Minimally invasive surgical video analysis: a powerful tool for surgical training and navigation

Analysis of minimally invasive surgical videos is a powerful tool to drive new solutions for achieving reproducible training programs, objective and transparent assessment systems and navigation tools to assist surgeons and improve patient safety. This paper presents how video analysis contributes to the development of new cognitive and motor training and assessment programs as well as new paradigms for image-guided surgery.

Good and bad practices in pv plants

The PVCROPS project (PhotoVolta ic Cost r€duction, Reliability, Operational performance, Prediction and Simulation), cofinanced by European Commission in the frame of Seventh Framework Programme, has compiled in the “Good and bad practices: Manual to improve the quality and reduce the cost of PV systems” a collection of good and bad practices in actual PV plants . All the situations it collects represent the state-of-the-art of existing PV installations all around Europe. They show how the different parts of an installation can be implem ented properly or not. The aim of this manual is to represent a reference text which can help any PV actor (installers, electricians, maintenance operators, owners, etc.) not only to check and improve an already existing installation but will also, and mainly, avoid the previously known bad practices for the construction of a new PV installation. Thus, solving a priori the known errors, new PV installations will be more reliable, efficient and cost-effective and can recover the initial investment in a shorter time. The manual is going to be free available in the PVCROPS website in several languages.

Minimally invasive surgical video analysis: a powerful tool for surgical training and navigation

Analysis of minimally invasive surgical videos is a powerful tool to drive new solutions for achieving reproducible training programs, objective and transparent assessment systems and navigation tools to assist surgeons and improve patient safety. This paper presents how video analysis contributes to the development of new cognitive and motor training and assessment programs as well as new paradigms for image-guided surgery.

Selection, training and validation process of a sensory panel for bread analysis: Influence of cultivar on the quality of breads made from common wheat and spelta wheat

A protocol of selection, training and validation of the members of the panel for bread sensory analysis is proposed to assess the influence of wheat cultivar on the sensory quality of bread. Three cultivars of bread wheat and two cultivars of spelt wheat organically-grown under the same edaphoclimatic conditions were milled and baked using the same milling and baking procedure. Through the use of triangle tests, differences were identified between the five breads. Significant differences were found between the spelt breads and those made with bread wheat for the attributes ?crumb cell homogeneity? and ?crumb elasticity?. Significant differences were also found for the odor and flavor attributes, with the bread made with ?Espelta Navarra? being the most complex, from a sensory point of view. Based on the results of this study, we propose that sensory properties should be considered as breeding criteria for future work on genetic improvement.

The role of automated feedback in training and retaining biological recorders for citizen science

© 2016 The Authors. Conservation Biology published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Society for Conservation Biology. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Acknowledgments The authors thank H. H. Nguyen for his early development work on the BeeWatch interface; E. O'Mahony, I. Pearce, and R. Comont for identifying numerous photographed bumblebees; B. Darvill, D. Ewing, and G. Perkins for enabling our partnership with the Bumblebee Conservation Trust; and S. Blake for his investments in developing the NLG feedback. The study was part of the Digital Conservation project of dot.rural, the University of Aberdeen's Digital Economy Research Hub, funded by RCUK (grant reference EP/G066051/1).

Global environmental impacts of agricultural expansion: The need for sustainable and efficient practices

The recent intensification of agriculture, and the prospects of future intensification, will have major detrimental impacts on the nonagricultural terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems of the world. The doubling of agricultural food production during the past 35 years was associated with a 6.87-fold increase in nitrogen fertilization, a 3.48-fold increase in phosphorus fertilization, a 1.68-fold increase in the amount of irrigated cropland, and a 1.1-fold increase in land in cultivation. Based on a simple linear extension of past trends, the anticipated next doubling of global food production would be associated with approximately 3-fold increases in nitrogen and phosphorus fertilization rates, a doubling of the irrigated land area, and an 18% increase in cropland. These projected changes would have dramatic impacts on the diversity, composition, and functioning of the remaining natural ecosystems of the world, and on their ability to provide society with a variety of essential ecosystem services. The largest impacts would be on freshwater and marine ecosystems, which would be greatly eutrophied by high rates of nitrogen and phosphorus release from agricultural fields. Aquatic nutrient eutrophication can lead to loss of biodiversity, outbreaks of nuisance species, shifts in the structure of food chains, and impairment of fisheries. Because of aerial redistribution of various forms of nitrogen, agricultural intensification also would eutrophy many natural terrestrial ecosystems and contribute to atmospheric accumulation of greenhouse gases. These detrimental environmental impacts of agriculture can be minimized only if there is much more efficient use and recycling of nitrogen and phosphorus in agroecosystems.

