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Topography estimation is essential for autonomous off-road navigation. Common methods rely on point cloud data from, e.g., Light Detection and Ranging sensors (LIDARs) and stereo cameras. Stereo cameras produce dense point clouds with larger coverage but lower accuracy. LIDARs, on the other hand, have higher accuracy and longer range but much less coverage. LIDARs are also more expensive. The research question examines whether incorporating LIDARs can significantly improve stereo camera accuracy. Current sensor fusion methods use LIDARs’ raw measurements directly; thus, the improvement in estimation accuracy is limited to only LIDAR-scanned locations The main contribution of our new method is to construct a reference ground plane through the interpolation of LIDAR data so that the interpolated maps have similar coverage as the stereo camera’s point cloud. The interpolated maps are fused with the stereo camera point cloud via Kalman filters to improve a larger section of the topography map. The method is tested in three environments: controlled indoor, semi-controlled outdoor, and unstructured terrain. Compared to the existing method without LIDAR interpolation, the proposed approach reduces average error by 40% in the controlled environment and 67% in the semi-controlled environment, while maintaining large coverage. The unstructured environment evaluation confirms its corrective impact.

Engineering a large vascularized bone graft is a much greater challenge than engineering small bone tissues. Although this is essentially feasible through an osteogenic factor-based in vivo bioreactor technique, the ossification needs improving. This study was aimed to investigate the possibility and efficacy of ectopic cultivation of sizeable bone grafts with large angiogenic and osteogenic factor-loaded natural bovine bone mineral (NBBM) scaffolds. For this purpose, six groups of sizeable composite scaffolds were constructed, consisting of a titanium mesh cage of NBBM or a mixture of NBBM/autogenous bone particles (AB), which were preloaded with 660 μg recombinant human bone morphogenetic protein-7 (rhBMP-7) and/or 4 μg recombinant human vascular endothelial growth factor165 (rhVEGF 165 ). The scaffolds were implanted in bilateral latissimus dorsi muscles in eight pigs to construct in vivo bioreactors. Sequential fluorescence labeling was then applied to trace bone formation at the early stage. The implants were retrieved 12 weeks later. The undecalcified sections were observed in turn under the fluorescence microscope and light microscope to investigate early stage osteogenesis and histology. Moreover, new bone density (BD) was measured with histomorphometry. Compared with rhBMP-7-delivered NBBM scaffolds, rhVEGF 165 /rhBMP-7-delivered NBBM scaffolds were with more intense intra-scaffold osteogenesis at the early stage and the ultimate sizeable bone grafts of microstructurally more lamellae and trabeculae, and quantitatively higher BD (31.93% vs. 22.37%, p <0.01). This study demonstrated that as for the endocultivation of a large bone graft with bioactive factor-based in vivo bioreactor technique, dual delivery of rhVEGF 165 /rhBMP-7 has synergic effects on improving early stage bone formation and subsequently bone quality and quantity of the bone grafts.

In Germany, ~13 000 people are found to have oral and pharyngeal cancer every year. Awareness and knowledge about this cancer remain insufficient, particularly amongst elderly people. A campaign for early detection was launched in Northern Germany in April 2012. The first step of the campaign was to increase awareness about oral cancer. Prior to a pre-campaign evaluation at the campaign start, March 2012 and an intermediate-campaign evaluation, November 2012, a sample representative for the population aged 50 ≤ years (target group; N = 500) was drawn for a first process evaluation. The surveys were conducted by means of telephone interviews including questions on behaviour, knowledge and sociodemographic/socioeconomic aspects and target group-oriented questions on issue, media and campaign material awareness. The process evaluation showed an increase in issue awareness from 25 to 40% (P < 0.001) and the media awareness increased by over 10% (P < 0.001). The results suggested that particularly women, the core age group (60–79 years) and the educationally disadvantaged group might benefit from the campaign. Awareness about the issue ‘oral cancer’ was already significantly increased 7 months after the campaign start. The highest general and mediarelated increase in awareness was achieved in the target group.

Objective The hypothesis of the present study was that topically applied bisphosphonate (BP) on a collagen membrane or alternatively bovine bone mineral prevents surface resorption of onlay bone grafts. Material and methods In eight adult pigs, bone blocks were harvested bilaterally from the mandible and fixed to the lateral cortex of the horizontal ramus to simulate a ridge augmentation. In a split-mouth study design, we used alendronate in aqueous solution (1 mg/ml) on the test-side in three different ways: on a collagen membrane (Bio-Gide®), soaked in bovine bone mineral granules (Bio-Oss®), or applied to the bone graft directly. The same materials without BP were used as controls on the contralateral side. After 3 months, the animals were sacrificed. The evaluation included sequential fluorochromic labeling and measurement of bone height in microradiography and toluidine blue staining. Results In five cases, necrosis of the overlying periosteal tissues with BP was observed macroscopically. A statistically significantly lower loss in graft height was seen on the test-side for Bio-Gide® + alendronate (0.65 %) versus Bio-Gide® (1.52 %), p = 0.002; Bio-Oss® + alendronate (1.16 %) versus Bio-Oss® (4.20 %), p = 0.001; and bone graft + alendronate (1.25 %) versus bone graft alone (6.01 %), p = 0.006. An inhibitory effect on bone remodeling was observed by a statistically significantly lower number of resorption lacunae. Conclusion The hypothesis was accepted that a bisphosphonate-treated membrane reduced bone graft resorption; however, periosteal necrosis requires better adaptation of the dosage. Clinical relevance A bisphosphonate membrane could be a helpful tool to preserve augmentation height of onlay bone grafts.

