A Bank of Reconfigurable LQG Controllers for Linear Systems Subjected to Failures

An approach for controller reconfiguration is presented. The starting point in the analysis is a sufficiently accurate continuous linear time-invariant (LTI) model of the nominal system. Based on a bank of reconfigurable LQG controllers, each designed for a particular combination of total faults, the reconfiguration consists of two operation modes. In the first mode a switching is invoked towards one of the pre-designed LQG controllers on the basis of the information about only the combination of total faults that is in effect. In the second mode, which is activated in cases of partial and component faults, a dynamic correction procedure is initiated which tries to reconfigure the currently active controller in such a way, that the failed closed-loop system remains stable and its performance is as close as possible to the performance of the closed-loop system with only total faults present in the system. In cases of partial faults the second mode is practically an extension of the modified pseudo-inverse method. In cases of component faults the second mode is based on an LMI optimization problem. The approach is illustrated using a model of a real-life space robot manipulator, in which total, partial and component faults are simulate

Automatically accelerating non-numerical programs by architecture-compiler co-design

Because of the high cost of communication between processors, compilers that parallelize loops automatically have been forced to skip a large class of loops that are both critical to performance and rich in latent parallelism. HELIX-RC is a compiler/microprocessor co-design that opens those loops to parallelization by decoupling communication from thread execution in conventional multicore architecures. Simulations of HELIX-RC, applied to a processor with 16 Intel Atom-like cores, show an average of 6.85× performance speedup for six SPEC CINT2000 benchmarks.</jats:p

Smart TV face monitoring for children privacy

© 2018 Taiwan Academic Network Management Committee. All Rights Reserved. Many of the modern Television (TV) sets and digital TV set-top boxes are endowed with Smart TV capabilities. Those include computing and connectivity to online services such as video on demand, online games and even sports and healthcare. A lot of Smart TV devices also have built-in cameras, microphones and other sensors that provide for environmental monitoring and consequent context dependent feedback. Such Smart TV capabilities, however, can lead to privacy violations through unwanted tracking and user profiling by broadcasters and other service providers. There is a concern when underage users such as children who may not fully understand the concept of privacy are involved in using the Smart TV services. To address this issue, face recognition experiments were conducted with the IBM\u27s Watson and the Microsoft\u27s Face Application Programming Interface to reveal the potential of integrating facial recognition in future privacy aware Smart TV services

MAINTENANCE OF СА2+-ATP-ASE AMOUNT IN SARCOPLASMATIC RETICULUM CARDIOMYOCYTES IN ISCHEMIC MYOCARDIUM DURING SHORT DURATION OF DIABETES MELLITUS COURSE Kondratyeva D. S., Afansyev S. A., Kanev A. F., Kozlov B. N.

Aim. To study the level of Са2+-ATP-ase of sarcoplasmatic reticulum (SR) in human myocardium in ischemic heart disease (CHD) and in CHD with diabetes mellitus 2nd type (DM), and also in animals with postinfarction cardiosclerosis with DM.Material and methods. The study performed on biopsy material of the hearts from patients and rats with chronic ishemic heart disease wih DM. A piece of left atrial appendage (biopsy material) was cut away during the period of the artificial circulation device setup. Postinfarction cardiosclerosis (PICS) had being formed during 6 weeks after coronary artery occlusion. DM developed during 6 weeks after intraperitoneal injection of streptosotocine (60 mg/kg). The level of Са2+-ATP-ase was measured by immuneblotting.Results. It was shown that in both groups there were patients, whose myocardium contained high level of Са2+-ATP-ase and patients with low levels of this protein. At the same time myocardium of patients with CHD having high level of Са2+-ATP-ase, contained by 26,6%±0,53% (p&lt;0,05) more of the protein studied, than myocardium of CHD patients with DM. Comparison of low Са2+-ATP-ase level patients did not show statistically significant difference between groups. Measurement of Са2+-ATPase in animals’ myocardium showed that ischemic and diabetic remodeling of myocardium leads to the decrease of Са2+-ATP-ase CP to 38,6±0,92% and 49±2,71%, resp. Concomitant development of these pathologies characterizes by the lowest amount of the protein studied and is 52,3±2,6% from controls.Conclusion. Myocardium of CHD patients, and rats with PICS shows higher level of Са2+-ATP-ase with DM with short disease duration

Neural network parametrization of the lepton energy spectrum in semileptonic B meson decays

We construct a parametrization of the lepton energy spectrum in inclusive semileptonic decays of B mesons, based on the available experimental information: moments of the spectrum with cuts, their errors and their correlations, together with kinematical constraints. The result is obtained in the form of a Monte Carlo sample of neural networks trained on replicas of the experimental data, which represents the probability density in the space of lepton energy spectra. This parametrization is then used to extract the b quark mass m_b^{1S} in a way that theoretical uncertainties are minimized, for which the value m_b^{1S}=4.84 \pm 0.14^{exp}\pm 0.05^{th} GeV is obtained.Comment: 32 pages, 22 figures, JHEP3 class. v4 version accepted for publication in JHE

Experience in genetic testing of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy using nanopore DNA sequencing

