A robust tri-state election algorithm for scalable applications

Existing election algorithms suffer limited scalability. This limit stems from the communication design which in turn stems from their fundamentally two-state behaviour. This paper presents a new election algorithm specifically designed to be highly scalable in broadcast networks whilst allowing any processing node to become coordinator with initially equal probability. To achieve this, careful attention has been paid to the communication design, and an additional state has been introduced. The design of the tri-state election algorithm has been motivated by the requirements analysis of a major research project to deliver robust scalable distributed applications, including load sharing, in hostile computing environments in which it is common for processing nodes to be rebooted frequently without notice. The new election algorithm is based in-part on a simple 'emergent' design. The science of emergence is of great relevance to developers of distributed applications because it describes how higher-level self-regulatory behaviour can arise from many participants following a small set of simple rules. The tri-state election algorithm is shown to have very low communication complexity in which the number of messages generated remains loosely-bounded regardless of scale for large systems; is highly scalable because nodes in the idle state do not transmit any messages; and because of its self-organising characteristics, is very stable.

Investigation into a modular rule-based testing method for testing business rules in scheduling applications

Rule testing in transport scheduling is a complex and potentially costly business problem. This paper proposes an automated method for the rule-based testing of business rules using the extensible Markup Language for rule representation and transportation. A compiled approach to rule execution is also proposed for performance-critical scheduling systems.

Production of ion beams in high-power laser-plasma interactions and their applications

Energetic ion beams are produced during the interaction of ultrahigh-intensity, short laser pulses with plasmas. These laser-produced ion beams have important applications ranging from the fast ignition of thermonuclear targets to proton imaging, deep proton lithography, medical physics, and injectors for conventional accelerators. Although the basic physical mechanisms of ion beam generation in the plasma produced by the laser pulse interaction with the target are common to all these applications, each application requires a specific optimization of the ion beam properties, that is, an appropriate choice of the target design and of the laser pulse intensity, shape, and duration.

Metal organic frameworks as NO delivery materials for biological applications

Metal organic frameworks (MOFs) are highly porous materials that can store significant amounts of gas, including nitric oxide. The chemical composition and toxicology of many (but not all) of these materials makes them potentially suitable for medical applications. In this paper, we will describe how triggered release methods can be used to deliver biologically relevant amounts of NO and then show how Ni, Co and Cu-containing MOFs are biologically active materials with potential applications in several different areas (anti-thrombosis, dermatology and wound healing, anti-bacterial, vasodilation etc.). We will also discuss the pros and cons of MOFs, including their chemical and biological stability and the toxicology of MOFs in general. (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Multi-centre research in Australia:analysis of a recent National Health and Medical Research Council-funded project

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Human research ethics committees provide essential review of research projects to ensure the ethical conduct of human research. Several recent reports have highlighted a complex process for successful application for human research ethics committee approval, particularly for multi-centre studies. Limited resources are available for the execution of human clinical research in Australia and around the world.

METHODS: This report overviews the process of ethics approval for a National Health and Medical Research Council-funded multi-centre study in Australia, focussing on the time and resource implications of such applications in 2007 and 2008.

RESULTS: Applications were submitted to 16 hospital and two university human research ethics committees. The total time to gain final approval from each committee ranged between 13 and 77 days (median = 46 days); the entire process took 16 months to complete and the research officer's time was estimated to cost $A34 143.

CONCLUSIONS: Obstacles to timely human research ethics committee approval are reviewed, including recent, planned and potential initiatives that could improve the ethics approval of multi-centre research.

2011-Application of ultrasound for sonodynamic photocatalysis

Ultrasound has long been recognized as a means of effecting change at the cellular and tissue levels [1-3], which may be enhanced in the presence of photosensitive agents [4-6]. During insonation, the presence of bubbles can also play a role, creating strong microstreaming effects in solution and in more dramatic circumstances leading to the formation of energetic microjets [7], plasmas [8], and the production of other highly reactive species [9]. Such sonodynamic activity has generated particular excitement in the medical community as it Moreover the dual role for microbubbles as both an adjunct to therapy and a diagnostic echogenicity enhancer has seen industry take a proactive role in their development. In the present paper we studied the role of ultrasound driven sonoluminescent light on the degradation of a fluorescent test species (rhodamine) in the presence of an archetypal photocatalyst material, TiO ₂, with a view to exploring its exploitation potential for downstream medical applications. We found that, whilst the efficiency of this process is seen to be low compared with conventional ultra-violet sources, we advocate the further exploration of the sonoluminescent approach given its potential for non-invasive applications. A strategy for enhancing the effect is also suggested. 

In Situ Gelling Ophthalmic Drug Delivery System: An Overview and Its Applications.

