Evaluation of an indoor localization system for a mobile robot

Although indoor localization has been a wide researched topic, obtained results may not fit the requirements that some domains need. Most approaches are not able to precisely localize a fast moving object even with a complex installation, which makes their implementation in the automated driving domain complicated. In this publication, common technologies were analyzed and a commercial product, called Marvelmind Indoor GPS, was chosen for our use case in which both ultrasound and radio frequency communications are used. The evaluation is given in a first moment on small indoor scenarios with static and moving objects. Further tests were done on wider areas, where the system is integrated within our Robotics Operating System (ROS)-based self-developed 'Smart PhysIcal Demonstration and evaluation Robot (SPIDER)' and the results of these outdoor tests are compared with the obtained localization by the installed GPS on the robot. Finally, the next steps to improve the results in further developments are discussed

Opposing temperature dependence of the stretching response of single PEG and PNiPAM polymers

The response of switchable polymer blends and coatings to temperature variation is important for the development of high-performance materials. Although this has been well studied for bulk materials, a proper understanding at the molecular level, in particular for high stretching forces, is still lacking. Here we investigate the molecular details of the temperature-dependent elastic response of two widely used water-soluble polymers, namely, polyethylene glycol (PEG) and poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNiPAM) with a combined approach using atomic force microscopy (AFM) based single molecule force spectroscopy (SMFS) experiments and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. SMFS became possible by the covalent attachment of long and defined single polymers featuring a functional end group. Most interestingly, varying the temperature produces contrasting effects for PEG and PNiPAM. Surprising as these results might occur at first sight, they can be understood with the help of MD simulations in explicit water. We find that hydration is widely underestimated for the mechanics of macromolecules and that a polymer chain has competing energetic and entropic elastic components. We propose to use the temperature dependence to quantify the energetic behavior for high stretching forces. This fundamental understanding of temperature-dependent single polymer stretching response might lead to innovations like fast switchable polymer blends and coatings with polymer chains that act antagonistically

A combined computational and functional approach identifies IGF2BP2 as a driver of chemoresistance in a wide array of pre-clinical models of colorectal cancer

Aim Chemoresistance is a major cause of treatment failure in colorectal cancer (CRC) therapy. In this study, the impact of the IGF2BP family of RNA-binding proteins on CRC chemoresistance was investigated using in silico, in vitro, and in vivo approaches. Methods Gene expression data from a well-characterized cohort and publicly available cross-linking immunoprecipi‑ tation sequencing (CLIP-Seq) data were collected. Resistance to chemotherapeutics was assessed in patient-derived xenografts (PDXs) and patient-derived organoids (PDOs). Functional studies were performed in 2D and 3D cell culture models, including proliferation, spheroid growth, and mitochondrial respiration analyses. Results We identifed IGF2BP2 as the most abundant IGF2BP in primary and metastastatic CRC, correlating with tumor stage in patient samples and tumor growth in PDXs. IGF2BP2 expression in primary tumor tissue was signif‑ cantly associated with resistance to selumetinib, geftinib, and regorafenib in PDOs and to 5-fuorouracil and oxalipl‑ atin in PDX in vivo. IGF2BP2 knockout (KO) HCT116 cells were more susceptible to regorafenib in 2D and to oxaliplatin, selumitinib, and nintedanib in 3D cell culture. Further, a bioinformatic analysis using CLIP data suggested stabiliza‑ tion of target transcripts in primary and metastatic tumors. Measurement of oxygen consumption rate (OCR) and extracellular acidifcation rate (ECAR) revealed a decreased basal OCR and an increase in glycolytic ATP production rate in IGF2BP2 KO. In addition, real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) analysis confrmed decreased expression of genes of the respiratory chain complex I, complex IV, and the outer mitochondrial membrane in IGF2BP2 KO cells. Conclusions IGF2BP2 correlates with CRC tumor growth in vivo and promotes chemoresistance by altering mito‑ chondrial respiratory chain metabolism. As a druggable target, IGF2BP2 could be used in future CRC therapy to overcome CRC chemoresistance

SELENE: Self-Monitored Dependable Platform for High-Performance Safety-Critical Systems.

