CC-RANSAC: Fitting planes in the presence of multiple surfaces in range data

Range sensors, in particular time-of-flight and stereo cameras, are being increasingly used for applications such as robotics, automotive, human-machine interface and virtual reality. The ability to recover the geometrical structure of visible surfaces is critical for scene understanding. Typical structured indoor or urban scenes are often represented via compositional models comprising multiple planar surface patches. The RANSAC robust regression algorithm is the most popular technique to date for extracting individual planar patches from noisy data sets containing multiple surfaces. Unfortunately, RANSAC fails to produce reliable results in situations with two nearby patches of limited extent, where a single plane crossing through the two patches may contain more inliers than the “correct” models. This is the case of steps, curbs, or ramps, which represent the focus of our research for the impact they can have on cars’ safe parking systems or robot navigation. In an effort to improve the quality of regression in these cases, we propose a modification of the RANSAC algorithm, dubbed CC-RANSAC, that only considers the largest connected components of inliers to evaluate the fitness of a candidate plane. We provide experimental evidence that CC-RANSAC may recover the planar patches composing a typical step or ramp with substantially higher accuracy than the traditional RANSAC algorithm.     

Multiwall carbon nanotubes as MRI contrast agents for tracking stem cells

In this study we investigate the potential of multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) with low metal impurities (2.57% iron) as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents. Taking into account probable aggregation at high MWCNTs concentration analysis shows that the r(2) relaxivity of MWCNTs in 1% agarose gels at 19?°C is 564 ± 41 s(-1) mM(-1); this is attributed to both the presence of iron oxide impurities and also to the carbon MWCNT structure itself. Stem cells were labelled with MWCNTs to demonstrate the effectiveness of MWCNTs as MRI contrast agents for cellular MRI. The MWCNTs did not impair cell viability or proliferation. These results suggest that the MRI contrast agent properties of the MWCNTs could be used in vivo for stem cell tracking/imaging and during MWCNT-mediated targeted electro-chemotherapy of tumours.     

Pressure-Driven Demand and Leakage Simulation for Water Distribution Networks

Increasingly, water loss via leakage is acknowledged as one of the main challenges facing water distribution system operations. The consideration of water loss over time, as systems age, physical networks grow, and consumption patterns mature, should form an integral part of effective asset management, rendering any simulation model capable of quantifying pressure-driven leakage indispensable. To this end, a novel steady-state network simulation model that fully integrates into a classical hydraulic representation, pressure-driven demand and leakage at the pipe level is developed and presented here. After presenting a brief literature review about leakage modeling, the importance of a more realistic simulation model allowing for leakage analysis is demonstrated. The algorithm is then tested from a numerical standpoint and subjected to a convergence analysis. These analyses are performed on a case study involving two networks derived from real systems. Experimentally observed convergence/error statistics demonstrate the high robustness of the proposed pressure-driven demand and leakage simulation model.     

Influence of the internal inertia of the building envelope on summertime comfort in buildings with high internal heat loads

The aim of this study was to assess the influence of thermal mass placed on the inner side of the building envelope, described as the dynamic internal areal heat capacity (International Standard ISO 13786), on the summertime thermal comfort in buildings characterised by high internal heat loads.To that aim, simultaneous monitoring was carried out on rooms with high internal heat loads (school classrooms), varying the internal inertia of the envelope through the introduction of an insulating panel on the interior side. Analytical assessment was performed in order to include different inertia values and combinations of both external and internal heat loads.The study allowed the threshold values of internal areal heat capacity to be determined with respect to the different periodic transmittance values of the walls, assessed according to the adaptive thermal comfort model described in Standard EN15251.These values could be adopted in energy saving regulations which, being based on semi-stationary calculation models, tend to consider the performance of building envelopes as analogous even if there is different thermal inertia.     

Influence of Heterogeneous Magnetism on Magneto-Optical Properties

The influence of inhomogeneity on magnetic materials is considered; in particular, we examine how it affects the magneto-optical (MO) response of films and multilayers. From ab initio calculations of the band structure, the optical conductivity tensor is derived, providing the basis for computing the MO spectra. The presence of magnetic nanoprecipitates is taken into account by modeling the system as an effective medium or as an infinitely thin layered structure. A possible depth concentration distribution of the magnetic species is also accounted for, by considering the structure as a sequence of layers. This formalism is applied to some real systems constituted by magnetic particles dispersed in a hosting nonmagnetic matrix. The agreement between theoretical and measured MO Kerr effect spectra supports the validity of the model and establishes its predictive power, suggesting that the analysis of experimental MO spectra can provide information not only on the magnetic, but also on the structural properties of heterogeneous magnetic systems.     

