GPS data conditioning for enhancing reliability of automated off-road vehicles

[EN] The practical implementation of precision agriculture at a large scale has not occurred yet for several reasons. Among them, the lack of uniformity and reliability in global positioning has discouraged many producers from adopting advanced solutions which, while considered to add a significant value to their production systems, cannot be incorporated without guarantees of minimum levels of long-term consistency. Although substantial improvements are constantly being introduced by receiver manufacturers, positioning errors can appear at the final stages of the localization process, resulting in inaccuracies and anomalies normally undetected by embedded quality filters. This article proposes an actuation protocol to enhance the robustness of GPS information for practical agricultural applications. The algorithm embodying this strategy merges partially-acquired raw strings into complete US National Marine Electronics Association messages whose information fields are checked for consistency. Once data qualifies as stable, other logic filters are applied to reinforce the likelihood of obtaining proper locations. Extensive field tests demonstrated that the algorithm was able to discard most erroneous positions due to typical GPS errors and poor signal reception in complex agricultural environments. However, the phenomena of coordinate quantization and random outliers were still present, which indicates that further redundancy is necessary to avoid unreliable outcomes. In this regard, positive results for supplementary consistency from GPS-based vehicle heading and speed are anticipated.Our gratitude is extended to the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation for funding this research through project AGL2009-11731.Rovira Más, F.; Banerjee, R. (2012). GPS data conditioning for enhancing reliability of automated off-road vehicles. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part D: Journal of Automobile Engineering. 227(4):521-535. https://doi.org/10.1177/0954407012454976521535227

Sequential Reattempt of Telecloning

The task of a telecloning protocol is to send an arbitrary qubit possessed by a sender to multiple receivers. Instead of performing Bell measurement at the sender's node, if one applies unsharp measurement, we show that the shared state can be recycled for further telecloning protocol. Specifically, in case of a single sender and two receivers, the maximal attempting number, which is defined as the maximum number of rounds used by the channel to obtain quantum advantage in the fidelity, turns out to be three both for optimal and nonoptimal shared states for telecloning while the maximal number reduces to two in case of three receivers. Although the original telecloning with quantum advantage being possible for arbitrary numbers of receivers, we report that the recycling of resources is not possible in telecloning involving a single sender and more than three receivers, thereby demonstrating a no-go theorem. We also connect the maximal achievable fidelities in each round with the bipartite entanglement content of the reduced state between the sender and one of the receivers as well as with the monogamy score of entanglement.Comment: v1: 12 pages, 5 figures; v2: 13 pages, 5 figures; close to the publish versio

Welfare v. Consent: On the Optimal Penalty for Harassment

The economic approach to determine optimal legal policies involves maximizing a social welfare function. We propose an alternative: a consent-approach that seeks to promote consensual interactions and deter non-consensual interactions. The consent-approach does not rest upon inter-personal utility comparisons or value judgments about preferences. It does not require any additional information relative to the welfare-approach. We highlight the contrast between the welfare-approach and the consent-approach using a stylized model inspired by seminal cases of harassment and the #MeToo movement. The social welfare maximizing penalty for harassment in our model can be zero under the welfare-approach but not under the consent-approach.Comment: 38 pages, 3 figure

A study of prevalence of metabolic syndrome in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus in a tertiary care referral hospital in West Bengal

Background: The terms "metabolic syndrome", "insulin resistance syndrome" and "syndrome X" are now used specifically to define a constellation of abnormalities that is associated with increased risk for the development of type 2 diabetes and atherosclerotic vascular disease. It is a state of chronic low grade inflammation with the profound systemic effects. Several organisations gave several criteria to diagnose it. Effective preventive approaches include lifestyle changes, primarily weight loss, diet, and exercise, the appropriate use of pharmacological agents to reduce the specific risk factors.Methods: A cross-sectional study was done to evaluate the co-morbidity profile of patients, with metabolic syndrome and correlate clinical manifestations with specific components or metabolic syndrome, at the OPD of Bankura Sammilani Medical College and Hospitals, West Bengal. American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists criteria were chosen for diagnosis.Results: 100 patients were recruited having type II diabetes mellitus. Most of the patients were male between 20-70 years and maximum was on oral hypoglycemic agent with app 40% patient was without any glycemic control. In comorbidities hypertension was highest, followed by coronary artery disease, hypothyroidism and cerebrovascular accident. Waist-hip ratio was highest in female. All of the patients were having some cardiac risk factor assessed by ECG, echocardiography and thread mill test.Conclusions: The data demonstrates that metabolic syndrome is extremely common among diabetic patients. Frequency was much higher in women than men. Obesity is a key element in causing the metabolic syndrome and this factor was also more common in women

An observational comparative study of different doses of azilsartan and with chlorthalidone combination in moderate hypertension

Background: High blood pressure (BP) is one of the significant non-communicable diseases that are of high prevalence in our country. Hypertension (HTN) is responsible cause of 57% of stroke and 24% of coronary heart disease deaths in India. Eight classes of medications are currently used in the treatment of hypertension. Azilsartan medoxomil is a newly added FDA approved drug to the ARB class of antihypertensive agents. azilsartan and chlorthalidone combination is also got the FDA approval. There is limited study in between these two groups regarding efficacy especially in rural Bengal.Methods: A prospective observational study was done in medicine OPD of Bankura Sammilani Medical College for twelve weeks with two groups that are azilsartan (80mg) and fixed dose combination of azilsartan (40mg) plus chlorthalidone (12.5mg) in the age group of 18 to 55years of moderate hypertensive patients. Change of heart rate was assessed as safety parameter.Results: It was found that both the group of drugs are very much effective in lowering blood pressure constantly in respect of both systolic and diastolic BP but azilsartan monotherapy in high dose reduce systolic blood pressure slightly high. Significant change of heart rate was not seen with both the groups.Conclusions: Both the group was effective as well as safe in hypertensive patients