An Extended ISM for Globally Multimodal Function Optimization by Genetic Algorithms

When attempting to optimize a function where exists several big-valley structures, conventional GAs often fail to find the global optimum. Innately Split Model (ISM) is a framework of GAs, which is designed to avoid this phenomenon called UV-Phenomenon. However, ISM doesn't care about previously-searched areas by the past populations. Thus, it is possible that populations of ISM waste evaluation cost for redundant searches reaching previously-found optima. In this paper, we introduce Extended ISM (EISM) that uses search information of past populations as trap to suppress overlapping searches. To show performance of EISM, we apply it to some test functions, and analyze the behavior

Development of a Corona Discharge Ionizer Utilizing High-Voltage AC Power Supply Driven by PWM Inverter for Highly Efficient Electrostatic Elimination

The corona discharge ionizer has been widely used to eliminate electrostatic charges on insulators in a variety of manufacturing industries for the prevention of electrostatic discharge (ESD) problems. High-speed electrostatic elimination is conventionally required for ionizer performance. Because of the high sensitivity of recent electronic devices to ESD damage, an extremely low-offset voltage (ion balance) is required for the performance of electrostatic eliminators. Long-term performance stability is required to maintain the quality of the products, but the short cleaning interval of the unit increases the operating cost. The efficiency is also affected by the waveform of the applied voltage. The optimization of the applied voltage is an important factor in achieving long-term performance stability. In this study, an intermittent pulse voltage AC power supply was developed to achieve a highly efficient electrostatic elimination with long-term stability high-speed electrostatic elimination and an excellent ion balance

Single-Channel Speech Enhancement Based on Frequency Domain ALE

In the present paper, a new single-channel speech enhancement system is proposed. The proposed system is based on frequency domain adaptive line enhancer; therefore, it is advantageous to non-stationary environments. Also, frequency domain decorrelation parameters are introduced and then adjusted independently. The performance of the proposed system is examined through computer simulations. The effectiveness of the proposed system is confirmed through computer simulations

Speech Noise Reduction System Based on Frequency Domain ALE Using Windowed Modified DFT Pair

The speech noise reduction system based on the frequency domain adaptive line enhancer using a windowed modified DFT (MDFT) pair is presented. The adaptive line enhancer (ALE) is effective for extracting sinusoidal signals blurred by a broadband noise. In addition, it utilizes only one microphone. Therefore, it is suitable for the realization of speech noise reduction in portable electronic devices. In the ALE, an input signal is generated by delaying a desired signal using the decorrelation parameter, which makes the noise in the input signal decorrelated with that in the desired one. In the present paper, we propose to set decorrelation parameters in the frequency domain and adjust them to optimal values according to the relationship between speech and noise. Such frequency domain decorrelation parameters enable the reduction of the computational complexity of the proposed system. Also, we introduce the window function into MDFT for suppressing spectral leakage. The performance of the proposed noise reduction system is examined through computer simulations

Ten-year inhospital mortality trends for patients with trauma in Japan: a multicentre observational study

Objectives: Trauma is one of the main causes of death in Japan, and treatments and prognoses of these injuries are constantly changing. We therefore aimed to investigate a 10-year trend (2004–2013) in inhospital mortality among patients with trauma in Japan.Design: Multicentre observational study.Setting: Japanese nationwide trauma registry (the Japan Trauma Data Bank) data.Participants: All patients with trauma whose Injury Severity Score (ISS) were 3 and above, who were aged 15 years or older, and whose mechanisms of injury (MOI) were blunt and penetrating between 2004 and 2013 (n=90 833).Outcome measures: A 10-year trend in inhospital mortality.Results: Inhospital mortality for all patients with trauma significantly decreased over the study decade in our Cochran-Armitage test (P<0.001). Similarly, inhospital mortality for patients with ISS 16 or more and patients who scored 50% or better on the Trauma and Injury Severity Score (TRISS) probability of survival scale significantly decreased (P<0.001). In addition, the OR for inhospital mortality of these three patient groups decreased yearly after adjusting for age, gender, MOI, ISS, Glasgow Coma Scale, systolic blood pressure and respiratory rate on hospital arrival in multivariable logistic regression analyses. Furthermore, inhospital mortality for patient with blunt trauma significantly decreased in injury mechanism-stratified Mantel-extension testing (P<0.001). Finally, multivariable logistic regression analyses showed that the OR for inhospital mortality of patients with ISS 16 and over decreased each year after adding and adjusting for means of transportation and usage of whole-body CT.Conclusion: Inhospital mortality for patients with trauma in Japan significantly decreased during the study decade after adjusting for patient characteristics, injury severity and the response environment after injury

Epidemiology and patterns of tracheostomy practice in patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome in ICUs across 50 countries

