Search results for: platform departure

Authors: Boris Barbolyas, Kristina Buckova, Tomas Volensky, Cyril Belavy, Ladislav Dedik

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Background: Based on statokinezigram, the human balance control is often studied. Approach to human postural reaction analysis is based on a combination of stabilometry output signal with retroreflective marker data signal processing, analysis, and understanding, in this study. The study shows another original application of Method of Developed Statokinesigram Trajectory (MDST), too. Methods: In this study, the participants maintained quiet bipedal standing for 10 s on stabilometry platform. Consequently, bilateral vibration stimuli to Achilles tendons in 20 s interval was applied. Vibration stimuli caused that human postural system took the new pseudo-steady state. Vibration frequencies were 20, 60 and 80 Hz. Participant's body segments - head, shoulders, hips, knees, ankles and little fingers were marked by 12 retroreflective markers. Markers positions were scanned by six cameras system BTS SMART DX. Registration of their postural reaction lasted 60 s. Sampling frequency was 100 Hz. For measured data processing were used Method of Developed Statokinesigram Trajectory. Regression analysis of developed statokinesigram trajectory (DST) data and retroreflective marker developed trajectory (DMT) data were used to find out which marker trajectories most correlate with stabilometry platform output signals. Scaling coefficients (λ) between DST and DMT by linear regression analysis were evaluated, too. Results: Scaling coefficients for marker trajectories were identified for all body segments. Head markers trajectories reached maximal value and ankle markers trajectories had a minimal value of scaling coefficient. Hips, knees and ankles markers were approximately symmetrical in the meaning of scaling coefficient. Notable differences of scaling coefficient were detected in head and shoulders markers trajectories which were not symmetrical. The model of postural system behavior was identified by MDST. Conclusion: Value of scaling factor identifies which body segment is predisposed to postural instability. Hypothetically, if statokinesigram represents overall human postural system response to vibration stimuli, then markers data represented particular postural responses. It can be assumed that cumulative sum of particular marker postural responses is equal to statokinesigram.

Keywords: center of pressure (CoP), method of developed statokinesigram trajectory (MDST), model of postural system behavior, retroreflective marker data

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Authors: Ivan Stanev, Maria Koleva

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Automated software development issues are addressed in this paper. Layers and packages of a Common Platform for Automated Programming (CPAP) are defined based on Service Oriented Architecture, Cloud computing, Knowledge based automated software engineering (KBASE) and Method of automated programming. Tools of seven leading companies (AWS of Amazon, Azure of Microsoft, App Engine of Google, vCloud of VMWare, Bluemix of IBM, Helion of HP, OCPaaS of Oracle) are analyzed in the context of CPAP. Based on the results of the analysis CPAP requirements are formulated

Keywords: automated programming, cloud computing, knowledge based software engineering, service oriented architecture

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Authors: Guezouli Larbi, Belkacem Soundes

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The automation of the text detection process can help the human in his driving task. Its application can be very useful to help drivers to have more information about their environment by facilitating the reading of road signs such as directional signs, events, stores, etc. In this paper, a system consisting of two stages has been proposed. In the first one, we used pseudo-Zernike moments to pinpoint areas of the image that may contain text. The architecture of this part is based on three main steps, region of interest (ROI) detection, text localization, and non-text region filtering. Then, in the second step, we present a convolutional neural network architecture (On-Road Text Detection Network - ORTDN) which is considered a classification phase. The results show that the proposed framework achieved ≈ 35 fps and an mAP of ≈ 90%, thus a low computational time with competitive accuracy.

Keywords: text detection, CNN, PZM, deep learning

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Authors: Danyi Wang, Andrew Schriefer, Dennis O'Rourke, Brajendra Kumar, Yang Liu, Fei Zhong, Juergen Scheuenpflug, Zheng Feng

