Red Line Research Articles

High-precision fruit localization using active laser-camera scanning: Robust laser line extraction for 2D-3D transformation

Recent advancements in deep learning-based approaches have led to remarkable progress in fruit detection, enabling robust fruit identification in complex environments. However, much less progress has been made on fruit 3D localization, which is equally crucial for robotic harvesting. Complex fruit shape/orientation, fruit clustering, varying lighting conditions, and occlusions by leaves and branches have greatly restricted existing sensors from achieving accurate fruit localization in the natural orchard environment. In this paper, we report on the design of a novel localization technique, called Active Laser-Camera Scanning (ALACS), to achieve accurate and robust fruit 3D localization. The ALACS hardware setup comprises a red line laser, an RGB color camera, a linear motion slide, and an external RGB-D camera. Leveraging the principles of dynamic-targeting laser-triangulation, ALACS enables precise transformation of the projected 2D laser line from the surface of apples to the 3D positions. To facilitate laser pattern acquisitions, a Laser Line Extraction (LLE) method is proposed for robust and high-precision feature extraction on apples. Comprehensive evaluations of LLE demonstrated its ability to extract precise patterns under variable lighting and occlusion conditions. The ALACS system achieved average apple localization accuracies of 6.9 - 11.2 mm at distances ranging from 1.0 m to 1.6 m, compared to 21.5 mm by a commercial RealSense RGB-D camera, in an indoor experiment. Orchard evaluations demonstrated that ALACS has achieved a 95% fruit detachment rate versus a 71% rate by the RealSense camera. By overcoming the challenges of apple 3D localization, this research contributes to the advancement of robotic fruit harvesting technology.

The Digital Services Act’s red line: what the Commission can and cannot do about disinformation

ABSTRACT The Digital Services Act (DSA) creates a system of general risk management that is composed of two main obligations: risk assessment (Article 34), and risk mitigation (Article 35). The obligations are mandatory for very large online platforms and search engines (VLOPs/VLOSEs). The adoption of the risk-based approach to digital services make the law more future-proof. But inevitably it also makes the law very vague. This vagueness of the statutory language causes some to suggest that the European Commission will inevitably become the proverbial Ministry of Truth when tackling disinformation. This article argues that upon closer reading of the DSA, and its constitutional context, the worries that the Commission inevitably becomes a Ministry of Truth are misplaced. Suppressing incorrect or misleading lawful information is not the goal of the DSA. That is not to say that the DSA cannot be abused. But the law is not pre-programmed to do so.

Փողոցների և հասարակական տրանսպորտի բեռնվածության հավասարակշռում. ի՞նչ անել / BALANCING STREET DECONGESTION AND PUBLIC TRANSPORT: WHAT TO DO?

Managing transport infrastructure faces numerous challenges and, particularly, urban transport management requires an integrated approach. Changes in one part of the system, such as an increase in parking fees, can affect other aspects, including the use of public transport. Increasing parking fees,often referred to as "red line" fees, that are aimed at reducing congestion on the streets, can undoubtedly influence driver behavior. For this reason, it is also important to consider the possible effects of the latter on public transport, leading to an increase in passenger flow and public transport congestion. Therefore, to ensure a sustainable and efficient transport future, the importance of balancing street congestion and public transport must be an integral part of strategic urban mobility planning.

The Impact of the "Three Red Lines" Policy on the ESG Performance of Real Estate Companies

The Impact of the "Three Red Lines" Policy on the ESG Performance of Real Estate Companies

Study on Deleveraging and Downshifting of Real Estate Enterprises in the Context of Artificial Intelligence

