scholarly journals Bio-Inspired Robotic Solutions for Landslide Monitoring

Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 1256 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luca Patané
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical Design ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Smart Sensors ◽  
Landslide Monitoring ◽  
Dynamic Simulations ◽  
Area Of Interest ◽  
Landslide Event ◽  
The Status ◽  
Design Systems ◽  
Target Locations

Bio-inspired solutions are often taken into account to solve problems that nature took millions of years to deal with. In the field of robotics, when we need to design systems able to perform in unstructured environments, bio-inspiration can be a useful instrument both for mechanical design and for the control architecture. In the proposed work the problem of landslide monitoring is addressed proposing a bio-inspired robotic structure developed to deploy a series of smart sensors on target locations with the aim of creating a sensor network capable of acquiring information on the status of the area of interest. The acquired data can be used both to create models and to generate alert signals when a landslide event is identified in the early stage. The design process of the robotic system, including dynamic simulations and robot experiments, will be presented here.

Application of Advanced Technologies in Natural Product Research: A Review with Special Emphasis on ADMET Profiling

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (10) ◽  
pp. 751-767
Author(s):  
Pobitra Borah ◽  
Sangeeta Hazarika ◽  
Satyendra Deka ◽  
Katharigatta N. Venugopala ◽  
Anroop B. Nair ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Drug Discovery ◽  
Natural Product ◽  
Dynamic Range ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Attrition Rate ◽  
Drug Candidates ◽  
Advanced Technologies ◽  
Natural Product Research ◽  
The Status ◽  
Safety Parameters

The successful conversion of natural products (NPs) into lead compounds and novel pharmacophores has emboldened the researchers to harness the drug discovery process with a lot more enthusiasm. However, forfeit of bioactive NPs resulting from an overabundance of metabolites and their wide dynamic range have created the bottleneck in NP researches. Similarly, the existence of multidimensional challenges, including the evaluation of pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and safety parameters, has been a concerning issue. Advancement of technology has brought the evolution of traditional natural product researches into the computer-based assessment exhibiting pretentious remarks about their efficiency in drug discovery. The early attention to the quality of the NPs may reduce the attrition rate of drug candidates by parallel assessment of ADMET profiling. This article reviews the status, challenges, opportunities, and integration of advanced technologies in natural product research. Indeed, emphasis will be laid on the current and futuristic direction towards the application of newer technologies in early-stage ADMET profiling of bioactive moieties from the natural sources. It can be expected that combinatorial approaches in ADMET profiling will fortify the natural product-based drug discovery in the near future.

Site controlling in infrastructure projects by digital methods

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tino Walther ◽  
Marianne Pieper ◽  
Hans-Joachim Bargstädt
Keyword(s):  
Performance Measurement ◽  
Construction Industry ◽  
Process Model ◽  
Current Practice ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Recommendations For Action ◽  
Digital Planning ◽  
The Status ◽  
Project Controlling ◽  
Digital Methods

<p>The construction industry is essentially determined by digital transformation and an increasingly complex market environment. Project controlling and monitoring is of high importance for construction site activities to achieve the project goals. Digital planning and recording methods make it possible to identify deviations at an early stage and to ensure the profitability of the project. To discuss the current practice of construction performance measurement as well as digital approaches in this domain, a qualitative study was carried out. The results of this empirical analysis examine the status quo of the construction performance measurement in civil engineering companies to illustrate the currently used methods and trends. Findings for the future use of digital planning and recording methods were obtained from the investigation. Based on empirical hypotheses, recommendations for action as well as for an improved process model are given.</p>

scholarly journals Exploiting Fine-Grained Subcarrier Information for Device-Free Localization in Wireless Sensor Networks

Sensors ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (9) ◽  
pp. 3110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yan Guo ◽  
Dongping Yu ◽  
Ning Li
Keyword(s):  
Compressive Sensing ◽  
Estimation Algorithm ◽  
Surface Model ◽  
Frequency Diversity ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Area Of Interest ◽  
Radio Signals ◽  
Device Free ◽  
Target Locations ◽  
Spatial Sparsity