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Purpose: It has been recognized that the microbiome plays critical roles in disease pathogenesis, including cancer, autoimmune disease, and multiple sclerosis. To develop a clinical-grade assay for exploring microbiome-derived clinical biomarkers across disease areas, a two-phase approach is implemented. 1) Identification of the optimal sample preparation reagents using pre-mixed bacteria and healthy donor stool samples coupled with proprietary Sigma-Aldrich® bioinformatics solution. 2) Exploratory analysis of patient samples for enabling precision medicine. Study Procedure: In phase 1 study, we first compared the 16S sequencing results of two ATCC® microbiome standards (MSA 2002 and MSA 2003) across five different extraction kits (Kit A, B, C, D & E). Both microbiome standards samples were extracted in triplicate across all extraction kits. Following isolation, DNA quantity was determined by Qubit assay. DNA quality was assessed to determine purity and to confirm extracted DNA is of high molecular weight. Bacterial 16S ribosomal ribonucleic acid (rRNA) amplicons were generated via amplification of the V3/V4 hypervariable region of the 16S rRNA. Sequencing was performed using a 2x300 bp paired-end configuration on the Illumina MiSeq. Fastq files were analyzed using the Sigma-Aldrich® Microbiome Platform. The Microbiome Platform is a cloud-based service that offers best-in-class 16S-seq and WGS analysis pipelines and databases. The Platform and its methods have been extensively benchmarked using microbiome standards generated internally by MilliporeSigma and other external providers. Data Summary: The DNA yield using the extraction kit D and E is below the limit of detection (100 pg/µl) of Qubit assay as both extraction kits are intended for samples with low bacterial counts. The pre-mixed bacterial pellets at high concentrations with an input of 2 x106 cells for MSA-2002 and 1 x106 cells from MSA-2003 were not compatible with the kits. Among the remaining 3 extraction kits, kit A produced the greatest yield whereas kit B provided the least yield (Kit-A/MSA-2002: 174.25 ± 34.98; Kit-A/MSA-2003: 179.89 ± 30.18; Kit-B/MSA-2002: 27.86 ± 9.35; Kit-B/MSA-2003: 23.14 ± 6.39; Kit-C/MSA-2002: 55.19 ± 10.18; Kit-C/MSA-2003: 35.80 ± 11.41 (Mean ± SD)). Also, kit A produced the greatest yield, whereas kit B provided the least yield. The PCoA 3D visualization of the Weighted Unifrac beta diversity shows that kits A and C cluster closely together while kit B appears as an outlier. The kit A sequencing samples cluster more closely together than both the other kits. The taxonomic profiles of kit B have lower recall when compared to the known mixture profiles indicating that kit B was inefficient at detecting some of the bacteria. Conclusion: Our data demonstrated that the DNA extraction method impacts DNA concentration, purity, and microbial communities detected by next-generation sequencing analysis. Further microbiome analysis performance comparison of using healthy stool samples is underway; also, colorectal cancer patients' samples will be acquired for further explore the clinical utilities. Collectively, our comprehensive qualification approach, including the evaluation of optimal DNA extraction conditions, the inclusion of positive controls, and the implementation of a robust qualified bioinformatics pipeline, assures accurate characterization of the microbiota in a complex matrix for deciphering the deep biology and enabling precision medicine.

Keywords: 16S rRNA sequencing, analytical validation, bioinformatics pipeline, metagenomics

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Authors: Karthiyayini J., Arpita Chowdary Vantipalli, Darshana Sailu Tanti, Malvika Ravi Kudari, Krtin Kannan

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This paper is propelled from the generally existing undertaking of the smart water quality management, which addresses an IoT (Internet of things) based brilliant water quality observing (SWQM) framework which we call it AquaSwach that guides in the ceaseless estimation of water conditions dependent on five actual boundaries i.e., temperature, pH, electric conductivity and turbidity properties and water virtue estimation each time you drink water. Six sensors relate to Arduino-Mega in a discrete way to detect the water parameters. Extracted data from the sensors are transmitted to a desktop application developed in the NET platform and compared with the WHO (World Health Organization) standard values.

Keywords: AquaSwach, IoT, WHO, water quality

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Authors: Mustafa Ural, Can Bayseferogulari

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In this work, radio frequency (RF) coupling between two HF antennas on a shipboard platform is minimized by determining an optimal antenna placement. Unlike the other works, the coupling is minimized not only at single frequency but over the whole frequency band of operation. Similarly, GAO and PSO, are used in order to determine optimal antenna placement. Throughout this work, outputs of two optimization techniques are compared with each other in terms of antenna placements and coupling results. At the end of the work, far-field radiation pattern performances of the antennas at their optimal places are analyzed in terms of directivity and coverage in order to see that.

Keywords: electromagnetic compatibility, antenna placement, optimization, genetic algorithm optimization, particle swarm optimization

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Authors: Nanditha Rajamani, Anirudhaa R. Rao, Divya Sriram

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One of the greatest difficulties in treating patients with pain is the highly subjective nature of pain sensation. The measurement of pain intensity is primarily dependent on the patient’s report, often with little physical evidence to provide objective corroboration. This is also complicated by the fact that there are only few and expensive existing technologies (Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging-fMRI). The need is thus clear and urgent for a reliable, non-invasive, non-painful, objective, readily adoptable, and coefficient diagnostic platform that provides additional diagnostic information to supplement its current regime with more information to assist doctors in diagnosing these patients. Thus, our idea of developing a pain detector was conceived to take a step further the detection and diagnosis of chronic and acute pain.