Abstract With the decrease in the heat of the real estate market, the structural problems of real estate enterprises have become increasingly prominent, which are mainly reflected in high inventory, high leverage and high cost. After analyzing the types and underlying factors of financial risks faced by real estate enterprises, this paper explains the “three red lines” policy of the deleveraging mechanism for real estate enterprises. Based on artificial intelligence technology, an intelligent financial data processing platform has been established, and PCA and K-Means algorithms are used to process financial data. The association rule mining was introduced to analyze the financial data. The deep meaning of the financial data was mined through the weighted Apriori algorithm. The deleveraging strategy of real estate enterprises was established in combination with the financial decision-support process. The application effect of Group W’s deleveraging strategy was analyzed by selecting it as the research object. In 2021, the current ratio was 0.03 times different from the industry average, the asset-liability ratio decreased to 75.69%, and the overall cash balance at the end of the period increased by 11.2 times. After 2018, the “three red lines” indicators were all met, and it successfully ranked among the green enterprises, with the highest cumulative excess rate of return reaching 5.46%. Based on intelligent financial data processing, it can provide decision-making support for real estate enterprises to optimize their structure and realize the deleveraging, downshifting, and efficiency increase of real estate enterprises.

Envelope effect of Rydberg States Generation in Strong Laser Pulses

Rydberg atoms are important building blocks for quantum technologies, exploited to new applications in quantum computing, quantum communication and quantum sensing due to their unique tunable quantum properties.Besides the widely-used few-photon resonant excitation for the specific Rydberg state, multiple Rydberg states can be populated coherently and effciently through the frustrated tunneling ionization or the Coulomb potential recapture effect in strong laser field. The Rydberg states excitation in strong field provides an opportunity to realize the ultrafast quantum control on Rydberg atom and bridge the strong field physics and quantum information technology. <br>Using the Classical Trajectory Monte Carlo method and Qprop package to solve Time-Dependent increases with the parameter of the asymmetric laser envelope. Based on the Quantitative Rescattering theory, the calculated time-dependence of recapture rate is negatively related to the laser envelope and the residual laser interaction time, which is termed as envelope effect. Combined with the carrier-wave effect, an analytic formula is proposed to calculate the Rydberg states population:$Y(t) \propto W_0(t) \frac{t-\tau+c}{f(t)} \cos (\omega t+\phi)$ This results open the door to enhance the Rydberg states generation using the laser envelope control, benefiting the future quantum technology based on the Rydberg states generated in the strong laser field.(a) Laser electric fields with the same pulse duration τ = 10T<sub>0</sub> and different asymmetric parameters α. Black solid line, red dashed line and blue dashed-dotted line are for α = -0.6, 0, 0.6 respectively. (b) The yields of Rydberg states change with the asymmetric parameter under different laser pulse duration. Black solid line, red dashed line and blue dashed-dotted line are for τ = 1010T<sub>0</sub>, 1510T<sub>0</sub>, 2010T<sub>0</sub> respectively. Schrödinger Equation, we calculate the population of Rydberg states. Our results show that the population.

The Digital Service Act’s Red Line: What the Commission Can and Cannot Do About Disinformation

The Digital Service Act’s Red Line: What the Commission Can and Cannot Do About Disinformation

The effect of Winter’s red line, angle of impaction, and radio-morphometric indices on surgical difficulty of impacted mandibular third molar: a prospective observational study

The effect of Winter’s red line, angle of impaction, and radio-morphometric indices on surgical difficulty of impacted mandibular third molar: a prospective observational study

Beyond the three red lines: Financing constraints and the performance of China's listed real estate companies

Beyond the three red lines: Financing constraints and the performance of China's listed real estate companies

Personality Traits and Predispositions for Criminal Behavior: A Theoretical Legal and Psychological Approach

The aim of this paper is through theoretical review to examine and explore the relationship between personality traits and criminal behavior through a multidisciplinary approach by answering the questions which personality traits can give us more indications and is more predisposed to criminal behavior? Another important point of view is the non-acceptance, misuse of these personality traits in front of justice. What is right and what is not in such cases? What crimes and cases are exempt from justice and what tendencies do we have to be misused? These kind of questions requires the skills and knowledge of many experts from both psychological and legal field. Where is the red line that should not be crossed by both sides? We should not forget that personality traits are not mental states or disorders for which we believe and assume that have a different treatment and nature, both before the law and mental health experts.

Establishment and characterization of an immortalized red river hog blood-derived macrophage cell line.