A Novel Genetic Variant in the WFS1 Gene in a Patient with Partial Uniparental Mero-Isodisomy of Chromosome 4

Wolfram syndrome is a rare autosomal recessive disorder characterized by optic atrophy and diabetes mellitus. Wolfram syndrome type 1 (WFS1) is caused by bi-allelic pathogenic variations in the wolframin gene. We described the first case of WFS1 due to a maternal inherited mutation with uniparental mero-isodisomy of chromosome 4. Diabetes mellitus was diagnosed at 11 years of age, with negative anti-beta cells antibodies. Blood glucose control was optimal with low insulin requirement. No pathogenic variations in the most frequent gene causative of maturity-onset diabetes of the young subtypes were detected. At 17.8 years old, a rapid reduction in visual acuity occurred. Genetic testing revealed the novel homozygous variant c.1369A>G; p.Arg457Gly in the exon 8 of wolframin gene. It was detected in a heterozygous state only in the mother while the father showed a wild type sequence. In silico disease causing predictions performed by Polyphen2 classified it as “likely damaging”, while Mutation Tester and Sift suggested it was “polymorphism” and “tolerated”, respectively. High resolution SNP-array analysis was suggestive of segmental uniparental disomy on chromosome 4. In conclusion, to the best of our knowledge, we describe the first patient with partial uniparental mero-isodisomy of chromosome 4 carrying a novel mutation in the wolframin gene. The clinical phenotype observed in the patient and the analysis performed suggest that the genetic variant detected is pathogenetic.     

Experimental study of free convection from a pair of vertical arrays of horizontal cylinders at very low Rayleigh numbers

Steady laminar free convection from a pair of vertical arrays of equally-spaced uniformly heated horizontal cylinders set in free air is studied experimentally. A specifically developed experimental facility is used to perform heat flux and temperature measurements and thermal field visualization by means of Schlieren technique. Experiments are performed for pairs of tube-arrays consisting of five circular cylinders, for center-to-center horizontal and vertical spacing ranging from 2 to 145 cylinder-diameters and from 4 to 12 cylinder-diameters respectively, and for values of the Rayleigh number based on the cylinder-diameter in the range between 2.4 and 11.9. It is found that any cylinder may exhibit either enhanced or reduced Nusselt numbers with respect to the case of single array, depending on its location in the array, on the geometry of the array, as well as on the Rayleigh number. The visualization has allowed to relate a number of observed effects to the fact that side-by-side placement of the arrays produces a lateral air suction into the space between them.     

Instruction, teacher–student relations, and math achievement trajectories in elementary school.

Children enter elementary school with widely different skill levels in core subjects. Whether because of differences in aptitude or in preparedness, these initial skill differences often translate into systematic disparities in achievement over time. How can teachers reduce these disparities? Three possibilities are to offer basic skills training, to expose students to higher order instruction, or to provide socioemotional support. Repeated measures analyses of longitudinal data from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development revealed that children with low, average, or high math skills prior to elementary school followed different but parallel trajectories of math achievement up through fifth grade. When enrolled in classes with inference-based instruction, however, the initially least skilled children narrowed the achievement gap as long as they did not have conflictual relations with their teachers. They did not make this kind of progress if they were in classes focused exclusively on basic skills instruction or if they were in inference-focused classes but had conflictual relations with teachers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Prognostic and Theranostic Applications of Positron Emission Tomography for a Personalized Approach to Metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer

Metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) represents a condition of progressive disease in spite of androgen deprivation therapy (ADT), with a broad spectrum of manifestations ranging from no symptoms to severe debilitation due to bone or visceral metastatization. The management of mCRPC has been profoundly modified by introducing novel therapeutic tools such as antiandrogen drugs (i.e., abiraterone acetate and enzalutamide), immunotherapy through sipuleucel-T, and targeted alpha therapy (TAT). This variety of approaches calls for unmet need of biomarkers suitable for patients’ pre-treatment selection and prognostic stratification. In this scenario, imaging with positron emission computed tomography (PET/CT) presents great and still unexplored potential to detect specific molecular and metabolic signatures, some of whom, such as the prostate specific membrane antigen (PSMA), can also be exploited as therapeutic targets, thus combining diagnosis and therapy in the so-called “theranostic” approach. In this review, we performed a web-based and desktop literature research to investigate the prognostic and theranostic potential of several PET imaging probes, such as ¹⁸F-FDG, ¹⁸F-choline and ⁶⁸Ga-PSMA-11, also covering the emerging tracers still in a pre-clinical phase (e.g., PARP-inhibitors’ analogs and the radioligands binding to gastrin releasing peptide receptors/GRPR), highlighting their potential for defining personalized care pathways in mCRPC.