Keywords: pain sensor, microwave radiometery, pain sensation, fMRI

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Authors: Yang Zhou, Chen Hao, Ma Xiaoping

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This paper briefly mentions the micro controller unit, and then goes into details about the exact regulations for SRM. Firstly, it proposes the main driving state control for motor and the importance of the motor position sensor. For different speed, the controller will choice various styles such as voltage chopper control, angle position control and current chopper control for which owns its advantages and disadvantages. Combining the strengths of the three discrepant methods, the main control chip will intelligently select the best performing control depending on the load and speed demand. Then the exact flow diagram is showed in paper. At last, an experimental platform is established to verify the correctness of the proposed theory.

Keywords: switched reluctance motor, dspic microcontroller, current chopper

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Authors: Samuel Faboyede, Obiamaka Nwobu, Samuel Fakile, Dickson Mukoro

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In the present dynamic business environment of corporate governance and regulations, financial reporting is an inevitable and extremely significant process for every business enterprise. Several financial elements such as Annual Reports, Quarterly Reports, ad-hoc filing, and other statutory/regulatory reports provide vital information to the investors and regulators, and establish trust and rapport between the internal and external stakeholders of an organization. Investors today are very demanding, and emphasize greatly on authenticity, accuracy, and reliability of financial data. For many companies, the Internet plays a key role in communicating business information, internally to management and externally to stakeholders. Despite high prominence being attached to external reporting, it is disconnected in most companies, who generate their external financial documents manually, resulting in high degree of errors and prolonged cycle times. Chief Executive Officers and Chief Financial Officers are increasingly susceptible to endorsing error-laden reports, late filing of reports, and non-compliance with regulatory acts. There is a lack of common platform to manage the sensitive information – internally and externally – in financial reports. The Internet financial reporting language known as eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) continues to develop in the face of challenges and has now reached the point where much of its promised benefits are available. This paper looks at the emergence of this revolutionary twenty-first century language of digital reporting. It posits that today, the world is on the brink of an Internet revolution that will redefine the ‘business reporting’ paradigm. The new Internet technology, eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL), is already being deployed and used across the world. It finds that XBRL is an eXtensible Markup Language (XML) based information format that places self-describing tags around discrete pieces of business information. Once tags are assigned, it is possible to extract only desired information, rather than having to download or print an entire document. XBRL is platform-independent and it will work on any current or recent-year operating system, or any computer and interface with virtually any software. The paper concludes that corporate stakeholders and the government cannot afford to ignore the XBRL. It therefore recommends that all must act locally and think globally now via the adoption of XBRL that is changing the face of worldwide business reporting.

Keywords: XBRL, financial reporting, internet, internal and external reports

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Authors: Abdelhalim Kessal

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This paper treats a design of combined control of a single phase power factor correction (PFC). The strategy of the proposed control is based on two parts, the first, for the outer loop (DC output regulated voltage), and the second govern the input current of the converter in order to achieve a sinusoidal form in phase with the grid voltage. Two kinds of regulators are used, Fuzzy controller for the outer loop and predictive controller for the inner loop. The controllers are verified and discussed through simulation under MATLAB/Simulink platform. Also an experimental confirmation is applied. Results present a high dynamic performance under various parameters changes.

Keywords: boost converter, harmonic distortion, Fuzzy, predictive, unity power factor

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Authors: Lai Xuejiang, Huang Li, Yang Yi

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To study the potential hazards of the sudden emergency relief of flare stack, the thermal radiation and noise calculation of flare stack is carried out by using Flaresim program 2.0. Thermal radiation and noise analysis should be considered as the sudden emergency relief takes place. According to the Flaresim software simulation results, the thermal radiation and noise meet the requirement.

Keywords: flare stack, thermal radiation, safety assessment, noise

Procedia PDF Downloads 337

Authors: Mohammed Alhawiti

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Assessment of Learning Management Systems has been of less importance than its due share. This paper investigates the evaluation of learning management systems (LMS) within educational setting as both an online learning system as well as a helpful tool for multidisciplinary learning environment. This study suggests a theoretical e-learning evaluation model, studying a multi-dimensional methods for evaluation through LMS system, service and content quality, learner`s perspective and attitudes of the instructor. A survey was conducted among 105 e-learners. The sample consisted of students at both undergraduate and master’s levels. Content validity, reliability were tested through the instrument, Findings suggested the suitability of the proposed model in evaluation for the satisfaction of learners through LMS. The results of this study would be valuable for both instructors and users of e-learning systems.