Red river hogs (RRHs) (Potamochoerus porcus), a wild species of Suidae living in Africa with a major distribution in the Guinean and Congolian forests, are natural reservoirs of African swine fever virus (ASFV) and typically are asymptomatic. Since blood and tissue macrophages of suid animals are target cell lineages of ASFV, RRH-derived macrophages are expected to play an important role in suppressing disease development in infected individuals. In the present study, we successfully isolated RRH-derived blood macrophages using co-culture techniques of RRH blood cells with porcine kidney-derived feeder cells and immortalized them by transferring SV40 large T antigen and porcine telomerase reverse transcriptase genes. The newly established macrophage cell line of the RRH-derived blood cell origin (RZJ/IBM) exhibited an Iba1-, CD172a-, and CD203a-positive typical macrophage-like phenotype and up-regulated the phosphorylation of nuclear factor-κB p65 subunit and p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase in response to the bacterial cell wall components, lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and muramyl dipeptide. In addition, RZJ/IBM cells produced the precursor form of interleukin (IL)-1β and IL-18 upon a stimulation with LPS, leading to the conversion of IL-18, but not IL-1β, into the mature form. Time-lapse live cell imaging with pHrodo dye-conjugated Escherichia coli BioParticles demonstrated the phagocytotic activity of RZJ/IBM cells. It is important to note that RZJ/IBM cells are clearly susceptible to ASFV infection and support viral replication in vitro. Therefore, the RZJ/IBM cell line provides a unique model for investigating the pathogenesis of ASFV.

Red solid line: Patterns of terminal loss of cerebrovascular reactivity at the bedside

IntroductionContinuous monitoring of the pressure reactivity index (PRx) provides an estimation of dynamic cerebral autoregulation (CA) at the bedside in traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients. Visualising the time-trend of PRx with a risk bar chart in ICM + software at the bedside allows for better real-time interpretability of the autoregulation status. When PRx>0.3 is sustained for long periods, typically of at least half an hour, the bar shows a pattern called “red solid line” (RSL). RSL was previously described to precede refractory intracranial hypertension and brain death. Research questionWe aimed to describe pathophysiological changes in measured signals/parameters during RSL. Material and methodsObservation of time-trends of PRx, intracranial pressure, cerebral perfusion pressure, brain oxygenation and compensatory reserve of TBI patients with RSL. ResultsThree pathophysiological patterns were identified: RSL precedes intracranial hypertension, RSL is preceded by intracranial hypertension, or RSL is preceded by brain hypoperfusion. In all cases, RSL was followed by death and the RSL onset was between 1 h and 1 day before the terminal event. Discussion and conclusionRSL precedes death in intensive care and could represent a marker for terminal clinical deterioration in TBI patients. These findings warrant further investigations in larger cohorts to characterise pathophysiological mechanisms underlying the RSL pattern and whether RSL has a significant relationship with outcome after TBI.

Проблемы и перспективы криоконсервации сперматозоидов человека в современной России

Unfortunately, the demographic situation in modern Russia over the past 30 years leaves much to be desired and is one of the most discussed topics in the scientific community. According to current statistics, the male factor occupies up to 50% of the infertility structure today. And over the past 10 years, the number of diagnosed cases of male infertility has doubled. It is also worth mentioning the notorious events of recent years — the new coronavirus infection pandemic and a special military operation that are testing the demographic red lines to this day. From the viewpoint of medicine and demography, these events are associated with colossal reproductive losses and a decrease in already low birth rates for the state. One of the most relevant ways to raise the birth rate may be to expand the scope of assisted reproductive technologies (ART), including for male population. A promising ART procedure with a much more extensive list of indications for use than is commonly believed in our country is sperm cryopreservation, which has long ceased to be a "desperate method". This article presents possible indications for the use of sperm cryopreservation, as well as prospects and problems of introducing the method into the practice of healthcare in the Russian Federation. KEYWORDS: sperm cryopreservation, male infertility, cryotrauma, special military operation, ART. FOR CITATION: Faniev M.V., Prokopiev Ya.V., Kadyrov Z.A., Faustova K.V., Cherepnev G.V., Mazitova M.I., Antropova E.Yu. Problems and prospects of sperm cryopreservation in modern Russia. Russian Medical Inquiry. 2024;8(4):215–220 (in Russ.). DOI: 10.32364/2587-6821- 2024-8-4-5.

