Uplifted spirits, earthbound machines : studies on artists and the dream of flight, 1900-1935

Doctoral dissertation, Academy of Fine Arts

The PEDRO (Pocketable Electronic Devices in Radiation Oncology) project: how clinical practice is changing among young radiation oncologists.

Purpose. To evaluate the impact of mobile devices and apps on the daily clinical activity of young radiation oncologists. Methods. A web-based questionnaire was sent to 382 young (≤40 years) members of the Italian Association of Radiation Oncology (AIRO). The 14 items investigated the diffusion of mobile devices (smartphones and/or tablets), their impact on daily clinical activity, and possible differences perceived by the participants over time. Results. A total of 158 questionnaires were available for statistical evaluation (response rate 41%). Up to 75% of respondents declared they used an electronic device during their clinical activity. Conversely, 82% considered the impact of smartphones/tables on daily practice low to moderate. Daily device use increased significantly from 2009 to 2012, with high daily use rates rising from 5% to 39.9%. Fulfillment of professional needs was declared by less than 42% of respondents and compliance with app indications by 32%. Almost all physicians desired in 2012 a comprehensive website concerning a variety of apps covering radiation oncologists' needs. Conclusions. Mobile devices are widely used by young Italian radiation oncologists in their daily clinical practice, while the indications so obtained are not always followed. Nevertheless, it would be important to verify the consistency of information found within apps, in order to avoid potential errors that might be detrimental to patients.

Monitoring network optimisation for spatial data classification using support vector machines

The paper presents a novel method for monitoring network optimisation, based on a recent machine learning technique known as support vector machine. It is problem-oriented in the sense that it directly answers the question of whether the advised spatial location is important for the classification model. The method can be used to increase the accuracy of classification models by taking a small number of additional measurements. Traditionally, network optimisation is performed by means of the analysis of the kriging variances. The comparison of the method with the traditional approach is presented on a real case study with climate data.

The new culture of electronic publishing

Local conditions in the past often limited opportunities for scholarly exchange. But now these limits are gone and the global workplace has replaced them. It is important to react to these changes. Every academic department must now adopt new methods and rethink processes. Another is the intense national and international debate about open access to scholarly knowledge. The Open Access Initiative shows that a change is taking place in the communication process. This change is also important for service departments within research institutions. Libraries, computer centers and related units have to ask themselves how to react appropriately to the new conditions. What services must be changed or redeveloped, and in what quality and quantity should they be offered? This article focuses on changes in the scholarly publication process. It describes both technological changes and the changes needed in people's attitudes.

The Brazilian electronic theses and dissertations digital library: providing open access for scholarly information

This paper describes a project led by the Instituto Brasileiro de Informações em Ciência e Tecnologia (Ibict), a government institution, to build a national digital library for electronic theses and dissertations - Bibliteca Digital de Teses e Dissertações (BDTD). The project has been a collaborative effort among Ibict, universities and other research centers in Brazil. The developers adopted a system architecture based on the Open Archives Initiative (OAI) in which universities and research centers act as data providers and Ibict as a service provider. A Brazilian metadata standard for electronic theses and dissertations was developed for the digital library. A toolkit including open source package was also developed by Ibict to be distributed to potential data providers. BDTD has been integrated with the international initiative: the Networked Digital Library of Thesis and Dissertation (NDLTD). Discussions in the paper address various issues related to project design, development and management as well as the role played by Ibict. Conclusions highlight some important lessons learned to date and challenges for the future in expanding the BDTD project.

Individual prediction of cognitive decline in mild cognitive impairment using support vector machine-based analysis of diffusion tensor imaging data.

Although cross-sectional diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) studies revealed significant white matter changes in mild cognitive impairment (MCI), the utility of this technique in predicting further cognitive decline is debated. Thirty-five healthy controls (HC) and 67 MCI subjects with DTI baseline data were neuropsychologically assessed at one year. Among them, there were 40 stable (sMCI; 9 single domain amnestic, 7 single domain frontal, 24 multiple domain) and 27 were progressive (pMCI; 7 single domain amnestic, 4 single domain frontal, 16 multiple domain). Fractional anisotropy (FA) and longitudinal, radial, and mean diffusivity were measured using Tract-Based Spatial Statistics. Statistics included group comparisons and individual classification of MCI cases using support vector machines (SVM). FA was significantly higher in HC compared to MCI in a distributed network including the ventral part of the corpus callosum, right temporal and frontal pathways. There were no significant group-level differences between sMCI versus pMCI or between MCI subtypes after correction for multiple comparisons. However, SVM analysis allowed for an individual classification with accuracies up to 91.4% (HC versus MCI) and 98.4% (sMCI versus pMCI). When considering the MCI subgroups separately, the minimum SVM classification accuracy for stable versus progressive cognitive decline was 97.5% in the multiple domain MCI group. SVM analysis of DTI data provided highly accurate individual classification of stable versus progressive MCI regardless of MCI subtype, indicating that this method may become an easily applicable tool for early individual detection of MCI subjects evolving to dementia.

