A 3D computer assisted Orthopedic Surgery Planning approach based on planar radiography

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Engenharia Biomédica (área de especialização em Informática Médica)

Development of a data acquisition system to characterise sustainable energy technologies and to support Web-Based learning (DAQ-WBL)

Driven by concerns about rising energy costs, security of supply and climate change a new wave of Sustainable Energy Technologies (SET’s) have been embraced by the Irish consumer. Such systems as solar collectors, heat pumps and biomass boilers have become common due to government backed financial incentives and revisions of the building regulations. However, there is a deficit of knowledge and understanding of how these technologies operate and perform under Ireland’s maritime climate. This AQ-WBL project was designed to address both these needs by developing a Data Acquisition (DAQ) system to monitor the performance of such technologies and a web-based learning environment to disseminate performance characteristics and supplementary information about these systems. A DAQ system consisting of 108 sensors was developed as part of Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology’s (GMIT’s) Centre for the Integration of Sustainable EnergyTechnologies (CiSET) in an effort to benchmark the performance of solar thermal collectors and Ground Source Heat Pumps (GSHP’s) under Irish maritime climate, research new methods of integrating these systems within the built environment and raise awareness of SET’s. It has operated reliably for over 2 years and has acquired over 25 million data points. Raising awareness of these SET’s is carried out through the dissemination of the performance data through an online learning environment. A learning environment was created to provide different user groups with a basic understanding of a SET’s with the support of performance data, through a novel 5 step learning process and two examples were developed for the solar thermal collectors and the weather station which can be viewed at http://www.kdp 1 .aquaculture.ie/index.aspx. This online learning environment has been demonstrated to and well received by different groups of GMIT’s undergraduate students and plans have been made to develop it further to support education, awareness, research and regional development.

Computer integrated testing for the transport refrigeration systems industry.

This is a study of a state of the art implementation of a new computer integrated testing (CIT) facility within a company that designs and manufactures transport refrigeration systems. The aim was to use state of the art hardware, software and planning procedures in the design and implementation of three CIT systems. Typical CIT system components include data acquisition (DAQ) equipment, application and analysis software, communication devices, computer-based instrumentation and computer technology. It is shown that the introduction of computer technology into the area of testing can have a major effect on such issues as efficiency, flexibility, data accuracy, test quality, data integrity and much more. Findings reaffirm how the overall area of computer integration continues to benefit any organisation, but with more recent advances in computer technology, communication methods and software capabilities, less expensive more sophisticated test solutions are now possible. This allows more organisations to benefit from the many advantages associated with CIT. Examples of computer integration test set-ups and the benefits associated with computer integration have been discussed.

Supportive presentation for computer games

Supportive presentation, computer games, non-photorealistic rendering camera control, camera AI, human factors, user interfaces, action summary, action replay, non-photorealistic rendering case studies, psychology

Frame-coherent 3D stippling for non-photorealistic computer graphics

Stipping, non-photorealistic rendering, non-photorealistic computer graphics

Development and implementation of an integrated technical management system

Quality Management, Integrated Technical Management Systems, ITMS, Technical Elements, Environment, Occupational Health and safety, OH&S, Standards, ISO, General Regulations, Integration, Management Functions, Computer Centre, Suc-cess Concepts, Documentation, PCT, QMS, EMS, OH&S-MS, Portioning, Evaluation, Technical Cycle, Technical Compliance, Framework

Embedding metadata in computer graphics for interaction

Illustration Watermarks, Image annotation, Virtual data exploration, Interaction techniques

Children, computer and creativity : usability guidelines for designing a game authoring tool for children

Magdeburg, Univ., Fak. für Informatik, Diss., 2009

Virtual Reality zur Untersuchung neuronaler Prozesse : Entwicklung und Validierung einer adaptiven Hirn-Computer-Schnittstelle zur dynamischen Interaktion mit Virtual Reality Paradigmen

Magdeburg, Univ., Fak. für Informatik, Diss., 2013

Computer-aided detection of cerebral aneurysms in angiographies

Magdeburg, Univ., Fak. für Informatik, Diss., 2013

Computer-assisted motion compensation and analysis of perfusion ultrasound data

Magdeburg, Univ., Fak. für Informatik, Diss., 2014

Kernspintomographische Untersuchung zur Bedeutung von Rückmeldungen in der Mensch-Computer-Interaktion

