Calibration of Camera and Flash LiDAR System with a Triangular Pyramid Target

Calibration between multiple sensors is a fundamental procedure for data fusion. To address the problems of large errors and tedious operation, we present a novel method to conduct the calibration between light detection and ranging (LiDAR) and camera. We invent a calibration target, which is an arbitrary triangular pyramid with three chessboard patterns on its three planes. The target contains both 3D information and 2D information, which can be utilized to obtain intrinsic parameters of the camera and extrinsic parameters of the system. In the proposed method, the world coordinate system is established through the triangular pyramid. We extract the equations of triangular pyramid planes to find the relative transformation between two sensors. One capture of camera and LiDAR is sufficient for calibration, and errors are reduced by minimizing the distance between points and planes. Furthermore, the accuracy can be increased by more captures. We carried out experiments on simulated data with varying degrees of noise and numbers of frames. Finally, the calibration results were verified by real data through incremental validation and analyzing the root mean square error (RMSE), demonstrating that our calibration method is robust and provides state-of-the-art performance.

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Development and Application of Novel Performance Validity Metrics for Computerized Neurocognitive Batteries

10.31234/osf.io/64ucw ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

J. Cobb Scott ◽

Tyler M. Moore ◽

David R Roalf ◽

Theodore D. Satterthwaite ◽

Daniel H. Wolf ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Simulated Data ◽

Real Data ◽

Response Patterns ◽

Performance Validity ◽

Neurocognitive Tests ◽

Validity Measures ◽

Novel Method ◽

Performance Validity Measures ◽

Validity Tests ◽

Performance Validity Tests

Objective: Data from neurocognitive assessments may not be accurate in the context of factors impacting validity, such as disengagement, unmotivated responding, or intentional underperformance. Performance validity tests (PVTs) were developed to address these phenomena and assess underperformance on neurocognitive tests. However, PVTs can be burdensome, rely on cutoff scores that reduce information, do not examine potential variations in task engagement across a battery, and are typically not well-suited to acquisition of large cognitive datasets. Here we describe the development of novel performance validity measures that could address some of these limitations by leveraging psychometric modeling from data embedded within the Penn Computerized Neurocognitive Battery (PennCNB). Method: We first developed these validity measures using simulations of invalid response patterns with parameters drawn from real data. Next, we examined their application in two large, independent samples: 1) children and adolescents from the Philadelphia Neurodevelopmental Cohort (n=9,498); and 2) adult servicemembers from the Marine Resiliency Study-II (n=1,444). Results: Our performance validity metrics detected patterns of invalid responding in simulated data, even at subtle levels. Furthermore, a combination of these metrics significantly predicted previously established validity rules for these tests in both developmental and adult datasets. Moreover, most clinical diagnostic groups did not show reduced validity estimates. Conclusion: These results provide proof-of-concept evidence for multivariate, data-driven performance validity metrics. These metrics offer a novel method for determining the performance validity for individual neurocognitive tests that is scalable, applicable across different tests, less burdensome, and dimensional. However, more research is needed into their application.

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HIVID2: an accurate tool to detect virus integrations in the host genome

Bioinformatics ◽

10.1093/bioinformatics/btab031 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Xi Zeng ◽

Linghao Zhao ◽

Chenhang Shen ◽

Yi Zhou ◽

Guoliang Li ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Simulated Data ◽

Real Data ◽

Host Genome ◽

Supplementary Information ◽

Future Research ◽

Specificity And Sensitivity ◽

Novel Method ◽

Advanced Analysis ◽

Virus Integration ◽

Better Than

Abstract Motivation Virus integration in the host genome is frequently reported to be closely associated with many human diseases, and the detection of virus integration is a critically challenging task. However, most existing tools show limited specificity and sensitivity. Therefore, the objective of this study is to develop a method for accurate detection of virus integration into host genomes. Results Herein, we report a novel method termed HIVID2 that is a significant upgrade of HIVID. HIVID2 performs a paired-end combination (PE-combination) for potentially integrated reads. The resulting sequences are then remapped onto the reference genomes, and both split and discordant chimeric reads are used to identify accurate integration breakpoints with high confidence. HIVID2 represents a great improvement in specificity and sensitivity, and predicts breakpoints closer to the real integrations, compared with existing methods. The advantage of our method was demonstrated using both simulated and real datasets. HIVID2 uncovered novel integration breakpoints in well-known cervical cancer-related genes, including FHIT and LRP1B, which was verified using protein expression data. In addition, HIVID2 allows the user to decide whether to automatically perform advanced analysis using the identified virus integrations. By analyzing the simulated data and real data tests, we demonstrated that HIVID2 is not only more accurate than HIVID but also better than other existing programs with respect to both sensitivity and specificity. We believe that HIVID2 will help in enhancing future research associated with virus integration. Availabilityand implementation HIVID2 can be accessed at https://github.com/zengxi-hada/HIVID2/. Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

