Trinocular System for 3D motion and Dense Stucture Estimation

The relief of the seafloor is an important source of data for many scientists. In this paper we present an optical system to deal with underwater 3D reconstruction. This system is formed by three cameras that take images synchronously in a constant frame rate scheme. We use the images taken by these cameras to compute dense 3D reconstructions. We use Bundle Adjustment to estimate the motion ofthe trinocular rig. Given the path followed by the system, we get a dense map of the observed scene by registering the different dense local reconstructions in a unique and bigger one

Fast liver catabolism of C1q in patients with paraproteinaemia and depletion of the classical pathway of complement.

The main clinical features in four patients with IgG1k paraproteinaemia and acquired complement deficiency included xanthomatous skin lesions (in three), panniculitis (in three) and hepatitis (in two). Hypocomplementaemia concerned the early classical pathway components--in particular C1q. Metabolic studies employing 125I-C1q revealed a much faster catabolism of this protein in the four patients than in five normal controls and three patients with cryoglobulinaemia (mean fractional catabolic rates respectively: 23.35%/h; 1.44%/h; 5.84%/h). Various experiments were designed to characterize the mechanism of the hypocomplementaemia: the patients' serum, purified paraprotein, blood cells, bone marrow cells, or xanthomatous skin lesions did not produce significant complement activation or C1q binding. When three of the patients (two with panniculitis and hepatitis) were injected with 123I-C1q, sequential gamma-camera imaging demonstrated rapid accumulation of the radionuclide in the liver, suggesting that complement activation takes place in the liver where it could produce damage.

Impact of a program to prevent incivility towards and assault of healthcare staff in an ophtalmological emergency unit: study protocol for the PREVURGO On/Off trial.

BACKGROUND: The emergency department has been identified as an area within the health care sector with the highest reports of violence. The best way to control violence is to prevent it before it becomes an issue. Ideally, to prevent violent episodes we should eliminate all triggers of frustration and violence. Our study aims to assess the impact of a quality improvement multi-faceted program aiming at preventing incivility and violence against healthcare professionals working at the ophthalmological emergency department of a teaching hospital. METHODS/DESIGN: This study is a single-center prospective, controlled time-series study with an alternate-month design. The prevention program is based on the successive implementation of five complementary interventions: a) an organizational approach with a standardized triage algorithm and patient waiting number screen, b) an environmental approach with clear signage of the premises, c) an educational approach with informational videos for patients and accompanying persons in waiting rooms, d) a human approach with a mediator in waiting rooms and e) a security approach with surveillance cameras linked to the hospital security. The primary outcome is the rate of incivility or violence by patients, or those accompanying them against healthcare staff. All patients admitted to the ophthalmological emergency department, and those accompanying them, will be enrolled. In all, 45,260 patients will be included in over a 24-month period. The unit analysis will be the patient admitted to the emergency department. Data analysis will be blinded to allocation, but due to the nature of the intervention, physicians and patients will not be blinded. DISCUSSION: The strengths of this study include the active solicitation of event reporting, that this is a prospective study and that the study enables assessment of each of the interventions that make up the program. The challenge lies in identifying effective interventions, adapting them to the context of care in an emergency department, and thoroughly assessing their efficacy with a high level of proof.The study has been registered as a cRCT at clinicaltrials.gov (identifier: NCT02015884).

A Comparison of Mobile Scanning to a Total Station Survey at the I-35 and IA 92 Interchange in Warren County, Iowa, August 15, 2012

The purpose of this project was to investigate the potential for collecting and using data from mobile terrestrial laser scanning (MTLS) technology that would reduce the need for traditional survey methods for the development of highway improvement projects at the Iowa Department of Transportation (Iowa DOT). The primary interest in investigating mobile scanning technology is to minimize the exposure of field surveyors to dangerous high volume traffic situations. Issues investigated were cost, timeframe, accuracy, contracting specifications, data capture extents, data extraction capabilities and data storage issues associated with mobile scanning. The project area selected for evaluation was the I-35/IA 92 interchange in Warren County, Iowa. This project covers approximately one mile of I-35, one mile of IA 92, 4 interchange ramps, and bridges within these limits. Delivered LAS and image files for this project totaled almost 31GB. There is nearly a 6-fold increase in the size of the scan data after post-processing. Camera data, when enabled, produced approximately 900MB of imagery data per mile using a 2- camera, 5 megapixel system. A comparison was done between 1823 points on the pavement that were surveyed by Iowa DOT staff using a total station and the same points generated through the MTLS process. The data acquired through the MTLS and data processing met the Iowa DOT specifications for engineering survey. A list of benefits and challenges is included in the detailed report. With the success of this project, it is anticipate[d] that additional projects will be scanned for the Iowa DOT for use in the development of highway improvement projects.

