Line Tracking Research Articles

Real-World Utilization Patterns of Long-Acting Injectable Antipsychotics in Canada: A Retrospective Study.

Objective: The objective of this study was to analyze the real-world prevalence of long-acting injectable (LAI) antipsychotic use and determine when LAIs are being used in sequencing of antipsychotic medications among Canadian patients with schizophrenia. Methods: This was a retrospective, longitudinal cohort study using Canadian pharmacy prescription data between August 2005 and June 2017. Patients with inferred schizophrenia spectrum disorder were indexed on the date of their first antipsychotic prescription and analyzed for minimum 12 months to track lines of antipsychotic therapy and LAI utilization. Results: A total of 16,300 patients were identified for analysis. 48.2% and 46.0% of index antipsychotic prescriptions were prescribed by a general practitioner/family medicine doctor and psychiatrist, respectively. 1,062 (6.5%) patients used an LAI during the study period. Of those patients, 789 used an LAI within two years of index (74.3% of LAI users; 4.8% of all patients). The majority of LAI use (62.0%) occurred in the third line of therapy or later. 65.0% of patients had tried at least two therapy lines, and most patients reported gaps of six months to one year between treatment lines. Conclusion: Despite their potential to reduce relapse in schizophrenia by improving treatment adherence, this study shows LAIs continue to be under-utilized in Canada. When used, LAIs are positioned late in sequencing of antipsychotic medications, often not initiated until years after diagnosis. Continued preference for oral APs with poor adherence may be negatively impacting prognosis and exacerbating burden of schizophrenia. Efforts should be invested to understand barriers to LAI uptake and advocate for earlier, widespread use of LAIs.

Study on the Effect of the Modeling Method of Railway Fastener on Rail Corrugation Prediction Model

Taking the typical corrugation phenomenon on a curved track in a metro line as the research object, the modeling method of railway fastener in the friction self-excited vibration model of a wheel–rail system is studied in this article. Firstly, according to the difference of the track support structure in the actual metro line, finite element models of the leading wheel–track system under different track forms, including the short sleeper with a DTVI2 fastener, the shock-absorbing track with a Cologne egg damping fastener, and the ladder sleeper track with a DTIII2 fastener, were established. The rail corrugation on a curved track with a small radius with three different sleepers is studied through complex eigenvalue analysis. In addition, the difference in rail corrugation finite element prediction model with a spring–damper pair model, solid-connected model, and solid-connectmodel is studied. The stability and vibration characteristics of a wheel–rail system with different tracks are studied by complex eigenvalue analysis. The research shows that the frictional self-excited vibration of a wheelset–track system occurs under saturated creep force, and the deformation caused by unstable vibration mainly occurs in the low rail and inner wheel, which can explain why the rail corrugation of a curved track with a small radius mainly occurs in the low rail. Compared with the spring–damper pair fastener model, the calculation result using the solid element fastener model (the solid-connected model and the solid-contact model) is closer to the measured data of the rail corrugation of the curved line with a small radius on the site. Of the two solid element fastener models, the latter is significantly more accurate than the former in predicting rail corrugation on the metro lines.

A Point-Line VIO System With Novel Feature Hybrids and With Novel Line Predicting-Matching

Weak texture and motion blur are always challenging problems for visual-inertial odometry (VIO) systems. To improve accuracy of VIO systems in the challenging scenes, we propose a point-line-based VIO system with novel feature hybrids and with novel predicting-matching for long line track. Point-line features with shorter tracks are categorized into “MSCKF” features and with longer tracks into “SLAM” features. Especially, “SLAM” lines are added into the state vector to improve accuracy of the proposed system. Besides, to ensure the reliability and stability of detection and tracking of line features, we also propose a new “Predicting-Matching” line segment tracking method to increase the track lengths of line segments. Experimental results show that the proposed method outperforms the state-of-the-art methods of VINS-Mono [1], PL-VINS [2] and OpenVINS [3]) on both a public dataset and a collected dataset in terms of accuracy. The collected dataset is full of extremely weak textures and motion blurs. On this dataset, the proposed method also obtains better accuracy than ORB-SLAM3 [4].

