Autonomous navigation with constrained consistency for C-Ranger

Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) have become the most widely used tools for undertaking complex exploration tasks in marine environments. Their synthetic ability to carry out localization autonomously and build an environmental map concurrently, in other words, simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM), are considered to be pivotal requirements for AUVs to have truly autonomous navigation. However, the consistency problem of the SLAM system has been greatly ignored during the past decades. In this paper, a consistency constrained extended Kalman filter (EKF) SLAM algorithm, applying the idea of local consistency, is proposed and applied to the autonomous navigation of the C-Ranger AUV, which is developed as our experimental platform. The concept of local consistency (LC) is introduced after an explicit theoretical derivation of the EKF-SLAM system. Then, we present a locally consistency-constrained EKF-SLAM design, LC-EKF, in which the landmark estimates used for linearization are fixed at the beginning of each local time period, rather than evaluated at the latest landmark estimates. Finally, our proposed LC-EKF algorithm is experimentally verified, both in simulations and sea trials. The experimental results show that the LC-EKF performs well with regard to consistency, accuracy and computational efficiency

Density-dependent deformed relativistic Hartree-Bogoliubov theory in continuum

The deformed relativistic Hartree-Bogoliubov theory in continuum with the density-dependent meson-nucleon couplings is developed. The formulism is briefly presented with the emphasis on handling the density-dependent couplings, meson fields, and potentials in axially deformed system with partial wave method. Taking the neutron-rich nucleus $^{38}$Mg as an example, the newly developed code is verified by the spherical relativistic continuum Hartree-Bogoliubov calculations, where only the spherical components of the densities are considered. When the deformation is included self-consistently, it is shown that the spherical components of density-dependent coupling strengths are dominant, while the contributions from low-order deformed components are not negligible.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, and 1 tabl

Drug-induced anaphylaxis in China: a 10 year retrospective analysis of the Beijing Pharmacovigilance Database

Background Few studies on the causes of drug-induced anaphylaxis (DIA) in the hospital setting are available. Objective We aimed to use the Beijing Pharmacovigilance Database (BPD) to identify the causes of DIA in Beijing, China. Setting Anaphylactic case reports from the BPD provided by the Beijing Center for Adverse Drug Reaction Monitoring. Method DIA cases collected by the BPD from January 2004 to December 2014 were adjudicated. Cases were analyzed for demographics, causative drugs and route of administration, and clinical signs and outcomes. Main outcome measure Drugs implicated in DIAs were identified and the signs and symptoms of the DIA cases were analyzed. Results A total of 1189 DIA cases were analyzed. The mean age was 47.6 years, and 732 (61.6%) were aged from 18 to 59 years. A total of 627 patients (52.7%) were females. There was a predominance of cardiovascular (83.8%) followed by respiratory (55.4%), central nervous (50.1%), mucocutaneous (47.4%), and gastrointestinal symptoms (31.3%). A total of 249 different drugs were involved. DIAs were mainly caused by antibiotics (39.3%), traditional Chinese medicines (TCM) (11.9%), radiocontrast agents (11.9%), and antineoplastic agents (10.3%). Cephalosporins accounted for majority (34.5%) of antibiotic-induced anaphylaxis, followed by fluoroquinolones (29.6%), beta-lactam/beta-lactamase inhibitors (15.4%) and penicillins (7.9%). Blood products and biological agents (3.1%), and plasma substitutes (2.1%) were also important contributors to DIAs. Conclusion A variety of drug classes were implicated in DIAs. Patients should be closely monitored for signs and symptoms of anaphylaxis when medications are administered especially with antibiotics, TCM, radiocontrast and antineoplastic agents

The Spectral Energy Distribution of the Hyperluminous, Hot Dust-obscured Galaxy W2246-0526

Hot dust-obscured galaxies (Hot DOGs) are a luminous, dust-obscured population recently discovered in the WISE All-Sky survey. Multiwavelength follow-up observations suggest that they are mainly powered by accreting supermassive black holes (SMBHs), lying in dense environments, and being in the transition phase between extreme starburst and UV-bright quasars. Therefore, they are good candidates for studying the interplay between SMBHs, star formation, and environment. W2246-0526 (hereafter, W2246), a Hot DOG at z ∼ 4.6, has been taken as the most luminous galaxy known in the universe. Revealed by the multiwavelength images, the previous Herschel SPIRE photometry of W2246 is contaminated by a foreground galaxy (W2246f), resulting in an overestimation of its total IR luminosity by a factor of about two. We perfor m the rest-frame UV/optical-to-far-IR spectral energy distribution (SED) analysis with SED3FIT and re-estimate its physical properties. The derived stellar mass M ∗ = 4.3 7 10 11 M ⊙ makes it among the most massive galaxies with spectroscopic redshift z > 4.5. Its structure is extremely compact and requires an effective mechanism to puff-up. Most of ( > 95%) its IR luminosity is from AGN torus emission, revealing the rapid growth of the central SMBH. We also predict that W2246 may have a significant molecular gas reservoir based on the dust mass estimation