Changes in volume, surface estimate, three-dimensional shape and total number of neurons of the human primary visual cortex from midgestation until old age.

Macroscopic features such as volume, surface estimate, thickness and caudorostral length of the human primary visual cortex (Brodman's area 17) of 46 human brains between midgestation and 93 years were studied by means of camera lucida drawings from serial frontal sections. Individual values were best fitted by a logistic function from midgestation to adulthood and by a regression line between adulthood and old age. Allometric functions were calculated to study developmental relationships between all the features. The three-dimensional shape of area 17 was also reconstructed from the serial sections in 15 cases and correlated with the sequence of morphological events. The sulcal pattern of area 17 begins to develop around 21 weeks of gestation but remains rather simple until birth, while it becomes more convoluted, particularly in the caudal part, during the postnatal period. Until birth, a large increase in cortical thickness (about 83% of its mean adult value) and caudorostral length (69%) produces a moderate increase in cortical volume (31%) and surface estimate (40%) of area 17. After birth, the cortical volume and surface undergo their maximum growth rate, in spite of a rather small increase in cortical thickness and caudorostral length. This is due to the development of the pattern of gyrification within and around the calcarine fissure. All macroscopic features have reached the mean adult value by the end of the first postnatal year. With aging, the only features to undergo significant regression are the cortical surface estimate and the caudorostral length. The total number of neurons in area 17 shows great interindividual variability at all ages. No decrease in the postnatal period or in aging could be demonstrated.

Objective assessment of image quality in conventional and digital mammography taking into account dynamic range.

The goal of this work is to develop a method to objectively compare the performance of a digital and a screen-film mammography system in terms of image quality. The method takes into account the dynamic range of the image detector, the detection of high and low contrast structures, the visualisation of the images and the observer response. A test object, designed to represent a compressed breast, was constructed from various tissue equivalent materials ranging from purely adipose to purely glandular composition. Different areas within the test object permitted the evaluation of low and high contrast detection, spatial resolution and image noise. All the images (digital and conventional) were captured using a CCD camera to include the visualisation process in the image quality assessment. A mathematical model observer (non-prewhitening matched filter), that calculates the detectability of high and low contrast structures using spatial resolution, noise and contrast, was used to compare the two technologies. Our results show that for a given patient dose, the detection of high and low contrast structures is significantly better for the digital system than for the conventional screen-film system studied. The method of using a test object with a large tissue composition range combined with a camera to compare conventional and digital imaging modalities can be applied to other radiological imaging techniques. In particular it could be used to optimise the process of radiographic reading of soft copy images.

Pavement Wear and Studded Tire Use in Iowa, HR-148, 1979

This report presents the results of surveys to determine studded tire usage in Iowa. Also reported are the results of measurements of transverse pavement profiles at selected locations where the pavement is subjected to a high volume of traffic. The surveys were made in January of each of the years 1969 through 1978 and in each of 27 areas into which the state was divided. Estimates of studded tire usage were also made at various locations on Interstate highways in Iowa. The lowest percentage of studded tires was observed in the initial count during the winter of 1968-69. Two years later the percentage had increased to the maximum (22.6%) and then began a gradual decline. The latest count in January of 1978 indicated 8.5% of the cars had studded tires. The decline in the use of studded tires is attributed to the efforts of the Iowa DOT and others to obtain a ban on studded tires and a continual increase in the use of radial tires with claims of improved traction. The wear measurements were recorded by camera. It was found that studded tires have worn ruts in Iowa pavements as deep as 5/16 inch. The ruts lead to water on the pavement and this causes hydroplaning, as well as splash and spray. The conclusion of the study was that studded tires should be banned in Iowa.

Igneous layering, fractional crystallization and growth of granitic plutons: The Dolbel batholith in SW Niger

