Efficient Online Surface Correction for Real-time Large-Scale 3D Reconstruction

State-of-the-art methods for large-scale 3D reconstruction from RGB-D sensors usually reduce drift in camera tracking by globally optimizing the estimated camera poses in real-time without simultaneously updating the reconstructed surface on pose changes. We propose an efficient on-the-fly surface correction method for globally consistent dense 3D reconstruction of large-scale scenes. Our approach uses a dense Visual RGB-D SLAM system that estimates the camera motion in real-time on a CPU and refines it in a global pose graph optimization. Consecutive RGB-D frames are locally fused into keyframes, which are incorporated into a sparse voxel hashed Signed Distance Field (SDF) on the GPU. On pose graph updates, the SDF volume is corrected on-the-fly using a novel keyframe re-integration strategy with reduced GPU-host streaming. We demonstrate in an extensive quantitative evaluation that our method is up to 93% more runtime efficient compared to the state-of-the-art and requires significantly less memory, with only negligible loss of surface quality. Overall, our system requires only a single GPU and allows for real-time surface correction of large environments.Comment: British Machine Vision Conference (BMVC), London, September 201

Epidemiology and Patterns of Transport-Related Fatalities in Austria 1980–2012

<div><p><b>Objectives:</b> Transport-related accidents remain the largest single cause of death among people aged 15 to 29 in the European Union, and despite the decrease in number of fatalities from 1990 onwards they remain a significant public health problem. The aim of this article was to analyze the long-term trends and patterns of transport-related fatalities, identify the anatomic distribution of most significant injuries in different road users, and identify the primary populations at risk of transport-related death in Austria between 1980 and 2013.</p><p><b>Methods:</b> Data on transport-related fatalities based on death certificates were obtained from Statistics Austria for the analyzed period. Crude and age-standardized mortality rates per 100,000 were calculated and broken down by age, gender, and month of death, and the anatomic distribution of most significant injuries were identified. Potential years of life lost before age 75 (PYLL-75) were used as a measure of public health impact.</p><p><b>Results:</b> A total of 39,709 transport-related fatalities were identified for the studied years; 74% were males and the mean age was 42.1 years (range 0–103). A decrease in the number of fatalities (from 2018 in 1980 to 554 in 2012), mortality rates (from 26 in 1980 to 7 in 2012), and PYLL-75 (from 68,960 in 1980 to 14,931 in 2012) was observed. Introduction of major prevention milestones (compulsory use of seat belts or child restraints) may have contributed to this decrease. Men 16–24 years old were at the highest risk of transport-related death. Pedestrian victims were more likely to be women and car drivers and motorcyclists were more often men. Most fatal transport accidents occurred between the months of May and October and prevailingly in towns of fewer than 20,000 inhabitants. Injuries to the head were the most significant injuries in all user groups (>50% of cases in all road user types). Reduced mortality rates could translate into higher prevalence of long-term disabilities in survivors of transport accidents.</p><p><b>Conclusions:</b> Despite the decreasing trend observed, transport-related fatalities remain a serious public health issue in Austria. An increase in the mortality of motor vehicle drivers warrants more preventive action in this group. Further research is needed on other outcomes of transport accidents such as long-term disabilities to elucidate the true public health burden of transport accidents.</p></div

Additional file 1: Table S1. of Mortality due to traumatic spinal cord injuries in Europe: a cross-sectional and pooled analysis of population-wide data from 22 countries

Crude and age-standardized TSCI-related mortality rates per million person years by country and age groups (total). Table S2. Rate ratios of TSCI-related mortality rates per million person years by country and age groups with 95% CI by sex. Table S3. Number of deaths* and age-standardized mortality rates per million person years due to all injuries and TSCI with proportions of TSCI-related age-standardized mortalities and number of deaths, stratified by country and sex. Figure S1. TSCI-related mortality rates by external cause in 22 European countries in 2012, by sex. Figure S2. TSCI-related mortality rates by level of injury, in 22 European countries in 2012, by sex. (PDF 5 kb

Imidazole-2yl-Phosphonic Acid Derivative Grafted onto Mesoporous Silica Surface as a Novel Highly Effective Sorbent for Uranium(VI) Ion Extraction

A new imidazol-2yl-phosphonic acid/mesoporous silica sorbent (ImP­(O)­(OH)₂/SiO₂) was developed and applied for uranium­(VI) ion removal from aqueous solutions. The synthesized material was characterized by fast kinetics and an extra-high adsorption capacity with respect to uranium. The highest adsorption efficiency of U­(VI) ions was obtained for the reaction system at pH 4 and exceeded 618 mg/g. The uranium­(VI) sorption proceeds quickly in the first step within 60 min of the adsorbent sites and ion interactions. Moreover, the equilibrium time was determined to be 120 min. The equilibrium and kinetic characteristics of the uranium­(VI) ions uptake by synthesized sorbent was found to follow the Langmuir–Freundlich isotherm model and pseudo-second-order kinetics rather than the Langmuir, Dubinin–Radushkevich, and Temkin models and pseudo-first-order or intraparticle diffusion sorption kinetics. The adsorption mechanism for uranium on the sorbent was clarified basing on the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis. The model of UO₂²⁺ binding to surface of the sorbent was proposed according to the results of XPS, i.e., a 1:1 U-to-P ratio in the sorbed complex was established. The regeneration study confirms the ImP­(O)­(OH)₂/SiO₂ sorbent can be reused. A total of 45% of uranium ions was determined as originating from the sorbent leaching in the acidic solutions, whereas when the basic solutions were used, the removal efficiency was 12%

