Pressure-probe assembly for wind tunnels

Rake mounting design reduces aerodynamic-surface discontinuities to a minimum when installed in boundary layer bleed area. Mounting base is not required and, because of simplicity, rake can be manufactured at low cost

Manual and Cooperative Control Mission Management Methods for Wide Area Search Munitions

Wide Area Search Munitions (WASM) combine the attributes of unmanned aerial vehicles with those of traditional munitions. The WASM concept envisions artificially intelligent munitions that communicate and coordinate with one another and with human operators to effectively perform their tasks. This study examined target acquisition for unaided operators with that of an automated cooperative controller for a complex task involving the prosecution of groundbased targets. Participants completed nine trials for each control mode (manual and cooperative) by number of WASMs (4, 8, and 16) combination. Target hit rate was not affected by control mode or number of WASMs. However, target acquisition efficiency degraded under manual control and as the number of WASMs increased. Workload was greater for the manual mode and increased as number of targets increased. Self-ratings of the ability to perform a simultaneous attach were lower for the manual mode and decreased as the number of WASMs increased

Portraiture

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Linking phytoplankton community metabolism to the individual size distribution

This is the final version of the article. Available from the publisher via the DOI in this recordQuantifying variation in ecosystem metabolism is critical to predicting the impacts of environmental change on the carbon cycle. We used a metabolic scaling framework to investigate how body size and temperature influence phytoplankton community metabolism. We tested this framework using phytoplankton sampled from an outdoor mesocosm experiment, where communities had been either experimentally warmed (+ 4 °C) for 10 years or left at ambient temperature. Warmed and ambient phytoplankton communities differed substantially in their taxonomic composition and size structure. Despite this, the response of primary production and community respiration to long- and short-term warming could be estimated using a model that accounted for the size- and temperature dependence of individual metabolism, and the community abundance-body size distribution. This work demonstrates that the key metabolic fluxes that determine the carbon balance of planktonic ecosystems can be approximated using metabolic scaling theory, with knowledge of the individual size distribution and environmental temperature.NERC. Grant Number: PASW06

DoctorEye: A clinically driven multifunctional platform, for accurate processing of tumors in medical images

Copyright @ Skounakis et al.This paper presents a novel, open access interactive platform for 3D medical image analysis, simulation and visualization, focusing in oncology images. The platform was developed through constant interaction and feedback from expert clinicians integrating a thorough analysis of their requirements while having an ultimate goal of assisting in accurately delineating tumors. It allows clinicians not only to work with a large number of 3D tomographic datasets but also to efficiently annotate multiple regions of interest in the same session. Manual and semi-automatic segmentation techniques combined with integrated correction tools assist in the quick and refined delineation of tumors while different users can add different components related to oncology such as tumor growth and simulation algorithms for improving therapy planning. The platform has been tested by different users and over large number of heterogeneous tomographic datasets to ensure stability, usability, extensibility and robustness with promising results. AVAILABILITY: THE PLATFORM, A MANUAL AND TUTORIAL VIDEOS ARE AVAILABLE AT: http://biomodeling.ics.forth.gr. It is free to use under the GNU General Public License

An analysis of technology gaps and priorities in support of probe-scale coronagraph and starshade missions

This paper provides a survey of the state-of-the-art in coronagraph and starshade technologies and highlights areas where advances are needed to enable future NASA exoplanet missions. An analysis is provided of the remaining technology gaps and the relative priorities of technology investments leading to a mission that could follow JWST. This work is being conducted in support of NASAs Astrophysics Division and the NASA Exoplanet Exploration Program (ExEP), who are in the process of assessing options for future missions. ExEP has funded Science and Technology Definition Teams to study coronagraphs and starshade mission concepts having a lifecycle cost cap of less than $1B. This paper provides a technology gap analysis for these concepts

Automated template-based brain localization and extraction for fetal brain MRI reconstruction.

