julilili42/papers huggingface dataset:
Comprehensive metabolic and morphologic disease characterization in systemic sclerosis: initial results using combined positron emission tomography and magnetic resonance imaging
2019-09-01

Fascial FDG-uptake has a strong correlation with mRSS and can discriminate between limited and diffuse SSc. These results and the detection of active lymphadenopathy and esophagus involvement can identify patients with advanced scleroderma. Combined PET/MRI therefore provides complementary information on the complex pathophysiology and may integrate several imaging procedures in one.
LVO: Line only stereo Visual Odometry
2019-09-01

Visual odometry in sparsely textured environments is still a difficult task. Point feature based approaches are well researched, but they need enough texture to yield good results. Recently, line features moved into focus as they only need structure and no texture. Indoor scenes are typically rich in structure. This is why line features are very well suited for this task. A line represents many points and, thus, provides a higher accuracy than a single point. We present a line-only approach that runs stable in textureless environments while achieving real-time performance. Our approach can compete well with existing point- and line-based methods and outperforms existing line-only methods. We developed a tracking method for line-segments that works well without descriptors. Additionally, we propose a heuristic filter that improves the tracking and arbitrary matching results with lines. Furthermore, an optimization using the Cayley representation for 3D lines is used, reducing the line parameters from usually six to four. We demonstrate our performance on the EuRoC benchmark and on a synthetic scene which we built to test the algorithms under particularly difficult conditions.
Delay Estimation for Time Synchronization of a Bistatic Transfer Function Measurement Setup to Single Received Pulses
2019-09-01

In this paper, an efficient novel two-staged signal processing approach to synchronize a receiver to single received pulses is presented. Based on delay estimation between the transmitted and received signal the beginning of a single measurement pulse is indicated. In order to measure the transfer function of rural environments a pulse modulated chirp train is transmitted. Because of the bistatic nature of the measurement system a pulse synchronization in the receiver is needed to process each received pulse individually to estimate the transfer function over several pulses and to further improve estimation accuracy. Our approach uses a spectral windowed generalized cross-correlation with a kernel function to get a prewhitened correlation spectrum, leading to sharper cross-correlation peaks in time domain and a more accurate delay estimation in the first stage. Because the prewhitening step and spectral windowing introduce a sinc-like convolution with the time domain signal, sinc-interpolation is performed to estimate the delay. We demonstrate the performance of our approach both in simulation and with real measurement data.
Analysis of Microstructures in Traffic Jams on Highways Based on Drone Observations
2019-09-01

We investigate vehicle trajectories on a three-lane road segment of a highway which were obtain from drone observations. Based on these comprehensive datasets, we study distance headways to preceding vehicles and develop a method to quantify the local traffic density on a short distance ahead of a vehicle. We leverage these metrics to study a local traffic jam. The new method indicates increased traffic density ahead of a vehicle about 100 meters or 15 seconds before a vehicle is affected by the traffic jam. We also study the connection between vehicle speed and distance headway or traffic density, respectively, and quantify them by conditional probabilities and conditional means. On the one hand, the results give insights into microstructures of traffic jams. On the other hand, the novel method for local density calculation may be applied in vehicles to warn drivers of upcoming high density traffic situations which improves driving safety.
Sub-Pixel Resolution Techniques for Ray Casting in Low-Resolution Occupancy Grid Maps
2019-09-01

In robotics research, grid-based maps are widely used not only for localization and SLAM, but also as a prerequisite for navigational tasks such as path planning. Depending on the task, the utilized sensor, the chosen tradeoff between accuracy, runtime and memory requirements, and the exact map representation, a low grid resolution may be required. However, due to the involved discretization, occupancy grid maps suffer from aliasing effects and they are susceptible to sensor errors, especially if the resolution is low. In this work, we discuss different sub-pixel resolution methods, which improve the map quality without adapting the grid resolution. Therefore, we examine a grid traversal method inspired by antialiasing, which we use to apply weights to the grid cell updates in order to model straight beams more precisely. Further investigations include implicitly modeling the beam's width and shape. Finally, we inspect methods developed for ONDT maps and conduct extensive experiments to evaluate the discussed techniques.
Firmware Synthesis for Ultra-Thin IoT Devices Based on Model Integration
2019-09-01

The following topics are dealt with: formal specification; software engineering; Unified Modeling Language; specification languages; software architecture; object-oriented programming; learning (artificial intelligence); formal verification; automotive engineering; embedded systems.
Semantic Scene Segmentation of Unordered Point Clouds on Autonomous Robots
2019-09-01

