Cristina Urdiales García

A curvature-based multiresolution automatic karyotyping system

This paper presents a method to segment, characterise and pair a set of chromosomes in a cell of an eukaryotic organism. This method yields several new features: (i) chromosomes are captured at non-uniform resolution to minimise the problem instance; (ii) segmentation is adaptively conducted by means of a hierarchical structure in a fast way; (iii) the curvature of each chromosome is studied at high resolution by means of attentive steps; (iv) a very short and uncorrelated feature vector is extracted from curvature by analysing its spectral components; and (v) a multistage benchmark classifier is used to pair chromosomes according to shape and banding. The method has been tested with publicly available databases. Results were successfully compared to manual karyotypes.Abstract. This paper presents a method to segment, characterise and pair a set of chromosomes in a cell of an eukaryotic organism. This method yields several new features: (i) chromosomes are captured at non-uniform resolution to minimise the problem instance; (ii) segmentation is adaptively conducted by means of a hierarchical structure in a fast way; (iii) the curvature of each chromosome is studied at high resolution by means of attentive steps; (iv) a very short and uncorrelated feature vector is extracted from curvature by analysing its spectral components; and (v) a multistage benchmark classifier is used to pair chromosomes according to shape and banding. The method has been tested with publicly available databases. Results were successfully compared to manual karyotypes.

The Shared Control Paradigm for Assistive and Rehabilitation Robots

One of the major risks of disability is a loss of autonomy that , in extreme, may lead to institutionalization. Lack of human resources for caregiving has led to designing robots to assist people in need. Assistive robotics are meant to help people cope with Activities of Daily Living (ADL). Most ADL are heavily affected by issues related to ambulation [1], so much effort in assistive robots has focused on robotic wheelchairs, rollators, walkers and even canes. These devices typically provide monitorization, physical support and help to cope with hazardous and/or complex situations. However, it is of key importance to provide just the right amount of help to people with disabilities. According to clinicians, an excess of assistance may lead to frustration and/or loss of residual skills. Lack of assistance, however, may lead to unacceptable risks and/or failure to accomplish the desired task. Hence, help must be adapted to each specific user.

Heterogeneous Device Networking for an AmI Environment

Assisted living environments involve a wide range of different devices. Most of them are commercially available, but typically associated to standard domotics buses not compatible with each other. Besides, in many cases it is desirable to integrate new devices to a system that might not support the installed bus protocol. Interconnection between devices is far from simple, specially because domotic buses are often proprietary. The most popular solution to this problem is to export information to Ethernet as a system meeting point, but it is not always simple and accessibility in proprietary buses is limited. This paper proposes a method to integrate a variety of platforms through a shared memory interface, including a proprietary bus, commercial devices and ad hoc systems. Its main novelty is that compatibility between different standards is achieved without additional expensive hardware.