Algorithms

Early identification of at-risk gait helps prevent falls and injuries. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between approximate entropy (ApEn) and Poincaré plot indexes of elderly gait patterns and to test whether ApEn could be used as a reliable gait identifier for falls-risk. Minimum foot clearance (MFC) data of 14 elderly and 10 elderly participants with a history of falls and balance problems were analyzed. The ApEn values of MFC were significantly correlated with Poincaré plot indexes of MFC in the healthy elderly group, whereas correlations were absent in the elderly fallers group. Mean ApEn in the fallers group (0.18±0.03) was significantly higher than that in the healthy group (0.13±0.13). The higher ApEn values in the fallers group might indicate increased irregularities in their gait patterns and a loss of gait control mechanism. Results are useful for the early diagnosis of common gait pathologies.

Gene-environment interactions are thought to be critical for such multifactorial diseases as cancer, diabetes, heart disease, asthma, and some neurological disorders. The genetic constitution of an individual (genotype) may influence the risk of disease of a person exposed to environmental or occupational insults. Major advances will occur in the coming years with respect to the identification of the genetic and molecular causes of susceptibility to common diseases. In these studies microarrays and chip technology are rapidly becoming central in the detection of mutations and polymorphisms and in functional genomics. These rapid advances in genetics present new and complex ethical issues for both the individual and society.

The one of most important research interest in computer vision is an object discovery which is a method to detect immovable and movable objects from fixed cameras. This review paper explains many currents of detection methods. The object detection depends on several factors such as speed and accuracy. However, Template matching methods (TMM), Point feature matching methods (PFMM), Deep learning methods (DLM), Dense features methods (DFM), and Shape matching Methods (SMM)were discussed and reviewed, as well as evaluation of using different parameters, unobservable background and locative approach are also talked over. This review paper could be effective to give a help and to be best guide to choose suitable method of object detection.

A prospective study was done to access the effi cacy of ceruminolytic agents, i.e 2% paradichlorobenzene, 10% sodium bicarbonate, 2.5% acetic acid and normal saline. All score 4 hard impacted ear wax cases in the adult population (>20 years) were accrued for the assessment of the relative effi cacy. Upon analyzing the comparative effi cacy of four ceruminolytic agents, by taking into consideration three parameters (post) ceruminolytic cerumen score, attempts of syringing required to extrude the cerumen mass, post-ceruminolytic use and appearance of the removed cerumen mass. 2% paradichlorobenzene emerged as the most superior ceruminolytic, closely followed by 10% sodium bicarbonate. 2.5% acetic acid fared moderately while normal saline emerged as the least effi cacious ceruminolytic agent. Keywords Ceruminolytic agents 2% paradichlorobenzene Impacted wax Cerumen score 10% Sodium bicarbonate Acetic acid

Purpose To assess the accuracy of a formula derived from 159 living liver donors to estimate the liver size of a normal subject: standard liver weight (g) = 218 ? body weight (kg) 9 12.3 ? 51 (if male). Standard liver volume (SLV) is attained by a conversion factor of 1.19 mL/g. Methods The total liver volume (TLV) of each of the subsequent consecutive 126 living liver donors was determined using the right liver graft weight (RGW) on the back table, right/left liver volume ratio on computed tomography, and the conversion factor. The estimated right liver graft weight (ERGW) was determined by the right liver volume on computed tomography (CT) and the conversion factor. SLV and ERGW were compared with TLV and RGW, respectively, by paired sample t test. Results Donor characteristics of both series were similar. SLV and TLV were 1,099.6 ± 139.6 and 1,108.5 ± 175.2 mL, respectively, (R 2 = 0.476) (p = 0.435). The difference between SLV and TLV was only -8.9 ± 128.2 mL (-1.0 ± 11.7%). ERGW and RGW were 601.5 ± 104.1 and 597.1 ± 102.2 g, respectively (R 2 = 0.781) (p = 0.332). The conversion factor from liver weight to volume for this series was 1.20 mL/g. The difference between ERGW and RGW was 4.3 ± 49.8 g (0.3 ± 8.8%). ERGW was smaller than RGW for over 10% (range 0.21-40.66 g) in 18 of the 126 donors. None had the underestimation of RGW by over 20%. Conclusion SLV and graft weight estimations were accurate using the formula and conversion factor.

Familial hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is an autosomal dominant genetic disease considered the most common cause of sudden cardiac death in individuals under 35 years old, especially the athletes. This study aimed to investigate the association between the presence of late potentials and a family history of sudden death, syncope, and complex ventricular arrhythmias on patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. A case series study was carried out from March 2001 to December 2002, including 22 patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy according to transthoracic echocardiogram criteria. Patients on a cardiac pacemaker, right bundle branch block, cardiac transplant, and under no possibilities to realize the exams were excluded. The results showed that asymmetric septal hypertrophy was the most common type (73%), 63% had a positive familial history of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, 55% sudden cardiac death, and 23% syncope. Also, complex ventricular arrhythmias were detected in 14% and late potentials in 23% of patients. According to this study, the presence of late potentials was not associated with familial sudden death, syncope, and complex ventricular arrhythmias.

