Accuracy

Polarimetric SAR interferometry (Pol-InSAR) is a radar remote sensing technique, that allows to extract forest heights by means of model-based inversion. Recently, there have been plenty of research on the retrieval of vegetation parameters by single frequency single baseline PolInSAR such as the ESPRIT method, three-stage inversion. However, these methods tend to underestimate the forest height due to attenutation of the electromagnetic waves in the ground medium. This paper proposes a method to improve the accuracy of forest height estimation. This method is based on a fusion of hybrid method extracting forest parameters and the coherence amplitude method. Finally, the simulated PolInSAR data are used to validate the proposed method.

This paper describes a model of heat transfer for the convection section of a biomass boiler. The predictions obtained with the model are compared to the measurement results from two boilers, a 50 kW th pellet boiler and a 4000 kW th wood chips boiler. An adequate accuracy was achieved on the wood chips boiler. As for the pellet boiler, the calculated and measured heat transfer rates differed more than expected on the basis of the inaccuracies in correlation reported in the literature. The most uncertain aspect of the model was assumed to be the correlation equation of the entrance region. Hence, the model was adjusted to improve the correlation. As a result of this, a high degree of accuracy was also obtained with the pellet boiler. The next step was to analyse the effect of design and the operating parameters on the pellet boiler. Firstly, the portion of radiation was established at 3-13 per cent, and the portion of entrance region at 39-52 per cent of the entire heat transfer rate under typical operating conditions. The effect of natural convection was small. Secondly, the heat transfer rate seemed to increase when dividing the convection section into more passes, even when the heat transfer surface area remained constant. This is because the effect of the entrance region is recurrent. Thirdly, when using smaller tube diameters the heat transfer area is more energy-efficient, even when the bulk velocity of the flow remains constant.

Conventional mechanism (i.e. rigid link mechanisms) has limited accuracy and repeatability because of friction, backlash. Mechanism offers a relative motion between rigid links via joints. Conventionally these joints are pin, sliding, rolling, liquid film etc. These joints have inherent nonlinear frictional characteristics which are creating difficulty in control micro-nano positioning in precision mechanisms. To achieve high resolution and precision problems of friction, backlash in mechanism needs to be removed. These joints are replaced by flexible elements such as flexural hinge, flexural links which offers advantage of frictionless and smooth motion. Flexural mechanisms are developed using basic building blocks such as hinges and planar type. Flexural building blocks should be such that it offers lesser / zero resistance to motion in desired direction and maximum / infinite resistance in orthogonal direction. Motion generated in orthogonal direction is called parasitic motion. Double Flexural Manipulator (DFM) is a planar type building block which offers theoretically zero parasitic error motion with negligible amount of rotation of motion stage. This article presents design, development, system integration, system identification and PID control implementation on DFM. Developed flexural stage is integrated with desktop PC via dSPACE micro-controller. System identification (Static and Dynamic) is carried out and performance parameters such as stiffness, natural frequency, damping characteristics and frequency characterization of DFM are estimated and validated via due experimentations. Estimated transfer function of DFM is further used for development of control system, and PID control parameters are tuned. Real time PID implementation gives a position accuracy of few microns at high scanning speed of 2.5 mm/s.

Emotion recognition is one of the important highlights of human emotional intelligence and has long been studied to be incorporated with machine intelligence argued to make machines even more intelligent. This paper aims to contribute to this field of study by enabling machines to recognize emotion from facial electromyogram (EMG) signals. This includes a compilation of the groups attempt to recognize basic facial expressions namely happy, angry, and sad through the use of EMG signals from facial muscles. The group extracted features from the three EMG signals from the face of two human subjects, a male and a female, and analyzed these features to serve as feature templates. Using a minimum-distance classifier, recognition rates exceeded the target accuracy - 85 percent - reaching 94.44 percent for both the male and female subjects.

