Cathodic Polarization Coats Titanium Based Implant Materials with Enamel Matrix Derivate (EMD)

PubMed Central

Frank, Matthias J.; Walter, Martin S.; Rubert, Marina; Thiede, Bernd; Monjo, Marta; Reseland, Janne E.; Haugen, Håvard J.; Lyngstadaas, Ståle Petter

2014-01-01

The idea of a bioactive surface coating that enhances bone healing and bone growth is a strong focus of on-going research for bone implant materials. Enamel matrix derivate (EMD) is well documented to support bone regeneration and activates growth of mesenchymal tissues. Thus, it is a prime candidate for coating of existing implant surfaces. The aim of this study was to show that cathodic polarization can be used for coating commercially available implant surfaces with an immobilized but functional and bio-available surface layer of EMD. After coating, XPS revealed EMD-related bindings on the surface while SIMS showed incorporation of EMD into the surface. The hydride layer of the original surface could be activated for coating in an integrated one-step process that did not require any pre-treatment of the surface. SEM images showed nano-spheres and nano-rods on coated surfaces that were EMD-related. Moreover, the surface roughness remained unchanged after coating, as it was shown by optical profilometry. The mass peaks observed in the matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectroscopy (MALDI-TOF MS) analysis confirmed the integrity of EMD after coating. Assessment of the bioavailability suggested that the modified surfaces were active for osteoblast like MC3M3-E1 cells in showing enhanced Coll-1 gene expression and ALP activity. PMID:28788564

Acoustical Applications of the HHT Method

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Huang, Norden E.

2003-01-01

A document discusses applications of a method based on the Huang-Hilbert transform (HHT). The method was described, without the HHT name, in Analyzing Time Series Using EMD and Hilbert Spectra (GSC-13817), NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 24, No. 10 (October 2000), page 63. To recapitulate: The method is especially suitable for analyzing time-series data that represent nonstationary and nonlinear physical phenomena. The method involves the empirical mode decomposition (EMD), in which a complicated signal is decomposed into a finite number of functions, called intrinsic mode functions (IMFs), that admit well-behaved Hilbert transforms. The HHT consists of the combination of EMD and Hilbert spectral analysis.

Drug and alcohol-impaired driving among electronic music dance event attendees

PubMed Central

Furr-Holden, Debra; Voas, Robert B.; Kelley-Baker, Tara; Miller, Brenda

2011-01-01

Background Drug-impaired driving has received increased attention resulting from development of rapid drug-screening procedures used by police and state laws establishing per se limits for drug levels in drivers. Venues that host electronic music dance events (EMDEs) provide a unique opportunity to assess drug-impaired driving among a high proportion of young adult drug users. EMDEs are late-night dance parties marked by a substantial number of young adult attendees and elevated drug involvement. No studies to date have examined drug-impaired driving in a natural environment with active drug and alcohol users. Methods Six EMDEs were sampled in San Diego, California, and Baltimore, Maryland. A random sample of approximately 40 attendees per event were administered surveys about alcohol and other drug (AOD) use and driving status, given breath tests for alcohol, and asked to provide oral fluid samples to test for illicit drug use upon entering and exiting the events. Results Driving status reduced the level of alcohol use (including abstaining) but the impact on drug-taking was not significant. However, 62% of individuals who reported their intention to drive away from the events were positive for drugs or alcohol upon leaving. This suggests that these events and settings are appropriate ones for developing interventions for reducing risks for young adults. PMID:16675160

Drug and alcohol-impaired driving among electronic music dance event attendees.

PubMed

Furr-Holden, Debra; Voas, Robert B; Kelley-Baker, Tara; Miller, Brenda

2006-10-15

Drug-impaired driving has received increased attention resulting from development of rapid drug-screening procedures used by police and state laws establishing per se limits for drug levels in drivers. Venues that host electronic music dance events (EMDEs) provide a unique opportunity to assess drug-impaired driving among a high proportion of young adult drug users. EMDEs are late-night dance parties marked by a substantial number of young adult attendees and elevated drug involvement. No studies to date have examined drug-impaired driving in a natural environment with active drug and alcohol users. Six EMDEs were sampled in San Diego, California, and Baltimore, Maryland. A random sample of approximately 40 attendees per event were administered surveys about alcohol and other drug (AOD) use and driving status, given breath tests for alcohol, and asked to provide oral fluid samples to test for illicit drug use upon entering and exiting the events. Driving status reduced the level of alcohol use (including abstaining) but the impact on drug-taking was not significant. However, 62% of individuals who reported their intention to drive away from the events were positive for drugs or alcohol upon leaving. This suggests that these events and settings are appropriate ones for developing interventions for reducing risks for young adults.

Communication and protocol compliance and their relation to the quality of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR): A mixed-methods study of simulated telephone-assisted CPR.

PubMed

Nord-Ljungquist, Helena; Brännström, Margareta; Bohm, Katarina

2015-07-01

In the event of a cardiac arrest, emergency medical dispatchers (EMDs) play a critical role by providing telephone-assisted cardiopulmonary resuscitation (T-CPR) to laypersons. The aim of our investigation was to describe compliance with the T-CPR protocol, the performance of the laypersons in a simulated T-CPR situation, and the communication between laypersons and EMDs during these actions. We conducted a retrospective observational study by analysing 20 recorded video and audio files. In a simulation, EMDs provided laypersons with instructions following T-CPR protocols. These were then analysed using a mixed method with convergent parallel design. If the EMDs complied with the T-CPR protocol, the laypersons performed the correct procedures in 71% of the actions. The single most challenging instruction of the T-CPR protocol, for both EMDs and laypersons, was airway control. Mean values for compression depth and frequency did not reach established guideline goals for CPR. Proper application of T-CPR protocols by EMDs resulted in better performance by laypersons in CPR. The most problematic task for EMDs as well for laypersons was airway management. The study results did not establish that the quality of communication between EMDs and laypersons performing CPR in a cardiac arrest situation led to statistically different outcomes, as measured by the quality and effectiveness of the CPR delivered. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Efficacy of Eye Movement Desensitization in the treatment of cognitive intrusions related to a past stressful event.

PubMed

Lytle, Richard A; Hazlett-Stevens, Holly; Borkovec, T D

2002-01-01

Much of the Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) efficacy research has been widely criticized, limiting scientific understanding of its therapeutic components. The present investigation of Eye Movement Desensitization (EMD) effectiveness included undergraduate students reporting current intrusive cognitions conceming a traumatic event. Forty-five participants received a single treatment session of either: (a) EMD, as described by Shapiro [J. Behav. Ther. Exp. Psychiatry 20 (1989b) 211], (b) an identical procedure which employed eye fixation on a stationary target, or (c) non-directive counseling. Standardized self-report, subjective rating, Daily Diary, and intrusive thought sampling measures were collected before and after treatment. Results indicated that participants in the eye fixation group reported marginally (p < .052) fewer cognitive intrusions than the non-directive group 1 week following treatment. No significant differences between the EMD and non-directive conditions or between the EMD and eye fixation conditions on this measure were found. During the treatment session, both desensitization groups were superior to the non-directive group in reducing reported vividness of the mental image of the original event. However, the non-directive group improved to the level of the two other groups by the following week. Rapid saccadic eye movements were therefore unrelated to immediate treatment effects for this sub-clinical sample, and non-directive treatment largely yielded eventual outcomes equivalent to the two desensitization conditions.

Depth information in natural environments derived from optic flow by insect motion detection system: a model analysis

PubMed Central

Schwegmann, Alexander; Lindemann, Jens P.; Egelhaaf, Martin

2014-01-01

Knowing the depth structure of the environment is crucial for moving animals in many behavioral contexts, such as collision avoidance, targeting objects, or spatial navigation. An important source of depth information is motion parallax. This powerful cue is generated on the eyes during translatory self-motion with the retinal images of nearby objects moving faster than those of distant ones. To investigate how the visual motion pathway represents motion-based depth information we analyzed its responses to image sequences recorded in natural cluttered environments with a wide range of depth structures. The analysis was done on the basis of an experimentally validated model of the visual motion pathway of insects, with its core elements being correlation-type elementary motion detectors (EMDs). It is the key result of our analysis that the absolute EMD responses, i.e., the motion energy profile, represent the contrast-weighted nearness of environmental structures during translatory self-motion at a roughly constant velocity. In other words, the output of the EMD array highlights contours of nearby objects. This conclusion is largely independent of the scale over which EMDs are spatially pooled and was corroborated by scrutinizing the motion energy profile after eliminating the depth structure from the natural image sequences. Hence, the well-established dependence of correlation-type EMDs on both velocity and textural properties of motion stimuli appears to be advantageous for representing behaviorally relevant information about the environment in a computationally parsimonious way. PMID:25136314

Detecting intrinsic dynamics of traffic flow with recurrence analysis and empirical mode decomposition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xiong, Hui; Shang, Pengjian; Bian, Songhan

2017-05-01

In this paper, we apply the empirical mode decomposition (EMD) method to the recurrence plot (RP) and recurrence quantification analysis (RQA), to evaluate the frequency- and time-evolving dynamics of the traffic flow. Based on the cumulative intrinsic mode functions extracted by the EMD, the frequency-evolving RP regarding different oscillation of modes suggests that apparent dynamics of the data considered are mainly dominated by its components of medium- and low-frequencies while severely affected by fast oscillated noises contained in the signal. Noises are then eliminated to analyze the intrinsic dynamics and consequently, the denoised time-evolving RQA diversely characterizes the properties of the signal and marks crucial points more accurately where white bands in the RP occur, whereas a strongly qualitative agreement exists between all the non-denoised RQA measures. Generally, the EMD combining with the recurrence analysis sheds more reliable, abundant and inherent lights into the traffic flow, which is meaningful to the empirical analysis of complex systems.

Gene-expression profiles of epithelial cells treated with EMD in vitro: analysis using complementary DNA arrays.

PubMed

Kapferer, I; Schmidt, S; Gstir, R; Durstberger, G; Huber, L A; Vietor, I

2011-02-01

During surgical periodontal treatment, EMD is topically applied in order to facilitate regeneration of the periodontal ligament, acellular cementum and alveolar bone. Suppresion of epithelial down-growth is essential for successful periodontal regeneration; however, the underlying mechanisms of how EMD influences epithelial wound healing are poorly understood. In the present study, the effects of EMD on gene-expression profiling in an epithelial cell line (HSC-2) model were investigated. Gene-expression modifications, determined using a comparative genome-wide expression-profiling strategy, were independently validated by quantitative real-time RT-PCR. Additionally, cell cycle, cell growth and in vitro wound-healing assays were conducted. A set of 43 EMD-regulated genes was defined, which may be responsible for the reduced epithelial down-growth upon EMD application. Gene ontology analysis revealed genes that could be attributed to pathways of locomotion, developmental processes and associated processes such as regulation of cell size and cell growth. Additionally, eight regulated genes have previously been reported to take part in the process of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition. Several independent experimental assays revealed significant inhibition of cell migration, growth and cell cycle by EMD. The set of EMD-regulated genes identified in this study offers the opportunity to clarify mechanisms underlying the effects of EMD on epithelial cells. Reduced epithelial repopulation of the dental root upon periodontal surgery may be the consequence of reduced migration and cell growth, as well as epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition. © 2010 John Wiley & Sons A/S.

Sun, Moon and Earthquakes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kolvankar, V. G.

2013-12-01

During a study conducted to find the effect of Earth tides on the occurrence of earthquakes, for small areas [typically 1000km X1000km] of high-seismicity regions, it was noticed that the Sun's position in terms of universal time [GMT] shows links to the sum of EMD [longitude of earthquake location - longitude of Moon's foot print on earth] and SEM [Sun-Earth-Moon angle]. This paper provides the details of this relationship after studying earthquake data for over forty high-seismicity regions of the world. It was found that over 98% of the earthquakes for these different regions, examined for the period 1973-2008, show a direct relationship between the Sun's position [GMT] and [EMD+SEM]. As the time changes from 00-24 hours, the factor [EMD+SEM] changes through 360 degree, and plotting these two variables for earthquakes from different small regions reveals a simple 45 degree straight-line relationship between them. This relationship was tested for all earthquakes and earthquake sequences for magnitude 2.0 and above. This study conclusively proves how Sun and the Moon govern all earthquakes. Fig. 12 [A+B]. The left-hand figure provides a 24-hour plot for forty consecutive days including the main event (00:58:23 on 26.12.2004, Lat.+3.30, Long+95.980, Mb 9.0, EQ count 376). The right-hand figure provides an earthquake plot for (EMD+SEM) vs GMT timings for the same data. All the 376 events including the main event faithfully follow the straight-line curve.

Pseudo-fault signal assisted EMD for fault detection and isolation in rotating machines

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Singh, Dheeraj Sharan; Zhao, Qing

2016-12-01

This paper presents a novel data driven technique for the detection and isolation of faults, which generate impacts in a rotating equipment. The technique is built upon the principles of empirical mode decomposition (EMD), envelope analysis and pseudo-fault signal for fault separation. Firstly, the most dominant intrinsic mode function (IMF) is identified using EMD of a raw signal, which contains all the necessary information about the faults. The envelope of this IMF is often modulated with multiple vibration sources and noise. A second level decomposition is performed by applying pseudo-fault signal (PFS) assisted EMD on the envelope. A pseudo-fault signal is constructed based on the known fault characteristic frequency of the particular machine. The objective of using external (pseudo-fault) signal is to isolate different fault frequencies, present in the envelope . The pseudo-fault signal serves dual purposes: (i) it solves the mode mixing problem inherent in EMD, (ii) it isolates and quantifies a particular fault frequency component. The proposed technique is suitable for real-time implementation, which has also been validated on simulated fault and experimental data corresponding to a bearing and a gear-box set-up, respectively.

Gravity Tides Extracted from Relative Gravimeter Data by Combining Empirical Mode Decomposition and Independent Component Analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yu, Hongjuan; Guo, Jinyun; Kong, Qiaoli; Chen, Xiaodong

2018-04-01

The static observation data from a relative gravimeter contain noise and signals such as gravity tides. This paper focuses on the extraction of the gravity tides from the static relative gravimeter data for the first time applying the combined method of empirical mode decomposition (EMD) and independent component analysis (ICA), called the EMD-ICA method. The experimental results from the CG-5 gravimeter (SCINTREX Limited Ontario Canada) data show that the gravity tides time series derived by EMD-ICA are consistent with the theoretical reference (Longman formula) and the RMS of their differences only reaches 4.4 μGal. The time series of the gravity tides derived by EMD-ICA have a strong correlation with the theoretical time series and the correlation coefficient is greater than 0.997. The accuracy of the gravity tides estimated by EMD-ICA is comparable to the theoretical model and is slightly higher than that of independent component analysis (ICA). EMD-ICA could overcome the limitation of ICA having to process multiple observations and slightly improve the extraction accuracy and reliability of gravity tides from relative gravimeter data compared to that estimated with ICA.

Assessment of club patrons' alcohol and drug use: the use of biological markers.

PubMed

Miller, Brenda A; Byrnes, Hilary F; Branner, Amy C; Voas, Robert; Johnson, Mark B

2013-11-01

Young adulthood (ages 18-25 years) represents a time when high-risk behaviors, including alcohol and drug use, peak. Electronic music dance events (EMDEs) featured at clubs provide an ecologic niche for these high-risk behaviors. This paper examines the prevalence of alcohol and drug use among EMDE patrons. Examination of personal characteristics associated with exit levels of alcohol and drug use identifies important indicators of risk taking for prevention strategies. Data were collected anonymously during 2010-2012 from 2028 patrons as they entered and exited clubs in the San Francisco Bay area featuring EMDEs. Nearly half were aged ≤25 years. Biological measures of drug and alcohol and self-reported personal characteristics were attained. Analyses were completed in 2012. At entrance, more than one fifth of patrons were positive for drug use and one fourth arrived either impaired (blood alcohol concentration [BAC]: 0.05%-0.079%) or intoxicated (BAC: >0.08%) by alcohol. At exit, one fourth tested positive for drugs, and nearly half were impaired or intoxicated by alcohol. Individual characteristics that were important for levels of risk included prior alcohol use behaviors, sexual identity, ethnic/racial identity, and transportation to the event. Gender did not differentiate for alcohol use but fewer women used drugs. Findings confirm the importance of targeting EMDEs for prevention efforts. EMDEs attract young working adults who are engaged in heavy alcohol and/or drug use. Targeting these social settings for delivering public health prevention strategies regarding alcohol and drug use and related harm is indicated by the findings. © 2013 American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Enamel Matrix Derivative Promotes Healing of a Surgical Wound in the Rat Oral Mucosa.

PubMed

Maymon-Gil, Tal; Weinberg, Evgeny; Nemcovsky, Carlos; Weinreb, Miron

2016-05-01

Enamel matrix proteins (EMPs) play a role in enamel formation and the development of the periodontium. Sporadic clinical observations of periodontal regeneration treatments with enamel matrix derivative (EMD), a commercial formulation of EMPs, suggest that it also promotes post-surgical healing of soft tissues. In vitro studies showed that EMD stimulates various cellular effects, which could potentially enhance wound healing. This study examines the in vivo effects of EMD on healing of an oral mucosa surgical wound in rats. A bilateral oral mucosa wound was created via a crestal incision in the anterior edentulous maxilla of Sprague-Dawley rats. Full-thickness flaps were raised, and, after suturing, EMD was injected underneath the soft tissues on one side, whereas the EMD vehicle was injected in the contralateral side. Animals were sacrificed after 5 or 9 days, and the wound area was subjected to histologic and immunohistochemical analysis of the epithelial gap, number of macrophages, blood vessels, proliferating cells, and collagen content in the connective tissue (CT). Gene expression analysis was also conducted 2 days post-surgery. EMD had no effect on the epithelial gap of the wound. On both days 5 and 9, EMD treatment increased significantly the number of blood vessels and the collagen content. EMD also enhanced (by 20% to 40%) the expression of transforming growth factors β1 and β2, vascular endothelial growth factor, interleukin-1β, matrix metalloproteinase-1, versican, and fibronectin. EMD improves oral mucosa incisional wound healing by promoting formation of blood vessels and collagen fibers in CT.

Electrocardiogram signal denoising based on empirical mode decomposition technique: an overview

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Han, G.; Lin, B.; Xu, Z.

2017-03-01

Electrocardiogram (ECG) signal is nonlinear and non-stationary weak signal which reflects whether the heart is functioning normally or abnormally. ECG signal is susceptible to various kinds of noises such as high/low frequency noises, powerline interference and baseline wander. Hence, the removal of noises from ECG signal becomes a vital link in the ECG signal processing and plays a significant role in the detection and diagnosis of heart diseases. The review will describe the recent developments of ECG signal denoising based on Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) technique including high frequency noise removal, powerline interference separation, baseline wander correction, the combining of EMD and Other Methods, EEMD technique. EMD technique is a quite potential and prospective but not perfect method in the application of processing nonlinear and non-stationary signal like ECG signal. The EMD combined with other algorithms is a good solution to improve the performance of noise cancellation. The pros and cons of EMD technique in ECG signal denoising are discussed in detail. Finally, the future work and challenges in ECG signal denoising based on EMD technique are clarified.

The Influence of Arginine on the Response of Enamel Matrix Derivative (EMD) Proteins to Thermal Stress: Towards Improving the Stability of EMD-Based Products

PubMed Central

Bolisetty, Sreenath; Marascio, Matteo; Gemperli Graf, Anja; Garamszegi, Laszlo; Mezzenga, Raffaele; Fischer, Peter; Månson, Jan-Anders

2015-01-01

In a current procedure for periodontal tissue regeneration, enamel matrix derivative (EMD), which is the active component, is mixed with a propylene glycol alginate (PGA) gel carrier and applied directly to the periodontal defect. Exposure of EMD to physiological conditions then causes it to precipitate. However, environmental changes during manufacture and storage may result in modifications to the conformation of the EMD proteins, and eventually premature phase separation of the gel and a loss in therapeutic effectiveness. The present work relates to efforts to improve the stability of EMD-based formulations such as Emdogain™ through the incorporation of arginine, a well-known protein stabilizer, but one that to our knowledge has not so far been considered for this purpose. Representative EMD-buffer solutions with and without arginine were analyzed by 3D-dynamic light scattering, UV-Vis spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy at different acidic pH and temperatures, T, in order to simulate the effect of pH variations and thermal stress during manufacture and storage. The results provided evidence that arginine may indeed stabilize EMD against irreversible aggregation with respect to variations in pH and T under these conditions. Moreover, stopped-flow transmittance measurements indicated arginine addition not to suppress precipitation of EMD from either the buffers or the PGA gel carrier when the pH was raised to 7, a fundamental requirement for dental applications. PMID:26670810

The Influence of Arginine on the Response of Enamel Matrix Derivative (EMD) Proteins to Thermal Stress: Towards Improving the Stability of EMD-Based Products.

PubMed

Apicella, Alessandra; Heunemann, Peggy; Bolisetty, Sreenath; Marascio, Matteo; Gemperli Graf, Anja; Garamszegi, Laszlo; Mezzenga, Raffaele; Fischer, Peter; Plummer, Christopher J; Månson, Jan-Anders

2015-01-01

In a current procedure for periodontal tissue regeneration, enamel matrix derivative (EMD), which is the active component, is mixed with a propylene glycol alginate (PGA) gel carrier and applied directly to the periodontal defect. Exposure of EMD to physiological conditions then causes it to precipitate. However, environmental changes during manufacture and storage may result in modifications to the conformation of the EMD proteins, and eventually premature phase separation of the gel and a loss in therapeutic effectiveness. The present work relates to efforts to improve the stability of EMD-based formulations such as Emdogain™ through the incorporation of arginine, a well-known protein stabilizer, but one that to our knowledge has not so far been considered for this purpose. Representative EMD-buffer solutions with and without arginine were analyzed by 3D-dynamic light scattering, UV-Vis spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy at different acidic pH and temperatures, T, in order to simulate the effect of pH variations and thermal stress during manufacture and storage. The results provided evidence that arginine may indeed stabilize EMD against irreversible aggregation with respect to variations in pH and T under these conditions. Moreover, stopped-flow transmittance measurements indicated arginine addition not to suppress precipitation of EMD from either the buffers or the PGA gel carrier when the pH was raised to 7, a fundamental requirement for dental applications.

Recognizing of stereotypic patterns in epileptic EEG using empirical modes and wavelets

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grubov, V. V.; Sitnikova, E.; Pavlov, A. N.; Koronovskii, A. A.; Hramov, A. E.

2017-11-01

Epileptic activity in the form of spike-wave discharges (SWD) appears in the electroencephalogram (EEG) during absence seizures. This paper evaluates two approaches for detecting stereotypic rhythmic activities in EEG, i.e., the continuous wavelet transform (CWT) and the empirical mode decomposition (EMD). The CWT is a well-known method of time-frequency analysis of EEG, whereas EMD is a relatively novel approach for extracting signal's waveforms. A new method for pattern recognition based on combination of CWT and EMD is proposed. It was found that this combined approach resulted to the sensitivity of 86.5% and specificity of 92.9% for sleep spindles and 97.6% and 93.2% for SWD, correspondingly. Considering strong within- and between-subjects variability of sleep spindles, the obtained efficiency in their detection was high in comparison with other methods based on CWT. It is concluded that the combination of a wavelet-based approach and empirical modes increases the quality of automatic detection of stereotypic patterns in rat's EEG.

Hilbert-Huang transform analysis of dynamic and earthquake motion recordings

USGS Publications Warehouse

Zhang, R.R.; Ma, S.; Safak, E.; Hartzell, S.