Device-free localization (DFL) that aims to localize targets without carrying any electronic devices is addressed as an emerging and promising research topic. DFL techniques estimate the locations of transceiver-free targets by analyzing their shadowing effects on the radio signals that travel through the area of interest. Recently, compressive sensing (CS) theory has been applied in DFL to reduce the number of measurements by exploiting the inherent spatial sparsity of target locations. In this paper, we propose a novel CS-based multi-target DFL method to leverage the frequency diversity of fine-grained subcarrier information. Specifically, we build the dictionaries of multiple channels based on the saddle surface model and formulate the multi-target DFL as a joint sparse recovery problem. To estimate the location vector, an iterative location vector estimation algorithm is developed under the multitask Bayesian compressive sensing (MBCS) framework. Compared with the state-of-the-art CS-based multi-target DFL approaches, simulation results validate the superiority of the proposed algorithm.

scholarly journals A simulation to identify the optimal area to survey in the early stage of invasion by Solenopsis invicta

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shumpei Hisamoto ◽  
Koichi Goka ◽  
Yoshiko Sakamoto
Keyword(s):  
Mathematical Model ◽  
Cost Effectiveness ◽  
Solenopsis Invicta ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Geographical Information ◽  
Survey Area ◽  
Single Colony ◽  
The Status ◽  
Optimal Area ◽  
The Cost

Abstract Efforts to eradicate invasive alien species commonly use simulations to calculate the cost-effectiveness of surveys. Although eradication of Solenopsis invicta in the early stages of an invasion is important, few simulations are available to calculate the cost-effectiveness of surveys when a single colony has been detected. In the case of S. invicta, it is difficult to determine from the status of the detected colony whether new queens have dispersed, so it is necessary to consider dispersal as a probabilistic event and calculate its probability. We therefore first constructed a mathematical model in which we used Bayesian statistics to estimate the probability of dispersal as a function of the results of the survey. This mathematical model revealed that the efficacy of the survey and the associated cost differed greatly between cases depending on whether dispersal was or was not confirmed. Next, we developed a simulation that incorporated this mathematical model to inform the determination of the survey area when a single colony had been detected. The simulation showed how ecological parameters and geographical information could be used to identify an efficacious survey area, even in heterogeneous landscapes such as international ports where invasions occur sporadically. Finally, we used this simulation to assess the efficacy of a survey in the case of an S. invicta outbreak at the Port of Tokyo, Japan. The results suggested that the survey covered a sufficiently wide area but that it could have been designed in a more efficacious manner.

scholarly journals A ROBUST REGISTRATION ALGORITHM FOR POINT CLOUDS FROM UAV IMAGES FOR CHANGE DETECTION

2016 ◽  
Vol XLI-B1 ◽  
pp. 765-772 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Al-Rawabdeh ◽  
H. Al-Gurrani ◽  
K. Al-Durgham ◽  
I. Detchev ◽  
F. He ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Point Clouds ◽  
Large Field ◽  
Economic Losses ◽  
Landslide Monitoring ◽  
Registration Method ◽  
Bundle Block Adjustment ◽  
Area Of Interest ◽  
3D Point Clouds ◽  
Reconstructed Surfaces ◽  
Orientation Parameters