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Separation of Chromatographic Co-Eluted Compounds by Clustering and by Functional Data Analysis

Metabolites ◽

10.3390/metabo11040214 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (4) ◽

pp. 214

Author(s):

Aneta Sawikowska ◽

Anna Piasecka ◽

Piotr Kachlicki ◽

Paweł Krajewski

Keyword(s):

Simulated Data ◽

Principal Component ◽

Real Data ◽

Functional Principal Component Analysis ◽

Additional Advantage ◽

Time Alignment ◽

Peak Separation ◽

Biological Mixtures ◽

Overlapping Peaks ◽

Retention Time Alignment

Peak overlapping is a common problem in chromatography, mainly in the case of complex biological mixtures, i.e., metabolites. Due to the existence of the phenomenon of co-elution of different compounds with similar chromatographic properties, peak separation becomes challenging. In this paper, two computational methods of separating peaks, applied, for the first time, to large chromatographic datasets, are described, compared, and experimentally validated. The methods lead from raw observations to data that can form inputs for statistical analysis. First, in both methods, data are normalized by the mass of sample, the baseline is removed, retention time alignment is conducted, and detection of peaks is performed. Then, in the first method, clustering is used to separate overlapping peaks, whereas in the second method, functional principal component analysis (FPCA) is applied for the same purpose. Simulated data and experimental results are used as examples to present both methods and to compare them. Real data were obtained in a study of metabolomic changes in barley (Hordeum vulgare) leaves under drought stress. The results suggest that both methods are suitable for separation of overlapping peaks, but the additional advantage of the FPCA is the possibility to assess the variability of individual compounds present within the same peaks of different chromatograms.

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A Closed-Form Solution to Planar Feature-Based Registration of LiDAR Point Clouds

ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information ◽

10.3390/ijgi10070435 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (7) ◽

pp. 435

Author(s):

Yongbo Wang ◽

Nanshan Zheng ◽

Zhengfu Bian

Keyword(s):

Closed Form ◽

Closed Form Solution ◽

Simulated Data ◽

Real Data ◽

Point Clouds ◽

Form Solution ◽

Spatial Transformation ◽

Dual Quaternions ◽

Feature Based ◽

Planar Feature

Since pairwise registration is a necessary step for the seamless fusion of point clouds from neighboring stations, a closed-form solution to planar feature-based registration of LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) point clouds is proposed in this paper. Based on the Plücker coordinate-based representation of linear features in three-dimensional space, a quad tuple-based representation of planar features is introduced, which makes it possible to directly determine the difference between any two planar features. Dual quaternions are employed to represent spatial transformation and operations between dual quaternions and the quad tuple-based representation of planar features are given, with which an error norm is constructed. Based on L2-norm-minimization, detailed derivations of the proposed solution are explained step by step. Two experiments were designed in which simulated data and real data were both used to verify the correctness and the feasibility of the proposed solution. With the simulated data, the calculated registration results were consistent with the pre-established parameters, which verifies the correctness of the presented solution. With the real data, the calculated registration results were consistent with the results calculated by iterative methods. Conclusions can be drawn from the two experiments: (1) The proposed solution does not require any initial estimates of the unknown parameters in advance, which assures the stability and robustness of the solution; (2) Using dual quaternions to represent spatial transformation greatly reduces the additional constraints in the estimation process.

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Penalized partial least squares for pleiotropy

BMC Bioinformatics ◽

10.1186/s12859-021-03968-1 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 22 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Camilo Broc ◽

Therese Truong ◽

Benoit Liquet

Keyword(s):