2003-01-01

This study examines the rationale of Hilbert-Huang transform (HHT) for analyzing dynamic and earthquake motion recordings in studies of seismology and engineering. In particular, this paper first provides the fundamentals of the HHT method, which consist of the empirical mode decomposition (EMD) and the Hilbert spectral analysis. It then uses the HHT to analyze recordings of hypothetical and real wave motion, the results of which are compared with the results obtained by the Fourier data processing technique. The analysis of the two recordings indicates that the HHT method is able to extract some motion characteristics useful in studies of seismology and engineering, which might not be exposed effectively and efficiently by Fourier data processing technique. Specifically, the study indicates that the decomposed components in EMD of HHT, namely, the intrinsic mode function (IMF) components, contain observable, physical information inherent to the original data. It also shows that the grouped IMF components, namely, the EMD-based low- and high-frequency components, can faithfully capture low-frequency pulse-like as well as high-frequency wave signals. Finally, the study illustrates that the HHT-based Hilbert spectra are able to reveal the temporal-frequency energy distribution for motion recordings precisely and clearly.

Spectral Characteristics of Continuous Acoustic Emission (AE) Data from Laboratory Rock Deformation Experiments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Flynn, J. William; Goodfellow, Sebastian; Reyes-Montes, Juan; Nasseri, Farzine; Young, R. Paul

2016-04-01

Continuous acoustic emission (AE) data recorded during rock deformation tests facilitates the monitoring of fracture initiation and propagation due to applied stress changes. Changes in the frequency and energy content of AE waveforms have been previously observed and were associated with microcrack coalescence and the induction or mobilisation of large fractures which are naturally associated with larger amplitude AE events and lower-frequency components. The shift from high to low dominant frequency components during the late stages of the deformation experiment, as the rate of AE events increases and the sample approaches failure, indicates a transition from the micro-cracking to macro-cracking regime, where large cracks generated result in material failure. The objective of this study is to extract information on the fracturing process from the acoustic records around sample failure, where the fast occurrence of AE events does not allow for identification of individual AE events and phase arrivals. Standard AE event processing techniques are not suitable for extracting this information at these stages. Instead the observed changes in the frequency content of the continuous record can be used to characterise and investigate the fracture process at the stage of microcrack coalescence and sample failure. To analyse and characterise these changes, a detailed non-linear and non-stationary time-frequency analysis of the continuous waveform data is required. Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) and Hilbert Spectral Analysis (HSA) are two of the techniques used in this paper to analyse the acoustic records which provide a high-resolution temporal frequency distribution of the data. In this paper we present the results from our analysis of continuous AE data recorded during a laboratory triaxial deformation experiment using the combined EMD and HSA method.

Treatment of the alcoholic organic brain syndrome with EMD 21657. A derivative of a pyritinolmetabolite: double-blind clinical, quantitative EEG and psychometric studies.

PubMed

Saletu, B; Grünberger, J; Saletu, M; Mader, R; Volavka, J

1978-01-01

The efficacy of EMD 21657--a derivative of a pyritinolmetabolite--with regard to the improvement of the organic brain syndrome (OBS) of chronic alcoholics was investigated in a double-blind study utilizing clinical, psychometric and quantitative EEG evaluation. Nineteen patients received 3 x 300 mg EMD and 21 patients 3 x 1 dragee placebo for 6 weeks. The groups did not differ in regard to age, sex, weight, height, alcohol anamnesis or IQ. The hospitalized patients were examined before as well as at the end of the second, fourth and sixth week of drug treatment. While the overall evaluation by the psychiatrist and patients at the end of the period of treatment did not show marked intergroup differences, the clinical global impression scale and the OBS rating scale demonstrated that both groups showed a significant reduction in their OBS and that improvement with EMD 21657 therapy was significantly superior to the one with placebo. Psychometric analysis also exhibited a significant superiority of EMD in regard to the general, associative, numeric and total verbal memory, concentration and attention variability. Psychovisual memory and the quantative aspects of attention showed opposite findings. Flickerlight fusion frequency, reaction time and after-image did not change significantly. The psychomotor activity improved significantly more with EMD than placebo; this was especially pronounced in the left hand. Affect and mood improved also more with EMD than placebo. Side effects were observed more frequently under active treatment and were characterized by temporary headaches. Power spectral density analysis of the EEG revealed in both groups a decrease of delta, fast alpha and beta activities and an increase in theta and slow alpha activity, but changes during EMD treatment more frequently reached the level of statistical significance than with placebo. The most consistant finding was the theta augmentation under EMD treatment. It was concluded that EMD 21657 is a CNS-effective drug with pronounced nootropic and slight thymotropic properties.

A hybrid filtering method based on a novel empirical mode decomposition for friction signals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Chengwei; Zhan, Liwei

2015-12-01

During a measurement, the measured signal usually contains noise. To remove the noise and preserve the important feature of the signal, we introduce a hybrid filtering method that uses a new intrinsic mode function (NIMF) and a modified Hausdorff distance. The NIMF is defined as the difference between the noisy signal and each intrinsic mode function (IMF), which is obtained by empirical mode decomposition (EMD), ensemble EMD, complementary ensemble EMD, or complete ensemble EMD with adaptive noise (CEEMDAN). The relevant mode selecting is based on the similarity between the first NIMF and the rest of the NIMFs. With this filtering method, the EMD and improved versions are used to filter the simulation and friction signals. The friction signal between an airplane tire and the runaway is recorded during a simulated airplane touchdown and features spikes of various amplitudes and noise. The filtering effectiveness of the four hybrid filtering methods are compared and discussed. The results show that the filtering method based on CEEMDAN outperforms other signal filtering methods.

Esophageal Motor Disorders Are a Strong and Independant Associated Factor of Barrett's Esophagus.

PubMed

Bazin, Camille; Benezech, Alban; Alessandrini, Marine; Grimaud, Jean-Charles; Vitton, Veronique

2018-04-30

Esophageal motor disorder (EMD) has been shown to be associated with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). However, the association of EMD with a Barrett's esophagus (BE) is controversial. Our objective was to evaluate whether the presence of EMD was an independent factor associated with BE. A retrospective case-control study was conducted in GERD patients who all had oeso-gastroduodenal endoscopy and high-resolution esophageal manometry. The clinical data collected was known or potential risk factors for BE: male gender, smoking and alcohol consumption, age, body mass index, presence of hiatal hernia, frequency, and age of GERD. EMD were classified according to the Chicago classification into: ineffective motor syndrome, fragmented peristalsis and absence of peristalsis, lower esophageal sphincter hypotonia. Two hundred and one patients (101 in the GERD + BE group and 100 in the GERD without BE) were included. In univariate analysis, male gender, alcohol consumption, presence of hiatal hernia, and EMD appeared to be associated with the presence of BE. In a multivariate analysis, 3 independent factors were identified: the presence of EMD (odds ratio [OR], 3.99; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.71-9.28; P = 0.001), the presence of hiatal hernia (OR, 5.60; 95% CI, 2.45-12.76; P ＜ 0.001), Helicobacter pylori infection (OR, 0.08; 95% CI, 0.01-0.84; P = 0.035). The presence of EMD (particularly ineffective motor syndrome and lower esophageal sphincter hypotonia) is a strong independent associated factor of BE. Searching systematically for an EMD in patients suffering from GERD could be a new strategy to organize the endoscopic follow-up.

Distribution of Electromechanical Delay in the Heart: Insights from a Three-Dimensional Electromechanical Model

PubMed Central

Gurev, V.; Constantino, J.; Rice, J.J.; Trayanova, N.A.

2010-01-01

In the intact heart, the distribution of electromechanical delay (EMD), the time interval between local depolarization and myocyte shortening onset, depends on the loading conditions. The distribution of EMD throughout the heart remains, however, unknown because current experimental techniques are unable to evaluate three-dimensional cardiac electromechanical behavior. The goal of this study was to determine the three-dimensional EMD distributions in the intact ventricles for sinus rhythm (SR) and epicardial pacing (EP) by using a new, to our knowledge, electromechanical model of the rabbit ventricles that incorporates a biophysical representation of myofilament dynamics. Furthermore, we aimed to ascertain the mechanisms that underlie the specific three-dimensional EMD distributions. The results revealed that under both conditions, the three-dimensional EMD distribution is nonuniform. During SR, EMD is longer at the epicardium than at the endocardium, and is greater near the base than at the apex. After EP, the three-dimensional EMD distribution is markedly different; it also changes with the pacing rate. For both SR and EP, late-depolarized regions were characterized with significant myofiber prestretch caused by the contraction of the early-depolarized regions. This prestretch delays myofiber-shortening onset, and results in a longer EMD, giving rise to heterogeneous three-dimensional EMD distributions. PMID:20682251

Anti-inflammatory effects of EMD in the presence of biomechanical loading and interleukin-1β in vitro.

PubMed

Nokhbehsaim, Marjan; Deschner, Birgit; Winter, Jochen; Bourauel, Christoph; Jäger, Andreas; Jepsen, Søren; Deschner, James

2012-02-01

Enamel matrix derivative (EMD) used to promote periodontal regeneration has been shown to exert anti-inflammatory effects. This in vitro study was performed to investigate if the anti-inflammatory actions of EMD are modulated by the local cellular environment, such as inflammation or occlusal, i.e., biomechanical, loading. Human periodontal ligament cells were seeded on BioFlex plates and incubated with EMD under normal, inflammatory, and biomechanical loading conditions for 1 and 6 days. In order to mimic inflammatory and biomechanical loading conditions in vitro, cells were stimulated with interleukin (IL)-1β and exposed to dynamic tensile strain, respectively. The gene expression of IL-1β, IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1RN), IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, and cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 was analyzed by real-time RT-PCR and the IL-6 protein synthesis by enzyme-linked immunoassay. For statistical analysis, Student's t test, ANOVA, and post-hoc comparison tests were applied (p < 0.05). EMD downregulated significantly the expression of IL-1β and COX-2 at 1 day and of IL-6, IL-8, and COX-2 at 6 days in normal condition. In an inflammatory environment, the anti-inflammatory actions of EMD were significantly enhanced at 6 days. In the presence of low biomechanical loading, EMD caused a downregulation of IL-1β and IL-8, whereas high biomechanical loading significantly abrogated the anti-inflammatory effects of EMD at both days. Neither IL-1RN nor IL-10 was upregulated by EMD. These data suggest that high occlusal forces may abrogate anti-inflammatory effects of EMD and should, therefore, be avoided immediately after the application of EMD to achieve best healing results.

Iterative filtering decomposition based on local spectral evolution kernel

PubMed Central

Wang, Yang; Wei, Guo-Wei; Yang, Siyang

2011-01-01

The synthesizing information, achieving understanding, and deriving insight from increasingly massive, time-varying, noisy and possibly conflicting data sets are some of most challenging tasks in the present information age. Traditional technologies, such as Fourier transform and wavelet multi-resolution analysis, are inadequate to handle all of the above-mentioned tasks. The empirical model decomposition (EMD) has emerged as a new powerful tool for resolving many challenging problems in data processing and analysis. Recently, an iterative filtering decomposition (IFD) has been introduced to address the stability and efficiency problems of the EMD. Another data analysis technique is the local spectral evolution kernel (LSEK), which provides a near prefect low pass filter with desirable time-frequency localizations. The present work utilizes the LSEK to further stabilize the IFD, and offers an efficient, flexible and robust scheme for information extraction, complexity reduction, and signal and image understanding. The performance of the present LSEK based IFD is intensively validated over a wide range of data processing tasks, including mode decomposition, analysis of time-varying data, information extraction from nonlinear dynamic systems, etc. The utility, robustness and usefulness of the proposed LESK based IFD are demonstrated via a large number of applications, such as the analysis of stock market data, the decomposition of ocean wave magnitudes, the understanding of physiologic signals and information recovery from noisy images. The performance of the proposed method is compared with that of existing methods in the literature. Our results indicate that the LSEK based IFD improves both the efficiency and the stability of conventional EMD algorithms. PMID:22350559

Estimation and confidence intervals for empirical mixing distributions

USGS Publications Warehouse

Link, W.A.; Sauer, J.R.

1995-01-01

Questions regarding collections of parameter estimates can frequently be expressed in terms of an empirical mixing distribution (EMD). This report discusses empirical Bayes estimation of an EMD, with emphasis on the construction of interval estimates. Estimation of the EMD is accomplished by substitution of estimates of prior parameters in the posterior mean of the EMD. This procedure is examined in a parametric model (the normal-normal mixture) and in a semi-parametric model. In both cases, the empirical Bayes bootstrap of Laird and Louis (1987, Journal of the American Statistical Association 82, 739-757) is used to assess the variability of the estimated EMD arising from the estimation of prior parameters. The proposed methods are applied to a meta-analysis of population trend estimates for groups of birds.

System and methods for determining masking signals for applying empirical mode decomposition (EMD) and for demodulating intrinsic mode functions obtained from application of EMD

DOEpatents

Senroy, Nilanjan [New Delhi, IN; Suryanarayanan, Siddharth [Littleton, CO

2011-03-15

A computer-implemented method of signal processing is provided. The method includes generating one or more masking signals based upon a computed Fourier transform of a received signal. The method further includes determining one or more intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) of the received signal by performing a masking-signal-based empirical mode decomposition (EMD) using the at least one masking signal.

On the Hilbert-Huang Transform Theoretical Developments

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kizhner, Semion; Blank, Karin; Flatley, Thomas; Huang, Norden E.; Patrick, David; Hestnes, Phyllis

2005-01-01

One of the main heritage tools used in scientific and engineering data spectrum analysis is the Fourier Integral Transform and its high performance digital equivalent - the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT). Both carry strong a-priori assumptions about the source data, such as linearity, of being stationary, and of satisfying the Dirichlet conditions. A recent development at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), known as the Hilbert-Huang Transform (HHT), proposes a novel approach to the solution for the nonlinear class of spectrum analysis problems. Using a-posteriori data processing based on the Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) sifting process (algorithm), followed by the normalized Hilbert Transform of the decomposition data, the HHT allows spectrum analysis of nonlinear and nonstationary data. The EMD sifting process results in a non-constrained decomposition of a source real value data vector into a finite set of Intrinsic Mode Functions (IMF). These functions form a near orthogonal adaptive basis, a basis that is derived from the data. The IMFs can be further analyzed for spectrum interpretation by the classical Hilbert Transform. A new engineering spectrum analysis tool using HHT has been developed at NASA GSFC, the HHT Data Processing System (HHT-DPS). As the HHT-DPS has been successfully used and commercialized, new applications post additional questions about the theoretical basis behind the HHT and EMD algorithms. Why is the fastest changing component of a composite signal being sifted out first in the EMD sifting process? Why does the EMD sifting process seemingly converge and why does it converge rapidly? Does an IMF have a distinctive structure? Why are the IMFs near orthogonal? We address these questions and develop the initial theoretical background for the HHT. This will contribute to the developments of new HHT processing options, such as real-time and 2-D processing using Field Programmable Array (FPGA) computational resources, enhanced HHT synthesis, and broaden the scope of HHT applications for signal processing.

On Certain Theoretical Developments Underlying the Hilbert-Huang Transform

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kizhner, Semion; Blank, Karin; Flatley, Thomas; Huang, Norden E.; Petrick, David; Hestness, Phyllis

2006-01-01

One of the main traditional tools used in scientific and engineering data spectral analysis is the Fourier Integral Transform and its high performance digital equivalent - the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT). Both carry strong a-priori assumptions about the source data, such as being linear and stationary, and of satisfying the Dirichlet conditions. A recent development at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), known as the Hilbert-Huang Transform (HHT), proposes a novel approach to the solution for the nonlinear class of spectral analysis problems. Using a-posteriori data processing based on the Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) sifting process (algorithm), followed by the normalized Hilbert Transform of the decomposed data, the HHT allows spectral analysis of nonlinear and nonstationary data. The EMD sifting process results in a non-constrained decomposition of a source real-value data vector into a finite set of Intrinsic Mode Functions (IMF). These functions form a nearly orthogonal derived from the data (adaptive) basis. The IMFs can be further analyzed for spectrum content by using the classical Hilbert Transform. A new engineering spectral analysis tool using HHT has been developed at NASA GSFC, the HHT Data Processing System (HHT-DPS). As the HHT-DPS has been successfully used and commercialized, new applications pose additional questions about the theoretical basis behind the HHT and EMD algorithms. Why is the fastest changing component of a composite signal being sifted out first in the EMD sifting process? Why does the EMD sifting process seemingly converge and why does it converge rapidly? Does an IMF have a distinctive structure? Why are the IMFs nearly orthogonal? We address these questions and develop the initial theoretical background for the HHT. This will contribute to the development of new HHT processing options, such as real-time and 2-D processing using Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) computational resources,

Esophageal Motor Disorders Are a Strong and Independant Associated Factor of Barrett’s Esophagus

PubMed Central

Bazin, Camille; Benezech, Alban; Alessandrini, Marine; Grimaud, Jean-Charles; Vitton, Veronique

2018-01-01

Background/Aims Esophageal motor disorder (EMD) has been shown to be associated with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). However, the association of EMD with a Barrett’s esophagus (BE) is controversial. Our objective was to evaluate whether the presence of EMD was an independent factor associated with BE. Methods A retrospective case-control study was conducted in GERD patients who all had oeso-gastroduodenal endoscopy and high-resolution esophageal manometry. The clinical data collected was known or potential risk factors for BE: male gender, smoking and alcohol consumption, age, body mass index, presence of hiatal hernia, frequency, and age of GERD. EMD were classified according to the Chicago classification into: ineffective motor syndrome, fragmented peristalsis and absence of peristalsis, lower esophageal sphincter hypotonia. Results Two hundred and one patients (101 in the GERD + BE group and 100 in the GERD without BE) were included. In univariate analysis, male gender, alcohol consumption, presence of hiatal hernia, and EMD appeared to be associated with the presence of BE. In a multivariate analysis, 3 independent factors were identified: the presence of EMD (odds ratio [OR], 3.99; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.71–9.28; P = 0.001), the presence of hiatal hernia (OR, 5.60; 95% CI, 2.45–12.76; P < 0.001), Helicobacter pylori infection (OR, 0.08; 95% CI, 0.01–0.84; P = 0.035). Conclusions The presence of EMD (particularly ineffective motor syndrome and lower esophageal sphincter hypotonia) is a strong independent associated factor of BE. Searching systematically for an EMD in patients suffering from GERD could be a new strategy to organize the endoscopic follow-up. PMID:29605977

Influence of biphasic calcium phosphate surfaces coated with Enamel Matrix Derivative on vertical bone growth in an extra-oral rabbit model.

PubMed

Wen, Bo; Li, Zhen; Nie, Rongrong; Liu, Chao; Zhang, Peng; Miron, Richard J; Dard, Michel M

2016-10-01

The aim of this study was to investigate the ability of Enamel Matrix Derivative (EMD) on vertical bone regeneration around dental implants placed in an extra-oral rabbit model. A total of 30 Straumann BL implants were partially embedded in transverse orientation into the posterior mandibles of 15 rabbits. Macro-structuring BiPhasicCaPST (BCPT1), micro-structuring BiPhasicCaPST (BCPT2), and deproteinized bovine bone mineral (DBBM) were placed around the implant and covered with a scaffold stabilizing "umbrella." EMD was incorporated within the scaffold for test sites, but not control sites. Histological analysis was performed on retrieved specimens after 10 weeks of healing to assess new bone formation. All treatment groups displayed new supracrestal bone formation as determined by histomorphometric measurements, with mean values of new bone height ranging between 0.62 and 1.13 mm. Histological analysis revealed a higher mean bone formation (%) around the test sites where EMD (34.7, 95%CI: 27.1-39.4) was released from the scaffold, whereas the control group without EMD release (26.4, 95%CI: 16.3-31.9) (P = 0.069). The mean fBIC (%) in the BCPT2 group increased by the addition of EMD relative to no EMD (67.2, 95%CI: 48.6-84.1) and (54.7, 95%CI: 32.3-68.9), respectively). The BCPT2/EMD and DBBM/EMD interventions showed the greatest mean bone density (BA/TA), respectively, (12.8, 95%CI: 8.9-36.5) and (11.2, 6.3-16.4) in ROI 1. Values in ROI 2 were, similarly, (24.9, 95%CI: 17.2-31.7) and (27.7, 19.2-35.3). BA/TA in ROI 2 differences between the BCPT2 groups with and without EMD was statistically significant (P = 0.026), as well as the DBBM groups with and without EMD (P = 0.038). A layer of new bone was formed in both test and controls. The release of EMD from BCPT2 and DBBM adjacent to a bone-level implant with an SLActive surface and scaffold retention umbrella consistently regenerated the greater fBIC and bone density along the length of the implant. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Effects of intensity on muscle-specific voluntary electromechanical delay and relaxation electromechanical delay.

PubMed

Smith, Cory M; Housh, Terry J; Hill, Ethan C; Keller, Josh L; Johnson, Glen O; Schmidt, Richard J

2018-06-01

The purposes of this study were to examine: 1) the potential muscle-specific differences in voluntary electromechanical delay (EMD) and relaxation electromechanical delay (R-EMD), and 2) the effects of intensity on EMD and R-EMD during step incremental isometric muscle actions from 10 to 100% maximal voluntary isometric contraction (MVIC). EMD and R-EMD measures were calculated from the simultaneous assessments of electromyography, mechanomyography, and force production from the vastus lateralis (VL), vastus medialis (VM), and rectus femoris (RF) during step isometric muscle actions. There were no differences between the VL, VM, and RF for the voluntary EMD E-M (onsets of the electromyographic to mechanomyographic signals), EMD M-F (onsets the mechanomyographic to force production), or EMD E-F (onsets of the electromyographic signal to force production) as well as R-EMD E-M (cessation of electromyographic to mechanomyographic signal), R-EMD M-F (cessation of mechanomyographic signal to force cessation), or R-EMD E-F (cessation of electromyorgraphic signal to force cessation) at any intensity. There were decreases in all EMD and R-EMD measures with increases in intensity. The relative contributions from EMD E-M and EMD M-F to EMD E-F as well as R-EMD E-M and R-EMD M-F to R-EMD E-F remained similar across all intensities. The superficial muscles of the quadriceps femoris shared similar EMD and R-EMD measurements.

Use of Knowledge Base Systems (EMDS) in Strategic and Tactical Forest Planning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jensen, M. E.; Reynolds, K.; Stockmann, K.

2008-12-01

The USDA Forest Service 2008 Planning Rule requires Forest plans to provide a strategic vision for maintaining the sustainability of ecological, economic, and social systems across USFS lands through the identification of desired conditions and objectives. In this paper we show how knowledge-based systems can be efficiently used to evaluate disparate natural resource information to assess desired conditions and related objectives in Forest planning. We use the Ecosystem Management Decision Support (EMDS) system (http://www.institute.redlands.edu/emds/), which facilitates development of both logic-based models for evaluating ecosystem sustainability (desired conditions) and decision models to identify priority areas for integrated landscape restoration (objectives). The study area for our analysis spans 1,057 subwatersheds within western Montana and northern Idaho. Results of our study suggest that knowledge-based systems such as EMDS are well suited to both strategic and tactical planning and that the following points merit consideration in future National Forest (and other land management) planning efforts: 1) Logic models provide a consistent, transparent, and reproducible method for evaluating broad propositions about ecosystem sustainability such as: are watershed integrity, ecosystem and species diversity, social opportunities, and economic integrity in good shape across a planning area? The ability to evaluate such propositions in a formal logic framework also allows users the opportunity to evaluate statistical changes in outcomes over time, which could be very useful for regional and national reporting purposes and for addressing litigation; 2) The use of logic and decision models in strategic and tactical Forest planning provides a repository for expert knowledge (corporate memory) that is critical to the evaluation and management of ecosystem sustainability over time. This is especially true for the USFS and other federal resource agencies, which are likely to experience rapid turnover in tenured resource specialist positions within the next five years due to retirements; 3) Use of logic model output in decision models is an efficient method for synthesizing the typically large amounts of information needed to support integrated landscape restoration. Moreover, use of logic and decision models to design customized scenarios for integrated landscape restoration, as we have demonstrated with EMDS, offers substantial improvements to traditional GIS-based procedures such as suitability analysis. To our knowledge, this study represents the first attempt to link evaluations of desired conditions for ecosystem sustainability in strategic planning to tactical planning regarding the location of subwatersheds that best meet the objectives of integrated landscape restoration. The basic knowledge-based approach implemented in EMDS, with its logic (NetWeaver) and decision (Criterion Decision Plus) engines, is well suited both to multi-scale strategic planning and to multi-resource tactical planning.