Landslides are among the major threats to urban landscape and manmade infrastructure. They often cause economic losses, property damages, and loss of lives. Temporal monitoring data of landslides from different epochs empowers the evaluation of landslide progression. Alignment of overlapping surfaces from two or more epochs is crucial for the proper analysis of landslide dynamics. The traditional methods for point-cloud-based landslide monitoring rely on using a variation of the Iterative Closest Point (ICP) registration procedure to align any reconstructed surfaces from different epochs to a common reference frame. However, sometimes the ICP-based registration can fail or may not provide sufficient accuracy. For example, point clouds from different epochs might fit to local minima due to lack of geometrical variability within the data. Also, manual interaction is required to exclude any non-stable areas from the registration process. In this paper, a robust image-based registration method is introduced for the simultaneous evaluation of all registration parameters. This includes the Interior Orientation Parameters (IOPs) of the camera and the Exterior Orientation Parameters (EOPs) of the involved images from all available observation epochs via a bundle block adjustment with self-calibration. Next, a semi-global dense matching technique is implemented to generate dense 3D point clouds for each epoch using the images captured in a particular epoch separately. The normal distances between any two consecutive point clouds can then be readily computed, because the point clouds are already effectively co-registered. A low-cost DJI Phantom II Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) was customised and used in this research for temporal data collection over an active soil creep area in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. The customisation included adding a GPS logger and a Large-Field-Of-View (LFOV) action camera which facilitated capturing high-resolution geo-tagged images in two epochs over the period of one year (i.e., May 2014 and May 2015). Note that due to the coarse accuracy of the on-board GPS receiver (e.g., +/- 5-10 m) the geo-tagged positions of the images were only used as initial values in the bundle block adjustment. Normal distances, signifying detected changes, varying from 20 cm to 4 m were identified between the two epochs. The accuracy of the co-registered surfaces was estimated by comparing non-active patches within the monitored area of interest. Since these non-active sub-areas are stationary, the computed normal distances should theoretically be close to zero. The quality control of the registration results showed that the average normal distance was approximately 4 cm, which is within the noise level of the reconstructed surfaces.

Advantages of Using a Time-Domain Approach for Dynamic Positioning (DP) Pipelay Studies

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evren Armaoğlu ◽  
Paolo Monti
Keyword(s):  
Time Domain ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Large Diameter ◽  
Weather Forecast ◽  
Dynamic Simulations ◽  
Power Generators ◽  
Fully Integrated ◽  
Critical Areas ◽  
Deep Waters ◽  
Slow Drift

Normally, the DP capability of a vessel is calculated through the use of static force equilibrium programs in which the dynamic effects are either not taken into account or taken into account by empirical load amplification factors. However, competitive and safe S-laying of large diameter pipelines in deep waters lead to large and long pipe lay vessels for which DP requirements are demanding. The power/propulsion requirement of the vessel needs to be considered from an early stage especially when accounting for the pipe laying equipment demands. This imposes a need for detailed dynamic analysis of the lay vessel. This analysis needs to include the slow drift oscillations counteracted by DP and the analysis in entirety needs to ensure the pipe string integrity is maintained. To this purpose Saipem developed in-house a time-domain simulator (FIPLA – Fully Integrated Pipe LAying) that employs all environmental forces (i.e. wind, wave, current) as well as the pipe tension on the vessel. It is used to assess the DP performances and laying capabilities of pipe lay vessels in harsh dynamic environments as well as critical areas for operations. The software can also be used to assess the performance of the vessel in case of failure of thrusters, power generators or bus bars, study DP Control System improvements, and assess the interaction between vessel, tensioner and pipe in deep and shallow waters. This paper focuses on the advantages of using dynamic simulations as an enhancement to the static DP capability charts, to produce detailed information for the DP Operator (DPO) in terms of setting of the DP parameters and to analyze critical laying events. This information can be used together with the weather forecast and can help getting the best performance out of the DP system in harsh environments, reducing downtime, improving operability and ensuring a safe operation.

Race

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Schickler
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Liberal Democratic Party ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Business Regulation ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
The Status

This chapter examines the status quo before the start of the civil rights realignment, showing that civil rights was simply not viewed as part of the standard “liberal program” as of the early 1930s. Although African Americans were vocal in attacking Franklin D. Roosevelt's weak civil rights record, they were largely alone. When whites on the left pushed Roosevelt to be a more forthright liberal or progressive, they criticized him for inadequate support for labor, weak business regulation, and insufficient recovery spending—but not for his failure to back civil rights. At this early stage, the “enemies” of a liberal Democratic Party generally were not identified with the South but instead were probusiness Democrats from the Northeast, associated with Al Smith of New York. Economic questions were the key battleground in the eyes of white liberals, and civil rights did not figure in these debates.