BackgroundTo better understand the epidemiology and patterns of tracheostomy practice for patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), we investigated the current usage of tracheostomy in patients with ARDS recruited into the Large Observational Study to Understand the Global Impact of Severe Acute Respiratory Failure (LUNG-SAFE) study.MethodsThis is a secondary analysis of LUNG-SAFE, an international, multicenter, prospective cohort study of patients receiving invasive or noninvasive ventilation in 50 countries spanning 5 continents. The study was carried out over 4 weeks consecutively in the winter of 2014, and 459 ICUs participated. We evaluated the clinical characteristics, management and outcomes of patients that received tracheostomy, in the cohort of patients that developed ARDS on day 1–2 of acute hypoxemic respiratory failure, and in a subsequent propensity-matched cohort.ResultsOf the 2377 patients with ARDS that fulfilled the inclusion criteria, 309 (13.0%) underwent tracheostomy during their ICU stay. Patients from high-income European countries (n = 198/1263) more frequently underwent tracheostomy compared to patients from non-European high-income countries (n = 63/649) or patients from middle-income countries (n = 48/465). Only 86/309 (27.8%) underwent tracheostomy on or before day 7, while the median timing of tracheostomy was 14 (Q1–Q3, 7–21) days after onset of ARDS. In the subsample matched by propensity score, ICU and hospital stay were longer in patients with tracheostomy. While patients with tracheostomy had the highest survival probability, there was no difference in 60-day or 90-day mortality in either the patient subgroup that survived for at least 5 days in ICU, or in the propensity-matched subsample.ConclusionsMost patients that receive tracheostomy do so after the first week of critical illness. Tracheostomy may prolong patient survival but does not reduce 60-day or 90-day mortality

Genetic variants of SLC17A1 are associated with cholesterol homeostasis and hyperhomocysteinaemia in Japanese men

Hyperuricaemia is an undisputed and highly predictive biomarker for cardiovascular risk. SLC17A1, expressed in the liver and kidneys, harbours potent candidate single nucleotide polymorphisms that decrease uric acid levels. Therefore, we examined SLC17A1 polymorphisms (rs1165196, rs1179086 and rs3757131), which might suppress cardiovascular risk factors and that are involved in liver functioning, via a large-scale pooled analysis of the Japanese general population in a cross-sectional study. Using data from the Japan Multi-Institutional Collaborative Cohort Study, we identified 1842 participants of both sexes, 35–69-years-old, having the requisite data and analysed their SLC17A1 genotypes. In men, logistic regression analyses revealed that minor alleles in SLC17A1 polymorphisms (rs1165196 and rs3757131) were associated with a low-/high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio >2.0 (rs1165196: odds ratio [OR], 0.703; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.536–0.922; rs3757131: OR, 0.658; 95% CI, 0.500–0.866) and with homocysteine levels of >10.0 nmol/mL (rs1165196: OR, 0.544; 95% CI, 0.374–0.792; rs3757131: OR, 0.509; 95% CI, 0.347–0.746). Therefore, these polymorphisms had dominant negative effects on cholesterol homeostasis and hyperhomocysteinaemia, in men, independent of alcohol consumption, physical activity, or daily energy and nutrition intake. Thus, genetic variants of SLC17A1 are potential biomarkers for altered cholesterol homeostasis and hyperhomocysteinaemia in Japanese men

Impact of functional studies on exome sequence variant interpretation in early-onset cardiac conduction system diseases

Aims The genetic cause of cardiac conduction system disease (CCSD) has not been fully elucidated. Whole-exome sequencing (WES) can detect various genetic variants; however, the identification of pathogenic variants remains a challenge. We aimed to identify pathogenic or likely pathogenic variants in CCSD patients by using WES and 2015 American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG) standards and guidelines as well as evaluating the usefulness of functional studies for determining them. Methods and Results We performed WES of 23 probands diagnosed with early-onset (&amp;lt;65 years) CCSD and analyzed 117 genes linked to arrhythmogenic diseases or cardiomyopathies. We focused on rare variants (minor allele frequency &amp;lt; 0.1%) that were absent from population databases. Five probands had protein truncating variants in EMD and LMNA which were classified as “pathogenic” by 2015 ACMG standards and guidelines. To evaluate the functional changes brought about by these variants, we generated a knock-out zebrafish with CRISPR-mediated insertions or deletions of the EMD or LMNA homologs in zebrafish. The mean heart rate and conduction velocities in the CRISPR/Cas9-injected embryos and F2 generation embryos with homozygous deletions were significantly decreased. Twenty-one variants of uncertain significance were identified in 11 probands. Cellular electrophysiological study and in vivo zebrafish cardiac assay showed that 2 variants in KCNH2 and SCN5A, 4 variants in SCN10A, and 1 variant in MYH6 damaged each gene, which resulted in the change of the clinical significance of them from “Uncertain significance” to “Likely pathogenic” in 6 probands. Conclusions Of 23 CCSD probands, we successfully identified pathogenic or likely pathogenic variants in 11 probands (48%). Functional analyses of a cellular electrophysiological study and in vivo zebrafish cardiac assay might be useful for determining the pathogenicity of rare variants in patients with CCSD. SCN10A may be one of the major genes responsible for CCSD. Translational Perspective Whole-exome sequencing (WES) may be helpful in determining the causes of cardiac conduction system disease (CCSD), however, the identification of pathogenic variants remains a challenge. We performed WES of 23 probands diagnosed with early-onset CCSD, and identified 12 pathogenic or likely pathogenic variants in 11 of these probands (48%) according to the 2015 ACMG standards and guidelines. In this context, functional analyses of a cellular electrophysiological study and in vivo zebrafish cardiac assay might be useful for determining the pathogenicity of rare variants, and SCN10A may be one of the major development factors in CCSD