Usability Assessment of a Multimodal Visual-Haptic Framework for Chemistry Education

In this work, we assess the usability of a virtual environment where the force of interaction between the electrostatic field around the molecule and a charge associated to the proxy of a haptic device can be felt. Feedbacks to user are provided in a multimodal visual and haptic way, and auxiliary information are also rendered

Extending Conceptual Schemas with Business Process Information

The specification of business processes is becoming a more and more critical aspect for organizations. Such processes are specified as workflow models expressing the logical precedence among the different business activities (i.e., the units of work). Typically, workflow models are managed through specific subsystems, called workflow management systems, to ensure a consistent behavior of the applications with respect to the organization business process. However, for small organizations and/or simple business processes, the complexity and capabilities of these dedicated workflow engines may be overwhelming. In this paper, we therefore, advocate for a different and lightweight approach, consisting in the integration of the business process specification within the system conceptual schema. We show how a workflow-extended conceptual schema can be automatically obtained, which serves both to enforce the organization business process and to manage all its relevant domain data in a unified way. This extended model can be directly processed with current CASE tools, for instance, to generate an implementation of the system (including its business process) in any technological platform

A Service-Based Framework for Flexible Business Processes

This article describes a framework for the design and enactment of flexible and adaptive business processes. It combines design-time and run-time mechanisms to offer a single integrated solution. The design-time environment supports the specification of process-drivenWeb applications with Quality of Service (QoS) constraints and monitoring annotations. The runtime identifies the actual services, from the QoS perspective, oversees the execution through monitoring, and reacts to failures and infringement of QoS constraints. The article also discusses these issues on a proof of concept application developed for an industrial supply chain scenario

Development of a CO2 sensor for extracorporeal life support applications

Measurement of carbon dioxide (CO2) in medical applications is a well-established method for monitoring patient’s pulmonary function in a noninvasive way widely used in emergency, intensive care, and during anesthesia. Even in extracorporeal-life support applications, such as Extracorporeal Carbon Dioxide Removal (ECCO2R), Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO), and cardiopulmonary by-pass (CPB), measurement of the CO2 concentration in the membrane oxygenator exhaust gas is proven to be useful to evaluate the treatment progress as well as the performance of the membrane oxygenator. In this paper, we present a new optical sensor specifically designed for the measurement of CO2 concentration in oxygenator exhaust gas. Further, the developed sensor allows measurement of the gas flow applied to the membrane oxygenator as well as the estimation of the CO2 removal rate. A heating module is implemented within the sensor to avoid water vapor condensation. Effects of temperature on the sensor optical elements of the sensors are disclosed, as well as a method to avoid signal–temperature dependency. The newly developed sensor has been tested and compared against a reference device routinely used in clinical practice in both laboratory and in vivo conditions. Results show that sensor accuracy fulfills the requirements of the ISO standard, and that is suitable for clinical applications

Serum Levels of Tryptophan, 5-Hydroxytryptophan and Serotonin in Patients Affected with Different Forms of Amenorrhea

Tryptophan (Trp) is present in the serum, partly bound to albumine and in the free form. The unbound portion of circulating tryptophan has the property of crossing the hematoencephalic barrier and being converted within the brain into serotonin (5-HT) through the enzymatic processes of hydroxylation and decarboxylation. The serotoninergic system plays an important role in neuroendocrine control of reproductive hormone secretion, and in particular, it may influence GnRH pulsatility, a function essential for reproductive processes. In this study, we analysed serum levels of tryptophan, serotonin and 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP) in women with three different forms of amenorrhea: 16 patients were diagnosed with anorexia nervosa, 60 patients with functional hypothalamic amenorrhea, and 14 patients with hyperprolactinemia. Data were compared with those of a group of 25 healthy women. Serum Trp levels were significantly (P ≤ 0.05) lower in the anorexic (11.64 ± 0.53 μg/ml, mean ± S.E.) than in the control (12.98 ± 0.37 μg/ml) groups. In addition, in the anorexic group a statistical dispersion of Trp values was shown indicating a bimodal data distribution suggesting the existence of two different subgroups of patients. Regarding 5-HTP, an increase of its serum level was observed in all the groups with amenorrhea with the highest value in hyperprolactinemic patients. On the contrary, no statistical differences in serum 5-HT levels among the four analyzed groups were observed

A synopsis based approach for XML fast approximate querying

In the last few years, XML has spread in many application fields and today it is used as a format to exchange data on the web, to ensure inter-operability among applications. Due to this success, the W3C has proposed a new query language, XQuery [25], specifically designed to query XML data. XQuery is a well-defined but rather complex language [14]. In this work we propose a new approach to overcome the problem of the high computational costs required by aggregate queries over massive XML data collections. In traditional relational warehouses [11] a similar problem is solved by means of fast approximate queries, that use concise data statistics based on histograms or on other statistical techniques. Their most common application is for aggregate queries in modern decision support systems, where large volumes of data need to be queried, and quick and interactive responses from the DBMS are claimed, e.g., to analyze the data in the warehouse in order to get trend information to evaluate marketing strategies. In such applications, users are often more interested to obtain an approximate answer computed in a short time rather than an exact one obtained in some minutes or, at the worst, hours

INDOOR MOBILE MAPPING SYSTEMS AND (BIM) DIGITAL MODELS FOR CONSTRUCTION PROGRESS MONITORING

Technological developments of the last decades are making possible to speed up different processes involved in construction projects. It is noticeable what building information modeling (BIM) can offer during the entire lifecycle of a project by integrating graphical and non graphical data, in addition to this, mapping the site with a 3D laser scan has been proved to provide a feasible workflow to compare as built models with as designed BIM, in this way, an automatic construction progress monitoring can also be performed. Terrestrial laser scanners (TLS) are commonly used to map a construction site due the level of accuracy provided, but indoor mobile mapping systems (iMMS) could offer a more efficient approach by speeding up the acquisition time and capturing all the details of the site just by walking through it, provided that the point cloud is accurate enough for the purpose of interest. In this paper, an iMMS is used to track the progress of a construction site, the point clouds were uploaded onto a platform of autonomous construction progress monitoring to verify if the system can meet the requirements of available applications. The results showed that the iMMS used is capable to produce point clouds with a quality such that the construction progress monitoring can be performed

Role of Estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate in Clinical Research: The Never-Ending Matter

Background: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) burden is crucial both on a global scale and at individual patient level, affecting morbidity and mortality directly and through its effect on both cardiovascular damage and CKD progression to end-stage-kidney-disease (ESKD). Unfortunately, the awareness of CKD is poor, with few CKD patients conscious of the severity of their health status. The principal biomarker of kidney function is estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR). Methods: We searched the literature and present a review article with the aim of summarizing the role of eGFR in clinical research. In particular, we report the eGFR role as a prognostic, enrichment and endpoint biomarker and its role in the early detection of CKD. Results: eGFR has a major role as a biomarker in clinical research. As a prognostic marker, eGFR reduction is associated with cardiovascular events, ESKD and mortality. As an enrichment biomarker, eGFR values are pivotal for selecting patients to be included in randomized and observational studies; it helps to test a pre-defined drug in early CKD or in more advanced CKD allowing also to avoid screening failures and to shorten the duration of clinical trials. Moreover, eGFR decline (expressed as a percentage of reduction from baseline or continuous slope) can be considered a good endpoint in clinic trials overcoming delays whilst waiting for hard endpoints to develop. Conclusions: eGFR is a strong clinical measure for both observational and intervention studies. It is also helpful in screening the general population for kidney disease and, in particular, to increase awareness of CKD