Identification Of Obstacles Research Articles

Um sistema baseado nas NTICs para auxílio aos deficientes visuais em sua caminhada por locais desconhecidos

O trabalho tem por objetivo analisar um sistema de mobilidade para deficiente visual na sua rota de caminhada até o local onde ele queira. Foi verificado o que há no estado da arte na área de mobilidade e acessibilidade para os deficientes. Houve um estudo do comportamento dos deficientes visuais e entrevistas com os mesmos foram feitas, procurando saber o que eles pensam sobre ouso das Novas Tecnologias da Informação e Comunicação (NTIC). Para alcançar nosso objetivo geral fizemos um estudo da computação móvel, das tecnologias de reconhecimento de voz, GPS (Global Positioning System), da plataforma Andoid e Arduino. Usou-se a engenharia de software para a análise, o projeto e implementaçao do sistema. Por fim testes foram feitos para validar a funcionalidade e confiabilidade do sistema. Quando aproximado um objeto ao sensor infravermelho, houve o sinal sonoro avisando tal proximidade, sendo que a distância máxima de identificação foi de 0,8m aproximadamente. Com essa distância máxima de identificação, o deficiente visual tem tempo suficiente para desviar do obstáculo à frente. Pode-se concluir então, que a identificação de obstáculos atende ao que foi proposto.

Comparative analysis of texture descriptors in maize fields with plants, soil and object discrimination

Precision Agriculture aims to apply selective treatments and tasks at localized areas concerning crop fields. Robotized and autonomous tractors, equipped with perception, decision-making and actuation systems, can apply specific treatments as may be required. Correct plant identification through the perception system, including crops and weeds, is an important issue. Additionally, it is well known that, in autonomous vehicles, safety is a major challenge, where unexpected obstacles in the working area must be conveniently addressed in order to guarantee the security and the continuity of the process. The objective of this study was to design a tri-class Support Vector Machine classifier for identifying plants (crops and weeds), soil and objects in maize fields based on unsupervised learning. For this, a strategy for automatic sample selection was designed to obtain elements of the three involved classes for the training process. In this context, the identification of obstacles for safe navigation makes an important contribution. A comparative analysis of different texture descriptors and local patterns was carried out with the aim of determining the best for characterizing the classes under study; results have shown that the Speeded-Up Robust Features descriptor is the most appropriate to discriminate between plants, soil and objects. The development of an object detection algorithm for agricultural images proved the effectiveness of the tri-class classifier with an accuracy of 94.3%.

Vínculos entre familia y escuela: visión de los maestros en formación

<p>Se presenta la identificación de limitaciones, beneficios y obstáculos en la relación familia y escuela, en España, desde la perspectiva de 134 maestros de educación infantil en formación, por medio de un estudio cualitativo de carácter etnográfico. Los resultados permiten identificar la convivencia en los centros de tres tipos de participación no excluyentes y, aunque con dificultades, se atisba una emergente implicación sistemática de las familias en los planes y proyectos. Esta realidad ha de ser objeto de análisis y reflexión en la formación de maestros, en la que el conocimiento eminentemente teórico se ha de articular con el práctico desde un posicionamiento crítico-reflexivo.</p>

APPLICATION OF DSM IN OBSTACLE CLEARANCE SURVEYING OF AERODROME

Compared to the wide use of digital elevation model (DEM), digital surface model (DSM) receives less attention because that it is composed by not only terrain surface, but also vegetations and man-made objects which are usually regarded as useless information. Nevertheless, these objects are useful for the identification of obstacles around an aerodrome. The primary objective of the study was to determine the applicability of DSM in obstacle clearance surveying of aerodrome. According to the requirements of obstacle clearance surveying at QT airport, aerial and satellite imagery were used to generate DSM, by means of photogrammetry, which was spatially analyzed with the hypothetical 3D obstacle limitation surfaces (OLS) to identify the potential obstacles. Field surveying was then carried out to retrieve the accurate horizontal position and height of the obstacles. The results proved that the application of DSM could make considerable improvement in the efficiency of obstacle clearance surveying of aerodrome.

