Biomechanical wall properties of human intracranial aneurysms resected following surgical clipping (IRRAs Project)

Background and purpose: Individual rupture risk assessment of intracranial aneurysms is a major issue in the clinical management of asymptomatic aneurysms. Aneurysm rupture occurs when wall tension exceeds the strength limit of the wall tissue. At present, aneurysmal wall mechanics are poorly understood and thus, risk assessment involving mechanical properties is inexistent. Aneurysm computational hemodynamics studies make the assumption of rigid walls, an arguable simplification. We therefore aim to assess mechanical properties of ruptured and unruptured intracranial aneurysms in order to provide the foundation for future patient-specific aneurysmal risk assessment. This work also challenges some of the currently held hypotheses in computational flow hemodynamics research. Methods: A specific conservation protocol was applied to aneurysmal tissues following clipping and resection in order to preserve their mechanical properties. Sixteen intracranial aneurysms (11 female, 5 male) underwent mechanical uniaxial stress tests under physiological conditions, temperature, and saline isotonic solution. These represented 11 unruptured and 5 ruptured aneurysms. Stress/strain curves were then obtained for each sample, and a fitting algorithm was applied following a 3-parameter (C(10), C(01), C(11)) Mooney-Rivlin hyperelastic model. Each aneurysm was classified according to its biomechanical properties and (un)rupture status.Results: Tissue testing demonstrated three main tissue classes: Soft, Rigid, and Intermediate. All unruptured aneurysms presented a more Rigid tissue than ruptured or pre-ruptured aneurysms within each gender subgroup. Wall thickness was not correlated to aneurysmal status (ruptured/unruptured). An Intermediate subgroup of unruptured aneurysms with softer tissue characteristic was identified and correlated with multiple documented risk factors of rupture. Conclusion: There is a significant modification in biomechanical properties between ruptured aneurysm, presenting a soft tissue and unruptured aneurysms, presenting a rigid material. This finding strongly supports the idea that a biomechanical risk factor based assessment should be utilized in the to improve the therapeutic decision making.

Web-based Implementation of Winter Maintenance Decision Support System Using GIS and Remote Sensing, May 2005

Winter maintenance, particularly snow removal and the stress of snow removal materials on public structures, is an enormous budgetary burden on municipalities and nongovernmental maintenance organizations in cold climates. Lately, geospatial technologies such as remote sensing, geographic information systems (GIS), and decision support tools are roviding a valuable tool for planning snow removal operations. A few researchers recently used geospatial technologies to develop winter maintenance tools. However, most of these winter maintenance tools, while having the potential to address some of these information needs, are not typically placed in the hands of planners and other interested stakeholders. Most tools are not constructed with a nontechnical user in mind and lack an easyto-use, easily understood interface. A major goal of this project was to implement a web-based Winter Maintenance Decision Support System (WMDSS) that enhances the capacity of stakeholders (city/county planners, resource managers, transportation personnel, citizens, and policy makers) to evaluate different procedures for managing snow removal assets optimally. This was accomplished by integrating geospatial analytical techniques (GIS and remote sensing), the existing snow removal asset management system, and webbased spatial decision support systems. The web-based system was implemented using the ESRI ArcIMS ActiveX Connector and related web technologies, such as Active Server Pages, JavaScript, HTML, and XML. The expert knowledge on snow removal procedures is gathered and integrated into the system in the form of encoded business rules using Visual Rule Studio. The system developed not only manages the resources but also provides expert advice to assist complex decision making, such as routing, optimal resource allocation, and monitoring live weather information. This system was developed in collaboration with Black Hawk County, IA, the city of Columbia, MO, and the Iowa Department of transportation. This product was also demonstrated for these agencies to improve the usability and applicability of the system.

GENCODE: the reference human genome annotation for The ENCODE Project.

The GENCODE Consortium aims to identify all gene features in the human genome using a combination of computational analysis, manual annotation, and experimental validation. Since the first public release of this annotation data set, few new protein-coding loci have been added, yet the number of alternative splicing transcripts annotated has steadily increased. The GENCODE 7 release contains 20,687 protein-coding and 9640 long noncoding RNA loci and has 33,977 coding transcripts not represented in UCSC genes and RefSeq. It also has the most comprehensive annotation of long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) loci publicly available with the predominant transcript form consisting of two exons. We have examined the completeness of the transcript annotation and found that 35% of transcriptional start sites are supported by CAGE clusters and 62% of protein-coding genes have annotated polyA sites. Over one-third of GENCODE protein-coding genes are supported by peptide hits derived from mass spectrometry spectra submitted to Peptide Atlas. New models derived from the Illumina Body Map 2.0 RNA-seq data identify 3689 new loci not currently in GENCODE, of which 3127 consist of two exon models indicating that they are possibly unannotated long noncoding loci. GENCODE 7 is publicly available from gencodegenes.org and via the Ensembl and UCSC Genome Browsers.