© 2020 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.[Otros] xisting HW/SW platforms for safety-critical systems suffer from limited performance and/or from lack of flexibility due to building on specific proprietary components. This jeopardizes their wide deployment across domains. While some research has been done to overcome these limitations, they have had limited success owing to missing flexibility and extensibility. Flexibility and extensibility are the cornerstones of industry adoption: industries dealing in capital goods need technologies on which they can rely on during decades (e.g. avionics, space, automotive). SELENE aims at covering this gap by proposing a new family of safety-critical computing platforms, which builds upon open source components such as the RISC-V instruction set architecture, GNU/Linux, and the Jailhouse hypervisor. SELENE will develop an advanced computing platform that is able to: (1) adapt the system to the specific requirements of different application domains, to changing environmental conditions, and to internal conditions of the system itself; (2) allow the integration of applications of different criticalities and performance demands in the same platform, guaranteeing functional and temporal isolation properties; (3) achieve flexible diverse redundancy by exploiting the inherent redundant capabilities of the multicore; and (4) efficiently execute compute-intensive applications by means of specific accelerators.This work has received funding from the European Unions Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 871467.Hernández Luz, C.; Flich Cardo, J.; Paredes Palacios, R.; Lefebvre, C.; Allende, I.; Abella, J.; Trilla, D.... (2020). SELENE: Self-Monitored Dependable Platform for High-Performance Safety-Critical Systems. IEEE. 370-377. https://doi.org/10.1109/DSD51259.2020.00066S37037

Biometric systems - are they secure?

Abweichender Titel laut Übersetzung der Verfasserin/des VerfassersZsfassung in engl. SpracheDie vorliegende Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit der Sicherheit biometrischer Systeme. Ziel der Arbeit ist es, die vielen Berichte und Arbeiten, welche über die leichte Täuschungsmöglichkeit von Fingerprint-Scannern berichten, kritisch zu hinterfragen. Im Rahmen der Arbeit wird versucht, Fingerprint-Scanner durch Attrappen zu täuschen.Hierfür wurden über 80 Vorlagen aus drei verschiedenen Materialien (Fimo, Wachs und Leiterplatten) hergestellt. Von diesen Vorlagen wurden aus Holzleim, Silikon, Bastelkleber und Gelatine insgesamt 1741 Attrappen erzeugt, mit denen 34820 Einlogversuche durchgeführt und dokumentiert wurden. Die so gesammelten empirischen Daten werden in der Conlusio des Autors interpretiert und es wird versucht, eine Antwort auf die Frage der Sicherheit von gängigen Fingerprint-Scannern zu geben. Im Unterschied zu vielen der bislang existierenden Arbeiten zu diesem Thema werden die einzelnen Schritte des Versuchsablaufes detailliert beschrieben, um eine gewisse Nachvollziehbarkeit zu gewährleisten.The present thesis deals with the security of biometric systems.The goal of the thesis is to question the findings of existing papers and articles which state that it is quite easy to fool fingerprint scanners. Therefore a series of experiments were conducted, where the author tried to fool a fingerprint scanner and thereby to break into the system. In these experiments more than 80 molds were made out of three different materials (Fimo, wax and printed circuit boards). From these molds a total number of 1741 fake fingers were created (with wood glue, silicon, glue and gelatin). With this fake fingers a total of 34820 attempts to log in were conducted. In the concluding chapter the author tries to answer the question raised concerning the security of today's biometric systems on the basis of the collected empirical data. Unlike in most of the existing papers on this topic, the single steps of producing a fake finger and fooling the scanner are explained in every detail in this thesis to assure some kind of reproducibility.16