This paper describes a 3D semantic scene segmentation with convolutional neural networks for unordered point clouds of autonomous robots. Euclidean coordinates and RGB color spaces are used as well as multi-scaling layers. An outlier removal is designed to optimize the classification rate. We tested our system on real scenes using an RGB-D camera installed on a mobile robot. Additionally, we did comparison experiments on three different scene benchmarks. Compared to state-of-the-art point cloud semantic scene segmentation networks, our network produces better quality of segmentation results and achieves higher training and testing accuracies, as well as average intersection over union (IoU) and overall accuracy.
Endoscopic Pan/Tilt Camera for Thorax Interventions – Design and first results
2019-09-01

Abstract Minimally invasive surgery in some cases suffers from a limited view because certain areas are obscured by others. In this paper, a system is described, which can be used in minimally invasive procedures as an addition to a standard endoscope to improve the range of view. Through FEM simulation a magnetic circuit was designed to position the camera head. Subsequently, a camera positioning system was set up that includes an extracorporeal and an intracorporeal unit. The first controls the intracorporeal system. The latter has a camera inclination angle of up to 65° and an additional vertically downward viewing angle when aligned in parallel (inclination angle 0°). The panning angle is 360°. The camera system was evaluated in lab and cadaver trials. It has been found that the size of the intracorporeal system (16 × 10 × 150 mm) represents a major problem. Future work will focus of the reduction of the system’s size, the improvement of the camera image quality, and design changes considering mechanical stability.
Systematic RISC-V based Firmware Design⋆
2019-09-01

Small embedded devices are highly specialized plat forms that integrate several peripherals alongside the CPU core. Embedded devices extensively rely on Firmware (FW) to control and access the peripherals as well as other important functionality. This poses challenges to FW development since the FW must be adapted to each specific device configuration. Besides ensuring functional correctness to avoid errors and security vulnerabilities, an important design factor today is the control and adaptivity of a system with respect to non-functional properties, like for example application-specific timing budgets. Furthermore, optimizations of the FW and HW/SW interface play a very important role due to the tight resource constraints of small embedded devices. To satisfy these requirements new FW design methods are needed targeting FW generation, FW verification and FW optimization.This paper presents such new methods to enable an early, efficient and systematic FW design taking the underlying HW architecture into account. We use the RISC-V Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) as a case study to demonstrate our methods.
Real-time 6D Racket Pose Estimation and Classificationfor Table Tennis Robots
2019-09-01

For table tennis robots, it is a significant challenge to understand the opponent's movements and return the ball accordingly with high performance. One has to cope with various ball speeds and spins resulting from different stroke types. In this paper, we propose a real-time 6D racket pose detection method and classify racket movements into five stroke categories with a neural network. By using two monocular cameras, we can extract the racket's contours and choose some special points as feature points in image coordinates. With the 3D geometrical information of a racket, a wide baseline stereo matching method is proposed to find the corresponding feature points and compute the 3D position and orientation of the racket by triangulation and plane fitting. Then, a Kalman filter is adopted to track the racket pose, and a multilayer perceptron (MLP) neural network is used to classify the pose movements. We conduct two experiments to evaluate the accuracy of racket pose detection and classification, in which the average error in position and orientation is around 7.8 mm and 7.2 by comparing with the ground truth from a KUKA robot. The classification accuracy is 98%, the same as the human pose estimation method with Convolutional Pose Machines (CPMs).
6 Interpreting immune infiltrates and hormone biomarkers in young women with endometrial carcinoma (EC) through a moder lens (POST-TCGA) of molecular classification
2019-09-01

<h3>Objectives</h3> Approximately 15% of ECs are diagnosed in women before the natural age of menopause. Fertility-sparing conservative management options are increasingly utilized, however biomarkers to inform prognosis or direct therapy are lacking. We sought to determine the value of additional immunohistochemical biomarkers in young women with EC in the context of modern TCGA-based molecular classification. <h3>Methods</h3> Allred scores for estrogen/progesterone/androgen receptor and Ki67 in addition to immune characterization measuring stromal and epithelial expression of CD3/CD8/CD79a/CD138/PD1 and TIL<sup>high</sup> vs. TIL<sup>low</sup> clusters was performed in a cohort of previously characterized(n=257) young women (&lt;50yo) with EC. Testing for association of biomarkers with clinicopathological parameters, ProMisE molecular subtype (mismatch repair deficient (MMRd), <i>POLE</i> mutated (POLE), p53wildtype (p53wt) and p53abnormal (p53abn)) and outcomes was performed. <h3>Results</h3> Young women had a high proportion of immune-rich ECs: 80% TILhigh compared with 60% TILhigh in non-age stratified cohorts. Expression of all immune biomarkers was enriched within POLE and MMRd subtypes. Within MMRd and p53wt ECs TILhigh immune cluster was associated with improved overall-(OS)and disease-specific survival (DSS)(p&lt;0.05 for all). High ER and PR expression was associated with low-grade ECs, and increased PD1 expression. A trend (LRT p-value 0.1) towards improved OS(HR 0.4) and DSS(HR 0.273) in high PR-expression ECs was observed. Inconsistencies in progesterone treatment (dose, duration) precluded our ability to make firm conclusions on PR thresholds and efficacy. In multivariable analysis only ProMisE subtype showed independent prognostic significance. <h3>Conclusions</h3> Molecular classification with additional selective biomarker testing can provide additional prognostic information and may help stratify young women with ECs for targeted therapies.
Seizure Management and Prescription Patterns of Anticonvulsants in Dravet Syndrome: A Multicenter Cohort Study from Germany and Review of Literature
2019-09-01

