Find It - An Assistant Home Agent

Cognitive impaired population face with innumerable problems in their daily life. Surprisingly, they are not provided with any help to perform those tasks for which they have difficulties. As a consequence, it is necessary to develop systems that allow those people to live independently and autonomously. Living in a technological era, people could take advantage of the available technology, being provided with some solutions to their needs. This paper presents a platform that assists users with remembering where their possessions are. Mainly, an object recognition process together with an intelligent scheduling applications are integrated in an Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) environment.

Estimating Local Part Thickness in Midplane Meshes for Finite Element Analysis

Within the development of motor vehicles, crash safety (e.g. occupant protection, pedestrian protection, low speed damageability), is one of the most important attributes. In order to be able to fulfill the increased requirements in the framework of shorter cycle times and rising pressure to reduce costs, car manufacturers keep intensifying the use of virtual development tools such as those in the domain of Computer Aided Engineering (CAE). For crash simulations, the explicit finite element method (FEM) is applied. The accuracy of the simulation process is highly dependent on the accuracy of the simulation model, including the midplane mesh. One of the roughest approximations typically made is the actual part thickness which, in reality, can vary locally. However, almost always a constant thickness value is defined throughout the entire part due to complexity reasons. On the other hand, for precise fracture analysis within FEM, the correct thickness consideration is one key enabler. Thus, availability of per element thickness information, which does not exist explicitly in the FEM model, can significantly contribute to an improved crash simulation quality, especially regarding fracture prediction. Even though the thickness is not explicitly available from the FEM model, it can be inferred from the original CAD geometric model through geometric calculations. This paper proposes and compares two thickness estimation algorithms based on ray tracing and nearest neighbour 3D range searches. A systematic quantitative analysis of the accuracy of both algorithms is presented, as well as a thorough identification of particular geometric arrangements under which their accuracy can be compared. These results enable the identification of each technique’s weaknesses and hint towards a new, integrated, approach to the problem that linearly combines the estimates produced by each algorithm.

GUI Behavior from Source Code Analysis

When developing interactive applications, considering the correctness of graphical user interfaces (GUIs) code is essential. GUIs are critical components of today's software, and contemporary software tools do not provide enough support for ensuring GUIs' code quality. GUIsurfer, a GUI reverse engineering tool, enables evaluation of behavioral properties of user interfaces. It performs static analysis of GUI code, generating state machines that can help in the evaluation of interactive applications. This paper describes the design, software architecture, and the use of GUIsurfer through an example. The tool is easily re-targetable, and support is available to Java/Swing, and WxHaskell. The paper sets the ground for a generalization effort to consider rich internet applications. It explores the GWT web applications' user interface programming toolkit.

Kidney targeting and puncturing during percutaneous nephrolithotomy: recent advances and future perspectives

Background and Purpose: Precise needle puncture of the kidney is a challenging and essential step for successful percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL). Many devices and surgical techniques have been developed to easily achieve suitable renal access. This article presents a critical review to address the methodologies and techniques for conducting kidney targeting and the puncture step during PCNL. Based on this study, research paths are also provided for PCNL procedure improvement. Methods: Most relevant works concerning PCNL puncture were identified by a search of Medline/PubMed, ISI Web of Science, and Scopus databases from 2007 to December 2012. Two authors independently reviewed the studies. Results: A total of 911 abstracts and 346 full-text articles were assessed and discussed; 52 were included in this review as a summary of the main contributions to kidney targeting and puncturing. Conclusions: Multiple paths and technologic advances have been proposed in the field of urology and minimally invasive surgery to improve PCNL puncture. The most relevant contributions, however, have been provided by the applicationofmedical imaging guidance, newsurgical tools,motion tracking systems, robotics, andimage processing and computer graphics. Despite the multiple research paths for PCNL puncture guidance, no widely acceptable solution has yet been reached, and it remains an active and challenging research field. Future developments should focus on real-time methods, robust and accurate algorithms, and radiation free imaging techniques

Real-time 3D interactive segmentation of echocardiographic data through user-based deformation of B-spline explicit active surfaces

Image segmentation is an ubiquitous task in medical image analysis, which is required to estimate morphological or functional properties of given anatomical targets. While automatic processing is highly desirable, image segmentation remains to date a supervised process in daily clinical practice. Indeed, challenging data often requires user interaction to capture the required level of anatomical detail. To optimize the analysis of 3D images, the user should be able to efficiently interact with the result of any segmentation algorithm to correct any possible disagreement. Building on a previously developed real-time 3D segmentation algorithm, we propose in the present work an extension towards an interactive application where user information can be used online to steer the segmentation result. This enables a synergistic collaboration between the operator and the underlying segmentation algorithm, thus contributing to higher segmentation accuracy, while keeping total analysis time competitive. To this end, we formalize the user interaction paradigm using a geometrical approach, where the user input is mapped to a non-cartesian space while this information is used to drive the boundary towards the position provided by the user. Additionally, we propose a shape regularization term which improves the interaction with the segmented surface, thereby making the interactive segmentation process less cumbersome. The resulting algorithm offers competitive performance both in terms of segmentation accuracy, as well as in terms of total analysis time. This contributes to a more efficient use of the existing segmentation tools in daily clinical practice. Furthermore, it compares favorably to state-of-the-art interactive segmentation software based on a 3D livewire-based algorithm.

Utilização do método Multicritério AHP, na aquisição de um sistema ERP

The selection of an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system is one of the most sensitive and highest impact processes in the area of information systems and technologies, because it supports and integrates the whole business of an organization. Hence the importance of deciding the best solution in order to contribute to the organization's competitiveness in a global and increasingly demanding market. Therefore, it is essential to provide tools to support decision making, turning complex and often intangible decisions into simple and quantifiable scenarios. This study addressed the adoption of the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) multicriteria decision method to support the selection of an ERP system. The literature review was the source used to obtain the set of the most relevant criteria to be considered in this decision, which were subsequently validated through systematic application of various surveys of experts and people related to the field of ERP systems. To support the application of AHP, according to the model obtained in the study, it was developed a web application that will be available to the general public. The responsible for the acquisition of ERP systems can use it to easily apply the AHP method based on validated decision model. On the other hand, the web application can be used as a validation tool, allowing collecting data for future developments of the decision model.

Analysis of the return on preventive measures in musculoskeletal disorders through the benefitecost ratio: A case study in a hospital

Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) are among the most costly health problems that society is facing today. Prevention involves investments and it is important for organizations to make a cost ebenefit analysis of ergonomic projects. Return on prevention is a recent concern in the domain of occupational safety and health (OSH). There are many studies concerning the return on the prevention of WMSDs, in terms of the benefits for the organization in which the preventive measures are implemented. However, it is also important to perform an analysis of the impact of each measure on society (externalities). A model to perform a financial and economic costebenefit analysis related to OSH projects was developed and it was applied in the case of the prevention of WMSDs in a Portuguese hospital. An analysis of the accidents and corresponding costs has been made in six of the services of the hospital. Financial and an economic costebenefit analysis have been made and the benefitecost ratio (B/C) has been calculated. While the B/C financial ratio, considering only the benefits to the hospital, is around 2, the economic B/C ratio, taking into account all the external benefits that have been quantified, is higher than 14. Relevance to industry: Both the economic and the financial B/C ratio are important support tools for decision makers in public and private organizations, helping them to define which preventive measures should be implemented, taking into account the costs involved and the resulting quantified benefits, for the organization, for the workers and for the society.