Recall that our mechanical worm (MW) model used in the simulation portion of our study is constructed from a chain of spherical beads of radius a. Each bead, indexed by n, is centered at Y n , and has an orientation vector tn . The vector tn is also used as the unit tangent to the worm's centerline. Each bead is also subject to several forces and torques which sum to zero at each moment in the dynamics,

This work is mainly focused on improving the differential evolution algorithm with the utilization of shadowed and general type 2 fuzzy systems to dynamically adapt one of the parameters of the evolutionary method. In this case, the mutation parameter is dynamically moved during the evolution process by using a shadowed and general type-2 fuzzy systems. The main idea of this work is to make a performance comparison between using shadowed and general type 2 fuzzy systems as controllers of the mutation parameter in differential evolution. The performance is compared with the problem of optimizing fuzzy controllers for a D.C. Motor. Simulation results show that general type-2 fuzzy systems are better when higher levels of noise are considered in the controller.

Although genetic information is acquired only once, cultural information can be both abandoned and reacquired during an individual's lifetime. Therefore, cultural evolution will be determined not only by cultural traits' ability to spread but also by how good they are at sticking with an individual; however, the evolutionary consequences of this aspect of culture have not previously been explored. Here we show that repeated learning and multiple characteristics of cultural traits make cultural evolution unique, allowing dynamical phenomena we can recognize as specifically cultural, such as traits that both spread quickly and disappear quickly. Importantly, the analysis of our model also yields a theoretical objection to the popular suggestion that biological and cultural evolution can be understood in similar terms. We find that the possibility to predict long-term cultural evolution by some success index, analogous to biological fitness, depends on whether individuals have ...

Article proposed novel method of automatic sketch synthesis, that can be used for creating test databases and sketch recognition tasks research and retrieval of corresponding photo. These methods were applied to two popular benchmark face databases. It was shown that for recognition of sketches very simple systems can be used. Slowa kluczowe: portrety pamieciowe (szkic), generowanie szkicow, porownanie szkicow z portretami fotograficznymi.

Oxygen transport imposes a possible constraint on the brain's ability to sustain variable metabolic demands, but oxygen diffusion in the cerebral cortex has not yet been observed directly. We show that concurrent two-photon fluorescence imaging of endogenous nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) and the cortical microcirculation exposes well-defined boundaries of tissue oxygen diffusion in the mouse cortex. The NADH fluorescence increases rapidly over a narrow, very low pO2 range with a p 50 of 3.4±0.6 mm Hg, thereby establishing a nearly binary reporter of significant, metabolically limiting hypoxia. The transient cortical tissue boundaries of NADH fluorescence exhibit remarkably delineated geometrical patterns, which define the limits of tissue oxygen diffusion from the cortical microcirculation and bear a striking resemblance to the ideal Krogh tissue cylinder. The visualization of microvessels and their regional contribution to oxygen delivery establishes penetrating arte...

Tandem repeats (TRs) are contiguous copies of repeating patterns, which may be either exact or approximate. Approximate tandem repeats (ATRs) in a genomic sequences are adjacent copies of a repeating pattern of nucleotides, where similarity is defined by a suitable measure. Both TRs and ATRs are used in forensic analysis, DNA mapping, testing for inherited diseases and many evolutionary studies. All their functions and roles are not well defined and remains a subject of ongoing investigation. However, growing biological databases together with tools to look for such repeats may lead to better understanding of their behavior. This paper presents our method for searching for ATRs defined on the basis of the model of substitution mutations and its comparison to two other tools. The capabilities and limitations of methods are analyzed and results obtained with each tool are investigated.

Splicing is one of the major contributors to observed spatiotemporal diversification of transcripts and proteins in metazoans. There are numerous factors that affect the process, but splice sites themselves along with the adjacent splicing signals are critical here. Unfortunately, there is still little known about splicing in plants and, consequently, further research in some fields of plant molecular biology will encounter difficulties. Keeping this in mind, we performed a large-scale analysis of splice sites in eight plant species, using novel algorithms and tools developed by us. The analyses included identification of orthologous splice sites, polypyrimidine tracts and branch sites. Additionally we identified putative intronic and exonic cis-regulatory motifs, U12 introns as well as splice sites in 45 microRNA genes in five plant species. We also provide experimental evidence for plant splice sites in the form of expressed sequence tag and RNA-Seq data. All the data are stored in a novel database called ERISdb and are freely available at .

This article proposes a methodology for obtaining a cryptographic algorithm, optimized for wireless sensor networks, through genetic algorithm. With the objective of increasing the level of security, computational efficiency and highlighting the energy consumption, considering that the autonomy of the wireless sensor devices is directly influenced by this factor. In aptitude function of genetic algorithm, were used metrics of algorithm runtime, maximum deviation and irregular, space occupied in memory and correlation coefficient (a new proposed metric), in order to find a safe and fast algorithm. The results obtained through computational simulations show the efficiency of the proposed methodology, in terms of processing time, coefficient of correlation and occupation of memory. Streszczenie. W tym artykule zaproponowano metodologi ę uzyskiwania algorytmu kryptograficznego, zoptymalizowanego dla bezprzewodowych sieci czujników, za pomoc ą algorytmu genetycznego. W celu zwi ększenia poziomu bezpiecze ństwa, wydajności obliczeniowej i podkreślenia zużycia energii, bior ąc pod uwag ę fakt, że ten czynnik ma bezpośredni wpływ na autonomi ę bezprzewodowych czujników. W funkcji uzdatniania algorytmu genetycznego wykorzystano metryki czasu pracy algorytmu, maksymalnego odchylenia i nieregularności, miejsca zajmowanego w pami ęci i współczynnika korelacji (nowa proponowana metryka), aby znaleźć bezpieczny i szybki algorytm. Wyniki uzyskane za pomoc ą symulacji obliczeniowych pokazuj ą efektywność proponowanej metodologii, pod wzgl ędem czasu przetwarzania, współczynnika korelacji i zaj ęcia pami ęci. (Opracowanie i analiza kryptograficznego algorytmu dla zoptymalizowanego genetycznie czujnika bezprzewodowego)