Iowa Racing & Gaming Annual Report 2013

Annual report to the governor produced by the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission.

Evaluation of the user-friendliness of seven new generation intensive care ventilators.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the user-friendliness and ergonomics of seven new generation intensive care ventilators. DESIGN: Prospective task-performing study. SETTING: Intensive care research laboratory, university hospital. METHODS: Ten physicians experienced in mechanical ventilation, but without prior knowledge of the ventilators, were asked to perform eight specific tasks [turning the ventilator on; recognizing mode and parameters; recognizing and setting alarms; mode change; finding and activating the pre-oxygenation function; pressure support setting; stand-by; finding and activating non-invasive ventilation (NIV) mode]. The time needed for each task was compared to a reference time (by trained physiotherapist familiar with the devices). A time >180 s was considered a task failure. RESULTS: For each of the tests on the ventilators, all physicians' times were significantly higher than the reference time (P < 0.001). A mean of 13 +/- 8 task failures (16%) was observed by the ventilator. The most frequently failed tasks were mode and parameter recognition, starting pressure support and finding the NIV mode. Least often failed tasks were turning on the pre-oxygenation function and alarm recognition and management. Overall, there was substantial heterogeneity between machines, some exhibiting better user-friendliness than others for certain tasks, but no ventilator was clearly better that the others on all points tested. CONCLUSIONS: The present study adds to the available literature outlining the ergonomic shortcomings of mechanical ventilators. These results suggest that closer ties between end-users and manufacturers should be promoted, at an early development phase of these machines, based on the scientific evaluation of the cognitive processes involved by users in the clinical setting.

Electronic Bulletin Board System, HR-345, 1998

The primary objectives of the Electronic Bulletin Board System (BBS) project were to: (1) Provide an electronic communication tool which would link city and county engineering offices to each other and to other governmental agencies for messaging and data sharing; (2) Provide a dial-up site for reference information or files accessible on-demand; and (3) Provide a "stepping stone" to the world of electronic data transfer, recognizing that most local government employees face a huge complex of technology with limited knowledge of computers and communications tools. The system was designed to be as simple as possible, and to require minimal equipment and software cost to the users. The original system was an Apex 386/25 computer with MS-DOS 5.0 software and the final configuration was an HP Vectra XM Pentium 90 with MS-NT 3.51 and Mustang - Wildcat 5.0 software. The users of the BBS were county engineers and their staff, offices in the central office of the Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) and Resident Construction Engineers at the Iowa DOT. Much of the activity was between the county engineers, and their staffs, and the Iowa DOT offices with which they have ongoing business activities. The BBS contained files for mapping, Internet e-mail service, Accident Location Analysis System (ALAS) data, Iowa DOT bid lettings, and Autocad and Intergraph maps and standards. The 800 line calls were recorded and gave the best indication of the usage and the trends that were being followed. The usage tended to be higher in the winter months when design activities are occurring and lower in the summer months when the construction is in progress. The project was judged a success. The BBS did provide a "stepping stone" to the world of electronic data transfer.

Accuracy of out-of-field dose calculation of tomotherapy and cyberknife treatment planning systems: A dosimetric study.

PURPOSE: Late toxicities such as second cancer induction become more important as treatment outcome improves. Often the dose distribution calculated with a commercial treatment planning system (TPS) is used to estimate radiation carcinogenesis for the radiotherapy patient. However, for locations beyond the treatment field borders, the accuracy is not well known. The aim of this study was to perform detailed out-of-field-measurements for a typical radiotherapy treatment plan administered with a Cyberknife and a Tomotherapy machine and to compare the measurements to the predictions of the TPS. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Individually calibrated thermoluminescent dosimeters were used to measure absorbed dose in an anthropomorphic phantom at 184 locations. The measured dose distributions from 6 MV intensity-modulated treatment beams for CyberKnife and TomoTherapy machines were compared to the dose calculations from the TPS. RESULTS: The TPS are underestimating the dose far away from the target volume. Quantitatively the Cyberknife underestimates the dose at 40cm from the PTV border by a factor of 60, the Tomotherapy TPS by a factor of two. If a 50% dose uncertainty is accepted, the Cyberknife TPS can predict doses down to approximately 10 mGy/treatment Gy, the Tomotherapy-TPS down to 0.75 mGy/treatment Gy. The Cyberknife TPS can then be used up to 10cm from the PTV border the Tomotherapy up to 35cm. CONCLUSIONS: We determined that the Cyberknife and Tomotherapy TPS underestimate substantially the doses far away from the treated volume. It is recommended not to use out-of-field doses from the Cyberknife TPS for applications like modeling of second cancer induction. The Tomotherapy TPS can be used up to 35cm from the PTV border (for a 390 cm(3) large PTV).