In recent years, there are many great successes in using deep architectures for unsupervised feature learning from data, especially for images and speech. In this paper, we introduce recent advanced deep learning models to classify two emotional categories (positive and negative) from EEG data. We train a deep belief network (DBN) with differential entropy features extracted from multichannel EEG as input. A hidden markov model (HMM) is integrated to accurately capture a more reliable emotional stage switching. We also compare the performance of the deep models to KNN, SVM and Graph regularized Extreme Learning Machine (GELM). The average accuracies of DBN-HMM, DBN, GELM, SVM, and KNN in our experiments are 87.62%, 86.91%, 85.67%, 84.08%, and 69.66%, respectively. Our experimental results show that the DBN and DBN-HMM models improve the accuracy of EEGbased emotion classification in comparison with the state-ofthe-art methods.

This study examined the effectiveness of implicit and explicit learning methods on the acquisition and retention of the decision-making skill in low and high complexity situations. 60 novice students were divided into explicit, implicit, and control group. Experimental groups followed 12 training courses. A pre-test, a post-test, and a retention test were used to evaluate the effectiveness of the instructional methods. All participants were evaluated in decision-making speed and accuracy in laboratory tests under simulated conditions. A three-way factorial ANOVA was conducted (3 Group X 2 Complexity X 3 Measurement periods) with repeated measurements on the last factor for the accuracy and reaction time. The analysis showed a significant improvement in decision-making accuracy, in low complexity for both experimental groups. In high complexity situations, the explicit method improved over time and was better than the implicit for decision accuracy. No differences were found among groups or measurements for the decision speed in either low or high complexity situations. It seems that in complex sport conditions, the use of explicit learning helps novices to develop decision-making accuracy more than the implicit learning method, since guided discovery may guide the participants to process contextual information from the sports environment more effectively.

Multimodality PET/CT of the liver can be performed with an integrated (hybrid) PET/CT scanner or with software fusion of dedicated PET and CT. Accurate anatomic correlation and good image quality of both modalities are important prerequisites, regardless of the applied method. Registration accuracy is influenced by breathing motion differences on PET and CT, which may also have impact on (attenuation correction-related) artifacts, especially in the upper abdomen. The impact of these issues was evaluated for both hybrid PET/CT and software fusion, focused on imaging of the liver. Methods: Thirty patients underwent hybrid PET/CT, 20 with CT during expiration breathhold (EB) and 10 with CT during free breathing (FB). Ten additional patients underwent software fusion of dedicated PET and dedicated expiration breath-hold CT (SF). The image registration accuracy was evaluated at the location of liver borders on CT and uncorrected PET images and at the location of liver lesions. Attenuation-correction artifacts were evaluated by comparison of liver borders on uncorrected and attenuationcorrected PET images. CT images were evaluated for the presence of breathing artifacts. Results: In EB, 40% of patients had an absolute registration error of the diaphragm in the craniocaudal direction of .1 cm (range, 216 to 44 mm), and 45% of lesions were mispositioned .1 cm. In 50% of cases, attenuationcorrection artifacts caused a deformation of the liver dome on PET of .1 cm. Poor compliance to breath-hold instructions caused CT artifacts in 55% of cases. In FB, 30% had registration errors of .1 cm (range, 24 to 16 mm) and PET artifacts were less extensive, but all CT images had breathing artifacts. As SF allows independent alignment of PET and CT, no registration errors or artifacts of .1 cm of the diaphragm occurred. Conclusion: Hybrid PET/CT of the liver may have significant registration errors and artifacts related to breathing motion. The extent of these issues depends on the selected breathing protocol and the speed of the CT scanner. No protocol or scanner can guarantee perfect image fusion. On the basis of these findings, recommendations were formulated with regard to scanner requirements, breathing protocols, and reporting.

Across 11 experiments, motivation to be accurate on a test of interpersonal sensitivity was manipulated using five methods for increasing motivation (monetary incentive, ego motive, forewarning that accuracy would be tested, exhortation to try hard, and framing the interpersonal sensitivity test description to suggest that performance was gender relevant). Participants were then given an interpersonal sensitivity test consisting of interpreting the meanings of cues or recalling a target person's appearance, nonverbal cues, or spoken utterances. Neither the individual studies, nor a meta-analysis of the 11 studies, found that the motivation manipulations improved participants' accuracy on interpersonal sensitivity tests that involved the processing of nonverbal cues. However, motivation had a significant positive effect when sensitivity was defined as recall of verbal cues. There was no evidence that any of the manipulations had a differential impact on men and women. Keywords Meta-analysis Á Motivation Á Interpersonal sensitivity Á Accuracy Á Nonverbal Á Verbal Á Gender Authors two through six are listed alphabetically.