Ophthalmic drug delivery system is very interesting and challenging due to the normal physiologically factor of eyes which reduces the bioavailability of ocular products. The development of a new ophthalmic dosage forms with the existing drugs to improve efficacy and bioavailability including better patients' compliance and convenience has become trend in the most pharmaceutical industries. The present review encompasses various conventional and novel ocular drug delivery systems, methods of preparation, characterization, recent researches carried out. Furthermore, the information on various commercially available in situ gel preparations and the existing patents of in situ drug delivery systems i.e. in situ gel formation of pectin, in situ gel for therapeutic use, medical uses of in situ formed gels and in situ gelling systems as sustained delivery for front of eye also covered in this review.

Medical information extraction in European Portuguese

The electronic storage of medical patient data is becoming a daily experience in most of the practices and hospitals worldwide. However, much of the data available is in free-form text, a convenient way of expressing concepts and events, but especially challenging if one wants to perform automatic searches, summarization or statistical analysis. Information Extraction can relieve some of these problems by offering a semantically informed interpretation and abstraction of the texts. MedInX, the Medical Information eXtraction system presented in this document, is the first information extraction system developed to process textual clinical discharge records written in Portuguese. The main goal of the system is to improve access to the information locked up in unstructured text, and, consequently, the efficiency of the health care process, by allowing faster and reliable access to quality information on health, for both patient and health professionals. MedInX components are based on Natural Language Processing principles, and provide several mechanisms to read, process and utilize external resources, such as terminologies and ontologies, in the process of automatic mapping of free text reports onto a structured representation. However, the flexible and scalable architecture of the system, also allowed its application to the task of Named Entity Recognition on a shared evaluation contest focused on Portuguese general domain free-form texts. The evaluation of the system on a set of authentic hospital discharge letters indicates that the system performs with 95% F-measure, on the task of entity recognition, and 95% precision on the task of relation extraction. Example applications, demonstrating the use of MedInX capabilities in real applications in the hospital setting, are also presented in this document. These applications were designed to answer common clinical problems related with the automatic coding of diagnoses and other health-related conditions described in the documents, according to the international classification systems ICD-9-CM and ICF. The automatic review of the content and completeness of the documents is an example of another developed application, denominated MedInX Clinical Audit system.

Service composition for biomedical applications

A exigente inovação na área das aplicações biomédicas tem guiado a evolução das tecnologias de informação nas últimas décadas. Os desafios associados a uma gestão, integração, análise e interpretação eficientes dos dados provenientes das mais modernas tecnologias de hardware e software requerem um esforço concertado. Desde hardware para sequenciação de genes a registos electrónicos de paciente, passando por pesquisa de fármacos, a possibilidade de explorar com precisão os dados destes ambientes é vital para a compreensão da saúde humana. Esta tese engloba a discussão e o desenvolvimento de melhores estratégias informáticas para ultrapassar estes desafios, principalmente no contexto da composição de serviços, incluindo técnicas flexíveis de integração de dados, como warehousing ou federação, e técnicas avançadas de interoperabilidade, como serviços web ou LinkedData. A composição de serviços é apresentada como um ideal genérico, direcionado para a integração de dados e para a interoperabilidade de software. Relativamente a esta última, esta investigação debruçou-se sobre o campo da farmacovigilância, no contexto do projeto Europeu EU-ADR. As contribuições para este projeto, um novo standard de interoperabilidade e um motor de execução de workflows, sustentam a sucesso da EU-ADR Web Platform, uma plataforma para realizar estudos avançados de farmacovigilância. No contexto do projeto Europeu GEN2PHEN, esta investigação visou ultrapassar os desafios associados à integração de dados distribuídos e heterogéneos no campo do varíoma humano. Foi criada uma nova solução, WAVe - Web Analyses of the Variome, que fornece uma coleção rica de dados de variação genética através de uma interface Web inovadora e de uma API avançada. O desenvolvimento destas estratégias evidenciou duas oportunidades claras na área de software biomédico: melhorar o processo de implementação de software através do recurso a técnicas de desenvolvimento rápidas e aperfeiçoar a qualidade e disponibilidade dos dados através da adopção do paradigma de web semântica. A plataforma COEUS atravessa as fronteiras de integração e interoperabilidade, fornecendo metodologias para a aquisição e tradução flexíveis de dados, bem como uma camada de serviços interoperáveis para explorar semanticamente os dados agregados. Combinando as técnicas de desenvolvimento rápidas com a riqueza da perspectiva "Semantic Web in a box", a plataforma COEUS é uma aproximação pioneira, permitindo o desenvolvimento da próxima geração de aplicações biomédicas.

Applications of Statistical Modeling in Iterative CT Image Reconstruction

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2015