Algorithm for constructing a route to pass a narrow fairway

Modern navigation systems often employ the algorithms for plotting lines for the preliminary route construction. The current conditions of technological development imply the simplicity of constructing routes. However, the most important part was and remains the speed of the system that generates the route. The authors of the paper proposed a universal algorithm for constructing a navigation route in narrow channels of the sea. The presented algorithm identifies the middle of the fairway as the safest point at each narrow segment and connects them with track lines. The problem that can arise is smoothing, as the middle of the fairway can shift significantly. To solve this problem, new relative and absolute parameters that characterize plotting of turning points were introduced. In addition, a unified universal formula was proposed for finding the coordinates of these points on a line perpendicular to the current route of the vessel. It was experimentally proved that correctly selected empirical parameters enable the algorithm to quickly construct a route in any navigation area with a relatively low computational complexity. This approach is appropriate for clearly delineated zones of the fairway, and it is compatible with zone methods.

Tracing algorithm and control strategy for crawler rice combine harvester auxiliary navigation system

Crawler combine harvesters are major equipment for rice harvesting. Multiple operating parameters and harvesting path need to adjust in real-time to balance harvesting quality and operational efficiency, which is highly demanding and labour-intensive. Application navigation system is one of the effective ways to solve the problems, but navigation path tracking errors are significant due to track sinking and slippage in paddy field. Therefore, tracing algorithm and control strategy for crawler rice combine harvester auxiliary navigation system was developed. Firstly, a circular arc-tangent line tracking model was constructed based on the crawler combine harvester kinematic characteristics in the paddy field to calculate the steering angle. Then, hydraulic steering actuator controller was designed based on fuzzy control methods with particle swarm algorithm. Finally, a least-squares support-vector machine regression-based steering feature identification method was proposed to construct a functional relationship between the control variable and the actual yaw rate, correcting the control errors due to crawler sinking and slippage. Simulations show that the rise time for path correction, steady-state adjustment time, maximum overshoot, and average steady-state error of crawler combine harvester was 7.5 s, 14.7 s, 0.148 m, and 0.064 m, respectively. Field tests show that the average harvest width was 2.02 m, and the average deviation and harvest width rate was 0.18 m, and 91.9%, respectively, under different vehicle speeds. • Crawler combine harvester path tracking algorithm and control strategy was proposed. • Circular arc-tangent model, PSO and LS-SVM regression were used to improving paddy field adaptability. • Field experiment results indicates that rice harvesting navigation average deviation was ≤0.18 m.

Is it Possible to Get a SAR Image of Ocean Waves Free of Spectral Cut-off by Direct Measurement?

A method of SAR sounding of the ocean surface is proposed, which is capable of providing an undistorted by spectral cut-off wave pattern. The method involves the use of two synchronized SARs, which look across the track line and illuminate the same area of the surface. Each SAR records its own backscattered signal, which are then multiplied with each other and the resulting signal is undergoing the procedure of matched filtering. Numerical estimates of the applicability conditions of the method are carried out.

New perspective for probe development assessing salivary biomarkers in periodontal affected diabetic patients

The study was performed to have chairside identification of specific biomarkers for diagnosing periodontal disease in diabetic patients at a very early stage using spectroscopic probe design and parameters. Patients were divided into groups: Group (A) - healthy patients, Group (B) - patients with type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (DM) without chronic periodontitis, Group (C) - mild chronic periodontitis patients without type 2 DM, Group (D) - moderate chronic periodontitis patients without type 2 DM, Group (E) - mild chronic periodontitis patients with type 2 DM, and Group (F) - moderate chronic periodontitis patients with type 2 DM. Conceptual and practical design for achieving chairside Raman probe has specific tips and optics applied based on temperature of the mouth. Activation of Matrix metalloproteinase-8 (MMP-8) within salivary specimens were analysed. For molecular docking studies, binding pocket was selected with larger SiteScore. MMP-8 and C-terminal cross-linked telopeptide (CTX) of type I collagen levels in saliva were analysed using MMP-8 Immunoassay. Raman measurements were carried out of salivary specimens. Continuous variables were compared by one‑way analysis of variance. Rate of MMP-8/CTX release was significantly higher in diabetes chronic moderate periodontitis group (p < 0.05). Heat map colour scheme of green indicates increase while the yellow track lines indicate a decrease. Striking difference is seen in Amide regions amongst different groups with lowest intensities seen in diabetic chronic moderate groups and the highest amongst healthy patients (p < 0.05). Major peak at 1447 cm−1 differed in intensities between all groups. Chairside identification of specific biomarkers to diagnosing periodontal disease at a very early stage using spectroscopic probe design and parameters has shown potential.