MEMS-based lidar for autonomous driving

Lidar, the acronym of light detection and ranging, has received much attention for the automotive industry as a key component for high level automated driving systems due to their high resolution and highly accurate 3D imaging of the surroundings under various weather conditions. However, the price and resolution of lidar sensors still do not meet the target values for the automotive market to be accepted as a basic sensor for ensuring safe autonomous driving. Recent work has focused on MEMS scanning mirrors as a potential solution for affordable long range lidar systems. This paper discusses current developments and research on MEMS-based lidars. The LiDcAR project is introduced for bringing precise and reliable MEMS-based lidars to enable safe and reliable autonomous driving. As a part of development in this project, a test bench for the characterization and performance evaluation of MEMS mirror is introduced. A recently developed MEMS-based lidar will be evaluated by various levels of tests including field tests based on realistic scenarios, aiming for safe and reliable autonomous driving in future automotive industry.Lidar, ein Akronym für Light Detection And Ranging, erhielt als Schlüsselkomponente für autonome Fahrsysteme in der Automobilindustrie viel Aufmerksamkeit, da es hochauflösende und hochgenaue 3D-Bilder der Umgebung bei verschiedensten Wetterbedingungen liefert. Derzeit entsprechen die Preise und die Auflösung der kommerziell verfügbaren Lidar-Sensoren jedoch noch nicht den Zielanforderungen, um als Basissensor zur Gewährleistung der Sicherheit während des autonomen Fahrens akzeptiert zu werden. MEMS-basierte Scan-Spiegel waren als potentielle Lösung für ein leistbares weitreichendes Lidar-System Fokus einer kürzlich durchgeführten Arbeit. Diese Arbeit erörtert die derzeitige Entwicklung und Forschung von MEMS-basierten Lidar-Systemen und stellt das LiDcAR-Projekt vor, dessen Ziel es ist, ein präzises und verlässliches MEMS-basiertes Lidar-System für autonomes Fahren zu entwickeln. Als Teil-Entwicklung dieses Projekts wird ein Prüfstand zur Charakterisierung und Evaluierung von MEMS Scan-Spiegeln vorgestellt. Das kürzlich entwickelte MEMS-basierte Lidar-System wird auf verschiedenen Testebenen evaluiert, inklusive Feldtests, basierend auf realistischen Szenarien, mit dem Ziel, in Zukunft sicheres und verlässliches autonomes Fahren zu gewährleisten.Mobilität der Zukunft (FFG

Characteristics and Prognostic Relevance of Ventricular Arrhythmia in Patients with Myocarditis

Myocarditis is characterized by various clinical manifestations, with ventricular arrhythmia (VA) as a frequent symptom at initial presentation. Here, we investigated characteristics and prognostic relevance of VA in patients with myocarditis. The study population consisted of 76 patients with myocarditis, verified by biopsy and/or cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging, including 38 consecutive patients with VA (45 ± 3 years, 68% male) vs. 38 patients without VA (NVA) (38 ± 2 years, 84% male) serving as a control group. VA was monomorphic ventricular tachycardia in 55% of patients, premature ventricular complexes in 50% and ventricular fibrillation in 29%. The left ventricular ejection fraction at baseline was 47 ± 2% vs. 40 ± 3% in VA vs. NVA patients (p = 0.069). CMR showed late gadolinium enhancement more often in VA patients (94% vs. 69%; p = 0.016), incorporating 17.6 ± 1.8% vs. 8.2 ± 1.3% of myocardial mass (p < 0.001). Radiofrequency catheter ablation for VA was initially performed in nine (24%) patients, of whom five remained free from any recurrence over 24 ± 3 months. Taken together, in patients with myocarditis, reduced left ventricular ejection fraction does not predict VA occurrence but CMR shows late gadolinium enhancement more frequently and to a larger extent in VA than in NVA patients, potentially guiding catheter ablation as a reasonable treatment of VA in this population