Pulse-coupled neural network performance for real-time identification of vegetation during forced landing

Safety concerns in the operation of autonomous aerial systems require safe-landing protocols be followed during situations where the a mission should be aborted due to mechanical or other failure. On-board cameras provide information that can be used in the determination of potential landing sites, which are continually updated and ranked to prevent injury and minimize damage. Pulse Coupled Neural Networks have been used for the detection of features in images that assist in the classification of vegetation and can be used to minimize damage to the aerial vehicle. However, a significant drawback in the use of PCNNs is that they are computationally expensive and have been more suited to off-line applications on conventional computing architectures. As heterogeneous computing architectures are becoming more common, an OpenCL implementation of a PCNN feature generator is presented and its performance is compared across OpenCL kernels designed for CPU, GPU and FPGA platforms. This comparison examines the compute times required for network convergence under a variety of images obtained during unmanned aerial vehicle trials to determine the plausibility for real-time feature detection.

PITX2 and non-canonical Wnt pathway interaction in metastatic prostate cancer

The non-canonical Wnt pathway, a regulator of cellular motility and morphology, is increasingly implicated in cancer metastasis. In a quantitative PCR array analysis of 84 Wnt pathway associated genes, both non-canonical and canonical pathways were activated in primary and metastatic tumors relative to normal prostate. Expression of the Wnt target gene PITX2 in a prostate cancer (PCa) bone metastasis was strikingly elevated over normal prostate (over 2,000-fold) and primary prostate cancer (over 200-fold). The elevation of PITX2 protein was also evident on tissue microarrays, with strong PITX2 immunostaining in PCa skeletal and, to a lesser degree, soft tissue metastases. PITX2 is associated with cell migration during normal tissue morphogenesis. In our studies, overexpression of individual PITX2A/B/C isoforms stimulated PC-3 PCa cell motility, with the PITX2A isoform imparting a specific motility advantage in the presence of non-canonical Wnt5a stimulation. Furthermore, PITX2 specific shRNA inhibited PC-3 cell migration toward bone cell derived chemoattractant. These experimental results support a pivotal role of PITX2A and non-canonical Wnt signaling in enhancement of PCa cell motility, suggest PITX2 involvement in homing of PCa to the skeleton, and are consistent with a role for PITX2 in PCa metastasis to soft and bone tissues. Our findings, which significantly expand previous evidence that PITX2 is associated with risk of PCa biochemical recurrence, indicate that variation in PITX2 expression accompanies and may promote prostate tumor progression and metastasis.

A multi-touch notice board fostering social interaction

We report on an alternative OCGM interface for a bulletin board, where a user can pin a note or a drawing, and actually shares contents. Exploiting direct and continuous manipulations, opposite to discrete gestures, to explore containers, the proposed interface supports a more natural and immediate interaction. It manages also the presence of different simultaneous users, allowing for the creation of local multimedia contents, the connection to social networks, providing a suitable working environment for cooperative and collaborative tasks in a multi-touch setup, such as touch-tables, interactive walls or multimedia boards

Making arrangements in talk-in-interaction

Arrangement-making is understood to be a ‘closing-relevant action’ (Schegloff & Sacks 1973), but little attention has been given to how people arrive at mutually acceptable plans for the future. Telephone conversations between clients and staff of Community and Home Care (CHC) services were studied to identify how arrangements for future services were made. A recurrent sequence was observed in which clients were informed of future arrangement and were prompted to reply with ‘response solicitation’ (Jefferson 1981). Response solicitations were observed at two points: either tagged to the end of an informing, or following a recipient’s response to the informing. We show how response solicitations are routinely used in instances where recipients have some discretion in relation to the arrangement under discussion. They are a means by which an informing party can display to their interlocutor that they, as recipient, have some discretion to exercise in the matter. These findings are discussed with reference to prior research on arrangement-making in other settings, which suggests the general nature of this practice.