Using Empirical Mode Decomposition to process Marine Magnetotelluric Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, J.; Jegen, M. D.; Heincke, B. H.; Moorkamp, M.

2014-12-01

The magnetotelluric (MT) data always exhibits nonstationarities due to variations of source mechanisms causing MT variations on different time and spatial scales. An additional non-stationary component is introduced through noise, which is particularly pronounced in marine MT data through motion induced noise caused by time-varying wave motion and currents. We present a new heuristic method for dealing with the non-stationarity of MT time series based on Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD). The EMD method is used in combination with the derived instantaneous spectra to determine impedance estimates. The procedure is tested on synthetic and field MT data. In synthetic tests the reliability of impedance estimates from EMD-based method is compared to the synthetic responses of a 1D layered model. To examine how estimates are affected by noise, stochastic stationary and non-stationary noise are added on the time series. Comparisons reveal that estimates by the EMD-based method are generally more stable than those by simple Fourier analysis. Furthermore, the results are compared to those derived by a commonly used Fourier-based MT data processing software (BIRRP), which incorporates additional sophisticated robust estimations to deal with noise issues. It is revealed that the results from both methods are already comparable, even though no robust estimate procedures are implemented in the EMD approach at present stage. The processing scheme is then applied to marine MT field data. Testing is performed on short, relatively quiet segments of several data sets, as well as on long segments of data with many non-stationary noise packages. Compared to BIRRP, the new method gives comparable or better impedance estimates, furthermore, the estimates are extended to lower frequencies and less noise biased estimates with smaller error bars are obtained at high frequencies. The new processing methodology represents an important step towards deriving a better resolved Earth model to greater depth underneath the seafloor.

Pi2 detection using Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mieth, Johannes Z. D.; Frühauff, Dennis; Glassmeier, Karl-Heinz

2017-04-01

Empirical Mode Decomposition has been used as an alternative method to wavelet transformation to identify onset times of Pi2 pulsations in data sets of the Scandinavian Magnetometer Array (SMA). Pi2 pulsations are magnetohydrodynamic waves occurring during magnetospheric substorms. Almost always Pi2 are observed at substorm onset in mid to low latitudes on Earth's nightside. They are fed by magnetic energy release caused by dipolarization processes. Their periods lie between 40 to 150 seconds. Usually, Pi2 are detected using wavelet transformation. Here, Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) is presented as an alternative approach to the traditional procedure. EMD is a young signal decomposition method designed for nonlinear and non-stationary time series. It provides an adaptive, data driven, and complete decomposition of time series into slow and fast oscillations. An optimized version using Monte-Carlo-type noise assistance is used here. By displaying the results in a time-frequency space a characteristic frequency modulation is observed. This frequency modulation can be correlated with the onset of Pi2 pulsations. A basic algorithm to find the onset is presented. Finally, the results are compared to classical wavelet-based analysis. The use of different SMA stations furthermore allows the spatial analysis of Pi2 onset times. EMD mostly finds application in the fields of engineering and medicine. This work demonstrates the applicability of this method to geomagnetic time series.

Enamel Matrix Derivative Promote Primary Human Pulp Cell Differentiation and Mineralization

PubMed Central

Riksen, Elisabeth Aurstad; Landin, Maria A.; Reppe, Sjur; Nakamura, Yukio; Lyngstadaas, Ståle Petter; Reseland, Janne E.

2014-01-01

Enamel matrix derivative (EMD) has been found to induce reactive dentin formation; however the molecular mechanisms involved are unclear. The effect of EMD (5–50 μg/mL) on primary human pulp cells were compared to untreated cells and cells incubated with 10−8 M dexamethasone (DEX) for 1, 2, 3, 7, and 14 days in culture. Expression analysis using Affymetrix microchips demonstrated that 10 μg/mL EMD regulated several hundred genes and stimulated the gene expression of proteins involved in mesenchymal proliferation and differentiation. Both EMD and DEX enhanced the expression of amelogenin (amel), and the dentinogenic markers dentin sialophosphoprotein (DSSP) and dentin matrix acidic phosphoprotein 1 (DMP1), as well as the osteogenic markers osteocalcin (OC, BGLAP) and collagen type 1 (COL1A1). Whereas, only EMD had effect on alkaline phosphatase (ALP) mRNA expression, the stimulatory effect were verified by enhanced secretion of OC and COL1A from EMD treated cells, and increased ALP activity in cell culture medium after EMD treatment. Increased levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-8 (IL-8), and monocyte chemoattractant proteins (MCP-1) in the cell culture medium were also found. Consequently, the suggested effect of EMD is to promote differentiation of pulp cells and increases the potential for pulpal mineralization to favor reactive dentine formation. PMID:24857913

Wavelet-bounded empirical mode decomposition for measured time series analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moore, Keegan J.; Kurt, Mehmet; Eriten, Melih; McFarland, D. Michael; Bergman, Lawrence A.; Vakakis, Alexander F.

2018-01-01

Empirical mode decomposition (EMD) is a powerful technique for separating the transient responses of nonlinear and nonstationary systems into finite sets of nearly orthogonal components, called intrinsic mode functions (IMFs), which represent the dynamics on different characteristic time scales. However, a deficiency of EMD is the mixing of two or more components in a single IMF, which can drastically affect the physical meaning of the empirical decomposition results. In this paper, we present a new approached based on EMD, designated as wavelet-bounded empirical mode decomposition (WBEMD), which is a closed-loop, optimization-based solution to the problem of mode mixing. The optimization routine relies on maximizing the isolation of an IMF around a characteristic frequency. This isolation is measured by fitting a bounding function around the IMF in the frequency domain and computing the area under this function. It follows that a large (small) area corresponds to a poorly (well) separated IMF. An optimization routine is developed based on this result with the objective of minimizing the bounding-function area and with the masking signal parameters serving as free parameters, such that a well-separated IMF is extracted. As examples of application of WBEMD we apply the proposed method, first to a stationary, two-component signal, and then to the numerically simulated response of a cantilever beam with an essentially nonlinear end attachment. We find that WBEMD vastly improves upon EMD and that the extracted sets of IMFs provide insight into the underlying physics of the response of each system.

Adsorption of enamel matrix proteins to a bovine-derived bone grafting material and its regulation of cell adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation.

PubMed

Miron, Richard J; Bosshardt, Dieter D; Hedbom, Erik; Zhang, Yufeng; Haenni, Beat; Buser, Daniel; Sculean, Anton

2012-07-01

The use of various combinations of enamel matrix derivative (EMD) and grafting materials has been shown to promote periodontal wound healing/regeneration. However, the downstream cellular behavior of periodontal ligament (PDL) cells and osteoblasts has not yet been studied. Furthermore, it is unknown to what extent the bleeding during regenerative surgery may influence the adsorption of exogenous proteins to the surface of bone grafting materials and the subsequent cellular behavior. In the present study, the aim is to test EMD adsorption to the surface of natural bone mineral (NBM) particles in the presence of blood and determine the effect of EMD coating to NBM particles on downstream cellular pathways, such as adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation of primary human osteoblasts and PDL cells. NBM particles were precoated in various settings with EMD or human blood and analyzed for protein adsorption patterns via fluorescent imaging and high-resolution immunocytochemistry with an anti-EMD antibody. Cell attachment and cell proliferation were quantified using fluorescent double-stranded DNA-binding dye. Cell differentiation was analyzed using real-time polymerase chain reaction for genes encoding runt-related transcription factor 2, alkaline phosphatase (ALP), osteocalcin (OC), and collagen1α1 (COL1A1), and mineralization was assessed using red dye staining. Analysis of cell attachment and cell proliferation revealed significantly higher osteoblast and PDL cell attachment on EMD-coated surfaces when compared with control and blood-coated surfaces. EMD also stimulated release of growth factors and cytokines, including bone morphogenetic protein 2 and transforming growth factor β1. Moreover, there were significantly higher mRNA levels of osteoblast differentiation markers, including COL1A1, ALP, and OC, in osteoblasts and PDL cells cultured on EMD-coated NBM particles. The present results suggest that 1) EMD enhances osteoblast and PDL cell attachment, proliferation, and differentiation on NBM particles, and 2) blood contamination of the grafting material before mixing with EMD may inhibit EMD adsorption.

A hybrid approach EMD-HW for short-term forecasting of daily stock market time series data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Awajan, Ahmad Mohd; Ismail, Mohd Tahir

2017-08-01

Recently, forecasting time series has attracted considerable attention in the field of analyzing financial time series data, specifically within the stock market index. Moreover, stock market forecasting is a challenging area of financial time-series forecasting. In this study, a hybrid methodology between Empirical Mode Decomposition with the Holt-Winter method (EMD-HW) is used to improve forecasting performances in financial time series. The strength of this EMD-HW lies in its ability to forecast non-stationary and non-linear time series without a need to use any transformation method. Moreover, EMD-HW has a relatively high accuracy and offers a new forecasting method in time series. The daily stock market time series data of 11 countries is applied to show the forecasting performance of the proposed EMD-HW. Based on the three forecast accuracy measures, the results indicate that EMD-HW forecasting performance is superior to traditional Holt-Winter forecasting method.

Multivariate EMD and full spectrum based condition monitoring for rotating machinery

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, Xiaomin; Patel, Tejas H.; Zuo, Ming J.

2012-02-01

Early assessment of machinery health condition is of paramount importance today. A sensor network with sensors in multiple directions and locations is usually employed for monitoring the condition of rotating machinery. Extraction of health condition information from these sensors for effective fault detection and fault tracking is always challenging. Empirical mode decomposition (EMD) is an advanced signal processing technology that has been widely used for this purpose. Standard EMD has the limitation in that it works only for a single real-valued signal. When dealing with data from multiple sensors and multiple health conditions, standard EMD faces two problems. First, because of the local and self-adaptive nature of standard EMD, the decomposition of signals from different sources may not match in either number or frequency content. Second, it may not be possible to express the joint information between different sensors. The present study proposes a method of extracting fault information by employing multivariate EMD and full spectrum. Multivariate EMD can overcome the limitations of standard EMD when dealing with data from multiple sources. It is used to extract the intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) embedded in raw multivariate signals. A criterion based on mutual information is proposed for selecting a sensitive IMF. A full spectral feature is then extracted from the selected fault-sensitive IMF to capture the joint information between signals measured from two orthogonal directions. The proposed method is first explained using simple simulated data, and then is tested for the condition monitoring of rotating machinery applications. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated through monitoring damage on the vane trailing edge of an impeller and rotor-stator rub in an experimental rotor rig.

Bio-inspired motion detection in an FPGA-based smart camera module.

PubMed

Köhler, T; Röchter, F; Lindemann, J P; Möller, R

2009-03-01

Flying insects, despite their relatively coarse vision and tiny nervous system, are capable of carrying out elegant and fast aerial manoeuvres. Studies of the fly visual system have shown that this is accomplished by the integration of signals from a large number of elementary motion detectors (EMDs) in just a few global flow detector cells. We developed an FPGA-based smart camera module with more than 10,000 single EMDs, which is closely modelled after insect motion-detection circuits with respect to overall architecture, resolution and inter-receptor spacing. Input to the EMD array is provided by a CMOS camera with a high frame rate. Designed as an adaptable solution for different engineering applications and as a testbed for biological models, the EMD detector type and parameters such as the EMD time constants, the motion-detection directions and the angle between correlated receptors are reconfigurable online. This allows a flexible and simultaneous detection of complex motion fields such as translation, rotation and looming, such that various tasks, e.g., obstacle avoidance, height/distance control or speed regulation can be performed by the same compact device.

Some critical issues in the characterization of nanoscale thermal conductivity by molecular dynamics analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ehsan Khaled, Mohammad; Zhang, Liangchi; Liu, Weidong

2018-07-01

The nanoscale thermal conductivity of a material can be significantly different from its value at the macroscale. Although a number of studies using the equilibrium molecular dynamics (EMD) with Green–Kubo (GK) formula have been conducted for nano-conductivity predictions, there are many problems in the analysis that have made the EMD results unreliable or misleading. This paper aims to clarify such critical issues through a thorough investigation on the effect and determination of the vital physical variables in the EMD-GK analysis, using the prediction of the nanoscale thermal conductivity of Si as an example. The study concluded that to have a reliable prediction, quantum correction, time step, simulation time, correlation time and system size are all crucial.

Dynamic versus isometric electromechanical delay in non-fatigued and fatigued muscle: A combined electromyographic, mechanomyographic, and force approach.

PubMed

Smith, Cory M; Housh, Terry J; Hill, Ethan C; Johnson, Glen O; Schmidt, Richard J

2017-04-01

This study used a combined electromyographic, mechanomyographic, and force approach to identify electromechanical delay (EMD) from the onsets of the electromyographic to force signals (EMD E-F ), onsets of the electromyographic to mechanomyogrpahic signals (EMD E-M ), and onsets of mechanomyographic to force signals (EMD M-F ). The purposes of the current study were to examine: (1) the differences in EMD E-F , EMD E-M , and EMD M-F from the vastus lateralis during maximal, voluntary dynamic (1 repetition maximum [1-RM]) and isometric (maximal voluntary isometric contraction [MVIC]) muscle actions; and (2) the effects of fatigue on EMD E-F , EMD M-F , and EMD E-M . Ten men performed pretest and posttest 1-RM and MVIC leg extension muscle actions. The fatiguing workbout consisted of 70% 1-RM dynamic constant external resistance leg extension muscle actions to failure. The results indicated that there were no significant differences between 1-RM and MVIC EMD E-F , EMD E-M , or EMD M-F. There were, however, significant fatigue-induced increases in EMD E-F (94% and 63%), EMD E-M (107%), and EMD M-F (63%) for both the 1-RM and MVIC measurements. Therefore, these findings demonstrated the effects of fatigue on EMD measures and supported comparisons among studies which examined dynamic or isometric EMD measures from the vastus lateralis using a combined electromyographic, mechanomyographic, and force approach. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A novel hybrid ensemble learning paradigm for tourism forecasting

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shabri, Ani

2015-02-01

In this paper, a hybrid forecasting model based on Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) and Group Method of Data Handling (GMDH) is proposed to forecast tourism demand. This methodology first decomposes the original visitor arrival series into several Intrinsic Model Function (IMFs) components and one residual component by EMD technique. Then, IMFs components and the residual components is forecasted respectively using GMDH model whose input variables are selected by using Partial Autocorrelation Function (PACF). The final forecasted result for tourism series is produced by aggregating all the forecasted results. For evaluating the performance of the proposed EMD-GMDH methodologies, the monthly data of tourist arrivals from Singapore to Malaysia are used as an illustrative example. Empirical results show that the proposed EMD-GMDH model outperforms the EMD-ARIMA as well as the GMDH and ARIMA (Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average) models without time series decomposition.

Non-destructive testing of full-length bonded rock bolts based on HHT signal analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shi, Z. M.; Liu, L.; Peng, M.; Liu, C. C.; Tao, F. J.; Liu, C. S.

2018-04-01

Full-length bonded rock bolts are commonly used in mining, tunneling and slope engineering because of their simple design and resistance to corrosion. However, the length of a rock bolt and grouting quality do not often meet the required design standards in practice because of the concealment and complexity of bolt construction. Non-destructive testing is preferred when testing a rock bolt's quality because of the convenience, low cost and wide detection range. In this paper, a signal analysis method for the non-destructive sound wave testing of full-length bonded rock bolts is presented, which is based on the Hilbert-Huang transform (HHT). First, we introduce the HHT analysis method to calculate the bolt length and identify defect locations based on sound wave reflection test signals, which includes decomposing the test signal via empirical mode decomposition (EMD), selecting the intrinsic mode functions (IMF) using the Pearson Correlation Index (PCI) and calculating the instantaneous phase and frequency via the Hilbert transform (HT). Second, six model tests are conducted using different grouting defects and bolt protruding lengths to verify the effectiveness of the HHT analysis method. Lastly, the influence of the bolt protruding length on the test signal, identification of multiple reflections from defects, bolt end and protruding end, and mode mixing from EMD are discussed. The HHT analysis method can identify the bolt length and grouting defect locations from signals that contain noise at multiple reflected interfaces. The reflection from the long protruding end creates an irregular test signal with many frequency peaks on the spectrum. The reflections from defects barely change the original signal because they are low energy, which cannot be adequately resolved using existing methods. The HHT analysis method can identify reflections from the long protruding end of the bolt and multiple reflections from grouting defects based on mutations in the instantaneous frequency, which makes weak reflections more noticeable. The mode mixing phenomenon is observed in several tests, but this does not markedly affect the identification results due to the simple medium in bolt tests. The mode mixing can be reduced by ensemble EMD (EEMD) or complete ensemble EMD with adaptive noise (CEEMDAN), which are powerful tools to used analyze the test signal in a complex medium and may play an important role in future studies. The HHT bolt signal analysis method is a self-adaptive and automatic process, which can be programed as analysis software and will make bolt tests more convenient in practice.

In vitro evaluation of demineralized freeze-dried bone allograft in combination with enamel matrix derivative.

PubMed

Miron, Richard J; Bosshardt, Dieter D; Laugisch, Oliver; Dard, Michel; Gemperli, Anja C; Buser, Daniel; Gruber, Reinhard; Sculean, Anton

2013-11-01

Preclinical and clinical studies suggest that a combination of enamel matrix derivative (EMD) with demineralized freeze-dried bone allograft (DFDBA) may improve periodontal wound healing and regeneration. To date, no single study has characterized the effects of this combination on in vitro cell behavior. The aim of this study is to test the ability of EMD to adsorb to the surface of DFDBA particles and determine the effect of EMD coating on downstream cellular pathways such as adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation of primary human osteoblasts and periodontal ligament (PDL) cells. DFDBA particles were precoated with EMD or human blood and analyzed for protein adsorption patterns via scanning electron microscopy. Cell attachment and proliferation were quantified using a commercial assay. Cell differentiation was analyzed using real-time polymerase chain reaction for genes encoding Runx2, alkaline phosphatase, osteocalcin, and collagen 1α1, and mineralization was assessed using alizarinred staining. Analysis of cell attachment revealed no significant differences among control, blood-coated, and EMD-coated DFDBA particles. EMD significantly increased cell proliferation at 3 and 5 days after seeding for both osteoblasts and PDL cells compared to control and blood-coated samples. Moreover, there were significantly higher messenger ribonucleic acid levels of osteogenic differentiation markers, including collagen 1α1, alkaline phosphatase, and osteocalcin, in osteoblasts and PDL cells cultured on EMD-coated DFDBA particles at 3, 7, and 14 days. The results suggest that the addition of EMD to DFDBA particles may influence periodontal regeneration by stimulating PDL cell and osteoblast proliferation and differentiation.

Emotion Recognition from EEG Signals Using Multidimensional Information in EMD Domain.

PubMed

Zhuang, Ning; Zeng, Ying; Tong, Li; Zhang, Chi; Zhang, Hanming; Yan, Bin

2017-01-01

This paper introduces a method for feature extraction and emotion recognition based on empirical mode decomposition (EMD). By using EMD, EEG signals are decomposed into Intrinsic Mode Functions (IMFs) automatically. Multidimensional information of IMF is utilized as features, the first difference of time series, the first difference of phase, and the normalized energy. The performance of the proposed method is verified on a publicly available emotional database. The results show that the three features are effective for emotion recognition. The role of each IMF is inquired and we find that high frequency component IMF1 has significant effect on different emotional states detection. The informative electrodes based on EMD strategy are analyzed. In addition, the classification accuracy of the proposed method is compared with several classical techniques, including fractal dimension (FD), sample entropy, differential entropy, and discrete wavelet transform (DWT). Experiment results on DEAP datasets demonstrate that our method can improve emotion recognition performance.

EMDS users guide (version 2.0): knowledge-based decision support for ecological assessment.

Treesearch

Keith M. Reynolds

1999-01-01

The USDA Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station in Corvallis, Oregon, has developed the ecosystem management decision support (EMDS) system. The system integrates the logical formalism of knowledge-based reasoning into a geographic information system (GIS) environment to provide decision support for ecological landscape assessment and evaluation. The...

Improving EMG based classification of basic hand movements using EMD.

PubMed

Sapsanis, Christos; Georgoulas, George; Tzes, Anthony; Lymberopoulos, Dimitrios

2013-01-01

This paper presents a pattern recognition approach for the identification of basic hand movements using surface electromyographic (EMG) data. The EMG signal is decomposed using Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) into Intrinsic Mode Functions (IMFs) and subsequently a feature extraction stage takes place. Various combinations of feature subsets are tested using a simple linear classifier for the detection task. Our results suggest that the use of EMD can increase the discrimination ability of the conventional feature sets extracted from the raw EMG signal.

An improved EMD method for modal identification and a combined static-dynamic method for damage detection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Jinping; Li, Peizhen; Yang, Youfa; Xu, Dian

2018-04-01

Empirical mode decomposition (EMD) is a highly adaptable signal processing method. However, the EMD approach has certain drawbacks, including distortions from end effects and mode mixing. In the present study, these two problems are addressed using an end extension method based on the support vector regression machine (SVRM) and a modal decomposition method based on the characteristics of the Hilbert transform. The algorithm includes two steps: using the SVRM, the time series data are extended at both endpoints to reduce the end effects, and then, a modified EMD method using the characteristics of the Hilbert transform is performed on the resulting signal to reduce mode mixing. A new combined static-dynamic method for identifying structural damage is presented. This method combines the static and dynamic information in an equilibrium equation that can be solved using the Moore-Penrose generalized matrix inverse. The combination method uses the differences in displacements of the structure with and without damage and variations in the modal force vector. Tests on a four-story, steel-frame structure were conducted to obtain static and dynamic responses of the structure. The modal parameters are identified using data from the dynamic tests and improved EMD method. The new method is shown to be more accurate and effective than the traditional EMD method. Through tests with a shear-type test frame, the higher performance of the proposed static-dynamic damage detection approach, which can detect both single and multiple damage locations and the degree of the damage, is demonstrated. For structures with multiple damage, the combined approach is more effective than either the static or dynamic method. The proposed EMD method and static-dynamic damage detection method offer improved modal identification and damage detection, respectively, in structures.

Introduction

USGS Publications Warehouse

Warwick, Peter D.

2011-01-01

The Energy Minerals Division (EMD) of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) is a membership-based, technical interest group having the primary goal of advancing the science of geology, especially as it relates to exploration, discovery, and production of unconventional energy resources. Current research on unconventional energy resources is rapidly changing and exploration and development efforts for these resources are constantly expanding. Nine summaries derived from 2011 committee reports presented at the EMD Annual Meeting in Houston, Texas in April, 2011, are contained in this review. The complete set of committee reports is available to AAPG members at http://emd.aapg.org/members_only/ annual2011/index.cfm. This report updates the 2006 and 2009 EMD unconventional energy review published in this journal (American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Energy Minerals Division 2007, 2009).

