Irish Universities
Not a member yet
78452 research outputs found
Sort by
Food Waste
No full textNutrition and Health Public Lectures: Food Health, Virtual Event, 22 March 2021This Public Lecture on Food Waste was presented by Associate Professor Tom Curran as part of the UCD Institute of Food and Health Public Lecture Series.European Commission Horizon 2020Irish Research Counci
Generating thermal image data samples using 3D facial modelling techniques and deep learning methodologies
No full textMethods for generating synthetic data have become of increasing importance to build large datasets required for Convolution Neural Networks (CNN) based deep learning techniques for a wide range of computer vision applications. In this work, we extend existing methodologies to show how 2D thermal facial data can be mapped to provide 3D facial models. For the proposed research work we have used tufts datasets for generating 3D varying face poses by using a single frontal face pose. The system works by refining the existing image quality by performing fusion based image preprocessing operations. The refined outputs have better contrast adjustments, decreased noise level and higher exposedness of the dark regions. It makes the facial landmarks and temperature patterns on the human face more discernible and visible when compared to original raw data. Different image quality metrics are used to compare the refined version of images with original images. In the next phase of the proposed study, the refined version of images is used to create 3D facial geometry structures by using Convolution Neural Networks (CNN). The generated outputs are then imported in blender software to finally extract the 3D thermal facial outputs of both males and females. The same technique is also used on our thermal face data acquired using prototype thermal camera (developed under Heliaus EU project) in an indoor lab environment which is then used for generating synthetic 3D face data along with varying yaw face angles and lastly facial depth map is generated.This research is supported and funded by the Heliaus
European Union Project. The project focused on enabling safe
autonomous driving systems. This project has received funding
from the ECSEL Joint Undertaking (JU) under grant agreement
No 826131. The JU receives support from the European
Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program and
France, Germany, Ireland, Italy. The authors would like to
acknowledge Shubhajit Basak for providing his support to use
blender software, the Xperi Ireland team and Quentin Noir from
Lynred France for giving their feedback. Moreover, authors
would like to acknowledge tufts university the contributors of
the tufts dataset for providing the image resources to carry out
this research work
On the Disaggregation of Optical Networks
No full textOptical network disaggregation is a novel technological paradigm enabling the mitigation of lock- in vendor constraints imposed within legacy systems, by aiming to standardise the control inter- faces embedded in optical equipment to enable the development and deployment of technology- agnostic remote control systems. This has been mainly enabled by the Software-Defined Network- ing (SDN)/Network Function Virtualisation (NFV) paradigms, which have been deployed in recent years to operate on top of optical network systems. However, due to the complexity of disaggreg- ating the control from optical networking equipment, the consolidation of fully software-defined optical networks has been rather slow. A major challenge has been the lack of testing platforms that enhance the evaluation of optical SDN control procedures. In this thesis, we propose an optical network emulation system to enhance the development of optical control plane research, and use this platform to investigate how to build intelligent optical control plane procedures in disaggregated optical networks.
Firstly, we developed a packet-optical network emulation platform, Mininet-Optical, to enhance the development, testing and prototyping of disaggregated, software-defined optical control plane procedures. Our emulation platform is the aggregation of two subsystems: i) an optical network simulation system, to simulate the physical performance of Optical Line Systems (OLSs); ii) a packet network emulation system, Mininet, which is a widely used emulation platform in the area of SDN in the packet-network domain. With our system we are capable of modelling state-of- the-art transport equipment such as Reconfigurable Add/Drop Multiplexers (ROADMs) composed of Wavelength-Selective Switches (WSSs) and Variable Optical Attenuators (VOAs), Single Mode Fibre (SMF) spans, Erbium-Doped Fibre Amplifiers (EDFAs) and Optical Power Monitors (OPMs). Thus, we can model a wide variety of optical network systems and topologies that may be complex and expensive to deploy in physical environments. By extending the internal composition of the Mininet emulator, we are able to abstract the transport equipment in virtual electronic components (i.e., ROADMs from open virtual switches), allowing us to extend the control plane emulation enabled in these. We then integrated Mininet-Optical with the well-known SDN Network Operating Systems (NOS) Ryu and Open Network Operating System (ONOS). Consequently, we were able to evaluate real control plane procedures (e.g., algorithms and systems) in large-scale scenarios.
Secondly, we evaluated the usage of the Ryu controller for building control plane systems and built our own system. Then, we integrated the SDN controller to Mininet-Optical to study the implications of transmission margins on network capacity. And, we evaluated how can these margins be mitigated by using Quality of Transmission Estimation (QoT-E) algorithms based on analytical modelling of the OLS. Moreover, we evaluate the use of active monitoring components to assist the QoT-E algorithms. For this, we propose three QoT-E models considering different types of monitoring capabilities: i) assuming the monitoring of signal power levels and Amplified Spontaneous Emission (ASE) noise; ii) same as i), plus we use the signal power levels to correct the QoT-E prediction inaccuracies in the Nonlinear Interference (NLI) noise occurring at the optical fibre; iii) assuming monitoring capabilities of signal power levels, ASE noise, and NLI noise, such as reference receiver monitors. With these QoT-E models we also evaluated the issues in monitoring placement, focusing on the advantages of retrieving optical signal data at intermediate locations of an optical link.