Keywords: e-learning, LMS, higher education, management systems

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Authors: Iliya Musa Adamu

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This paper seeks to develop an expert system that would troubleshoot computer network and evaluate the network system performance so as to reduce the workload on technicians and increase the efficiency and effectiveness of solutions proffered to computer network problems. The platform of the system was developed using ASP.NET, whereas the codes are implemented in Visual Basic and integrated with SQL Server 2005. The knowledge base was represented using production rule, whereas the searching method that was used in developing the network troubleshooting expert system is the forward-chaining-rule-based-system. This software tool offers the advantage of providing an immediate solution to most computer network problems encountered by computer users.

Keywords: expert system, forward chaining rule based system, network, troubleshooting

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Authors: Mihaela Popescu, Alexandru Bitoleanu

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This paper is focused on the reference current calculation in the compensation mode of the active DC traction substations. The so-called p-q theory of the instantaneous reactive power is used as theoretical foundation. The compensation goal of total compensation is taken into consideration for the operation under both sinusoidal and nonsinusoidal voltage conditions, through the two objectives of unity power factor and perfect harmonic cancelation. Four blocks of reference current generation implement the conceived algorithms and they are included in a specific Simulink library, which is useful in a DSP dSPACE-based platform working under Matlab/Simulink. The simulation results validate the correctness of the implementation and fulfillment of the compensation tasks.

Keywords: active power filter, DC traction, p-q theory, Simulink library

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Authors: Cassandra Hansen, Paul Doherty, Chris Ferner, German Whitley, Holly Torpey

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Wildfire is a natural and inevitable occurrence, yet changing climatic conditions have increased the severity, frequency, and risk to human populations in the wildland/urban interface (WUI) of the Western United States. Rapid dissemination of accurate wildfire information is critical to both the Incident Management Team (IMT) and the affected community. With the advent of increasingly sophisticated information systems, GIS can now be used as a web platform for sharing geographic information in new and innovative ways, such as virtual story map applications. Crowdsourced information can be extraordinarily useful when coupled with authoritative information. Information abounds in the form of social media, emergency alerts, radio, and news outlets, yet many of these resources lack a spatial component when first distributed. In this study, we describe how twenty-eight volunteer GIS professionals across nine Geographic Area Coordination Centers (GACC) sourced, curated, and distributed Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) from authoritative social media accounts focused on disseminating information about wildfires and public safety. The combination of fire progression maps with VGI incident information helps answer three critical questions about an incident, such as: where the first started. How and why the fire behaved in an extreme manner and how we can learn from the fire incident's story to respond and prepare for future fires in this area. By adding a spatial component to that shared information, this team has been able to visualize shared information about wildfire starts in an interactive map that answers three critical questions in a more intuitive way. Additionally, long-term social and technical impacts on communities are examined in relation to situational awareness of the disaster through map layers and agency links, the number of views in a particular region of a disaster, community involvement and sharing of this critical resource. Combined with a GIS platform and disaster VGI applications, this workflow and information become invaluable to communities within the WUI and bring spatial awareness for disaster preparedness, response, mitigation, and recovery. This study highlights progression maps as the ultimate storytelling mechanism through incident case studies and demonstrates the impact of VGI and sophisticated applied cartographic methodology make this an indispensable resource for authoritative information sharing.

Keywords: storytelling, wildfire progression maps, volunteered geographic information, spatial and temporal

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Authors: Najeebullah Soomro, Habib Noorbhai, Mariam Soomro, Ross Sanders