Seismic facies analysis based on self-organizing map and empirical mode decomposition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Du, Hao-kun; Cao, Jun-xing; Xue, Ya-juan; Wang, Xing-jian

2015-01-01

Seismic facies analysis plays an important role in seismic interpretation and reservoir model building by offering an effective way to identify the changes in geofacies inter wells. The selections of input seismic attributes and their time window have an obvious effect on the validity of classification and require iterative experimentation and prior knowledge. In general, it is sensitive to noise when waveform serves as the input data to cluster analysis, especially with a narrow window. To conquer this limitation, the Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) method is introduced into waveform classification based on SOM. We first de-noise the seismic data using EMD and then cluster the data using 1D grid SOM. The main advantages of this method are resolution enhancement and noise reduction. 3D seismic data from the western Sichuan basin, China, are collected for validation. The application results show that seismic facies analysis can be improved and better help the interpretation. The powerful tolerance for noise makes the proposed method to be a better seismic facies analysis tool than classical 1D grid SOM method, especially for waveform cluster with a narrow window.

Introduction

USGS Publications Warehouse

Warwick, Peter D.

2007-01-01

The inevitable increase in demand and continuing depletion of accessible oil and gas resources during the 21st century will cause greater dependence on energy minerals such as coal, uranium, and unconventional sources of oil and natural gas to satisfy our increasing energy needs. The Energy Minerals Division (EMD) of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) is a membership-based technical interest group with goals to: (1) advance the science of geology, especially as it relates to exploration, discovery, and production of mineral resources and subsurface gas and liquids (other than conventional oil and gas) for energy-related purposes; (2) foster the spirit of scientific research; (3) disseminate information related to the geology of energy minerals and the associated technology of energy mineral resources extraction; and (4) advance the professional wellbeing of its members. This article contains a brief summary of some of the 2006 annual committee reports presented to the EMD Leadership. These reports are available to the EMD Membership at http://emd.aapg.org/members_only. This collection of short reports is presented here by the EMD as a service to the general geologic community and to simulate interest in the focus technical areas of EMD.

Premature Osteoblast Clustering by Enamel Matrix Proteins Induces Osteoblast Differentiation through Up-Regulation of Connexin 43 and N-Cadherin

PubMed Central

Miron, Richard J.; Hedbom, Erik; Ruggiero, Sabrina; Bosshardt, Dieter D.; Zhang, Yufeng; Mauth, Corinna; Gemperli, Anja C.; Iizuka, Tateyuki; Buser, Daniel; Sculean, Anton

2011-01-01

In recent years, enamel matrix derivative (EMD) has garnered much interest in the dental field for its apparent bioactivity that stimulates regeneration of periodontal tissues including periodontal ligament, cementum and alveolar bone. Despite its widespread use, the underlying cellular mechanisms remain unclear and an understanding of its biological interactions could identify new strategies for tissue engineering. Previous in vitro research has demonstrated that EMD promotes premature osteoblast clustering at early time points. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the influence of cell clustering on vital osteoblast cell-cell communication and adhesion molecules, connexin 43 (cx43) and N-cadherin (N-cad) as assessed by immunofluorescence imaging, real-time PCR and Western blot analysis. In addition, differentiation markers of osteoblasts were quantified using alkaline phosphatase, osteocalcin and von Kossa staining. EMD significantly increased the expression of connexin 43 and N-cadherin at early time points ranging from 2 to 5 days. Protein expression was localized to cell membranes when compared to control groups. Alkaline phosphatase activity was also significantly increased on EMD-coated samples at 3, 5 and 7 days post seeding. Interestingly, higher activity was localized to cell cluster regions. There was a 3 fold increase in osteocalcin and bone sialoprotein mRNA levels for osteoblasts cultured on EMD-coated culture dishes. Moreover, EMD significantly increased extracellular mineral deposition in cell clusters as assessed through von Kossa staining at 5, 7, 10 and 14 days post seeding. We conclude that EMD up-regulates the expression of vital osteoblast cell-cell communication and adhesion molecules, which enhances the differentiation and mineralization activity of osteoblasts. These findings provide further support for the clinical evidence that EMD increases the speed and quality of new bone formation in vivo. PMID:21858092

Removal of muscle artifact from EEG data: comparison between stochastic (ICA and CCA) and deterministic (EMD and wavelet-based) approaches

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Safieddine, Doha; Kachenoura, Amar; Albera, Laurent; Birot, Gwénaël; Karfoul, Ahmad; Pasnicu, Anca; Biraben, Arnaud; Wendling, Fabrice; Senhadji, Lotfi; Merlet, Isabelle

2012-12-01

Electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings are often contaminated with muscle artifacts. This disturbing myogenic activity not only strongly affects the visual analysis of EEG, but also most surely impairs the results of EEG signal processing tools such as source localization. This article focuses on the particular context of the contamination epileptic signals (interictal spikes) by muscle artifact, as EEG is a key diagnosis tool for this pathology. In this context, our aim was to compare the ability of two stochastic approaches of blind source separation, namely independent component analysis (ICA) and canonical correlation analysis (CCA), and of two deterministic approaches namely empirical mode decomposition (EMD) and wavelet transform (WT) to remove muscle artifacts from EEG signals. To quantitatively compare the performance of these four algorithms, epileptic spike-like EEG signals were simulated from two different source configurations and artificially contaminated with different levels of real EEG-recorded myogenic activity. The efficiency of CCA, ICA, EMD, and WT to correct the muscular artifact was evaluated both by calculating the normalized mean-squared error between denoised and original signals and by comparing the results of source localization obtained from artifact-free as well as noisy signals, before and after artifact correction. Tests on real data recorded in an epileptic patient are also presented. The results obtained in the context of simulations and real data show that EMD outperformed the three other algorithms for the denoising of data highly contaminated by muscular activity. For less noisy data, and when spikes arose from a single cortical source, the myogenic artifact was best corrected with CCA and ICA. Otherwise when spikes originated from two distinct sources, either EMD or ICA offered the most reliable denoising result for highly noisy data, while WT offered the better denoising result for less noisy data. These results suggest that the performance of muscle artifact correction methods strongly depend on the level of data contamination, and of the source configuration underlying EEG signals. Eventually, some insights into the numerical complexity of these four algorithms are given.

EMD-WVD time-frequency distribution for analysis of multi-component signals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chai, Yunzi; Zhang, Xudong

2016-10-01

Time-frequency distribution (TFD) is two-dimensional function that indicates the time-varying frequency content of one-dimensional signals. And The Wigner-Ville distribution (WVD) is an important and effective time-frequency analysis method. The WVD can efficiently show the characteristic of a mono-component signal. However, a major drawback is the extra cross-terms when multi-component signals are analyzed by WVD. In order to eliminating the cross-terms, we decompose signals into single frequency components - Intrinsic Mode Function (IMF) - by using the Empirical Mode decomposition (EMD) first, then use WVD to analyze each single IMF. In this paper, we define this new time-frequency distribution as EMD-WVD. And the experiment results show that the proposed time-frequency method can solve the cross-terms problem effectively and improve the accuracy of WVD time-frequency analysis.

Signatures of the seismic source in EMD-based characterization of the 1994 Northridge, California, earthquake recordings

USGS Publications Warehouse

Zhang, R.R.; Ma, S.; Hartzell, S.

2003-01-01

In this article we use empirical mode decomposition (EMD) to characterize the 1994 Northridge, California, earthquake records and investigate the signatures carried over from the source rupture process. Comparison of the current study results with existing source inverse solutions that use traditional data processing suggests that the EMD-based characterization contains information that sheds light on aspects of the earthquake rupture process. We first summarize the fundamentals of the EMD and illustrate its features through the analysis of a hypothetical and a real record. Typically, the Northridge strong-motion records are decomposed into eight or nine intrinsic mode functions (IMF's), each of which emphasizes a different oscillation mode with different amplitude and frequency content. The first IMF has the highest-frequency content; frequency content decreases with an increase in IMF component. With the aid of a finite-fault inversion method, we then examine aspects of the source of the 1994 Northridge earthquake that are reflected in the second to fifth IMF components. This study shows that the second IMF is predominantly wave motion generated near the hypocenter, with high-frequency content that might be related to a large stress drop associated with the initiation of the earthquake. As one progresses from the second to the fifth IMF component, there is a general migration of the source region away from the hypocenter with associated longer-period signals as the rupture propagates. This study suggests that the different IMF components carry information on the earthquake rupture process that is expressed in their different frequency bands.

Tissue artifact removal from respiratory signals based on empirical mode decomposition.

PubMed

Liu, Shaopeng; Gao, Robert X; John, Dinesh; Staudenmayer, John; Freedson, Patty

2013-05-01

On-line measurement of respiration plays an important role in monitoring human physical activities. Such measurement commonly employs sensing belts secured around the rib cage and abdomen of the test object. Affected by the movement of body tissues, respiratory signals typically have a low signal-to-noise ratio. Removing tissue artifacts therefore is critical to ensuring effective respiration analysis. This paper presents a signal decomposition technique for tissue artifact removal from respiratory signals, based on the empirical mode decomposition (EMD). An algorithm based on the mutual information and power criteria was devised to automatically select appropriate intrinsic mode functions for tissue artifact removal and respiratory signal reconstruction. Performance of the EMD-algorithm was evaluated through simulations and real-life experiments (N = 105). Comparison with low-pass filtering that has been conventionally applied confirmed the effectiveness of the technique in tissue artifacts removal.

Collagen Membranes Adsorb the Transforming Growth Factor-β Receptor I Kinase-Dependent Activity of Enamel Matrix Derivative.

PubMed

Stähli, Alexandra; Miron, Richard J; Bosshardt, Dieter D; Sculean, Anton; Gruber, Reinhard

2016-05-01

Enamel matrix derivative (EMD) and collagen membranes (CMs) are simultaneously applied in regenerative periodontal surgery. The aim of this study is to evaluate the ability of two CMs and a collagen matrix to adsorb the activity intrinsic to EMD that provokes transforming growth factor (TGF)-β signaling in oral fibroblasts. Three commercially available collagen products were exposed to EMD or recombinant TGF-β1, followed by vigorous washing. Oral fibroblasts were either seeded directly onto collagen products or were incubated with the respective supernatant. Expression of TGF-β target genes interleukin (IL)-11 and proteoglycan 4 (PRG4) was evaluated by real time polymerase chain reaction. Proteomic analysis was used to study the fraction of EMD proteins binding to collagen. EMD or TGF-β1 provoked a significant increase of IL-11 and PRG4 expression of oral fibroblasts when seeded onto collagen products and when incubated with the respective supernatant. Gene expression was blocked by the TGF-β receptor I kinase inhibitor SB431542. Amelogenin bound most abundantly to gelatin-coated culture dishes. However, incubation of palatal fibroblasts with recombinant amelogenin did not alter expression of IL-11 and PRG4. These in vitro findings suggest that collagen products adsorb a TGF-β receptor I kinase-dependent activity of EMD and make it available for potential target cells.

Online Condition Monitoring of Gripper Cylinder in TBM Based on EMD Method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Lin; Tao, Jian-Feng; Yu, Hai-Dong; Huang, Yi-Xiang; Liu, Cheng-Liang

2017-11-01

The gripper cylinder that provides braced force for Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) might fail due to severe vibration when the TBM excavates in the tunnel. Early fault diagnosis of the gripper cylinder is important for the safety and efficiency of the whole tunneling project. In this paper, an online condition monitoring system based on the Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) method is established for fault diagnosis of the gripper cylinder while TBM is working. Firstly, the lumped mass parameter model of the gripper cylinder is established considering the influence of the variable stiffness at the rock interface, the equivalent stiffness of the oil, the seals, and the copper guide sleeve. The dynamic performance of the gripper cylinder is investigated to provide basis for its health condition evaluation. Then, the EMD method is applied to identify the characteristic frequencies of the gripper cylinder for fault diagnosis and a field test is used to verify the accuracy of the EMD method for detection of the characteristic frequencies. Furthermore, the contact stiffness at the interface between the barrel and the rod is calculated with Hertz theory and the relationship between the natural frequency and the stiffness varying with the health condition of the cylinder is simulated based on the dynamic model. The simulation shows that the characteristic frequencies decrease with the increasing clearance between the barrel and the rod, thus the defects could be indicated by monitoring the natural frequency. Finally, a health condition management system of the gripper cylinder based on the vibration signal and the EMD method is established, which could ensure the safety of TBM.

New methodology for capillary electrophoresis with ESI-MS detection: Electrophoretic focusing on inverse electromigration dispersion gradient. High-sensitivity analysis of sulfonamides in waters.

PubMed

Malá, Zdena; Gebauer, Petr; Boček, Petr

2016-09-07

This article describes for the first time the combination of electrophoretic focusing on inverse electromigration dispersion (EMD) gradient, a new separation principle described in 2010, with electrospray-ionization (ESI) mass spectrometric detection. The separation of analytes along the electromigrating EMD profile proceeds so that each analyte is focused and concentrated within the profile at a particular position given by its pKa and ionic mobility. The proposed methodology combines this principle with the transport of the focused zones to the capillary end by superimposed electromigration, electroosmotic flow and ESI suction, and their detection by the MS detector. The designed electrolyte system based on maleic acid and 2,6-lutidine is suitable to create an inverse EMD gradient of required properties and its components are volatile enough to be compatible with the ESI interface. The characteristic properties of the proposed electrolyte system and of the formed inverse gradient are discussed in detail using calculated diagrams and computer simulations. It is shown that the system is surprisingly robust and allows sensitive analyses of trace amounts of weak acids in the pKa range between approx. 6 and 9. As a first practical application of electrophoretic focusing on inverse EMD gradient, the analysis of several sulfonamides in waters is reported. It demonstrates the potential of the developed methodology for fast and high-sensitivity analyses of ionic trace analytes, with reached LODs around 3 × 10(-9) M (0.8 ng mL(-1)) of sulfonamides in spiked drinking water without any sample pretreatment. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Removal of BCG artefact from concurrent fMRI-EEG recordings based on EMD and PCA.

PubMed

Javed, Ehtasham; Faye, Ibrahima; Malik, Aamir Saeed; Abdullah, Jafri Malin

2017-11-01

Simultaneous electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance image (fMRI) acquisitions provide better insight into brain dynamics. Some artefacts due to simultaneous acquisition pose a threat to the quality of the data. One such problematic artefact is the ballistocardiogram (BCG) artefact. We developed a hybrid algorithm that combines features of empirical mode decomposition (EMD) with principal component analysis (PCA) to reduce the BCG artefact. The algorithm does not require extra electrocardiogram (ECG) or electrooculogram (EOG) recordings to extract the BCG artefact. The method was tested with both simulated and real EEG data of 11 participants. From the simulated data, the similarity index between the extracted BCG and the simulated BCG showed the effectiveness of the proposed method in BCG removal. On the other hand, real data were recorded with two conditions, i.e. resting state (eyes closed dataset) and task influenced (event-related potentials (ERPs) dataset). Using qualitative (visual inspection) and quantitative (similarity index, improved normalized power spectrum (INPS) ratio, power spectrum, sample entropy (SE)) evaluation parameters, the assessment results showed that the proposed method can efficiently reduce the BCG artefact while preserving the neuronal signals. Compared with conventional methods, namely, average artefact subtraction (AAS), optimal basis set (OBS) and combined independent component analysis and principal component analysis (ICA-PCA), the statistical analyses of the results showed that the proposed method has better performance, and the differences were significant for all quantitative parameters except for the power and sample entropy. The proposed method does not require any reference signal, prior information or assumption to extract the BCG artefact. It will be very useful in circumstances where the reference signal is not available. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Benchmarking of a T-wave alternans detection method based on empirical mode decomposition.

PubMed

Blanco-Velasco, Manuel; Goya-Esteban, Rebeca; Cruz-Roldán, Fernando; García-Alberola, Arcadi; Rojo-Álvarez, José Luis

2017-07-01

T-wave alternans (TWA) is a fluctuation of the ST-T complex occurring on an every-other-beat basis of the surface electrocardiogram (ECG). It has been shown to be an informative risk stratifier for sudden cardiac death, though the lack of gold standard to benchmark detection methods has promoted the use of synthetic signals. This work proposes a novel signal model to study the performance of a TWA detection. Additionally, the methodological validation of a denoising technique based on empirical mode decomposition (EMD), which is used here along with the spectral method, is also tackled. The proposed test bed system is based on the following guidelines: (1) use of open source databases to enable experimental replication; (2) use of real ECG signals and physiological noise; (3) inclusion of randomized TWA episodes. Both sensitivity (Se) and specificity (Sp) are separately analyzed. Also a nonparametric hypothesis test, based on Bootstrap resampling, is used to determine whether the presence of the EMD block actually improves the performance. The results show an outstanding specificity when the EMD block is used, even in very noisy conditions (0.96 compared to 0.72 for SNR = 8 dB), being always superior than that of the conventional SM alone. Regarding the sensitivity, using the EMD method also outperforms in noisy conditions (0.57 compared to 0.46 for SNR=8 dB), while it decreases in noiseless conditions. The proposed test setting designed to analyze the performance guarantees that the actual physiological variability of the cardiac system is reproduced. The use of the EMD-based block in noisy environment enables the identification of most patients with fatal arrhythmias. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A novel energy conversion based method for velocity correction in molecular dynamics simulations

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Jin, Hanhui; Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Aero-Engine, Hangzhou 310027; Liu, Ningning

2017-05-01

Molecular dynamics (MD) simulation has become an important tool for studying micro- or nano-scale dynamics and the statistical properties of fluids and solids. In MD simulations, there are mainly two approaches: equilibrium and non-equilibrium molecular dynamics (EMD and NEMD). In this paper, a new energy conversion based correction (ECBC) method for MD is developed. Unlike the traditional systematic correction based on macroscopic parameters, the ECBC method is developed strictly based on the physical interaction processes between the pair of molecules or atoms. The developed ECBC method can apply to EMD and NEMD directly. While using MD with this method, themore » difference between the EMD and NEMD is eliminated, and no macroscopic parameters such as external imposed potentials or coefficients are needed. With this method, many limits of using MD are lifted. The application scope of MD is greatly extended.« less

Trackside acoustic diagnosis of axle box bearing based on kurtosis-optimization wavelet denoising

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Peng, Chaoyong; Gao, Xiaorong; Peng, Jianping; Wang, Ai

2018-04-01

As one of the key components of railway vehicles, the operation condition of the axle box bearing has a significant effect on traffic safety. The acoustic diagnosis is more suitable than vibration diagnosis for trackside monitoring. The acoustic signal generated by the train axle box bearing is an amplitude modulation and frequency modulation signal with complex train running noise. Although empirical mode decomposition (EMD) and some improved time-frequency algorithms have proved to be useful in bearing vibration signal processing, it is hard to extract the bearing fault signal from serious trackside acoustic background noises by using those algorithms. Therefore, a kurtosis-optimization-based wavelet packet (KWP) denoising algorithm is proposed, as the kurtosis is the key indicator of bearing fault signal in time domain. Firstly, the geometry based Doppler correction is applied to signals of each sensor, and with the signal superposition of multiple sensors, random noises and impulse noises, which are the interference of the kurtosis indicator, are suppressed. Then, the KWP is conducted. At last, the EMD and Hilbert transform is applied to extract the fault feature. Experiment results indicate that the proposed method consisting of KWP and EMD is superior to the EMD.

Microbiological and clinical effects of enamel matrix derivative and sustained-release micro-spherical minocycline application as an adjunct to non-surgical therapy in peri-implant mucosal inflammation.

PubMed

Faramarzi, Masumeh; Goharfar, Zahra; Pourabbas, Reza; Kashefimehr, Atabak; Shirmohmmadi, Adileh

2015-08-01

The purpose of this study was to compare the microbial and clinical effects of mechanical debridement (MD) alone or in combination with the application of enamel matrix derivative (EMD) and sustained-release micro-spherical minocycline (MSM) for treatment of peri-implant mucosal infl ammation (PIMI). Subjects with at least one implant with PIMI were included and divided into control and two different test groups. In all three groups, MD was performed. In the MSM group, following MD, MSM was placed subgingivally around the implants. In the EMD group, after MD, EMD was placed in the sulcus around the implants. Sampling of peri-implant crevicular fl uid for microbial analysis with real-time polymerase chain reaction and recording of probing depth (PD) and bleeding on probing (BOP) were performed prior to as well as two weeks and three months after treatment. Median values and interquartile range were estimated for each variable during the various assessment intervals of the study. In all groups, at two weeks and three months, the counts of Porphyromonas gingivalis decreased significantly compared to baseline. Levels of P. gingivalis were significantly reduced in MSM (P<0.001) and EMD (P=0.026) groups compared to the control group. Also, clinical parameters improved significantly at two weeks and three months. Reduction of PD was significant in MSM (P<0.001) and EMD (P<0.001) groups. The decrease in BOP in the MSM, EMD, and control groups was 60%, 50%, and 20%, respectively. The use of MSM and EMD can be an adjunctive treatment for management of PIMI and improves clinical parameters and reduces P. gingivalis burden three months after treatment.

Xenogenous Collagen Matrix and/or Enamel Matrix Derivative for Treatment of Localized Gingival Recessions: A Randomized Clinical Trial. Part II: Patient-Reported Outcomes.

PubMed

Rocha Dos Santos, Manuela; Sangiorgio, João Paulo Menck; Neves, Felipe Lucas da Silva; França-Grohmann, Isabela Lima; Nociti, Francisco Humberto; Silverio Ruiz, Karina Gonzales; Santamaria, Mauro Pedrine; Sallum, Enilson Antonio

2017-12-01

Gingival recession (GR) might be associated with patient discomfort due to cervical dentin hypersensitivity (CDH) and esthetic dissatisfaction. The aim is to evaluate the effect of root coverage procedure with a xenogenous collagen matrix (CM) and/or enamel matrix derivative (EMD) in combination with a coronally advanced flap (CAF) on CDH, esthetics, and oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) of patients with GR. Sixty-eight participants with single Miller Class I/II GRs were treated with CAF (n = 17), CAF + CM (n = 17), CAF + EMD (n = 17), and CAF + CM + EMD (n = 17). CDH was assessed by evaporative stimuli using a visual analog scale (VAS) and a Schiff scale. Esthetics outcome was assessed with VAS and the Questionnaire of Oral Esthetic Satisfaction. Oral Health Impact Profile-14 (OHIP-14) questionnaire was used to assess OHRQoL. All parameters were evaluated at baseline and after 6 months. Intragroup analysis showed statistically significant reduction in CDH and esthetic dissatisfaction with no intergroup significant differences (P >0.05). The impact of oral health on QoL after 6 months was significant for CAF + CM, CAF + EMD, and CAF + CM + EMD (P <0.05). Total OHIP-14 score and psychologic discomfort, psychologic disability, social disability, and handicap dimensions showed negative correlation with esthetics. OHIP-14 physical pain dimension had positive correlation with CDH (P <0.05). OHIP-14 showed no correlation with percentage of root coverage, keratinized tissue width, or keratinized tissue thickness (P >0.05). Root coverage procedures improve patient OHRQoL by impacting on a wide range of dimensions, perceived after reduction of CDH and esthetic dissatisfaction of patients with GRs treated with CAF + CM, CAF + EMD, and CAF + CM + EMD.

Enamel matrix derivative Emdogain as an adjuvant for a laterally-positioned flap in the treatment of gingival recession: an electron microscopic appraisal.

