An End-to-End Big Data Analytics Platform for IoT-enabled Smart Factories: A Case Study of Battery Module Assembly System for Electric Vehicles

Within the concept of factories of the future, big data analytics systems play a critical role in supporting decision-making at various stages across enterprise processes. However, the design and deployment of industry-ready, lightweight, modular, flexible, and low-cost big data analytics solutions remains one of the main challenges towards the Industry 4.0 enabled digital transformation. This paper presents an end-to-end IoT-based big data analytics platform that consists of five interconnected layers and several components for data acquisition, integration, storage, analytics and visualisation purposes. The platform architecture benefits from state-of-the-art technologies and integrates them in a systematic and interoperable way with clear information flows. The developed platform has been deployed in an Electric Vehicle (EV) battery module smart assembly automation system designed by the Automation Systems Group (ASG) at the University of Warwick, UK. The developed proof-of-concept solution demonstrates how a wide variety of tools and methods can be orchestrated to work together aiming to support decision-making and to improve both process and product qualities in smart manufacturing environments

Pulling for pleasure? Erotic approach-bias associated with porn use, not problems

Background and Objectives: Addictive behaviors are gaining recognition in the clinical community, leading to more attention for the effects of problematic porn use. As many addictive behaviors are characterized by automatically activated approach-tendencies for disorder-relevant stimuli, we tested whether such tendencies are also present for erotic images and whether these are related to problematic porn use. Methods: Measuring approach-bias for erotic photographs, sixty-two healthy heterosexual and bisexual men completed both a relevant-feature and an irrelevant-feature approach-avoidance task (AAT). Half of participants operated a joystick as response device, the other half a keyboard. We recorded participants’ number of weekly porn-viewing sessions and symptoms of problematic porn use. Results: The irrelevant-feature AAT produced unreliable results and was not analyzed further. In the relevant-feature AAT, participants had an overall approach-bias towards erotic stimuli. Porn use frequency, but not problematic porn use, was associated with with greater erotic approach-bias. This relationship was stronger when measured with a joystick than with a keyboard. Limitations: Our design did not allow to test the causal direction of the relationship between porn use and approach-bias, and our results cannot be generalized to women, non-heterosexual men, and clinical populations. Conclusions: Similar to other addictive behaviors and substances, we found a positive relation between porn use and approach-bias. Future studies using the relevant-feature AAT will likely benefit from using the joystick rather than the keyboard.Sercan Kahveci was supported by the Doctoral College "Imaging the Mind" (FWF; W1233-B)

Volumetric evaluation of temporal bone structures in the cases with bilateral tinnitus: clinical and morphometrical study

Background: Tinnitus is the recognition of sound in the absence of any external auditory stimulus to the noise of ringing in the ears. Middle ear aeration carries important role for ossicular coupling and normal hearing. There is restricted morphometric data on the cases with bilateral tinnitus. Materials and methods: In this study we evaluated hearing findings of 18 cases with subjective nonpulsatile bilateral tinnitus and also morphometry and volumetry of temporal bone substructures on the computed tomography images using stereological method compared with the gender and age matched 12 healthy subjects. Duration of tinnitus, exposing acoustic trauma or/and high level noise levels, evaluation of middle ear volume, jugular bulb levels, distances between jugular bulb and both oval window and middle ear were evaluated. Results: Both males and females with tinnitus showed worse hearing thresholds through bone and air conductions than healthy subjects but it was not statistically significant. Pure tone thresholds through bone and air conductions were not statistically different in both sexes with bilateral tinnitus. Right middle ear volume of the cases with bilateral tinnitus was mean 5.57 cm3 for males and 5.64 cm3 for females; and also the left middle ear volume of the cases with bilateral tinnitus was mean 5.87 cm3 for males and 5.65 cm3 for females. There were no significant differences between the cases with bilateral tinnitus and the control subjects according to the side of the body. < strong > Conclusions: The data on the hearing findings and morphometrical evaluation of the cases with bilateral tinnitus may be important for anatomists and clinicians. (Folia Morphol 2018; 77, 1: 57–64)