This article proposes a methodology for obtaining a cryptographic algorithm, optimized for wireless sensor networks, through genetic algorithm. With the objective of increasing the level of security, computational efficiency and highlighting the energy consumption, considering that the autonomy of the wireless sensor devices is directly influenced by this factor. In aptitude function of genetic algorithm, were used metrics of algorithm runtime, maximum deviation and irregular, space occupied in memory and correlation coefficient (a new proposed metric), in order to find a safe and fast algorithm. The results obtained through computational simulations show the efficiency of the proposed methodology, in terms of processing time, coefficient of correlation and occupation of memory. Streszczenie. W tym artykule zaproponowano metodologi ę uzyskiwania algorytmu kryptograficznego, zoptymalizowanego dla bezprzewodowych sieci czujników, za pomoc ą algorytmu genetycznego. W celu zwi ększenia poziomu bezpiecze ństwa, wydajności obliczeniowej i podkreślenia zużycia energii, bior ąc pod uwag ę fakt, że ten czynnik ma bezpośredni wpływ na autonomi ę bezprzewodowych czujników. W funkcji uzdatniania algorytmu genetycznego wykorzystano metryki czasu pracy algorytmu, maksymalnego odchylenia i nieregularności, miejsca zajmowanego w pami ęci i współczynnika korelacji (nowa proponowana metryka), aby znaleźć bezpieczny i szybki algorytm. Wyniki uzyskane za pomoc ą symulacji obliczeniowych pokazuj ą efektywność proponowanej metodologii, pod wzgl ędem czasu przetwarzania, współczynnika korelacji i zaj ęcia pami ęci. (Opracowanie i analiza kryptograficznego algorytmu dla zoptymalizowanego genetycznie czujnika bezprzewodowego)

Three-dimensional (3D) transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) is the gold standard for mitral valve (MV) anatomic and functional evaluation. Currently, dedicated MV analysis software has limitations for its use in clinical practice. Thus, we tested here a complete and reproducible evaluation of a new fully automatic software to characterize MV anatomy in different forms of mitral regurgitation (MR) by 3D TEE.Sixty patients were included: 45 with more than moderate MR (28 organic MR [OMR] and 17 functional MR [FMR]) and 15 controls. All patients underwent TEE. 3D MV images obtained using 3D zoom were imported into the new software for automatic analysis. Different MV parameters were obtained and compared. Anatomic and dynamic differences between FMR and OMR were detected. A significant increase in systolic (859.75 vs 801.83 vs 607.78 mm; P = 0.002) and diastolic (1040.60 vs. 1217.83 and 859.74 mm; P < 0.001) annular sizes was observed in both OMR and FMR compared to that in contro...

Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS) is a constellation of microangiopathic hemolytic anemia, thrombocytopenia, and acute renal failure. Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli- (STEC-) mediated HUS is a common cause of acute renal failure in children and can rarely result in severe neurological complications such as encephalopathy, seizures, cerebrovascular accidents, and coma. Current literature supports use of eculizumab, a monoclonal antibody that blocks complement activation, in atypical HUS (aHUS). However, those with neurologic complications from STEC-HUS have complement activation and deposition of aggregates in microvasculature and may be treated with eculizumab. In this case report, we describe a 3-year-old boy with diarrhea-positive STEC-HUS who developed severe neurologic involvement in addition to acute renal failure requiring renal replacement therapy. He was initiated on eculizumab therapy, with clinical improvement and organ recovery. This case highlights systemic complica...

The past decade has seen the rise of omics data for the understanding of biological systems in health and disease. This wealth of information includes protein-protein interaction (PPI) data derived from both low-and high-throughput assays, which are curated into multiple databases that capture the extent of available information from the peer-reviewed literature. Although these curation efforts are extremely useful, reliably downloading and integrating PPI data from the variety of available repositories is challenging and time consuming. We here present a novel user-friendly web-resource called PINOT (Protein Interaction Network Online Tool; available at ) to optimise the collection and processing of PPI data from IMEx consortium associated repositories (members and observers) and WormBase, for constructing, respectively, human and Caenorhabditis elegans PPI networks. Results: Users submit a query containing a list of proteins of interest for which PINOT extracts data describing PPIs. At every query submission PPI data are downloaded, merged and quality assessed. Then each PPI is confidence scored based on the number of distinct methods used for interaction detection and the number of publications that report the specific interaction. Examples of how PINOT can be applied are provided to highlight the performance, ease of use and potential utility of this tool.

Objectives Computer-assisted coding of job descriptions to standardized occupational classification codes facilitates evaluating occupational risk factors in epidemiologic studies by reducing the number of jobs needing expert coding. We evaluated the performance of the 2nd version of SOCcer, a computerized algorithm designed to code free-text job descriptions to US SOC-2010 system based on free-text job titles and work tasks, to evaluate its accuracy. Methods SOCcer v2 was updated by expanding the training data to include jobs from several epidemiologic studies and revising the algorithm to account for nonlinearity and incorporate interactions. We evaluated the agreement between codes assigned by experts and the highest scoring code (a measure of confidence in the algorithm-predicted assignment) from SOCcer v1 and v2 in 14,714 jobs from three epidemiology studies. We also linked exposure estimates for 258 agents in the job-exposure matrix CANJEM to the expert and SOCcer v2-assigned ...