APPLICATION OF DSM IN OBSTACLE CLEARANCE SURVEYING OF AERODROME

Abstract. Compared to the wide use of digital elevation model (DEM), digital surface model (DSM) receives less attention because that it is composed by not only terrain surface, but also vegetations and man-made objects which are usually regarded as useless information. Nevertheless, these objects are useful for the identification of obstacles around an aerodrome. The primary objective of the study was to determine the applicability of DSM in obstacle clearance surveying of aerodrome. According to the requirements of obstacle clearance surveying at QT airport, aerial and satellite imagery were used to generate DSM, by means of photogrammetry, which was spatially analyzed with the hypothetical 3D obstacle limitation surfaces (OLS) to identify the potential obstacles. Field surveying was then carried out to retrieve the accurate horizontal position and height of the obstacles. The results proved that the application of DSM could make considerable improvement in the efficiency of obstacle clearance surveying of aerodrome.

MR Imaging in Postreduction Assessment of Developmental Dysplasia of the Hip: Goals and Obstacles.

Developmental dysplasia of the hip is a spectrum disorder of hip development that ranges in severity from abnormal acetabular morphology to complete hip dislocation. While treatment with a Pavlik harness is highly effective in infants younger than 6 months, older infants and children and those with orthotic failure often warrant surgical reduction and placement of a spica cast, which limits subsequent imaging evaluation. Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging has been described in the evaluation of the adequacy of hip reduction for more than 2 decades, but the practice is still not widespread and is performed routinely at relatively few centers. MR imaging is a robust tool for outcome assessment after hip reduction and placement of a spica cast, facilitating multiplanar confirmation of concentric reduction independent of an ossific nucleus or orthopedic hardware. Excellent image contrast of soft tissues allows identification of obstacles to concentric reduction, which may be extra-articular or intra-articular. Extra-articular obstacles include tightening of the adductor muscles and tightening of the iliopsoas tendon with constriction of the joint capsule. Intra-articular obstacles include limbus formation, labral inversion, an enlarged pulvinar, and hypertrophy of the ligamentum teres and/or the transverse acetabular ligament. Intravenous contrast material administration may demonstrate altered epiphyseal blood flow and help identify patients at risk for early ischemia. Imaging technique and image interpretation can be optimized to facilitate the performance of postreduction MR imaging studies where they may be of benefit. (©)RSNA, 2016.

Development patterns of the strategic management of transport enterprises

Market transport services trends, allowing to identify the positive impact of the transport sector development to ensure socio-economic development of the state are analyzed. Dynamics of cargo and transport is provided. Identification of problems and obstacles of transport services market development is presented. Specific conditions of transport companies operation in case of dynamic changes in the environment lead to the need to develop a strategic transportation management structure research. Circuit structure of the strategic transport enterprises management and development of the basic strategies to improve the validity of management decisions is presented. The main directions of transport services market development are designed. There are innovative development of production facilities, including maintenance and transportation, strengthening market position, increasing the level of competitiveness, compliance with quality standards, adaptation to the requirements of consumers. The necessity to respect the balance between transport traffic and service to maximize profits of transport companies is justified. Provided strategic transport enterprises management structure with its implementation could serve as a basis for increasing the efficiency of transport systems management development.

A Robot Manipulator with Adaptive Fuzzy Controller in Obstacle Avoidance

Building robots and machines to act within a fuzzy environment is a problem featuring complexity and ambiguity. In order to avoid obstacles, or move away from it, the robot has to perform functions such as obstacle identification, finding the location of the obstacle, its velocity, direction of movement, size, shape, and so on. This paper presents about the design, and implementation of an adaptive fuzzy controller designed for a 3 degree of freedom spherical coordinate robotic manipulator interfaced with a microcontroller and an ultrasonic sensor. Distance between the obstacle and the sensor and its time rate are considered as inputs to the controller and how the manipulator to take diversion from its planned trajectory, in order to avoid collision with the obstacle, is treated as output from the controller. The obstacles are identified as stationary or moving objects and accordingly adaptive self tuning is accomplished with three set of linguistic rules. The prototype of the manipulator has been fabricated and tested for collision avoidance by placing stationary and moving obstacles in its planned trajectory. The performance of the adaptive control algorithm is analyzed in MATLAB by generating 3D fuzzy control surfaces.