Objective: The aim of this study is to describe the treatment pattern of Dravet syndrome (DS) patients in Germany with routine anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs) and emergency medication, and review published real-world evidence on medicine utilisation of patients with DS in Europe.
ATP1A3-associated Disease as a Differential Diagnosis to Stroke in Children - An Unusual Case with Degenerative Cerebellar Atrophy
2019-09-01

Casuistry: We report about a boy with a psychomotor developmental disorder who showed a hemi- symptomatology with head tilt to the right, loss of strength of the right leg, ataxia, dysarthria, first when he was 3,4 years old. The symptoms were reversible after 10 min. An ischaemic stroke was suspected, a cMRI was performed, which showed a normal result. At the beginning, the situations occurred every 2–5 months, more frequently in the course of time, were alternating and triggered by heat (bathing, heat in the bus), joy and physical exercise. The duration was a few minutes to several hours, a maximum of 2 days, followed by complete recovery. The best therapy was sleep. After some years the boy showed In addition to the triggered movement disorders continuous cerebellar signs (ataxia, tremor, dysarthria, lack of fast eye saccades), epileptic activity in the EEG, areflexia, bradyskinesia and a degenerative course of intellectual abilities. In the 2nd cMRIT a cerebellar atrophy was observed.
Faculty Opinions recommendation of CD27- IgD- B cell memory subset associates with inflammation and frailty in elderly individuals but only in males.
2019-09-01

Background: Immunosenescence, i.e. the aging-associated decline of the capacity of the immune system, is characterized by several distinct changes in the number and functions of the immune cells.In the case of B cells, the total number of CD19+ B cells is lower in the blood of elderly individuals than in the younger ones.CD19+ B cell population contains several subsets, which are commonly characterized by the presence of CD27 and IgD molecules, i.e. naïve B cells (CD27-IgD+), IgM memory (CD27+ IgD+), switched memory (CD27+ IgD-) and late memory (CD27-IgD-).This late memory, double negative, population represents cells which are nondividing, but are still able to produce inflammatory mediators and in this way maybe contributing to the aging-associated inflammation, inflammaging.Here we have focused on the role of these B cell subsets in elderly individuals, nonagenarians, in the regulation of inflammation and inflammation-associated decline of bodily functions.As the biological aging process demonstrates gender-specific characteristics, the analyses were performed separately in males and female.Results: A subcohort of The Vitality 90+ study (67 nonagenarians, 22/45 males/females and 40 young controls, 13/27 males/females) was used.Flow cytometric analysis indicated that the total percentage of the CD19+ cells was ca.50% lower in the nonagenarians than in the controls in both genders.The proportions of these four B cell subsets within the CD19+ populations were very similar in young and old individuals.Thus, it seems that the aging-associated decline of the total CD19+ cells affects similarly all these B cell subsets.To analyze the role of these subsets in the regulation of inflammation, the correlation with IL-6 levels was calculated.A significant correlation was observed only with the percentage of CD27-IgD-cells and only in males.As inflammation is associated with aging-associated functional performance and frailty, the correlations with the Barthel index and frailty score was analyzed.Again, only the CD27-IgD-population demonstrated a strong male-specific correlation.Conclusions: These data show that the CD27-IgD-B cell subset demonstrates a strong pro-inflammatory effect in nonagenarians, which significantly associates with the decline of the bodily functions.However, this phenomenon is only observed in males.
KOKpedia Studien
2019-09-01

Besprechung der Studie von Villumsen, B. R., Jorgensen, M. G., Frystyk, J., Hørdam, B., &amp; Borre, M. (2019). Home-based ‚exergaming‘ was safe and significantly improved 6-min walking distance in patients with prostate cancer: a single-blinded randomised controlled trial. BJU International, Apr 22. doi: 10.1111/bju.14782.
Changes in Trauma‐Related Emotions Following Treatment With Dialectical Behavior Therapy for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder After Childhood Abuse
2019-09-02