Sequential estimation of multipath MIMO-OFDM channels

Wireless “MIMO” systems, employing multiple transmit and receive antennas, promise a significant increase of channel capacity, while orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) is attracting a good deal of attention due to its robustness to multipath fading. Thus, the combination of both techniques is an attractive proposition for radio transmission. The goal of this paper is the description and analysis of a new and novel pilot-aided estimator of multipath block-fading channels. Typical models leading to estimation algorithms assume the number of multipath components and delays to be constant (and often known), while their amplitudes are allowed to vary with time. Our estimator is focused instead on the more realistic assumption that the number of channel taps is also unknown and varies with time following a known probabilistic model. The estimation problem arising from these assumptions is solved using Random-Set Theory (RST), whereby one regards the multipath-channel response as a single set-valued random entity.Within this framework, Bayesian recursive equations determine the evolution with time of the channel estimator. Due to the lack of a closed form for the solution of Bayesian equations, a (Rao–Blackwellized) particle filter (RBPF) implementation ofthe channel estimator is advocated. Since the resulting estimator exhibits a complexity which grows exponentially with the number of multipath components, a simplified version is also introduced. Simulation results describing the performance of our channel estimator demonstrate its effectiveness.

Determination and Evaluation of Alternative Methods for Managing and Controlling Highway-Related Dust Phase II—Demonstration Project, June 2005

The State of Iowa currently has approximately 69,000 miles of unpaved secondary roads. Due to the low traffic count on these unpaved o nts as ng e two dust ed d roads, paving with asphalt or Portland cement concrete is not economical. Therefore to reduce dust production, the use of dust suppressants has been utilized for decades. This study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of several widely used dust suppressants through quantitative field testing on two of Iowa’s most widely used secondary road surface treatments: crushed limestone rock and alluvial sand/gravel. These commercially available dust suppressants included: lignin sulfonate, calcium chloride, and soybean oil soapstock. These suppressants were applied to 1000 ft test sections on four unpaved roads in Story County, Iowa. Tduplicate field conditions, the suppressants were applied as a surface spray once in early June and again in late August or early September. The four unpaved roads included two with crushed limestone rock and two with alluvial sand/gravel surface treatmewell as high and low traffic counts. The effectiveness of the dust suppressants was evaluated by comparing the dust produced on treated and untreated test sections. Dust collection was scheduled for 1, 2, 4, 6, and 8 weeks after each application, for a total testiperiod of 16 weeks. Results of a cost analysis between annual dust suppressant application and biennial aggregate replacement indicated that the cost of the dust suppressant, its transportation, and application were relatively high when compared to that of thaggregate types. Therefore, the biennial aggregate replacement is considered more economical than annual dust suppressant application, although the application of annual dust suppressant reduced the cost of road maintenance by 75 %. Results of thecollection indicated that the lignin sulfonate suppressant outperformed calcium chloride and soybean oil soapstock on all four unpavroads, the effect of the suppressants on the alluvial sand/gravel surface treatment was less than that on the crushed limestone rock, the residual effects of all the products seem reasonably well after blading, and the combination of alluvial sand/gravel surface treatment anhigh traffic count caused dust reduction to decrease dramatically.

Goal recognition over POMDPs: inferring the intention of a POMDP agent

Plan recognition is the problem of inferring the goals and plans of an agent from partial observations of her behavior. Recently, it has been shown that the problem can be formulated and solved usingplanners, reducing plan recognition to plan generation.In this work, we extend this model-basedapproach to plan recognition to the POMDP setting, where actions are stochastic and states are partially observable. The task is to infer a probability distribution over the possible goals of an agent whose behavior results from a POMDP model. The POMDP model is shared between agent and observer except for the true goal of the agent that is hidden to the observer. The observations are action sequences O that may contain gaps as some or even most of the actions done by the agent may not be observed. We show that the posterior goal distribution P(GjO) can be computed from the value function VG(b) over beliefs b generated by the POMDPplanner for each possible goal G. Some extensionsof the basic framework are discussed, and a numberof experiments are reported.

Desenvolupament en Moodle d’eines d’autoaprenentatge i avaluació continua en les àrees de Física i Matemàtiques

Aquesta comunicació presenta el projecte Aula de Tests desenvolupat com a suport en el desplegament de les assignatures de física i matemàtiques de primer curs dels estudis d'enginyeria de l’Escola Superior Politècnica de la Universitat Pompeu Fabra. El projecte té com a objectiu dissenyar eines d'auto aprenentatge i d'avaluació contínua accessible on-line a través de l'entorn Moodle per a afavorir el procés d'aprenentatge de l’estudiant. El context d’aquesta experiència es caracteritzaper la inherent dificultat dels estudis d’enginyeria, pel fet que molts estudiants entren a la universitat amb mancances substancials de coneixements en aquestes àrees així com la heterogeneïtat en quant a la formació pre-universitària. S’hi descriuen lescaracterístiques de les activitats programades i el context on s’han aplicat i es presenten els resultats de satisfacció, participació i notes que aporten informació útil al professorat per a adequar la planificació i les activitats els cursos següents.