Statistical inference for capture-recapture studies of open animal populations typically relies on the assumption that all emigration from the studied population is permanent. However, there are many instances in which this assumption is unlikely to be met. We define two general models for the process of temporary emigration: completely random and Markovian. We then consider effects of these two types of temporary emigration on Jolly-Seber estimators and on estimators arising from the full-likelihood approach to robust design data. Capture-recapture data arising from Pollock's robust design provide the basis for obtaining unbiased estimates of demographic parameters in the presence of temporary emigration, and for estimating the probability of temporary emigration. We present a likelihoodbased approach to dealing with temporary emigration that permits estimation under different models of temporary emigration and yields tests for completely random and Markovian emigration. In addition, we use the relationship between capture probability estimates based on closed and open models under completely random temporary emigration to derive three ad hoc estimators for the probability of temporary emigration. Two of these should be especially useful in situations where capture probabilities are heterogeneous among individual animals. Ad hoc and full-likelihood estimators are illustrated for small-mammal capture-recapture data sets. We believe that these models and estimators will be useful for testing hypotheses about the process of temporary emigration, for estimating demographic parameters in the presence of temporary emigration, and for estimating probabilities of temporary emigration. These latter estimates are frequently of ecological interest as indicators of animal movement and, in some sampling situations, as direct estimates of breeding probabilities and proportions.

Penelitian ini menerapkan algoritma C4. 5 untuk menentukan kualitas telur ayam hibridra di CV Senik desa suruhwadang. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menentukan kualitas telur ayam hibridra menggunakan algoritma C4. 5. Dengan dilakukannya data mining melibatkan 90 data wawancara tersebut memiliki 2 kategori pilihan yaitu: bagus dan tidak bagus. Terdapat 5 atribut yang mempengaruhi penentuan kualitas telur ayam yaitu: Kebersihan Kulit, Kondisi Kulit Telur, Warna Kulit, Bentuk Telur, Ukuran/Berat. Dengan adanya penelitian ini dapat memudahkan pihak CV. Senik dalam menentukan kualitas telur ayam dengan kendala yang dapat diminimalisir. Berdasarkan hasil penelitian menggunakan algoritma C4. 5 jumlah hasil yang bagus sebanyak 56 dan yang tidak bagus sebanyak 34.  Hasil pengunjian menggunakan aplikasi rapid miner tingkat akurasi dalam menentukan kualitas telur rata-rata sebesar 80%. Dapat disimpulkan bahwa algoritma C4. 5 cocok digunakan untuk menentukan kualitas telur ayam hibridra di CV ...

A finite abelian group G is said to have the Hajós-k-property (k>1) if from any decomposition of into a direct product of its subsets, it follows that one of these subsets is periodic, meaning that there exists a nonidentity element g in G such that gA i = A i . Using some properties of the cyclotomic polynomials, we will show that the cyclic groups of orders p α and groups of type (p 2 , q 2 ), where p and q are primes have this property. We also include a partial result about groups of type (p α , q β ), where p and q are distinct primes and α, β are integers ≥1.

Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI) based on the voluntary modulation of sensorimotor rhythms (SMRs) induced by motor imagery are very prominent because allow a continuous control of the external device. Nevertheless, the design of a SMR-based BCI system that provides every user with a reliable BCI control from the first session, i.e., without extensive training, is still a big challenge. Considerable advances in this direction have been made by the machine learning co-adaptive calibration approach, which combines online adaptation techniques with subject learning in order to offer the user a feedback from the beginning of the experiment. Recently, based on offline analyses, we proposed the novel Common Spatial Patterns Patches (CSPP) technique as a good candidate to improve the co-adaptive calibration. CSPP is an ensemble of localized spatial filters, each of them optimized on subject-specific data by CSP analysis. Here, the evaluation of CSPP in online operation is presented for the f...

Bill James’s Pythagorean formula relates runs scored and runs allowed to team winning in Major League Baseball.  Researchers have applied James’s Pythagorean formula to basketball, ice hockey, and tennis, among other sports.  Current literature, however, questions the applicability of the Pythagorean approach to soccer.  This paper finds that such results may be because the dependent variable is based on the Fédération Internationale de Football Association’s (FIFA) point system rather than wins and losses.  The authors successfully apply James’s Pythagorean formula to soccer and, in particular, England’s Premier League (EPL).  Between 2000/01 and 2016/17, there is a statistically significant relationship between a team’s goal ratio (defined as goals scored divided by goals allowed) and a team’s win-loss ratio.  A one percent increase in the goal ratio is associated with a 1.70 percent increase in the win-loss ratio.

The Home Health Care (HHC) sector continues to grow at an increasing rate across the globe. As such, developing proper health care management systems and operations strategies is essential for survivability, growth and competitiveness of healthcare systems. As labor is the most critical asset in the home care organizations, it is crucial to obtain an in-depth understanding of HHC operations, from an operations management view point, with specific emphasis on staff planning and scheduling. The aim of this paper is to provide a taxonomic analysis of HHC staff planning and scheduling decisions, from an operations management perspective. We identify from various cases in the literature, the core activities characterizing staff planning and scheduling. We then present a taxonomic analysis of these activities, and propose an integrated approach to decision making. A conceptual modeling framework is then proposed to assist the decision maker in solving problems in HHC staff planning and scheduling.