Could removal of project-level knowledge flow obstacles contribute to software process improvement? A study of software engineer perceptions

ContextSoftware process improvement (SPI) is one type of innovation often formulated to address problems such as uncontrollable costs, schedule overruns, and poor end product quality. This study investigates SPI through the application of knowledge management (KM) at the software project level, viewing KM, when applied in software development, as complementary to SPI. ObjectiveThis study advances the use of KM in SPI by investigating impediments to the use and flow of knowledge within an individual software development project. Our proposition is that the removal of obstacles to project-level knowledge flow (K-flow) will enhance SPI. We investigate this proposition by exploring the problems associated with project K-flows as seen by software project team members. MethodWe conducted a descriptive case study of an industrial software development project, in which we collected data concerning project knowledge sources and K-flows using semi-structured interviews. Using this data, we constructed a diagnostic project knowledge map (K-map). The K-map was analyzed to identify K-flow obstacles and potential solutions. Questionnaires based on these obstacles and solutions were formulated to probe software engineers’ perceptions of the effect of the solutions on SPI. ResultsFindings from participant questionnaires reveal that software engineers perceive that the removal or mitigation of project-level K-flow obstacles generally reduces the time to perform their work, helps them to meet their deadlines, and improves their work quality, thus resulting in SPI. ConclusionsThis study provides support for the usefulness of project-level K-flow obstacle removal for SPI. It provides a unique project-level perspective, using input from the project's software engineers. It also explains and supports the use of K-mapping for the identification of project-level K-flow obstacles. With this approach, practitioners gain insight into SPI in “real time” as a project is executed. These insights may help to enhance their current and future SPI efforts.

Drivers and Barriers in Adopting Multivendor ATM Technology for Banks in India

Multivendor ATM Technology is matured in developed countries. However, there is enough scope of deployment of this technology in developing countries like India. The technology facilitates rich customer experience and reduces the cost of installation and maintenance of ATM networks. Banks have the freedom to select hardware and software vendors for deployment of this technology. The main theme of the paper is related to Multivendor ATM technology implementation in India. The paper focuses on identification of drivers and obstacles of Multivendor ATM Technology from the literature, which are then validated for significance, using a structured questionnaire, from the domain experts in the banking sector.

State of family medicine practice in Lebanon.

Background:Many difficulties are encountered in family medicine practice and were subject to multinational studies. To date, no study was conducted in Lebanon to assess the challenges that family physicians face. This study aims to evaluate the family medicine practice in Lebanon stressing on the difficulties encountered by Lebanese family physicians.Materials and Methods:A questionnaire was sent to all 96 family medicine physicians practicing in Lebanon. Participants answered questions about characteristics of family medicine practice, evaluation of the quality of work, identification of obstacles, and their effect on the medical practice.Results:The response rate was 59%, and the average number of years of practice was 10.7 years. Physicians complain mainly of heavy load at work, too many bureaucratic tasks, demanding patients, and being undervalued by the specialists. Most physicians are able to adapt between their professional and private life.Conclusion:Despite all the obstacles encountered, Lebanese family physicians have a moderate satisfaction toward their practice. They remain positive and enthusiastic about their profession. Until the ministry of public health revises its current health system, the primary care profession in Lebanon will remain fragile as a profession.

Obstacle Detection and Identification for Visually Impaired People using Arduino MEGA 2560

Visually impaired people face many obstacles in their daily life, where they will not be able to identify the object that is present in front of them. Thus to help ease the daily chores of the blind people a smart device is implemented, which aims to give the smart vision to the visually challenged person by using digital image processing. The process involves in capturing the image and converted into the shape of the image by using edge detection technique. Then the above image is converted into the matrix format, which is resized to the required size of the object captured. The edge detection is performed on the Arduino board, which receives the resized matrix size of the object. By using the tongue electrode that is connected to the Arduino board, impaired person can sense the image in terms of a polygon and the pixels which are sent as a signal to the brain.