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The demands on cricketers are increasing with more matches being played in a shorter period of time with a greater intensity. A ten year report on injury incidence for Australian elite cricketers between the 2000- 2011 seasons revealed an injury incidence rate of 17.4%.1. In the 2009–10 season, 24 % of Australian fast bowlers missed matches through injury. 1 Injury rates are even higher in junior cricketers with an injury incidence of 25% or 2.9 injuries per 100 player hours reported. 2 Traditionally, injury surveillance has relied on the use of paper based forms or complex computer software. 3,4 This makes injury reporting laborious for the staff involved. The purpose of this presentation is to describe a smartphone based mobile application as a means of improving injury surveillance in cricket. Methods: The researchers developed CricPredict mobile App for the Android platforms, the world’s most widely used smartphone platform. It uses Qt SDK (Software Development Kit) as IDE (Integrated Development Environment). C++ was used as the programming language with the Qt framework, which provides us with cross-platform abilities that will allow this app to be ported to other operating systems (iOS, Mac, Windows) in the future. The wireframes (graphic user interface) were developed using Justinmind Prototyper Pro Edition Version (Ver. 6.1.0). CricPredict enables recording of injury and training status conveniently and immediately. When an injury is reported automated follow-up questions include site of injury, nature of injury, mechanism of injury, initial treatment, referral and action taken after injury. Direct communication with the player then enables assessment of severity and diagnosis. CricPredict also allows the coach to maintain and track each player’s attendance at matches and training session. Workload data can also be recorded by either the player or coach by recording the number of balls bowled or played in a day. This is helpful in formulating injury rates and time lost due to injuries. All the data are stored at a secured password protected data server. Outcomes and Significance: Use of CricPredit offers a simple, user friendly tool for the coaching or medical staff associated with teams to predict, record and report injuries. This system will assist teams to capture injury data with ease thus allowing better understanding of injuries associated with cricket and potentially optimize the performance of such cricketers.

Keywords: injury, cricket, surveillance, smartphones, mobile

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Authors: Matjaž Šraml, Marko Renčelj, Tomaž Tollazzi, Chiara Gruden

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Road safety is a worldwide issue with numerous and heterogeneous factors influencing it. On the side, driver state – comprising distraction/inattention, fatigue, drowsiness, extreme emotions, and socio-cultural factors highly affect road safety. On the other side, the vehicle state has an important role in mitigating (or not) the road risk. Finally, the road environment is still one of the main determinants of road safety, defining driving task complexity. At the same time, thanks to technological development, a lot of detailed data is easily available, creating opportunities for the detection of driver state, vehicle characteristics and road conditions and, consequently, for the design of ad hoc interventions aimed at improving driver performance, increase awareness and mitigate road risks. This is the challenge faced by the i-DREAMS project. i-DREAMS, which stands for a smart Driver and Road Environment Assessment and Monitoring System, is a 3-year project funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program. It aims to set up a platform to define, develop, test and validate a ‘Safety Tolerance Zone’ to prevent drivers from getting too close to the boundaries of unsafe operation by mitigating risks in real-time and after the trip. After the definition and development of the Safety Tolerance Zone concept and the concretization of the same in an Advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS) platform, the system was tested firstly for 2 months in a driving simulator environment in 5 different countries. After that, naturalistic driving studies started for a 10-month period (comprising a 1-month pilot study, 3-month baseline study and 6 months study implementing interventions). Currently, the project team has approved a common evaluation approach, and it is developing the assessment of the usage and outcomes of the i-DREAMS system, which is turning positive insights. The i-DREAMS consortium consists of 13 partners, 7 engineering universities and research groups, 4 industry partners and 2 partners (European Transport Safety Council - ETSC - and POLIS cities and regions for transport innovation) closely linked to transport safety stakeholders, covering 8 different countries altogether.

Keywords: advanced driver assistant systems, driving simulator, safety tolerance zone, traffic safety

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Authors: Lucas A. Silva, Carla R. Aguiar

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This work presents a proposal to perform contextual sentiment analysis using a supervised learning algorithm and disregarding the extensive training of annotators. To achieve this goal, a web platform was developed to perform the entire procedure outlined in this paper. The main contribution of the pipeline described in this article is to simplify and automate the annotation process through a system of analysis of congruence between the notes. This ensured satisfactory results even without using specialized annotators in the context of the research, avoiding the generation of biased training data for the classifiers. For this, a case study was conducted in a blog of entrepreneurship. The experimental results were consistent with the literature related annotation using formalized process with experts.

Keywords: sentiment analysis, untrained annotators, naive bayes, entrepreneurship, contextualized classifier

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Authors: Surafel Demissie, Frank Keenan, Fergal McCaffery

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Emerging medical devices are highly relying on embedded software that runs on the specific platform in real time. The development of embedded software is different from ordinary software development due to the hardware-software dependency. MDevSPICE^® has been developed to provide guidance to support such development. To increase the flexibility of this framework agile practices have been introduced. This paper outlines the challenges for embedded medical device software development and the structure of MDevSPICE^® and suggests a suitable combination of agile practices that will help to add flexibility and address corresponding challenges of embedded medical device software development.