The integration of just-in-time and lean principles in agile manufacturing plays an important role in enhancing the operational performance of manufacturing systems. In this paper, we address this issue by (i) building a set of performance criteria for a typical manufacturing system, (ii) developing a system dynamics model for the system, and (iii) performing experimental "what-if" simulation analyses. Using a system dynamics simulation methodology, the impact of the application of lean and just-in-time policies on a traditional inventory-focused manufacturing system is investigated. System dynamics modelling is used to capture the dynamic causal linkages between different components of the manufacturing system. Different scenarios are generated in order to investigate the dynamics of the system under assumed demand scenarios. The results of the simulation study reveal that manufacturing systems can benefit from the introduction of lean and just-in-time principles, depending on the extent to which the necessary structural changes are implemented. The paper concludes by providing useful managerial insights for effective implementation of lean and agile manufacturing concepts.

Epidermal keratinocytes are complex cells that create a unique three-dimensional (3-D) structure, di¡erentiate through a multistage process, and respond to extracellular stimuli from nearby cells. Consequently, keratinocytes express many genes, i.e., have a relatively large ''transcriptome.'' To determine which of the expressed genes are innate to keratinocytes, which are speci¢c for the di¡erentiation and 3-D architecture, and which are induced by other cell types, we compared the transcriptomes of skin from human subjects, di¡erentiating 3-D reconstituted epidermis, cultured keratinocytes, and nonkeratinocyte cell types. Using large oligonucleotide microarrays, we analyzed ¢ve or more replicates of each, which yielded statistically consistent data and allowed identi¢cation of the di¡erentially expressed genes. Epidermal keratinocytes, unlike other cells, express many proteases and protease inhibitors and genes that protect from UV light. Skin speci¢cally expresses a higher number of receptors, secreted proteins, and transcription factors, perhaps in£uenced by the presence of nonkeratinocyte cell types. Surprisingly, mitochondrial proteins were signi¢cantly suppressed in skin, suggesting a low metabolic rate. Three-dimensional samples, skin and reconstituted epidermis, are similar to each other, expressing epidermal di¡erentiation markers. Cultured keratinocytes express many cell-cycle and DNA replication genes, as well as integrins and extracellular matrix proteins. These results de¢ne innate, architecture-speci¢c, and cell-type-regulated genes in epidermis.

Autonomous operation of UAS holds promise for greater productivity of atmospheric science missions. However, several challenges need to be overcome before such missions can be made autonomous. This paper presents a framework for safe autonomous operations of multiple vehicles, particularly suited for atmospheric science missions. The framework revolves around the use of piecewise Bezier curves for trajectory representation, which in conjunction with path-following and time-coordination algorithms, allows for safe coordinated operations of multiple vehicles.

With the anticipated explosion of small unmanned aerial vehicles, it is highly likely that operators will be controlling fleets of autonomous vehicles. To fulfill the promise of autonomy, vehicle operators will not be concerned with manual control of the vehicle; instead, they will deal with the overall mission. Furthermore, the one operator to many vehicles is becoming a constant meme with various industries including package delivery, search and rescue, and utility companies. In order for an operator to concurrently control several vehicles, his station must look and behave very differently than the current ground control station instantiations. Furthermore, the vehicle will have to be much more autonomous, especially during non-normal operations, in order to accommodate the knowledge deficit or the information overload of the operator in charge of several vehicles. The expected usage increase of small drones requires presenting the operational information generated by a fleet of heterogeneous autonomous agents to an operator. NASA Langley Research Center's Autonomy Incubator has brought together researchers in various disciplines including controls, trajectory planning, systems engineering, and human factors to develop an integrated system to study autonomy issues. The initial human factors effort is focusing on mission displays that would give an operator the overall status of all autonomous agents involved in the current mission. This paper will discuss the specifics of the mission displays for operators controlling several vehicles.

This presentation will give an overview of a time-critical coordination control law to support multi-vehicle missions that impose both absolute and relative temporal specifications on the trajectories of the vehicles. The proposed cooperative strategy yields robust behavior against external disturbances by allowing the vehicles to negotiate their speeds along the paths in response to information exchanged over an inter-vehicle communication network. Simulation results of a sequential auto-landing scenario will be presented to demonstrate the efficacy of the control law for group coordination. The use of teams of autonomous, cooperating unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is expected to bring unprecedented levels of flexibility, efficiency, and reliability to the execution of a variety of mission. Reconnaissance, surveillance, search and rescue and 3D terrain modeling are just a few examples of the missions that can benefit from such technology. In addition, advances in UAV capabilities are expected to impact other domains; such as air traffic management, where sense and avoid technologies have the potential to reduce the workload at control centers and provide safer management of the airspace. Some of the mentioned missions require the UAVs to maintain a desired inter-vehicle schedule without a fixed arrival time. This type of requirements falls under the category of relative temporal constraints. However, some other missions impose absolute temporal constraints. In this case, the UAVs must not only coordinate with each other, but also arrive at their final destination at a pre-specified time or within a desired window of arrival. The cooperative missions considered in require that the fleet maintain a desired relative timing schedule that ensures that all vehicles execute collisionfree maneuvers. Some missions, however, also impose absolute temporal constraints on the trajectories of the vehicles, in addition to relative temporal assignments. Representative examples are the calibration and validation of satellite instruments for remote sensing, and sequential auto-landing within desired temporal slots. The first refers to the situation in which a formation of aircraft must cooperatively fly a set of predefined trajectories at different levels within the atmosphere, while coordinating their maneuvers with an Earth-observing satellite. In the case of sequential auto-landing, a fleet of aerial vehicles must break up and arrive at the assigned glide path within a desired temporal window and separated by pre-specified safe-guarding time-intervals. In this presentation, we will introduce an extension of the coordination algorithm in [1] (and its multi-leader version adopted in ) to the case of absolute temporal specifications.

