Occupant posture analysis with stereo and thermal infrared video: algorithms and experimental evaluation

Dynamic analysis of vehicle occupant posture is a key requirement in designing "smart airbag" systems. Vision-based technology could enable the use of precise information about the occupant's size, posture, and, in particular, position in making airbag-deployment decisions. Novel sensory systems and algorithms need to be developed for capture, analysis, and classification of dynamic video-based information for a new generation of safe airbags. This paper presents a systematic investigation in which stereo and thermal long-wavelength infrared video-based real-time vision systems are developed and systematically evaluated. It also includes the design of several test beds, including instrumented vehicles for systematic experimental studies for the evaluation of independent and comparative evaluation in automobiles. Results of extensive experimental trials suggest basic feasibility of stereo and thermal long-wavelength infrared video-based occupant position and posture-analysis system.     

Characteristic Dependency of Hydrogen-Affected Fatigue Crack Growth and Crack Tip Plasticity on Low Loading Frequency in α-Iron

Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A - Aiming to investigate the dependency of hydrogen-affected fatigue crack growth (HAFCG) on the loading frequency f, this study experimentally...     

Neuroprotective Effects of Liraglutide for Stroke Model of Rats

The number of diabetes mellitus (DM) patients is increasing, and stroke is deeply associated with DM. Recently, neuroprotective effects of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) are reported. In this study, we explored whether liraglutide, a GLP-1 analogue exerts therapeutic effects on a rat stroke model. Wistar rats received occlusion of the middle cerebral artery for 90 min. At one hour after reperfusion, liraglutide or saline was administered intraperitoneally. Modified Bederson’s test was performed at 1 and 24 h and, subsequently, rats were euthanized for histological investigation. Peripheral blood was obtained for measurement of blood glucose level and evaluation of oxidative stress. Brain tissues were collected to evaluate the level of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). The behavioral scores of liraglutide-treated rats were significantly better than those of control rats. Infarct volumes of liraglutide-treated rats at were reduced, compared with those of control rats. The level of derivatives of reactive oxygen metabolite was lower in liraglutide-treated rats. VEGF level of liraglutide-treated rats in the cortex, but not in the striatum significantly increased, compared to that of control rats. In conclusion, this is the first study to demonstrate neuroprotective effects of liraglutide on cerebral ischemia through anti-oxidative effects and VEGF upregulation.     

Multi-spectral and multi-perspective video arrays for driver body tracking and activity analysis

This paper presents a novel approach to recognizing driver activities using a multi-perspective (i.e., four camera views) multi-modal (i.e., thermal infrared and color) video-based system for robust and real-time tracking of important body parts. The multi-perspective characteristics of the system provides redundant trajectories of the body parts, while the multi-modal characteristics of the system provides robustness and reliability of feature detection and tracking. The combination of a deterministic activity grammar (called ‘operation-triplet’) and a Hidden Markov model-based classifier provides semantic-level analysis of human activity. The application context for this research is that of intelligent vehicles and driver assistance systems. Experimental results in real-world street driving demonstrate effectiveness of the proposed system.     

Turn-Intent Analysis Using Body Pose for Intelligent Driver Assistance

Human-centric, pervasive computing environments, with integrated sensing, processing, networking, and displays, provide an appropriate framework for developing effective driver-assistance systems. Also essential when developing such systems are systematic efforts to understand and characterize driver behavior. In an attempt to make such a predictive turn-assistance safety system a reality, we equipped an experimental vehicle with cameras and sensors to capture the vehicle dynamics, view of the road ahead, and driver's body pose. We investigated how and to what extent we could use body-pose information to detect and predict driver activities. We analyzed the detection performance of a two-class pattern classifier using receiver-operator-characteristic curves, which describe the classifier's ability to suppress missed detections and false alarms. The curves provide a ratio indicating the system's attainable proactivity (ability to foresee a user's needs) versus its transparency (ability to avoid user annoyance). Our goal is to eventually develop vision-based body-pose-recovery and behavior-recognition algorithms for driver-assistance systems     

Regenerative Medicine for Epilepsy: From Basic Research to Clinical Application

Epilepsy is a chronic neurological disorder, which presents with various forms of seizures. Traditional treatments, including medication using antiepileptic drugs, remain the treatment of choice for epilepsy. Recent development in surgical techniques and approaches has improved treatment outcomes. However, several epileptic patients still suffer from intractable seizures despite the advent of the multimodality of therapies. In this article, we initially provide an overview of clinical presentation of epilepsy then describe clinically relevant animal models of epilepsy. Subsequently, we discuss the concepts of regenerative medicine including cell therapy, neuroprotective agents, and electrical stimulation, which are reviewed within the context of our data.     

A hybrid rerouting scheme

In this work we study a routing scheme combined with an end-to-end rerouting procedure. We focus in particular on a new rerouting strategy called Shared Robust Rerouting (ShRR). This strategy combines three other restoration techniques, namely path diversity, end-to-end rerouting with stub release and global rerouting, in order to achieve cost-effectiveness. Computational results on the bandwidth overhead required by the proposed scheme are provided, as well as a comparison with some conventional restoration schemes.     

Rapid detection and quantification methodology for genus Megasphaera as a hydrogen producer in a hydrogen fermentation system

Important issues in the microbiology of biological reactors include bacterial composition and cell counts of bacterial communities. Because oligonucleotide probes targeting a particular phyletic group are available for studying hydrogen fermentation, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) could be an attractive research technique. Although we reported the importance of the Megasphaera spp. for a simple hydrogen fermentation system, fundamental information like population and composition remains unclear. Thus, here, we established the use of Megasphaera-specific oligonucleotide Mega-X for FISH and the optimum conditions for rapid single-cell level identification. The culture isolated from a simple hydrogen fermentation process was identified as Megasphaera elsdenii and was shown to be significantly dominant (30%–58% of the microflora) by using polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) and FISH. The combination of Megasphaera-specific PCR-RFLP and FISH is likely to become an important methodology for understanding the global distribution and behaviour of Megasphaera spp. in the environment.