A New Method for Automated Measurement of Sand Dune Migration Based on Multi-Temporal LiDAR-Derived Digital Elevation Models

While remote sensing methods have long been used for coastal and desert sand dune studies, few methods have been developed for the automated measurement of dune migration in large dune fields. To overcome a major limitation of an existing method named “pairs of source and target points (PSTP)”, this paper proposes a toe line tracking (TLT) method for the automated measurement of dune migration rate and direction using multi-temporal digital elevation models (DEM) derived from light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data. Based on a few simple parameters, the TLT method automatically extracts the base level of a dune field and toe lines of individual dunes. The toe line polygons derived from two DEMs are processed using logical operators and other spatial analysis methods implemented in the Python programming language in a geographic information system. By generating thousands of random sampling points along source toe lines, dune migration distances and directions are calculated and saved with the sampling point feature class. The application of the TLT method was demonstrated using multi-temporal LiDAR-derived DEMs for a 9 km by 2.4 km area in the White Sands Dune Field in New Mexico (USA). Dune migration distances and directions for three periods (24 January 2009–26 September 2009, 26 September 2009–6 June 2010, and 24 January 2009–6 January 2010) were calculated. Sensitivity analyses were carried out using different window sizes and toe heights. The results suggest that both PSTP and TLT produce similar sand dune migration rates and directions, but TLT is a more generic method that works for dunes with or without slipfaces that reach the angle of repose.

Coupling real-time simulation of power supply, trains and dispatching for urban rail transit

Abstract In order to study the interaction among the traction power supply, the train group and the operation dispatching of urban rail transit, a coupling simulation system of power supply system, trains and dispatching management is constructed. In order to solve the problems of different timescales and difficult cooperation operation for related subsystems, a multi-bus distributed real-time network architecture based on hierarchical management of communication data is established, and simulation management software is developed to facilitate the free expansion of the simulation system. Meanwhile, the track line, train operation and other large timescale subsystems are realized by the pure digital simulation. And the time-sensitive subsystems, such as train traction system, braking system, auxiliary power supply system and network system etc., are built by the semi-physical simulation. In this article, the system structure and the main implementation principle of each simulation subsystem are given in detail, and the system is tested and verified at the end. The results show that the simulation system can meet the expected requirements.

Study on Coupled Vertical Vehicle-Bridge Dynamic Performance of Medium and Low-Speed Maglev Train

The levitation stability of maglev trains is determined by the interaction of vehicle-bridge dynamic characteristics. The state change of vehicle and track beam will affect the dynamic performance of maglev trains. In order to study the levitation characteristics of maglev trains, a coupled vehicle-bridge dynamic model based on an elastic beam was established to study the influence of beam stiffness and vehicle load on the dynamic performance of the maglev system. In the form of numerical simulation, the time-domain characteristics of key characteristic variables, such as levitation gap and vertical deflection of track beam, under different working conditions of stiffness and load were analyzed. The simulation shows that the levitation system can smoothly converge to the stable value under each working condition, which indicates the rationality of the field test. Based on the Shanghai Lingang medium-and-low-speed maglev test line, the maglev test was carried out, and the time-domain and frequency-domain characteristics of the above key variables were analyzed based on the measured data. The results show that the fluctuation of the levitation gap was affected by load and stiffness, and the law was consistent with the simulation results. The increase in load or the decrease in beam stiffness would lead to an increase in vertical deflection and vibration of the track beam. However, the train could still maintain good levitation performance under the above extreme conditions, which verified the reliability of the levitation system and the correctness of the simulation model. The conclusion of this paper can provide a reference for the design of the levitation system and track line of medium-and-low-speed maglev train.

Empathic Accuracy in Adolescent Girls with Turner Syndrome

To examine the potential mechanisms underlying social deficits in Turner Syndrome, we administered the empathic accuracy task (EAT) -a naturalistic social cognition task- and a (control) visual-motor line-tracking task to 14 girls with TS was compared to 12 age-matched typically developing girls (TD; ages 12 to 17). Empathic accuracy was compared across positive and negative emotionally valanced videos. We found that TS differs from TD on empathic accuracy ratings for negative videos; no differences were detected for the positive videos or for the control line tracking task. Thus, our findings suggest impaired detection of negatively valanced empathic interactions in TS and may help inform the future development of social-cognition treatment strategies for girls with TS.

