotic systems. Initially the entities are in arbitrary positions; within finite time they must arrange themselves in the space so to form a pattern given in input. In this chapter, we will mainly deal with the problem in the OBLOT model

A New Nonlinear Control Design Strategy for Fixed Wing Aircrafts Piloting

This paper proposes a novel nonlinear feedback control strategy for velocity and attitude control of fixed wing aircrafts. The key feature of the control design strategy is the introduction of a virtual control input in order to deal with the underactuation property of such vehicles and to indirectly control the orientation of the aircraft. As such, the proposed strategy consists of three control loops each realizing a specific task. Simulations are carried out by using the jetstream-3102 aircraft in a real-time virtual Simulation Platform for the development of Aircraft Control Systems (SP-ACS). The proposed approach of control is model-based for which we have introduces an identification part before test and validation. We use the Total Least Squares Estimation (TLSE) technique to identify the aerodynamic parameters, which are unknown, variable and classified. Each aerodynamic coefficient is defined as the mean of its numerical values. All other variations are considered as modeling uncertainties that will be compensated by the robustness of the piloting law. Simulation results on Jetstream-3102 aircraft show very good performance in terms of convergence towards the desired reference trajectories and in terms of robustness with respect to modeling uncertainties

Rendezvous on a Line by Location-Aware Robots Despite the Presence of Byzantine Faults

A set of mobile robots is placed at points of an infinite line. The robots are equipped with GPS devices and they may communicate their positions on the line to a central authority. The collection contains an unknown subset of "spies", i.e., byzantine robots, which are indistinguishable from the non-faulty ones. The set of the non-faulty robots need to rendezvous in the shortest possible time in order to perform some task, while the byzantine robots may try to delay their rendezvous for as long as possible. The problem facing a central authority is to determine trajectories for all robots so as to minimize the time until the non-faulty robots have rendezvoused. The trajectories must be determined without knowledge of which robots are faulty. Our goal is to minimize the competitive ratio between the time required to achieve the first rendezvous of the non-faulty robots and the time required for such a rendezvous to occur under the assumption that the faulty robots are known at the start. We provide a bounded competitive ratio algorithm, where the central authority is informed only of the set of initial robot positions, without knowing which ones or how many of them are faulty. When an upper bound on the number of byzantine robots is known to the central authority, we provide algorithms with better competitive ratios. In some instances we are able to show these algorithms are optimal

Relative distances of Omega Centauri and 47 Tucanae

We present precise optical and near-infrared ground-based photometry of two Globular Clusters (GCs): Omega Cen and 47 Tuc. These photometric catalogs are unbiased in the Red Giant Branch (RGB) region close to the tip. We provide new estimates of the RGB tip (TRGB) magnitudes--m_I(TRGB)=9.84+/-0.05, Omega Cen; m_I(TRGB)=9.46+/-0.06, 47 Tuc--and use these to determine the relative distances of the two GCs. We find that distance ratios based on different calibrations of the TRGB, the RR Lyrae stars and kinematic distances agree with each other within one sigma. Absolute TRGB and RR Lyrae distance moduli agree within 0.10--0.15 mag, while absolute kinematic distance moduli are 0.2--0.3 mag smaller. Absolute distances to 47 Tuc based on the Zero-Age-Horizontal-Branch and on the white dwarf fitting agree within 0.1 mag, but they are 0.1--0.3 mag smaller than TRGB and RR Lyrae distances.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication by ApJ

Multisite campaign on the open cluster M67. III. Delta Scuti pulsations in the blue stragglers

We have made an asteroseismic analysis of the variable blue stragglers in the open cluster M67. The data set consists of photometric time series from eight sites using nine 0.6-2.1 meter telescopes with a time baseline of 43 days. In two stars, EW Cnc and EX Cnc, we detect the highest number of frequencies (41 and 26) detected in delta Scuti stars belonging to a stellar cluster, and EW Cnc has the second highest number of frequencies detected in any delta Scuti star. We have computed a grid of pulsation models that take the effects of rotation into account. The distribution of observed and theoretical frequencies show that in a wide frequency range a significant fraction of the radial and non-radial low-degree modes are excited to detectable amplitudes. Despite the large number of observed frequencies we cannot constrain the fundamental parameters of the stars. To make progress we need to identify the degrees of some of the modes either from multi-colour photometry or spectroscopy.Comment: 15 pages, 14 figs, one appendix. Part three in a series of papers describing results from an extensive multi-site campaign on the open cluster M6