Search results for " applications."
showing 10 items of 4344 documents
Restoration and Enhancement of Historical Stereo Photos
2021
Restoration of digital visual media acquired from repositories of historical photographic and cinematographic material is of key importance for the preservation, study and transmission of the legacy of past cultures to the coming generations. In this paper, a fully automatic approach to the digital restoration of historical stereo photographs is proposed, referred to as Stacked Median Restoration plus (SMR+). The approach exploits the content redundancy in stereo pairs for detecting and fixing scratches, dust, dirt spots and many other defects in the original images, as well as improving contrast and illumination. This is done by estimating the optical flow between the images, and using it …
A Cognitive Architecture for Robotic Hand Posture Learning
2005
This paper deals with the design and implementation of a visual control of a robotic system composed of a dexterous hand and video camera. The aim of the proposed system is to reproduce the movements of a human hand in order to learn complex manipulation tasks or to interact with the user. A novel algorithm for robust and fast fingertips localization and tracking is presented. A suitable kinematic hand model is adopted to achieve a fast and acceptable solution to an inverse kinematics problem. The system is part of a cognitive architecture for posture learning that integrates the perceptions by a high-level representation of the scene and of the observed actions. The anthropomorphic robotic…
Humanoid Cognitive Robots That Learn by Imitating: Implications for Consciousness Studies.
2018
While the concept of a conscious machine is intriguing, producing such a machine remains controversial and challenging. Here we describe how our work on creating a humanoid cognitive robot that learns to perform tasks via imitation learning relates to this issue. Our discussion is divided into three parts. First, we summarize our previously-detailed framework for advancing the understanding of the nature of phenomenal consciousness. This framework is based on identifying computational correlates of consciousness. Second, we describe a cognitive robotic system that we recently developed that learns to perform tasks by imitating human-provided demonstrations. This humanoid robot uses cause-ef…
Effects of B-Cell Lymphoma on the Immune System and Immune Recovery after Treatment: The Paradigm of Targeted Therapy
2022
B-cell lymphoma and lymphoproliferative diseases represent a heterogeneous and complex group of neoplasms that are accompanied by a broad range of immune regulatory disorder phenotypes. Clinical features of autoimmunity, hyperinflammation, immunodeficiency and infection can variously dominate, depending on the immune pathway most involved. Immunological imbalance can play a role in lymphomagenesis, also supporting the progression of the disease, while on the other hand, lymphoma acts on the immune system to weaken immunosurveillance and facilitate immunoevasion. Therefore, the modulation of immunity can have a profound effect on disease progression or resolution, which makes the immune syst…
How Can We Improve Vaccination Response in Old People? Part I: Targeting Immunosenescence of Innate Immunity Cells
2022
Vaccination, being able to prevent millions of cases of infectious diseases around the world every year, is the most effective medical intervention ever introduced. However, immunosenescence makes vaccines less effective in providing protection to older people. Although most studies explain that this is mainly due to the immunosenescence of T and B cells, the immunosenescence of innate immunity can also be a significant contributing factor. Alterations in function, number, subset, and distribution of blood neutrophils, monocytes, and natural killer and dendritic cells are detected in aging, thus potentially reducing the efficacy of vaccines in older individuals. In this paper, we focus on t…
'Good to Repeat': Making Random Access Near-Optimal with Repeated Contentions
2020
Recent advances on WLAN technology have been focused mostly on boosting network capacity by means of a more efficient and flexible physical layer. A new concept is required at MAC level to exploit fully the new capabilities of the PHY layer. In this article, we propose a contention mechanism based on Repeated Contentions (ReCo) in frequency domain. It provides a simple-to-configure, robust and short-term fair algorithm for the random contention component of the MAC protocol. The throughput efficiency of ReCo is not sensitive to the number of contending stations, so that ReCo does not require adaptive tuning of the access parameters for performance optimization. Efficiency and robustness is …
Coupling dynamic simulation and interactive multiobjective optimization for complex problems: An APROS-NIMBUS case study
2014
Dynamic process simulators for plant-wide process simulation and multiobjective optimization tools can be used by industries as a means to cut costs and enhance profitability. Specifically, dynamic process simulators are useful in the process plant design phase, as they provide several benefits such as savings in time and costs. On the other hand, multiobjective optimization tools are useful in obtaining the best possible process designs when multiple conflicting objectives are to be optimized simultaneously. Here we concentrate on interactive multiobjective optimization. When multiobjective optimization methods are used in process design, they need an access to dynamic process simulators, …
The closer¿ the unsafer: may the lack of safe distance be a silent contributor to the burden of traffic crashes in Spain?
2020
Not keeping an adequate safe distance is one of the elements that are directly related to traffic accidents. The main objective of this research was to identify the aspects that modulate the safe distance-accidents relation. Specifically, the frequency and reasons why drivers do not keep the safe distance, the perception of drivers regarding the probability of penalty, the penalties imposed and their severity, and the drivers’ opinion on the effectiveness of such penalties in order to change this behavior. A questionnaire was administrated to a sample of 1,100 Spanish drivers having any kind of driving license. The results showed that only the 5,6% of drivers always or sometimes do not keep…
Institutional entrepreneurs: The driving force in institutionalization of public systems in developing countries
2013
PurposeWhile institutional theory is used widely in the information system (IS) literature to study implementation of systems, the actual process of institutionalization has received less attention. The purpose of this paper is to address this gap in the literature by using three concepts drawn from the theory, namely, institutional isomorphism, institutional logic and institutional entrepreneurship, and the interplay between them to explore the role of the dominant institutional entrepreneur in the institutionalization of a public system, as an instance of e‐government initiatives.Design/methodology/approachIn an interpretive case study, this study examined the institutionalization process…
Multi-parameter analysis of the obstacle scattering problem
2022
Abstract We consider the acoustic field scattered by a bounded impenetrable obstacle and we study its dependence upon a certain set of parameters. As usual, the problem is modeled by an exterior Dirichlet problem for the Helmholtz equation Δu + k 2 u = 0. We show that the solution u and its far field pattern u ∞ depend real analytically on the shape of the obstacle, the wave number k, and the Dirichlet datum. We also prove a similar result for the corresponding Dirichlet-to-Neumann map.