Ektopik Gebelik Olgularında Methotrexatın Tedavi Etkinliğinin Değerlendirilmesi

Aim: Our aim in this study was to assess efficacy of singledose methotrexate (MTX) as medical treatment for ectopic pregnancy (EP) by evaluating the results of patients given this treatment. Materials and Methods: Between September 2016 and August 2017, the treatment outcomes of EP cases treated with MTX at Gazi Yaşargil Training and Research Hospital of Health Sciences University were evaluated retrospectively. Results: In total, 126 cases treated for EP were evaluated and 65 cases were included in the study. In cases administered a single dose of MTX, the success rate was 80%, the failure rate was 13.8%, and the emergency surgery rate was 6.2%. The overall success rate of the medical treatment was 90.7% for a second dose of MTX. An unsuccessful result was considered as less than a 15% reduction in the beta-human chorionic gonadotropin (?-hCG) level between 4 and 7 days after single dose MTX administration. In all cases, the rate of emergency surgery after treatment was 9.3%. Conclusions: In our study, success rates in patients with EP treated with MTX were 80% after a single dose and as high as 90.7% when a second dose was addedAmaç: Bu çalışmadaki amacımız ektopik gebelik’ te (EP) medikal tedavi olarak tek doz methotrexat (MTX) tedavisi verilen olguların sonuçlarının değerlendirilmesidir. Materyal ve Metot: Eylül 2016 ile Ağustos 2017 arasında Sağlık Bilimleri Üniversitesi Gazi Yaşargil Eğitim ve Araştırma Hastanesinde tedavi edilen EP olgularında MTX tedavisi uygulanmış olanların tedavi sonuçları retrospektif olarak değerlendirildi. Bulgular: Çalışmanın yapıldığı tarihler arasında EP nedeniyle tedavi edilen 126 olgu çalışmaya dahil edildi. Tek doz MTX tedavisi başlanan olgularda başarı oranı %80, başarısızlık %13.8 ve acil cerrahi oranı %6.2 olarak gerçekleşti. Tek doz MTX uygulaması sonrasında 4 ve 7 günler arsında betahuman chorionic gonadotropin (?-hCG) seviyesinin %15 ten az düşmesi sonucunda başarısız olarak kabul edilen olgularda yapılan 2. doz MTX sonucunda, medikal tedavinin toplam başarı oranı %90.7 olarak gerçekleşirken, bu olguların tümünde tedavi sonrası acil cerrahi oranı %9.3 olarak gerçekleşti. Sonuç: Çalışmamızda uygun endikasyonla MTX tedavisi uygulanan EP olgularında medikal tedavinin başarı oranı %90.7 gibi oldukça yüksek bir oranda gerçekleşmiş olup olguların sadece %9.3 de MTX tedavisi sonrasında acil cerrahi tedavi gerekmiştir

Postdeposition annealing on RF-sputtered SrTiO3 thin films

Understanding of structural, optical, and electrical properties of thin films are very important for a reliable device performance. In the present work, the effect of postdeposition annealing on stoichiometric SrTiO3 (STO) thin films grown by radio frequency magnetron sputtering at room temperature on p-type Si (100) and quartz substrates were studied. Highly transparent and well adhered thin films were obtained in visible and near infrared regions. As-deposited films were amorphous, while nanocrystalline and polycrystalline phases of the STO thin films formed as a function of annealing temperature. Films annealed at 300 �C showed nanocrystallinity with some amorphous phase. Crystallization started after 15 min annealing at 700 �C, and further improved for films annealed at 800 �C. However, crystallinity reduced for films which were annealed at 900 �C. The optical and electrical properties of STO thin films affected by postdeposition annealing at 800 �C: Eg values decreased from 4.50 to 4.18 eV, n(λ) values (at 550 nm) increased from 1.81 to 2.16. The surface roughness increased with the annealing temperature due to the increased crystallite size, densification and following void formation which can be seen from the scanning electron microscopy images. The highest dielectric constants (46 at 100 kHz) observed for films annealed at 800 �C; however, it was lower for 300 �C annealed (25 at 100 kHz) and as-deposited (7 at 100 kHz) STO films having ∼80 nm thickness. � 2017 American Vacuum Society

The effect of thrombolytic therapy on QT dispersion in acute myocardial infarction and its role in the prediction of reperfusion arrhythmias

Purpose: We aimed to determine the effect of intravenous thrombolytic therapy on QT dispersion (QTd) and its role in the prediction of reperfusion arrhythmias.Materials and Methods: Twenty patients with acute myocardial infarction (MI) were enrolled in the study. Measurements of QTd were carried out  prior to thrombolytic therapy and before discharge. The patients were examined for ventricular arrhythmias with 24‑h Holter electrocardiography monitoring after treatment and the relationship between ventricular arrhythmias and the QTd values in the early phase of MI was investigated.Results: The values of QTd were significantly higher during the early phase of MI (60 ± 5.32 ms) than those in the late phase (53.35 ± 4.07 ms) (P = 0.032). There was no correlation between isolated, bigeminal, trigeminal and total ventricular premature beats, accelerated idioventricular rhythm (AIVR) with QTd values. However, the patients with sustained ventricular tachycardia (VT), prolonged VT and sustained AIVR had higher corrected QTd (92 ms1/2, 97.8 ms1/2, 81.7 ms1/2, respectively) than the patients without these arrhythmias (74 ms1/2, 56.3 ms1/2, 58.28 ms1/2,  respectively) (P = 0.022, 0.013, 0.018).Conclusion: The values of QTd may be significantly reduced in the 1st week of acute MI and measurement of QTd in the early phase of MI may have a correlation with the following reperfusion arrhythmias: Sustained VT, prolonged VT and AIVR.Key words: Arrhythmia, myocardial infarction, QT dispersion, reperfusion, thrombolytic therap

Classification and feature selection algorithms for multi-class CGH data

Recurrent chromosomal alterations provide cytological and molecular positions for the diagnosis and prognosis of cancer. Comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) has been useful in understanding these alterations in cancerous cells. CGH datasets consist of samples that are represented by large dimensional arrays of intervals. Each sample consists of long runs of intervals with losses and gains