Apollo experience report: Development of guidance targeting techniques for the command module and launch vehicle

The development of the guidance targeting techniques for the Apollo command module and launch vehicle is discussed for four types of maneuvers: (1) translunar injection, (2) translunar midcourse, (3) lunar orbit insertion, and (4) return to earth. The development of real-time targeting programs for these maneuvers and the targeting procedures represented are discussed. The material is intended to convey historically the development of the targeting techniques required to meet the defined target objectives and to illustrate the solutions to problems encountered during that development

Anaesthetic management of a 10-month-old white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum) calf for emergency exploratory celiotomy

A 10-month-old, 580 kg, hand-reared white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum) calf was presented for emergency exploratory celiotomy. Anaesthesia was safely induced with three successive intravenous (IV) boluses of diazepam (10 mg) and ketamine (100 mg) until the trachea could be intubated. Anaesthesia was adequately maintained with isoflurane-inoxygen (mean end-tidal isoflurane concentration of 1.1% ± 0.2%) on a circle anaesthetic machine with carbon dioxide absorption and an intravenous infusion of ketamine and medetomidine at a mean rate of 0.02 mg/kg/min and 0.02 µg/kg/min, respectively. Mean values recorded during anaesthesia and surgery were heart rate (56.9 ± 11 beats/min), mean arterial blood pressure (6.16 kPa ± 1.75 kPa), end-tidal carbon dioxide concentration (6.23 kPa ± 0.30 kPa). Abdominal gas distension contributed to hypoventilation that resulted in hypercapnoea, confirmed by arterial blood gas analysis (PaCO2 14.69 kPa), which required controlled ventilation for correction. Blood volume was maintained with the intravenous infusion of a balanced electrolyte solution at 10 mL/kg/h and blood pressure supported with a continuous infusion of dobutamine and phenylephrine. Duration of anaesthesia was 3.5 h. It was concluded that anaesthesia was safely induced in a compromised white rhinoceros calf with a combination of diazepam and ketamine. A constant-rate infusion of medetomidine and ketamine allowed for a reduction in the dose of isoflurane required during maintenance of anaesthesia and improved intra-operative blood pressure management.http://www.jsava.co.zaam2013mn201

Visualizing convolutional neural networks to improve decision support for skin lesion classification

Because of their state-of-the-art performance in computer vision, CNNs are becoming increasingly popular in a variety of fields, including medicine. However, as neural networks are black box function approximators, it is difficult, if not impossible, for a medical expert to reason about their output. This could potentially result in the expert distrusting the network when he or she does not agree with its output. In such a case, explaining why the CNN makes a certain decision becomes valuable information. In this paper, we try to open the black box of the CNN by inspecting and visualizing the learned feature maps, in the field of dermatology. We show that, to some extent, CNNs focus on features similar to those used by dermatologists to make a diagnosis. However, more research is required for fully explaining their output.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, Workshop on Interpretability of Machine Intelligence in Medical Image Computing at MICCAI 201

Diamagnetic Suppression of Component Magnetic Reconnection at the Magnetopause

We present particle-in-cell simulations of collisionless magnetic reconnection in a system (like the magnetopause) with a large density asymmetry across the current layer. In the presence of an ambient component of the magnetic field perpendicular to the reconnection plane the gradient creates a diamagnetic drift that advects the X-line with the electron diamagnetic velocity. When the relative drift between the ions and electrons is of the order the Alfven speed the large scale outflows from the X-line necessary for fast reconnection cannot develop and the reconnection is suppressed. We discuss how these effects vary with both the plasma beta and the shear angle of the reconnecting field and discuss observational evidence for diamagnetic stabilization at the magnetopause.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures; accepted by JGR; agu2001.cls and agu.bst include

Automatic Classification of Roof Shapes for Multicopter Emergency Landing Site Selection