НЕЛИНЕЙНЫЙ АЛГОРИТМ УПРАВЛЕНИЯ КРЕНОМ ПРИ ВЫВОДЕ ВОЗДУШНОГО СУДНА НА ЗАДАННУЮ ЛИНИЮ ПУТИ

The conclusion of the aircraft to a given track line is considered. The possibility of using for this purpose a nonlinear roll control algorithm with functions of functions is analyzed. The results of modeling of the guidance process are given, showing that the investigated nonlinear algorithm ensures the withdrawal of an aircraft from any points in space on a given path for any initial course in a calm atmosphere and in the presence of wind. Key words: line of a given path, roll control, trajectory control algorithm, motion control of the center of mass, lateral deviation.

The Railway Detection via Adaptive Multi-scale Fusion Processing

One of the main problems for safe autonomous driving vehicles that have not been solved completely is the high-precision and timely lane detection. In this work, we present a novel operator for railway detection to settle these tasks based on lane detection for the first time, called adaptive multi-scale fusion Sobel operators. The new operators can eliminate the noises generated by the environment in the railway image and derive more integrated edge feature information from the 0°, 45°, 90°, and 135° detection via 4 matrixes of 3 * 3 operators for permutation and summation. The image processing for railway detection includes the preprocess for images, railway edge detection, and track line polynomial fitting. Our experiment has validated that this improved detection method has realized the high accuracy and efficiency for rail detection. The dynamic rail detection and identification in the video of the railway track prove that this method has a significant effect on the left and right curved railway detection. It has good robustness and applicability.

DEVELOPMENT OF DIRECTIONAL ALGORITHM FOR THREE-WHEEL OMNIDIRECTIONAL AUTONOMOUS MOBILE ROBOT

A The proposed system developed an omnidirectional algorithm to control autonomous mobile robots with three wheels. The implementation system consists of three Planet DC motors with rated power of 80 W for three wheels, three encoders for speed feedback, one encoder for distance feedback, and one digital compass sensor for angle feedback. The main system with an STM32F407 microcontroller is designed for directional control of wheels based the signal received from compass sensor and encoder and then controls three subsystems to adjust the steering speed of each wheel. The sub-system is built to control only one DC motor for each wheel with the built-in proportional integral derivative controller (PID) algorithm by an STM32F103 microcontroller. Furthermore, the directional control algorithm is developed for three omnidirectional wheels and a PID algorithm is designed to control the speed of DC motor for each wheel. From the results the proposed system has the advantages: (1) to auto adjust the angle and position; (2) to erase the sensor for tracking line of the automobile robot; (3) cost-effectiveness and high accuracy

A Rail line model with distributed parameters of track circuit

Models of continuous jointlesstrack circuits with an adaptive receiver are presented, where the power supply is connected to the beginning or middle of the rail circuit, and also to the locomotive receiver. The aim of the work is to develop models of rail lines, which take into account the actual current distribution along the track line and which may be used to research adaptive jointlesstrack circuits. The electric schemes of the jointlesstrack circuits are given, equations, connecting currents and voltages at the ends of the rail line, coefficient of four-pole rail lines, algorithms for calculating track circuits. In conclusion, that the track circuit can operate at an insulation resistance four times lower than the permissible value, where the permissible insulation resistance is Ri = 1om*km. New approaches and tools for analyzing and synthesizing solutions are considered, with considering account real operating conditions and disturbing factors.

The Experimental Estimation of The Elastic Modulus of a Fly Ash Based Trackbed Layer Under Cyclic Loading

In a railway track structure system, trackbed layers are designed to compensate for insufficient bearing capacity and/or water orfrost resistance of natural soil. These, so called, ‘capping layers’ can be constructed from raw materials like sand or gravel or fromindustrial materials like asphalt or concrete. However, more environmentally and cost friendly alternatives have been studied in recentyears. Fly-ash represents one such promising material and a trial section of a main line track with the capping layer made froma fly-ash-based mixture was constructed in Czech Republic in 2005. The performance of the capping layer in the section has beenmeasured since. In this paper, results of the laboratory estimation of the elastic modulus under cyclic traffic-like induced loading arepresented for the most recent group of samples. The results show that the elastic limit of the fly-ash-based material lies well abovethe stresses induced by railway traffic and that its behaviour is stable under the cyclic loading. This suggests that the mechanicalproperties of the material may not be determinative for the design of the layer and that the feasibility factors may take precedent.This in turn suggests that either the design strength of the material or the designed thickness of the layer may be possibly reduced.