Thirdly, we looked at the enhancement of QoT-E modules with Machine-Learning (ML) and deep-learning algorithms. We approached this by assessing the ability of ML algorithms to infer the wavelength-dependent operation of optical network components, with focus on the Wavelength- Dependent Gain (WDG) of EDFAs. For this, we propose the usage of the channel load as an input parameter to train the algorithms, in a feature that we label the active wavelength load. We thus used Mininet-Optical to generate large amounts of data to train and test the algorithms that we evaluated. We began our investigation with a thorough evaluation of the Support Vector Machine (SVM) algorithm, and then we also evaluated multiple algorithms, including: K-Nearest Neighbour (KNN), Linear-Support Vector Machine (L-SVM), Radial Basis Function SVM (RBF- SVM), Logistic Regression (LR), Decision Tree (DT), Artificial Neural Network (ANN), Naive Bayes (NB), and Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA), Random Forest (RF), AdaBoost, and Bagging. We assessed these algorithms in terms of time to train them and F1 score
How governments manage personal assistance schemes in response to the united nations convention on the rights of persons with disabilities: A scoping review
No full textGovernments are obligated to safeguard social inclusion for disabled people through user-led personal assistance (PA) under Article 19 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD). This scoping review was carried out to map and explore current knowledge on how governments internationally have managed PA schemes in response to the UNCRPD. The review examined 99 documents, and categorised the literature into the following themes; legislation, funding, model of service provision, governance and regulation, and the COVID-19 pandemic response. We include recommendations to co-design legislation and quality improvement policies to ensure that PA schemes are underpinned by a social model of disability mindset. Further research needs to be undertaken to guarantee that policymakers include the voice of PA users in the management of PA scheme
Exploring Parameters of Virtual Character Lighting Through Perceptual Evaluation and Psychophysical Modelling
No full textThis thesis explored the parameters of virtual character lighting and their connections to the perceived emotion and appeal of the character. Our main interest is to empirically evaluate various common practices of setting up these parameters in traditional art forms, such as painting, theatre and cinematography, and their psychological effects on the perception of the character according to artistic conventions. We also aimed to standardise a general guideline for lighting design that will enhance the inner states of virtual avatars for maximum audience engagement.
We conducted an extensive set of novel psychophysical experiments attempting to assess the links between the physical properties of lighting and the responses of the audience. The results were discussed in relation to theories found in the literature of visual perception, psychology and anthropology. We adapted classic research methodologies such as the multidimensional scaling analysis, the method of constant stimuli and the method of adjustment to the modern research question of how we perceive virtual characters and what makes them engaging for various applications, for example, self-avatars on social media platforms that drew massive interest from professional developers and casual makers alike.
Some of our findings agreed and some disagreed with certain codes in cinematic lighting. Based on these newfound insights, we derived a set of lighting guidelines that can be used to enhance the emotion and appeal of digital characters and demonstrated a use case of a perceptual lighting tool. Moreover, our experiment designs, particularly the method of adjustment with real-time graphics, broke new ground for future research in virtual avatars. In summary, our contributions found applications in both industry practice and academic research
Development of a multiplex assay to determine the expression of mitochondrial genes in human skeletal muscle
No full textSkeletal muscle is an important endocrine tissue demonstrating plasticity in response to external stimuli, including exercise and nutrition. Mitochondrial biogenesis is a common hallmark of adaptations to aerobic exercise training. Furthermore, altered expression of several genes implicated in the regulation of mitochondrial biogenesis, substrate oxidation and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) biosynthesis following acute exercise underpins longer-term muscle metabolic adaptations. Gene expression is typically measured using real-time quantitative PCR platforms. However, interest has developed in the design of multiplex gene expression assays (GeXP) using the GenomeLab GeXP™ genetic analysis system, which can simultaneously quantify gene expression of multiple targets, holding distinct advantages in terms of throughput, limiting technical error, cost effectiveness, and quantifying gene coexpression. This study describes the development of a custom-designed GeXP assay incorporating the measurement of proposed regulators of mitochondrial biogenesis, substrate oxidation, and NAD+ biosynthetic capacity in human skeletal muscle and characterises the resting gene expression (overnight fasted and non-exercised) signature within a group of young, healthy, recreationally active males. The design of GeXP-based assays provides the capacity to more accurately characterise the regulation of a targeted group of genes with specific regulatory functions, a potentially
advantageous development for future investigations of the regulation of muscle metabolism by exercise and/or nutrition
Engineering a Parallel ∆-stepping Algorithm