Background: Different laboratory assays are used to detect and measure specific IgE antibodies. No standard exists to assess their analytic performance. Objective: We sought to analyze reported specific IgE results from different laboratories on the same serum samples for their accuracy and precision. Methods: Blinded serum samples (26) containing variable levels of specific IgE to 17 common aeroallergens were sent on 3 different occasions through normal channels to 6 laboratories that used 5 different test procedures. Six samples were presented as a dilution series. Laboratory-assay performance was assessed by analyzing the reported results (n = 12,708) by using ordinary least squares regression with slope coefficients, the t statistic, SEs, confidence intervals, and R 2 values. These were compared with a theoretic ideal assay as the reference. Results: Analysis revealed that one system used in two different laboratories performed nearly as well as the ideal standard, with an overall average slope (0.97; range, 0.91-1.01), SE (0.05; range, 0.02-0.16), R 2 value (93%; range, 0.64-0.99), and coefficient of variation (10.3%; range, 6%-14%). Extensive variability was observed in the other 4 laboratory-assay systems with respect to overall average slope (0.76; range, 0.11-1.24), SE (0.19; range, 0.03-0.95), R 2 value (53%; range, 0.00-0.98), and coefficient of variation (19%; range, 5%-49%). For some specific allergens, some laboratories-assays were not able to detect serial dilutions of the same sample. Conclusions: One commercial system used in two different laboratories performed nearly as well as the ideal standard. Four of the laboratories-assays for specific IgE antibodies demonstrated substandard overall performance with multiple instances of poor precision and accuracy, particularly for certain allergens, such as weeds and molds.

Thermal cameras are used in research laboratories to measure tissue temperature during laser irradiation. This study was an evaluation of the accuracy of a 3–5 μm thermal camera and two 8–12 μm cameras in detecting the maximum temperatures of small targets. The size of the targets was within the range of laser spot diameters which are used for vessel welding, angioplasty, and dermatology. The response to a sharp thermal edge was measured and analyzed for the three cameras, which had a scanning rate of 30 frames per second. The response of the 3–5 μm camera to reference black body targets of different sizes was also studied.It was found that the detector system required an average of 2.44 μs to reach 90% of maximum step response for the 8–12 μm system and 5.85 μs for the 3–5 μm system. With a 3×5 telescope and a 9.5 inch focal distance close-up lens, the 3–5 μm camera underestimated the temperature of targets smaller than 2.0 mm because of its slow detector response. Although the 8–12 μm camera provides more accurate measurements due to its faster detector response, it still underestimates the temperature of targets smaller than 900 μm, when similar magnification and focal distance are used.Methods to compensate for the inaccuracies are discussed, including empirical correction factors and the inverse filtering technique.

In this work we present topic diversification, a novel method designed to balance and diversify personalized recommendation lists in order to reflect the user's complete spectrum of interests. Though being detrimental to average accuracy, we show that our method improves user satisfaction with recommendation lists, in particular for lists generated using the common item-based collaborative filtering algorithm.