КУПЕЧЕСКИЕ УСАДЬБЫ КАК ЧАСТЬ КУЛЬТУРНОГО ПРОСТРАНСТВА ПРОВИНЦИАЛЬНОГО ГОРОДА XIX — НАЧАЛА ХХ В.

The article presents the results of studying urban estates of provincial merchants based on a field survey of the preserved buildings of Yelabuga and analysis of various sources. The estate form of development determined the type of urban space of Yelabuga from the beginning of the 19th century and to the 1917 revolutionary upheavals. According to their purpose, merchant estates can be divided into residential and commercial-industrial, which was in many ways typical of the trading cities of the Central Russian zone. The structure of a merchant estate included a residential building, courtyard with outbuildings (stables, sheds, a glacier and a barn), bathhouse, one or two outbuildings, and garden plot. Geographically, the estates occupied plots measuring 17–20 acres, located on the sides of longitudinal streets and extended into the depths of the block. After the 1850 great city fire, each estate was fenced on two (and in some cases three) sides with firewall walls. The front of the house with a gate overlooked the red line of the street. The composition of the manor house was determined by the norms of regular urban planning, location, functional use of the territories, size and configuration of the land plot, as well as a local landscape. In the second half of the 19th — early 20th centuries, when Yelabuga turned into a large commercial center, a new type of merchant estate, combining residential and trading functions, became widespread. On the estate territory, in addition to residential and commercial buildings, there were shops and stores, warehouses and storehouses. At the same time, the merchants began to pay considerable attention to the functional side of buildings, their convenience, comfort, lighting, and ventilation.

The Ambivalence of the Liberal-Illiberal Dynamic

This essay discusses the democratic ambivalences of situations when researchers or academic institutions have to decide whom to provide a platform, where to draw red lines even at the expense of freedom of speech, whether to hide certain information, and how to label “illiberal” actors in academic pieces—questions which reflect also one’s position within academia. The article draws on the experience with the unexpected performance of an academic roundtable discussion in the East German city of Frankfurt (Oder) planned to be about weekly local street protests, which eventually was joined by the street protesters themselves. During the pandemic, these marches contested covid restrictions. With the onset of the Russian war on Ukraine, they had transformed into protests against high energy costs, in support of Putin, and against the German government. This type of protest movement resembles a typical expression of contemporary illiberalism: an ideologically heterogeneous milieu from far-right to politically conservative, if not leftist-minded people, who unite a skepticism towards the democratic state, the rejection of public media, and an affinity for conspiracy theories. The German context is particularly challenging as these “Monday demonstrations” prevailing in East Germany entail a reference to the freedom and democracy claims of the 1989 revolution, and reveal unequal conditions between East and West.

Active Laser-Camera Scanning for High-Precision Fruit Localization in Robotic Harvesting: System Design and Calibration

Robust and effective fruit detection and localization is essential for robotic harvesting systems. While extensive research efforts have been devoted to improving fruit detection, less emphasis has been placed on the fruit localization aspect, which is a crucial yet challenging task due to limited depth accuracy from existing sensor measurements in the natural orchard environment with variable lighting conditions and foliage/branch occlusions. In this paper, we present the system design and calibration of an Active LAser-Camera Scanner (ALACS), a novel perception module for robust and high-precision fruit localization. The hardware of the ALACS mainly consists of a red line laser, an RGB camera, and a linear motion slide, which are seamlessly integrated into an active scanning scheme where a dynamic-targeting laser-triangulation principle is employed. A high-fidelity extrinsic model is developed to pair the laser illumination and the RGB camera, enabling precise depth computation when the target is captured by both sensors. A random sample consensus-based robust calibration scheme is then designed to calibrate the model parameters based on collected data. Comprehensive evaluations are conducted to validate the system model and calibration scheme. The results show that the proposed calibration method can detect and remove data outliers to achieve robust parameter computation, and the calibrated ALACS system is able to achieve high-precision localization with the maximum depth measurement error being less than 4 mm at distance ranging from 0.6 to 1.2 m.

