An Evidence-based Practice for the Treatment of Lateral Medullary Syndrome

This case report describes occupational therapy interventions focussed on improving the activities of daily living performance of a 73-year-old male recovering from Wallenberg syndrome, which resulted from a lateral medullary infarction. Historically, one of the most widely used approaches to physical rehabilitation in neurological populations has been the reflex-hierarchical theories, which are not supported in the literature as being effective for improving functional performance. Therefore, a contemporary task-oriented approach was used as a theoretical base for this case report. The Occupational Therapy Practice Framework was used to structure the occupational therapy evaluation, intervention, and outcome of this case

Parallel preconditioning for sparse linear equations

A popular class of preconditioners is known as incomplete factorizations. They can be thought of as approximating the exact LU factorization of a given matrix A (e.g. computed via Gaussian elimination) by disallowing certain ll-ins. As opposed to other PDE-based preconditioners such asmultigrid and domain decomposition, this class of preconditioners are primarily algebraic in nature and can in principle be applied to any sparse matrices. In this paper we will discuss some new viewpoints for the construction of eective preconditioners. In particular, we will discuss parallelization aspects, including re-ordering, series expansion and domain decomposition techniques. Generally, this class of preconditioner does not possess a high degree of parallelism in its original form. Re-ordering and approximations by truncating certain series expansion will increase the parallelism, but usually with a deterioration in convergence rate. Domain decomposition oers a compromise

Approximate and Incomplete Factorizations

In this chapter, we give a brief overview of a particular class of preconditioners known as incomplete factorizations. They can be thought of as approximating the exact LU factorization of a given matrix A (e.g. computed via Gaussian elimination) by disallowing certain ll-ins. As opposed to other PDE-based preconditioners such as multigrid and domain decomposition, this class of preconditioners are primarily algebraic in nature and can in principle be applied to any sparse matrices. When applied to PDE problems, they are usually not optimal in the sense that the condition number of the preconditioned system will grow as the mesh size h is reduced, although usually at a slower rate than for the unpreconditioned system. On the other hand, they are often quite robust with respect to other more algebraic features of the problem such as rough and anisotropic coecients and strong convection terms. We will describe the basic ILU and (modied) MILU preconditioners. Then we will review brie y several variants: more lls, relaxed ILU, shifted ILU, ILQ, as well as block and multilevel variants. We will also touch on a related class of approximate factorization methods which arise more directly from approximating a partial dierential operator by a product of simpler operators. Finally, we will discuss parallelization aspects, including re-ordering, series expansion and domain decomposition techniques. Generally, this class of preconditioner does not possess a high degree of parallelism in its original form. Re-ordering and approximations by truncating certain series expansion will increase the parallelism, but usually with a deterioration in convergence rate. Domain decomposition oers a compromise

Induction and permanent-magnet synchronous generators for small-scale power system applications

This thesis presents two types of alternating current (ac) generators that are becoming popular for use in small-scale distributed generation and in autonomous (or standalone) power systems. For the induction generator (IG), two modes of operation are identified, namely operation on the power grid and operation in the isolated mode. Single-phase operation is emphasized due to its applicability in remote rural regions where electrification is both costly and difficult to carry out. In the case of gridconnected operation, a number of practical phase-balancing schemes for a three-phase IG are proposed and analyzed. The method of symmetrical components is found to be a versatile tool for analyzing all the circuit configurations to be studied, including the Smith connection. Microcontroller-based multi-mode operation of an IG with the Smith connection is also investigated. When operated in the stand-alone mode, the IG is more commonly known as the selfexcited induction generator (SEIG). In this thesis, a unified approach that combines the method of symmetrical components and the pattern search method of Hooke and Jeeves is used to analyze a three-phase SEIG which supplies asymmetrical or single-phase loads. Its applicability is tested on various SEIG schemes, including the Steinmetz connection, modified Steinmetz connection (MSC), the simplified Steinmetz connection (SSC), the self-regulated self-excited induction generator (SRSEIG), and SEIG with the Smith connection (SMSEIG). For certain studies, the above approach is used in association with an iterative procedure in order to obtain the solution. A coupled circuit and field approach based on a two-dimensional finite element method (2-D FEM) is proposed for analyzing a grid-connected IG with the Steinmetz connection. The technique of coupling the single-phase circuit equations to the field domain equations is set forth and a rotor circuit model that accounts for the nonuniform current distribution in the rotor winding is also presented. A voltage and frequency control scheme that employs an SEIG with slip-ring rotor, namely the SESRIG, is also proposed and investigated. The feasibility of using an external rotor resistance as a control parameter is demonstrated theoretically and experimentally. The study on the permanent-magnet synchronous generator (PMSG) is focused on autonomous power system applications. A PMSG with inset rotor, which possesses an inverse saliency characteristic, is found to give satisfactory performance when supplying isolated loads. Zero voltage regulation and other extremum conditions are deduced based on the two-axis model. A saturated two-axis model that gives a more accurate prediction of the load characteristic is developed. For a more rigorous analysis, a coupled circuit and field, time-stepping 2-D FEM is also proposed