Geographic information systems (GIS) now provide accurate maps of terrain, roads, waterways, and building footprints and heights. Aircraft, particularly small unmanned aircraft systems, can exploit additional information such as building roof structure to improve navigation accuracy and safety particularly in urban regions. This paper proposes a method to automatically label building roof shape types. Satellite imagery and LIDAR data from Witten, Germany are fed to convolutional neural networks (CNN) to extract salient feature vectors. Supervised training sets are automatically generated from pre-labeled buildings contained in the OpenStreetMap database. Multiple CNN architectures are trained and tested, with the best performing networks providing a condensed feature set for support vector machine and decision tree classifiers. Satellite and LIDAR data fusion is shown to provide greater classification accuracy than through use of either data type individually

Early Implementation of THAM for ICP Control: Therapeutic Hypothermia Avoidance and Reduction in Hypertonics/Hyperosmotics

Background. Tromethamine (THAM) has been demonstrated to reduce intracranial pressure (ICP). Early consideration for THAM may reduce the need for other measures for ICP control. Objective. To describe 4 cases of early THAM therapy for ICP control and highlight the potential to avoid TH and paralytics and achieve reduction in sedation and hypertonic/hyperosmotic agent requirements. Methods. We reviewed the charts of 4 patients treated with early THAM for ICP control. Results. We identified 2 patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) and 2 with traumatic brain injury (TBI) receiving early THAM for ICP control. The mean time to initiation of THAM therapy was 1.8 days, with a mean duration of 5.3 days. In all patients, after 6 to 12 hours of THAM administration, ICP stability was achieved, with reduction in requirements for hypertonic saline and hyperosmotic agents. There was a relative reduction in mean hourly hypertonic saline requirements of 89.1%, 96.1%, 82.4%, and 97.0% for cases 1, 2, 3, and 4, respectively, comparing pre-to post-THAM administration. Mannitol, therapeutic hypothermia, and paralytics were avoided in all patients. Conclusions. Early administration of THAM for ICP control could potentially lead to the avoidance of other ICP directed therapies. Prospective studies of early THAM administration are warranted

Від редакторів

Introduction In November 2011 archaeologists of City of Rotterdam Archaeological Service (BOOR) conducted underwater research in the Yangtze harbour, Rotterdam Maasvlakte, The Netherlands. The research was carried out by order of Port of Rotterdam Authority and supervised by the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands. The results of geological, botanical, zoological and archaeological analyses of the retrieved material generated new information on the occupation of a relatively high river dune by prehistoric hunter-gatherers, and on the development history of the surrounding landscape ca. 9,000 years ago. Methods Rather than employing divers the underwater investigations were carried out on board a vessel using a wire-operated, horizontal closing grab. Three small trenches (total area ca. 375m²) were excavated in layers in a fairly controlled fashion. Underwater excavations cannot achieve the same level of precision as is possible on land, but the many soil core samples taken in the project’s preliminary phase allowed detailed descriptions of the geomorphological stratigraphy. The excavation resulted in 316 bulk bags of soil. All soil was sieved on land, using sieves with mesh sizes of 10 and 2mm, after which archaeologists and volunteers carefully sorted the residues, documenting a total of ca. 46,000 finds. Results Plenty of Mesolithic occupation remains were retrieved at all three grab locations, from depths ranging between 17 to 21m below modern MSL. The finds span the age range from ca. 8400 to 6500BC, when the site transformed from dryland (an inland dune) to wetland (drowned delta subsurface). At the foot of the inland dune, the depositional conditions allowed for excellent preservation of bone, charcoal and plant material as well as stone artefacts. The site provides an unusually rich and detailed body of evidence on environmental conditions and the Middle Mesolithic palaeo-economy. The landscape ecotones around the site yielded an abundance of food while gradually being transformed, due to rising sea levels, from a valley containing the rivers Rhine and Meuse into the mouth area of those rivers. At 6500 BC, the site was finally transgressed: drowned in an estuary and swallowed up by the sea. Conclusion The Rotterdam Yangtze Harbour research project demonstrates the preservation of Mesolithic sites along the river Rhine, at depths in nowadays coastal and offshore areas. Furthermore, it demonstrates the feasibility of archaeological investigation of such submerged sites, even at depths of 18 to 20 m beneath sea, lake and harbour floors. Never before had such a submerged site been excavated at such a great depth. The scientific report (in English) will appear in the autumn of 2014, providing a full description of all finds as well as their landscape context