How much carbon storage will loss in a desertification area? Multiple policy scenario analysis from Gansu Province

Carbon storage plays a pivotal role in addressing climate change, maintaining ecological equilibrium, and fostering sustainable development. Gansu Province, situated in the arid to semi-arid region of Northwestern China, is confronted with substantial carbon storage losses as a result of ongoing ecological land desertification processes. However, studies on carbon storage loss under various scenarios in desertified regions are seldom reported. In this study, we delineated the ecological red line using quantified indicators encompassing multiple ecosystem service functions and ecological vulnerability sensitivity. Furthermore, we projected future land use and carbon storage transformations under multiple policy scenarios employing the patch-generating land use simulation (PLUS) model. Lastly, we unveiled spatial disparities in the driving factors behind alterations in carbon storage by geographically weighted regression model. Our findings suggest that: (1) The delineated ecological red line covers an area of 11.8 × 104 km2, approximately 27 % of the total land area of Gansu Province. (2) Quantitative findings reveal that the overall accuracy of the PLUS model reached an impressive 0.975, accompanied by a Kappa coefficient of 0.964, thus affirming the model's exceptional applicability. (3) Under the base line scenario, Gansu Province's carbon storage witnesses a consistent decline from 2000 to 2050, with a substantial total loss of 1.62 × 107 t over the ensuing three decades. The ecological red line scenario, by controlling 27 % of the land area in Gansu Province, achieves a 61.7 % effect of the global ecological scenario by 2050, thus reversing the declining trend in carbon storage. (4) Natural factors primarily influence carbon storage in the southeastern region, while human activity factors are distributed in the central region. This study offers scientifically robust policy recommendations to facilitate the attainment of carbon neutrality objective.

The Archimedean Origin of Modern Positional Number Systems

A symbolic analysis of Archimedes’s periodical number system is developed, from which a natural link emerges with the modern positional number systems with zero. After the publication of Fibonacci’s Liber Abaci, the decimal Indo-Arabic positional system was the basis of the algorithmic and algebraic trend of modern mathematics, but even if zero plays a crucial role in algebra and mathematical analysis, zeroless positional systems show the same capability of producing efficient arithmetical algorithms based on operation tables over digits. The crucial role of digits is assessed, by considering a representation of numbers based on strings in lexicographic order. A new algorithm for the determination of decimal periods is presented by remarking on the cruciality of this topic in number theory. Periods of ordinal numbers and enumerations of recursive enumerability are shortly recalled. Concluding remarks are formulated about the deep relationship between numbers and information, which shed new light on a red line passing through the whole history of mathematics.

Li-Ion Cell in Operando Monitoring and Prognostication Using CMUT Devices

Capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer (CMUT) devices are ideal solutions for in operando battery monitoring applications especially for consumer electronics. Their minute size (2mm x 1mm x 0.5mm) allows direct placement on the battery without affecting the form factor of the device, the volume production techniques used for their manufacture allow for a very low-cost device, and they can be easily integrated with front-end integrated circuits either in a single device or in a discrete multichip form. Together with industry partners we have developed CMUT devices that we use to continuously monitor the behavior of a battery while it is cycling.For this work we used CMUTs (close-up shown in Fig. 1(a)) developed to operate with a low bias voltage (less than 30 V) which reduces the complexity of the driving hardware. The impulse response and its frequency content are shown in Fig. 1(b). In collapse mode, the peak frequency is 4.0 MHz and the one-way –3 dB BW is 76%, which allows flexibility in setting the drive conditions to interrogate the battery. Our testing also shows that the CMUTs show good device-to-device uniformity and they have a very stable performance in variable temperature environments (e.g. 0℃ - 60℃ ).The cell is interrogated in pulse-echo mode. The CMUT is excited by a wide-band unipolar pulse and the returned analog signal is filtered and amplified. The signal is then digitized and processed to extract features that allow us to quantify the state of the battery. Figure 1(c) depicts such signal features change under baseline cell cycling conditions (three cycles at a charge rate of C/4). These changes are the result of mechanical material property changes in the cell e.g., electrode stiffness and density [1] which directly affect the acoustic wave propagation inside the cell. Figure 1(d) depicts signal feature change due cell overcharge (red line). Ultrasound is especially sensitive to gas generation which occurs as the cell voltage extends beyond normal operating range [2]. Signal features provide early warning notice that cell is outside of normal operating conditions.Figure 1. a) Close-up image of CMUT device. b) CMUT impulse response and corresponding frequency content. c) Signal features (RMS and Time of Flight (ToF)) and thickness change during C/4 charge and discharge. d) Signal features during cell constant current overcharge. Cell overcharged after 4.4V (red line). Chang, W. et al. Measuring effective stiffness of Li-ion batteries via acoustic signal processing. Mater. Chem. A 8, 16624–16635 (2020).Appleberry, M. C. et al. Avoiding thermal runaway in lithium-ion batteries using ultrasound detection of early failure mechanisms. Journal of Power Sources 535, 231423 (2022). Figure 1