PubMed

Lafzi, A; Farahani, R M; Tubbs, R S; Roushangar, L; Shoja, M M

2007-05-01

Enamel matrix derivative (EMD), such as Emdogain, has been suggested for the improvement of wound healing in periodontal surgical therapy. The present qualitative study seeks to illustrate the ultrastructural changes associated with a human gingival wound at 10 days after the application of EMD as an adjunct to a laterally-positioned flap in a patient with gingival recession. An otherwise healthy patient, who had been suffering from bilateral gingival recession defects on teeth #23 and #26, was studied. One defect was treated with a laterally-positioned flap, while the other was treated with a combination of EMD and a laterally-positioned flap. Ten days after the operation gingival biopsy specimens were obtained from the dentogingival region and examined using a transmission electron microscope. A considerable difference was found in both the cellular and extracellular phases of EMD and non-EMD sites. The fibroblasts of EMD site were more rounded with plump cytoplasms and euchromatic nuclei. A well-developed rough endoplasmic reticulum and numerous mitochondria could be detected. In contrast, the fibroblasts of non-EMD site were of flattened spindle-like morphology. While the signs of apoptosis could rarely be detected at EMD site, apoptotic bodies and ultra-structural evidence of apoptosis (crescent-like heterochromatic nuclei and dilated nuclear envelopes) were consistent features at non-EMD site. The extracellular matrix at EMD site mainly consisted of well-organised collagen fibres, while non-EMD site contained sparse and incompletely-formed collagen fibres. Coccoid bacteria were noted within the extracellular matrix and neutrophils at non-EMD site. It seems that EMD may enhance certain features of gingival wound healing, which may be attributable to its anti-apoptotic, anti-bacterial or anti-inflammatory properties.

Different tissue distribution, elimination, and kinetics of thyroxine and its conformational analog, the synthetic flavonoid EMD 49209 in the rat.

PubMed

Schröder-van der Elst, J P; van der Heide, D; Rokos, H; Köhrle, J; Morreale de Escobar, G

1997-01-01

The synthetic flavonoids EMD 23188 and EMD 49209, developed as T4 analogs, displace T4 from transthyretin, and in vitro they inhibit 5'-deiodinase activity. In vivo EMD 21388 causes tissue-specific changes in thyroid hormone metabolism. In tissues that are dependent on T3 locally produced from T4, total T3 was diminished. It was not known whether it was the presence of EMD interfering with 5'-deiodinase type II in tissues or the decreased T4 (substrate) availability that caused the lowered T3. To study whether the flavonoids enter tissues and, if this were the case, whether they enter tissues similarly, [125I]EMD 49209 together with [131I]T4 were injected into female rats and rats pretreated with EMD 21388. Tissues were extracted and submitted to HPLC. [125I]EMD 49209 disappeared quickly from plasma and enters peripheral tissues; peak values were reached after 0.25-0.5 h. Then [125I]EMD 49209 appeared in the intestines (after 6 h 40% of the dose). Tissue uptake of [131I]T4 was very rapid. EMD 21388 pretreatment caused an increase in the excretion of [125I]EMD 49209 into the intestines (40% after 0.25 h). The uptake of [131I]T4 increased, but not high enough to ensure normal tissue T4 concentrations. In the 5'-deiodinase type II-expressing tissues, no [125I]EMD 49209 could be detected. We conclude that the decrease in T3 locally produced from T4 is caused by the shortage of T4 as substrate and not to a direct effect of EMD on the activity of 5'-deiodinases I and II.

Aircraft Survivability. Susceptibility Reduction. Fall 2010

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-01-01

limits flexibility when issues are encountered during development. Once a program enters Engineering, Manufacturing, and Development (EMD), the...using a flexible , efficient computational environment based on a credible set of components. Unfortunately, current survivability codes contain many...approach limits flexibility when issues are encountered during development. Once a program enters Engineering Manufacturing and Development (EMD), the

Application of empirical mode decomposition with local linear quantile regression in financial time series forecasting.

PubMed

Jaber, Abobaker M; Ismail, Mohd Tahir; Altaher, Alsaidi M

2014-01-01

This paper mainly forecasts the daily closing price of stock markets. We propose a two-stage technique that combines the empirical mode decomposition (EMD) with nonparametric methods of local linear quantile (LLQ). We use the proposed technique, EMD-LLQ, to forecast two stock index time series. Detailed experiments are implemented for the proposed method, in which EMD-LPQ, EMD, and Holt-Winter methods are compared. The proposed EMD-LPQ model is determined to be superior to the EMD and Holt-Winter methods in predicting the stock closing prices.

ACL injury risk in elite female youth soccer: Changes in neuromuscular control of the knee following soccer-specific fatigue.

PubMed

De Ste Croix, M B A; Priestley, A M; Lloyd, R S; Oliver, J L

2015-10-01

Fatigue is known to influence dynamic knee joint stability from a neuromuscular perspective, and electromechanical delay (EMD) plays an important role as the feedback activation mechanism that stabilizes the joint. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of soccer-specific fatigue on EMD in U13-, U15-, and U17-year-old female soccer players. Thirty-six youth soccer players performed eccentric actions of the hamstrings in a prone position at 60, 120, and 180°/s before and after a soccer-specific fatigue trial. Surface electromyography was used to determine EMD from the semitendinosus, biceps femoris and gastrocnemius. A time × age × muscle × velocity repeated measures analysis of variance was used to explore the influence of fatigue on EMD. A significant main effect for time (P = 0.001) indicated that EMD was significantly longer post- compared with pre-fatigue (58.4% increase). A significant time × group interaction effect (P = 0.046) indicated EMD was significantly longer in the U13 age group compared with the U15 (P = 0.011) and U17 (P = 0.021) groups and greater post-fatigue. Soccer-specific fatigue compromised neuromuscular feedback mechanisms and the age-related effects may represent a more compliant muscle-tendon system in younger compared with older girls, increasing risk of injury. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Gyroscope-driven mouse pointer with an EMOTIV® EEG headset and data analysis based on Empirical Mode Decomposition.

PubMed

Rosas-Cholula, Gerardo; Ramirez-Cortes, Juan Manuel; Alarcon-Aquino, Vicente; Gomez-Gil, Pilar; Rangel-Magdaleno, Jose de Jesus; Reyes-Garcia, Carlos

2013-08-14

This paper presents a project on the development of a cursor control emulating the typical operations of a computer-mouse, using gyroscope and eye-blinking electromyographic signals which are obtained through a commercial 16-electrode wireless headset, recently released by Emotiv. The cursor position is controlled using information from a gyroscope included in the headset. The clicks are generated through the user's blinking with an adequate detection procedure based on the spectral-like technique called Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD). EMD is proposed as a simple and quick computational tool, yet effective, aimed to artifact reduction from head movements as well as a method to detect blinking signals for mouse control. Kalman filter is used as state estimator for mouse position control and jitter removal. The detection rate obtained in average was 94.9%. Experimental setup and some obtained results are presented.

Gyroscope-Driven Mouse Pointer with an EMOTIV® EEG Headset and Data Analysis Based on Empirical Mode Decomposition

PubMed Central

Rosas-Cholula, Gerardo; Ramirez-Cortes, Juan Manuel; Alarcon-Aquino, Vicente; Gomez-Gil, Pilar; Rangel-Magdaleno, Jose de Jesus; Reyes-Garcia, Carlos

2013-01-01

This paper presents a project on the development of a cursor control emulating the typical operations of a computer-mouse, using gyroscope and eye-blinking electromyographic signals which are obtained through a commercial 16-electrode wireless headset, recently released by Emotiv. The cursor position is controlled using information from a gyroscope included in the headset. The clicks are generated through the user's blinking with an adequate detection procedure based on the spectral-like technique called Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD). EMD is proposed as a simple and quick computational tool, yet effective, aimed to artifact reduction from head movements as well as a method to detect blinking signals for mouse control. Kalman filter is used as state estimator for mouse position control and jitter removal. The detection rate obtained in average was 94.9%. Experimental setup and some obtained results are presented. PMID:23948873

A novel spatial-temporal detection method of dim infrared moving small target

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Zhong; Deng, Tao; Gao, Lei; Zhou, Heng; Luo, Song

2014-09-01

Moving small target detection under complex background in infrared image sequence is one of the major challenges of modern military in Early Warning Systems (EWS) and the use of Long-Range Strike (LRS). However, because of the low SNR and undulating background, the infrared moving small target detection is a difficult problem in a long time. To solve this problem, a novel spatial-temporal detection method based on bi-dimensional empirical mode decomposition (EMD) and time-domain difference is proposed in this paper. This method is downright self-data decomposition and do not rely on any transition kernel function, so it has a strong adaptive capacity. Firstly, we generalized the 1D EMD algorithm to the 2D case. In this process, the project has solved serial issues in 2D EMD, such as large amount of data operations, define and identify extrema in 2D case, and two-dimensional signal boundary corrosion. The EMD algorithm studied in this project can be well adapted to the automatic detection of small targets under low SNR and complex background. Secondly, considering the characteristics of moving target, we proposed an improved filtering method based on three-frame difference on basis of the original difference filtering in time-domain, which greatly improves the ability of anti-jamming algorithm. Finally, we proposed a new time-space fusion method based on a combined processing of 2D EMD and improved time-domain differential filtering. And, experimental results show that this method works well in infrared small moving target detection under low SNR and complex background.

Fast Algorithms for Earth Mover Distance Based on Optimal Transport and L1 Regularization II

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-09-01

of optimal transport, the EMD problem can be reformulated as a familiar L1 minimization. We use a regularization which gives us a unique solution for...plays a central role in many applications, including image processing, computer vision and statistics etc. [13, 17, 20, 24]. The EMD is a metric defined

Regeneration of the periodontium using enamel matrix derivative in combination with an injectable bone cement.

PubMed

Oortgiesen, Daniël A W; Meijer, Gert J; Bronckers, Antonius L J J; Walboomers, X Frank; Jansen, John A

2013-03-01

Enamel matrix derivative (EMD) has proven to enhance periodontal regeneration; however, its effect is mainly restricted to the soft periodontal tissues. Therefore, to stimulate not only the soft tissues, but also the hard tissues, in this study EMD is combined with an injectable calcium phosphate cement (CaP; bone graft material). The aim was to evaluate histologically the healing of a macroporous CaP in combination with EMD. Intrabony, three-wall periodontal defects (2 × 2 × 1.7 mm) were created mesial of the first upper molar in 15 rats (30 defects). Defects were randomly treated according to one of the three following strategies: EMD, calcium phosphate cement and EMD, or left empty. The animals were killed after 12 weeks, and retrieved samples were processed for histology and histomorphometry. Empty defects showed a reparative type of healing without periodontal ligament or bone regeneration. As measured with on a histological grading scale for periodontal regeneration, the experimental groups (EMD and CaP/EMD) scored equally, both threefold higher compared with empty defects. However, most bone formation was measured in the CaP/EMD group; addition of CAP to EMD significantly enhanced bone formation with 50 % compared with EMD alone. Within the limits of this animal study, the adjunctive use of EMD in combination with an injectable cement, although it did not affect epithelial downgrowth, appeared to be a promising treatment modality for regeneration of bone and ligament tissues in the periodontium. The adjunctive use of EMD in combination with an injectable cement appears to be a promising treatment modality for regeneration of the bone and ligament tissues in the periodontium.

Effect of enamel matrix derivative on collagen guided tissue regeneration-based root coverage procedure.

PubMed

Trabulsi, Manal; Oh, Tae-Ju; Eber, Robert; Weber, Daniel; Wang, Hom-Lay

2004-11-01

Enamel matrix derivative (EMD) has been shown to promote periodontal wound healing and/or regeneration when applied to tooth root surfaces in soft tissue dehiscence models. In addition, guided tissue regeneration (GTR)-based root coverage using collagen membrane (GTRC) has shown promising results. However, limited information is available regarding how EMD may influence GTRC outcome. Twenty-six patients with Miller's Class I or II gingival recession defects of 2.5 mm were recruited for the study. Subjects were randomly assigned to receive either EMD + collagen (EMDC; test group) or collagen membrane (GTRC; control group). Clinical parameters, including plaque index (PI), gingival index (GI), relative clinical attachment levels (RCAL) to the stent, recession depth (RD), recession width (RW), probing depth (PD), gingival tissue thickness (GTT), and width of keratinized gingiva (KG) were assessed at baseline, and 3 and 6 months after surgery. A repeated measure of analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to determine differences between treatment groups and time effect. Both treatments (GTRC and EMDC) resulted in a statistically significant decrease in RD and RW between baseline and 6 months (P <0.05). However, no difference was noted between treatment groups. The percent of root coverage after 6 months was 75% for GTRC and 63% for EMDC. Complete 100% root coverage was achieved in five patients in the GTRC group, compared to only one patient in the EMDC group. There was a statistically significant gain (P <0.05) in the clinical attachment level (CAL) between baseline and 6 months in both groups, as reflected on the RCAL data. No other significant differences were noted on other clinical parameters (PD, GTT, KG, GI, and PI). GTR-based root coverage utilizing collagen membrane, with or without enamel matrix derivative, can be successfully used in obtaining gingival recession coverage. The application of EMD during GTRC procedures did not add additional benefit to the final clinical outcome.

Cellular viability and genetic expression of human gingival fibroblasts to zirconia with enamel matrix derivative (Emdogain®)

PubMed Central

Kwon, Yong-Dae; Choi, Hyun-jung; Lee, Heesu; Lee, Jung-Woo; Weber, Hans-Peter

2014-01-01

PURPOSE The objective of this study was to investigate the biologic effects of enamel matrix derivative (EMD) with different concentrations on cell viability and the genetic expression of human gingival fibroblasts (HGF) to zirconia surfaces. MATERIALS AND METHODS Immortalized human gingival fibroblasts (HGF) were cultured (1) without EMD, (2) with EMD 25 µg/mL, and (3) with EMD 100 µg/mL on zirconia discs. MTT assay was performed to evaluate the cell proliferation activity and SEM was carried out to examine the cellular morphology and attachment. The mRNA expression of collagen type I, osteopontin, fibronectin, and TGF-β1 was evaluated with the real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). RESULTS From MTT assay, HGF showed more proliferation in EMD 25 µg/mL group than control and EMD 100 µg/mL group (P<.05). HGFs showed more flattened cellular morphology on the experimental groups than on the control group after 4h culture and more cellular attachments were observed on EMD 25 µg/mL group and EMD 100 µg/mL group after 24h culture. After 48h of culture, cellular attachment was similar in all groups. The mRNA expression of type I collagen increased in a concentration dependent manner. The genetic expression of osteopontin, fibronectin, and TGF-β1 was increased at EMD 100 µg/mL. However, the mRNA expression of proteins associated with cellular attachment was decreased at EMD 25 µg/mL. CONCLUSION Through this short term culture of HGF on zirconium discs, we conclude that EMD affects the proliferation, attachment, and cell morphology of HGF cells. Also, EMD stimulates production of extracellular matrix collagen, osteopontin, and TGF-β1 in high concentration levels. CLINICAL RELEVANCE With the use of EMD, protective barrier between attached gingiva and transmucosal zirconia abutment may be enhanced leading to final esthetic results with implants. PMID:25352963

Optimal Parameter Selection for Support Vector Machine Based on Artificial Bee Colony Algorithm: A Case Study of Grid-Connected PV System Power Prediction.

PubMed

Gao, Xiang-Ming; Yang, Shi-Feng; Pan, San-Bo

2017-01-01

Predicting the output power of photovoltaic system with nonstationarity and randomness, an output power prediction model for grid-connected PV systems is proposed based on empirical mode decomposition (EMD) and support vector machine (SVM) optimized with an artificial bee colony (ABC) algorithm. First, according to the weather forecast data sets on the prediction date, the time series data of output power on a similar day with 15-minute intervals are built. Second, the time series data of the output power are decomposed into a series of components, including some intrinsic mode components IMFn and a trend component Res, at different scales using EMD. The corresponding SVM prediction model is established for each IMF component and trend component, and the SVM model parameters are optimized with the artificial bee colony algorithm. Finally, the prediction results of each model are reconstructed, and the predicted values of the output power of the grid-connected PV system can be obtained. The prediction model is tested with actual data, and the results show that the power prediction model based on the EMD and ABC-SVM has a faster calculation speed and higher prediction accuracy than do the single SVM prediction model and the EMD-SVM prediction model without optimization.

Optimal Parameter Selection for Support Vector Machine Based on Artificial Bee Colony Algorithm: A Case Study of Grid-Connected PV System Power Prediction

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

Predicting the output power of photovoltaic system with nonstationarity and randomness, an output power prediction model for grid-connected PV systems is proposed based on empirical mode decomposition (EMD) and support vector machine (SVM) optimized with an artificial bee colony (ABC) algorithm. First, according to the weather forecast data sets on the prediction date, the time series data of output power on a similar day with 15-minute intervals are built. Second, the time series data of the output power are decomposed into a series of components, including some intrinsic mode components IMFn and a trend component Res, at different scales using EMD. The corresponding SVM prediction model is established for each IMF component and trend component, and the SVM model parameters are optimized with the artificial bee colony algorithm. Finally, the prediction results of each model are reconstructed, and the predicted values of the output power of the grid-connected PV system can be obtained. The prediction model is tested with actual data, and the results show that the power prediction model based on the EMD and ABC-SVM has a faster calculation speed and higher prediction accuracy than do the single SVM prediction model and the EMD-SVM prediction model without optimization. PMID:28912803

Using electronic monitoring devices to measure inhaler adherence: a practical guide for clinicians.

PubMed

Chan, Amy Hai Yan; Harrison, Jeff; Black, Peter N; Mitchell, Edwin A; Foster, Juliet M

2015-01-01

Use of electronic monitoring devices (EMDs) for inhalers is growing rapidly because of their ability to provide objective and detailed adherence data to support clinical decision making. There is increasing potential for the use of EMDs in clinical settings, especially as cost-effectiveness is realized and device costs reduce. However, it is important for clinicians to know about the attributes of different EMDs so that they can select the right device for their patients and understand the factors that affect the reliability and accuracy of the data EMDs record. This article gives information on where to obtain EMDs, describes device specifications, and highlights useful features for the clinician and the patient, including user feedback data. We discuss the benefits and potential drawbacks of data collected by EMDs and provide device users with a set of tools to optimize the use of EMDs in clinical settings, such as advice on how to carry out brief EMD checks to ensure data quality and device reliability. New EMDs on the market require pretesting before use by patients. We provide information on how to carry out EMD pretesting in the clinic and patients' homes, which can be carried out by health professionals or in collaboration with researchers or manufacturers. Strategies for interpreting and managing common device malfunctions are also discussed. Copyright © 2015 American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Molecular modeling study of binding to the catalytic site of PDE4 enzymes by a novel class of inhibitors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lawrenz, Morgan E.; Salter, E. A.; Wierzbicki, Andrzej; Thompson, W. J.

Cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterases (PDEs) comprise a superfamily of enzymes that hydrolyze the second messengers adenosine and guanosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate (cAMP and cGMP) to their noncyclic nucleotides (5'-AMP and 5'-GMP). Selective inhibitors of all 11 gene families of PDEs are being sought based on the different biochemical properties of the different isoforms, including their substrate specificities. The PDE4 gene family consists of cAMP-specific isoforms; selective PDE4 inhibitors such as rolipram have been developed, and related agents are used clinically as anti-inflammatory agents for asthma and COPD. The known crystal structures of PDE4 bound with rolipram and IBMX have allowed us to define plausible binding orientations for a novel class of benzylpyridazinone-based PDE4 inhibitors represented by EMD 94360 and EMD 95832 that are structurally distinct from rolipram. Molecular mechanics modeling with autodocking is used to explore energetically favorable binding orientations within the PDE4 catalytic site. We present two putative orientations for EMD 94360/95832 inhibitor binding. Our estimated interaction energies for rolipram, IBMX, EMD 94360, and EMD 95832 are consistent with the experimental data for their IC50 values. Key binding residues and interactions in these orientations are identified and compared with known binding motifs proposed for rolipram. The experimentally observed improved strength of inhibition exhibited by this novel class of PDE4 inhibitors is explained by the molecular modeling reported here.

Deuterium and lithium-6 MAS NMR studies of manganese oxide electrode materials

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Paik, Younkee

Electrolytic manganese dioxide (EMD) is used world wide as the cathode materials in both lithium and alkaline primary (non-rechargeable) batteries. We have developed deuterium and lithium MAS NMR techniques to study EMD and related manganese oxides and hydroxides, where diffraction techniques are of limited value due to a highly defective nature of the structures. Deuterons in EMD, manganite, groutite, and deuterium-intercalated pyrolusite and ramsdellite were detected by NMR, for the first time, and their locations and motions in the structures were analyzed by applying variable temperature NMR techniques. Discharge mechanisms of EMD in alkaline (aqueous) electrolytes were studied, in conjunction with step potential electrochemical spectroscopic (SPECS) method, and five distinctive discharge processes were proposed. EMD is usually heat-treated at about 300--400°C to remove water to be used in lithium batteries. Details of the effects of heat-treatment, such as structural and compositional changes as a function of heat-treatment temperature, were studied by a combination of MAS NMR, XRD, and thermogravimetric analysis. Lithium local environments in heat-treated EMD (HEMD) that were discharged in lithium cells, were described in terms of related environments found in model compounds pyrolusite and ramsdellite where specific Li + sites were detected by MAS NMR and the hyperfine shift scale method of Grey et al. Acid-leaching of Li2MnO3 represents an approach for synthesizing new or modified manganese oxide electrode materials for lithium rechargeable batteries. Progressive removal of lithium from specific crystallographic sites, followed by a gradual change of the crystal structure, was monitored by a combination of NMR and XRD techniques.

Effects of enamel matrix derivative and basic fibroblast growth factor with μ-tricalcium phosphate on periodontal regeneration in one-wall intrabony defects: an experimental study in dogs.

PubMed

Shirakata, Yoshinori; Takeuchi, Naoshi; Yoshimoto, Takehiko; Taniyama, Katsuyoshi; Noguchi, Kazuyuki

2013-01-01

This study evaluated the effects of enamel matrix derivative (EMD) and basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) with μ-tricalcium phosphate (μ-TCP) on periodontal healing in intrabony defects in dogs. One-wall intrabony defects created in dogs were treated with μ-TCP alone (μ-TCP), EMD with μ-TCP (EMD/μ-TCP), bFGF with μ-TCP (bFGF/μ-TCP), and a combination of each (EMD/bFGF/μ-TCP). The amount of new bone formation was not significant for any group. The EMD/bFGF/μ-TCP group induced significantly greater new cementum formation than the μ-TCP and bFGF/μ-TCP groups and, although not significantly, formed more new cementum than the EMD/μ-TCP group. These findings indicate that EMD/bFGF/μ-TCP treatment is effective for cementum regeneration.

The free-flight response of Drosophila to motion of the visual environment.

PubMed

Mronz, Markus; Lehmann, Fritz-Olaf

2008-07-01

In the present study we investigated the behavioural strategies with which freely flying fruit flies (Drosophila) control their flight trajectories during active optomotor stimulation in a free-flight arena. We measured forward, turning and climbing velocities of single flies using high-speed video analysis and estimated the output of a 'Hassenstein-Reichardt' elementary motion detector (EMD) array and the fly's gaze to evaluate flight behaviour in response to a rotating visual panorama. In a stationary visual environment, flight is characterized by flight saccades during which the animals turn on average 120 degrees within 130 ms. In a rotating environment, the fly's behaviour typically changes towards distinct, concentric circular flight paths where the radius of the paths increases with increasing arena velocity. The EMD simulation suggests that this behaviour is driven by a rotation-sensitive EMD detector system that minimizes retinal slip on each compound eye, whereas an expansion-sensitive EMD system with a laterally centred visual focus potentially helps to achieve centring response on the circular flight path. We developed a numerical model based on force balance between horizontal, vertical and lateral forces that allows predictions of flight path curvature at a given locomotor capacity of the fly. The model suggests that turning flight in Drosophila is constrained by the production of centripetal forces needed to avoid side-slip movements. At maximum horizontal velocity this force may account for up to 70% of the fly's body weight during yaw turning. Altogether, our analyses are widely consistent with previous studies on Drosophila free flight and those on the optomotor response under tethered flight conditions.