Least Squares ◽

Partial Least Squares ◽

Association Studies ◽

A Priori ◽

Simulated Data ◽

Real Data ◽

Genome Wide Association Studies ◽

Genetic Associations ◽

Multiple Traits ◽

Application Fields

Abstract Background The increasing number of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) has revealed several loci that are associated to multiple distinct phenotypes, suggesting the existence of pleiotropic effects. Highlighting these cross-phenotype genetic associations could help to identify and understand common biological mechanisms underlying some diseases. Common approaches test the association between genetic variants and multiple traits at the SNP level. In this paper, we propose a novel gene- and a pathway-level approach in the case where several independent GWAS on independent traits are available. The method is based on a generalization of the sparse group Partial Least Squares (sgPLS) to take into account groups of variables, and a Lasso penalization that links all independent data sets. This method, called joint-sgPLS, is able to convincingly detect signal at the variable level and at the group level. Results Our method has the advantage to propose a global readable model while coping with the architecture of data. It can outperform traditional methods and provides a wider insight in terms of a priori information. We compared the performance of the proposed method to other benchmark methods on simulated data and gave an example of application on real data with the aim to highlight common susceptibility variants to breast and thyroid cancers. Conclusion The joint-sgPLS shows interesting properties for detecting a signal. As an extension of the PLS, the method is suited for data with a large number of variables. The choice of Lasso penalization copes with architectures of groups of variables and observations sets. Furthermore, although the method has been applied to a genetic study, its formulation is adapted to any data with high number of variables and an exposed a priori architecture in other application fields.

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Red panda: a novel method for detecting variants in single-cell RNA sequencing

BMC Genomics ◽

10.1186/s12864-020-07224-3 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 21 (S11) ◽

Author(s):

Adam Cornish ◽

Shrabasti Roychoudhury ◽

Krishna Sarma ◽

Suravi Pramanik ◽

Kishor Bhakat ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Single Cell ◽

Rna Sequencing ◽

Articular Chondrocytes ◽

Genetic Diseases ◽

Simulated Data ◽

Single Nucleotide ◽

Single Cell Rna Sequencing ◽

Red Panda ◽

Novel Method ◽

Rare Cells

Abstract Background Single-cell sequencing enables us to better understand genetic diseases, such as cancer or autoimmune disorders, which are often affected by changes in rare cells. Currently, no existing software is aimed at identifying single nucleotide variations or micro (1-50 bp) insertions and deletions in single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) data. Generating high-quality variant data is vital to the study of the aforementioned diseases, among others. Results In this study, we report the design and implementation of Red Panda, a novel method to accurately identify variants in scRNA-seq data. Variants were called on scRNA-seq data from human articular chondrocytes, mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs), and simulated data stemming from the MEF alignments. Red Panda had the highest Positive Predictive Value at 45.0%, while other tools—FreeBayes, GATK HaplotypeCaller, GATK UnifiedGenotyper, Monovar, and Platypus—ranged from 5.8–41.53%. From the simulated data, Red Panda had the highest sensitivity at 72.44%. Conclusions We show that our method provides a novel and improved mechanism to identify variants in scRNA-seq as compared to currently existing software. However, methods for identification of genomic variants using scRNA-seq data can be still improved.

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Prediction of Fuel Poverty Potential Risk Index Using Six Regression Algorithms: A Case-Study of Chilean Social Dwellings

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13052426 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (5) ◽

pp. 2426

Author(s):

David Bienvenido-Huertas ◽

Jesús A. Pulido-Arcas ◽

Carlos Rubio-Bellido ◽

Alexis Pérez-Fargallo

Keyword(s):

Low Income ◽

Potential Risk ◽

Energy Use ◽

Risk Index ◽

Computing Time ◽

Simulated Data ◽

Real Data ◽

Support Vector ◽

Energy Poverty ◽

Regression Algorithms

In recent times, studies about the accuracy of algorithms to predict different aspects of energy use in the building sector have flourished, being energy poverty one of the issues that has received considerable critical attention. Previous studies in this field have characterized it using different indicators, but they have failed to develop instruments to predict the risk of low-income households falling into energy poverty. This research explores the way in which six regression algorithms can accurately forecast the risk of energy poverty by means of the fuel poverty potential risk index. Using data from the national survey of socioeconomic conditions of Chilean households and generating data for different typologies of social dwellings (e.g., form ratio or roof surface area), this study simulated 38,880 cases and compared the accuracy of six algorithms. Multilayer perceptron, M5P and support vector regression delivered the best accuracy, with correlation coefficients over 99.5%. In terms of computing time, M5P outperforms the rest. Although these results suggest that energy poverty can be accurately predicted using simulated data, it remains necessary to test the algorithms against real data. These results can be useful in devising policies to tackle energy poverty in advance.

