Information management in an integrated space telerobot

The in-orbit operations, like space structures inspection, servicing and repairing, is expected to be one of the most significant technological area for application and development of Robotics and Automation in Space Station environment. The Italian National Space Plan (PSN) has started up its strategic programme SPIDER (Space Inspection Device for Extravehicular Repairs), which is scheduled in three phases, with the final goal of performing docking and precision repairing in the Space Station environment. SPIDER system is an autonomous integrated space robot, using mature Artificial Intelligence tools and technics for its operational control. The preliminary results of a study on the information architecture of the spacecraft are described

2D-3D registration of CT vertebra volume to fluoroscopy projection: A calibration model assessment (doi:10.1155/2010/806094)

This study extends a previous research concerning intervertebral motion registration by means of 2D dynamic fluoroscopy to obtain a more comprehensive 3D description of vertebral kinematics. The problem of estimating the 3D rigid pose of a CT volume of a vertebra from its 2D X-ray fluoroscopy projection is addressed. 2D-3D registration is obtained maximising a measure of similarity between Digitally Reconstructed Radiographs (obtained from the CT volume) and real fluoroscopic projection. X-ray energy correction was performed. To assess the method a calibration model was realised a sheep dry vertebra was rigidly fixed to a frame of reference including metallic markers. Accurate measurement of 3D orientation was obtained via single-camera calibration of the markers and held as true 3D vertebra position; then, vertebra 3D pose was estimated and results compared. Error analysis revealed accuracy of the order of 0.1 degree for the rotation angles of about 1?mm for displacements parallel to the fluoroscopic plane, and of order of 10?mm for the orthogonal displacement.<br/

Nasal pathologies in patients with obstructive sleep apnoea

Nasal obstruction is a frequent condition in patients with obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA). Nasal obstruction leads to mouth breathing, which is thought to destabilise the upper airway to aggravate the condition. Three conditions could be considered as the cause of the nasal breathing obstruction: anatomical conditions of the nose (septum deviation, hypertrophy of the inferior turbinates), chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) and chronic nasal inflammation caused by allergic rhinitis or non-allergic cellular rhinitis. In this prospective study, we present an evaluation of all these possible rhino-sinusal aspects in OSA patients to correlate different nasal pathologies with nasal obstruction. Fifty patients with a diagnosis of OSA were enrolled in the study. In 70% of OSA patients, nasal obstruction was confirmed by clinical evaluation and rhinomanometry testing. Normal rhino-sinus aspects were present in only 20% of OSAS patients, whereas one or more pathological rhino-sinus conditions were present in the remaining 80%. The percentage of OSA patients with a diagnosis of allergic rhinitis and non-allergic rhinitis was 18% and 26% respectively. Non-allergic rhinitis with neutrophils (NARNE) was the most frequent type of cellular rhinitis diagnosed in OSA patients (20% of cases). The results of the present study support and extend the observation that rhinitis is present in OSA patients. Mucosal inflammation caused by these conditions could be the cause of upper airway patency impairment inducing nasal mucosa swellin

The synergistic effect between positivity, socio-demographic factors and smoking cessation: results of a cohort study

OBJECTIVE: To examine the extent to which a effect does exist between Positivity (POS), smoking and socio-demographic factors in determining quitting smoking in subjects participating in a Group Counselling Program (GCP) for smoking cessation.METHODS: 481 subjects were contacted through a telephone call. A logistic regression analysis was carried out. Possible interaction between sociodemographic variables and POS level was tested using the Synergism Index (SI).RESULTS: For individuals with a POS level over or equal to 3.4 the odds of being smoker was significantly higher among females (OR = 1.55), who smoked at home (OR = 2.16) and lower if there had children at home (OR = 0.53). For individuals with a POS level under 3.4, the only significant variable associated with smoking was beinga female (OR = 2.58). As far concerns the synergistic effect between the variables considered does exist between POS levels and having children at home (SI=1.13) and female gender (SI = 2.8).CONCLUSIONS: The synergistic effect between POS and sociodemographic factors adds evidence on the use of POS as possible determinants of individual happiness