Abstract Dialectical behavior therapy for posttraumatic stress disorder (DBT‐PTSD) is a trauma‐focused therapy shown to reduce core PTSD symptoms, such as intrusions, hyperarousal, and avoidance. Preliminary data indicate effects on elevated trauma‐related emotions (e.g., guilt and shame) and possibly radical acceptance of the traumatic event. However, it is unclear if improvements in these variables are significant after controlling for changes in core PTSD symptoms and to what extent nonclinical levels are obtained. In the current study, 42 individuals who met criteria for PTSD after childhood abuse and were participating in a 3‐month residential DBT‐PTSD program were evaluated at the start of the exposure phase of DBT‐PTSD and the end of treatment; a nonclinical sample with a history of childhood abuse was the reference group. Multivariate analyses of variance and multivariate analyses of covariance controlling for change in core PTSD symptoms were used to evaluate changes in several elevated trauma‐related emotions (fear, anger, guilt, shame, disgust, sadness, and helplessness) and in radical acceptance. In a repeated measures multivariate analyses of variance, both elevated trauma‐related emotions and radical acceptance significantly improved during DBT‐PTSD, λ = 0.34, p &lt; .001; η 2 = .56; t (40) = −5.66, p &lt; .001, SMD = 0.88, even after controlling for changes in PTSD symptoms, λ = 0.35, p &lt; .001, η 2 = .65; Λ = 0.86, p = .018, η 2 = .14, respectively. Posttreatment, 31.0% (for acceptance) to 76.2% (for guilt) of participants showed nonclinical levels of the investigated outcomes, suggesting that both trauma‐related emotions and radical acceptance changed after the 3‐month residential DBT‐PTSD program.
An Electronic Medication Module to Improve Health Literacy in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial
2019-09-02

Background In primary care, patients play a crucial role in managing care processes and handling drug treatment. A decisive factor for success is their health literacy, and several interventions have been introduced to support patients in fulfilling their responsibility. Objective The aim of this study is to assess the influence of such an intervention (ie, a medication module) within a patient-led electronic health record on patients’ health literacy. Methods We conducted a randomized controlled study among community-dwelling patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Patients were recruited from primary care practices. After randomization, patients either had access to an internet-based medication module allowing them to store their medication information, look up drug information, and print a medication schedule (intervention group), or they received an information brochure on the importance of medication schedules (control group). After 4-8 weeks, all patients were invited to attend a structured medication review (ie, follow-up visit). Data were collected via questionnaires before the start of the intervention and during the follow-up visit. The main outcome measure was the mean difference in health literacy between baseline and follow-up assessments of patients in the control and intervention groups. Results Of 116 recruited patients, 107 (92.2%) completed the follow-up assessment and were eligible for intention-to-treat analyses. Only 73 patients, of which 29 were in the intervention group, followed the study protocol and were eligible for per-protocol analysis. No differences in overall health literacy were observed in either the intention-to-treat or in the per-protocol cohorts. Reasons for a null effect might be that the cohort was not particularly enriched with participants with low health literacy, thus precluding measurable improvement (ie, ceiling effect). Moreover, the success of implementation was considered poor because both the correct application of the study procedure (ie, randomization according to the protocol and dropout of 29 patients) and the actual interaction with the medication module was modest (ie, dropout of 9 patients). Conclusions The conduct of this randomized controlled study was challenging, leaving it open whether inadequate implementation, too short of a duration, or insufficient efficacy of the intervention, as such, contributed to the null effect of this study. This clearly outlines the value of piloting complex interventions and the accompanying process evaluations.
Spotlights on the notion of lexical motivation across languages in the Western linguistic tradition, from the 16th century to the present
2019-09-02

Summary This article shows that an interest in differences and similarities in patterns of lexical motivation across languages has a long, if discontinuous, history in Western linguistic thought. The aim of the article is to trace this history by presenting examples that highlight the enduring fascination of authors from very different traditions with recurrent patterns of lexico-semantic associations. It also discusses the significance attributed to these patterns, which ranges from their practical value in etymological research to proving the psychic unity of mankind.
Antony and Cleopatraand the dramaturgy of shame
2019-09-02

In William Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, Antony is conceived of as a character acting in the context of a large-scale exposure to shame and shaming: by his Roman compatriots, enemies and friends alike, by his own estimate of his life in Egypt, and in the eyes of the audience who witness his failure to live up to a Roman code of military honour. Using examples from the critical reception dedicated to the issue of shame in Antony and Cleopatra, this essay argues that the play’s dramaturgy of placing this character in the field of shame increases the probability of readers and audiences accepting also the contents for which Antony is being shamed, contents based on a misogynistic, racialised, and homophobic understanding of masculinity. The play itself, however, offers some relief from these constructions in a second strand pursuing a dramaturgy not of shame but of attachment which opens the door to readings resistant to the dramaturgy of shame.