Estimation of total body water from bioelectrical impedance analysis in patients with pancreatic cancer - agreement between three methods of prediction

Introduction Bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) is a useful field measure to estimate total body water (TBW). No prediction formulae have been developed or validated against a reference method in patients with pancreatic cancer. The aim of this study was to assess the agreement between three prediction equations for the estimation of TBW in cachectic patients with pancreatic cancer. Methods Resistance was measured at frequencies of 50 and 200 kHz in 18 outpatients (10 males and eight females, age 70.2 +/- 11.8 years) with pancreatic cancer from two tertiary Australian hospitals. Three published prediction formulae were used to calculate TBW - TBWs developed in surgical patients, TBWca-uw and TBWca-nw developed in underweight and normal weight patients with end-stage cancer. Results There was no significant difference in the TBW estimated by the three prediction equations - TBWs 32.9 +/- 8.3 L, TBWca-nw 36.3 +/- 7.4 L, TBWca-uw 34.6 +/- 7.6 L. At a population level, there is agreement between prediction of TBW in patients with pancreatic cancer estimated from the three equations. The best combination of low bias and narrow limits of agreement was observed when TBW was estimated from the equation developed in the underweight cancer patients relative to the normal weight cancer patients. When no established BIA prediction equation exists, practitioners should utilize an equation developed in a population with similar critical characteristics such as diagnosis, weight loss, body mass index and/or age. Conclusions Further research is required to determine the accuracy of the BIA prediction technique against a reference method in patients with pancreatic cancer.

The tree cut and merge algorithm for estimation of network reliability

This article presents Monte Carlo techniques for estimating network reliability. For highly reliable networks, techniques based on graph evolution models provide very good performance. However, they are known to have significant simulation cost. An existing hybrid scheme (based on partitioning the time space) is available to speed up the simulations; however, there are difficulties with optimizing the important parameter associated with this scheme. To overcome these difficulties, a new hybrid scheme (based on partitioning the edge set) is proposed in this article. The proposed scheme shows orders of magnitude improvement of performance over the existing techniques in certain classes of network. It also provides reliability bounds with little overhead.

Rock fracture mean trace length estimation and confidence interval calculation using maximum likelihood methods

There has been a resurgence of interest in the mean trace length estimator of Pahl for window sampling of traces. The estimator has been dealt with by Mauldon and Zhang and Einstein in recent publications. The estimator is a very useful one in that it is non-parametric. However, despite some discussion regarding the statistical distribution of the estimator, none of the recent works or the original work by Pahl provide a rigorous basis for the determination a confidence interval for the estimator or a confidence region for the estimator and the corresponding estimator of trace spatial intensity in the sampling window. This paper shows, by consideration of a simplified version of the problem but without loss of generality, that the estimator is in fact the maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) and that it can be considered essentially unbiased. As the MLE, it possesses the least variance of all estimators and confidence intervals or regions should therefore be available through application of classical ML theory. It is shown that valid confidence intervals can in fact be determined. The results of the work and the calculations of the confidence intervals are illustrated by example. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Stereological and other methods applied to rock joint size estimation - Does Crofton's theorem apply?

A number of authors concerned with the analysis of rock jointing have used the idea that the joint areal or diametral distribution can be linked to the trace length distribution through a theorem attributed to Crofton. This brief paper seeks to demonstrate why Crofton's theorem need not be used to link moments of the trace length distribution captured by scan line or areal mapping to the moments of the diametral distribution of joints represented as disks and that it is incorrect to do so. The valid relationships for areal or scan line mapping between all the moments of the trace length distribution and those of the joint size distribution for joints modeled as disks are recalled and compared with those that might be applied were Crofton's theorem assumed to apply. For areal mapping, the relationship is fortuitously correct but incorrect for scan line mapping.

Estimation of body fatness from body mass index and bioelectrical impedance: comparison of New Zealand European, Maori and Pacific Island children

Objective: To compare percentage body fat (%BF) for a given body mass index (BMI) among New Zealand European, Maori and Pacific Island children. To develop prediction equations based on bioimpedance measurements for the estimation of fat-free mass (FFM) appropriate to children in these three ethnic groups. Design: Cross-sectional study. Purposive sampling of schoolchildren aimed at recruiting three children of each sex and ethnicity for each year of age. Double cross-validation of FFM prediction equations developed by multiple regression. Setting: Local schools in Auckland. Subjects: Healthy European, Maori and Pacific Island children (n = 172, 83 M, 89 F, mean age 9.4 +/- 2.8(s. d.), range 5 - 14 y). Measurements: Height, weight, age, sex and ethnicity were recorded. FFM was derived from measurements of total body water by deuterium dilution and resistance and reactance were measured by bioimpedance analysis. Results: For fixed BMI, the Maori and Pacific Island girls averaged 3.7% lower % BF than European girls. For boys a similar relation was not found since BMI did not significantly influence % BF of European boys ( P = 0.18). Based on bioimpedance measurements a single prediction equation was developed for all children: FFM (kg) = 0.622 height (cm)(2)/ resistance +0.234 weight (kg)+1.166, R-2 = 0.96, s. e. e. = 2.44 kg. Ethnicity, age and sex were not significant predictors. Conclusions: A robust equation for estimation of FFM in New Zealand European, Maori and Pacific Island children in the 5 - 14 y age range that is more suitable than BMI for the determination of body fatness in field studies has been developed. Sponsorship: Maurice and Phyllis Paykel Trust, Auckland University of Technology Contestable Grants Fund and the Ministry of Health.