On the Price Comovement of U.S. Residential Real Estate Markets

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/106069/1/reec12022.pd

Olfactory evaluation in obstructive sleep apnoea patients

The sense of smell has a high impact on the quality of life. The aim of the present study was to investigate olfactory dysfunction in patients with obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome (OSAS) and correlate the severity of disease with olfactory dysfunction. The relationships between nasal obstruction, nasal mucociliary cleareance and olfactory tests were also evaluated. Sixty patients with a diagnosis of OSAS were enrolled and underwent olfactory function evaluation. In all patients olfactory performance was tested with the Sniffin’ Sticks method. Mucociliary transport times and anterior rhinomanometry were performed to identify eventual nasal obstruction and deficits in nasal mucociliary clearance. Olfactory dysfunction was present in 22 (36.6%) patients of the study group: of these, hyposmia was present in 19 (86.4%) and anosmia in 3 (13.6%). The mean TDI score in the study group was 30. A strong correlation between the olfactory dysfunction and severity of sleep apnoea measured using the AHI was found. Patients with OSA would seem to have a high incidence of olfactory dysfunction. The degree of olfactory dysfunction appears to be related to the severity of disease. However, other co-factors such as nasal obstruction and reduced mucociliary clearance might also play a role in of the aetiology of this condition

An Examination of the Asian Crisis: Regime Shifts in Currency and Equity Markets

Using a nonparametric technique for the identification of regime shifts, we find breaks in the structural relations between currency and equity returns and return volatility in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand during the recent Asian crisis. Volatility breaks occurred in late 1994 and 1997, while return breaks were concentrated in early 1998. After the estimated breaks, many Asian equity markets became more responsive to the volatility of the corresponding domestic exchange rate. We find that information spillover and portfolio rebalancing, rather than common information shocks, represented major channels for the transmission of breaks across countries

Compliance alla terapia dietetica

La terapia nutrizionale è uno dei cardini della terapia conservativa dell'Insufficienza Renale Cronica (IRC). È in grado di contrastare segni, sintomi e complicanze dell'insufficienza renale, di procrastinare l'inizio della dialisi e di mantenere lo stato nutrizionale. La dieta deve essere ridotta in proteine perché molte delle tossine e dei cataboliti ritenuti derivano dalle proteine esogene, e perché la restrizione proteica rappresenta una condizione necessaria, anche se non sufficiente, per la contestuale riduzione dell'apporto di sodio e fosforo che contribuisce agli effetti terapeutici. Altra caratteristica fondamentale della terapia dietetica è l'adeguatezza energetica. I due casi descritti rappresentano quello che spesso accade nella pratica clinica nel paziente con IRC cui viene prescritta una dieta ipoproteica, e sottolineano l'importanza del counselling dietetico per la sicurezza e l'efficacia della terapia nutrizionale nel paziente renale con o senza diabete mellito

JET ANALYSIS BY NEURAL NETWORKS IN HIGH ENERGY HADRON-HADRON COLLISIONS

We study the possibility to employ neural networks to simulate jet clustering procedures in high energy hadron-hadron collisions. We concentrate our analysis on the Fermilab Tevatron energy and on the $k_\bot$ algorithm. We consider both supervised multilayer feed-forward network trained by the backpropagation algorithm and unsupervised learning, where the neural network autonomously organizes the events in clusters.Comment: 9 pages, latex, 2 figures not included

Real-time price discovery in stock, bond and foreign exchange markets

We characterize the response of U.S., German and British stock, bond and foreign exchange markets to real-time U.S. macroeconomic news. Our analysis is based on a unique data set of high-frequency futures returns for each of the markets. We find that news surprises produce conditional mean jumps; hence high-frequency stock, bond and exchange rate dynamics are linked to fundamentals. The details of the linkages are particularly intriguing as regards equity markets. We show that equity markets react differently to the same news depending on the state of the economy, with bad news having a positive impact during expansions and the traditionally-expected negative impact during recessions. We rationalize this by temporal variation in the competing "cash flow" and "discount rate" effects for equity valuation. This finding helps explain the time-varying correlation between stock and bond returns, and the relatively small equity market news effect when averaged across expansions and recessions. Lastly, relying on the pronounced heteroskedasticity in the high-frequency data, we document important contemporaneous linkages across all markets and countries over-and-above the direct news announcement effects. JEL Klassifikation: F3, F4, G1, C