Multimodality PET/CT of the liver can be performed with an integrated (hybrid) PET/CT scanner or with software fusion of dedicated PET and CT. Accurate anatomic correlation and good image quality of both modalities are important prerequisites, regardless of the applied method. Registration accuracy is influenced by breathing motion differences on PET and CT, which may also have impact on (attenuation correction-related) artifacts, especially in the upper abdomen. The impact of these issues was evaluated for both hybrid PET/CT and software fusion, focused on imaging of the liver. Methods: Thirty patients underwent hybrid PET/CT, 20 with CT during expiration breathhold (EB) and 10 with CT during free breathing (FB). Ten additional patients underwent software fusion of dedicated PET and dedicated expiration breath-hold CT (SF). The image registration accuracy was evaluated at the location of liver borders on CT and uncorrected PET images and at the location of liver lesions. Attenuation-correction artifacts were evaluated by comparison of liver borders on uncorrected and attenuationcorrected PET images. CT images were evaluated for the presence of breathing artifacts. Results: In EB, 40% of patients had an absolute registration error of the diaphragm in the craniocaudal direction of .1 cm (range, 216 to 44 mm), and 45% of lesions were mispositioned .1 cm. In 50% of cases, attenuationcorrection artifacts caused a deformation of the liver dome on PET of .1 cm. Poor compliance to breath-hold instructions caused CT artifacts in 55% of cases. In FB, 30% had registration errors of .1 cm (range, 24 to 16 mm) and PET artifacts were less extensive, but all CT images had breathing artifacts. As SF allows independent alignment of PET and CT, no registration errors or artifacts of .1 cm of the diaphragm occurred. Conclusion: Hybrid PET/CT of the liver may have significant registration errors and artifacts related to breathing motion. The extent of these issues depends on the selected breathing protocol and the speed of the CT scanner. No protocol or scanner can guarantee perfect image fusion. On the basis of these findings, recommendations were formulated with regard to scanner requirements, breathing protocols, and reporting.

A new graphical technique is developed that takes advantage of time-subsidence data collected from either traditional extensometer installations or from newer technologies such as fixed-station global positioning systems or interferometric synthetic aperture radar imagery, to accurately estimate storage properties of the aquifer and vertical hydraulic conductivity of semi-confining units. Semi-log plots of time-compaction data are highly diagnostic with the straight-line portion of the plot reflecting the specific storage of the semi-confining unit. Calculation of compaction during one-log cycle of time from these plots can be used in a simple analytical expression based on the Cooper-Jacob technique to accurately calculate specific storage of the semi-confining units. In addition, these semi-log plots can be used to identify when the pressure transient has migrated through the confining layer into the unpumped aquifer, precluding the need for additional piezometers within the unpumped aquifer or within the semi-confining units as is necessary in the Neuman and Witherspoon method. Numerical simulations are used to evaluate the accuracy of the new technique. The technique was applied to time-drawdown and time-compaction data collected near Franklin Virginia, within the Potomac aquifers of the Coastal Plain, and shows that the method can be easily applied to estimate the inelastic skeletal specific storage of this aquifer system.

An active end effector is developed to improve precision in robotic deburring. The design objectives are obtained from a dynamic analysis of the combined system of robot arm, end effector, and deburring process dynamics. The unit allows robot-independent positioning, over a range of-t-15 mm in two orthogonal directions with an accuracy of better than 0.01 mm and a bandwidth of 20 Hz. A combination of d.c. servo motors with linear bah screws achieves both high precision and a large mechanical advantage. A high quality chamfer is obtained by performing position adjustments normal to the part edge for constant cutting force. An extended discrete PID controller based on an ARMAX plant model is designed and simulated off-line prior to real-time implementation. In real-time force control tests, the active end effector system is shown to improve the precision of a PUMA-560 robot by an order of magnitude over the openloop case.

In this paper, we propose a hybrid approach of Arabic scripts web page language identification based on decision tree and ARTMAP approaches. We use the decision tree approach to find the general identities of a web document, be it an Arabic script-based or a non-Arabic-based. Then, we use the selected representations of identified pages from the decision tree approach as

Objective To compare semi-quantitative visual and automated methods of urine testing with fully quantitative point of care urinalysis for the detection of significant proteinuria (0.3 g/24 hours) in pregnancy complicated by hypertension. Design A prospective comparative study.