Atrial Electromechanical Properties in Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

PubMed

Efe, Tolga Han; Cimen, Tolga; Ertem, Ahmet Goktug; Coskun, Yusuf; Bilgin, Murat; Sahan, Haluk Furkan; Pamukcu, Hilal Erken; Yayla, Cagri; Sunman, Hamza; Yuksel, Ilhami; Yeter, Ekrem

2016-09-01

There is much evidence linking inflammation to the initiation and continuation of atrial fibrillation (AF). Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), including ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD), are chronic systemic inflammatory disorders. Atrial electromechanical delay (EMD) has been known as an early marker of AF. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the atrial electromechanical properties in patients with IBD. Fifty-two patients with IBD and 26 healthy controls were recruited in the study. Twenty-five of patients with IBD were on active period, and the remaining 27 were on remission period. Atrial electromechanical properties were measured by using transthoracic echocardiography and tissue Doppler imaging and simultaneous surface ECG recording. Interatrial EMD, left intraatrial EMD, and right intraatrial EMD were calculated. Patients on activation with IBD had significantly prolonged left and right intraatrial EMDs and interatrial EMD compared to patients on remission (P = 0.048, P = 0.036, P < 0.001, respectively) and healthy controls (P < 0.001, for all comparisons). Left and right intraatrial EMDs and interatrial EMD were also found to be higher when patients on remission with IBD compared with healthy controls. No statistical difference was observed between UC and CD in terms of inter- and intraatrial EMDs. Atrial electromechanical conduction is prolonged in IBD, and exposure to chronic inflammation may lead to structural and electrophysiological changes in the atrial tissue that causes slow conduction. Measurement of atrial EMD parameters might be used to predict the risk for the development of AF in patients with IBD. © 2016, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Effectiveness of enamel matrix derivative on the clinical and microbiological outcomes following surgical regenerative treatment of peri-implantitis. A randomized controlled trial.

PubMed

Isehed, Catrine; Holmlund, Anders; Renvert, Stefan; Svenson, Björn; Johansson, Ingegerd; Lundberg, Pernilla

2016-10-01

This randomized clinical trial aimed at comparing radiological, clinical and microbial effects of surgical treatment of peri-implantitis alone or in combination with enamel matrix derivative (EMD). Twenty-six subjects were treated with open flap debridement and decontamination of the implant surfaces with gauze and saline preceding adjunctive EMD or no EMD. Bone level (BL) change was primary outcome and secondary outcomes were changes in pocket depth (PD), plaque, pus, bleeding and the microbiota of the peri-implant biofilm analyzed by the Human Oral Microbe Identification Microarray over a time period of 12 months. In multivariate modelling, increased marginal BL at implant site was significantly associated with EMD, the number of osseous walls in the peri-implant bone defect and a Gram+/aerobic microbial flora, whereas reduced BL was associated with a Gram-/anaerobic microbial flora and presence of bleeding and pus, with a cross-validated predictive capacity (Q(2) ) of 36.4%. Similar, but statistically non-significant, trends were seen for BL, PD, plaque, pus and bleeding in univariate analysis. Adjunctive EMD to surgical treatment of peri-implantitis was associated with prevalence of Gram+/aerobic bacteria during the follow-up period and increased marginal BL 12 months after treatment. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Enamel matrix derivative, inflammation and soft tissue wound healing.

PubMed

Miron, R J; Dard, M; Weinreb, M

2015-10-01

Over 15 years have now passed since enamel matrix derivative (EMD) emerged as an agent capable of periodontal regeneration. Following thorough investigation, evidenced-based clinical application is now established for a multitude of clinical settings to promote regeneration of periodontal hard tissues. Despite the large number of studies and review articles written on this topic, no single review has compiled the influence of EMD on tissue inflammation, an area of research that merits substantial attention in periodontology. The aim of the present review was to gather all studies that deal with the effects of EMD on tissue inflammation with particular interest in the cellular mechanisms involved in inflammation and soft tissue wound healing/resolution. The effects of EMD on monocytes, macrophages, lymphocytes, neutrophils, fibroblasts and endothelial cells were investigated for changes in cell behavior as well as release of inflammatory markers, including interleukins, prostaglandins, tumor necrosis factor-α, matrix metalloproteinases and members of the OPG-RANKL pathway. In summary, studies listed in this review have reported that EMD is able to significantly decrease interleukin-1b and RANKL expression, increase prostaglandin E2 and OPG expression, increase proliferation and migration of T lymphocytes, induce monocyte differentiation, increase bacterial and tissue debris clearance, as well as increase fibroplasias and angiogenesis by inducing endothelial cell proliferation, migration and capillary-like sprout formation. The outcomes from the present review article indicate that EMD is able to affect substantially the inflammatory and healing responses and lay the groundwork for future investigation in the field. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Atrial Electromechanical Properties in Coeliac Disease.

PubMed

Efe, Tolga Han; Ertem, Ahmet Goktug; Coskun, Yusuf; Bilgin, Murat; Algul, Engin; Beton, Osman; Asarcikli, Lale Dinc; Erat, Mehmet; Ayturk, Mehmet; Yuksel, Ilhami; Yeter, Ekrem

2016-02-01

Coeliac disease (CD) is an autoimmune and inflammatory disorder of the small intestine. There is reasonable evidence linking inflammation to the initiation and continuation of atrial fibrillation (AF) in inflammatory conditions. Atrial electro-mechanic delay (EMD) was suggested as an early marker of AF in previous studies. The objectives of this study were to evaluate atrial electromechanical properties measured by tissue Doppler imaging and simultaneous electrocardiography (ECG) tracing in patients with CD. Thirty-nine patients with coeliac disease (CD), and 26 healthy volunteers, matched for age and sex, were enrolled in the study. Atrial electromechanical properties were measured by using transthoracic echocardiography and surface ECG. Interatrial electro-mechanic delay (EMD), left intraatrial EMD, right intratrial EMD were calculated. There was no difference between CD patients and healthy volunteers in terms of basal characteristics. Patients with CD had significantly prolonged left and right intraatrial EMDs, and interatrial EMD compared to healthy controls (p= 0.03, p= 0.02, p<0.0001, respectively). Interatrial EMD was positively correlated with age, disease duration, anti-gliadin IgG, anti-endomysium and disease status. In multiple linear regression, interatrial EMD was independently associated with disease duration, anti-endomysium and disease status after adjusting for age and sex. In the present study, atrial EMDs were found significantly higher in patients with CD compared with healthy individuals. Measurement of atrial EMD parameters might be used to predict the risk of development of AF in patients with CD. Copyright © 2015 Australian and New Zealand Society of Cardiac and Thoracic Surgeons (ANZSCTS) and the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand (CSANZ). Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A New Strategy for ECG Baseline Wander Elimination Using Empirical Mode Decomposition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shahbakhti, Mohammad; Bagheri, Hamed; Shekarchi, Babak; Mohammadi, Somayeh; Naji, Mohsen

2016-06-01

Electrocardiogram (ECG) signals might be affected by various artifacts and noises that have biological and external sources. Baseline wander (BW) is a low-frequency artifact that may be caused by breathing, body movements and loose sensor contact. In this paper, a novel method based on empirical mode decomposition (EMD) for removal of baseline noise from ECG is presented. When compared to other EMD-based methods, the novelty of this research is to reach the optimized number of decomposed levels for ECG BW de-noising using mean power frequency (MPF), while the reduction of processing time is considered. To evaluate the performance of the proposed method, a fifth-order Butterworth high pass filtering (BHPF) with cut-off frequency at 0.5Hz and wavelet approach are applied. Three performance indices, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), mean square error (MSE) and correlation coefficient (CC), between pure and filtered signals have been utilized for qualification of presented techniques. Results suggest that the EMD-based method outperforms the other filtering method.

Correlation among physical and electrochemical behaviour of nanostructured electrolytic manganese dioxide from leach liquor and synthetic for aqueous asymmetric capacitor.

PubMed

Minakshi Sundaram, Manickam; Biswal, Avijit; Mitchell, David; Jones, Rob; Fernandez, Carlos

2016-02-14

An attempt has been made to correlate the differences in structural parameters, surface areas, morphology etc. with the electrochemical capacitive behaviour of the EMDs. The nanostructured electrolytic manganese dioxides (EMD) have been synthesized through electrodepositing MnO2 from two different leach liquors and a synthetic analogue thereof. The structural and chemical state was determined using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) respectively. Multiplet structure determination led to estimates of the manganese valence states present in the EMD. The EMDs have been tested in an asymmetric capacitor which we have developed. This used activated carbon as the negative electrode and the various EMDs as the positive electrode. Aqueous 2 M NaOH solution was used as the electrolyte. The capacitor achieved 1.6 V corresponding to a capacitance of ∼50 F g(-1) of the EMDs from leach liquors. The EMD derived from the synthetic solution showed an inferior capacitance of 25 F g(-1). Extended cycling (2000 cycles), showed 100% capacity retention was achieved for one EMD produced from the leach liquor derived from low-grade manganese ore/residue. This outstanding capacitor performance was correlated with the presence of a nanofibrous morphology. These findings open up the possibility of extracting a high performance EMD product from a low cost, low-grade source of manganese.

Joint angle affects volitional and magnetically-evoked neuromuscular performance differentially.

PubMed

Minshull, C; Rees, D; Gleeson, N P

2011-08-01

This study examined the volitional and magnetically-evoked neuromuscular performance of the quadriceps femoris at functional knee joint angles adjacent to full extension. Indices of volitional and magnetically-evoked neuromuscular performance (N=15 healthy males, 23.5 ± 2.9 years, 71.5 ± 5.4 kg, 176.5 ± 5.5 cm) were obtained at 25°, 35° and 45° of knee flexion. Results showed that volitional and magnetically-evoked peak force (PF(V) and P(T)F(E), respectively) and electromechanical delay (EMD(V) and EMD(E), respectively) were enhanced by increased knee flexion. However, greater relative improvements in volitional compared to evoked indices of neuromuscular performance were observed with increasing flexion from 25° to 45° (e.g. EMD(V), EMD(E): 36% vs. 11% improvement, respectively; F([2,14])=6.8, p<0.05). There were no significant correlations between EMD(V) and EMD(E) or PF(V) and P(T)F(E), at analogous joint positions. These findings suggest that the extent of the relative differential between volitional and evoked neuromuscular performance capabilities is joint angle-specific and not correlated with performance capabilities at adjacent angles, but tends to be smaller with increased flexion. As such, effective prediction of volitional from evoked performance capabilities at both analogous and adjacent knee joint positions would lack robustness. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Volatility behavior of visibility graph EMD financial time series from Ising interacting system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Bo; Wang, Jun; Fang, Wen

2015-08-01

A financial market dynamics model is developed and investigated by stochastic Ising system, where the Ising model is the most popular ferromagnetic model in statistical physics systems. Applying two graph based analysis and multiscale entropy method, we investigate and compare the statistical volatility behavior of return time series and the corresponding IMF series derived from the empirical mode decomposition (EMD) method. And the real stock market indices are considered to be comparatively studied with the simulation data of the proposed model. Further, we find that the degree distribution of visibility graph for the simulation series has the power law tails, and the assortative network exhibits the mixing pattern property. All these features are in agreement with the real market data, the research confirms that the financial model established by the Ising system is reasonable.

Microvessel Density Evaluation of the Effect of Enamel Matrix Derivative on Soft Tissue After Implant Placement: A Preliminary Study.

PubMed

Guimarães, George Furtado; de Araújo, Vera Cavalcanti; Nery, James Carlos; Peruzzo, Daiane Cristina; Soares, Andresa Borges

2015-01-01

Enamel matrix derivative (EMD) is commonly used in periodontal therapy and has been used successfully for periodontal regeneration. In addition, this material has a possible angiogenic effect that has been associated with enhanced wound healing. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of EMD on microvessel density (angiogenesis) on the soft tissues surrounding newly placed implants after 14 days. Five patients were selected, each requiring at least one implant on each side of the maxilla, in a split-mouth experimental design. The implants were placed in a two-stage procedure. Each side was then randomized as test or control. On the test side, 0.1 mL of EMD was topically applied to the soft tissues surrounding the implants, while the control side did not receive any treatment. Second-stage surgery was performed after 14 days. A 6-mm punch biopsy was performed for each implant, with the samples subsequently prepared for histology and immunohistochemistry. Quantitative vascularization analysis was performed, which involved counting three areas or "hotspots" containing vessels strongly positive for CD34 and CD105, a pan-endothelial and new vessel marker, respectively. There was no significant difference between test and control groups when evaluating the formation of new blood vessels. The total number of blood vessels, however, was significantly higher in the group treated with EMD (test group). Within the limits of the present study, it can be concluded that topical application of EMD on the soft tissues surrounding newly placed implants resulted in an increased number of blood vessels at 14 days, suggesting that EMD may play a beneficial role in this aspect of wound healing.

Performance optimization of spectral amplitude coding OCDMA system using new enhanced multi diagonal code

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Imtiaz, Waqas A.; Ilyas, M.; Khan, Yousaf

2016-11-01

This paper propose a new code to optimize the performance of spectral amplitude coding-optical code division multiple access (SAC-OCDMA) system. The unique two-matrix structure of the proposed enhanced multi diagonal (EMD) code and effective correlation properties, between intended and interfering subscribers, significantly elevates the performance of SAC-OCDMA system by negating multiple access interference (MAI) and associated phase induce intensity noise (PIIN). Performance of SAC-OCDMA system based on the proposed code is thoroughly analyzed for two detection techniques through analytic and simulation analysis by referring to bit error rate (BER), signal to noise ratio (SNR) and eye patterns at the receiving end. It is shown that EMD code while using SDD technique provides high transmission capacity, reduces the receiver complexity, and provides better performance as compared to complementary subtraction detection (CSD) technique. Furthermore, analysis shows that, for a minimum acceptable BER of 10-9 , the proposed system supports 64 subscribers at data rates of up to 2 Gbps for both up-down link transmission.

Robust multitask learning with three-dimensional empirical mode decomposition-based features for hyperspectral classification

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

He, Zhi; Liu, Lin

2016-11-01

Empirical mode decomposition (EMD) and its variants have recently been applied for hyperspectral image (HSI) classification due to their ability to extract useful features from the original HSI. However, it remains a challenging task to effectively exploit the spectral-spatial information by the traditional vector or image-based methods. In this paper, a three-dimensional (3D) extension of EMD (3D-EMD) is proposed to naturally treat the HSI as a cube and decompose the HSI into varying oscillations (i.e. 3D intrinsic mode functions (3D-IMFs)). To achieve fast 3D-EMD implementation, 3D Delaunay triangulation (3D-DT) is utilized to determine the distances of extrema, while separable filters are adopted to generate the envelopes. Taking the extracted 3D-IMFs as features of different tasks, robust multitask learning (RMTL) is further proposed for HSI classification. In RMTL, pairs of low-rank and sparse structures are formulated by trace-norm and l1,2 -norm to capture task relatedness and specificity, respectively. Moreover, the optimization problems of RMTL can be efficiently solved by the inexact augmented Lagrangian method (IALM). Compared with several state-of-the-art feature extraction and classification methods, the experimental results conducted on three benchmark data sets demonstrate the superiority of the proposed methods.

Educational psychology in medical learning: a randomised controlled trial of two aide memoires for the recall of causes of electromechanical dissociation.

PubMed

Dyson, E; Voisey, S; Hughes, S; Higgins, B; McQuillan, P J

2004-07-01

Although mnemonics are commonly used in medical education there are few data on their effectiveness. A RCT was undertaken to test the hypothesis that a new aide memoire, "EMD-aide", would be superior to the conventional "4Hs+4Ts" mnemonic in facilitating recall of causes of electromechanical dissociation (EMD) among house officers. "EMD-aide", organises causes of EMD by frequency of occurrence and ease of reversibility: four groups organised by shape, colour, position, numbering, clockwise sequence, and use of arrows. Eight hospitals were randomised in a controlled trial and 149 house officers were then recruited by telephone. Baseline ability to recall causes of EMD was recorded at one minute and overall. House officers were then sent a copy of either "4Hs+4Ts" or "EMD-aide" according to randomisation group. Recall ability was retested at one month. 68 of 80 and 51 of 69 house officers completed the study in the "4Hs+4Ts" and "EMD-aide" groups respectively (NS) with similar baseline recall. After intervention median number of recalled causes was greater in the "EMD-aide" group, eight compared with seven at one minute (p = 0.034) and eight compared with seven overall, p = 0.067. Recall of all eight causes was more common in "EMD-aide" group, 54% compared with 35%, p = 0.054, and these house officers spent longer examining their aide memoire, p<0.001. "EMD-aide" may be superior to "4Hs+4Ts" in facilitating the recall of the causes of electromechanical dissociation. Educational psychology of medical learning and the use of aide memoires in general are worthy of further study.

Educational psychology in medical learning: a randomised controlled trial of two aide memoires for the recall of causes of electromechanical dissociation

PubMed Central

Dyson, E; Voisey, S; Hughes, S; Higgins, B; McQuillan, P

2004-01-01

Objectives: Although mnemonics are commonly used in medical education there are few data on their effectiveness. A RCT was undertaken to test the hypothesis that a new aide memoire, "EMD-aide", would be superior to the conventional "4Hs+4Ts" mnemonic in facilitating recall of causes of electromechanical dissociation (EMD) among house officers. Method: "EMD-aide", organises causes of EMD by frequency of occurrence and ease of reversibility: four groups organised by shape, colour, position, numbering, clockwise sequence, and use of arrows. Eight hospitals were randomised in a controlled trial and 149 house officers were then recruited by telephone. Baseline ability to recall causes of EMD was recorded at one minute and overall. House officers were then sent a copy of either "4Hs+4Ts" or "EMD-aide" according to randomisation group. Recall ability was retested at one month. Results: 68 of 80 and 51 of 69 house officers completed the study in the "4Hs+4Ts" and "EMD-aide" groups respectively (NS) with similar baseline recall. After intervention median number of recalled causes was greater in the "EMD-aide" group, eight compared with seven at one minute (p = 0.034) and eight compared with seven overall, p = 0.067. Recall of all eight causes was more common in "EMD-aide" group, 54% compared with 35%, p = 0.054, and these house officers spent longer examining their aide memoire, p<0.001. Conclusions: "EMD-aide" may be superior to "4Hs+4Ts" in facilitating the recall of the causes of electromechanical dissociation. Educational psychology of medical learning and the use of aide memoires in general are worthy of further study. PMID:15208230

The role of gastroesophageal reflux in relation to symptom onset in patients with proton pump inhibitor-refractory nonerosive reflux disease accompanied by an underlying esophageal motor disorder.

PubMed

Izawa, Shinya; Funaki, Yasushi; Iida, Akihito; Tokudome, Kentaro; Tamura, Yasuhiro; Ogasawara, Naotaka; Sasaki, Makoto; Kasugai, Kunio

2014-01-01

The symptom improvement rate is low with proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) in nonerosive reflux disease (NERD). The underlying pathogenic mechanism is complex. Esophageal motility disorders (EMDs) are thought to be a factor, but their prevalence, type, symptoms and the role played by gastroesophageal reflux (GER) in symptom onset have not been fully investigated. To investigate the role of GER in symptom onset in PPI-refractory NERD patients with EMDs. This study comprised 76 patients with PPI-refractory NERD. Manometry was performed during PPI treatment and patients were divided into an EMD group and normal motility (non-EMD) group. Then, multichannel intraluminal impedance-pH monitoring was performed and medical interviews were conducted. Nineteen patients (25%) had an EMD. Data were compared between 17 patients, excluding 2 with achalasia and 57 non-EMD patients. No significant differences were observed between groups in 24-hour intraesophageal pH <4 holding time (HT), mean number of GER episodes or mean number of proximal reflux episodes. The reflux-related symptom index (≥50%) showed a relationship between reflux and symptoms in 70.5% of EMD patients and 75% of non-EMD patients. In the EMD group, the score for FSSG (Frequency Scale for the Symptoms of GERD) question (Q)10 was significantly correlated with the number of GER episodes (r = 0.58, p = 0.02) and the number of proximal reflux episodes (r = 0.63, p = 0.02). In addition, the score for Q9 tended to be correlated with the number of GER episodes (r = 0.44, p = 0.06). Our results suggest that some PPI-refractory NERD patients have EMDs, and that GER plays a role in symptom onset.

Monte Carlo study for physiological interference reduction in near-infrared spectroscopy based on empirical mode decomposition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Yan; Sun, JinWei; Rolfe, Peter

2010-12-01

Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) can be used as the basis of non-invasive neuroimaging that may allow the measurement of haemodynamic changes in the human brain evoked by applied stimuli. Since this technique is very sensitive, physiological interference arising from the cardiac cycle and breathing can significantly affect the signal quality. Such interference is difficult to remove by conventional techniques because it occurs not only in the extracerebral layer but also in the brain tissue itself. Previous work on this problem employing temporal filtering, spatial filtering, and adaptive filtering have exhibited good performance for recovering brain activity data in evoked response studies. However, in this study, we present a time-frequency adaptive method for physiological interference reduction based on the combination of empirical mode decomposition (EMD) and Hilbert spectral analysis (HSA). Monte Carlo simulations based on a five-layered slab model of a human adult head were implemented to evaluate our methodology. We applied an EMD algorithm to decompose the NIRS time series derived from Monte Carlo simulations into a series of intrinsic mode functions (IMFs). In order to identify the IMFs associated with symmetric interference, the extracted components were then Hilbert transformed from which the instantaneous frequencies could be acquired. By reconstructing the NIRS signal by properly selecting IMFs, we determined that the evoked brain response is effectively filtered out with even higher signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The results obtained demonstrated that EMD, combined with HSA, can effectively separate, identify and remove the contamination from the evoked brain response obtained with NIRS using a simple single source-detector pair.