Keywords: agile practices, challenges, embedded software, MDevSPICE®, medical device

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Authors: Er-Yuan Chuang

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Bio-mimetic matters have biological functionalities. This might be valuable in the development of versatile biomaterials. At biological fields, protein-based materials might be components to form a 3D network of extracellular biomolecules, containing growth factors. Also, the protein-based biomaterial provides biochemical and structural assistance of adjacent cells. In this study, we try to prepare protein based biomaterial, which was harvested from living animal. We analyzed it’s chemical, physical and biological property in vitro. Besides, in vivo bio-interaction of the prepared biomimetic matrix was tested in an animal model. The protein-based biomaterial has degradability and biocompatibility. This development could be used for tissue regenerations and be served as platform technologies.

Keywords: protein based, in vitro study, in vivo study, biomaterials

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Authors: Riki Panchal, Debasis Sarkar

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This paper describes the work done for the GIS-based project management for different infrastructure projects. It is a review paper which gives the idea of the trends in the construction project management and various models adopted for the betterment of the project planning and execution. Traditional scheduling and progress control techniques such as bar charts and the critical path method fail to provide information pertaining to the spatial aspects of a construction project. An integrated system was developed to represent construction progress not only in terms of a CPM schedule but also in terms of a graphical representation of the construction that is synchronized with the work schedule. Hence, it is suggested to work on the common platform from where all the data can be shared and analyzed.

Keywords: GIS, project management, integrated model, infrastructure project

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Authors: Lesley Northrop, Justin DeGrazia, Jessica Greenwood

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ASPIRA Labs now offers an en-suit and ready-to-implement technology transfer solution to enable labs and hospitals that lack the resources to build it themselves to offer in-house genetic testing. This unique platform employs a patented Molecular Inversion Probe (MIP) technology that combines the specificity of a hybrid capture protocol with the ease of an amplicon-based protocol and utilizes an advanced bioinformatics analysis pipeline based on machine learning. To demonstrate its efficacy, two independent genetic tests were validated on this technology transfer platform: expanded carrier screening (ECS) and hereditary cancer testing (HC). The analytical performance of ECS and HC was validated separately in a blinded manner for calling three different types of variants: SNVs, short indels (typically, <50 bp), and large indels/CNVs defined as multi-exonic del/dup events. The reference set was constructed using samples from Coriell Institute, an external clinical genetic testing laboratory, Maine Molecular Quality Controls Inc. (MMQCI), SeraCare and GIAB Consortium. Overall, the analytical performance showed a sensitivity and specificity of >99.4% for both ECS and HC in detecting SNVs. For indels, both tests reported specificity of 100%, and ECS demonstrated a sensitivity of 100%, whereas HC exhibited a sensitivity of 96.5%. The bioinformatics pipeline also correctly called all reference CNV events resulting in a sensitivity of 100% for both tests. No additional calls were made in the HC panel, leading to a perfect performance (specificity and F-measure of 100%). In the carrier panel, however, three additional positive calls were made outside the reference set. Two of these calls were confirmed using an orthogonal method and were re-classified as true positives leaving only one false positive. The pipeline also correctly identified all challenging carrier statuses, such as positive cases for spinal muscular atrophy and alpha-thalassemia, resulting in 100% sensitivity. After confirmation of additional positive calls via long-range PCR and MLPA, specificity for such cases was estimated at 99%. These performance metrics demonstrate that this tech-transfer solution can be confidently internalized by clinical labs and hospitals to offer mainstream ECS and HC as part of their test catalog, substantially increasing access to quality germline genetic testing for labs of all sizes and resources levels.

Keywords: clinical genetics, genetic testing, molecular genetics, technology transfer

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Authors: R. Tariq, R. Lee

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Background: Additional demands placed on senior clinical teams with ongoing COVID-19 management has accelerated the need to harness the wider healthcare professional resources and upskill them to take on greater clinical responsibility safely. The UK NHS Long Term Plan (2019)¹ emphasises the importance of expanding Advanced Practitioners’ (APs) roles to take on more clinical diagnostic responsibilities to cope with increased demand. In acute settings, APs are often the first point of care for patients and require training to take on initial triage responsibilities efficiently and safely. Critically, their roles include determining which onward services the patients may require, and assessing whether they can be treated at home, avoiding unnecessary admissions to the hospital. Dem Dx is a Clinical Reasoning Platform (CRP) that claims to help frontline healthcare professionals independently assess and triage patients. It guides the clinician from presenting complaints through associated symptoms to a running list of differential diagnoses, media, national and institutional guidelines. The objective of this study was to compare the clinical referral rates and guidelines adherence registered by the HMR Urgent Community Care Team (UCCT)² and Dem Dx recommendations using retrospective cases. Methodology: 192 cases seen by the UCCT were anonymised and reassessed using Dem Dx clinical pathways. We compared the UCCT’s performance with Dem Dx regarding the appropriateness of onward referrals. We also compared the clinical assessment regarding adherence to NICE guidelines recorded on the clinical notes and the presence of suitable guidance in each case. The cases were audited by two medical doctors. Results: Dem Dx demonstrated appropriate referrals in 85% of cases, compared to 47% in the UCCT team (p<0.001). Of particular note, Dem Dx demonstrated an almost 65% (p<0.001) improvement in the efficacy and appropriateness of referrals in a highly experienced clinical team. The effectiveness of Dem Dx is in part attributable to the relevant NICE and local guidelines found within the platform's pathways and was found to be suitable in 86% of cases. Conclusion: This study highlights the potential of clinical decision support, as Dem Dx, to improve the quality of onward clinical referrals delivered by a multidisciplinary team in primary care. It demonstrated that it could support healthcare professionals in making appropriate referrals, especially those that may be overlooked by providing suitable clinical guidelines directly embedded into cases and clear referral pathways. Further evaluation in the clinical setting has been planned to confirm those assumptions in a prospective study.