The assessment of seismic design codes has become the subject of intensive research work which revealed several weak points of the codes that originated from the limitations in predicting with acceptable precision the response of a structure under a moderate or severe earthquake. Most of the seismic design codes belong to the class of prescriptive procedures, where if certain constraints are fulfilled, the structure is considered safe. Prescriptive design procedures fail to provide acceptable levels of structural performance over its life because, in most of them, the structure is assessed using only one design earthquake. Performance-based design is a different philosophy for designing against hazards; the structure is designed to meet a number of performance objectives. The objectives of this study is to compare the initial and limit state-dependent cost of an RC building designed either to meet the provisions of the Greek national seismic design code or based on a performance-based design procedure. Two were the most important findings of this study: (i) the initial cost for an RC structure, designed to permit elastic behaviour for the response spectrum of the Greek national seismic code, is not prohibitive and (ii) that an RC structure based on the proposed performance-based design procedure lead to economical designs with respect to the total cost compared to a code conforming design. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

We advocate the use of point sets to represent shapes. We provide a definition of a smooth manifold surface from a set of points close to the original surface. The definition is based on local maps from differential geometry, which are approximated by the method of moving least squares (MLS). The computation of points on the surface is local, which results in an out-of-core technique that can handle any point set. We show that the approximation error is bounded and present tools to increase or decrease the density of the points, thus allowing an adjustment of the spacing among the points to control the error. To display the point set surface, we introduce a novel point rendering technique. The idea is to evaluate the local maps according to the image resolution. This results in high quality shading effects and smooth silhouettes at interactive frame rates.

Background: Italian Nursing Faculties use a range of tutorial strategies (laboratory sessions, intensive clinical tutoring, weekly tutoring) aimed to enhance nursing students' diagnostic reasoning: these strategies have different impacts on promoting student critical thinking. By using critical thinking methods, students develop abilities to check, monitor and constantly evaluate the accuracy of the diagnostic reasoning process. However, there is little evidence to show how effective tutorial strategies are on the accuracy of diagnostic reasoning. There is also very little known about the complexity of tutorial strategies because these are made up of several components (e.g. tutor questioning abilities, the value of the setting, the impact of the environment, the expertise of the tutor and the impact of the Faculty's philosophy of learning), tutorial strategies cannot be standardised and depend on multiple factors which are difficult to control. Objectives: The objective was to establish a relationship between tutorial strategies orientated to enhance critical thinking and the accuracy of diagnostic reasoning (i.e. the number of correct answers given by students on simulated cases in two different nursing education contexts). It was hypothesised that students who had had one laboratory session using intensive tutorial strategies had less probability of making reasoning errors in diagnosing a simulated case than a control group that had weekly tutorials or routine tutoring. Design: A double pragmatic experimental study was adopted involving two Italian Nursing Faculties at universities in Verona and Udine. Participants: A total of 144 students in the first year of their Nursing Science Degree course were involved; in Verona, two random groups of 41students were taken (an intervention group and a control group). Random selections of 39 students for the intervention group and 29 students for a control group were made from the second campus in Udine. Data analysis was conducted comparing student outcomes in the same faculty (intra-trial analysis) and between the two campuses involved (inter-trial analysis).

This study investigated the wind characteristics of the island of Lesvos, Greece, with the objective of providing the necessary data for identifying the wind power production capabilities of the island. Weather patterns were examined using weather data from four Remote Automatic Weather Stations. Specific tools were used to produce the necessary windroses, Weibull curves and charts that helped to understand the prevailing wind characteristics. By using the tools of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and the Wind Atlas Analysis and Application Program (WAsP) as the basic calculation platform, a wind map was produced portraying the wind speeds that prevail at a height of 10 m above ground level. The results of the analysis were tested and evaluated with measurements from 15 wind turbine sites by creating six alternative scenarios. The optimum scenario was used to investigate the installation of a small wind farm with five wind turbines, of 3 MW total capacity.

The key issue of the localization study is that how we can minimize the energy consumption of devices with guaranteeing high degree of accuracy. In this paper, we show that the collaboration among proxy devices with short range communication is helpful to energy-efficiently localize their locations in time-average sense by analyzing the device proximity including real GPS trace of students in KAIST and NCSU campuses. Next, we deliberate what is the best method for selfish mobile users to collaborate for the energy-efficient localization, and formulate an optimization problem which considers the energy efficiency and/or user fairness. However, optimizing this problem is tricky since it requires a global knowledge of sets of proxy devices and also solving a NP-hard problem to select devices which directly measure locations. This paper makes a contribution towards presenting a practical and fully distributed location sharing protocol based on competition for turning off GPS, and an opt...