SAR, SARin, RDSAR and FF-SAR Altimetry Processing on Demand for CryoSat-2 and Sentinel-3 at ESA G-POD

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jérôme Benveniste ◽  
Salvatore Dinardo ◽  
Christopher Buchhaupt ◽  
Michele Scagliola ◽  
Marcello Passaro ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Geographical Area ◽  
Vertical Motion ◽  
Time Frame ◽  
Data Repository ◽  
On Demand ◽  
Area Of Interest ◽  
Range Cell ◽  
Data Products ◽  
The Status ◽  
Range Cell Migration

&lt;p&gt;The scope of this presentation is to feature and provide an update on the ESA G-POD/SARvatore family of altimetry services portfolio for the exploitation of CryoSat-2 and Sentinel-3 data from L1A (FBR) data products up to SAR/SARin Level-2 geophysical data products. At present, the following on-line &amp; on-demand services compose the portfolio:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;-&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;The SARvatore (SAR Versatile Altimetric TOolkit for Research &amp; Exploitation) for CryoSat-2 and Sentinel-3 services developed by the Altimetry Team in the R&amp;D division at ESA-ESRIN. These processor prototypes are versatile and allow the users to customize and adapt the processing at L1b &amp; L2 according to their specific requirements by setting a list of configurable options. The scope is to provide users with specific processing options not available in the operational processing chains (e.g. range walk correction, stack sub-setting, extended receiving window, zero padding, high-posting rate and burst weighting at L1b &amp; SAMOSA+, SAMOSA++ and ALES+ SAR retrackers at L2). AJoin &amp; Share Forum (https://wiki.services.eoportal.org/tiki-custom_home.php) allows users to post questions and report issues. A data repository is also available to the Community to avoid the redundant reprocessing of already processed data (https://wiki.services.eoportal.org/tiki-index.php?page=SARvatore+Data+Repository&amp;highlight=repository).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;-&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;The TUDaBo SAR-RDSAR (Technical University Darmstadt &amp;#8211; University Bonn SAR-Reduced SAR) for CryoSat-2 and Sentinel-3 service. It allows users to generate reduced SAR, unfocused SAR &amp; LRMC data. Several configurable L1b &amp; L2 processing options and retrackers (BMLE3, SINC2, TALES, SINCS) are available. The processor will be extended during an additional activity related to the ESA HYDROCOASTAL Project (https://www.satoc.eu/projects/hydrocoastal/) to account in the open ocean for the vertical motion of the wave particles (VMWP) in unfocused SAR and in a simplified form of the fully focused SAR called here Low Resolution Range Cell Migration Correction-Focused (LRMC-F).&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;-&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;The ALES+ SAR for CryoSat-2 and Sentinel-3 service. It allows users to process official L1b data and produces L2 NetCDF products by applying the empirical ALES+ SAR subwaveform retracker, including a dedicated SSB solution, developed by the Technische Universit&amp;#228;t M&amp;#252;nchen in the frame of the ESA Sea Level CCI (http://www.esa-sealevel-cci.org/) &amp; BALTIC+ SEAL Projects (http://balticseal.eu/).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;-&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;The Aresys Fully Focused SAR for CryoSat-2 service. Currently under development, it will provide the capability to produce CS-2 FF-SAR L1b products thanks to the Aresys 2D transformed frequency domain AREALT-FF1 processor prototype. Output products will also include geophysical corrections and threshold peak &amp; ALES-like subwaveform retracker estimates.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The G-POD graphical interface allows users to select, in all the services, a geographical area of interest within the time-frame related to the L1A (FBR) &amp; L1b data products availability in the service catalogue. &amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;After the task submission, users can follow, in real time, the status of the processing. The output data products are generated in standard NetCDF format, therefore being compatible with the multi-mission &amp;#8220;Broadview Radar Altimetry Toolbox&amp;#8221; (BRAT, http://www.altimetry.info) and typical tools.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Services are open, free of charge (supported by ESA) for worldwide scientific applications and available, after registration and activation (to be requested for each chosen service to [email protected]), at https://gpod.eo.esa.int.&lt;/p&gt;

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