Keywords: advanced practitioner, clinical reasoning, clinical decision-making, management, multidisciplinary team, referrals, triage

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Authors: Tamanna Jethava, Rahul Joshi

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Frequent Item sets play an essential role in many data Mining tasks that try to find interesting patterns from the database. Typically it refers to a set of items that frequently appear together in transaction dataset. There are several mining algorithm being used for frequent item set mining, yet most do not scale to the type of data we presented with today, so called “BIG DATA”. Big Data is a collection of large data sets. Our approach is to work on the frequent item set mining over the large dataset with scalable and speedy way. Big Data basically works with Map Reduce along with HDFS is used to find out frequent item sets from Big Data on large cluster. This paper focuses on using pre-processing & mining algorithm as hybrid approach for big data over Hadoop platform.

Keywords: frequent item set mining, big data, Hadoop, MapReduce

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Authors: Srinivas Bathini, Duraichelvan Raju, Simona Badilescu, Muthukumaran Packirisamy

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A bio-sensing method, based on the plasmonic property of gold nano-islands, has been developed for detection of exosomes in a clinical setting. The position of the gold plasmon band in the UV-Visible spectrum depends on the size and shape of gold nanoparticles as well as on the surrounding environment. By adsorbing various chemical entities, or binding them, the gold plasmon band will shift toward longer wavelengths and the shift is proportional to the concentration. Exosomes transport cargoes of molecules and genetic materials to proximal and distal cells. Presently, the standard method for their isolation and quantification from body fluids is by ultracentrifugation, not a practical method to be implemented in a clinical setting. Thus, a versatile and cutting-edge platform is required to selectively detect and isolate exosomes for further analysis at clinical level. The new sensing protocol, instead of antibodies, makes use of a specially synthesized polypeptide (Vn96), to capture and quantify the exosomes from different media, by binding the heat shock proteins from exosomes. The protocol has been established and optimized by using a glass substrate, in order to facilitate the next stage, namely the transfer of the protocol to a microfluidic environment. After each step of the protocol, the UV-Vis spectrum was recorded and the position of gold Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance (LSPR) band was measured. The sensing process was modelled, taking into account the characteristics of the nano-island structure, prepared by thermal convection and annealing. The optimal molar ratios of the most important chemical entities, involved in the detection of exosomes were calculated as well. Indeed, it was found that the results of the sensing process depend on the two major steps: the molar ratios of streptavidin to biotin-PEG-Vn96 and, the final step, the capture of exosomes by the biotin-PEG-Vn96 complex. The microfluidic device designed for sensing of exosomes consists of a glass substrate, sealed by a PDMS layer that contains the channel and a collecting chamber. In the device, the solutions of linker, cross-linker, etc., are pumped over the gold nano-islands and an Ocean Optics spectrometer is used to measure the position of the Au plasmon band at each step of the sensing. The experiments have shown that the shift of the Au LSPR band is proportional to the concentration of exosomes and, thereby, exosomes can be accurately quantified. An important advantage of the method is the ability to discriminate between exosomes having different origins.

Keywords: exosomes, gold nano-islands, microfluidics, plasmonic biosensing

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Authors: Said Boularouk, Didier Josselin, Eitan Altman

Abstract:

In this paper, we present a vocal ontology of OpenStreetMap data for the apprehension of space by visually impaired people. Indeed, the platform based on produsage gives a freedom to data producers to choose the descriptors of geocoded locations. Unfortunately, this freedom, called also folksonomy leads to complicate subsequent searches of data. We try to solve this issue in a simple but usable method to extract data from OSM databases in order to send them to visually impaired people using Text To Speech technology. We focus on how to help people suffering from visual disability to plan their itinerary, to comprehend a map by querying computer and getting information about surrounding environment in a mono-modal human-computer dialogue.