This study reassesses the development of compositional layering during the growth of granitic plutons, with emphasis on fractional crystallization and its interaction with both injection and inflation-related deformation. The Dolbel batholith (SW Niger) consists of 14, kilometre-sized plutons emplaced by pulsed magma inputs. Each pluton has a coarse-grained core and a peripheral layered series. Rocks consist of albite (An(<= 11)), K-feldspar (Or(96 99), Ab(1) (4)), quartz, edenite (X(Mg)=0337-0.55), augite (X(Mg)=0.65-0.72) and accessories (apatite, titanite and Fe-Ti-oxides). Whole-rock compositions are metaluminous, sodic (K(2)O/Na(2)O=0.49-0.62) and iron-rich [FeO(tot)/(FeO(tot)+MgO)=0.65-0.82]. The layering is present as size-graded and modally graded, sub-vertical, rhythmic units. Each unit is composed of three layers, which are, towards the interior: edenite +/- plagioclase (C(a/p)), edenite+plagioclase+augite+quartz (C(q)), and edenite+plagioclase+augite+quartz+K-feldspar (C(k)). All phases except quartz show zoned microstructures consisting of external intercumulus overgrowths, a central section showing oscillatory zoning and, in the case of amphibole and titanite, complexly zoned cores. Ba and Sr contents of feldspars decrease towards the rims. Plagioclase crystal size distributions are similar in all units, suggesting that each unit experienced a similar thermal history. Edenite, characteristic of the basal C(a/p) layer, is the earliest phase to crystallize. Microtextures and phase diagrams suggest that edenite cores may have been brought up with magma batches at the site of emplacement and mechanically segregated along the crystallized wall, whereas outer zones of the same crystals formed in situ. The subsequent C(q) layers correspond to cotectic compositions in the Qz-Ab-Or phase diagram at P(H2O)=5 kbar. Each rhythmic unit may therefore correspond to a magma batch and their repetition to crystallization of recurrent magma recharges. Microtextures and chemical variations in major phases allow four main crystallization stages to be distinguished: (1) open-system crystallization in a stirred magma during magma emplacement, involving dissolution and overgrowth (core of edenite and titanite crystals); (2) in situ fractional crystallization in boundary layers (C(a/p) and C(q) layers); (3) equilibrium `en masse' eutectic crystallization (C(k) layers); (4) compaction and crystallization of the interstitial liquid in a highly crystallized mush (e. g. feldspar intercumulus overgrowths). It is concluded that the formation of the layered series in the Dolbel plutons corresponds principally to in situ differentiation of successive magma batches. The variable thickness of the Ck layers and the microtextures show that crystallization of a rhythmic unit stops and it is compacted when a new magma batch is injected into the chamber. Therefore, assembly of pulsed magma injections and fractional crystallization are independent, but complementary, processes during pluton construction.

The Effectiveness of Iowa's Automated Red Light Running Enforcement Programs, 2007

The Federal Highway Administration estimates that red light running causes more than 100,000 crashes and 1,000 fatalities annually and results in an estimated economic loss of over $14 billion per year in the United States. In Iowa alone, a statewide analysis of red light running crashes, using crash data from 2001 to 2006, indicates that an average of 1,682 red light running crashes occur at signalized intersections every year. As a result, red light running poses a significant safety issue for communities. Communities rarely have the resources to place additional law enforcement in the field to combat the problem and they are increasingly using automated red light running camera-enforcement systems at signalized intersections. In Iowa, three communities currently use camera enforcement since 2004. These communities include Davenport, Council Bluffs, and Clive. As communities across the United States attempt to address red light running, a number of communities have implemented red light running camera enforcement programs. This report examines the red light running programs in Iowa and summarizes results of analyses to evaluate the effectiveness of such cameras.

Red Light Running in Iowa: The Scope, Impact, and Possible Implications, 2000

This research study, a cooperative effort between the Iowa Department of Transportation and the Center for Transportation Research and Education at Iowa State University, reviewed red light running reduction studies and programs nationwide, examined the scope of this phenomenon in Iowa, and proposed countermeasures to address significant violation problems.

Cinema and the Work of Doré

According to Ray Harryhausen, a special effects expert in the film industry, "Gustave Doré would have made a great director of photography . . . He saw things from the point of view of the camera." Doré's work has had a permanent impact on the imaginative realm of film since its very early days. In return, the silver screen has etched Doré into the 20th century imagination. Almost every film about the Bible since The Life and Passion of Jesus Christ produced by Pathé in 1902 refers to his illustrations, and every film adaptation of Dante or Don Quixote has used him as a model, from Georg Wilhelm Pabst and Orson Welles to Terry Gilliam. All films dealing with life in London in the Victorian era by directors ranging from David Lean, to Roman Polanski and Tim Burton draw on the visions in London: a pilgrimage for their sets. A large number of dream fantastical or phantasmagorical scenes take their inspiration from Doré's graphic world, beginning with Georges Méliès' A Trip to the Moon in 1902. In the realm of cartoons and animation, Walt Disney owes a huge debt to Doré. Doré primal forests, from Atala in particular, were also used in the various versions of King Kong from 1933 to the 2005 film by Peter Jackson, who had already drawn on Doré for The Lord of the Rings. Jean Cocteau was also indebted to the illustrations for Perrault's Fairy Tales for his Beauty and the Beast (1945), as was George Lucas for the character Chewbacca in Star Wars (1977) and even the Harry Potter film series. Through his influence on film history, Doré shaped the mass culture imagination.