Years of life lost due to traumatic brain injury in Europe: A cross-sectional analysis of 16 countries

<div><p>Introduction</p><p>Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) are a major public health, medical, and societal challenge globally. They present a substantial burden to victims, their families, and the society as a whole. Although indicators such as incidence or death rates provide insight into the occurrence and outcome of TBIs in various populations, they fail to quantify the full extent of their public health and societal impact. Measures such as years of life lost (YLLs), which quantifies the number of years of life lost because the person dies prematurely due to a disease or injury, should be employed to better quantify the population impact. The aim of this study was to provide an in-depth analysis of the burden of deaths due to TBI by calculating TBI-specific YLLs in 16 European countries, analyzing their main causes and demographic patterns, using data extracted from death certificates under unified guidelines and collected in a standardized manner.</p><p>Methods and findings</p><p>A population-wide, cross-sectional epidemiological study was conducted in 16 European countries to estimate TBI YLLs for the year 2013. The data used for all analyses in this study were acquired from the statistical office of the European Union (Eurostat). A specifically tailored dataset of micro-level data was provided that listed the external cause of death (International Classification of Diseases–10th Revision [ICD-10] codes V01–Y98), the specific nature of injury (ICD-10 codes S00–T98), the age at death, and sex for each death. Overall number of TBI YLLs, crude and age-standardized TBI YLL rates, and TBI YLLs per case were calculated stratified for country, sex, and age. Pooled analyses were performed in order to estimate summary age-standardized rates of TBI YLLs. In order to evaluate the relative importance of TBI in the context of all injuries, proportions of TBI YLLs out of overall injury YLLs were calculated. The total number of TBI YLLs was estimated by extrapolating the pooled crude rate of TBI YLLs in the 16 analyzed countries to the total population of the 28 member states of the EU (EU-28). We found that a total of 17,049 TBI deaths occurred in 2013 in the 16 analyzed countries. These translated into a total of 374,636 YLLs. The pooled age-standardized rate of YLLs per 100,000 people per year was 259.1 (95% CI: 205.8 to 312.3) overall, 427.5 (95% CI: 290.0 to 564.9) in males, and 105.4 (95% CI: 89.1 to 121.6) in females. Males contributed substantially more to TBI YLLs than females (282,870 YLLs, 76% of all TBI YLLs), which translated into a rate ratio of 3.24 (95% CI: 3.22 to 3.27). Each TBI death was on average associated with 24.3 (95% CI: 22.0 to 26.6) YLLs overall, 25.6 (95% CI: 23.4 to 27.8) in males and 20.9 (17.9 to 24.0) in females. Falls and traffic crashes were the most common external causes of TBI YLLs. TBI contributed on average 41% (44% in males and 34% in females) to overall injury YLLs. Extrapolating our findings, about 1.3 million YLLs were attributable to TBI in the EU-28 in 2013 overall, 1.1 million in males and 271,000 in females. This study is based on administratively collected data from 16 countries, and despite the efforts to harmonize them to the greatest possible extent, there may be differences in coding practices or reporting between countries. If present, these would be inherited into our findings without our ability to control for them. The extrapolation of the pooled rates from the 16 countries to the EU-28 should be interpreted with caution.</p><p>Conclusions</p><p>Our study showed that TBI-related deaths and YLLs have a substantial impact at the individual and population level in Europe and present an important societal and economic burden that must not be overlooked. We provide information valuable for policy-makers, enabling them to evaluate and plan preventive activities and resource allocation, and to formulate and implement strategic decisions. In addition, our results can serve as a basis for analyzing the overall burden of TBI in the population.</p></div

Numbers of TBI YLLs in 16 European countries in 2013 by age, sex, and country.

<p>Numbers of TBI YLLs in 16 European countries in 2013 by age, sex, and country.</p

Estimated numbers of YLLs in the EU-28 based on extrapolation of pooled crude YLL rates.

<p>Estimated numbers of YLLs in the EU-28 based on extrapolation of pooled crude YLL rates.</p

Age-standardized TBI death rates per 100,000 persons in 16 European countries in 2013.

<p>TBI, traumatic brain injury. Grey areas were not included in this study.</p

Crude and age-standardized TBI YLL rates per 100,000 persons in 16 European countries in 2013 by age and sex.

<p>Crude and age-standardized TBI YLL rates per 100,000 persons in 16 European countries in 2013 by age and sex.</p

Burden of TBI YLLs per death in 16 European countries in 2013 by age and sex.

<p>Burden of TBI YLLs per death in 16 European countries in 2013 by age and sex.</p