Empirical mode decomposition processing to improve multifocal-visual-evoked-potential signal analysis in multiple sclerosis

PubMed Central

2018-01-01

Objective To study the performance of multifocal-visual-evoked-potential (mfVEP) signals filtered using empirical mode decomposition (EMD) in discriminating, based on amplitude, between control and multiple sclerosis (MS) patient groups, and to reduce variability in interocular latency in control subjects. Methods MfVEP signals were obtained from controls, clinically definitive MS and MS-risk progression patients (radiologically isolated syndrome (RIS) and clinically isolated syndrome (CIS)). The conventional method of processing mfVEPs consists of using a 1–35 Hz bandpass frequency filter (XDFT). The EMD algorithm was used to decompose the XDFT signals into several intrinsic mode functions (IMFs). This signal processing was assessed by computing the amplitudes and latencies of the XDFT and IMF signals (XEMD). The amplitudes from the full visual field and from ring 5 (9.8–15° eccentricity) were studied. The discrimination index was calculated between controls and patients. Interocular latency values were computed from the XDFT and XEMD signals in a control database to study variability. Results Using the amplitude of the mfVEP signals filtered with EMD (XEMD) obtains higher discrimination index values than the conventional method when control, MS-risk progression (RIS and CIS) and MS subjects are studied. The lowest variability in interocular latency computations from the control patient database was obtained by comparing the XEMD signals with the XDFT signals. Even better results (amplitude discrimination and latency variability) were obtained in ring 5 (9.8–15° eccentricity of the visual field). Conclusions Filtering mfVEP signals using the EMD algorithm will result in better identification of subjects at risk of developing MS and better accuracy in latency studies. This could be applied to assess visual cortex activity in MS diagnosis and evolution studies. PMID:29677200

Peripheral Processing Facilitates Optic Flow-Based Depth Perception

PubMed Central

Li, Jinglin; Lindemann, Jens P.; Egelhaaf, Martin

2016-01-01

Flying insects, such as flies or bees, rely on consistent information regarding the depth structure of the environment when performing their flight maneuvers in cluttered natural environments. These behaviors include avoiding collisions, approaching targets or spatial navigation. Insects are thought to obtain depth information visually from the retinal image displacements (“optic flow”) during translational ego-motion. Optic flow in the insect visual system is processed by a mechanism that can be modeled by correlation-type elementary motion detectors (EMDs). However, it is still an open question how spatial information can be extracted reliably from the responses of the highly contrast- and pattern-dependent EMD responses, especially if the vast range of light intensities encountered in natural environments is taken into account. This question will be addressed here by systematically modeling the peripheral visual system of flies, including various adaptive mechanisms. Different model variants of the peripheral visual system were stimulated with image sequences that mimic the panoramic visual input during translational ego-motion in various natural environments, and the resulting peripheral signals were fed into an array of EMDs. We characterized the influence of each peripheral computational unit on the representation of spatial information in the EMD responses. Our model simulations reveal that information about the overall light level needs to be eliminated from the EMD input as is accomplished under light-adapted conditions in the insect peripheral visual system. The response characteristics of large monopolar cells (LMCs) resemble that of a band-pass filter, which reduces the contrast dependency of EMDs strongly, effectively enhancing the representation of the nearness of objects and, especially, of their contours. We furthermore show that local brightness adaptation of photoreceptors allows for spatial vision under a wide range of dynamic light conditions. PMID:27818631

Fault diagnosis of rolling bearings based on multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis and Mahalanobis distance criterion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lin, Jinshan; Chen, Qian

2013-07-01

Vibration data of faulty rolling bearings are usually nonstationary and nonlinear, and contain fairly weak fault features. As a result, feature extraction of rolling bearing fault data is always an intractable problem and has attracted considerable attention for a long time. This paper introduces multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis (MF-DFA) to analyze bearing vibration data and proposes a novel method for fault diagnosis of rolling bearings based on MF-DFA and Mahalanobis distance criterion (MDC). MF-DFA, an extension of monofractal DFA, is a powerful tool for uncovering the nonlinear dynamical characteristics buried in nonstationary time series and can capture minor changes of complex system conditions. To begin with, by MF-DFA, multifractality of bearing fault data was quantified with the generalized Hurst exponent, the scaling exponent and the multifractal spectrum. Consequently, controlled by essentially different dynamical mechanisms, the multifractality of four heterogeneous bearing fault data is significantly different; by contrast, controlled by slightly different dynamical mechanisms, the multifractality of homogeneous bearing fault data with different fault diameters is significantly or slightly different depending on different types of bearing faults. Therefore, the multifractal spectrum, as a set of parameters describing multifractality of time series, can be employed to characterize different types and severity of bearing faults. Subsequently, five characteristic parameters sensitive to changes of bearing fault conditions were extracted from the multifractal spectrum and utilized to construct fault features of bearing fault data. Moreover, Hilbert transform based envelope analysis, empirical mode decomposition (EMD) and wavelet transform (WT) were utilized to study the same bearing fault data. Also, the kurtosis and the peak levels of the EMD or the WT component corresponding to the bearing tones in the frequency domain were carefully checked and used as the bearing fault features. Next, MDC was used to classify the bearing fault features extracted by EMD, WT and MF-DFA in the time domain and assess the abilities of the three methods to extract fault features from bearing fault data. The results show that MF-DFA seems to outperform each of envelope analysis, statistical parameters, EMD and WT in feature extraction of bearing fault data and then the proposed method in this paper delivers satisfactory performances in distinguishing different types and severity of bearing faults. Furthermore, to further ascertain the nature causing the multifractality of bearing vibration data, the generalized Hurst exponents of the original bearing vibration data were compared with those of the shuffled and the surrogated data. Consequently, the long-range correlations for small and large fluctuations of data seem to be chiefly responsible for the multifractality of bearing vibration data.

Pathological speech signal analysis and classification using empirical mode decomposition.

PubMed

Kaleem, Muhammad; Ghoraani, Behnaz; Guergachi, Aziz; Krishnan, Sridhar

2013-07-01

Automated classification of normal and pathological speech signals can provide an objective and accurate mechanism for pathological speech diagnosis, and is an active area of research. A large part of this research is based on analysis of acoustic measures extracted from sustained vowels. However, sustained vowels do not reflect real-world attributes of voice as effectively as continuous speech, which can take into account important attributes of speech such as rapid voice onset and termination, changes in voice frequency and amplitude, and sudden discontinuities in speech. This paper presents a methodology based on empirical mode decomposition (EMD) for classification of continuous normal and pathological speech signals obtained from a well-known database. EMD is used to decompose randomly chosen portions of speech signals into intrinsic mode functions, which are then analyzed to extract meaningful temporal and spectral features, including true instantaneous features which can capture discriminative information in signals hidden at local time-scales. A total of six features are extracted, and a linear classifier is used with the feature vector to classify continuous speech portions obtained from a database consisting of 51 normal and 161 pathological speakers. A classification accuracy of 95.7 % is obtained, thus demonstrating the effectiveness of the methodology.

Xenogenous Collagen Matrix and/or Enamel Matrix Derivative for Treatment of Localized Gingival Recessions: A Randomized Clinical Trial. Part I: Clinical Outcomes.

PubMed

Sangiorgio, João Paulo Menck; Neves, Felipe Lucas da Silva; Rocha Dos Santos, Manuela; França-Grohmann, Isabela Lima; Casarin, Renato Corrêa Viana; Casati, Márcio Zaffalon; Santamaria, Mauro Pedrine; Sallum, Enilson Antonio

2017-12-01

Considering xenogeneic collagen matrix (CM) and enamel matrix derivative (EMD) characteristics, it is suggested that their combination could promote superior clinical outcomes in root coverage procedures. Thus, the aim of this parallel, double-masked, dual-center, randomized clinical trial is to evaluate clinical outcomes after treatment of localized gingival recession (GR) by a coronally advanced flap (CAF) combined with CM and/or EMD. Sixty-eight patients presenting one Miller Class I or II GRs were randomly assigned to receive either CAF (n = 17); CAF + CM (n = 17); CAF + EMD (n = 17), or CAF + CM + EMD (n = 17). Recession height, probing depth, clinical attachment level, and keratinized tissue width and thickness were measured at baseline and 90 days and 6 months after surgery. The obtained root coverage was 68.04% ± 24.11% for CAF; 87.20% ± 15.01% for CAF + CM; 88.77% ± 20.66% for CAF + EMD; and 91.59% ± 11.08% for CAF + CM + EMD after 6 months. Groups that received biomaterials showed greater values (P <0.05). Complete root coverage (CRC) for CAF + EMD was 70.59%, significantly superior to CAF alone (23.53%); CAF + CM (52.94%), and CAF + CM + EMD (51.47%) (P <0.05). Keratinized tissue thickness gain was significant only in CM-treated groups (P <0.05). The three approaches are superior to CAF alone for root coverage. EMD provides highest levels of CRC; however, the addition of CM increases gingival thickness. The combination approach does not seem justified.

Electromagnetic Dissociation and Spacecraft Electronics Damage

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Norbury, John W.

2016-01-01

When protons or heavy ions from galactic cosmic rays (GCR) or solar particle events (SPE) interact with target nuclei in spacecraft, there can be two different types of interactions. The more familiar strong nuclear interaction often dominates and is responsible for nuclear fragmentation in either the GCR or SPE projectile nucleus or the spacecraft target nucleus. (Of course, the proton does not break up, except possibly to produce pions or other hadrons.) The less familiar, second type of interaction is due to the very strong electromagnetic fields that exist when two charged nuclei pass very close to each other. This process is called electromagnetic dissociation (EMD) and primarily results in the emission of neutrons, protons and light ions (isotopes of hydrogen and helium). The cross section for particle production is approximately defined as the number of particles produced in nucleus-nucleus collisions or other types of reactions. (There are various kinematic and other factors which multiply the particle number to arrive at the cross section.) Strong, nuclear interactions usually dominate the nuclear reactions of most interest that occur between GCR and target nuclei. However, for heavy nuclei (near Fe and beyond) at high energy the EMD cross section can be much larger than the strong nuclear interaction cross section. This paper poses a question: Are there projectile or target nuclei combinations in the interaction of GCR or SPE where the EMD reaction cross section plays a dominant role? If the answer is affirmative, then EMD mechanisms should be an integral part of codes that are used to predict damage to spacecraft electronics. The question can become more fine-tuned and one can ask about total reaction cross sections as compared to double differential cross sections. These issues will be addressed in the present paper.

An imbalance fault detection method based on data normalization and EMD for marine current turbines.

PubMed

Zhang, Milu; Wang, Tianzhen; Tang, Tianhao; Benbouzid, Mohamed; Diallo, Demba

2017-05-01

This paper proposes an imbalance fault detection method based on data normalization and Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) for variable speed direct-drive Marine Current Turbine (MCT) system. The method is based on the MCT stator current under the condition of wave and turbulence. The goal of this method is to extract blade imbalance fault feature, which is concealed by the supply frequency and the environment noise. First, a Generalized Likelihood Ratio Test (GLRT) detector is developed and the monitoring variable is selected by analyzing the relationship between the variables. Then, the selected monitoring variable is converted into a time series through data normalization, which makes the imbalance fault characteristic frequency into a constant. At the end, the monitoring variable is filtered out by EMD method to eliminate the effect of turbulence. The experiments show that the proposed method is robust against turbulence through comparing the different fault severities and the different turbulence intensities. Comparison with other methods, the experimental results indicate the feasibility and efficacy of the proposed method. Copyright © 2017 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Probing the electrochemical properties of biopolymer modified EMD nanoflakes through electrodeposition for high performance alkaline batteries.

PubMed

Biswal, Avijit; Minakshi, Manickam; Tripathy, Bankim Chandra

2016-04-07

In the present work, a novel biopolymer approach has been made to electrodeposit manganese dioxide from manganese sulphate in a sulphuric acid bath containing chitosan in the absence and presence of glutaraldehyde as a cross-linking agent. Galvanostatically synthesised electrolytic manganese dioxide (EMD) nanoflakes were used as electrode materials and their electrochemical properties with the influence of biopolymer chitosan were systematically characterized. The structural determination, surface morphology and porosity of nanostructured EMD were evaluated using X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy and nitrogen adsorption-desorption techniques. The results obtained were compared with that of blank EMD (polymer free). The results indicated that the EMD having chitosan cross-linked with glutaraldehyde possesses a reduced particle size and more porous structure than the blank and EMDs synthesized in the presence of chitosan but without glutaraldehyde. The results revealed that chitosan was unable to play any significant role on its own but chitosan in the presence of glutaraldehyde forms a cross-linking structure, which in turn influences the nucleation and growth of the EMDs during electrodeposition. EMDs obtained in the presence of chitosan (1 g dm(-3)) and glutaraldehyde (1% glutaraldehyde) exhibited a reversible and better discharge capacity upon cycling than the blank which showed its typical capacity fading behaviour with cycling. In addition, EMD synthesized in the presence of 1 g dm(-3) chitosan and 2% glutaraldehyde exhibited a superior electrochemical performance than the blank and lower amounts (1%; 1.5%) of glutaraldehyde, showing a stable discharge capacity of 60 mA h g(-1) recorded up to 40 cycles in alkaline KOH electrolyte for a Zn-MnO2 system. Our results demonstrate the potential of using polymer modified EMDs as a new generation of alkaline battery materials. The XPS data show that a surface functional moiety arising from the cross-linked chitosan enhances the electrochemical properties of the Zn-MnO2 system.

Properties of a Bacteriocin Produced by Bacillus subtilis EMD4 Isolated from Ganjang (Soy Sauce).

PubMed

Liu, Xiaoming; Lee, Jae Yong; Jeong, Seon-Ju; Cho, Kye Man; Kim, Gyoung Min; Shin, Jung-Hye; Kim, Jong-Sang; Kim, Jeong Hwan

2015-09-01

A Bacillus species, EMD4, with strong antibacterial activity was isolated from ganjang (soy sauce) and identified as B. subtilis. B. subtilis EMD4 strongly inhibited the growth of B. cereus ATCC14579 and B. thuringiensis ATCC33679. The antibacterial activity was stable at pH 3-9 but inactive at pH 10 and above. The activity was fully retained after 15 min at 80°C but reduced by 50% after 15 min at 90°C. The activity was completely destroyed by proteinase K and protease treatment, indicating its proteinaceous nature. The bacteriocin (BacEMD4) was partially purified from culture supernatant by ammonium sulfate precipitation, and QSepharose and Sephadex G-50 column chromatographies. The specific activity was increased from 769.2 AU/mg protein to 8,347.8 AU/mg protein and the final yield was 12.6%. The size of BacEMD4 was determined to be 3.5 kDa by Tricine SDS-PAGE. The N-terminal amino acid sequence was similar with that of Subtilosin A. Nucleotide sequencing of the cloned gene confirmed that BacEMD4 was Subtilosin A. BacEMD4 showed bactericidal activity against B. cereus ATCC14579.

In vitro proliferation of human osteogenic cells in presence of different commercial bone substitute materials combined with enamel matrix derivatives

PubMed Central

2009-01-01

Background Cellular reactions to alloplastic bone substitute materials (BSM) are a subject of interest in basic research. In regenerative dentistry, these bone grafting materials are routinely combined with enamel matrix derivatives (EMD) in order to additionally enhance tissue regeneration. Materials and methods The aim of this study was to evaluate the proliferative activity of human osteogenic cells after incubation over a period of seven days with commercial BSM of various origin and chemical composition. Special focus was placed on the potential additional benefit of EMD on cellular proliferation. Results Except for PerioGlas®, osteogenic cell proliferation was significantly promoted by the investigated BSM. The application of EMD alone also resulted in significantly increased cellular proliferation. However, a combination of BSM and EMD resulted in only a moderate additional enhancement of osteogenic cell proliferation. Conclusion The application of most BSM, as well as the exclusive application of EMD demonstrated a positive impact on the proliferation of human osteogenic cells in vitro. In order to increase the benefit from substrate combination (BSM + EMD), further studies on the interactions between BSM and EMD are needed. PMID:19909545

[EMD Time-Frequency Analysis of Raman Spectrum and NIR].

PubMed

Zhao, Xiao-yu; Fang, Yi-ming; Tan, Feng; Tong, Liang; Zhai, Zhe

2016-02-01

This paper analyzes the Raman spectrum and Near Infrared Spectrum (NIR) with time-frequency method. The empirical mode decomposition spectrum becomes intrinsic mode functions, which the proportion calculation reveals the Raman spectral energy is uniform distributed in each component, while the NIR's low order intrinsic mode functions only undertakes fewer primary spectroscopic effective information. Both the real spectrum and numerical experiments show that the empirical mode decomposition (EMD) regard Raman spectrum as the amplitude-modulated signal, which possessed with high frequency adsorption property; and EMD regards NIR as the frequency-modulated signal, which could be preferably realized high frequency narrow-band demodulation during first-order intrinsic mode functions. The first-order intrinsic mode functions Hilbert transform reveals that during the period of empirical mode decomposes Raman spectrum, modal aliasing happened. Through further analysis of corn leaf's NIR in time-frequency domain, after EMD, the first and second orders components of low energy are cut off, and reconstruct spectral signal by using the remaining intrinsic mode functions, the root-mean-square error is 1.001 1, and the correlation coefficient is 0.981 3, both of these two indexes indicated higher accuracy in re-construction; the decomposition trend term indicates the absorbency is ascending along with the decreasing to wave length in the near-infrared light wave band; and the Hilbert transform of characteristic modal component displays, 657 cm⁻¹ is the specific frequency by the corn leaf stress spectrum, which could be regarded as characteristic frequency for identification.

Time-frequency analysis : mathematical analysis of the empirical mode decomposition.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2009-01-01

Invented over 10 years ago, empirical mode : decomposition (EMD) provides a nonlinear : time-frequency analysis with the ability to successfully : analyze nonstationary signals. Mathematical : Analysis of the Empirical Mode Decomposition : is a...

Alcohol intake may impair bone density and new cementum formation after enamel matrix derivative treatment: histometric study in rats.

PubMed

Corrêa, M G; Gomes Campos, M L; Marques, M R; Ambrosano, G M B; Casati, M Z; Nociti, F H; Sallum, E A

2016-02-01

Alcohol intake may interfere with bone metabolism; however, there is a lack of information about the outcomes of regenerative approaches in the presence of alcohol intake. Enamel matrix derivative (EMD) has been used in periodontal regenerative procedures resulting in improvement of clinical parameters. Thus, the aim of this histomorphometric study is to evaluate the healing of periodontal defects after treatment with EMD under the influence of alcohol intake. Twenty Wistar rats were randomly assigned to two groups: G1 = alcohol intake (n = 10) and G2 = non-exposed to alcohol intake (n = 10). Thirty days after initiation of alcohol intake, fenestration defects were created at the buccal aspect of the first mandibular molar of all animals from both groups. After the surgeries, the defects of each animal were randomly assigned to two subgroups: non-treated control and treated with EMD. The animals were killed 21 d later. G1 showed less defect fill for non-treated controls. Bone density (BD) and new cementum formation were lower for G1 when compared to G2, for EMD-treated and non-treated sites. EMD treatment resulted in greater BD and new cementum formation in both groups and defect fill was not significantly different between groups in the EMD-treated sites. The number of tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase-positive osteoclasts was significantly higher in G1 when compared to G2 and in EMD-treated sites of both groups. Alcohol intake may produce a significant detrimental effect on BD and new cementum formation, even in sites treated with EMD. A limited positive effect may be expected after EMD treatment under this condition. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Mechanistic insight into prolonged electromechanical delay in dyssynchronous heart failure: a computational study

PubMed Central

Constantino, Jason; Hu, Yuxuan; Lardo, Albert C.

2013-01-01

In addition to the left bundle branch block type of electrical activation, there are further remodeling aspects associated with dyssynchronous heart failure (HF) that affect the electromechanical behavior of the heart. Among the most important are altered ventricular structure (both geometry and fiber/sheet orientation), abnormal Ca2+ handling, slowed conduction, and reduced wall stiffness. In dyssynchronous HF, the electromechanical delay (EMD), the time interval between local myocyte depolarization and myofiber shortening onset, is prolonged. However, the contributions of the four major HF remodeling aspects in extending EMD in the dyssynchronous failing heart remain unknown. The goal of this study was to determine the individual and combined contributions of HF-induced remodeling aspects to EMD prolongation. We used MRI-based models of dyssynchronous nonfailing and HF canine electromechanics and constructed additional models in which varying combinations of the four remodeling aspects were represented. A left bundle branch block electrical activation sequence was simulated in all models. The simulation results revealed that deranged Ca2+ handling is the primary culprit in extending EMD in dyssynchronous HF, with the other aspects of remodeling contributing insignificantly. Mechanistically, we found that abnormal Ca2+ handling in dyssynchronous HF slows myofiber shortening velocity at the early-activated septum and depresses both myofiber shortening and stretch rate at the late-activated lateral wall. These changes in myofiber dynamics delay the onset of myofiber shortening, thus giving rise to prolonged EMD in dyssynchronous HF. PMID:23934857

Electronic medical devices: a primer for pathologists.

PubMed

Weitzman, James B

2003-07-01

Electronic medical devices (EMDs) with downloadable memories, such as implantable cardiac pacemakers, defibrillators, drug pumps, insulin pumps, and glucose monitors, are now an integral part of routine medical practice in the United States, and functional organ replacements, such as the artificial heart, pancreas, and retina, will most likely become commonplace in the near future. Often, EMDs end up in the hands of the pathologist as a surgical specimen or at autopsy. No established guidelines for systematic examination and reporting or comprehensive reviews of EMDs currently exist for the pathologist. To provide pathologists with a general overview of EMDs, including a brief history; epidemiology; essential technical aspects, indications, contraindications, and complications of selected devices; potential applications in pathology; relevant government regulations; and suggested examination and reporting guidelines. Articles indexed on PubMed of the National Library of Medicine, various medical and history of medicine textbooks, US Food and Drug Administration publications and product information, and specifications provided by device manufacturers. Studies were selected on the basis of relevance to the study objectives. Descriptive data were selected by the author. Suggested examination and reporting guidelines for EMDs received as surgical specimens and retrieved at autopsy. Electronic medical devices received as surgical specimens and retrieved at autopsy are increasing in number and level of sophistication. They should be systematically examined and reported, should have electronic memories downloaded when indicated, will help pathologists answer more questions with greater certainty, and should become an integral part of the formal knowledge base, research focus, training, and practice of pathology.

Electronic properties of CdWO{sub 4}: Use of hybrid exchange and correlation functionals

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Meena, B. S., E-mail: bsmphysics@gmail.com; Mund, H. S.; Ahuja, B. L.

Energy bands, density of states (DOS), Mulliken population (MP) and electron momentum densities (EMDs) of CdWO{sub 4} are presented using hybrid exchange and correlation functionals namely B3LYP, B3PW and PBE0. To validate the present hybrid potentials, theoretical EMDs have been compared with the experimental Compton profile. It is found that LCAO-B3LYP based Compton profile gives a better agreement with experiment than other theoretical profiles. The energy bands and DOS show a wide band gap semiconducting nature of CdWO{sub 4}. The theoretical band gap obtained using B3LYP scheme reconciles well with the available experimental data. In addition, we have also presentedmore » the anisotropies in EMDs along [100], [110] and [001] directions and the bonding effects using the MP data.« less

Electric machine differential for vehicle traction control and stability control

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kuruppu, Sandun Shivantha

Evolving requirements in energy efficiency and tightening regulations for reliable electric drivetrains drive the advancement of the hybrid electric (HEV) and full electric vehicle (EV) technology. Different configurations of EV and HEV architectures are evaluated for their performance. The future technology is trending towards utilizing distinctive properties in electric machines to not only to improve efficiency but also to realize advanced road adhesion controls and vehicle stability controls. Electric machine differential (EMD) is such a concept under current investigation for applications in the near future. Reliability of a power train is critical. Therefore, sophisticated fault detection schemes are essential in guaranteeing reliable operation of a complex system such as an EMD. The research presented here emphasize on implementation of a 4kW electric machine differential, a novel single open phase fault diagnostic scheme, an implementation of a real time slip optimization algorithm and an electric machine differential based yaw stability improvement study. The proposed d-q current signature based SPO fault diagnostic algorithm detects the fault within one electrical cycle. The EMD based extremum seeking slip optimization algorithm reduces stopping distance by 30% compared to hydraulic braking based ABS.

Enamel matrix derivative enhances tissue formation around scaffolds used for tissue engineering of ligaments.

PubMed

Messenger, Michael P; Raïf, El M; Seedhom, Bahaa B; Brookes, Steven J

2010-02-01

The following in vitro translational study investigated whether enamel matrix derivative (EMD), an approved biomimetic treatment for periodontal disease (Emdogain) and hard-to-heal wounds (Xelma), enhanced synovial cell colonization and protein synthesis around a scaffold used clinically for in situ tissue engineering of the torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). Synovial cells were enzymatically extracted from bovine synovium and dynamically seeded onto polyethylene terephthalate (PET) scaffolds. The cells were cultured in low-serum medium (0.5% FBS) for 4 weeks with either a single administration of EMD at the start of the 4 week period or multiple administrations of EMD at regular intervals throughout the 4 weeks. Samples were harvested and evaluated using the Hoechst DNA assay, BCA protein assay, cresolphthalein complexone calcium assay, SDS-PAGE, ELISA and electron microscopy. A significant increase in cell number (DNA) (p < 0.01), protein content (p < 0.01) and TGFbeta1 synthesis (p < 0.01) was observed with multiple administrations of EMD. Additionally, SDS-PAGE showed an increase in high molecular weight proteins, characteristic of the fibril-forming collagens. Electron microscopy supported these findings, showing that scaffolds treated with multiple administrations of EMD were heavily coated with cells and extracellular matrix (ECM) that enveloped the fibres. Multiple administrations of EMD to synovial cell-seeded scaffolds enhanced the formation of tissue in vitro. Additionally, it was shown that EMD enhanced TGFbeta1 synthesis of synovial cells, suggesting a potential mode of action for EMD's capacity to stimulate tissue regeneration.

