Consensus With Persistently Exciting Couplings and Its Application to Vision-Based Estimation.

The problem of consensus in networked agent systems is revisited and applied to vision-based localization. A class of new consensus dynamics is introduced first, and sufficient conditions including the persistence of excitation on the coupling matrix for reaching consensus are derived. As an application of the proposed consensus dynamics, an adaptive localization algorithm then is proposed for autonomous robots equipped with primarily visual sensors in GPS-denied environments. In the context of consensus over an undirected tree topology, the convergence of the proposed localization algorithm is proved. Finally, both numerical simulations and physical experiments are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed localization algorithm. Our algorithm is simpler to implement and computationally cheaper compared to other localization methods. Moreover, it is immune to error accumulation and long-term stable, and the asymptotical convergence of the estimation errors can be theoretically guaranteed.

[Metabolic syndrome prevalence and clinical features in blood donors]. / Prevalencia de síndrome metabólico y características clínicas en donadores de sangre.

BACKGROUND: Metabolic syndrome (MS) including obesity, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, dyslipidemia, etc.. is a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. It was reported that 15.9% of blood donors showed changes in fasting plasma glucose. OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence of MS in a population of healthy donors in a secondary hospital. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study, included 726 healthy donors who attended the blood bank HGZ36. The SM was identified with at least 3 of 5 criteria of the NCEP ATPIII, we applied a structured questionnaire. We determined HDL cholesterol, triglycerides, glucose Abnormal Fasting (GAA), hypertension (SAH), body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), hip circumference (NCC). Plan Analysis: prevalence, t student, Chi2. RESULTS: Of the 726 donors, 85.1% were male, according to the ATPIII criteria, 54.8% (398) had a GAA, 63.2% (458) had hypertriglyceridemia, almost 17% (121) presented HDL hypocholesterolemia, 44.1% (320) were overweight by BMI, the prevalence of metabolic syndrome was 54.4%, in comparison by gender, men had a statistically significant difference compared to women, showing an OR = 2.27 (p = 0.0001, 95% CI 1.44-3.60). CONCLUSIONS: MS is highly prevalent in this population, which involves implementing preventive measures, changes in lifestyles and identify risk factors to be free from diseases like diabetes, hypertension, obesity and MS itself.

Mobile robotic sensors for perimeter detection and tracking.

Mobile robot/sensor networks have emerged as tools for environmental monitoring, search and rescue, exploration and mapping, evaluation of civil infrastructure, and military operations. These networks consist of many sensors each equipped with embedded processors, wireless communication, and motion capabilities. This paper describes a cooperative mobile robot network capable of detecting and tracking a perimeter defined by a certain substance (e.g., a chemical spill) in the environment. Specifically, the contributions of this paper are twofold: (i) a library of simple reactive motion control algorithms and (ii) a coordination mechanism for effectively carrying out perimeter-sensing missions. The decentralized nature of the methodology implemented could potentially allow the network to scale to many sensors and to reconfigure when adding/deleting sensors. Extensive simulation results and experiments verify the validity of the proposed cooperative control scheme.