Performance of buried tunnels subjected to surface blast incorporating fluid structure interaction

This paper uses finite element techniques to investigate the performance of buried tunnels subjected to surface blasts incorporating fully coupled Fluid Structure Interaction and appropriate material models which simulate strain rate effects. Modelling techniques are first validated against existing experimental results and then used to treat the blast induced shock wave propagation and tunnel response in dry and saturated sands. Results show that the tunnel buried in saturated sand responds earlier than that in dry sand. Tunnel deformations decrease with distance from explosive in both sands, as expected. In the vicinity of the explosive, the tunnel buried in saturated sand suffered permanent deformation in both axial and circumferential directions, whereas the tunnel buried in dry sand recovered from most of the axial deformation. Overall, response of the tunnel in saturated sand is more severe for a given blast event and shows the detrimental effect of pore water on the blast response of buried tunnels. The validated modelling techniques developed in this paper can be used to investigate the blast response of tunnels buried in dry and saturated sands.

Elucidating the host–pathogen interaction between human colorectal cells and invading Enterovirus 71 using transcriptomics profiling

Enterovirus 71 (EV71) is one of the main etiological agents for Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease (HFMD) and has been shown to be associated with severe clinical manifestation. Currently, there is no antiviral therapeutic for the treatment of HFMD patients owing to a lack of understanding of EV71 pathogenesis. This study seeks to elucidate the transcriptomic changes that result from EV71 infection. Human whole genome microarray was employed to monitor changes in genomic profiles between infected and uninfected cells. The results reveal altered expression of human genes involved in critical pathways including the immune response and the stress response. Together, data from this study provide valuable insights into the host–pathogen interaction between human colorectal cells and EV71.

Habituated interaction and social objects

In this position paper we draw from critical approaches to the concept of habit from cultural theory to argue that considering the sociality of everyday objects might be productive for understanding and designing for habituated interaction within the emerging Internet of Things.

Pulse-coupled neural network performance for real-time identification of vegetation during forced landing

Safety concerns in the operation of autonomous aerial systems require safe-landing protocols be followed during situations where the mission should be aborted due to mechanical or other failure. This article presents a pulse-coupled neural network (PCNN) to assist in the vegetation classification in a vision-based landing site detection system for an unmanned aircraft. We propose a heterogeneous computing architecture and an OpenCL implementation of a PCNN feature generator. Its performance is compared across OpenCL kernels designed for CPU, GPU, and FPGA platforms. This comparison examines the compute times required for network convergence under a variety of images to determine the plausibility for real-time feature detection.

Vertical dynamic interaction of trains and rail steel bridges

Rail steel bridges are vulnerable to high impact forces due to the passage of trains; unfortunately the determination of these transient impact forces is not straightforward as these are affected by a large number of parameters, including the wagon design, the wheel-rail contact and the design parameters of the bridge deck and track, as well as the operational parameters – wheel load and speed. To determine these impact forces, a detailed rail train-track/bridge dynamic interaction model has been developed, which includes a comprehensive train model using multi-body dynamics approach and a flexible track/bridge model using Euler– Bernoulli beam theory. Single and multi-span bridges have been modelled to examine their dynamic characteristics. From the single span bridge, the train critical speed is determined; the minimum distance of two peak loadings is found to affect the train critical speed. The impact factor and the dynamic characteristics are discussed.

Producing while consuming: Social interaction around photos shared within private group

User-generated content plays a pivotal role in the current social media. The main focus, however, has been on the explicitly generated user content such as photos, videos and status updates on different social networking sites. In this paper, we explore the potential of implicitly generated user content, based on users’ online consumption behaviors. It is technically feasible to record users’ consumption behaviors on mobile devices and share that with relevant people. Mobile devices with such capabilities could enrich social interactions around the consumed content, but it may also threaten users’ privacy. To understand the potentials of this design direction we created and evaluated a low-fidelity prototype intended for photo sharing within private groups. Our prototype incorporates two design concepts, namely, FingerPrint and MoodPhotos that leverage users’ consumption history and emotional responses. In this paper, we report user values and user acceptance of this prototype from three participatory design workshops.

