Elicitation and representation of expert knowledge for computer aided diagnosis in mammography

To study how professional radiologists describe, interpret and make decisions about micro-calcifications in mammograms. The purpose was to develop a model of the radiologists' decision making for use in CADMIUM II, a computerized aid for mammogram interpretation that combines symbolic reasoning with image processing

An Experiment in Scaling Impact: Assessing the Growth Capital Aggregation Pilot

This report presents an assessment of the Growth Capital Aggregation Pilot. It was commissioned by the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, founder and lead investor of the grantmaking initiative.Starting in 2000, The Edna McConnell Clark Foundation (Clark) adopted an investment approach to grantmaking that focused on providing growth capital to youth-serving organizations with demonstrated commitments to evaluation and measurable outcomes. For grantees, the strategy meant larger, longer-term, unrestricted investments, complemented by extensive access to consulting and technical assistance to strengthen their organizations.This approach helped Clark grantees across the portfolio increase the numbers of youth they served (for example, by 18 percent between 2005 and 2006) and achieve annual revenue gains (averaging 19 percent over the four years prior to the founding of GCAP). At the same time, the Foundation concluded that more capital would be required if its grantees and other promising youth-serving organizations were to realize their ultimate scale and sustainability potential

Employee voice and collective formation in the Indian ITES-BPO industry

The growth of the information technology enabled services-business process outsourcing industry calls for attention to employees' working conditions and rights. Can an independent organisation such as unites Pro (the union of information technology enabled services professionals) represent employees' interests and effectively work towards protecting their rights and improving their working conditions? A survey of unites members indicates that they identify with the need for such an organisation to deal with poor supervisory and managerial treatment, concerns for employee safety, grievances related to pay and workload, and even the indignities of favouritism

Phase space polarization and the topological string: a case study

We review and elaborate on our discussion in hep-th/0606112 on the interplay between the target space and the worldsheet description of the open topological string partition function, for the example of the conifold. We discuss the appropriate phase space and canonical form for the system. We find a map between choices of polarization and the worldsheet description, based on which we study the behavior of the partition function under canonical transformations.Comment: 18 pages, invited review for MPL

A microcontroller system for investigating the catch effect: Functional electrical stimulation of the common peroneal nerve

Correction of drop foot in hemiplegic gait is achieved by electrical stimulation of the common peroneal nerve with a series of pulses at a fixed frequency. However, during normal gait, the electromyographic signals from the tibialis anterior muscle indicate that muscle force is not constant but varies during the swing phase. The application of double pulses for the correction of drop foot may enhance the gait by generating greater torque at the ankle and thereby increase the efficiency of the stimulation with reduced fatigue. A flexible controller has been designed around the Odstock Drop Foot Stimulator to deliver different profiles of pulses implementing doublets and optimum series. A peripheral interface controller (PIC) microcontroller with some external circuits has been designed and tested to accommodate six profiles. Preliminary results of the measurements from a normal subject seated in a multi-moment chair (an isometric torque measurement device) indicate that profiles containing doublets and optimum spaced pulses look favourable for clinical use

Meningiomas occurring during long-term survival after treatment for childhood cancer

Childhood cancer is rare but improvements in treatment over the past five decades have resulted in a cohort of more than 30,000 long-term survivors of childhood cancer in the UK with more added annually. These long-term survivors are at risk of late effects of cancer treatment which replace original tumour recurrence as the leading cause of premature death. Second neoplasms are a particular risk and in the central nervous system meningiomas occur increasingly with increased radiation dose to central nervous system tissue and length of time after exposure, resulting in a 500-fold increase above that expected in the normal population by 40 years of follow up. This multidisciplinary author group and others met to discuss the issue. Our pooled information, and consensus that screening should only follow symptoms, was published online by the Royal College of Radiologists in 2013. We outline here the current knowledge and management of these neoplasms secondary to childhood cancer treatment

Analytical design and evaluation of an active control system for helicopter vibration reduction and gust response alleviation

An analytical study was conducted to define the basic configuration of an active control system for helicopter vibration and gust response alleviation. The study culminated in a control system design which has two separate systems: narrow band loop for vibration reduction and wider band loop for gust response alleviation. The narrow band vibration loop utilizes the standard swashplate control configuration to input controller for the vibration loop is based on adaptive optimal control theory and is designed to adapt to any flight condition including maneuvers and transients. The prime characteristics of the vibration control system is its real time capability. The gust alleviation control system studied consists of optimal sampled data feedback gains together with an optimal one-step-ahead prediction. The prediction permits the estimation of the gust disturbance which can then be used to minimize the gust effects on the helicopter