Comparison of the Optical Quality between Small Incision Lenticule Extraction and Femtosecond Laser LASIK

Purpose. To investigate the visual quality after SMILE and Femto-LASIK. Methods. About 123 eyes from 63 patients were enrolled in this study. The parameters were measured preoperatively and 1 week, 1 month, and 3 months postoperatively using Sirius System. Results. The MTF curve increase slightly from low to high frequency at 3 mm and 6 mm pupil diameter after SMILE surgery (P<0.05) during the follow-up time comparing with the preoperative values. And the SR has a significant increase at various pupil diameters as well (P<0.05). However, there was little increase for MTF at intermediate to high frequency at 3 mm pupil diameter after Femto-LASIK procedure (P<0.05). And the SR had only significant increase at 3 mm pupil diameter. Between SMILE and Femto-LASIK, there was no statistic difference both in MTF and SR (P>0.05) at 3 mm pupil diameter at vertical and horizontal meridian. However, significant difference was found in MTF at low to mediate frequency at 6 mm pupil diameter at vertical meridian at 1 week postoperatively (P<0.05). Conclusions. Both SMILE and Femto-LASIK show a great improvement in optical quality at small diameter. It was found that SMILE shows better optical quality than Femto-LASIK at larger pupil diameter, which might be good for the night vision

U-Shaped Relationship Between Functional Outcome and Serum Uric Acid in Ischemic Stroke

Background/Aims: We sought to assess a consecutive number of patients with first-ever acute ischemic stroke (AIS), the clinical relevance in regard to functional outcome of the serum uric acid (SUA) measured at admission. Methods: In 2 prospective centers for observational study, serum concentrations of SUA were measured on admission in the serum of 710 consecutive patients with AIS. SUA concentrations were determined by high-performance liquid chromatography. SUA, NIH stroke scale (NIHSS), and conventional risk factors were evaluated to determine their value to predict functional outcome within 3 months. Results: During the follow-up, an unfavorable functional outcome (defined as a mRS score &#x3e; 2) was found in 219 (30.8%) patients. The unfavorable functional outcome distribution across the SUA quartiles ranged between 12.4% (third quartile) and 50.6% (first quartile). After adjusting for all other significant outcome predictors, SUA concentration remained an independent unfavorable outcome predictor with an adjusted OR of 0.996 (95% CI, 0.993-0.998; P&#x3c; 0.001). Conclusions: The data show that the U-shaped nature of the exposure-risk relationship was more prominent when the data were assessed in deciles (based on the SUA values). This model predicted the lowest relative risk of unfavorable outcome in the 67th percentile (corresponding to 309 µmol/L). SUA was significantly associated with the risk of poor functional outcomes in Chinese patients with stroke

Osteogenic and anti-inflammatory effect of the multifunctional bionic hydrogel scaffold loaded with aspirin and nano-hydroxyapatite

Although tissue engineering offered new approaches to repair bone defects, it remains a great challenge to create a bone-friendly microenvironment and rebuild bone tissue rapidly by a scaffold with a bionic structure. In this study, a multifunctional structurally optimized hydrogel scaffold was designed by integrating polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), gelatin (Gel), and sodium alginate (SA) with aspirin (ASA) and nano-hydroxyapatite (nHAP). The fabrication procedure is through a dual-crosslinking process. The chemical constitution, crystal structure, microstructure, porosity, mechanical strength, swelling and degradation property, and drug-release behavior of the hydrogel scaffold were analyzed. Multi-hydrogen bonds, electrostatic interactions, and strong “egg-shell” structure contributed to the multi-network microstructure, bone tissue-matched properties, and desirable drug-release function of the hydrogel scaffold. The excellent performance in improving cell viability, promoting cell osteogenic differentiation, and regulating the inflammatory microenvironment of the prepared hydrogel scaffold was verified using mouse pre-osteoblasts (MC3T3-E1) cells. And the synergistic osteogenic and anti-inflammatory functions of aspirin and nano-hydroxyapatite were also verified. This study provided valuable insights into the design, fabrication, and biological potential of multifunctional bone tissue engineering materials with the premise of constructing a bone-friendly microenvironment