Aim. To investigate the application of the Oxford Nanopore Technologies’ third generation sequencing for the genetic testing of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.Material and methods. The study involved 12 patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy aged 18 to 67 years (women, 9; men, 3). Using the PCR barcoding amplicons (SQK-LSK109) protocol, DNA libraries were created which contained long-range PCR fragments of the MYH7, MYBPC3, TNNT2, TNNI3 and TPM1 genes. The sequencing was performed using the MinION system by Oxford Nanopore Technologies (UK). Bioinformatic algorithms for data analysis included Guppy v.5.0.7, Nanopolish and Clairvoyante. The identified genetic variants were confirmed by Sanger sequencing.Results. Data on the complete sequence of the five major sarcomeric genes for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy were obtained. We found eight potentially disease-causing sequence variants in MYH7, MYBPC3 and TNNT2 genes by monomolecular sequencing. However, only three mutations p.Arg243Cys, p.Tyr609Asn, p.Arg870His in the MYH7 gene, and one mutation p.Lys985Asn in the MYBPC3 were confirmed by Sanger sequencing. Cascade screening of pathogenic variant p.Arg870His in the MYH7 gene was performed. We found one asymptomatic carrier.Conclusion. It appears that monomolecular sequencing technology is a feasible approach to identify mutations in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Although improvement in accuracy of DNA sequencing, as well as optimization and simplification of bioinformatic algorithms for identification of the genetic variants are needed

Dog filariosis in the Lazio region (Central Italy): first report on the presence of Dirofilaria repens

BACKGROUND: Epidemiological investigations were carried out in the Lazio Region to assess the status of canine filariosis and to evaluate the actual risk for veterinary and medical public health. METHODS: Since August 2001 to June 2003, a total of 972 canine blood samples, collected in public kennels and from private owners animals of the 5 Provinces of the Region, were tested. The presence of filarial parasites was evaluated by microscopy and bio-molecular techniques; the species identification was performed by means of the same diagnostic tools. RESULTS: A total of 17/972 (1.75%; 95%CI 1.06%–2.85%) blood samples were parasitized by D. repens,13 out them drawn by dogs resident in the Province of Roma, and 4 in the other provinces. Multivariate analysis was performed in order to evaluate the association between filariosis and risk factors. The origin from coastal territories seems to be a significant risk factor to acquire the infection. CONCLUSION: This is the first report of canine filariosis in the Lazio Region, where D. repens was before reported only in foxes. The risk of human zoonotic infection is stressed, and the absence of other filarial species is discusse

Do antibiotic-impregnated shunts in hydrocephalus therapy reduce the risk of infection? An observational study in 258 patients

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Shunt infection in hydrocephalus patients is a severe, even life-threatening complication. Antibiotic-impregnated shunts (AIS) have been developed in an attempt to reduce rate of shunt infection. The study was performed to analyze if AIS can diminish the rate of shunt infection. The pathogenic nature of shunt infection in patients with AIS systems and those without antibiotic impregnated shunts (non-AIS) was compared.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Over a period of 24 months in the Department of Neurosurgery at University Hospital of Tübingen shunt surgery was performed in 258 patients. In 86 patients AIS systems were implanted. Shunt catheters were commercially impregnated with clindamycin and rifampicin. Analysis of the clinical data included sex, age, classification of hydrocephalus, shunt types and risk factors for shunt infection [age (< 1 year and > 80 years), prematurely born patients, external ventricular drainage, former shunt infection, former systemic infection, disturbance of consciousness, former radiation-/chemotherapy]. Infection rates and underlying bacterial pathogens of patients with AIS were compared to patients with implanted non-AIS systems (172 patients).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>AIS and non-AIS patients did not differ in sex, etiology of hydrocephalus and the shunt type. In the AIS group 72 out of 86 patients had at least one risk factor (83.7 %), compared to 126 patients in the non-AIS group (73.3 %). There was no significant difference between the two groups (p = 0.0629; Fisher's exact test). In patients with no risk factors, only one patient with non-AIS suffered from shunt infection. In patients with one or more risk factors the rate for shunt infection was 7.14 % in patients with non-AIS and 6.94 % in patients with AIS. Former shunt infection (p = 0.0124) was related to higher risk for shunt infection. The use of AIS had therefore no significant advantage (p = 0.8611; multiple logistic regression).</p> <p>Significantly related to a shunt infection was the number of shunt surgeries. 190 interventions in the AIS group (2.21 interventions per patient) and 408 in the non-AIS group (2.37 interventions per patient) had been performed (p = 0.3063; Wilcoxon). There was no shunt infection in the group of patients on whom only one shunt surgery was performed. In patients with at least two shunt surgeries the infection rate was 9%. The infection rate in AIS patients was 5/52 (9.6 %) and in the non-AIS 10/114 (8.77 %), (p = 1.0; Fisher's exact test). Staphylococcus epidermidis was the most frequent pathogen for shunt infection. Fourteen out of 15 infections occurred within the first 6 months of surgery. The most frequent pathogen for shunt infection was S. epidermidis. No toxic or allergic complications were seen using the AIS shunt systems. The presented data show a remarkably low infection rate of 5.8 % in the non-AIS group compared to other studies which demonstrated a significant decrease in the infection rate by AIS.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>AIS did not significantly reduce shunt infection in hydrocephalus patients in the presented study. In the AIS group three patients suffered from shunt infections caused by skin ulceration or neurosurgical procedures with exposure of the cerebrospinal liquor after shunt implantation. AIS was not developed to prevent infection in such cases, therefore an advantage of AIS can not be excluded. In view of the presented data and the small number of reported studies a prospective randomized multicenter study is required.</p