Recent Developments in Smart Healthcare

Medicine is undergoing a sector-wide transformation thanks to the advances in computing and networking technologies. Healthcare is changing from reactive and hospital-centered to preventive and personalized, from disease focused to well-being centered. In essence, the healthcare systems, as well as fundamental medicine research, are becoming smarter. We anticipate significant improvements in areas ranging from molecular genomics and proteomics to decision support for healthcare professionals through big data analytics, to support behavior changes through technology-enabled self-management, and social and motivational support. Furthermore, with smart technologies, healthcare delivery could also be made more efficient, higher quality, and lower cost. In this special issue, we received a total 45 submissions and accepted 19 outstanding papers that roughly span across several interesting topics on smart healthcare, including public health, health information technology (Health IT), and smart medicine

Multidimensional prognostics for rotating machinery: A review

open access articleDetermining prognosis for rotating machinery could potentially reduce maintenance costs and improve safety and avail- ability. Complex rotating machines are usually equipped with multiple sensors, which enable the development of multidi- mensional prognostic models. By considering the possible synergy among different sensor signals, multivariate models may provide more accurate prognosis than those using single-source information. Consequently, numerous research papers focusing on the theoretical considerations and practical implementations of multivariate prognostic models have been published in the last decade. However, only a limited number of review papers have been written on the subject. This article focuses on multidimensional prognostic models that have been applied to predict the failures of rotating machinery with multiple sensors. The theory and basic functioning of these techniques, their relative merits and draw- backs and how these models have been used to predict the remnant life of a machine are discussed in detail. Furthermore, this article summarizes the rotating machines to which these models have been applied and discusses future research challenges. The authors also provide seven evaluation criteria that can be used to compare the reviewed techniques. By reviewing the models reported in the literature, this article provides a guide for researchers considering prognosis options for multi-sensor rotating equipment

Pattern Recognition

A wealth of advanced pattern recognition algorithms are emerging from the interdiscipline between technologies of effective visual features and the human-brain cognition process. Effective visual features are made possible through the rapid developments in appropriate sensor equipments, novel filter designs, and viable information processing architectures. While the understanding of human-brain cognition process broadens the way in which the computer can perform pattern recognition tasks. The present book is intended to collect representative researches around the globe focusing on low-level vision, filter design, features and image descriptors, data mining and analysis, and biologically inspired algorithms. The 27 chapters coved in this book disclose recent advances and new ideas in promoting the techniques, technology and applications of pattern recognition

Survey of FPGA applications in the period 2000 – 2015 (Technical Report)

Romoth J, Porrmann M, Rückert U. Survey of FPGA applications in the period 2000 – 2015 (Technical Report).; 2017.Since their introduction, FPGAs can be seen in more and more different fields of applications. The key advantage is the combination of software-like flexibility with the performance otherwise common to hardware. Nevertheless, every application field introduces special requirements to the used computational architecture. This paper provides an overview of the different topics FPGAs have been used for in the last 15 years of research and why they have been chosen over other processing units like e.g. CPUs

Exploring the role of system operation modes in failure analysis in the context of first generation cyber-physical systems

Typically, emerging system failures have a strong impact on the performance of industrial systems as well as on the efficiency of their operational and servicing processes. Being aware of these, maintenance and repair researchers have developed multiple failure detection and diagnosis techniques that allow early recognition of system or component failures and maintaining continuous system operation in a cost-effective way. However, these techniques have many deficiencies in the case of self-tuning first generation cyber-physical systems (1G-CPSs). The reason is that these systems compensate for the effects of emerging system failures until their resources are exhausted, and the compensatory actions not only mask the failures, but also make their recognition difficult. Late recognition of failures is however in contrast with the principles of preventive maintenance. Therefore, the promotion research concentrated on the issue of recognizing and forecasting failures under dynamic and adaptive behavior of 1G-CPSs. CPSs are enabled to compensate for failure symptoms by changing their system operation modes (SOMs). It was also observed that transitions of SOMs reduce the reliability of a signal-based failure diagnosis. It was hypothesized that the frequency and the duration of the changes of the operational states of the 1G-CPS may be strong indicators of the failure emergence phenomenon and that investigation of SOMs facilitates early detection of failures. Therefore, the completed exploratory studies were aimed at exploring how the frequency and duration of transitions of SOMs can be brought into correlation with specific types of failures, and how they can be computed as measures of failure occurrence. The obtained results revealed that system failures tend to induce unusual system operation modes that can be used as basis for failure characterization, and even for failure forecasting. The empirical research made use of a cyber-physical greenhouse testbed to get experimental data and was completed by the development of computational model. A failure injection strategy was implemented in order to induce failure occurrence in a controlled manner. The proposed approach can be applied as a basis of forecasting system failures of 1G-CPSs, but additional research seems to be necessary

Computational Methods for Medical and Cyber Security

Over the past decade, computational methods, including machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL), have been exponentially growing in their development of solutions in various domains, especially medicine, cybersecurity, finance, and education. While these applications of machine learning algorithms have been proven beneficial in various fields, many shortcomings have also been highlighted, such as the lack of benchmark datasets, the inability to learn from small datasets, the cost of architecture, adversarial attacks, and imbalanced datasets. On the other hand, new and emerging algorithms, such as deep learning, one-shot learning, continuous learning, and generative adversarial networks, have successfully solved various tasks in these fields. Therefore, applying these new methods to life-critical missions is crucial, as is measuring these less-traditional algorithms' success when used in these fields

Advances in Robotics, Automation and Control

The book presents an excellent overview of the recent developments in the different areas of Robotics, Automation and Control. Through its 24 chapters, this book presents topics related to control and robot design; it also introduces new mathematical tools and techniques devoted to improve the system modeling and control. An important point is the use of rational agents and heuristic techniques to cope with the computational complexity required for controlling complex systems. Through this book, we also find navigation and vision algorithms, automatic handwritten comprehension and speech recognition systems that will be included in the next generation of productive systems developed by man

Modelling, Monitoring, Control and Optimization for Complex Industrial Processes

This reprint includes 22 research papers and an editorial, collected from the Special Issue "Modelling, Monitoring, Control and Optimization for Complex Industrial Processes", highlighting recent research advances and emerging research directions in complex industrial processes. This reprint aims to promote the research field and benefit the readers from both academic communities and industrial sectors

Multidimensional prognostics for rotating machinery: A review

Determining prognosis for rotating machinery could potentially reduce maintenance costs and improve safety and availability. Complex rotating machines are usually equipped with multiple sensors, which enable the development of multidimensional prognostic models. By considering the possible synergy among different sensor signals, multivariate models may provide more accurate prognosis than those using single-source information. Consequently, numerous research papers focusing on the theoretical considerations and practical implementations of multivariate prognostic models have been published in the last decade. However, only a limited number of review papers have been written on the subject. This article focuses on multidimensional prognostic models that have been applied to predict the failures of rotating machinery with multiple sensors. The theory and basic functioning of these techniques, their relative merits and drawbacks and how these models have been used to predict the remnant life of a machine are discussed in detail. Furthermore, this article summarizes the rotating machines to which these models have been applied and discusses future research challenges. The authors also provide seven evaluation criteria that can be used to compare the reviewed techniques. By reviewing the models reported in the literature, this article provides a guide for researchers considering prognosis options for multi-sensor rotating equipment