T-cell epitopes of the major peach allergen, Pru p 3: Identification and differential T-cell response of peach-allergic and non-allergic subjects

Lipid transfer proteins (LTPs), particularly peach Pru p 3, are the most relevant plant food allergens in the South of Europe, and, therefore, their allergic properties have been extensively studied. However, neither T-cell epitopes nor their effect on the patients’ T-cell response has been investigated in any member of the LTP panallergen family. The objective of the present study was to map the major T-cell epitopes of Pru p 3, as well as to evaluate their induced T-cell response in peach-allergic versus control subjects. Thus, peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from 18 peach-allergic patients and Pru p 3-specific T-cell lines (TCLs) from 9 of them were cultured with Pru p 3 and with a panel of 17 derived peptides (10-mer overlapping in 5 amino acids representing the full sequence of Pru p 3). Proliferation in 5-day assays was carried out via tritiated-thymidine incorporation, while IL4 and IFNγ production was assessed via sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent tests (ELISA) of TCL culture supernatants. The results were compared to those obtained from 10 non-peach allergic control volunteers. Two consecutive peptides showed the highest activation capacity. About 74% of PBMCs and TCLs recognized them, forming a single T-epitope: Pru p 365–80. Additionally, other specific T-cell epitopes were observed. Pru p 325–35 was detected by more than 60% of TCLs from peach-allergic patients, and Pru p 345–55 only activated PBMCs from control subjects. Interestingly, TCLs from patients were associated with a Th2-type, whereas control TCLs presented a Th1-type cytokine response. The major immunogenic T-cell epitope identified in Pru p 3, Pru p 365–80, is a good candidate to develop new vaccines for hypersensitivity reactions associated with LTP allergens from Rosaceae fruits

Aortic arch baroreceptor stimulation in an experimental goat model: a novel method to lower blood pressure

The effect of aortic baroreceptor stimulation on blood pressure manipulation was assessed using the goat species Capra aegagrus hircus. The aim of this study was to manipulate blood pressure with future intention to treat high blood pressure in humans. The ages of the animals ranged from 6 months to 2 years. A standard anesthesia protocol was used. A lateral thoracotomy was performed to gain access to the aortic arch. Data was collected with the Vigileo system. Pre stimulation blood pressure was compared with maximum post stimulation blood pressure values. Results were analyzed with the Wilcoxon signed rank test. In the study 38 animals were enrolled. Baroreceptor stimulation was performed for each animal using 3 different electrodes each of which emits an electrical impulse. In the pilot phase of the study, the median baseline blood pressure prior to stimulation of the baroreceptors was 110.8 mmHg. After stimulation the median blood pressure decreased to 88 mmHg. The average decrease in blood pressure was 22.8 mmHg. This decrease of blood pressure after stimulation of the baroreceptors is statistically significant (p < 0.0001) and the proof of concept was shown. During the extended phase all three probes had a significant effect on blood pressure lowering (p < 0.0001). The study confirmed that aortic baroreceptor stimulation has an effect on blood pressure lowering. This is a novel field of blood pressure manipulation. The hemodynamic effects of long-term aortic baroreceptor stimulation are unknown. Further investigations need to be done to determine whether a similar effect can be induced in different species such as primates and humans

An Exploratory Analysis of the Latent Structure of Process Data via Action Sequence Autoencoder

Computer simulations have become a popular tool of assessing complex skills such as problem-solving skills. Log files of computer-based items record the entire human-computer interactive processes for each respondent. The response processes are very diverse, noisy, and of nonstandard formats. Few generic methods have been developed for exploiting the information contained in process data. In this article, we propose a method to extract latent variables from process data. The method utilizes a sequence-to-sequence autoencoder to compress response processes into standard numerical vectors. It does not require prior knowledge of the specific items and human-computers interaction patterns. The proposed method is applied to both simulated and real process data to demonstrate that the resulting latent variables extract useful information from the response processes.Comment: 28 pages, 13 figure