Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Recovering Stable Scale in Monocular SLAM Using Object-Supplemented Bundle Adjustment

Without knowledge of the absolute baseline between images, the scale of a map from a single-camera simultaneous localization and mapping system is subject to calamitous drift over time. We describe a monocular approach that in addition to point measurements also considers object detections to resolve this scale ambiguity and drift. By placing an expectation on the size of the objects, the scale estimation can be seamlessly integrated into a bundle adjustment. When object observations are available, the local scale of the map is then determined jointly with the camera pose in local adjustments. Unlike many previous visual odometry methods, our approach does not impose restrictions such as constant camera height or planar roadways, and is therefore more widely applicable. We evaluate our approach on the KITTI data set and show that it reduces scale drift over long-range outdoor sequences with a total length of 40 km. As the scale of objects is known absolutely, metric accuracy is obtained for all sequences. Qualitative evaluation is also performed on video footage from a hand-held camera.
Playing chess with the assistance of an industrial robot

In the first part of this paper the simulation of the industrial robot as an assistance robot for playing chess and the realisation of the real idea is presented. The simulation part of the project has been realised with the software KUKA Sim Pro in version 2.2. 2. The software KUKA Sim Pro is an application used for design of 3D-layouts of a plant components including KUKA-robots. With it, any plans and concept designs can be virtually projected and be analysed. Industrial robot used in the project is of the type KR6 R900 sixx (Agilus), which counts to be a quickest industrial robot worldwide. Further part of the system is PLC controlled conveyor belt, connected with the robot control unit. In the second part of the paper, the practical realisation of the simulation is presented. Especially the construction of the chess board and the pawns has been explained. For it aluminium has been used as a material for the "white" pawns and graphite for the "black" pawns. In order to pick up the paws, the Vacuum cup with Venturi nozzle has been designed. The project can be applied for educational purposes as a form of an interesting example how to learn to program and simulate the industrial robots.
Low latency techniques for mobile backhaul over DOCSIS

The mobile network operators (MNOs) are looking into economically viable backhaul solutions as alternatives to fiber, specifically the hybrid fiber coaxial networks (HFC). When the latencies from both the wireless and the HFC networks are added together, the result is a noticeable end-to-end system latency, particularly under network congestion. In order to decrease total system latency, we proposed a method to improve upstream user-to-mobile core latency by coordinating the LTE and HFC scheduling in previous papers. In this paper, we implement and optimize the proposed method on a custom LTE and DOCSIS end-to-end system testbed. The testbed uses the OpenAirInterface (OAI) platform for the LTE network, along with Cisco's broadband router cBR-8 that is currently deployed in the HFC networks around the world. Our results show a backhaul latency improvement under all traffic load conditions.
A novel switched-capacitor based single-phase five-level transformerless inverter

This paper proposes a 5-level single-phase transformerless inverter topology for grid-connected PV applications. The new topology makes use of a switched-capacitor network on the input side and eliminates leakage current completely by maintaining the Total Common Mode Voltage (TCMV) constant. The proposed inverter topology has the advantage of complete multi-level performance resulting in low harmonic distortion in the output voltage and reduction in device stress. Moreover, the proposed inverter topology eliminates the need for isolation as the TCMV is constant, resulting in mitigation of leakage current. TCMV analysis of the proposed topology is carried out including the effect of switch parasitic capacitance to show its capability of complete elimination of leakage current. Furthermore, the proposed topology is capable of feeding reactive power into the grid. Simulation results of the proposed topology with grid connection are presented to illustrate the various capabilities.
Clinical, Immunological, and Molecular Findings in Four Cases of B Cell Expansion With NF-κB and T Cell Anergy Disease for the First Time From India

B cell expansion with NF-κB and T cell anergy (BENTA) is a rare primary immunodeficiency disorder caused by mutations in the CARD11 gene and results in constitutive NF-κB activation in B and T cells. Affected patients present with polyclonal expansion of B cells at an early age with splenomegaly, lymphadenopathy, and mild autoimmunity. Here, we discuss four BENTA cases with unusual clinical manifestations not previously reported. All patients showed previously reported gain-of-function mutations (G123S, G123D, and C49Y) in the CARD11 gene. Severe autoimmune manifestations were noted for the first time in all our patients.
Energy-Aware Real-Time Routing for Large-Scale Industrial Internet of Things