Training and search methods for speech recognition.

Speech recognition involves three processes: extraction of acoustic indices from the speech signal, estimation of the probability that the observed index string was caused by a hypothesized utterance segment, and determination of the recognized utterance via a search among hypothesized alternatives. This paper is not concerned with the first process. Estimation of the probability of an index string involves a model of index production by any given utterance segment (e.g., a word). Hidden Markov models (HMMs) are used for this purpose [Makhoul, J. & Schwartz, R. (1995) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 92, 9956-9963]. Their parameters are state transition probabilities and output probability distributions associated with the transitions. The Baum algorithm that obtains the values of these parameters from speech data via their successive reestimation will be described in this paper. The recognizer wishes to find the most probable utterance that could have caused the observed acoustic index string. That probability is the product of two factors: the probability that the utterance will produce the string and the probability that the speaker will wish to produce the utterance (the language model probability). Even if the vocabulary size is moderate, it is impossible to search for the utterance exhaustively. One practical algorithm is described [Viterbi, A. J. (1967) IEEE Trans. Inf. Theory IT-13, 260-267] that, given the index string, has a high likelihood of finding the most probable utterance.

Exploring How AFFECT (A Family Focused Emotion Communication Training) and Self Psychology Are Mutually Enhancing

This paper implicitly advocates for a rapprochement between psychodynamic and behavioral approaches to psychotherapy, by exploring the similarities and differences between self psychology and A Family Focused Emotion Communication Training (AFFECT), a behavioral parent training model. Self psychology, a theory with broad applicability, has been applied to several modalities besides behavioral ones. Generally speaking, self psychology and AFFECT are both relational approaches to psychotherapy that emphasize the impact of parent responsiveness, more specifically empathic attunement, on a child's emotional development and emotion regulation. Differentiating aspects of each model are identified to enhance the other model. AFFECT has relevance for pushing self psychology theory more in the direction of operations, which has implications for enhancing the research potential of self psychology, as well as for the training of the self-psychologist. Conversely, self psychology has relevance for coaching the parent with low self-esteem and decreased self-efficacy in AFFECT, which has potential implications for AFFECT treatment outcomes.

Industry Professionals Who Attain Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Accreditation: An Examination of Motivations in Human Resource (HR) Training and Development

Despite the economy, the green building industry continues to grow and drive the demand for environmentally conscious, highly skilled professionals (USGBC 2009). LEED Accredited Professionals (APs) have the knowledge and skills to meet such demand; however, information is limited regarding LEED APs or their motivations and expectations toward prospective employers. The author surveyed a sample of LEED Accredited architects and found a combination of job and personal factors motivated them to attain accreditation. LEED APs value both a competitive salary and commitment to sustainability in prospective employers. To attract, retain, and utilize LEED APs, executives in this industry must reexamine corporate culture, their willingness to pay for credentialing, and the alignment of their reputation with the desires of potential applicants.

Manager Training and Development Strategy: A Methodology to Link Strategic Initiatives at Washington and Lee University

Washington and Lee University has developed and implemented a strategic plan and performance development initiative for 2007-2017. In concert with the strategic plan and performance development initiative, supportive manager core competencies have been identified. The deliverable for this capstone project is a documented methodology that supports the strategy for the design and implementation of a manager training and development program that ensures needed competencies are available. The author uses survey data to determine training needs and priorities and, through a review of literature, investigates effective strategies to arrive at a successful implementation methodology. The author presents findings and conclusions regarding design implementation methodology for manager training and development.