Large amplitude vibration of thermo-electro-mechanically stressed FGM laminated plates

This paper presents a large amplitude vibration analysis of pre-stressed functionally graded material (FGM) laminated plates that are composed of a shear deformable functionally graded layer and two surface-mounted piezoelectric actuator layers. Nonlinear governing equations of motion are derived within the context of Reddy's higher-order shear deformation plate theory to account for transverse shear strain and rotary inertia. Due to the bending and stretching coupling effect, a nonlinear static problem is solved first to determine the initial stress state and pre-vibration deformations of the plate that is subjected to uniform temperature change, in-plane forces and applied actuator voltage. By adding an incremental dynamic state to the pre-vibration state, the differential equations that govern the nonlinear vibration behavior of pre-stressed FGM laminated plates are derived. A semi-analytical method that is based on one-dimensional differential quadrature and Galerkin technique is proposed to predict the large amplitude vibration behavior of the laminated rectangular plates with two opposite clamped edges. Linear vibration frequencies and nonlinear normalized frequencies are presented in both tabular and graphical forms, showing that the normalized frequency of the FGM laminated plate is very sensitive to vibration amplitude, out-of-plane boundary support, temperature change, in-plane compression and the side-to-thickness ratio. The CSCF and CFCF plates even change the inherent hard-spring characteristic to soft-spring behavior at large vibration amplitudes. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

One-sided Radial-Fundamental Matrix Estimation

For modern consumer cameras often approximate calibration data is available, making applications such as 3D reconstruction or photo registration easier as compared to the pure uncalibrated setting. In this paper we address the setting with calibrateduncalibrated image pairs: for one image intrinsic parameters are assumed to be known, whereas the second view has unknown distortion and calibration parameters. This situation arises e.g. when one would like to register archive imagery to recently taken photos. A commonly adopted strategy for determining epipolar geometry is based on feature matching and minimal solvers inside a RANSAC framework. However, only very few existing solutions apply to the calibrated-uncalibrated setting. We propose a simple and numerically stable two-step scheme to first estimate radial distortion parameters and subsequently the focal length using novel solvers. We demonstrate the performance on synthetic and real datasets.

Produção e amplitude de colheita de cultivares de nogueira-macadâmia em Itapira, São Paulo

A nogueira-macadâmia produz frutos do tipo folículo, cuja parte comestível é a semente, com alto valor agregado no mercado internacional e com grande aceitação pelos consumidores. No Brasil, sabe-se que a época de colheita dos frutos da nogueira-macadâmia inicia-se em meados de fevereiro, porém, não se conhece o potencial produtivo dos diversos cultivares disponíveis nas condições brasileiras. O objetivo deste trabalho foi quantificar a produção e a amplitude de colheita de cultivares de nogueira-macadâmia, no município de Itapira, SP. Para o experimento, foram utilizados dez cultivares de nogueira-macadâmia (HAES 722, IAC Campinas-B, 791 Fuji, HAES 842, HAES 849, HAES 814, HAES 344, IAC 9-20X, IAC 9-20 e HAES 816), sendo quantificadas durante três safras, em Itapira, SP, o número de frutos e a massa de colheita (produção e produtividade estimada), calculando-se, posteriormente, a massa média dos frutos. Concluiu-se que a produção da nogueira-macadâmia, em Itapira, SP, inicia-se em meados de fevereiro e estende-se até o final de junho. IAC 9-20 foi o cultivar mais precoce e, HAES 722, o mais tardio, enquanto o HAES 344 proporcionou a menor amplitude de colheita e 791 Fuji e HAES 849 as maiores. Os cultivares IAC 9-20X, IAC 9-20 e HAES 816 apresentaram o maior desempenho produtivo.