This paper proposes a routing scheme that enhances energy consumption and end-to-end delay for large-scale Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) systems based on IEEE 802.15. 4a MAC. In the current IIoT, a larger-scale and complex deployment has been a noticeable obstacle for minimizing power consumption and routing on real-time. Thus, the proposed algorithm is targeted at large-scale systems where data are aggregated through different clusters on their way to the sink. Moreover, a hierarchical system framework is employed to promote scalability of IIoT elements. By estimating the residual energy and hop counts for each path, the data can be forwarded to the destination through the optimal path. Simulation results show that the scheme can reduce the energy consumption and end-to-end delay effectively.
Adaptive resource allocation for secure two-hop communication

This paper develops novel transmission schemes to support secure dual-hop Alice-Ray-Bob relaying communication in the presence of a passive eavesdropper (Eve). Due to unknown eavesdropper channel conditions, data transmissions from Alice (to Ray) and from Ray (to Bob) are required to satisfy the secrecy constraint in terms of maximum acceptable secrecy outage probability (SOP). The throughput maximization problem is studied for two scenarios: 1) fixed (Alice and Ray) power allocation; and 2) adaptive power allocation. The resulting constrained optimization problems are solved using the Lagrangian approach. In each frame, either Alice or Ray or neither can be scheduled for transmission depending on the instantaneous main channel conditions. Numerical results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed schemes over the existing schemes under various secrecy constraint and signal-to-noise power ratio (SNR) regimes.
Predictors and prognosis for incident in-hospital heart failure in patients with preserved ejection fraction after first acute myocardial infarction

Abstract Patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) complicated by heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) are likely to have more adverse cardiovascular events and higher mortality. The purpose of this study was to examine the predictors and outcomes in AMI patients complicated by HFpEF. We examined the demographics, clinical data, and clinical outcomes in 405 consecutive subjects who firstly presented with AMI after undergoing emergency percutaneous coronary intervention from January 2013 to June 2016. Three hundred twenty patients and eighty-five patients were classified into the nonheart failure (non-HF) group and HFpEF group, respectively. Patients with HFpEF had higher prevalence of prior hypertension, had higher levels of biomarkers, and had a larger left atrial diameter with a nondilated left ventricle were more likely to develop multivessel disease-vessels and had infarction-related artery located in left anterior descending artery than patients without HF. Moreover, patients with HFpEF had a higher probability of developing the in-hospital incident cardiovascular complications and death than non-HF patients. Two routine biomarkers, levels of hypersensitive C-reactive protein and N-terminal-pro brain natriuretic peptide, and number of diseased-vessels were independent predictors for in-hospital HFpEF incidence in AMI patients with preserved LVEF. AMI patients with HFpEF had a higher probability of in-hospital cardiovascular outcomes and mortality.
Record 560 Gb/s Single-Carrier and 850 Gb/s Dual-Carrier Transmission over Transoceanic Distances

We demonstrate record single-carrier 560-Gb/s over 6,600 km and 430-Gb/s transmission over 13,200 km, as well as dual-carrier 850-Gb/s over 6,600km, and 1-Tb/s over 3,960km, leveraging advanced DACs, wideband receiver, probabilistic shaping and nonlinear mitigation.
Adaptive numerology — A solution to address the demanding QoS in 5G-V2X

The critical requirements for the future automated connected cars to communicate are crucial to satisfy. It is challenging to achieve high reliability and low latency in Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) communication under variant velocity and varying channel conditions. We propose an adaptive system design to enhance robustness against Doppler and multipath effects, and to accomplish the Quality of Service (QoS) requirements of a V2X system. The key idea is to adapt the transmission configuration to fulfill the stringent reliability constraints considering the effect of mobility and channel conditions. We suggest adapting the transmission parameters such as subcarrier spacing and symbol duration including Cyclic Prefix overhead, termed as numerology. An adaptive numerology selection algorithm is proposed in this work, which shows significant gains. The adaptation is dependent on the estimated channel parameters such as Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR), delay spread and Doppler spread. A comparative Bit-Error-Rate (BER) performance evaluation is performed by simulations, highlighting the benefits of numerology adaptation.
Primary user activity modeling using multi-term parameter estimation in cognitive radio systems

