2,294 research outputs found
Functionality Requirements for Fleet Management System
The project aims to identify the functional requirements of fleet management system with Unified Modelling Language (UML). Three main phases were involved in this project,
which are defining requirements, analyze requirements and validate functionalities. The functionalities of requirement are presented by using UML diagrams that consists of use case diagram, use case specification, sequence diagram, collaboration diagram and class diagram. The prototype was built to provide a guideline in developing the running system of Fleet Management System on user’s needs
Environmental factors differentially affect epistaxis among preschool and school-aged children
IntroductionEnvironmental factors are closely associated with pediatric epistaxis. Whether this association differs according to age has not been previously reported. Therefore, we tried to evaluate the differences in associations between environmental factors and epistaxis in children of different ages.MethodsA total of 20,234 patients with epistaxis who visited the hospital between January 1, 2002, and December 31, 2015, were enrolled in this study. The patients were divided into two groups according to their ages: preschool-aged (<6 years) and school-aged children (6–18 years). Daily, monthly, and yearly data on environmental factors were collected. We performed a stepwise logistic regression to identify the potential environmental risk factors for epistaxis in each age group.ResultsThe mean number of epistaxis cases per month in both groups was highest in September. The cases were lowest in February in preschool-aged children and in November in school-aged children. Temperature, humidity, maximum wind speed, and sunshine duration were associated with epistaxis in preschool-aged children. Average wind speed, particulate matter (>10 μm diameter), temperature, humidity, sunshine duration, and sulfur dioxide concentration were associated with epistaxis in school-aged children.ConclusionThis study indicates that the differences in environmental risk factors for epistaxis are associated with the patient’s age
Quantitative Screening of Cervical Cancers for Low-Resource Settings: Pilot Study of Smartphone-Based Endoscopic Visual Inspection After Acetic Acid Using Machine Learning Techniques
Background: Approximately 90% of global cervical cancer (CC) is mostly found in low- and middle-income countries. In most cases, CC can be detected early through routine screening programs, including a cytology-based test. However, it is logistically difficult to offer this program in low-resource settings due to limited resources and infrastructure, and few trained experts. A visual inspection following the application of acetic acid (VIA) has been widely promoted and is routinely recommended as a viable form of CC screening in resource-constrained countries. Digital images of the cervix have been acquired during VIA procedure with better quality assurance and visualization, leading to higher diagnostic accuracy and reduction of the variability of detection rate. However, a colposcope is bulky, expensive, electricity-dependent, and needs routine maintenance, and to confirm the grade of abnormality through its images, a specialist must be present. Recently, smartphone-based imaging systems have made a significant impact on the practice of medicine by offering a cost-effective, rapid, and noninvasive method of evaluation. Furthermore, computer-aided analyses, including image processing-based methods and machine learning techniques, have also shown great potential for a high impact on medicinal evaluations
On the dynamics of a quadruped robot model with impedance control: Self-stabilizing high speed trot-running and period-doubling bifurcations
The MIT Cheetah demonstrated a stable 6 m/s trot gait in the sagittal plane utilizing the self-stable characteristics of locomotion. This paper presents a numerical analysis of the behavior of a quadruped robot model with the proposed controller. We first demonstrate the existence of periodic trot gaits at various speeds and examine local orbital stability of each trajectory using Poincar`e map analysis. Beyond the local stability, we additionally demonstrate the stability of the model against large initial perturbations. Stability of trot gaits at a wide range of speed enables gradual acceleration demonstrated in this paper and a real machine. This simulation study also suggests the upper limit of the command speed that ensures stable steady-state running. As we increase the command speed, we observe series of period-doubling bifurcations, which suggests presence of chaotic dynamics beyond a certain level of command speed. Extension of this simulation analysis will provide useful guidelines for searching control parameters to further improve the system performance.United States. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Maximum Mobility and Manipulation (M3) Progra
Style Blind Domain Generalized Semantic Segmentation via Covariance Alignment and Semantic Consistence Contrastive Learning
Deep learning models for semantic segmentation often experience performance
degradation when deployed to unseen target domains unidentified during the
training phase. This is mainly due to variations in image texture (\ie style)
from different data sources. To tackle this challenge, existing domain
generalized semantic segmentation (DGSS) methods attempt to remove style