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An Automatic Offset Calibration Method for Differential Charge-Based Capacitance Measurement

Journal of Low Power Electronics and Applications ◽

10.3390/jlpea11020022 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (2) ◽

pp. 22

Author(s):

Umberto Ferlito ◽

Alfio Dario Grasso ◽

Michele Vaiana ◽

Giuseppe Bruno

Keyword(s):

Standard Deviation ◽

Output Voltage ◽

Process Variations ◽

Calibration Method ◽

Capacitance Measurement ◽

Effective Technique ◽

Fully Integrated ◽

Front End ◽

Novel Method ◽

On Chip

Charge-Based Capacitance Measurement (CBCM) technique is a simple but effective technique for measuring capacitance values down to the attofarad level. However, when adopted for fully on-chip implementation, this technique suffers output offset caused by mismatches and process variations. This paper introduces a novel method that compensates the offset of a fully integrated differential CBCM electronic front-end. After a detailed theoretical analysis of the differential CBCM topology, we present and discuss a modified architecture that compensates mismatches and increases robustness against mismatches and process variations. The proposed circuit has been simulated using a standard 130-nm technology and shows a sensitivity of 1.3 mV/aF and a 20× reduction of the standard deviation of the differential output voltage as compared to the traditional solution.

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Constructing Large-Scale Genetic Maps Using an Evolutionary Strategy Algorithm

Genetics ◽

10.1093/genetics/165.4.2269 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 165 (4) ◽

pp. 2269-2282

Author(s):

D Mester ◽

Y Ronin ◽

D Minkov ◽

E Nevo ◽

A Korol

Keyword(s):

Discrete Optimization ◽

High Performance ◽

Large Scale ◽

Simulated Data ◽

Real Data ◽

Genetic Maps ◽

Chromosome 1 ◽

Evolutionary Strategy ◽

Group A ◽

The One

Abstract This article is devoted to the problem of ordering in linkage groups with many dozens or even hundreds of markers. The ordering problem belongs to the field of discrete optimization on a set of all possible orders, amounting to n!/2 for n loci; hence it is considered an NP-hard problem. Several authors attempted to employ the methods developed in the well-known traveling salesman problem (TSP) for multilocus ordering, using the assumption that for a set of linked loci the true order will be the one that minimizes the total length of the linkage group. A novel, fast, and reliable algorithm developed for the TSP and based on evolution-strategy discrete optimization was applied in this study for multilocus ordering on the basis of pairwise recombination frequencies. The quality of derived maps under various complications (dominant vs. codominant markers, marker misclassification, negative and positive interference, and missing data) was analyzed using simulated data with ∼50-400 markers. High performance of the employed algorithm allows systematic treatment of the problem of verification of the obtained multilocus orders on the basis of computing-intensive bootstrap and/or jackknife approaches for detecting and removing questionable marker scores, thereby stabilizing the resulting maps. Parallel calculation technology can easily be adopted for further acceleration of the proposed algorithm. Real data analysis (on maize chromosome 1 with 230 markers) is provided to illustrate the proposed methodology.

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Improving the performance of a radio-frequency localization system in adverse outdoor applications

EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking ◽

10.1186/s13638-021-02001-6 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 2021 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Marcelo N. de Sousa ◽

Ricardo Sant’Ana ◽

Rigel P. Fernandes ◽

Julio Cesar Duarte ◽

José A. Apolinário ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Random Forest ◽

Ray Tracing ◽

Real World ◽

Practical Implication ◽

Real Life ◽

Simulated Data ◽

Real Data ◽

Gradient Boosting ◽

Real World Data ◽

Localization Accuracy

AbstractIn outdoor RF localization systems, particularly where line of sight can not be guaranteed or where multipath effects are severe, information about the terrain may improve the position estimate’s performance. Given the difficulties in obtaining real data, a ray-tracing fingerprint is a viable option. Nevertheless, although presenting good simulation results, the performance of systems trained with simulated features only suffer degradation when employed to process real-life data. This work intends to improve the localization accuracy when using ray-tracing fingerprints and a few field data obtained from an adverse environment where a large number of measurements is not an option. We employ a machine learning (ML) algorithm to explore the multipath information. We selected algorithms random forest and gradient boosting; both considered efficient tools in the literature. In a strict simulation scenario (simulated data for training, validating, and testing), we obtained the same good results found in the literature (error around 2 m). In a real-world system (simulated data for training, real data for validating and testing), both ML algorithms resulted in a mean positioning error around 100 ,m. We have also obtained experimental results for noisy (artificially added Gaussian noise) and mismatched (with a null subset of) features. From the simulations carried out in this work, our study revealed that enhancing the ML model with a few real-world data improves localization’s overall performance. From the machine ML algorithms employed herein, we also observed that, under noisy conditions, the random forest algorithm achieved a slightly better result than the gradient boosting algorithm. However, they achieved similar results in a mismatch experiment. This work’s practical implication is that multipath information, once rejected in old localization techniques, now represents a significant source of information whenever we have prior knowledge to train the ML algorithm.

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