Stereo vision is a well-known ranging method because it resembles the basic mechanism of the human eye. However, the computational complexity and large amount of data access make real-time processing of stereo vision challenging because of the inherent instruction cycle delay within conventional computers. In order to solve this problem, the past 20 years of research have focused on the use of dedicated hardware architecture for stereo vision. This paper proposes a fully pipelined stereo vision system providing a dense disparity image with additional sub-pixel accuracy in real-time. The entire stereo vision process, such as rectification, stereo matching, and post-processing, is realized using a single field programmable gate array (FPGA) without the necessity of any external devices. The hardware implementation is more than 230 times faster when compared to a software program operating on a conventional computer, and shows stronger performance over previous hardware-related studies. Index Terms-Field programmable gate arrays, integrated circuit design, stereo vision, video signal processing. I. Introduction S TEREO vision is a traditional method for acquiring 3-D information from a stereo image pair. Stereo vision has many advantages over other 3-D sensing methods in terms of safety, undetectable characteristics, cost, operating range, and reliability [1]. For these reasons, stereo vision is widely used in many application areas including intelligent robots, autonomous vehicles, human-computer interfaces, and security and defense applications [2]-[5].

The potential of a ground-based microwave temperature profiler to combine full tropospheric profiling with highresolution profiling of the boundary layer is investigated. For that purpose, statistical retrieval algorithms that incorporate observations from different elevation angles and frequencies are derived from long-term radiosonde data. A simulation study shows the potential to significantly improve the retrieval performance in the lowest kilometer by combining angular information from relatively opaque channels with zenith-only information from more transparent channels. Observations by a state-of-the-art radiometer employed during the International Lindenberg Campaign for Assessment of Humidity and Cloud Profiling Systems and Its Impact on High-Resolution Modeling (LAUNCH) in Lindenberg, Germany, are used for an experimental evaluation with observations from a 99-m mast and radiosondes. The comparison not only reveals the high accuracy achieved by combining angular and spectral observations (overall, less than 1 K below 1.5 km), but also emphasizes the need for a realistic description of radiometer noise within the algorithm. The capability of the profiler to observe the height and strength of low-level temperature inversions is highlighted.

Pulmonary embolism is an avoidable cause of death if treated immediately but delays in diagnosis and treatment lead to an increased risk. Computer-assisted image analysis of both unenhanced and contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CT) have proven useful for diagnosis of pulmonary embolism. Dual energy CT provides additional information over the standard single energy scan by generating fourdimensional (4D) data, in our case with 11 energy levels in 3D. In this paper a 4D texture analysis method capable of detecting pulmonary embolism in dual energy CT is presented. The method uses wavelet-based visual words together with an automatic geodesic-based region of interest detection algorithm to characterize the texture properties of each lung lobe. Results show an increase in performance with respect to the single energy CT analysis, as well as an accuracy gain compared to preliminary work on a small dataset.

The paper presents the latest results of sensing the cutting process on the basis of AE signals and some particularities in further development of the monitoring model for the finish turning process. Due to non-linearity, the large number of influencing parameters and missing information in AE data, the Artificial Neural Networks were chosen as a monitoring decision tool. The problem of accurateness in predicting the surface roughness on the basis of AE -because of the mutual interdependence of the data -requires a special procedure for building a neural network model. The final aim of such an approach is presented as improvements in learning or considerable reduction in error prediction. Further development of the monitoring model has the goal of building a so-called intelligent sensor, which should be able to perform the signal conditioning and feature extraction process.

This article proposes a method that can calculate the blocking probability of multi-service cellular systems with Wideband Code Division Multiple Access radio interface. The method considers a finite and an infinite source population and takes into account the interdependency of calls service processes in neighboring cells and in both the uplink and the downlink directions. The basis of the proposed method is the fixedpoint methodology. A comparison of the results of analytical calculations to those of simulations confirms the accuracy of the proposed method. The proposed scheme can realize cost-effective radio resource management in 3G mobile networks and can be easily applied to network capacity calculations.

