This work presents and experimentally tests the framework used by our context-aware, distributed team of small Unmanned Aerial Systems (SUAS) capable of operating in real time, in an autonomous ...fashion, and under constrained communications. Our framework relies on a three-layered approach: (1) an operational layer, where fast temporal and narrow spatial decisions are made; (2) a tactical layer, where temporal and spatial decisions are made for a team of agents; and (3) a strategical layer, where slow temporal and wide spatial decisions are made for the team of agents. These three layers are coordinated by an ad hoc, software-defined communications network, which ensures sparse but timely delivery of messages amongst groups and teams of agents at each layer, even under constrained communications. Experimental results are presented for a team of 10 small unmanned aerial systems tasked with searching for and monitoring a person in an open area. At the operational layer, our use case presents an agent autonomously performing searching, detection, localization, classification, identification, tracking, and following of the person, while avoiding malicious collisions. At the tactical layer, our experimental use case presents the cooperative interaction of a group of multiple agents that enables the monitoring of the targeted person over wider spatial and temporal regions. At the strategic layer, our use case involves the detection of complex behaviors, i.e., the person being followed enters a car and runs away, or the person being followed exits the car and runs away, which require strategic responses to successfully accomplish the mission.
The shortage of medical-grade personal protective equipment for frontline healthcare workers is an important issue during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The demand placed on textile manufacturers to ...rapidly produce products that adhere to a set of standard quality assurance requirements has increased dramatically, leading to increased burden on quality assurance floors and national testing labs. Standardized testing of protective equipment is a labor-intensive and time-consuming process that requires human operators to perform tasks that can be automated using various technologies, such as collaborative robots and computer vision systems. The tests we focus on involve evaluating surgical masks and protective materials for blood penetration resistance, flammability, and liquid barrier performance. This work introduces a test cell designed to accommodate human operators in completing various quality assurance tests for protective equipment. The test cell is comprised of custom-designed cases containing test specimens to facilitate robot manipulation and cameras to monitor and characterize the test results. We demonstrate how the system can reduce the workload and reliance on human operators at no expense to the quality assurance process. Based on validation test results and user experience, it is predicted that the human operator will only have to prepare cases with test specimens and handle infrequent failures that occur within the system, without compromising overall completion time. We envision that this system will relieve the strain on textile manufacturing processes requiring human labor to repeatedly perform simple tasks.
This work presents and experimentally test the framework used by our context-aware, distributed team of small Unmanned Aerial Systems (SUAS) capable of operating in real-time, in an autonomous ...fashion, and under constrained communications. Our framework relies on three layered approach: (1) Operational layer, where fast temporal and narrow spatial decisions are made; (2) Tactical Layer, where temporal and spatial decisions are made for a team of agents; and (3) Strategical Layer, where slow temporal and wide spatial decisions are made for the team of agents. These three layers are coordinated by an ad-hoc, software-defined communications network, which ensures sparse, but timely delivery of messages amongst groups and teams of agents at each layer even under constrained communications. Experimental results are presented for a team of 10 small unmanned aerial systems tasked with searching and monitoring a person in an open area. At the operational layer, our use case presents an agent autonomously performing searching, detection, localization, classification, identification, tracking, and following of the person, while avoiding malicious collisions. At the tactical layer, our experimental use case presents the cooperative interaction of a group of multiple agents that enable the monitoring of the targeted person over a wider spatial and temporal regions. At the strategic layer, our use case involves the detection of complex behaviors-i.e. the person being followed enters a car and runs away, or the person being followed exits the car and runs away-that requires strategic responses to successfully accomplish the mission.
As more patients with appendicitis are treated with antibiotics, factors associated with recurrence may help inform individualized prognostication and decision-making.
This cohort study, using data ...from the Comparison of Outcomes of Antibiotic Drugs and Appendectomy trial, examined patients treated with antibiotics who did not undergo appendicectomy in the first 30 days. Patients who had appendicectomy between 30 days and 1 year were compared with those who did not. Marginalized logistic regression models were used to calculate adjusted risk differences (RDs) to estimate the association between baseline patient factors and the risk of undergoing an appendicectomy between 30 days and 1 year.
Of 601 patients treated with antibiotics who did not undergo appendicectomy within 30 days (mean age 38.0 years; 217 women (36.1 per cent)), 144 had an appendicectomy and 56 were lost to follow-up between 30 days and 1 year. The estimated rate of appendicectomy between 30 days and 1 year was 28.6 (95 per cent c.i. 25.0 to 32.8) per cent. After adjustment for other factors, nausea, vomiting, or anorexia at baseline presentation was associated with an increased rate of appendicectomy between 30 days and 1 year (adjusted RD 17.52, 95 per cent c.i. 8.64 to 26.40). The presence of an appendicolith (adjusted RD 3.64, -6.08 to 13.36), or an abscess, perforation, or fat stranding on initial imaging (adjusted RD -7.23, -17.41 to 2.95) was not strongly associated with appendicectomy between 30 days and 1 year.
Most factors commonly associated with appendicitis severity were not strongly associated with an increased risk of undergoing appendicectomy in the longer term after treatment with antibiotics.