The estimation of the return on firms’ investments – as to ISO 9001

The aim of this paper was to estimate the return on investment in QMS (quality management systems) certification undertaken in Portuguese firms, according to the ISO 9000 series. A total of 426 certified Portuguese firms were surveyed. The response rate was 61.03 percent. The different payback periods were validated through statistical analysis and the relationship between expected and perceived payback periods was discussed. This study suggests that a firm’s sector of activity, size and degree of internationalization are related to the length of the investment in QMS certification recovery period. Furthermore, our findings suggest, that the time taken to obtain the certification is not directly related to the economic component of the certification. The majority of Portuguese firms (58.9%) took up to three years to recoup their investment and 35.5% of companies said they had not yet recovered the initial investment made. The recoup of investment was measured by the increase in the number of customers and consequent volume of deliveries, improved profitability and productivity of the company, improvement of competitive position and performance (cost savings), reduction in the number of external complaints and internal defects/scrap, achievement of some important clientele, among others. We compared our work to similar studies undertaken in other countries. This paper provides a contribution to the research related to the return on investment for costs related to the certification QMS according to ISO 9000. This paper provides a valuable contribution to the field and is one of the first studies to undertake this type of analysis in Portugal.

Improving FEM crash simulation accuracy through local thickness estimation based on CAD data

In this paper, we present a method for estimating local thickness distribution in nite element models, applied to injection molded and cast engineering parts. This method features considerable improved performance compared to two previously proposed approaches, and has been validated against thickness measured by di erent human operators. We also demonstrate that the use of this method for assigning a distribution of local thickness in FEM crash simulations results in a much more accurate prediction of the real part performance, thus increasing the bene ts of computer simulations in engineering design by enabling zero-prototyping and thus reducing product development costs. The simulation results have been compared to experimental tests, evidencing the advantage of the proposed method. Thus, the proposed approach to consider local thickness distribution in FEM crash simulations has high potential on the product development process of complex and highly demanding injection molded and casted parts and is currently being used by Ford Motor Company.

Dense motion field estimation from myocardial boundary displacements

Minimally invasive cardiovascular interventions guided by multiple imaging modalities are rapidly gaining clinical acceptance for the treatment of several cardiovascular diseases. These images are typically fused with richly detailed pre-operative scans through registration techniques, enhancing the intra-operative clinical data and easing the image-guided procedures. Nonetheless, rigid models have been used to align the different modalities, not taking into account the anatomical variations of the cardiac muscle throughout the cardiac cycle. In the current study, we present a novel strategy to compensate the beat-to-beat physiological adaptation of the myocardium. Hereto, we intend to prove that a complete myocardial motion field can be quickly recovered from the displacement field at the myocardial boundaries, therefore being an efficient strategy to locally deform the cardiac muscle. We address this hypothesis by comparing three different strategies to recover a dense myocardial motion field from a sparse one, namely, a diffusion-based approach, thin-plate splines, and multiquadric radial basis functions. Two experimental setups were used to validate the proposed strategy. First, an in silico validation was carried out on synthetic motion fields obtained from two realistic simulated ultrasound sequences. Then, 45 mid-ventricular 2D sequences of cine magnetic resonance imaging were processed to further evaluate the different approaches. The results showed that accurate boundary tracking combined with dense myocardial recovery via interpolation/ diffusion is a potentially viable solution to speed up dense myocardial motion field estimation and, consequently, to deform/compensate the myocardial wall throughout the cardiac cycle. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Voxel-based registration of simulated and real patient CBCT data for accurate dental implant pose estimation

The success of dental implant-supported prosthesis is directly linked to the accuracy obtained during implant’s pose estimation (position and orientation). Although traditional impression techniques and recent digital acquisition methods are acceptably accurate, a simultaneously fast, accurate and operator-independent methodology is still lacking. Hereto, an image-based framework is proposed to estimate the patient-specific implant’s pose using cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) and prior knowledge of implanted model. The pose estimation is accomplished in a threestep approach: (1) a region-of-interest is extracted from the CBCT data using 2 operator-defined points at the implant’s main axis; (2) a simulated CBCT volume of the known implanted model is generated through Feldkamp-Davis-Kress reconstruction and coarsely aligned to the defined axis; and (3) a voxel-based rigid registration is performed to optimally align both patient and simulated CBCT data, extracting the implant’s pose from the optimal transformation. Three experiments were performed to evaluate the framework: (1) an in silico study using 48 implants distributed through 12 tridimensional synthetic mandibular models; (2) an in vitro study using an artificial mandible with 2 dental implants acquired with an i-CAT system; and (3) two clinical case studies. The results shown positional errors of 67±34μm and 108μm, and angular misfits of 0.15±0.08º and 1.4º, for experiment 1 and 2, respectively. Moreover, in experiment 3, visual assessment of clinical data results shown a coherent alignment of the reference implant. Overall, a novel image-based framework for implants’ pose estimation from CBCT data was proposed, showing accurate results in agreement with dental prosthesis modelling requirements.

Simulation of default events in a CDX and estimation of the spread

The portfolio generating the iTraxx EUR index is modeled by coupled Markov chains. Each of the industries of the portfolio evolves according to its own Markov transition matrix. Using a variant of the method of moments, the model parameters are estimated from a data set of Standard and Poor's. Swap spreads are evaluated by Monte-Carlo simulations. Along with an actuarially fair spread, at least squares spread is considered.