No full textThe IEEE Big Data 2019, Los Angeles, United States of America, December 9-12 2019Computation of the single-source shortest path (SSSP) is a fundamental primitive in many network analytics tasks. With the increasing size of networks to beanalysed, there is a need for effcient tools to compute shortest paths, especiallyon the widely adopted shared-memory multicore architectures. The ∆-steppingalgorithm, that trades-off the work effciency of Dijkstra’s algorithm with theparallelism offered by the Bellman-Ford algorithm, has been found to be among thefastest implementations on various parallel architectures. Despite its widespread popularity, the different design choices in implementing the parallel∆-steppingalgorithm are not properly understood and these design choices can have a significant impact on the final performance. In this paper, we carefully comparetwo different implementations of the∆-stepping algorithm for shared-memorymulticore architectures: (i) a static workload assignment where the nodes areassigned to threads at the beginning of the algorithm and only the assigned thread can relax edges leading to a node and (ii) a dynamic workload assignment wherethe nodes are dynamically allocated to threads at the time of bucket relaxation. Based on an extensive empirical study on a range of graph classes, edge density and weight distributions, we show that while the more intuitive and widely used approach of dynamically balanced workload suits dense power-law graphs well,the static partitioning approach outperforms this more intuitive approach on awide range of graph classes. Our findings can guide a network analyst in selecting the best parallel implementation of the ∆-stepping algorithm for a given analytics task and a given graph class.Science Foundation IrelandInsight Research Centr
Friction perception at initial contact with textured and rough surfaces
No full textThe IEEE World Haptics Conference 2019, Tokyo, Japan, 9-12 July 2019For safe and dexterous manipulation humans need frictional information to adjust and control grip forces precisely. This study indicates that humans cannot perceive frictional difference at initial contact with passive touch on either smooth surface or textured and rough surfaces. This is true even when tangential force is present.Science Foundation IrelandInsight Research Centre2020-12-15 JG: external PDF cover page remove
Short bouts of gait data and inertial sensors can provide reliable measures of spatiotemporal gait parameters from bilateral gait data of participants with multiple sclerosis
No full textBackground: Wearable devices equipped with inertial sensors enable objective gait assessment for persons with multiple sclerosis (MS), with potential use in ambulatory care or home and community-based assessments. However, gaitdata collected in non-controlled settings is often fragmented and may not provide enough information forreliable measures. We evaluate a novel approach, extracting pre-defined numbers of gait cycles from the fulllength of a walking task, and their effects on the reliability of spatiotemporal gait parameters. Methods: The present study evaluates intra-session reliability of spatiotemporal gait parameters for short bouts of gaitdata extracted from the full length of the walking tasks to 1) determine the effects of the length of the walkingtask on the reliability of calculated measures and 2) identify spatiotemporal gait parameters that can providereliable measures for gait assessments and reference data in different settings. Thirty-seven participants (37) diagnosed with relapsing-remitting MS (EDSS rage 0 to 4.5) executed two trials,walking 20m each, with inertial sensors attached to their right and left shanks. Previously published algorithms were applied to identify gait events from the medio-lateral angular velocity. Short bouts of gait data wereextracted from each trial, with lengths varying from 3 to 9 gait cycles. Twenty-one measures of spatiotemporalgait parameters were calculated. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) were calculated to evaluate how the degree of agreement between the two trials of each participant varied with the number of gait cycles included inthe analysis. Results: Spatiotemporal gait parameters calculated as the mean across included gait cycles reach excellent reliabilityfrom three gait cycles. Stride time variability and asymmetry, as well as stride velocity variability and asymmetry, reach good reliability from six gait cycles and should be further explored for persons with MS, whilestride time asymmetry and step time asymmetry do not seem to provide reliable measures and should bereported carefully. Conclusion: Short bouts of gait data, including at least six gait cycles of bilateral data, can provide reliable gait measurements for persons with MS, opening new perspectives for gait assessment using wearable devices in non-controlled environments, to support monitoring of symptoms of persons with neurological diseases.Science Foundation IrelandInsight Research CentreCheck for published version during checkdate report - A
How Many Steps to Represent Individual Gait?
No full textThe 12th ACM SIGCHI Symposium on Engineering Interactive Computer Systems, Sophia-Antipolis, France, 23-26 June 2020Assessing and reproducing user\u27s mobility has multiple purposes for interactive systems. In particular, the quantification of gait parameters has been used for user modelling, virtual environments, and augmented reality. While many technologies can be used to assess gait, measuring spatio-temporal parameters and their fluctuations, it is important to evaluate how many steps are necessary to represent the gait pattern of an individual, in order to provide better feedback to the user and improve user experience. In this preliminary study, we evaluate the intra-session reliability of spatio-temporal gait parameters for 24 healthy adults walking two trials of 15m in a corridor. Angular velocity data were acquired from body-worn inertial measurement units attached to participants\u27 right and left shanks. An adaptive algorithm was applied for gait event detection, and gait parameters were analyzed according to pre-defined numbers of steps extracted from the full length of the trial. The main contribution of the present analysis is to present a method of gait event detection, segmentation and analysis that can be used for adjusting interactive systems to individual users.Science Foundation IrelandInsight Research Centr