Primary user (PU) activity modeling is a technique used to produce more information at the secondary user (SU) during its spectrum sensing process. With the PU activity information, the SU is able to obtain a better decision in selecting a vacant channel for its communication. However, the long-term parameter estimation based activity modeling is seen to be missing the valuable spectrum opportunities under burst traffic conditions while the short-term parameter estimation based PU activity modeling techniques can capture these opportunities with an added complexity. At the same time, poor correlation among traffic at different time intervals can dramatically reduce the accuracy in short-term modeling. On the other hand, the actual PU behavior can be shadowed from the SU due to the practical channel impairments. These give rise to a situation that neither the short-term nor the long-term parameter estimation based activity modeling are accurate under all conditions. This paper proposes a multi-term parameter estimation based PU activity modeling scheme which produces a higher spectrum sensing efficiency while retaining the simplicity. Furthermore, the proposed scheme produces an efficient way of primary user activity modeling under realistic channel conditions. The simulation results verify the superior modeling accuracy versus the complexity trade-off of the proposed scheme when compared to the existing modeling techniques.
EKF on lie groups for radar tracking using polar and Doppler measurements

This paper presents a parametrization for 2D-radar targets on Lie group to tackle the filtering tracking problem. By assuming concentrated Gaussian distributions on Lie groups rather than the conventional Gaussian distributions in Euclidean space, it is shown that the proposed parametrization is a better approximation to the curved-shape distribution of the position of moving targets with noise in the linear and angular speeds. The parametrization is applied to a generalization of the Extended Kalman Filter in which the system state and measurements evolve on matrix Lie groups. The considered system dynamics is a constant linear speed and constant turn rate model, adapted to a Lie group structure. The performance of the Discrete Lie Group EKF is compared to the conventional EKF in Euclidean space and an improvement in the filtering performance is verified.
Screening genes associated with elevated neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio in chronic heart failure

Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) is commonly considered a useful prognostic index for many cardiovascular diseases; however, it has limited sensitivity and specificity. Factors associated with elevated NLR may aid in the prediction of prognosis with heart failure (HF) in combination with NLR. The present study sought to identify decisive factors associated with NLR in HF patients and investigate their association with elevated NLR. The gene expression profile for blood samples from 197 individuals with chronic heart failure (CHF), with corresponding hematological parameters and clinical data were obtained from the public database, GSE77343. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified, and Gene Ontology and pathway enrichment analyses were performed. The protein-protein interaction network was constructed with the Search Tool for the Retrieval of Interacting Genes along with Cytoscape. Receiver operating characteristic curves for predictive power, sensitivity and specificity were constructed. The present study identified specific associated DEGs by using Pearson linear correlation and logistic regression analysis. A mean NLR of 3.96 was determined as the cutoff value in the analysis. In total, 31 genes were initially identified as DEGs associated with elevated NLR. They were mainly enriched in neutrophil activation and neutrophil mediated immunity, in fluid shear stress and atherosclerosis, and transcriptional misregulation in cancer. Three focused DEGs, solute carrier family 22 member 4 (SLC22A4), interleukin-1 receptor 2 (IL1R2) and vanin 3 (VNN3), were finally revealed to be independently associated with elevated NLR in CHF patients. The present study demonstrated that the three genes SLC22A4, IL1R2 and VNN3 may be independently associated with elevated NLR in CHF patients as potential decisive factors of NLR.
Effect of Xanthine Oxidase Inhibition on Arterial Stiffness in Patients With Chronic Heart Failure

Background: The xanthine oxidase inhibitor allopurinol improves endothelial function in different populations, including patients with chronic heart failure (CHF). Its effect on arterial stiffness parameters is less clear. We investigated the effect of short-term low-dose allopurinol therapy on arterial stiffness in Saudi patients with stable mild-moderate CHF. Methods: A prospective, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study was performed on 73 patients with mild-moderate CHF. In all, 36 patients were randomized to allopurinol 300 mg daily for 3 months, while 37 patients were randomized to placebo. Arterial stiffness parameters, aortic pulse wave velocity (Ao-PWV) and heart rate corrected augmentation index (c-AIx), were assessed before and after treatment along with serum uric acid. Results: A total of 66 patients completed the study. Both groups were matched for age, sex, severity of heart failure, and arterial stiffness. Compared with placebo, allopurinol recipients had a significant fall in uric acid concentration from 6.31 ± 1.4 (SD) mg/dL to 3.81 ± 1.2 (P < .001). Despite that, there was no significant change in arterial stiffness parameters between allopurinol and placebo groups. Post-treatment Ao-PWV was 9.79 ± 2.6 m/s in the allopurinol group and 10.07 ± 3.4 m/s in the placebo group, P = . 723. Post-treatment c-AIx was 24.0% ± 9.1% and 22.0% ± 9.9%, respectively, P = . 403. Conclusions: We have shown that allopurinol significantly reduced uric acid concentration in Saudi patients with CHF but was not associated with a change in arterial stiffness. Our cohort of patients had worse arterial stiffness values at baseline, which might make them more resistant to change using our study regimen. The study has been registered with the International Standard Randomized Controlled Trial Number registry with an identifier number of ISRCTN58980230.
Thermal Energy Harvesting on the Bodily Surfaces of Arms and Legs through a Wearable Thermo-Electric Generator