Adverse health effects of PCBs on fine motor performance – Analysis of a neurophysiological pathway in the HELPcB surveillance program

Since research literature indicates neurotoxic health effects of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), it is necessary to identify by which mechanism PCBs might affect the human central nervous system and human behavior. In the present study, a neurophysiological pathway is assumed to explain the negative association of PCB exposure and performance in fine motor tasks mediated by the level of the dopamine (DA) metabolite homovanillic acid (HVA). A total of 113 occupationally PCB exposed workers and their relatives from an occupational health monitoring program were examined (89.4 % men). PCBs were analyzed in plasma via human biomonitoring and HVA was assessed in urine. The motor performance series was used to measure two dimensions of fine motor skills with 5 subgroups (accuracy: steadiness, line tracking accuracy; speed: line tracking speed, aiming, tapping). The direct effects of PCBs on fine motor performance and the indirect effects of PCBs on fine motor performance via DA metabolite HVA were tested with multiple regressions. We found significant effects for the accuracy dimension, namely a negative direct effect of PCBs on line tracking accuracy mediated by HVA. Further, an indirect effect could be found for PCBs with steadiness accuracy through HVA. There were no significant effects related to fine motor performances in the speed dimension. These results provide first indications for an underlying neurochemical pathomechanism involving the dopamine system of PCB-related deterioration of fine motor performance regarding accuracy.

Application of Offshore HDPE Pipes Route Design in North Maluku Indonesia

The lack of fresh water for the inhabitants of Maitara island is a very urgent problem to be solved. Two main factors at least must be taken into account to deliberate the right of way of subsea High-density polyethylene (HDPE) pipes, namely the hydrodynamic conditions and of a block analysis. This paper presents the study to justify the best route of subsea HDPE pipes based on hydrodynamic model analysis and concrete block strategy. The method used to analyze the best route includes 2 aspects. Firstly, the investigation method consisting of a bathymetric survey conducted by a single beam echosounder, 15 days tidal observations and seabed sediment sampling. Secondly, the hydrodynamic modelling analysis using Mike 21 FMHD and concrete block analysis, all these studies have been completed in August 2018. In the morphological behaviour analysis, three alternative routes are considered for the subsea HDPE pipes from Tidore Island to Maitara Island. The outcome of the analysis shows that the second track line option has the smallest impact by the hydrodynamic conditions, with a current speed of less than 0,5m/sec and a significant wave height of fewer than 1.2 meters. Furthermore, the uniformity of the lithology along the route is the other reason to select the second route. Finally, the concrete block analysis generated a minimum dimension of 75cm x 60cm x 30cm, and a free span of 3 meters is safe to absorb the uplift and drag forces acting on the pipe.

Dynamic Window Approach with path-following for Unmanned Surface Vehicle based on Reinforcement Learning

Recently, autonomous navigation technology is actively being developed due to the increasing demand of an unmanned surface vehicle(USV). Local planning is essential for the USV to safely reach its destination along paths. the dynamic window approach(DWA) algorithm is a well-known navigation scheme as a local path planning. However, the existing DWA algorithm does not consider path line tracking, and the fixed weight coefficient of the evaluation function, which is a core part, cannot provide flexible path planning for all situations. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a new DWA algorithm that can follow path lines in all situations. Fixed weight coefficients were trained using reinforcement learning(RL) which has been actively studied recently. We implemented the simulation and compared the existing DWA algorithm with the DWA algorithm proposed in this paper. As a result, we confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. Keywords: ë™ì  ì°½ ì ‘ê·¼, 경로 ì¶”ì¢ , 지역 경로, ë¬´ì¸ìˆ˜ìƒì •, 강화학습 Keywords: Dynamic Window Approach, Path-following, Local Planning, Unmanned Surface Vehicle, Reinforcement Learning

A computer approach to overtaking station track layout diagram design using graphs. An alternative track diagram proposal for these stations

The authors have addressed in the past different railway engineering problems, mainly using computer algebra systems. They recently showed how it was possible to obtain compatible routes overtaking stations on double track lines (with any number of tracks and any topology) dealing with cycles. As a side achievement it was found that there were alternative track layouts for this type of railway station. Here a complete and comprehensive new package denoted Estaciones, also implemented in Maple, that does not use cycles, is introduced. It offers different procedures related to reachability, trails, number of shortest paths, etc. As main achievement, an improved track layout diagram for overtaking stations (with advantages with respect to the one in the previous paper) is found. Note that track layout diagrams are a hot topic: for example, Adif (Spanish infrastructure administrator) is nowadays remodelling the track layouts of the main railway stations of Madrid, Seville and Barcelona.