A Flexible Enterprise Needs an Adaptable eBusiness Architecture in Order to Satisfy Naturally Evolving Requirements

Standards for exchange of purchasing information, such as ANSI X-12 for EDI, have been used by large industries (e.g. retail and auto) for almost 30 years. Newer web-based tools and new standards hold the promise of reduced cost and wider applicability. For many small to medium sized enterprises, the cost and rigidity of existing tools out weight the prospective gains, which must be amortised over comparatively few transactions. In this paper, we describe the development of an N-tiered, object-oriented, architecture for interacting with suppliers based on emerging web tools. We explore the ways in which the project was required to adapt to existing purchasing systems and the ways that the project evolved during its development. We identify patterns in the inevitable evolution of requirements during the implementation, and we describe the ways that the architecture facilitated the satisfaction of these changing requirements. By analysing the major “transition points” during the development, we attempt to document the fundamental nature of evolving requirements and the need to explicitly reflect them in adaptable e-business architectures

Arabidopsis seedlings display a remarkable resilience under severe mineral starvation using their metabolic plasticity to remain self-sufficient for weeks

During the life cycle of plants, seedlings are considered vulnerable because they are at the interface between the highly stress tolerant seed embryos and the established plant, and must develop rapidly, often in a challenging environment, with limited access to nutrients and light. Using a simple experimental system, whereby the seedling stage of Arabidopsis is considerably prolonged by nutrient starvation, we analysed the physiology and metabolism of seedlings maintained in such conditions up to 4 weeks. Although development was arrested at the cotyledon stage, there was no sign of senescence and seedlings remained viable for weeks, yielding normal plants after transplantation. Photosynthetic activity compensated for respiratory carbon losses, and energy dissipation by photorespiration and alternative oxidase appeared important. Photosynthates were essentially stored as organic acids, while the pool of free amino acids remained stable. Seedlings lost the capacity to store lipids in cytosolic lipid droplets, but developed large plastoglobuli. Arabidopsis seedlings arrested in their development because of mineral starvation displayed therefore a remarkable resilience, using their metabolic and physiological plasticity to maintain a steady state for weeks, allowing resumption of development when favourable conditions ensue

A Direct Comparison of Biplanar Videoradiography and Optical Motion Capture for Foot and Ankle Kinematics

Measuring motion of the human foot presents a unique challenge due to the large number of closely packed bones with congruent articulating surfaces. Optical motion capture (OMC) and multi-segment models can be used to infer foot motion, but might be affected by soft tissue artifact (STA). Biplanar videoradiography (BVR) is a relatively new tool that allows direct, non-invasive measurement of bone motion using high-speed, dynamic x-ray images to track individual bones. It is unknown whether OMC and BVR can be used interchangeably to analyse multi-segment foot motion. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the agreement in kinematic measures of dynamic activities. Nine healthy participants performed three walking and three running trials while BVR was recorded with synchronous OMC. Bone position and orientation was determined through manual scientific-rotoscoping. The OMC and BVR kinematics were co-registered to the same coordinate system, and BVR tracking was used to create virtual markers for comparison to OMC during dynamic trials. Root mean square (RMS) differences in marker positions and joint angles as well as a linear fit method (LFM) was used to compare the outputs of both methods. When comparing BVR and OMC, sagittal plane angles were in good agreement (ankle: R2 = 0.947, 0.939; Medial Longitudinal Arch (MLA) Angle: R2 = 0.713, 0.703, walking and running, respectively). When examining the ankle, there was a moderate agreement between the systems in the frontal plane (R2 = 0.322, 0.452, walking and running, respectively), with a weak to moderate correlation for the transverse plane (R2 = 0.178, 0.326, walking and running, respectively). However, root mean squared error (RMSE) showed angular errors ranging from 1.06 to 8.31° across the planes (frontal: 3.57°, 3.67°, transverse: 4.28°, 4.70°, sagittal: 2.45°, 2.67°, walking and running, respectively). Root mean square (RMS) differences between OMC and BVR marker trajectories were task dependent with the largest differences in the shank (6.0 ± 2.01 mm) for running, and metatarsals (3.97 ± 0.81 mm) for walking. Based on the results, we suggest BVR and OMC provide comparable solutions to foot motion in the sagittal plane, however, interpretations of out-of-plane movement should be made carefully

The Reliability of Foot and Ankle Bone and Joint Kinematics Measured With Biplanar Videoradiography and Manual Scientific Rotoscoping

The intricate motion of the small bones of the feet are critical for its diverse function. Accurately measuring the 3-dimensional (3D) motion of these bones has attracted much attention over the years and until recently, was limited to invasive techniques or quantification of functional segments using multi-segment foot models. Biplanar videoradiography and model-based scientific rotoscoping offers an exciting alternative that allows us to focus on the intricate motion of individual bones in the foot. However, scientific rotoscoping, the process of rotating and translating a 3D bone model so that it aligns with the captured x-ray images, is either semi- or completely manual and it is unknown how much human error affects tracking results. Thus, the aim of this study was to quantify the inter- and intra-operator reliability of manually rotoscoping in vivo bone motion of the tibia, talus, and calcaneus during running. Three-dimensional CT bone volumes and high-speed biplanar videoradiography images of the foot were acquired on six participants. The six-degree-of-freedom motions of the tibia, talus, and calcaneus were determined using a manual markerless registration algorithm. Two operators performed the tracking, and additionally, the first operator re-tracked all bones, to test for intra-operator effects. Mean RMS errors were 1.86 mm and 1.90° for intra-operator comparisons and 2.30 mm and 2.60° for inter-operator comparisons across all bones and planes. The moderate to strong similarity values indicate that tracking bones and joint kinematics between sessions and operators is reliable for running. These errors are likely acceptable for defining gross joint angles. However, this magnitude of error may limit the capacity to perform advanced analyses of joint interactions, particularly those that require precise (sub-millimeter) estimates of bone position and orientation. Optimizing the view and image quality of the biplanar videoradiography system as well as the automated tracking algorithms for rotoscoping bones in the foot are required to reduce these errors and the time burden associated with the manual processing