Things are sold at a substantial discount on the eve of Black Friday, resulting in sales that are 30 times larger than on normal flash sale days. Customers' data from purchases made on this day can be examined, resulting in a quick declaration of their preferences for specific products. We looked at data that contained packets of clients, and also the factors that influenced their purchases and the amounts they spent. This data is analysed and forecasted purely for the purpose of providing clients with customized discounts on goods depending on individual preferences and purchase budget. Four models were employed to forecast significant variations in training and test data (50:50, 70:30, 30:70), as well as a distinct sample training and testing dataset with two additional examples of prediction: xgboost, tfidftransform, both combination, and extra trees regressor. The two scenarios involve forecasting and analysing another dataset, as well as projected on the train data and testing data on a different testing data set. The dataset would be analyzed to learn about consumer behavior and trends of product the sale's popularity. For each of the five scenarios, the feature significance and benefit importance are displayed. All of the models' accuracy in various settings has been given in the manner of accuracy graphs and the accuracy findings have been displayed in the form of an RMSE score.

Purpose To determine what research evidence exists to support the use of voice measures in the clinical assessment of patients with voice disorders. Method The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) National Center for Evidence-Based Practice in Communication Disorders staff searched 29 databases for peer-reviewed English-language articles between January 1930 and April 2009 that included key words pertaining to objective and subjective voice measures, voice disorders, and diagnostic accuracy. The identified articles were systematically assessed by an ASHA-appointed committee employing a modification of the critical appraisal of diagnostic evidence rating system. Results One hundred articles met the search criteria. The majority of studies investigated acoustic measures (60%) and focused on how well a test method identified the presence or absence of a voice disorder (78%). Only 17 of the 100 articles were judged to contain adequate evidence for the measures studied to ...

1. To assess the accuracy of the gestation-adjusted projection method in estimating birth weight in Thai pregnant women. 2. To determine the efficiency of the gestation-adjusted projection method for the detection of low actual birth weight, normal birth weight, and large fetus groups. Diagnostic clinical trial. The present study was conducted on 328 uncomplicated pregnancies that were monitored at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Charoenkrung Pracharuk Hospital during the period of August I to November 30, 2006. The fetal biometry was measured by ultrasound at 34 weeks' gestation or after Fetal weight was calculated according to Hadlock's formula. The extrapolation technique is based on the gestation-adjusted projection (GAP) method. The accuracy of the method was assessed by analyzing the weight predictions in relation to the actual birth weight (ABW). Main outcome measurements were simple error absolute error absolute percentage error and accuracy within 10% o...

Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) is a technology that has been used for years with the variety of applications including the production of digital terrain models (DTMs), and high-accuracy mapping. LiDAR offers a very detailed collection of 3-D point clouds of the earth surface which can be used in generating orthophotos. Traditional orthophoto production based on the DTM has to

The increasing demand for up-to-date 3-D geographic information systems (GIS) in planning, transportation, and utility management applications poses significant challenges to the Geomatics community. Of all the challenges in acquiring, building, maintaining, and using GIS, none is more central than that of dala acquisition. Obtaining the required spatial and attribute data by conventional methods such as aerial photogrammetry and terrestrial surveying is expensive, slow, or inaccurate. These methods are, therefore, not well suited for rapid updating. Fortunately, however, the development of land-based mobile mapping systems (MMS) has opened a new avenue to meet these challenges. Land-based MMS are capable of providing fast, efficient, cost-effective and complete data acquisition. As such, they are an innovative technology for creating and updating 3-D GIS databases both quickly and inexpensively. Basically, MMS are based on integrated navigation systems, mainly the integration of GP...

In silico experimentation has opened new ways to analyze biological systems behavior under different conditions. The incorporation of an outer optimization loop may help to find the right operation conditions to achieve specific goals (maximization of a given product concentration, minimization of process energy/time, etc.). Mathematically, this is stated as a dynamic optimization problem being particularly challenging when the system is described by nonlinear sets of partial differential equations as well as when constraints are considered. These issues impose a number of difficulties, such as the presence of suboptimal solutions, which call for robust and efficient numerical techniques. In this work, the control vector parametrization approach is combined with reduced order methods and suitable hybrid global optimization methods to overcome such difficulties. The capabilities of this strategy are illustrated considering the solution of two challenging problems: bacterial chemotaxis and the FitzHugh-Nagumo model. The presented methodology can be used for the efficient dynamic optimization of generic distributed biological systems.