Cathode Loading Impact on PEM Fuel Cell Performance Losses in Voltage Cycling Based Accelerated Stress Tests

In order to reach the target of carbon neutrality by the end of 2050 set by the European Union, hydrogen technologies will play an important role in supporting the transition to a renewable energy economy, especially for heavy duty applications, such as trucks and airplanes.1 For the latter, hydrogen is a viable alternative fuel compared to kerosene, offering a higher specific energy density as well as zero in-flight CO2 emissions.2 However during operation, proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) suffer from significant performance losses due to the instability of Pt-based catalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) via the loss of electrochemically active surface area (ECSA).3 This induces substantial decay in the H2/air performance mainly due to the increasing impact of the local O2 transport resistance (RO2,local) with decreasing cathode roughness factor (rf, in units of cm2 Pt cm-2 MEA), which is especially pronounced for low Pt-loadings.4 Thus, for heavy duty applications requiring long-term durability, higher Pt loadings are required to reduce the impact of RO2,local.In this study, we analyse the H2/air performance loss contributions during voltage cycling based accelerated stress tests (ASTs) using cathodes with different Pt-loadings. ASTs were performed using 5 cm2 MEAs with cathode Pt loadings of 0.2, 0.4, and 0.8 mgPt cmMEA -2 (48.6 wt%, TEC10V50E, Tanaka Kikinzoku K.K. (TKK)). Full characterization of the MEA performance characteristics after different numbers of voltage cycles, was performed by measuring: i) H2/O2 and H2/air polarization curves; ii) cathode rf, determined by cyclic voltammetry and CO stripping; iii) O2 transport resistances (RO2,total) via limiting current measurements; and, iv) proton conduction resistances in the cathode catalyst layer (RH+,cath) via electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). Voltage cycling was performed under H2/N2 (200/75 nccm) at 80 °C, 95% RH, and ambient pressure using square wave profiles with lower and upper potential limits of 0.60 and 0.95 V, respectively, with hold times of 1 s at each potential.A strong H2/air performance dependency on the cathode rf is visible for the same Pt/C cathode catalyst with varying Pt loading. As shown in Figure 1, the same H2/air performance is reached at similar cathode rf values, independent of number of voltage cycles. This is due to the observation that the RO2,local values only depend on the cathode rf and not on the electrode’s history.Finally, when choosing an end-of-life (EoL) criterion of a more than 20 mV deviation of the measured cell voltages at a given current density from the theoretical ORR kinetics losses (c.f. red line in Figure 1 and gray areas for accepted cell voltage range), this EoL criterion is reached for the differently loaded MEAs at the same cathode rf but after different amounts of aging cycles. For example, at 1.5 A cm2 MEA this 20 mV deviation is reached at a cathode rf of 50-70 mgPt 2 cmMEA -2. However, for the 0.8 mgPt cmMEA -2 Pt/C cathode more than 200.000 cycles are needed to reach this value, compared to only 5.000 cycles for the 0.2 mgPt cmMEA -2 loaded cathode. Consequently, a 4-fold increase of the the cathode Pt loading increases its voltage cycling stability by »40-fold.