Integrating the Social Dimension in Remediation Decision‐Making: State of the Practice and Way Forward

Sustainable remediation guidance, frameworks, and case studies have been published at an international level illustrating established sustainability assessment methodologies and successful implementation. Though the terminology and indicators evaluated may differ, one common theme among international organizations and regulatory bodies is more comprehensive and transparent methods are needed to evaluate the social sphere of sustainable remediation. Based on a literature review and stakeholder input, this paper focused on three main areas: (1) status quo of how the social element of sustainable remediation is assessed among various countries and organizations; (2) methodologies to quantitatively and qualitatively evaluate societal impacts; and (3) findings from this research, including challenges, obstacles, and a path forward. In conclusion, several existing social impact assessment techniques are readily available for use by the remediation community, including rating and scoring system evaluations, enhanced cost benefit analysis, surveys/interviews, social network analysis, and multicriteria decision analysis. In addition, a list of 10 main social indicator categories were developed: health and safety, economic stimulation, stakeholder collaboration, benefits community at large, alleviate undesirable community impacts, equality issues, value of ecosystem services and natural resources, risk‐based land management and remedial solutions, regional and global societal impacts, and contributions to other policies. Evaluation of the social element of remedial activities is not without challenges and knowledge gaps. Identification of obstacles and gaps during the project planning process is essential to defining sustainability objectives and choosing the appropriate tool and methodology to conduct an assessment. Challenges identified include meaningful stakeholder engagement, risk perception of stakeholders, and trade‐offs among the various triple bottom line dimensions. ©2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Safety challenges of medical equipment in nurse anaesthetist training in Haiti

Safety challenges related to the use of medical equipment were investigated during the training of nurse anaesthetists in Haiti, using a systems approach to Human Factors and Ergonomics (HFE). The Observable Performance Obstacles tool, based on the Systems Engineering Initiative for Patient Safety (SEIPS) model, was used in combination with exploratory observations during 13 surgical procedures, to identify performance obstacles created by the systemic interrelationships of medical equipment. The identification of performance obstacles is an effective way to study the accumulation of latent factors and risk hazards, and understand its implications in practice and behaviour of healthcare practitioners. In total, 123 performance obstacles were identified, of which the majority was related to environmental and organizational aspects. These findings show how the performance of nurse anaesthetists and their relation to medical equipment is continuously affected by more than user-related aspects. The contribution of systemic performance obstacles and coping strategies to enrich system design interventions and improve healthcare system is highlighted. In addition, methodological challenges of HFE research in low-resource settings related to professional culture and habits, and the potential of community ergonomics as a problem-managing approach are described.

A04 Contrasting Urban Contexts in Healthy Ageing: The case of Luxembourg urban agglomeration

BackgroundVarious epidemiological studies give strong evidence that social integration, physical activity and mobility are favourable for healthy ageing. The more mobile and socially integrated elder individuals are the better is their health compared to others in the same cohort of age. When it comes to critical assessment of accessibility and tangible barriers or obstacles for everyday mobility and physical activity in (urban) environment(s), numerous studies in the fields of urbanism, geography, planning studies as well as architecture and even social sciences do exist. With an ageing population as important challenge for most Western societies, it is not very surprising though, that the identification of potential obstacles and barriers to mobility and social activities, which are not related to pathological issues, is an important task for research and practitioners in order to increase public health and the well-being of elder individuals. Some components of healthy aging including physical activity, social participation or mobility have been linked to dimensions of the built environment, but a more profound understanding. of the processes linking environments to health among older adults is still lacking. MethodsThe international, multidisciplinary project “Contrasting Urban Contexts in Healthy Ageing” goes beyond the compilation and combination of the results from separate studies, but collects and analyses detailed data on daily mobility and health outcomes among older adults in contrasted urban settings in Montreal, Paris and Luxembourg.The proposed paper will present first results from Luxembourg, where a “classical” quantitative survey dealing with well-being, health, mobility and the perceived environs has been combined with the collection of GPS-data and data on physical activity (accelerometer) during 7 days with 500 persons aged 65 and older. As this approach does take into consideration demographic characteristics as well as spatial qualities, an innovative, unique and robust strategy for socio-spatial sampling had been developed and applied. ResultsThe study shows that – as expected - serious health issues do affect mobility behavior (and vice versa). Nonetheless, confirmed habits tend to be very stable. Furthermore, the general character as well as the attachment to the neighbourhood can play a certain role. ConclusionsThe analysis of the first batch of data proves that the multidisciplinary perspective and integrated empirical approach does deliver new, reliable information on how characteristics of urban environments relate to the crucial dimensions of healthy aging and mobility behaviour.

