Real-time Spatial Detection and Tracking of Resources in a Construction Environment

Construction accidents with heavy equipment and bad decision making can be based on poor knowledge of the site environment and in both cases may lead to work interruptions and costly delays. Supporting the construction environment with real-time generated three-dimensional (3D) models can help preventing accidents as well as support management by modeling infrastructure assets in 3D. Such models can be integrated in the path planning of construction equipment operations for obstacle avoidance or in a 4D model that simulates construction processes. Detecting and guiding resources, such as personnel, machines and materials in and to the right place on time requires methods and technologies supplying information in real-time. This paper presents research in real-time 3D laser scanning and modeling using high range frame update rate scanning technology. Existing and emerging sensors and techniques in three-dimensional modeling are explained. The presented research successfully developed computational models and algorithms for the real-time detection, tracking, and three-dimensional modeling of static and dynamic construction resources, such as workforce, machines, equipment, and materials based on a 3D video range camera. In particular, the proposed algorithm for rapidly modeling three-dimensional scenes is explained. Laboratory and outdoor field experiments that were conducted to validate the algorithm’s performance and results are discussed

Performance of automated scoring of ER, PR, HER2, CK5/6 and EGFR in breast cancer tissue microarrays in the Breast Cancer Association Consortium

Breast cancer risk factors and clinical outcomes vary by tumour marker expression. However, individual studies often lack the power required to assess these relationships, and large-scale analyses are limited by the need for high throughput, standardized scoring methods. To address these limitations, we assessed whether automated image analysis of immunohistochemically stained tissue microarrays can permit rapid, standardized scoring of tumour markers from multiple studies. Tissue microarray sections prepared in nine studies containing 20 263 cores from 8267 breast cancers stained for two nuclear (oestrogen receptor, progesterone receptor), two membranous (human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 and epidermal growth factor receptor) and one cytoplasmic (cytokeratin 5/6) marker were scanned as digital images. Automated algorithms were used to score markers in tumour cells using the Ariol system. We compared automated scores against visual reads, and their associations with breast cancer survival. Approximately 65–70% of tissue microarray cores were satisfactory for scoring. Among satisfactory cores, agreement between dichotomous automated and visual scores was highest for oestrogen receptor (Kappa = 0.76), followed by human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (Kappa = 0.69) and progesterone receptor (Kappa = 0.67). Automated quantitative scores for these markers were associated with hazard ratios for breast cancer mortality in a dose-response manner. Considering visual scores of epidermal growth factor receptor or cytokeratin 5/6 as the reference, automated scoring achieved excellent negative predictive value (96–98%), but yielded many false positives (positive predictive value = 30–32%). For all markers, we observed substantial heterogeneity in automated scoring performance across tissue microarrays. Automated analysis is a potentially useful tool for large-scale, quantitative scoring of immunohistochemically stained tissue microarrays available in consortia. However, continued optimization, rigorous marker-specific quality control measures and standardization of tissue microarray designs, staining and scoring protocols is needed to enhance results.Peer reviewe

Evidence that breast cancer risk at the 2q35 locus is mediated through IGFBP5 regulation.

GWAS have identified a breast cancer susceptibility locus on 2q35. Here we report the fine mapping of this locus using data from 101,943 subjects from 50 case-control studies. We genotype 276 SNPs using the 'iCOGS' genotyping array and impute genotypes for a further 1,284 using 1000 Genomes Project data. All but two, strongly correlated SNPs (rs4442975 G/T and rs6721996 G/A) are excluded as candidate causal variants at odds against >100:1. The best functional candidate, rs4442975, is associated with oestrogen receptor positive (ER+) disease with an odds ratio (OR) in Europeans of 0.85 (95% confidence interval=0.84-0.87; P=1.7 × 10(-43)) per t-allele. This SNP flanks a transcriptional enhancer that physically interacts with the promoter of IGFBP5 (encoding insulin-like growth factor-binding protein 5) and displays allele-specific gene expression, FOXA1 binding and chromatin looping. Evidence suggests that the g-allele confers increased breast cancer susceptibility through relative downregulation of IGFBP5, a gene with known roles in breast cell biology

Common germline polymorphisms associated with breast cancer-specific survival

Abstract Introduction Previous studies have identified common germline variants nominally associated with breast cancer survival. These associations have not been widely replicated in further studies. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the association of previously reported SNPs with breast cancer-specific survival using data from a pooled analysis of eight breast cancer survival genome-wide association studies (GWAS) from the Breast Cancer Association Consortium. Methods A literature review was conducted of all previously published associations between common germline variants and three survival outcomes: breast cancer-specific survival, overall survival and disease-free survival. All associations that reached the nominal significance level of P value <0.05 were included. Single nucleotide polymorphisms that had been previously reported as nominally associated with at least one survival outcome were evaluated in the pooled analysis of over 37,000 breast cancer cases for association with breast cancer-specific survival. Previous associations were evaluated using a one-sided test based on the reported direction of effect. Results Fifty-six variants from 45 previous publications were evaluated in the meta-analysis. Fifty-four of these were evaluated in the full set of 37,954 breast cancer cases with 2,900 events and the two additional variants were evaluated in a reduced sample size of 30,000 samples in order to ensure independence from the previously published studies. Five variants reached nominal significance (P <0.05) in the pooled GWAS data compared to 2.8 expected under the null hypothesis. Seven additional variants were associated (P <0.05) with ER-positive disease. Conclusions Although no variants reached genome-wide significance (P <5 x 10−8), these results suggest that there is some evidence of association between candidate common germline variants and breast cancer prognosis. Larger studies from multinational collaborations are necessary to increase the power to detect associations, between common variants and prognosis, at more stringent significance levels

Publisher Correction: Evidence that breast cancer risk at the 2q35 locus is mediated through IGFBP5 regulation.

This corrects the article DOI: 10.1038/ncomms5999

3D CAD DRAWING AS A PRIORI KNOWLEDGE FOR MACHINE VISION IN CONSTRUCTION

The process of infrastructure management includes: (i) monitoring and evaluation, (ii) planning (iii) design, (iv) construction, and (v) operations and maintenance, all linked through a common management information system. Several of these activities require sensing the infrastructure and its environment. Advanced sensing approaches are therefore more and more viewed as important tools for assessing performance, improving speed and quality of decision making processes, as well as increasing safety. Driven by new technologies, different applications have already been investigated and some of them have already been adopted by companies. They include: as-built status assessment using LADAR/LIDAR technology, compliance checking using a single-axis laser and primitives-fitting algorithms, as well as work environment modeling using a single-axis laser and convex-hull fitting algorithms. LADARs/LIDARS applications are characterized by significant data processing durations (a few days) and single-axis laser based applications are characterized by acquisition times of a few minutes per object. However, as previously explained, the construction industry needs to take real-time decisions, and for this reason it needs real-time information. Specifically, heavy constructio