variations from the feature. However, these approaches struggle with the
entanglement of style and content, which may lead to the unintentional removal
of crucial content information, causing performance degradation. This study
addresses this limitation by proposing BlindNet, a novel DGSS approach that
blinds the style without external modules or datasets. The main idea behind our
proposed approach is to alleviate the effect of style in the encoder whilst
facilitating robust segmentation in the decoder. To achieve this, BlindNet
comprises two key components: covariance alignment and semantic consistency
contrastive learning. Specifically, the covariance alignment trains the encoder
to uniformly recognize various styles and preserve the content information of
the feature, rather than removing the style-sensitive factor. Meanwhile,
semantic consistency contrastive learning enables the decoder to construct
discriminative class embedding space and disentangles features that are
vulnerable to misclassification. Through extensive experiments, our approach
outperforms existing DGSS methods, exhibiting robustness and superior
performance for semantic segmentation on unseen target domains.Comment: CVPR 202
Results of Free Flap Reconstruction After Ablative Surgery in the Head and Neck
ObjectivesDue to the complex anatomy and function of the head and neck region, the reconstruction of ablative defects in this area is challenging. In addition, an increasing interest in improving the quality of life of patients and achieving good functional results has highlighted the importance of free flaps. The aim of this study was to summarize the results of free flap reconstruction and salvage of free flaps in a single institute, and to analyze differences in the results by the flap donor site, recipient site, and learning curve.MethodsThe medical records of patients who underwent free flap reconstruction from 2004-2012 were reviewed retrospectively. One hundred and fifty free flaps were used in 134 patients, who had an average age of 57.7 years. The types of flaps applied, primary defect sites, success rates, results of salvage operations for compromised flap, and the learning curve were analyzed.ResultsThe anterolateral thigh flap was preferred for the reconstruction of head and neck defects. The overall success rate was 90.7%, with 14 cases of failure. A total of 19 salvage operations (12.7%) for compromised flap were performed, and 12 flaps (63.2%) were salvaged successfully. Dependency on the facial vessels as recipient vessels was statistically different when oral and oropharyngeal defects were compared to hypopharyngeal and laryngeal defects. The learning curve for microvascular surgery showed decrease in the failure rate after 50 cases.ConclusionThe free flap technique is safe but involves a significant learning period and requires careful postoperative monitoring of the patient. Early intervention is important for the salvage of free flaps and for lowering the failure rate
Role of Transcription Factor Modifications in the Pathogenesis of Insulin Resistance
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is characterized by fat accumulation in the liver not due to alcohol abuse. NAFLD is accompanied by variety of symptoms related to metabolic syndrome. Although the metabolic link between NAFLD and insulin resistance is not fully understood, it is clear that NAFLD is one of the main cause of insulin resistance. NAFLD is shown to affect the functions of other organs, including pancreas, adipose tissue, muscle and inflammatory systems. Currently efforts are being made to understand molecular mechanism of interrelationship between NAFLD and insulin resistance at the transcriptional level with specific focus on post-translational modification (PTM) of transcription factors. PTM of transcription factors plays a key role in controlling numerous biological events, including cellular energy metabolism, cell-cycle progression, and organ development. Cell type- and tissue-specific reversible modifications include lysine acetylation, methylation, ubiquitination, and SUMOylation. Moreover, phosphorylation and O-GlcNAcylation on serine and threonine residues have been shown to affect protein stability, subcellular distribution, DNA-binding affinity, and transcriptional activity. PTMs of transcription factors involved in insulin-sensitive tissues confer specific adaptive mechanisms in response to internal or external stimuli. Our understanding of the interplay between these modifications and their effects on transcriptional regulation is growing. Here, we summarize the diverse roles of PTMs in insulin-sensitive tissues and their involvement in the pathogenesis of insulin resistance
Spin Hall torque magnetometry of Dzyaloshinskii domain walls
Current-induced domain wall motion in the presence of the
Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) is experimentally and theoretically
investigated in heavy-metal/ferromagnet bilayers. The angular dependence of the
current-induced torque and the magnetization structure of Dzyaloshinskii domain
walls are described and quantified simultaneously in the presence of in-plane
fields. We show that the DMI strength depends strongly on the heavy metal,
varying by a factor of 20 between Ta and Pa, and that strong DMI leads to wall
distortions not seen in conventional materials. These findings provide
essential insights for understanding and exploiting chiral magnetism for
emerging spintronics applications
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