Influence of the world's most challenging mountain ultra-marathon on energy cost and running mechanics

PURPOSE: To examine the effects of the world's most challenging mountain ultra-marathon (Tor des Géants(®) 2012) on the energy cost of three types of locomotion (cycling, level and uphill running) and running kinematics. METHODS: Before (pre-) and immediately after (post-) the competition, a group of ten male experienced ultra-marathon runners performed in random order three submaximal 4-min exercise trials: cycling at a power of 1.5 W kg(-1) body mass; level running at 9 km h(-1) and uphill running at 6 km h(-1) at an inclination of +15 % on a motorized treadmill. Two video cameras recorded running mechanics at different sampling rates. RESULTS: Between pre- and post-, the uphill-running energy cost decreased by 13.8 % (P = 0.004); no change was noted in the energy cost of level running or cycling (NS). There was an increase in contact time (+10.3 %, P = 0.019) and duty factor (+8.1 %, P = 0.001) and a decrease in swing time (-6.4 %, P = 0.008) in the uphill-running condition. CONCLUSION: After this extreme mountain ultra-marathon, the subjects modified only their uphill-running patterns for a more economical step mechanics.

Versatile iPad forensic acquisition using the Apple Camera Connection Kit

Peer reviewed

Inter-limb coordination and energy cost in swimming.

OBJECTIVES: This study investigated the relationship between inter-arm coordination and the energy cost of locomotion in front crawl and breaststroke and explored swimmers' flexibility in adapting their motor organization away from their preferred movement pattern. DESIGN: Nine front-crawlers performed three 300-m in front crawl and 8 breaststrokers performed three 200-m in breaststroke at constant submaximal intensity and with 5-min rests. Each trial was performed randomly in a different coordination pattern: freely chosen, 'maximal glide' and 'minimal glide'. Two underwater cameras videotaped frontal and side views to analyze speed, stroke rate, stroke length and inter-limb coordination. METHODS: In front crawl, inter-arm coordination was quantified by the index of coordination (IdC) and the leg beat kicks were counted. In breaststroke, four time gaps quantified the arm to leg coordination (i.e., time between leg and arm propulsions; time between beginning, 90° flexion and end of arm and leg recoveries). The energy cost of locomotion was calculated from gas exchanges and blood lactate concentration. RESULTS: In both front crawl and breaststroke, the freely chosen coordination corresponded to glide pattern and showed the lowest energy cost (12.8 and 17.1Jkg(-1)m(-1), respectively). Both front-crawlers and breaststrokers were able to reach 'maximal glide' condition (respectively, +35% and +28%) but not 'minimal glide' condition for front crawl. CONCLUSIONS: The freely chosen pattern appeared more economic because more trained. When coordination was constrained, the swimmers had higher coordination flexibility in breaststroke than in front crawl, suggesting that breaststroke coordination was easier to regulate by changing glide time.

Real-time Imaging and Mosaicking of Planar Surfaces

Laajojen pintojen kuvaaminen rajoitetussa työskentelytilassa riittävällä kuvatarkkuudella voi olla vaikeaa. Kuvaaminen on suoritettava osissa ja osat koottava saumattomaksi kokonaisnäkymäksi eli mosaiikkikuvaksi. Kuvauslaitetta käsin siirtelevän käyttäjän on saatava välitöntä palautetta, jotta mosaiikkiin ei jäisi aukkoja ja työ olisi nopeaa. Työn tarkoituksena oli rakentaa pieni, kannettava ja tarkka kuvauslaite paperi- ja painoteollisuuden tarpeisiin sekä kehittää palautteen antamiseen menetelmä, joka koostaaja esittää karkeaa mosaiikkikuvaa tosiajassa. Työssä rakennettiin kaksi kuvauslaitetta: ensimmäinen kuluttajille ja toinen teollisuuteen tarkoitetuista osista. Kuvamateriaali käsiteltiin tavallisella pöytätietokoneella. Videokuvien välinen liike laskettiin yksinkertaisella seurantamenetelmällä ja mosaiikkikuvaa koottiin kameroiden kuvanopeudella. Laskennallista valaistuksenkorjausta tutkittiin ja kehitetty menetelmä otettiin käyttöön. Ensimmäisessä kuvauslaitteessa on ongelmia valaistuksen ja linssivääristymien kanssa tuottaen huonolaatuisia mosaiikkikuvia. Toisessa kuvauslaitteessa nämä ongelmat on korjattu. Seurantamenetelmä toimii hyvin ottaen huomioon sen yksinkertaisuuden ja siihen ehdotetaan monia parannuksia. Työn tulokset osoittavat, että tosiaikainen mosaiikkikuvan koostaminen megapikselin kuvamateriaalista on mahdollista kuluttajille tarkoitetulla tietokonelaitteistolla.