Proceedings, MSVSCC 2015

The Virginia Modeling, Analysis and Simulation Center (VMASC) of Old Dominion University hosted the 2015 Modeling, Simulation, & Visualization Student capstone Conference on April 16th. The Capstone Conference features students in Modeling and Simulation, undergraduates and graduate degree programs, and fields from many colleges and/or universities. Students present their research to an audience of fellow students, faculty, judges, and other distinguished guests. For the students, these presentations afford them the opportunity to impart their innovative research to members of the M&S community from academic, industry, and government backgrounds. Also participating in the conference are faculty and judges who have volunteered their time to impart direct support to their students’ research, facilitate the various conference tracks, serve as judges for each of the tracks, and provide overall assistance to this conference. 2015 marks the ninth year of the VMASC Capstone Conference for Modeling, Simulation and Visualization. This year our conference attracted a number of fine student written papers and presentations, resulting in a total of 51 research works that were presented. This year’s conference had record attendance thanks to the support from the various different departments at Old Dominion University, other local Universities, and the United States Military Academy, at West Point. We greatly appreciated all of the work and energy that has gone into this year’s conference, it truly was a highly collaborative effort that has resulted in a very successful symposium for the M&S community and all of those involved. Below you will find a brief summary of the best papers and best presentations with some simple statistics of the overall conference contribution. Followed by that is a table of contents that breaks down by conference track category with a copy of each included body of work. Thank you again for your time and your contribution as this conference is designed to continuously evolve and adapt to better suit the authors and M&S supporters. Dr.Yuzhong Shen Graduate Program Director, MSVE Capstone Conference Chair John ShullGraduate Student, MSVE Capstone Conference Student Chai

The Metastatic Receptor Status Impact on First-Line Treatment Plans and Outcomes for Recurrent Metastatic Breast Cancer

Background: For more than two decades, breast cancer researchers have studied the benefits, risks and clinical importance of testing the receptor status of metastatic tumors. While there is a growing consensus that the status should be re-tested and under what circumstances that re-testing should occur, there is little to no evidence that utilizing test results for metastatic tumor receptor status improves the clinical outcomes of patients. In fact, there is evidence that changes to treatment plans based on this re-testing can be harmful to patient outcomes. Objective: This dissertation evaluates the current state of evidence related to altering patient treatment plans based on the re-test results of metastatic tumors, offers an update to existing national and international standards and executes a retrospective observational study to provide data that supports better informed decisions on first-line metastatic treatment plans where retesting of tumors is an option. Methods: A thorough literature review was performed on the topic. Afterwards, a retrospective observational study was performed at the University of Tennessee Cancer Institute. Conclusions: The research outcomes documented in this dissertation demonstrate that basing first-line treatment plans for metastatic breast cancer patients on the receptor status of the primary tumor instead of the metastatic tumor receptor status extends the life expectancy of patients. A standard of care is proposed that impacts national and international guidelines and reflects the risks associated with changing the first-line treatment plans of metastatic breast cancer patients based on the receptor status of metastatic tumors

CIRA annual report FY 2015/2016

Reporting period April 1, 2015-March 31, 2016

Modern Telemetry

Telemetry is based on knowledge of various disciplines like Electronics, Measurement, Control and Communication along with their combination. This fact leads to a need of studying and understanding of these principles before the usage of Telemetry on selected problem solving. Spending time is however many times returned in form of obtained data or knowledge which telemetry system can provide. Usage of telemetry can be found in many areas from military through biomedical to real medical applications. Modern way to create a wireless sensors remotely connected to central system with artificial intelligence provide many new, sometimes unusual ways to get a knowledge about remote objects behaviour. This book is intended to present some new up to date accesses to telemetry problems solving by use of new sensors conceptions, new wireless transfer or communication techniques, data collection or processing techniques as well as several real use case scenarios describing model examples. Most of book chapters deals with many real cases of telemetry issues which can be used as a cookbooks for your own telemetry related problems

A heuristic approach to the evaluation of seafloor bathymetric changes : a case study of Dundee Harbour, Eastern Scotland

The phenomena of seabed bathymetric changes in Dundee harbour, eastern Scotland have been investigated, by use of archive bathymetric data. The bathymetric data were available from the Dundee Port Authority, from its past annual harbour maintenance programmes during the period of 1989 to 1993. Archive bathymetric data are seen as under-utilised, after being used for their intended purposes. A methodology was therefore developed to use sequential bathymetric data to estimate the deposition and erosion of sediment over a period of time. This is in the form of a systematic procedure of processing for comparison of data from different dates. The comparison or differencing of bathymetric data in their original form cannot be directly applied. This would require each data point to be located at spatially common positions (i.e. grid points) and could be achieved only through interpolation. A procedure known as 'gridding' is instead used to prepare depths at the spatially fixed points or nodes. Six different methods of interpolation have been examined and trial computations using a common data subset for each individual method conducted. The results of the interpolation were often substantially different from one method to another. A technique known as the Blending Interpolation Technique is proposed to overcome the uncertainty in depth interpolation. Computer programs were specifically written for this study and for the visualisation of the phenomena of deposition and erosion, use was made of the available UNIRAS software package. The methodology and procedures of this study are not only applicable for an estuarine harbour environment, but are also equally applicable to any areas such as large reservoirs, lakes or coastal ports and harbours, that are continuously affected by the phenomena of sedimentation and erosion, where their estimation and quantification are of critical importance. This study, however, has demonstrated the usefulness of the Blending Interpolation Technique which is seen as a future tool to detect, monitor and quantify seabed changes, in particular where bathymetric data of the same area are available from different dates. It also serves to prolong the usefulness of archive bathymetric data kept for an area

Accelerated neuromorphic cybernetics

Accelerated mixed-signal neuromorphic hardware refers to electronic systems that emulate electrophysiological aspects of biological nervous systems in analog voltages and currents in an accelerated manner. While the functional spectrum of these systems already includes many observed neuronal capabilities, such as learning or classification, some areas remain largely unexplored. In particular, this concerns cybernetic scenarios in which nervous systems engage in closed interaction with their bodies and environments. Since the control of behavior and movement in animals is both the purpose and the cause of the development of nervous systems, such processes are, however, of essential importance in nature. Besides the design of neuromorphic circuit- and system components, the main focus of this work is therefore the construction and analysis of accelerated neuromorphic agents that are integrated into cybernetic chains of action. These agents are, on the one hand, an accelerated mechanical robot, on the other hand, an accelerated virtual insect. In both cases, the sensory organs and actuators of their artificial bodies are derived from the neurophysiology of the biological prototypes and are reproduced as faithfully as possible. In addition, each of the two biomimetic organisms is subjected to evolutionary optimization, which illustrates the advantages of accelerated neuromorphic nervous systems through significant time savings