Reconstruction of 3D Points From Uncalibrated Underwater Video

This thesis presents a 3D reconstruction software pipeline that is capable of generating point cloud data from uncalibrated underwater video. This research project was undertaken as a partnership with 2G Robotics, and the pipeline described in this thesis will become the 3D reconstruction engine for a software product that can generate photo-realistic 3D models from underwater video. The pipeline proceeds in three stages: video tracking, projective reconstruction, and autocalibration. Video tracking serves two functions: tracking recognizable feature points, as well as selecting well-spaced keyframes with a wide enough baseline to be used in the reconstruction. Video tracking is accomplished using Lucas-Kanade optical flow as implemented in the OpenCV toolkit. This simple and widely used method is well-suited to underwater video, which is taken by carefully piloted and slow-moving underwater vehicles. Projective reconstruction is the process of simultaneously calculating the motion of the cameras and the 3D location of observed points in the scene. This is accomplished using a geometric three-view technique. Results are presented showing that the projective reconstruction algorithm detailed here compares favourably to state-of-the-art methods. Autocalibration is the process of transforming a projective reconstruction, which is not suitable for visualization or measurement, into a metric space where it can be used. This is the most challenging part of the 3D reconstruction pipeline, and this thesis presents a novel autocalibration algorithm. Results are shown for two existing cost function-based methods in the literature which failed when applied to underwater video, as well as the proposed hybrid method. The hybrid method combines the best parts of its two parent methods, and produces good results on underwater video. Final results are shown for the 3D reconstruction pipeline operating on short under- water video sequences to produce visually accurate 3D point clouds of the scene, suitable for photorealistic rendering. Although further work remains to extend and improve the pipeline for operation on longer sequences, this thesis presents a proof-of-concept method for 3D reconstruction from uncalibrated underwater video

Egress Times From Single Family Houses

This project investigates factors that affect evacuation from typical single family houses in the event of a fire. Through review of current literature and scientific information, egress time is found to depend on the location, cause, and time of the fire, the characteristics of the occupants, building design and the existence and location of a working smoke alarm in the house.Ce projet traite des facteurs qui entourent l'\ue9vacuation d'une habitation unifamiliale type lors d'un incendie. Un examen de la documentation et des donn\ue9es scientifiques actuelles r\ue9v\ue8le que le temps d'\ue9vacuation varie selon l'emplacement, la cause et le moment de l'incendie, les caract\ue9ristiques des occupants, la conception architecturale, ainsi que la pr\ue9sence et l'emplacement d'un d\ue9tecteur de fum\ue9e op\ue9rationnel dans la r\ue9sidence.Peer reviewed: NoNRC publication: Ye

Regression mapping of association between the human leukocyte antigen region and Graves' disease

The human leukocyte antigen class II genes DRB1, DQB1, and DQA1 are associated with Graves disease (GD), but, because of strong linkage disequilibrium within this region, the primary etiological variant(s) remains unknown. In the present study, 871 patients with GD and 621 control subjects were genotyped at the DRB1, DQB1, and DQA1 loci. All three loci were associated with GD (P = 1.45 x 10-12, P = 3.20 x 10-5, and P = 9.26 x 10-12, respectively). Stepwise logistic-regression analysis showed that the association could be explained by either DRB1 or DQA1 but not by DQB1. To extend previous results, the amino acid sequence of the exon 2-encoded peptide-binding domain of DRB1 was predicted for each subject, and, by use of logistic regression, each position was analyzed for association with GD. Of 102 amino acids, 70 were uninformative; of the remaining 32 amino acids, 13 were associated with GD (P values ranged from 2.20x10-4 to 1.2x10-12). The strongest association was at position B74. This analysis is consistent with the possibility that position B74 of exon 2 of the DRB1 molecule may have a specific and central role in autoantigen presentation by DRB1 to T lymphocytes. However, we cannot yet exclude a primary role for DQA1 or for other polymorphisms that affect DRB1 function or expression

Efficacy and safety of two neutralising monoclonal antibody therapies, sotrovimab and BRII-196 plus BRII-198, for adults hospitalised with COVID-19 (TICO): a randomised controlled trial

We aimed to assess the efficacy and safety of two neutralising monoclonal antibody therapies (sotrovimab [Vir Biotechnology and GlaxoSmithKline] and BRII-196 plus BRII-198 [Brii Biosciences]) for adults admitted to hospital for COVID-19 (hereafter referred to as hospitalised) with COVID-19. In this multinational, double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled, clinical trial (Therapeutics for Inpatients with COVID-19 [TICO]), adults (aged ≥18 years) hospitalised with COVID-19 at 43 hospitals in the USA, Denmark, Switzerland, and Poland were recruited. Patients were eligible if they had laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 symptoms for up to 12 days. Using a web-based application, participants were randomly assigned (2:1:2:1), stratified by trial site pharmacy, to sotrovimab 500 mg, matching placebo for sotrovimab, BRII-196 1000 mg plus BRII-198 1000 mg, or matching placebo for BRII-196 plus BRII-198, in addition to standard of care. Each study product was administered as a single dose given intravenously over 60 min. The concurrent placebo groups were pooled for analyses. The primary outcome was time to sustained clinical recovery, defined as discharge from the hospital to home and remaining at home for 14 consecutive days, up to day 90 after randomisation. Interim futility analyses were based on two seven-category ordinal outcome scales on day 5 that measured pulmonary status and extrapulmonary complications of COVID-19. The safety outcome was a composite of death, serious adverse events, incident organ failure, and serious coinfection up to day 90 after randomisation. Efficacy and safety outcomes were assessed in the modified intention-to-treat population, defined as all patients randomly assigned to treatment who started the study infusion. This study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04501978. Between Dec 16, 2020, and March 1, 2021, 546 patients were enrolled and randomly assigned to sotrovimab (n=184), BRII-196 plus BRII-198 (n=183), or placebo (n=179), of whom 536 received part or all of their assigned study drug (sotrovimab n=182, BRII-196 plus BRII-198 n=176, or placebo n=178; median age of 60 years [IQR 50–72], 228 [43%] patients were female and 308 [57%] were male). At this point, enrolment was halted on the basis of the interim futility analysis. At day 5, neither the sotrovimab group nor the BRII-196 plus BRII-198 group had significantly higher odds of more favourable outcomes than the placebo group on either the pulmonary scale (adjusted odds ratio sotrovimab 1·07 [95% CI 0·74–1·56]; BRII-196 plus BRII-198 0·98 [95% CI 0·67–1·43]) or the pulmonary-plus complications scale (sotrovimab 1·08 [0·74–1·58]; BRII-196 plus BRII-198 1·00 [0·68–1·46]). By day 90, sustained clinical recovery was seen in 151 (85%) patients in the placebo group compared with 160 (88%) in the sotrovimab group (adjusted rate ratio 1·12 [95% CI 0·91–1·37]) and 155 (88%) in the BRII-196 plus BRII-198 group (1·08 [0·88–1·32]). The composite safety outcome up to day 90 was met by 48 (27%) patients in the placebo group, 42 (23%) in the sotrovimab group, and 45 (26%) in the BRII-196 plus BRII-198 group. 13 (7%) patients in the placebo group, 14 (8%) in the sotrovimab group, and 15 (9%) in the BRII-196 plus BRII-198 group died up to day 90. Neither sotrovimab nor BRII-196 plus BRII-198 showed efficacy for improving clinical outcomes among adults hospitalised with COVID-19. US National Institutes of Health and Operation Warp Spee