Access to counselling training for refugees

Report from a meeting convened by British Red Cross Society, Evelyn Oldfield Unit, Refugee Council, and Westminster Diocese Refugee Service.Available from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:m00/42272 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo

Comparison of Z-N and PSO based tuning methods in the control strategy of prosthetic limbs application

The aim of the study is to compare Ziegler-Nichols (Z-N) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) based tuning methods for controller tuning in the driving mechanism of prosthetic limbs. By adopting suitable control strategies like P, PI and PID in the driving system, the positioning of knee and hip joints can be attained in the ideal time of 1.4s for completing one locomotion cycle. The gain constants (KP , KI , and KD) of the controllers were tuned manually and also using Z-N and PSO; thereby appropriate constants were determined so that the joints could be moved to the desired position. The performance of P, PI, and PID controllers were compared and PID was identified as the ideal control strategy which exhibited least error and good stability. It was observed that the conventional Z-N method produced a big overshoot, and so a modern approach called PSO was employed to enhance its capability. The PSO based PID controller optimization resulted in less overshoot as well as it helped in optimizing the gain constants so as to improve the stability of the system when compared to the classical method

Lower Limb EMG Signal Analysis Using Scattering Transform and Support Vector Machine for Various Walking Conditions

Electromyography (EMG)-based clinical signal processing and feature extraction are crucial for diagnosing various diseases. In this work, using lower limb EMG data, scattering transform (ST)-based features and time-domain-based features were compared using a support vector machine (SVM) classifier. Several subjects were instructed to walk on a platform designed to transform its surface between even and uneven terrain. The EMG signals from the gastrocnemius (GM) and medial hamstring muscles (HM) of twenty-one healthy male subjects were acquired under different walking conditions (i.e., even forward, even backward, uneven forward, and uneven backward walking directions). The features were extracted using a time-domain-based method and ST method which were then fed into an SVM classifier. Test results showed that time-domain features can provide accuracy ranges between 97.31 and 99.57% and ST features can provide accuracy ranges between 99.42 and 100%. The high number of extracted features used showed that ST features require a longer processing time compared to time-domain features. In addition, the analysis of generated scatterplots showed how time-domain-based features contribute to the classification of walking conditions. The findings of this study have potential applications in both clinical and bioengineering fields

Renal oncocytoma with vacuolated cells and giant mitochondria: Report of a rare tumor and review of the literature

Reports of renal oncocytoma with intracytoplasmic vacuoles are exceedingly rare. In addition to 5 prior reports, we present a novel case of renal oncocytoma with cytoplasmic vacuolation. A 69-year-old male patient underwent partial nephrectomy to remove the 3.8 cm tumor. Tumor cells showed typical morphologic and immunohistochemical features of renal oncocytoma, with the additional feature of diffuse, oval-round cytoplasmic vacuoles containing pale amphophilic material. Distinct eosinophilic cytoplasmic inclusions were also present, which were shown to be giant mitochondria on ultrastructural examination. Cytoplasmic vacuolation has been described in other renal tumors, namely succinate dehydrogenase deficient renal cell carcinoma and eosinophilic vacuolated tumor, both of which were ruled out in the current case. Our case is the first to confirm the presence of giant mitochondria in a vacuolated renal oncocytoma, and the second to associate mitochondria as the origin of these vacuoles. Future identification of additional cases would shed more insight on the etiology and pathobiological significance of this rare tumor morphology