Digital Control System in the industry has been used in most of the applications based on expensive Programmable Logical Controllers (PLC). These Systems are, in general, highly complex and slow, with an operation cycle around 10ms. In this work, a Reconfigurable Logic Controller (RLC) approach is presented, based on a small and low cost Xilinx Virtex-II FPGA architecture, operating as a virtual hardware machine. In this context, the main process is specified in a formal language, based on Petri nets or SFC (Sequential Function Chart). For applications that demand more hardware than that available in the FPGA, a partial reconfiguration mechanism takes place. From the Petri net specification, the main process is split into multiple contexts, which are sequentially executed within the same FPGA, without violating the operation cycle of application. J.7 [Computer Applications]: Computers in Other Systemsindustrial control, process control, real time.

Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) is the accurate, conformal delivery of high-dose radiation to well-defined targets while minimizing normal structure doses via steep dose gradients. While inverse treatment planning (ITP) with computerized optimization algorithms are routine, many aspects of the planning process remain user-dependent. We performed an international, multi-institutional benchmark trial to study planning variability and to analyze preferable ITP practice for spinal robotic radiosurgery. 10 SRS treatment plans were generated for a complex-shaped spinal metastasis with 21 Gy in 3 fractions and tight constraints for spinal cord (V14Gy<2 cc, V18Gy<0.1 cc) and target (coverage >95%). The resulting plans were rated on a scale from 1 to 4 (excellent-poor) in five categories (constraint compliance, optimization goals, low-dose regions, ITP complexity, and clinical acceptability) by a blinded review panel. Additionally, the plans were mathematically rated based on plan i...

In the modern era, bibliometric parameters have become crucial components in evaluating academic productivity. In the last three decades, the scientific community has suggested a variety of bibliometric parameters to rank researchers, such as publication count, citation count, author count, h-index, and its variants. There is an ongoing debate within the scientific community regarding which index provides the most accurate ranking of authors. Currently, the state-of-the-art evaluation of these indices is based on hypothetical scenarios and the limited and unfair distribution of researcher records in the datasets. In addition, these indices are often evaluated using dissimilar datasets, making it challenging to accurately compare their contributions and significance. To comprehensively analyze the performance of each index, it should be evaluated on extensive and balanced datasets. This study focuses on evaluating the effectiveness of some h-index extensions, such as the platinum h, M quotient, AW, AR, V, Ha, Hc, and AWCR indices. For the experiments, this study employed a comprehensive and balanced dataset from the mathematics field to evaluate the performance of these indices. Analysis of these indices was conducted in three stages. First, the correlations among these indices were calculated. A weak correlation between indices suggests that the rankings of authors obtained from these indices are not the same, whereas a strong correlation suggests the opposite. Second, the analysis examines the occurrence of awardees in all ranked lists, using prestigious award winners from four mathematics societies as a benchmark. Based on the analysis, the study reveals that the Ar index performs the best among the evaluated indices, bringing the highest number of awardees to the top 10% of the ranked list, with a maximum of 80%. However, none of the indices can bring all the awardees to the top rankings, indicating that there is no single index that can provide a complete and accurate evaluation of the author's ranking. Additionally, the study identified that the maximum awardees at the top of all ranked lists belong to the American Mathematical Society (AMS), suggesting that AMS may depend on these indices to determine its award recipients. Furthermore, the AWCR index is more suited to the AMS society by its contribution to returning the highest number of awardees belonging to the AMS society. Bibliometric parameters, H index variants, publication age-based index, ranking, research evaluation, mathematics domain, data extraction.

Ranking of researchers based on their scientific impact in a scientific community is indeed a very crucial task. However, identifying the researchers ranking helps the scientific community in various decisions such as awarding scholarships, selection for tenure, awarding achievements, giving promotions, etc. In literature numerous parameters have been proposed for the ranking of researchers, such as publication count, citation count, coauthor count, h-index, and its extensions. The current state-of-the-art research delineates that no such universally accepted parameter exists which can identify the most influential researchers. Therefore, it is necessary to determine an optimal parameter that can effectively rank authors. Furthermore, to identify the best parameter, few of the researchers conducted evaluative surveys as reflected in the literature. In these evaluative surveys, the researchers utilized a limited number of indices on the small and imbalanced datasets, followed by fictional cases and scenarios, this has made it challenging to ascertain the relative importance and impact of each parameter in comparison to the others. This research evaluates the h-index and its thirty-two variants, which are based on the number of publications and citation count category used for ranking the authors. We have collected data from 1050 researchers working in the mathematical domain for our experimental purposes. For the benchmark dataset, we have collected the awardees' data of the last two decades of four different societies belonging to mathematical domain. First and foremost, we have computed the correlations among the obtained values of the indices to assess their similarities and differences to evaluate indices. The result revealed that there is a high degree of correlation observed among h-index and it's twenty-four different variants. However, some indices showed a weak correlation, signifying that their rankings were highly dissimilar to those of other indices. Secondly, the position of awardees is checked in the top 10, top 50, and top 100 return records based on the ranking list of each index. The outcome of the last step divulges that A index, E index, H core citation, H2 lower index, K index, M index, and woginger index retrieved almost 80% of awardees in top 10% ranked list. Further, the analysis revealed that most of the winners (awards) were in the top tier, belonging to IMS, LMS, and AMS society returned by hg index, g index, k index, etc. indicating a relationship between the stated societies and the indices.