The results of several research eld studies were evaluated to estimate the precision and bias of various designated PM 2:5 Federal Reference Method (FRM) samplers. Precision was favorable in these carefully conducted research studies where all operational activities were strictly controlled, with an average coef cient of variation (CV) ranging from 2 to 6%. No signi cant bias was found between the method designations. Comparisons between the designated reference method samplers meet the EPA Equivalent Method Criteria for comparability except for one pair of samplers. In this instance, the y-intercept of the Andersen RAAS2.5-300 versus the Rupprecht & Patashnick Partisol-Plus 2025 was 1.07 ¹g/m 3 , slightly exceeding the y-intercept 1.0 ¹g/m 3 limit. Nondesignated PM 2:5 samplers demonstrated strong linear relationships when compared to reference method samplers; however, the comparisons presented in this analysis did not meet the EPA Subpart C criteria. These results indicate that the currently designated reference method samplers should allow precision and bias objectives to be achieved for the National PM 2:5 Network.

This study focuses on developing methodologies to predict the service life of a pavement marking material based on its retroreflectivity. Data from the 2002 National Transportation Product Evaluation Program (NTPEP) pavement marking material test deck in Mississippi are used for model development and model validation. The smoothing spline method and time series modeling are applied to estimate the service lives of different types of materials based on the assumption of a required minimum retroreflectivity value. The same models can also predict the retroreflectivity values at future times for a pavement marking product based on its retroreflectivity values in the past. The validation of the models shows satisfactory accuracy. As demonstrated in a case study, the predicted service lives of the marking materials can be used in life-cycle cost comparisons for selecting pavement marking material.

Solar energy applications require readily available, site-oriented, and long-term solar data. However, the frequent unavailability of diffuse irradiation, in contrast to its need, has led to the evolution of various regression models to predict it from the more commonly available data. Estimating the diffuse component from global radiation is one such technique. The present work focuses on improvement in the accuracy of the models for predicting horizontal diffuse irradiation using hourly solar radiation database from nine sites across the globe. The influence of sunshine fraction, cloud cover, and air mass on estimation of diffuse radiation is investigated. Inclusion of these along with hourly clearness index, leads to the development of a series of models for each site. Estimated values of hourly diffuse radiation are compared with measured values in terms of error statistics and indicators like, R2, mean bias deviation, root mean square deviation, skewness, and kurtosis. A new me...

This paper focuses on respiratory phase detection and classification without the help of the airflow measurements. Instead of using the airflow measurements to identify breathing phases, the proposed work depends on advanced digital signal processing techniques to process the acoustic signal of respiration that was collected using a microphone placed in front of the subject's nose. The recorded signal is processed using the voicedunvoiced algorithm to differentiate between the voiced period and the unvoiced (silence) period. The desired features are extracted from each voiced phase. Finally, support vector machine is used to distinguish between the inspiration and the expiration phases according to the extracted features. The signals were recorded from a number of subjects who do not have a history of pulmonary diseases. The proposed method has achieved an accuracy of 95% when tested on the subjects.

Among 30 Hong Kong Chinese fourth graders, sensitivities to character and word constructions were examined in judgment tasks at each level. There were three conditions across both tasks: the real condition, consisting of either actual two-character compound Chinese words or real Chinese compound characters; the reversed condition, with either the order of the two morphemes in the word or the order of the semantic and phonetic radicals in the character reversed; and the random condition, with either two morphemes randomly combined to create arbitrary nonwords or a semantic radical and a phonetic radical randomly combined using correct orthographic rules to create noncharacters. On the word level, children performed worst in the reversed condition and best with real words, whereas on the character level, children performed worst in the random condition and best in the reversed condition. Findings imply a holistic tendency toward word-level processing and an analytic approach to character-level processing in these Chinese children.