Using Innovation-Corps (I-Corps™) methods to adapt a mobile health (mHealth) obesity treatment for community mental health settings

BACKGROUND: We employed Innovation Corps (I-Corps™) methods to adaptation of a mobile health (mHealth) short-message-system (SMS) -based interactive obesity treatment approach (iOTA) for adults with severe mentall illness receiving care in community settings. METHODS: We hypothesized jobs to be done in three broad stakeholder groups: decision makers (DM = state and community clinic administrators), clinician consumers (CC = case managers, peer supports, nurses, prescribers) and service consumers (SC = patients, peers and family members). Semistructured interviews ( RESULTS: Four themes emerged across groups: education, inertia, resources and ownership. Sub-themes in education and ownership differed between DM and CC groups on implementation ownership, intersecting with professional development, suggesting the importance of training and supervision in scalability. Sub-themes in resources and intertia differed between CC and SC groups, suggesting illness severity and access to healthy food as major barriers to engagement, whereas the SC group identified the need for enhanced emotional support, in addition to pragmatic skills like menu planning and cooking, to promote health behavior change. Although SMS was percieved as a viable education and support tool, CC and DM groups had limited familiarity with use in clinical care delivery. CONCLUSIONS: Based on customer discovery, the characteristics of a minimum viable iOTA for implementation, scalability and sustainability include population- and context-specific adaptations to treatment content, interventionist training and delivery mechanism. Successful implementation of an SMS-based intervention will likely require micro-adaptations to fit specific clinical settings

Real-time motion monitoring improves functional MRI data quality in infants

Imaging the infant brain with MRI has improved our understanding of early neurodevelopment. However, head motion during MRI acquisition is detrimental to both functional and structural MRI scan quality. Though infants are typically scanned while asleep, they commonly exhibit motion during scanning causing data loss. Our group has shown that providing MRI technicians with real-time motion estimates via Framewise Integrated Real-Time MRI Monitoring (FIRMM) software helps obtain high-quality, low motion fMRI data. By estimating head motion in real time and displaying motion metrics to the MR technician during an fMRI scan, FIRMM can improve scanning efficiency. Here, we compared average framewise displacement (FD), a proxy for head motion, and the amount of usable fMRI data (FD ≤ 0.2 mm) in infants scanned with (n = 407) and without FIRMM (n = 295). Using a mixed-effects model, we found that the addition of FIRMM to current state-of-the-art infant scanning protocols significantly increased the amount of usable fMRI data acquired per infant, demonstrating its value for research and clinical infant neuroimaging

A somato-cognitive action network alternates with effector regions in motor cortex

Motor cortex (M1) has been thought to form a continuous somatotopic homunculus extending down the precentral gyrus from foot to face representation

Creation of an Open-Access, Mutation-Defined Fibroblast Resource for Neurological Disease Research

Our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of many neurological disorders has been greatly enhanced by the discovery of mutations in genes linked to familial forms of these diseases. These have facilitated the generation of cell and animal models that can be used to understand the underlying molecular pathology. Recently, there has been a surge of interest in the use of patient-derived cells, due to the development of induced pluripotent stem cells and their subsequent differentiation into neurons and glia. Access to patient cell lines carrying the relevant mutations is a limiting factor for many centres wishing to pursue this research. We have therefore generated an open-access collection of fibroblast lines from patients carrying mutations linked to neurological disease. These cell lines have been deposited in the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) Repository at the Coriell Institute for Medical Research and can be requested by any research group for use in in vitro disease modelling. There are currently 71 mutation-defined cell lines available for request from a wide range of neurological disorders and this collection will be continually expanded. This represents a significant resource that will advance the use of patient cells as disease models by the scientific community

The Triggerless Data Acquisition System of the XENONnT Experiment

The XENONnT detector uses the latest and largest liquid xenon-based timeprojection chamber (TPC) operated by the XENON Collaboration, aimed atdetecting Weakly Interacting Massive Particles and conducting other rare eventsearches. The XENONnT data acquisition (DAQ) system constitutes an upgraded andexpanded version of the XENON1T DAQ system. For its operation, it reliespredominantly on commercially available hardware accompanied by open-source andcustom-developed software. The three constituent subsystems of the XENONnTdetector, the TPC (main detector), muon veto, and the newly introduced neutronveto, are integrated into a single DAQ, and can be operated both independentlyand as a unified system. In total, the DAQ digitizes the signals of 698photomultiplier tubes (PMTs), of which 253 from the top PMT array of the TPCare digitized twice, at $\times10$ and $\times0.5$ gain. The DAQ for the mostpart is a triggerless system, reading out and storing every signal that exceedsthe digitization thresholds. Custom-developed software is used to process theacquired data, making it available within $\mathcal{O}\left(10\text{ s}\right)$for live data quality monitoring and online analyses. The entire system withall the three subsystems was successfully commissioned and has been operatingcontinuously, comfortably withstanding readout rates that exceed $\sim500$ MB/sduring calibration. Livetime during normal operation exceeds $99\%$ and is$\sim90\%$ during most high-rate calibrations. The combined DAQ system hascollected more than 2 PB of both calibration and science data during thecommissioning of XENONnT and the first science run.<br