Segmentação Distribuída de Imagem de Sensoriamento Remoto a partir de Banco de Dados PostgreSQL/InterIMAGE.

A abordagem de classificação baseada em objetos representa um novo paradigma no processamento de imagens de altas resoluções espaciais, espectrais e temporais, e a construção de objetos baseia-se na segmentação das imagens. A análise de imagens baseada em objetos (GEOBIA - Geographic Object-Based Image Analysis) apresenta métodos capazes de explorar, além de atributos espectrais, elementos como textura, forma ou contexto. Existem aplicações que buscam melhorar o desempenho computacional com soluções sequenciais e distribuídas, ou programas como TerraView que abordam o uso de sistemas gerenciadores de banco de dados. Este trabalho propõe explorar especificações de aplicações para integrar o Sistema Gerenciador de Banco de Dados (SGBD) PostgreSQL/PostGIS e o classificador Object-Based Image Analysis (OBIA) do InterIMAGE Desktop para processamento de grandes imagens orbitais. O método apresentado é expansível no uso da biblioteca TerraLib 5, com linguagem de programação C++. Os experimentos realizados com as representações matriciais (raster) indicaram a viabilidade das aplicações e podem se consolidar sob a forma de processos de armazenamento e processamento da segmentação no SGBD

The role of the user within the medical device design and development process: medical device manufacturers' perspectives

Copyright @ 2011 Money et al.Background: Academic literature and international standards bodies suggest that user involvement, via the incorporation of human factors engineering methods within the medical device design and development (MDDD) process, offer many benefits that enable the development of safer and more usable medical devices that are better suited to users' needs. However, little research has been carried out to explore medical device manufacturers' beliefs and attitudes towards user involvement within this process, or indeed what value they believe can be added by doing so.Methods: In-depth interviews with representatives from 11 medical device manufacturers are carried out. We ask them to specify who they believe the intended users of the device to be, who they consult to inform the MDDD process, what role they believe the user plays within this process, and what value (if any) they believe users add. Thematic analysis is used to analyse the fully transcribed interview data, to gain insight into medical device manufacturers' beliefs and attitudes towards user involvement within the MDDD process.Results: A number of high-level themes emerged, relating who the user is perceived to be, the methods used, the perceived value and barriers to user involvement, and the nature of user contributions. The findings reveal that despite standards agencies and academic literature offering strong support for the employment formal methods, manufacturers are still hesitant due to a range of factors including: perceived barriers to obtaining ethical approval; the speed at which such activity may be carried out; the belief that there is no need given the 'all-knowing' nature of senior health care staff and clinical champions; a belief that effective results are achievable by consulting a minimal number of champions. Furthermore, less senior health care practitioners and patients were rarely seen as being able to provide valuable input into the process.Conclusions: Medical device manufacturers often do not see the benefit of employing formal human factors engineering methods within the MDDD process. Research is required to better understand the day-to-day requirements of manufacturers within this sector. The development of new or adapted methods may be required if user involvement is to be fully realised.This study was in part funded by grant number Ref: GR/S29874/01 from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. This article is made available through the Brunel University Open Access Publishing Fund

Effect of sitagliptin on cardiovascular outcomes in type 2 diabetes

BACKGROUND: Data are lacking on the long-term effect on cardiovascular events of adding sitagliptin, a dipeptidyl peptidase 4 inhibitor, to usual care in patients with type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. METHODS: In this randomized, double-blind study, we assigned 14,671 patients to add either sitagliptin or placebo to their existing therapy. Open-label use of antihyperglycemic therapy was encouraged as required, aimed at reaching individually appropriate glycemic targets in all patients. To determine whether sitagliptin was noninferior to placebo, we used a relative risk of 1.3 as the marginal upper boundary. The primary cardiovascular outcome was a composite of cardiovascular death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, nonfatal stroke, or hospitalization for unstable angina. RESULTS: During a median follow-up of 3.0 years, there was a small difference in glycated hemoglobin levels (least-squares mean difference for sitagliptin vs. placebo, -0.29 percentage points; 95% confidence interval [CI], -0.32 to -0.27). Overall, the primary outcome occurred in 839 patients in the sitagliptin group (11.4%; 4.06 per 100 person-years) and 851 patients in the placebo group (11.6%; 4.17 per 100 person-years). Sitagliptin was noninferior to placebo for the primary composite cardiovascular outcome (hazard ratio, 0.98; 95% CI, 0.88 to 1.09; P<0.001). Rates of hospitalization for heart failure did not differ between the two groups (hazard ratio, 1.00; 95% CI, 0.83 to 1.20; P = 0.98). There were no significant between-group differences in rates of acute pancreatitis (P = 0.07) or pancreatic cancer (P = 0.32). CONCLUSIONS: Among patients with type 2 diabetes and established cardiovascular disease, adding sitagliptin to usual care did not appear to increase the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events, hospitalization for heart failure, or other adverse events

Ultrasound-Assisted Aromatisation with Condiments as an Enabling Technique for Olive Oil Flavouring and Shelf Life Enhancement

Olive oil flavour represents the most important factor that influences customer’s perception for quality. In thisstudy, an innovative aromatisation approach that enhanced quality and shelf life of olive oil is tested by means of in situ ultrasound-assisted extraction of [i]Carum carvi[/i] L. seeds in olive oil. After the flavouring process, carvone and limonene, representing 99 % of caraway essential oil, were identified in virgin olive oil as revealed by headspace solid-phase microextraction gas chromatograph coupled to mass spectrometer (HS-SPME gas chromatograph (GC)/mass spectrometer (MS)) analyses. Furthermore, kinetic studies indicate that flavouring rate in ultrasound-assisted system is faster than conventional aromatisation producing very stable aromatisedoil with no changes in quality. This fact is attributed to ultrasound contribution to mass transfer intensification of essential oil components from seeds to the bulk medium, confirmed by scanning electron micrograph (SEM) micrographs in which cell damage and exudation of its main content are illustrated. However, it is important to note that ultrasound-treated samples produce higher degrees of conjugated dienes and conjugated trienes compared to conventional maceration. Nevertheless, this increase is not alarming and remains within permitted values of the European Community and the International Olive Oil Council (IOOC). Ultrasoundflavouring system stands as a fast alternative aromatisation method, which allows on top shelf life enhancement and olive oil quality preservation