Diagnostic Color Strip Reader for World Health Partners Clinics

Despite the advancement of medical technology, many people in developing countries like India and Kenya still suffer from treatable diseases. In many of the health clinics in these areas, color strips are used for checkups and diagnosis of diseases. However, a big problem with these color strips is that the diagnosis of color strips take a long time because they have to be manually checked. Currently, World Health Partners (WHP) works with doctors and hospitals in India and Kenya to provide more accessible healthcare through telehealth networks to get consultations from rural clinics to specialists at hospitals. We are working with WHP to streamline the process of color strip diagnosis, by creating an application that goes through the process of reading a color strip in a single step. Our application analyzes an image of a color strip and returns the concentration of the different factors being tested on the color strip. By doing so, we provide a precise analysis of color strips, instead of having to wait for a specialist

Risk Aversion and Optimal Reserve Prices in First and Second-Price Auctions

This paper analyzes the effects of buyer and seller risk aversion in first and second-price auctions. The setting is the classic one of symmetric and independent private values, with ex ante homogeneous bidders. However, the seller is able to optimally set the reserve price. In both auctions the seller’s optimal reserve price is shown to decrease in his own risk aversion, and more so in the first-price auction. Thus, greater seller risk aversion increases the ex post efficiency of both auctions, and especially that of the first-price auction. The seller’s optimal reserve price in the first-price, but not in the second-price, auction decreases in the buyers’ risk aversion. Thus, greater buyer risk aversion also increases the ex post efficiency of the first but not the second-price auction. At the interim stage, the first-price auction is preferred by all buyer types in a lower interval, as well as by the seller.first-price auction, second-price auction, risk aversion, reserve price

Risk Aversion and Optimal Reserve Prices in First and Second-Price Auctions, Second Version

This paper analyzes the effects of buyer and seller risk aversion in first and second-price auctions. The setting is the classic one of symmetric and independent private values, with ex ante homogeneous bidders. However, the seller is able to optimally set the reserve price. In both auctions the seller’s optimal reserve price is shown to decrease in his own risk aversion, and more so in the first-price auction. Thus, greater seller risk aversion increases the ex post efficiency of both auctions, and especially that of the first-price auction. The seller’s optimal reserve price in the first-price, but not in the second-price, auction decreases in the buyers’ risk aversion. Thus, greater buyer risk aversion also increases the ex post efficiency of the first but not the second-price auction. At the interim stage, the first-price auction is preferred by all buyer types in a lower interval, as well as by the seller.first-price auction, second-price auction, risk aversion, reserve price

Quasi-Exact Helical Cone Beam Reconstruction for Micro CT

A cone beam micro-CT system is set up to collect truncated helical cone beam data. This system includes a micro-focal X-ray source, a precision computer-controlled X-Y-Z-theta stage, and an image-intensifier coupled to a large format CCD detector. The helical scanning mode is implemented by rotating and translating the stage while keeping X-ray source and detector stationary. A chunk of bone and a mouse leg are scanned and quasi-exact reconstruction is performed using the approach proposed in J. Hu et al. (2001). This approach introduced the original idea of accessory paths with upper and lower virtual detectors having infinite axial extent. It has a filtered backprojection structure which is desirable in practice and possesses the advantages of being simple to implement and computationally efficient compared to other quasi-exact helical cone beam algorithms for the long object problem

Post-Acquisition Small-Animal Respiratory Gated Imaging Using Micro Cone-Beam CT

On many occasions, it is desirable to image lungs in vivo to perform a pulmonary physiology study. Since the lungs are moving, gating with respect to the ventilatory phase has to be performed in order to minimize motion artifacts. Gating can be done in real time, similar to cardiac imaging in clinical applications, however, there are technical problems that have lead us to investigate different approaches. The problems include breath-to-breath inconsistencies in tidal volume, which makes the precise detection of ventilatory phase difficult, and the relatively high ventilation rates seen in small animals (rats and mice have ventilation rates in the range of a hundred cycles per minute), which challenges the capture rate of many imaging systems (this is particularly true of our system which utilizes cone-beam geometry and a 2 dimensional detector). Instead of pre-capture ventilation gating we implemented a method of post-acquisition gating. We acquire a sequence of projections images at 30 frames per second for each of 360 viewing angles. During each capture sequence the rat undergoes multiple ventilation cycles. Using the sequence of projection images, an automated region of interest algorithm, based on integrated grayscale intensity, tracts the ventilatory phase of the lungs. In the processing of an image sequence, multiple projection images are identified at a particular phase and averaged to improve the signal-to-ratio. The resulting averaged projection images are input to a Feldkamp cone-beam algorithm reconstruction algorithm in order to obtain isotropic image volumes. Minimal motion artifact data sets improve qualitative and quantitative analysis techniques useful in physiologic studies of pulmonary structure and function

Microwave shielding of transparent and conducting single-walled carbon nanotube films

The authors measured the transport properties of single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) films in the microwave frequency range from 10 MHz to 30 GHz by using the Corbino reflection technique from temperatures of 20-400 K. Based on the real and imaginary parts of the microwave conductivity, they calculated the shielding effectiveness for various film thicknesses. Shielding effectiveness of 43 dB at 10 MHz and 28 dB at 10 GHz are found for films with 90% optical transmittance, which suggests that SWCNT films are promising as a type of transparent microwave shielding material. By combining their data with those from the literature, the conductivity of SWCNT films was established in a broad frequency range from dc to visible.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Systemic rivalry and balancing interests: Chinese investment meets EU law on the Belt and Road. CEPS Policy Insight No 2019-04 /21 March 2019

For years, the EU has refrained from criticising China’s attempts to shape globalisation according to its own interests. Member states have allowed the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to tip the balance of power towards the companies that China owns or subsidises. Alarmed by recent Chinese takeovers in strategic industries, the EU has flagged up its intention to toughen rules on foreign investment flows into Europe. The brand-new EU Strategic Outlook on China adopts a multifaceted approach and defines the ‘Middle Kingdom’ simultaneously as a cooperation and negotiation partner with whom the Union needs to find a balance of interests, an “economic competitor” in pursuit of technological leadership, and a “systemic rival” promoting alternative models of governance. This CEPS Policy Insights paper takes stock of BRI investments in Europe and of member states’ concerns about economic and national security. It examines the EU-wide legal bulwarks and regulatory responses that are intended to hedge against unfair practices. It concludes that while a more realistic and assertive European approach toward Chinese market behaviour is welcome, the EU should take China up on its pledge to embolden the BRI with ‘soft connectivity’, i.e. legal infrastructure, rather than risk mutual harm by adopting too protectionist a stance. This should benefit not just the EU and China but also the other ‘16+1’ countries along the central corridor of the BRI, which passes through the Caucasus, the Balkans and Eastern Europe – all in the spirit of the EU’s 2018 connectivity strategy with Asia