An intuitive multi-touch surface and gesture based interaction for video surveillance systems

This paper discusses the idea and demonstrates an early prototype of a novel method of interacting with security surveillance footage using natural user interfaces in place of traditional mouse and keyboard interaction. Current surveillance monitoring stations and systems provide the user with a vast array of video feeds from multiple locations on a video wall, relying on the user’s ability to distinguish locations of the live feeds from experience or list based key-value pair of location and camera IDs. During an incident, this current method of interaction may cause the user to spend increased amounts time obtaining situational and location awareness, which is counter-productive. The system proposed in this paper demonstrates how a multi-touch screen and natural interaction can enable the surveillance monitoring station users to quickly identify the location of a security camera and efficiently respond to an incident.

Partial mediation role of self-efficacy between positive social interaction and mental health in family caregivers for dementia patients in Shanghai

We explored the mediation effect of caregiver self-efficacy on the influences of behavioral and psychological symptoms (BPSD) of dementia care recipients (CRs) or family caregivers’ (CGs) social supports (informational, tangible and affectionate support and positive social interaction) on CGs’ mental health. We interviewed 196 CGs, using a battery of measures including demographic data of the dyads, CRs’ dementia-related impairments, and CGs’ social support, self-efficacy and the Medical Outcome Study (MOS) Short-Form (SF-36) Health Survey. Multiple regression analyses showed that gathering information on self-efficacy and managing CG distress self-efficacy were the partial mediators of the relationship between positive social interaction and CG mental health. Managing caregiving distress self-efficacy also partial mediated the impact of BPSD on CG mental health. We discuss implications of the results for improving mental health of the target population in mainland China.

Affordance in interaction

The concept of affordance has different interpretations in the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). However, its treatment has been merely as a one-to-one relationship between a user and a technology. We believe that a broader view of affordances is needed which encompasses social and cultural aspects of our everyday life. We propose an interaction-centered view of affordance that can be useful for developing better understandings of designed artefacts. An interaction-centered view of affordance suggests that affordance is an interpretative relationship between users and the technology that emerges during the users' interaction with the technology in the lived environments. We distinguish two broad classes of affordances: affordance in Information and affordance in Articulation. Affordance in information refers to users' understanding of a technology based on their semantic and syntactic interpretation; and affordance in articulation refers to users' interpretations about the use of the technology. We also argue that the notion of affordance should be treated at two levels: at the 'artefact level' and at the 'practice level'. Consequently, we provide two examples to demonstrate our arguments.

State-of-the-art : track degradation at bridge transitions

Transition zones between bridge decks and rail tracks suffer early failure due to poor interaction between rail vehicles and sudden changes of stiffness. This has been an ongoing problem to rail industry and yet still no systematic studies appear to have been taken to maintain a gradually smoothening transmission of forces between the bridge and its approach. Differential settlement between the bridge deck and rail track in the transition zone is the fundamental issue, which negatively impacts the rail industry by causing passenger discomfort, early damage to infrastructure and vehicle components, speed reduction, and frequent maintenance cycles. Identification of mechanism of the track degradation and factors affecting is imperative to design any mitigation method for reducing track degradation rate at the bridge transition zone. Unfortunately this issue is still not well understood, after conducting a numbers of reviews to evaluate the key causes, and introducing a wide range of mitigation techniques. In this study, a comprehensive analysis of the available literature has been carried out to develop either a novel design framework or a mitigation technique for the bridge transition zone. This paper addresses three critical questions in relation to the track degradation at transition zone: (1) what are the causes of bridge transition track degradation?; (2) what are the available mitigation techniques in reducing the track degradation rate?; (3) what are the factors affecting on poor performance of the existing mitigation techniques?. It is found that the absence of soil-water response, dynamic loading response, and behaviour of geotechnical characteristics under long-term conditions in existing track transition design frameworks critically influence on the failures of existing mitigation techniques. This paper also evaluates some of the existing design frameworks to identify how each design framework addresses the track degradation at the bridge transition zone.