Magdeburg, Univ., Fak. für Naturwiss., Diss., 2015

Model-based diagnosis system: application to constructed wetlands

Report for the scientific sojourn carried out at the Model-based Systems and Qualitative Reasoning Group (Technical University of Munich), from September until December 2005. Constructed wetlands (CWs), or modified natural wetlands, are used all over the world as wastewater treatment systems for small communities because they can provide high treatment efficiency with low energy consumption and low construction, operation and maintenance costs. Their treatment process is very complex because it includes physical, chemical and biological mechanisms like microorganism oxidation, microorganism reduction, filtration, sedimentation and chemical precipitation. Besides, these processes can be influenced by different factors. In order to guarantee the performance of CWs, an operation and maintenance program must be defined for each Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP). The main objective of this project is to provide a computer support to the definition of the most appropriate operation and maintenance protocols to guarantee the correct performance of CWs. To reach them, the definition of models which represent the knowledge about CW has been proposed: components involved in the sanitation process, relation among these units and processes to remove pollutants. Horizontal Subsurface Flow CWs are chosen as a case study and the filtration process is selected as first modelling-process application. However, the goal is to represent the process knowledge in such a way that it can be reused for other types of WWTP.

Benchmarking therapeutic drug monitoring software: A review of available computer tools

Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) aims to optimize treatments by individualizing dosage regimens based on the measurement of blood concentrations. Dosage individualization to maintain concentrations within a target range requires pharmacokinetic and clinical capabilities. Bayesian calculations currently represent the gold standard TDM approach but require computation assistance. In recent decades computer programs have been developed to assist clinicians in this assignment. The aim of this survey was to assess and compare computer tools designed to support TDM clinical activities. The literature and the Internet were searched to identify software. All programs were tested on personal computers. Each program was scored against a standardized grid covering pharmacokinetic relevance, user friendliness, computing aspects, interfacing and storage. A weighting factor was applied to each criterion of the grid to account for its relative importance. To assess the robustness of the software, six representative clinical vignettes were processed through each of them. Altogether, 12 software tools were identified, tested and ranked, representing a comprehensive review of the available software. Numbers of drugs handled by the software vary widely (from two to 180), and eight programs offer users the possibility of adding new drug models based on population pharmacokinetic analyses. Bayesian computation to predict dosage adaptation from blood concentration (a posteriori adjustment) is performed by ten tools, while nine are also able to propose a priori dosage regimens, based only on individual patient covariates such as age, sex and bodyweight. Among those applying Bayesian calculation, MM-USC*PACK© uses the non-parametric approach. The top two programs emerging from this benchmark were MwPharm© and TCIWorks. Most other programs evaluated had good potential while being less sophisticated or less user friendly. Programs vary in complexity and might not fit all healthcare settings. Each software tool must therefore be regarded with respect to the individual needs of hospitals or clinicians. Programs should be easy and fast for routine activities, including for non-experienced users. Computer-assisted TDM is gaining growing interest and should further improve, especially in terms of information system interfacing, user friendliness, data storage capability and report generation.

Towards an emotion-driven interactive music system: ridging the gaps between affect, physiology and sound generation

Report for the scientific sojourn at the Stanford University from January until June 2007. Music is well known for affecting human emotional states, yet the relationship between specific musical parameters and emotional responses is still not clear. With the advent of new human-computer interaction (HCI) technologies, it is now possible to derive emotion-related information from physiological data and use it as an input to interactive music systems. Providing such implicit musical HCI will be highly relevant for a number of applications including music therapy, diagnosis, nteractive gaming, and physiologically-based musical instruments. A key question in such physiology-based compositions is how sound synthesis parameters can be mapped to emotional states of valence and arousal. We used both verbal and heart rate responses to evaluate the affective power of five musical parameters. Our results show that a significant correlation exists between heart rate and the subjective evaluation of well-defined musical parameters. Brightness and loudness showed to be arousing parameters on subjective scale while harmonicity and even partial attenuation factor resulted in heart rate changes typically associated to valence. This demonstrates that a rational approach to designing emotion-driven music systems for our public installations and music therapy applications is possible.