Oxygen therapy is first-line treatment for hypoxaemic acute respiratory failure (ARF). High-flow nasal oxygen therapy (HFNO) represents an alternative to conventional oxygen therapy. HFNO provides humidified, titrated oxygen therapy matching or even exceeding the patients' inspiratory demand. The application of HFNO is becoming widespread in Intensive Care Units (ICUs), favoured by increasing evidence based on numerous studies supporting its efficacy. The mechanisms of action and physiological effects of HFNO are not yet fully understood. Pharyngeal dead space washout, decrease in airway resistance, generation of a positive end-expiratory pressure, and enhanced delivery of oxygen are all alleged to be potential mechanisms. The emerging evidence suggests that HFNO is effective in improving oxygenation in most patients with hypoxaemic ARF of different aetiologies. Notwithstanding the potential benefit of HFNO in the management of hypoxaemia, further large cohort studies are necess...

SummaryMore than 95% of testicular cancer are cured but they are at increased long‐term risk of cardiovascular disease. The risk of cardiovascular disease and treatment intensity was reported, but it is unknown whether this effect of cancer therapy is direct or indirect, mediated through androgen deficiency. Our aim was, therefore, to evaluate whether testicular cancer patients have increased the prevalence of risk factors of cardiovascular disease and if these risk factors are associated with hypogonadism and/or the cancer treatment given. In 92 testicular cancer patients (mean 9.2 years follow‐up) and age‐matched controls, blood samples were analysed for lipids, total testosterone, luteinizing hormone (LH), glucose and insulin. An estimate of insulin resistance, HOMAir was calculated. Hypogonadism was defined as total testosterone < 10 nmol/L and/or LH > 10 IU/L and/or androgen replacement. In testicular cancer men with hypogonadism, compared with eugonadal patients, higher ...

The aim of this study was to determine the quantitative image quality metrics of the low-dose 2D/3D EOS slot scanner X-ray imaging system (LDSS) compared with conventional digital radiography (DR) X-ray imaging systems. The effective detective quantum efficiency (eDQE) and effective noise quantum equivalent (eNEQ) were measured using chest and knee protocols. Methods: A Nationwide Evaluation of X-ray Trends (NEXT) of a chest adult phantom and a PolyMethylmethacrylate (PMMA) phantom were used for the chest and knee protocols, respectively. Quantitative image quality metrics, including effective normalised noise power spectrum (eNNPS), effective modulation transfer function (eMTF), eDQE and eNEQ of the LDSS and DR imaging systems were assessed and compared. Results: In the chest acquisition, the LDSS imaging system achieved significantly higher eNEQ and eDQE than the DR imaging systems at lower and higher spatial frequencies (0.001 ≤ p ≤ 0.044). For the knee acquisition, the LDSS imag...

When attempting to optimize the design of engineered systems, the analyst is frequently faced with the demand of achieving several targets (e.g. low costs, high revenues, high reliability, low accident risks), some of which may very well be in con¯ict. At the same time, several requirements (e.g. maximum allowable weight, volume etc.) should also be satis®ed. This kind of problem is usually tackled by focusing the optimization on a single objective which may be a weighed combination of some of the targets of the design problem and imposing some constraints to satisfy the other targets and requirements. This approach, however, introduces a strong arbitrariness in the de®nition of the weights and constraints levels and a criticizable homogenization of physically different targets, usually all translated in monetary terms. The purpose of this paper is to present an approach to optimization in which every target is considered as a separate objective to be optimized. For an ef®cient search through the solution space we use a multiobjective genetic algorithm which allows us to identify a set of Pareto optimal solutions providing the decision maker with the complete spectrum of optimal solutions with respect to the various targets. Based on this information, the decision maker can select the best compromise among these objectives, without a priori introducing arbitrary weights.

PurposeWe explore the advantages of using a double‐ring radiofrequency (RF) array and slice orientation to design parallel transmission (pTx) multiband (MB) pulses for simultaneous multislice (SMS) imaging with whole‐brain coverage at 7 Tesla (T).MethodsA double‐ring head array with 16 elements split evenly in two rings stacked in the z‐direction was modeled and compared with two single‐ring arrays consisting of 8 or 16 elements. The array performance was evaluated by designing band‐specific pTx MB pulses with local specific absorption rate (SAR) control. The impact of slice orientations was also investigated.ResultsThe double‐ring array consistently and significantly outperformed the other two single‐ring arrays, with peak local SAR reduced by up to 40% at a fixed excitation error of 0.024. For all three arrays, exciting sagittal or coronal slices yielded better RF performance than exciting axial or oblique slices.ConclusionsA double‐ring RF array can be used to drastically improve...

The performance of multichannel transmit coil layouts and parallel transmission (pTx) RF pulse design was evaluated with respect to transmit B1 (B1   (+) ) homogeneity and specific absorption rate (SAR) at 3 T for a whole body coil. Five specific coils were modeled and compared: a 32-rung birdcage body coil (driven either in a fixed quadrature mode or a two-channel transmit mode), two single-ring stripline arrays (with either 8 or 16 elements), and two multi-ring stripline arrays (with two or three identical rings, stacked in the z axis and each comprising eight azimuthally distributed elements). Three anatomical targets were considered, each defined by a 3D volume representative of a meaningful region of interest (ROI) in routine clinical applications. For a given anatomical target, global or local SAR controlled pTx pulses were designed to homogenize RF excitation within the ROI. At the B1   (+) homogeneity achieved by the quadrature driven birdcage design, pTx pulses with multich...