Keywords: TTS, ontology, open street map, visually impaired

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Authors: Klathea Sevilla, Marjorie Remolador, Bryan Baltazar, Imee Saladaga, Loureal Camille Inocencio, Ma. Rosario Concepcion Ang

Abstract:

The underutilization of biomass resources in the Philippines, combined with its growing population and the rise in fossil fuel prices confirms demand for alternative energy sources. The goal of this paper is to provide a comparison of MODIS-based and Landsat-based agricultural land cover maps when used in the estimation of rice hull’s available energy potential. Biomass resource assessment was done using mathematical models and remote sensing techniques employed in a GIS platform.

Keywords: biomass, geographic information system (GIS), remote sensing, renewable energy

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Authors: Rajaa Filali, Mohamed Bouhdadi

Abstract:

This paper presents an incremental development of the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) in Event-B. DHCP is widely used communication protocol, which provides a standard mechanism to obtain configuration parameters. The specification is performed in a stepwise manner and verified through a series of refinements. The Event-B formal method uses the Rodin platform to modeling and verifying some properties of the protocol such as safety, liveness and deadlock freedom. To model and verify the protocol, we use the formal technique Event-B which provides an accessible and rigorous development method. This interaction between modelling and proving reduces the complexity and helps to eliminate misunderstandings, inconsistencies, and specification gaps.

Keywords: DHCP protocol, Event-B, refinement, proof obligation, Rodin

Procedia PDF Downloads 205

Authors: Natalia Carolina Encalada Castillo

Abstract:

As part of an intended radical policy change compared to former administrations in Ecuador, the transformation of the institutionality of international cooperation during the period of President Rafael Correa was considered as a key element for the construction of the state of 'Good Living'. This intention led to several regulatory changes in the reception of cooperation for development, and even the departure of some foreign cooperation agencies. Moreover, Ecuador launched the initiative to become a donor of cooperation towards other developing countries through the ‘South-South Cooperation’ approach. All these changes were institutionalized through the Ecuadorian System of International Cooperation as a new framework to establish rules and policies that guarantee a sovereign management of foreign aid. Therefore, this research project has been guided by two questions: What were the factors that motivated the transformation of the institutionality of international cooperation in Ecuador from 2007 to 2017? and, what were the implications of this transformation in terms of the international role of the country? This paper seeks to answer these questions through Role Theory within a Constructivist meta-theoretical perspective, considering that in this case, changes at the institutional level in the field of cooperation, responded not only to material motivations but also to interests built on the basis of a specific state identity. The latter was only possible to affirm through specific roles such as ‘sovereign recipient of cooperation’ as well as ‘donor of international cooperation’. However, the performance of these roles was problematic as they were not easily accepted by the other actors in the international arena or in the domestic level. In terms of methodology, these dynamics are analyzed in a qualitative way mainly through interpretive analysis of the discourse of high-level decision-makers from Ecuador and other cooperation actors. Complementary to this, document-based research of relevant information as well as interviews have been conducted. Finally, it is concluded that even if material factors such as infrastructure needs, trade and investment interests, as well as reinforcement of state control and monitoring of cooperation flows, motivated the institutional transformation of international cooperation in Ecuador; the essential basis of these changes was the search for a new identity for the country to be projected in the international arena. This identity started to be built but continues to be unstable. Therefore, it is important to potentiate the achievements of the new international cooperation policies, and review their weaknesses, so that non-reimbursable cooperation funds received as well as ‘South-South cooperation’ actions, contribute effectively to national objectives.

Keywords: Ecuador, international cooperation, Role Theory, state identity

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Authors: Hashini E. Mohottala

Abstract:

We report the combine use of Wikispaces (WikiS) and Group Problem Solving (GPS) sessions conducted in the introductory level physics classes. As a part of this new teaching tool, some essay type problems were posted on the WikiS in weekly basis and students were encouraged to participate in problem solving without providing numerical final answers but the steps. Wikispace is used as a platform for students to meet online and create discussions. Each week students were further evaluated on problem solving skills opening up more opportunity for peer interaction through GPS. Each group was given a different problem to solve and the answers were graded. Students developed a set of skills in decision-making, problem solving, communication, negotiation, critical and independent thinking and teamwork through the combination of WikiS and GPS.

Keywords: group problem solving (GPS), wikispace (WikiS), physics education, learning

Procedia PDF Downloads 396