By combining qualitative scenarios and life cycle assessment (LCA), we place the latter in a larger context. This study outlines the importance of the integration of future perspectives into LCA, and also the significance of taking changes in the environment of technology into account, rather than just technological development itself. Accordingly, we focused on adapting the background system of an attributional LCA in the agri-food sector. The proposed technology was assumed not have evolved in the considered time horizon. In this context, the objectives of this paper were twofold: (i) to methodologically prove the applicability of integrating qualitative scenarios into LCA and (ii) to focus on changes in the background system, which is sometimes overlooked in the context of future-oriented LCA. This allowed to evaluate the future potential of different technologies, assessing their environmental impact under uncertain future developments. Methodologically, the qualitative information from scenarios was transformed into quantitative data, which was successively fed into the life cycle inventory (LCI) of the LCA approach. This point of integration into the second phase of LCA translates into future changes in the entire environment in which a technology is used. This means that qualitatively described scenario narratives need to be converted into value estimates in order to be incorporated into the LCA model. A key conclusion is that changes in the background of an LCA—the changing framework expressed through the inventory database—can be very important for the environmental impact of emerging technologies. This approach was applied to a food processing technology to produce apple juice. The proposed methodology enables technology developers to make their products future-proof and robust against socioeconomic development. In addition, the market perspective, if spelled out in the scenarios, can be integrated, leading to a more holistic picture of LCA with its environmental focus, while simultaneously empowering actors to make the right strategic decisions today, especially when considering the long investment cycles in the agri-food sector.

The issue of local food supply has attracted considerable political and public attention, due to the changing preferences of consumers, who have more awareness about ecological sustainability, in particular, but also due to recent developments concerning the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to identify measures facilitating local food value chains, which are resilient to different nationwide and global future developments, the aim of our analysis was to set the identified measures derived from the local roadmap of the city of Graz in the context of European scenarios for the agri-food sector in 2035. The results show that certain measures are applicable under all of the described scenarios, such as the food policy council, whereas some measures—for example, open food labs—are less suitable or need to be adjusted to fit the purpose within changing framework conditions. Setting specific measures for a city region in the broader context of European agri-food scenarios provides a systemic perspective, thus making the multiple links and influences more visible.

Nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs) are powerful medical diagnostic tools for point-of-care (POC) and other field applications. However, traditional methods like quantitative PCR (qPCR) require complex, expensive equipment and trained operators, limiting their use to centralized labs. Isothermal alternatives, like Loop-mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP), are better adapted for POC devices. Lab-on-PCB systems have the potential to overcome the challenges faced by conventional microfabrication-based systems. This study presents a novel lab-on-PCB device for nucleic acid amplification and electrochemical detection using reverse transcription LAMP (RT-LAMP) of SARS-CoV-2. The system consists of two disposable PCB-based chips making it close to zero cost. One PCB is for heating and nucleic acid amplification, while the other is for electrochemical detection using Cyclic Voltammetry (CV) with a redox-active intercalator. The PCB slides are connected to a compact electronic device (< 10 USD) for controlling the heating and electroanalytical readout. Using this device, we achieved successful rapid (< 1.5 h) nucleic acid amplification and detection at a target concentration of 10 copies/reaction. This work represents a notable step toward developing integrated, portable NAAT devices for POC diagnostics.

ObjectivesAs part of the International Cancer Benchmarking Partnership (ICBP) SURVMARK-2 project, we provide the most recent estimates of colon and rectal cancer survival in seven high-income countries by age and stage at diagnosis.MethodsData from 386 870 patients diagnosed during 2010–2014 from 19 cancer registries in seven countries (Australia, Canada, Denmark, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway and the UK) were analysed. 1-year and 5-year net survival from colon and rectal cancer were estimated by stage at diagnosis, age and country,Results(One1-year) and 5-year net survival varied between (77.1% and 87.5%) 59.1% and 70.9% and (84.8% and 90.0%) 61.6% and 70.9% for colon and rectal cancer, respectively. Survival was consistently higher in Australia, Canada and Norway, with smaller proportions of patients with metastatic disease in Canada and Australia. International differences in (1-year) and 5-year survival were most pronounced for regional and distant colon cancer ranging between (86.0% and 94.1%) 62.5% and 77.5% and (40.7% and 56.4%) 8.0% and 17.3%, respectively. Similar patterns were observed for rectal cancer. Stage distribution of colon and rectal cancers by age varied across countries with marked survival differences for patients with metastatic disease and diagnosed at older ages (irrespective of stage).ConclusionsSurvival disparities for colon and rectal cancer across high-income countries are likely explained by earlier diagnosis in some countries and differences in treatment for regional and distant disease, as well as older age at diagnosis. Differences in cancer registration practice and different staging systems across countries may have impacted the comparisons.