Two-spoke parallel transmission (pTX) radiofrequency (RF) pulses have been demonstrated in cardiac MRI at 7T. However, current pulse designs rely on a single set of B1 (+) /B0 maps that may not be valid for subsequent scans acquired at another phase of the respiration cycle because of organ displacement. Such mismatches may yield severe excitation profile degradation. B1 (+) /B0 maps were obtained, using 16 transmit channels at 7T, at three breath-hold positions: exhale, half-inhale, and inhale. Standard and robust RF pulses were designed using maps obtained at exhale only, and at multiple respiratory positions, respectively. Excitation patterns were analyzed for all positions using Bloch simulations. Flip-angle homogeneity was compared in vivo in cardiac CINE acquisitions. Standard one- and two-spoke pTX RF pulses are sensitive to breath-hold position, primarily due to B1 (+) alterations, with high dependency on excitation trajectory for two spokes. In vivo excitation inhomogeneity...

PurposeHigher signal to noise ratio (SNR) and improved contrast have been demonstrated at ultra‐high magnetic fields (≥7 Tesla [T]) in multiple targets, often with multi‐channel transmit methods to address the deleterious impact on tissue contrast due to spatial variations in B1+ profiles. When imaging the heart at 7T, however, respiratory and cardiac motion, as well as B0 inhomogeneity, greatly increase the methodological challenge. In this study we compare two‐spoke parallel transmit (pTX) RF pulses with static B1+ shimming in cardiac imaging at 7T.MethodsUsing a 16‐channel pTX system, slice‐selective two‐spoke pTX pulses and static B1+ shimming were applied in cardiac CINE imaging. B1+ and B0 mapping required modified cardiac triggered sequences. Excitation homogeneity and RF energy were compared in different imaging orientations.ResultsTwo‐spoke pulses provide higher excitation homogeneity than B1+ shimming, especially in the more challenging posterior region of the heart. The p...

Parallel excitation holds strong promises to mitigate the impact of large transmit B 1 (B 1 + ) distortion at very high magnetic field. Accelerated RF pulses, however, inherently tend to require larger values in RF peak power which may result in substantial increase in Specific Absorption Rate in tissues, which is a constant concern for patient safety at very high field. In this study, we demonstrate adapted rate RF pulse design allowing for SAR reduction while preserving excitation target accuracy. Compared with other proposed implementations of adapted rate RF pulses, our approach is compatible with any k-space trajectories, does not require an analytical expression of the gradient waveform and can be used for large flip angle excitation. We demonstrate our method with numerical simulations based on electromagnetic modeling and we include an experimental verification of transmit pattern accuracy on an 8 transmit channel 9.4 T system.

Objectives-Ultra high magnetic fields of ≥7 Tesla have proven to significantly enhance the contrast in time-of-flight (TOF) imaging, one of the most commonly used non-contrast enhanced MR angiography techniques. Compared to lower field strength, however, the required RF power is increased at 7 Tesla and the contrast obtained with a conventional head transmit RF coil is typically spatially heterogeneous. In this work we address the contrast heterogeneity in multi-slab TOF acquisitions by optimizing the excitation flip angle homogeneity while constraining the RF power using 3D tailored RF pulses ("spokes") with a 16 channel parallel transmission system and a 16 channel transceiver head coil. Material and Methods-We investigate in simulations and in-vivo experiments flip angle homogeneity and angiogram quality with a same 3-slab TOF protocol for different excitations including 1-, 2-and 3-spoke parallel transmit RF pulses and compare the results with a circularly polarized (CP) phase setting similar to a birdcage excitation. B 1 and B 0 calibration maps were obtained in multiple slices and the RF pulse for each slab was designed based on 3 calibration slices located at the bottom/middle/top of each slab respectively. By design, all excitations were computed to generate the same total RF power for the same flip angle. In 8 subjects we quantify the excitation homogeneity and the distribution of the RF power to individual channels. In addition, we investigate the consequences of local flip angle variations at the junction between adjacent slabs as well as the impact of ΔB 0 on image quality. Results-The flip angle heterogeneity, expressed as the coefficient of variation, averaged over all volunteers and all slabs could be reduced from 29.4% for CP mode excitation to 14.1% for a 1spoke excitation and to 7.3% for a 2-spoke excitations. A separate detailed analysis shows only a marginal improvement for 3-spoke compared to the 2-spoke excitation. The strong improvement *

Acenocoumarol therapy has been widely used for heart valve replacement (HVR) patients in Vietnam to improve dose management of this drug. The variety of responses among patients to this drug are driven by genetic background. Hence, aim of the study is to explore the relation between acenocoumarol dosages and genetic polymorphisms of CYP2C9*3, VKORC1-1173 C>T and VKORC1-1639 G>A genes. One hundred fifty HVR patients was enrolled in this study. Blood samples were collected and analyzed using PCR and Sanger’s sequencing. The result showed that there was no variant homozygous genotype (CC) of CYP2C9*3 observed, whereas wild-type (AA) and heterozygous (AC) were most abundant with 95.3, and 4.7 %, respectively. In contrast, variant homozygous genotypes of VKORC1-1173 C>T and -1639 G>A accounted for 70.7 and 87.3 % of Vietnamese HVR patient population while wildtype homozygous was not seen. Interestingly, there was significant difference in acenocoumarol doses between 2 genotyp...