Student mobility measures in the aquatic sciences: the development of the AQUA-TNET Education Gate

The paper presents the student mobility activities undertaken by the EU Thematic Network AQUA-TNET over the last 18 years. Early work on listing and describing European aquaculture courses, and clear identification of obstacles to mobility in the aquaculture domain provided a sound basis for its mobility group’s activities in developing and achieving its aims. These consisted of the construction and maintenance of a Web portal using Google maps combined with up-to-date information on all universities in the network, carrying out a survey into and report on best practice in mobility and providing a detailed mobility guide for students. Statistical results from the expanded AQUA-TNET Education Gate portal give a good indication of the usefulness and success of the group’s mobility activities.

Estruturação do problema de gerenciamento de desastres do estado de São Paulo por intermédio do método Strategic Options Development and Analysis

Estima-se que somente nos últimos quatro anos cerca de 5 milhões de brasileiros tenham sido atingidos por desastres naturais. Além do prejuízo financeiro, tem-se como principais consequências o impacto social negativo e o elevado número de vítimas fatais, os quais deveriam ser minimizados por intermédio do poder público. Esse último, contudo, mostra-se limitado para tal em decorrência de inúmeros infortúnios que, de modo geral, ainda não foram corretamente detectados. Nessa direção, visando à adequada estruturação da situação problemática em tela, lançou-se mão do método Strategic Options Development and Analysis. A partir de então, foi possível mapear o Sistema de Defesa Civil do Estado de São Paulo, o que viabilizou a identificação de diversos óbices e o estabelecimento de uma compreensão abrangente acerca dele. Com isto, espera-se que os resultados encontrados sirvam como ponto de partida para a realização de futuras pesquisas que visem ao desenvolvimento de soluções para os problemas supracitados.

A method of obstacle identification in ultra wideband wireless sensor networks

Obstacle identification is a difficult task, which is more challenged in foliage environment. In this paper, a method of target detection is proposed, which attempts to extract information from the data being transmitted around the wireless sensor network (WSN) to identify targets that might be within the local, foliage obscured scene. The selected bispectra algorithm is applied to extract the feature vector, as well as radial–basis function (RBF) neural network is used to realise the obstacle classification. According to the experiment results, this method is able to identify the existence and the different distances of the obstacles measured in outdoor foliage scene with a good recognition rate.

A critical reflection on subjectivity in examination of higher degrees

This paper is a critical reflection on seemingly embedded subjectivity in external examination of higher degrees. The paper is significant given that education is a vital pillar of sustainable development; hence, identification of obscure obstacles to this goal is imperative for an equitable and sustainable education that is devoid of class, race and gender. Adopting a critical review approach, the paper rummaged some related researches that bemoan apparent subjectivity amongst some examiners of higher degrees. Findings show a regrettable and seemingly obscured subjectivity and/or misjudgement that constitute an impediment in higher degrees examination process. Thus the paper highlights that whilst it is understandable that misjudgement or error is innate in every human endeavour including higher degree examination, however an error caused by examiner’s partisanship and/or maladroitness in the research focus may be avoidable. In conclusion, the paper stresses that prejudice or ineptitude in higher degree examination should be bridled by inter alia implementing the policy of alternative assessor; checking the pedigree of examiner’s assessment experience and an opportunity for the supervisor/s to present a rebuttal in circumstances where one examiner’s opinion is fraught with apparent subjectivity.

Multifrequency Impedance Imaging with Multiple Signal Classification

We consider a multifrequency impedance imaging technique that has recently been suggested as a modality for mammography screenings. This approach uses observations of boundary voltages generated by a collection of AC boundary currents that have the same spatial distribution and only differ in their driving frequency. The aim is to identify and determine the locations of small focal lesions. We analyze the potential and the limitations of a multiple signal classification-type reconstruction method for this setting. We prove that with sufficiently many different driving frequencies the position of a single planar obstacle will always be detected, but the identification of multiple obstacles may fail for certain exceptional geometrical configurations. We propose a modification of the original scheme for which the set of false negative configurations is reduced. It is also shown that, generically, the given measurements allow the determination of the conductivities and permittivities of the lesions to facilit...