Leaf segmentation and tracking using probabilistic parametric active contours

Active contours or snakes are widely used for segmentation and tracking. These techniques require the minimization of an energy function, which is generally a linear combination of a data fit term and a regularization term. This energy function can be adjusted to exploit the intrinsic object and image features. This can be done by changing the weighting parameters of the data fit and regularization term. There is, however, no rule to set these parameters optimally for a given application. This results in trial and error parameter estimation. In this paper, we propose a new active contour framework defined using probability theory. With this new technique there is no need for ad hoc parameter setting, since it uses probability distributions, which can be learned from a given training dataset

Journal Staff

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 18th Scandinavian Conference on Image Analysis, SCIA 2013, held in Espoo, Finland, in June 2013. The 67 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 132 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on feature extraction and segmentation, pattern recognition and machine learning, medical and biomedical image analysis, faces and gestures, object and scene recognition, matching, registration, and alignment, 3D vision, color and multispectral image analysis, motion analysis, systems and applications, human-centered computing, and video and multimedia analysis

Characterization of Pneumatic Artificial Muscle System in an Opposing Pair Configuration

Pneumatic artificial muscle (PAM) is a pneumatic actuator that commonly used in the biomimetic robotic devices in rehabilitation applications due to its advantageous in high powerto-weight ratio and high degree of safety in use characteristics. Several techniques exist in the literature for the PAM system modeling, and these include theoretical modeling, phenomenological modeling and empirical modeling. This paper focuses on explaining the experimental setup of an opposing pair configuration of PAM system, and gives an analysis of the pneumatic muscle system dynamic in the theoretical modeling. The simulated dynamic model is compared with the actual PAM system for the validation in the open-loop step and sinusoidal positioning responses and pressures. It is concluded that the simulation result is verified and agreed with the actual system

A study of the effect of open biomass burning aerosol on rainfall event over Malaysia by using EOF analysis.

Significant biomass burning aerosols resulted from biomass burning activities from Sumatra and Kalimantan Island transported to Malaysia every year from August to October by the southeast monsoon. These transboundary haze changes the precipitation pattern by aerosol interaction with radiation and cloud which affects the solar radiation budget and cloud condensation nuclei properties. In this work, empirical orthogonal function (EOF) was used to assess the effect of biomass burning aerosol on rainfall pattern over Malaysia from both a spatial and a temporal perspective. Over Peninsular Malaysia, regional rainfall activities tend to be suppressed by concentrated biomass burning aerosols and produce another heavy rain over the downwind areas after 30-60 days (60 days) under highly (less) populated condition. Similar precipitation pattern has been indicated over Sarawak and Sabah where biomass burning aerosols suppress rainfall in the southwestern area while leads to a more intensified rainfall event in the northeast area with 30-60 days (60 days) interval under highly (less) populated condition

A validation study of a smartphone application for functional mobility assessment of the elderly

AbstractBackgroundTo minimize the reaction time and position judgment error using stopwatch-timed measures, we developed a smartphone application to measure performance in the five-time sit-to-stand (FTSTS) and timed up-and-go (TUG) tests.ObjectiveThis study aimed to validate this smartphone application by comparing its measurement with a laboratory-based reference condition.MethodsThirty-two healthy elderly people were asked to perform the FTSTS and TUG tests in a randomized sequence. During the tests, their performance was concurrently measured by the smartphone application and a force sensor installed in the backrest of a chair. The intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC(2,1)] and Bland–Altman analysis were used to calculate the measurement consistency and agreement, respectively, between these two methods.ResultsThe smartphone application demonstrated excellent measurement consistency with the lab-based reference condition for the FTSTS test [ICC(2,1) = 0.988] and TUG test [ICC(2,1) = 0.946]. We observed a positive bias of 0.27 seconds (95% limits of agreement, −1.22 to 1.76 seconds) for the FTSTS test and 0.48 seconds (95% limits of agreement, −1.66 to 2.63 seconds) for the TUG test.ConclusionWe cross-validated the newly developed smartphone application with the laboratory-based reference condition during the examination of FTSTS and TUG test performance in healthy elderly