Towards a user-friendly webservice architecture for statistical machine translation in the PANACEA project

This paper presents a webservice architecture for Statistical Machine Translation aimed at non-technical users. A workfloweditor allows a user to combine different webservices using a graphical user interface. In the current state of this project,the webservices have been implemented for a range of sentential and sub-sententialaligners. The advantage of a common interface and a common data format allows the user to build workflows exchanging different aligners.

MVD Quarterly Report on Building Project, 2nd Quarter, FY06

A quarterly report from the Iowa Department of Transportation regarding building project status.

Motor Vehicle Division Quarterly Report on Building Project 3rd Quarter, FY 06

A quarterly report from the Iowa Department of Transportation regarding the Motor Vehicle Division building project status.

Yhteistoiminnallinen hoitotyö

Opinnäytetyön tarkoituksena on selvittää, mitä on yhteistoiminnallinen hoitotyö. Opinnäyteytössä määritellään yhteistoiminnallisen hoitotyön käsite ja sisältö. Työssä on tarkasteltu yhteistoiminnallisuutta selittäviä käsitteitä. Opinnäytetyö on osa laajempaa projektia, jossa on mukana HUS:n Psykiatriakeskus, Helsingin kaupungin terveyskeskuksen psykiatrian osasto sekä Helsingin ammattikorkeakoulu Stadia. Projekin tarkoituksena on kehittää psykiatrisen hoitotyön käytäntöä yhteistoiminnalliseksi. Opinnäytetyö on tehty soveltaen systemaattisen kirjallisuuskatsauksen mallia. Aineisto koostuu yhteensä kolmestatoista lähteestä. Mukana on väitöskirjoja, pro gradu- tutkielmia sekä tutkimusartikkeleita, jotka on julkaistu hoitotieteellisissä julkaisuissa. Kirjallisuuskatsauksen tuloksina nousi esiin, että yhteistoiminnallinen hoitotyö on potilaan ja hoitajan välistä yhteistyötä. Se on potilaslähtöinen tapa tehdä hoitotyötä, jossa otetaan huomioon potilaan voimavarat ja tarpeet. Potilas on vastuullinen osallistuja. Jokainen hoitoon osallistuva määrittelee hoidon tavoitteen ja kukin osallistuu siihen tasavertaisesti. Yhteistoiminnallisuuteen kuuluu molemminpuolinen luottamus. Kaikki osapuolet vaikuttuvat toisistaan ja dialogisuuden avulla voidana löytää uusia näkökulmia hoitoon. Yhteistoiminnallisuus on uusi käsite hoitotyössä. Sen ymmärtäminen ja toteutuminen vaatii hoitotyön tekijöiden perehdyttämistä syvällisemmin aiheeseen. Se vaatii potilaalta mahdollisuutta osallistua voimavarojensa mukaan hoitoon. Yhteistoiminnallisen hoitotyön avulla voidaan motivoida potilasta aktiivisempaan rooliin omassa hoidossaan.

Yksittäistuotannon ohjattavuusanalyysi

Tässä työssä tutkitaan Merima Oy:n tuotantolaitoksen toimintaa ohjattavuusanalyysillä. Työn tarkoituksena on etsiä potentiaalisia kehityskohteita yrityksen tuotannosta. Yrityksen tuotanto on muutospaineessa ja se tarvitsee kvantitatiivista informaatiota kehityksen suunnannäyttäjäksi. Työ aloitettiin jalostamalla yrityksen tuotannonohjausjärjestelmästä saatava data analysoitavaan muotoon. Tämän jälkeen päätettiin analyysityypeistä, joita työssä käytetään. Analyysivaiheessa jalostettu data saatettiin informoivaan muotoon, jonka jälkeen voitiin analysoida tuloksia ja tehdä johtopäätöksiä. Työn tuloksena saadaan joukko kehityskohteita, joihin kehityspanos tulisi fokusoida. Lisäksi raportin lopussa pohditaan keinoja kehityskohteiden parantamiseksi.

Final Report for the Iowa Livestock Industry Waste Characterization and Methane Recovery Information Dissemination Project, 2003

The Iowa livestock industry generates large quantities of manure and other organic residues; composed of feces, urine, bedding material, waste feed, dilution water, and mortalities. Often viewed as a waste material, little has been done to characterize and determine the usefulness of this resource. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources initiated the process to assess in detail the manure resource and the potential utilization of this resource through anaerobic digestion coupled with energy recovery. Many of the pieces required to assess the manure resource already exist, albeit in disparate forms and locations. This study began by interpreting and integrating existing Federal, State, ISU studies, and other sources of livestock numbers, housing, and management information. With these data, models were analyzed to determine energy production and economic feasibility of energy recovery using anaerobic digestion facilities on livestock faxms. Having these data individual facilities and clusters that appear economically feasible can be identified specifically through the use of a GIs system for further investigation. Also livestock facilities and clusters of facilities with high methane recovery potential can be the focus of targeted educational programs through Cooperative Extension network and other outreach networks, providing a more intensive counterpoint to broadly based educational efforts.