This work analyzes the results of measurements on thermal energy harvesting through a wearable Thermo-electric Generator (TEG) placed on the arms and legs. Four large skin areas were chosen as locations for the placement of the TEGs. In order to place the generator on the body, a special manufactured band guaranteed the proper contact between the skin and TEG. Preliminary measurements were performed to find out the value of the resistor load which maximizes the power output. Then, an experimental investigation was conducted for the measurement of harvested energy while users were performing daily activities, such as sitting, walking, jogging, and riding a bike. The generated power values were in the range from 5 to 50 μW. Moreover, a preliminary hypothesis based on the obtained results indicates the possibility to use TEGs on leg for the recognition of locomotion activities. It is due to the rather high and different biomechanical work, produced by the gastrocnemius muscle, while the user is walking rather than jogging or riding a bike. This result reflects a difference between temperatures associated with the performance of different activities.
New characteristic mode of perfect electric conductors for optimizing radiated power

A new kind of characteristic mode (CM) for PEC is constructed, and it can optimize radiated power. It is proved that all non-radiative CMs constitute the basis of the non-radiation space which is constituted by all non-radiative modes, and the non-radiation space is the same as the internal resonance space of closed PEC cavities, and then the eigen-mode theory for closed PEC cavities is classified into CM theory framework.
Channel measurements and performance of indoor time-of-arrival localization at 5GHz

We perform a novel indoor channel measurement campaign to characterize the channel impairments for time-of-arrival (ToA) localization. We use precisely calibrated and time-synchronized RF equipment for transmitting and receiving 10 MHz and 100 MHz bandwidth waveforms over the 5.5 GHz DFS band in line-of-sight (LOS) and non-LOS environments. We collect ToA bias statistics with respect to a direct LOS path, where the bias is caused by multipath and NLOS reflections. Indoor wall reflections create significant ToA bias error of up to a couple hundred nanoseconds, corresponding to a positive ranging error of several tens of meters. We show how the WINNER II channel model, commonly used for communications simulations, is not suitable for ToA localization due to the improperly modeled signal timing and unrealistically low bias. The bias statistics based on our measurements are used for simulations of a ToA localization system using conventional and probabilistic multilateration algorithms. We present numerical results which provide insights for system design and performance-cost tradeoffs with regard to infrastructure density and signal bandwidth.
Improved 2-class target classification performance using radar waveform design

This paper establishes the importance of radar waveforms in determining classification performance in radar systems. The paper derives a closed-form solution for the optimal waveform design. The objective is to minimise the probability of target misclassification in a 2-class problem while satisfying an energy constraint. The derivation results in a simple analytical form for the spectrum of the optimal signal. An example is presented showing the improvement in classification performance of the optimal waveform over a linearly frequency modulated waveform.
Há-Vita: A transmedia platform about Madeira's nature and culture

In this exhibition, we present “Há-Vita”, a transmedia platform conceived to foster awareness and communication among locals and tourists regarding Madeira natural wealth. This work takes an artistic approach to the appropriation of a transmedia tool. We take into consideration graphic design aesthetics and interaction design principles in order to promote environmental sustainability and raise awareness in tourists about the biodiversity of Madeira Island, Portugal.
The Business Case for Chaos Engineering

While Chaos Engineering has gained currency in the Site Reliability Engineering community, service and business owners are often nervous about experimenting in production. Proving the benefits of Chaos Engineering to these stakeholders before implementing a program can be challenging. We present the business case for Chaos Engineering, through both qualitative and quantitative tactics, as well as the benefits and tools to convince stakeholders this is necessary and cost-efficient.
Estimation of Breast Tumor Conductivity using Parabolic Phase Fitting

According to ex vivo studies, breast tumors exhibit a significantlyaltered electric conductivity. This feature opens the chance to increase the specificity of breast tumor characterization with MRI. Theelectric conductivity can be measured in vivo using Electric Properties Tomography (EPT). EPT has shown its potential in phantom, volunteer, and initial clinical studies. However, the complex frayed structure of fat and ductile tissue in the breast hampers the straight-forward application of EPT, based on the second derivative of the RFTX phase. In this study, a new EPT reconstruction algorithm, based on fitting local parabolic functions on the TX phase, is developed and applied to example breast tumors.