A smartphone localization algorithm using RSSI and inertial sensor measurement fusion

Indoor navigation using the existing wireless infrastructure and mobile devices is a very active research area. The major challenge is to leverage the extensive smartphone sensor suite to achieve location tracking with high accuracy. In this paper, we develop a navigation algorithm which fuses the WiFi received signal strength indicator (RSSI) and smartphone inertial sensor measurements. A sequential Monte Carlo filter is developed for inertial sensor based tracking, and a radiolocation algorithm is developed to infer mobile location based on RSSI measurements. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm significantly outperforms the extended Kalman filter (EKF), and achieves competitive location accuracy compared with the round trip time (RTT) based ultra-wideband (UWB) system.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant ECCS-0901034)United States. Office of Naval Research (Grant N00014-11-1-0397)Defense University Research Instrumentation Program (U.S.) (Grant N00014-08-1-0826)Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologie

Integrated IMU and radiolocation-based navigation using a Rao-Blackwellized particle filter

In this paper, we develop a cooperative IMU/radio-location-based navigation system, where each node tracks the location not only based on its own measurements, but also via collaboration with neighbor nodes. The key problem is to design a nonlinear filter to fuse IMU and radiolocation information. We apply the Rao-Blackwellization method by using a particle filter and parallel Kalman filters for the estimation of orientation and other states (i.e., position, velocity, etc.), respectively. The proposed method significantly outperforms the extended Kalman filter (EKF) in the set of simulations here.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant ECCS-0901034)United States. Office of Naval Research (Grant N00014-11-1-0397)Defense University Research Instrumentation Program (U.S.) (Grant N00014-08-1-0826)Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologie

Кераміка для техніки

The benthic invertebrates fauna of most of the saline lakes of the Sud Lipez region (Bolivia, Altiplano) has been until now quite unstudied. Samples collected during an extensive survey of 12 lakes and two small inflow rivers allow a first list of the main macroinvertebrates living in the biotopes. The heterogeneous nature of these saline lakes with their freshwater springs and phreatic inflows offers a variety of habitats to macroinvertebrates. The benthic fauna in lakes with salinity > 10 g l-1 is not so low in density but includes few species and is dominated by Orthocladinae and Podonominae larvae. In contrast, the freshwater springs and inflows are colonized by a diverse fauna with a mixture of both freshwater and saline taxa, but dominated by Elmidae and Amphipoda. The lakes are quite isolated and, apart from some cosmopolitan organisms, their fauna can be quite distinctive. (Résumé d'auteur

Consensus Paper: Radiological Biomarkers of Cerebellar Diseases

Hereditary and sporadic cerebellar ataxias represent a vast and still growing group of diseases whose diagnosis and differentiation cannot only rely on clinical evaluation. Brain imaging including magnetic resonance (MR) and nuclear medicine techniques allows for characterization of structural and functional abnormalities underlying symptomatic ataxias. These methods thus constitute a potential source of radiological biomarkers, which could be used to identify these diseases and differentiate subgroups of them, and to assess their severity and their evolution. Such biomarkers mainly comprise qualitative and quantitative data obtained from MR including proton spectroscopy, diffusion imaging, tractography, voxel-based morphometry, functional imaging during task execution or in a resting state, and from SPETC and PET with several radiotracers. In the current article, we aim to illustrate briefly some applications of these neuroimaging tools to evaluation of cerebellar disorders such as inherited cerebellar ataxia, fetal developmental malformations, and immune-mediated cerebellar diseases and of neurodegenerative or early-developing diseases, such as dementia and autism in which cerebellar involvement is an emerging feature. Although these radiological biomarkers appear promising and helpful to better understand ataxia-related anatomical and physiological impairments, to date, very few of them have turned out to be specific for a given ataxia with atrophy of the cerebellar system being the main and the most usual alteration being observed. Consequently, much remains to be done to establish sensitivity, specificity, and reproducibility of available MR and nuclear medicine features as diagnostic, progression and surrogate biomarkers in clinical routine

A synthesis of past, current and future research for protection and management of papyrus (Cyperus papyrus L.) wetlands in Africa

Papyrus wetlands (dominated by the giant sedge Cyperus papyrus L.) occur throughout eastern, central and southern Africa and are important for biodiversity, for water quality and quantity regulation and for the livelihoods of millions of people. To draw attention to the importance of papyrus wetlands, a special session entitled ‘‘The ecology of livelihoods in papyrus wetlands’’ was organized at the 9th INTECOL Wetlands Conference in Orlando, Florida in June 2012. Papers from the session, combined with additional contributions, were collected in a special issue of Wetlands Ecology and Management. The current paper reviews ecological and hydrological characteristics of papyrus wetlands, summarizes their ecosystem services and sustainable use, provides an overview of papyrus research to date, and looks at policy development for papyrus wetlands. Based on this review, the paper provides a synthesis of research and policy priorities for papyrus wetlands and introduces the contributions in the special issue. Main conclusions are that (1) there is a need for better estimates of the area covered by papyrus wetlands. Limited evidence suggests that the loss of papyrus wetlands is rapid in some areas; (2) there is a need for a better understanding and modelling of the regulating services of papyrus wetlands to support trade-off analysis and improve economic valuation; (3) research on papyrus wetlands should include assessment of all ecosystem services (provisioning, regulating, habitat, cultural) so that trade-offs can be determined as the basis for sustainable management strategies (‘wise use’); (4) more research on the governance, institutional and socio-economic aspects of papyrus wetlands is needed to assist African governments in dealing with the challenges of conserving wetlands in the face of growing food security needs and climate change. The papers in the special issue address a number of these issues

Evaluation of T2G band intensity distribution across a surface of an UO2 ceramic

International audienc

Thyroid cancer following nuclear tests in French Polynesia

BACKGROUND: Between 1966 and 1974, France conducted 41 atmospheric nuclear tests in Polynesia, but their potential health effects have not previously been investigated. METHODS: In a case-control study, we compared the radiation exposure of almost all the French Polynesians diagnosed with differentiated thyroid carcinoma between 1981 and 2003 (n = 229) to the exposure of 373 French Polynesian control individuals without cancer from the general population. Radiation exposures were estimated using measurements after the nuclear tests, age at time of each test, residential and dietary information. RESULTS: The average thyroid dose before 15 years of age was about 1.8 mGy, and 5% of the cases and 3% of the controls received a dose above 10 mGy. Despite this low level of dose, and after adjusting for ethnic group, level of education, body surface area, family history of thyroid cancer and number of pregnancies for women, we observed an increasing risk (P = 0.04) of thyroid cancer with increasing thyroid dose received before age of 15 years, which remained after excluding non-aggressive differentiated thyroid micro-carcinomas. This increase of risk per unit of thyroid radiation dose was higher (P = 0.03) in women who later experienced four or more pregnancies than among other women. CONCLUSION: The risk estimate is low, but is based on limited exposure data. The release of information on exposure, currently classified, would greatly improve the reliability of the risk estimation. British Journal of Cancer (2010) 103, 1115-1121. doi: 10.1038/sj.bjc.6605862 www.bjcancer.com Published online 31 August 2010 (c) 2010 Cancer Research U