Most fetal brain MRI reconstruction algorithms rely only on brain tissue-relevant voxels of low-resolution (LR) images to enhance the quality of inter-slice motion correction and image reconstruction. Consequently the fetal brain needs to be localized and extracted as a first step, which is usually a laborious and time consuming manual or semi-automatic task. We have proposed in this work to use age-matched template images as prior knowledge to automatize brain localization and extraction. This has been achieved through a novel automatic brain localization and extraction method based on robust template-to-slice block matching and deformable slice-to-template registration. Our template-based approach has also enabled the reconstruction of fetal brain images in standard radiological anatomical planes in a common coordinate space. We have integrated this approach into our new reconstruction pipeline that involves intensity normalization, inter-slice motion correction, and super-resolution (SR) reconstruction. To this end we have adopted a novel approach based on projection of every slice of the LR brain masks into the template space using a fusion strategy. This has enabled the refinement of brain masks in the LR images at each motion correction iteration. The overall brain localization and extraction algorithm has shown to produce brain masks that are very close to manually drawn brain masks, showing an average Dice overlap measure of 94.5%. We have also demonstrated that adopting a slice-to-template registration and propagation of the brain mask slice-by-slice leads to a significant improvement in brain extraction performance compared to global rigid brain extraction and consequently in the quality of the final reconstructed images. Ratings performed by two expert observers show that the proposed pipeline can achieve similar reconstruction quality to reference reconstruction based on manual slice-by-slice brain extraction. The proposed brain mask refinement and reconstruction method has shown to provide promising results in automatic fetal brain MRI segmentation and volumetry in 26 fetuses with gestational age range of 23 to 38 weeks

Segmentations of MRI images of the female pelvic floor: A study of inter- and intra-reader reliability

Purpose: To describe the inter- and intra-operator reliability of segmentations of female pelvic floor structures. Materials and Methods: Three segmentation specialists were asked to segment out the female pelvic structures in 20 MR datasets on three separate occasions. The STAPLE algorithm was used to compute inter- and intra-segmenter agreement of each organ in each dataset. STAPLE computed the sensitivity, specificity, and positive predictive values (PPV) for inter- and intra-segmenter repeatability. These parameters were analyzed using intra-class correlation analysis. Correlation of organ volume to PPV and sensitivity was also computed. Results: Mean PPV of the segmented organs ranged from 0.82 to 0.99, and sensitivity ranged from 33 to 96%. Intra-class correlation ranged from 0.07 to 0.98 across segmenters. Pearson correlation of volume to sensitivity were significant across organs, ranging from 0.54 to 0.91. Organs with significant correlation of PPV to volume were bladder (−0.69), levator ani (−0.68), and coccyx (−0.63). Conclusion: Undirected manual segmentation of the pelvic floor organs are adequate for locating the organs, but poor at defining structural boundaries. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2011;33:684–691. © 2011 Wiley-Liss, Inc.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/83166/1/22478_ftp.pd

Systematic review of the incidence and clinical risk predictors of atrial fibrillation and permanent pacemaker implantation for bradycardia in Fabry disease

INTRODUCTION: Fabry disease (FD) is an X-linked lysosomal storage disorder caused by enzyme deficiency, leading to glycosphingolipid accumulation. Cardiac accumulation triggers local tissue injury, electrical instability and arrhythmia. Bradyarrhythmia and atrial fibrillation (AF) incidence are reported in up to 16% and 13%, respectively. OBJECTIVE: We conducted a systematic review evaluating AF burden and bradycardia requiring permanent pacemaker (PPM) implantation and report any predictive risk factors identified. METHODS: We conducted a literature search on studies in adults with FD published from inception to July 2019. Study outcomes included AF or bradycardia requiring therapy. Databases included Embase, Medline, PubMed, Web of Science, CINAHL and Cochrane. The Risk of Bias Agreement tool for Non-Randomised Studies (RoBANS) was utilised to assess bias across key areas. RESULTS: 11 studies were included, eight providing data on AF incidence or PPM implantation. Weighted estimate of event rates for AF were 12.2% and 10% for PPM. Age was associated with AF (OR 1.05–1.20 per 1-year increase in age) and a risk factor for PPM implantation (composite OR 1.03). Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) was associated with AF and PPM implantation. CONCLUSION: Evidence supporting AF and bradycardia requiring pacemaker implantation is limited to single-centre studies. Incidence is variable and choice of diagnostic modality plays a role in detection rate. Predictors for AF (age, LVH and atrial dilatation) and PPM (age, LVH and PR/QRS interval) were identified but strength of association was low. Incidence of AF and PPM implantation in FD are variably reported with arrhythmia burden likely much higher than previously thought