Identifying Key Words in 9-1-1 Calls for Stroke: A Mixed Methods Approach.

PubMed

Richards, Christopher T; Wang, Baiyang; Markul, Eddie; Albarran, Frank; Rottman, Doreen; Aggarwal, Neelum T; Lindeman, Patricia; Stein-Spencer, Leslee; Weber, Joseph M; Pearlman, Kenneth S; Tataris, Katie L; Holl, Jane L; Klabjan, Diego; Prabhakaran, Shyam

2017-01-01

Identifying stroke during a 9-1-1 call is critical to timely prehospital care. However, emergency medical dispatchers (EMDs) recognize stroke in less than half of 9-1-1 calls, potentially due to the words used by callers to communicate stroke signs and symptoms. We hypothesized that callers do not typically use words and phrases considered to be classical descriptors of stroke, such as focal neurologic deficits, but that a mixed-methods approach can identify words and phrases commonly used by 9-1-1 callers to describe acute stroke victims. We performed a mixed-method, retrospective study of 9-1-1 call audio recordings for adult patients with confirmed stroke who were transported by ambulance in a large urban city. Content analysis, a qualitative methodology, and computational linguistics, a quantitative methodology, were used to identify key words and phrases used by 9-1-1 callers to describe acute stroke victims. Because a caller's level of emotional distress contributes to the communication during a 9-1-1 call, the Emotional Content and Cooperation Score was scored by a multidisciplinary team. A total of 110 9-1-1 calls, received between June and September 2013, were analyzed. EMDs recognized stroke in 48% of calls, and the emotional state of most callers (95%) was calm. In 77% of calls in which EMDs recognized stroke, callers specifically used the word "stroke"; however, the word "stroke" was used in only 38% of calls. Vague, non-specific words and phrases were used to describe stroke victims' symptoms in 55% of calls, and 45% of callers used distractor words and phrases suggestive of non-stroke emergencies. Focal neurologic symptoms were described in 39% of calls. Computational linguistics identified 9 key words that were more commonly used in calls where the EMD identified stroke. These words were concordant with terms identified through qualitative content analysis. Most 9-1-1 callers used vague, non-specific, or distractor words and phrases and infrequently provide classic stroke descriptions during 9-1-1 calls for stroke. Both qualitative and quantitative methodologies identified similar key words and phrases associated with accurate EMD stroke recognition. This study suggests that tools incorporating commonly used words and phrases could potentially improve EMD stroke recognition.

Peroneal electromechanical delay and fatigue in patients with chronic ankle instability.

PubMed

Flevas, Dimitrios A; Bernard, Manfred; Ristanis, Stavros; Moraiti, Constantina; Georgoulis, Anastasios D; Pappas, Evangelos

2017-06-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of chronic ankle instability (CAI) on electromechanical delay times (EMD) before and after fatigue. Understanding the mechanisms that contribute to CAI is essential for the development of effective rehabilitation programmes. It was hypothesized that patients with CAI will demonstrate prolonged EMD times compared to healthy subjects and that fatigue will cause greater increases in EMD times in the CAI group. Twenty-one male volunteers participated in the study providing data on 16 ankles with CAI and 26 with no history of ankle injury. EMD was measured on an isokinetic dynamometer. Measurements were taken with the ankle in neutral (0°) and at 30° of inversion. All subjects followed an isokinetic fatigue protocol until eversion torque fell below 50 % of initial torque for three consecutive repetitions. A 2 × 2 × 2 ANOVA was used to calculate the effect of ankle status (CAI vs. healthy), fatigue, angle (0° vs. 30°) and their interactions on EMD. Fatigue caused a significant increase on EMD [non-fatigued: 122(29)ms vs. fatigue 155(54)ms; p < 0.001]. EMD times were shorter at 30° of inversion compared to neutral [neutral: 145(39)ms vs. 30° of inversion: 132(40)ms, p = 0.015]. An interaction effect for ankle status and angle was found (p = 0.026) with CAI ankles demonstrating longer EMD [CAI: 156(45)ms vs. healthy: 133(40)ms] in neutral but not at 30° of inversion [CAI: 133(46)ms vs. 132(33)ms]. Patients with CAI had longer EMD times in neutral, but not when the ankle was placed in inversion. This suggests that rehabilitation programmes may be more effective when retraining occurs with the ankle in neutral position. It is likely that low EMD times prevent ankle acceleration at the beginning of the mechanism of injury, but they are less important when the ankle has already inverted at 30°. Both CAI and healthy subjects demonstrated longer EMD after fatigue, emphasizing the importance of proper conditioning in the prevention of delayed peroneal response and subsequent ankle injury. Improving resistance to fatigue of the peroneals may prove to be an effective prevention tool of ankle sprain recurrence in patients with CAI. III.

Environmental Strategies for Prevention of Drug Use and Risks in Clubs

PubMed Central

Miller, Brenda A.; Holder, Harold D.; Voas, Robert B.

2009-01-01

Environmental prevention strategies in club settings where music and dance events are featured could provide an important new arena for the prevention of drug use and other risky behaviors (e.g., sexual risk taking, intoxication and drug use, aggression, and driving under the influence). Electronic music dance events (EMDEs) occur in clubs that attract young, emerging adults (18–25 years of age) and attract individuals who engage in various types of drug use. Borrowing from the environmental prevention studies that focus on reducing alcohol use and related problems, a model for drug prevention in the club setting is proposed. Initially, an overview of the relationships between EMDEs and drug use and other risky behaviors are presented. Next, rationales for environmental strategies are provided. Finally, an environmental approach to prevention of drug use and risky behaviors in clubs is described. This comprehensive set of environmental strategies, is designed to be mutually supportive and interactive. Environmental strategies are believed to provide potential for developing an efficacious prevention strategy. The environmental prevention approach presented here is composed of three intervention domains: (1) Mobilization, (2) Strategies for the Exterior Environment, and (3) Strategies for the Interior Environment. PMID:20216925

nES GEMMA Analysis of Lectins and Their Interactions with Glycoproteins - Separation, Detection, and Sampling of Noncovalent Biospecific Complexes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Engel, Nicole Y.; Weiss, Victor U.; Marchetti-Deschmann, Martina; Allmaier, Günter

2017-01-01

In order to better understand biological events, lectin-glycoprotein interactions are of interest. The possibility to gather more information than the mere positive or negative response for interactions brought mass spectrometry into the center of many research fields. The presented work shows the potential of a nano-electrospray gas-phase electrophoretic mobility molecular analyzer (nES GEMMA) to detect weak, noncovalent, biospecific interactions besides still unbound glycoproteins and unreacted lectins without prior liquid phase separation. First results for Sambucus nigra agglutinin, concanavalin A, and wheat germ agglutinin and their retained noncovalent interactions with glycoproteins in the gas phase are presented. Electrophoretic mobility diameters (EMDs) were obtained by nES GEMMA for all interaction partners correlating very well with molecular masses determined by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS) of the individual molecules. Moreover, EMDs measured for the lectin-glycoprotein complexes were in good accordance with theoretically calculated mass values. Special focus was laid on complex formation for different lectin concentrations and binding specificities to evaluate the method with respect to results obtained in the liquid phase. The latter was addressed by capillary electrophoresis on-a-chip (CE-on-a-chip). Of exceptional interest was the fact that the formed complexes could be sampled according to their size onto nitrocellulose membranes after gas-phase separation. Subsequent immunological investigation further proved that the collected complex actually retained its native structure throughout nES GEMMA analysis and sampling.

Equivalence Testing of Complex Particle Size Distribution Profiles Based on Earth Mover's Distance.

PubMed

Hu, Meng; Jiang, Xiaohui; Absar, Mohammad; Choi, Stephanie; Kozak, Darby; Shen, Meiyu; Weng, Yu-Ting; Zhao, Liang; Lionberger, Robert

2018-04-12

Particle size distribution (PSD) is an important property of particulates in drug products. In the evaluation of generic drug products formulated as suspensions, emulsions, and liposomes, the PSD comparisons between a test product and the branded product can provide useful information regarding in vitro and in vivo performance. Historically, the FDA has recommended the population bioequivalence (PBE) statistical approach to compare the PSD descriptors D50 and SPAN from test and reference products to support product equivalence. In this study, the earth mover's distance (EMD) is proposed as a new metric for comparing PSD particularly when the PSD profile exhibits complex distribution (e.g., multiple peaks) that is not accurately described by the D50 and SPAN descriptor. EMD is a statistical metric that measures the discrepancy (distance) between size distribution profiles without a prior assumption of the distribution. PBE is then adopted to perform statistical test to establish equivalence based on the calculated EMD distances. Simulations show that proposed EMD-based approach is effective in comparing test and reference profiles for equivalence testing and is superior compared to commonly used distance measures, e.g., Euclidean and Kolmogorov-Smirnov distances. The proposed approach was demonstrated by evaluating equivalence of cyclosporine ophthalmic emulsion PSDs that were manufactured under different conditions. Our results show that proposed approach can effectively pass an equivalent product (e.g., reference product against itself) and reject an inequivalent product (e.g., reference product against negative control), thus suggesting its usefulness in supporting bioequivalence determination of a test product to the reference product which both possess multimodal PSDs.

76 FR 67228 - EMD Chemicals, Inc. Including On-Site Independent Contractors and Leased Workers From Ajilen...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-10-31

... Personnel, J&J Staffing, Accountemps/Robert Half, EMD Temps, Chromhelp, and Greentree Food Management... subject firm. The company reports that independent contract workers from Greentree Food Management were... Greentree Food Management working on-site at EMD Chemicals, Inc., Gibbstown, New Jersey. The amended notice...

A wavelet-based technique to predict treatment outcome for Major Depressive Disorder.

PubMed

Mumtaz, Wajid; Xia, Likun; Mohd Yasin, Mohd Azhar; Azhar Ali, Syed Saad; Malik, Aamir Saeed

2017-01-01

Treatment management for Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) has been challenging. However, electroencephalogram (EEG)-based predictions of antidepressant's treatment outcome may help during antidepressant's selection and ultimately improve the quality of life for MDD patients. In this study, a machine learning (ML) method involving pretreatment EEG data was proposed to perform such predictions for Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRIs). For this purpose, the acquisition of experimental data involved 34 MDD patients and 30 healthy controls. Consequently, a feature matrix was constructed involving time-frequency decomposition of EEG data based on wavelet transform (WT) analysis, termed as EEG data matrix. However, the resultant EEG data matrix had high dimensionality. Therefore, dimension reduction was performed based on a rank-based feature selection method according to a criterion, i.e., receiver operating characteristic (ROC). As a result, the most significant features were identified and further be utilized during the training and testing of a classification model, i.e., the logistic regression (LR) classifier. Finally, the LR model was validated with 100 iterations of 10-fold cross-validation (10-CV). The classification results were compared with short-time Fourier transform (STFT) analysis, and empirical mode decompositions (EMD). The wavelet features extracted from frontal and temporal EEG data were found statistically significant. In comparison with other time-frequency approaches such as the STFT and EMD, the WT analysis has shown highest classification accuracy, i.e., accuracy = 87.5%, sensitivity = 95%, and specificity = 80%. In conclusion, significant wavelet coefficients extracted from frontal and temporal pre-treatment EEG data involving delta and theta frequency bands may predict antidepressant's treatment outcome for the MDD patients.

Image characterization by fractal descriptors in variational mode decomposition domain: Application to brain magnetic resonance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lahmiri, Salim

2016-08-01

The main purpose of this work is to explore the usefulness of fractal descriptors estimated in multi-resolution domains to characterize biomedical digital image texture. In this regard, three multi-resolution techniques are considered: the well-known discrete wavelet transform (DWT) and the empirical mode decomposition (EMD), and; the newly introduced; variational mode decomposition mode (VMD). The original image is decomposed by the DWT, EMD, and VMD into different scales. Then, Fourier spectrum based fractal descriptors is estimated at specific scales and directions to characterize the image. The support vector machine (SVM) was used to perform supervised classification. The empirical study was applied to the problem of distinguishing between normal and abnormal brain magnetic resonance images (MRI) affected with Alzheimer disease (AD). Our results demonstrate that fractal descriptors estimated in VMD domain outperform those estimated in DWT and EMD domains; and also those directly estimated from the original image.

Forecasting stochastic neural network based on financial empirical mode decomposition.

PubMed

Wang, Jie; Wang, Jun

2017-06-01

In an attempt to improve the forecasting accuracy of stock price fluctuations, a new one-step-ahead model is developed in this paper which combines empirical mode decomposition (EMD) with stochastic time strength neural network (STNN). The EMD is a processing technique introduced to extract all the oscillatory modes embedded in a series, and the STNN model is established for considering the weight of occurrence time of the historical data. The linear regression performs the predictive availability of the proposed model, and the effectiveness of EMD-STNN is revealed clearly through comparing the predicted results with the traditional models. Moreover, a new evaluated method (q-order multiscale complexity invariant distance) is applied to measure the predicted results of real stock index series, and the empirical results show that the proposed model indeed displays a good performance in forecasting stock market fluctuations. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Emerin plays a crucial role in nuclear invagination and in the nuclear calcium transient

PubMed Central

Shimojima, Masaya; Yuasa, Shinsuke; Motoda, Chikaaki; Yozu, Gakuto; Nagai, Toshihiro; Ito, Shogo; Lachmann, Mark; Kashimura, Shin; Takei, Makoto; Kusumoto, Dai; Kunitomi, Akira; Hayashiji, Nozomi; Seki, Tomohisa; Tohyama, Shugo; Hashimoto, Hisayuki; Kodaira, Masaki; Egashira, Toru; Hayashi, Kenshi; Nakanishi, Chiaki; Sakata, Kenji; Yamagishi, Masakazu; Fukuda, Keiichi

2017-01-01

Alteration of the nuclear Ca2+ transient is an early event in cardiac remodeling. Regulation of the nuclear Ca2+ transient is partly independent of the cytosolic Ca2+ transient in cardiomyocytes. One nuclear membrane protein, emerin, is encoded by EMD, and an EMD mutation causes Emery-Dreifuss muscular dystrophy (EDMD). It remains unclear whether emerin is involved in nuclear Ca2+ homeostasis. The aim of this study is to elucidate the role of emerin in rat cardiomyocytes by means of hypertrophic stimuli and in EDMD induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell-derived cardiomyocytes in terms of nuclear structure and the Ca2+ transient. The cardiac hypertrophic stimuli increased the nuclear area, decreased nuclear invagination, and increased the half-decay time of the nuclear Ca2+ transient in cardiomyocytes. Emd knockdown cardiomyocytes showed similar properties after hypertrophic stimuli. The EDMD-iPS cell-derived cardiomyocytes showed increased nuclear area, decreased nuclear invagination, and increased half-decay time of the nuclear Ca2+ transient. An autopsied heart from a patient with EDMD also showed increased nuclear area and decreased nuclear invagination. These data suggest that Emerin plays a crucial role in nuclear structure and in the nuclear Ca2+ transient. Thus, emerin and the nuclear Ca2+ transient are possible therapeutic targets in heart failure and EDMD. PMID:28290476

High and low frequency unfolded partial least squares regression based on empirical mode decomposition for quantitative analysis of fuel oil samples.

PubMed

Bian, Xihui; Li, Shujuan; Lin, Ligang; Tan, Xiaoyao; Fan, Qingjie; Li, Ming

2016-06-21

Accurate prediction of the model is fundamental to the successful analysis of complex samples. To utilize abundant information embedded over frequency and time domains, a novel regression model is presented for quantitative analysis of hydrocarbon contents in the fuel oil samples. The proposed method named as high and low frequency unfolded PLSR (HLUPLSR), which integrates empirical mode decomposition (EMD) and unfolded strategy with partial least squares regression (PLSR). In the proposed method, the original signals are firstly decomposed into a finite number of intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) and a residue by EMD. Secondly, the former high frequency IMFs are summed as a high frequency matrix and the latter IMFs and residue are summed as a low frequency matrix. Finally, the two matrices are unfolded to an extended matrix in variable dimension, and then the PLSR model is built between the extended matrix and the target values. Coupled with Ultraviolet (UV) spectroscopy, HLUPLSR has been applied to determine hydrocarbon contents of light gas oil and diesel fuels samples. Comparing with single PLSR and other signal processing techniques, the proposed method shows superiority in prediction ability and better model interpretation. Therefore, HLUPLSR method provides a promising tool for quantitative analysis of complex samples. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Application of the Hilbert-Huang Transform to Financial Data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Huang, Norden

2005-01-01

A paper discusses the application of the Hilbert-Huang transform (HHT) method to time-series financial-market data. The method was described, variously without and with the HHT name, in several prior NASA Tech Briefs articles and supporting documents. To recapitulate: The method is especially suitable for analyzing time-series data that represent nonstationary and nonlinear phenomena including physical phenomena and, in the present case, financial-market processes. The method involves the empirical mode decomposition (EMD), in which a complicated signal is decomposed into a finite number of functions, called "intrinsic mode functions" (IMFs), that admit well-behaved Hilbert transforms. The HHT consists of the combination of EMD and Hilbert spectral analysis. The local energies and the instantaneous frequencies derived from the IMFs through Hilbert transforms can be used to construct an energy-frequency-time distribution, denoted a Hilbert spectrum. The instant paper begins with a discussion of prior approaches to quantification of market volatility, summarizes the HHT method, then describes the application of the method in performing time-frequency analysis of mortgage-market data from the years 1972 through 2000. Filtering by use of the EMD is shown to be useful for quantifying market volatility.

Prediction of mean monthly river discharges in Colombia through Empirical Mode Decomposition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Carmona, A. M.; Poveda, G.

2015-04-01

The hydro-climatology of Colombia exhibits strong natural variability at a broad range of time scales including: inter-decadal, decadal, inter-annual, annual, intra-annual, intra-seasonal, and diurnal. Diverse applied sectors rely on quantitative predictions of river discharges for operational purposes including hydropower generation, agriculture, human health, fluvial navigation, territorial planning and management, risk preparedness and mitigation, among others. Various methodologies have been used to predict monthly mean river discharges that are based on "Predictive Analytics", an area of statistical analysis that studies the extraction of information from historical data to infer future trends and patterns. Our study couples the Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) with traditional methods, e.g. Autoregressive Model of Order 1 (AR1) and Neural Networks (NN), to predict mean monthly river discharges in Colombia, South America. The EMD allows us to decompose the historical time series of river discharges into a finite number of intrinsic mode functions (IMF) that capture the different oscillatory modes of different frequencies associated with the inherent time scales coexisting simultaneously in the signal (Huang et al. 1998, Huang and Wu 2008, Rao and Hsu, 2008). Our predictive method states that it is easier and simpler to predict each IMF at a time and then add them up together to obtain the predicted river discharge for a certain month, than predicting the full signal. This method is applied to 10 series of monthly mean river discharges in Colombia, using calibration periods of more than 25 years, and validation periods of about 12 years. Predictions are performed for time horizons spanning from 1 to 12 months. Our results show that predictions obtained through the traditional methods improve when the EMD is used as a previous step, since errors decrease by up to 13% when the AR1 model is used, and by up to 18% when using Neural Networks is combined with the EMD.

Earth Mover's Distance (EMD): A True Metric for Comparing Biomarker Expression Levels in Cell Populations.

PubMed

Orlova, Darya Y; Zimmerman, Noah; Meehan, Stephen; Meehan, Connor; Waters, Jeffrey; Ghosn, Eliver E B; Filatenkov, Alexander; Kolyagin, Gleb A; Gernez, Yael; Tsuda, Shanel; Moore, Wayne; Moss, Richard B; Herzenberg, Leonore A; Walther, Guenther

2016-01-01

Changes in the frequencies of cell subsets that (co)express characteristic biomarkers, or levels of the biomarkers on the subsets, are widely used as indices of drug response, disease prognosis, stem cell reconstitution, etc. However, although the currently available computational "gating" tools accurately reveal subset frequencies and marker expression levels, they fail to enable statistically reliable judgements as to whether these frequencies and expression levels differ significantly between/among subject groups. Here we introduce flow cytometry data analysis pipeline which includes the Earth Mover's Distance (EMD) metric as solution to this problem. Well known as an informative quantitative measure of differences between distributions, we present three exemplary studies showing that EMD 1) reveals clinically-relevant shifts in two markers on blood basophils responding to an offending allergen; 2) shows that ablative tumor radiation induces significant changes in the murine colon cancer tumor microenvironment; and, 3) ranks immunological differences in mouse peritoneal cavity cells harvested from three genetically distinct mouse strains.

xEMD procedures as a data - Assisted filtering method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Machrowska, Anna; Jonak, Józef

2018-01-01

The article presents the possibility of using Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD), Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition (EEMD), Complete Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition with Adaptive Noise (CEEMDAN) and Improved Complete Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition (ICEEMD) algorithms for mechanical system condition monitoring applications. There were presented the results of the xEMD procedures used for vibration signals of system in different states of wear.

In vitro studies on human periodontal ligament stem cell sheets enhanced by enamel matrix derivative.

PubMed

Wang, Zhongshan; Feng, Zhihong; Wu, Guofeng; Bai, Shizhu; Dong, Yan; Zhao, Yimin

2016-05-01

Numerous preclinical and clinical studies have focused on the periodontal regenerative functions of enamel matrix derivative (EMD), a heat-treated preparation derived from enamel matrix proteins (EMPs) of developing porcine teeth. In this study, periodontal ligament (PDL) stem cells (PDLSCs) were isolated, and the effects of EMD on the extracorporeal induction process and the characteristics of PDLSC sheets were investigated for their potential as a more effective stem-cell therapy. EMD-enhanced cell sheets could be induced by complete medium supplemented with 50 μg/mL vitamin C and 100 μg/mL EMD. The EMD-enhanced cell sheets appeared thicker and more compact than the normal PDLSC sheets, demonstrated more layers of cells (3-7 layers), secreted richer extracellular matrix (ECM), showed varying degrees of increases in mRNA expression of periodontal tissue-specific genes (COL I, POSTN), calcification-related genes (RUNX2, OPN, OCN) and a cementum tissue-specific gene (CAP), and possessed a better mineralization ability in terms of osteogenic differentiation in vitro. These EMD-enhanced cell sheets may represent a potential option for stem-cell therapy for PDL regeneration. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Relationship between esophageal clinical symptoms and manometry findings in patients with esophageal motility disorders: a cross-sectional study.

PubMed

FakhreYaseri, Hashem; FakhreYaseri, Ali Mohammad; Baradaran Moghaddam, Ali; Soltani Arabshhi, Seyed Kamran

2015-01-01

Manometry is the gold-standard diagnostic test for motility disorders in the esophagus. The development of high-resolution manometry catheters and software displays of manometry recordings in color-coded pressure plots have changed the diagnostic assessment of esophageal disease. The diagnostic value of particular esophageal clinical symptoms among patients suspected of esophageal motor disorders (EMDs) is still unknown. The aim of this study was to explore the sensitivity, specificity, and predictive accuracy of presenting esophageal symptoms between abnormal and normal esophageal manometry findings. We conducted a cross-sectional study of 623 patients aged 11-80 years. Data were collected from clinical examinations as well as patient questionnaires. The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy were calculated after high-resolution manometry plots were reviewed according to the most recent Chicago Criteria. The clinical symptoms were not sensitive enough to discriminate between EMDs. Nevertheless, dysphagia, noncardiac chest pain, hoarseness, vomiting, and weight loss had high specificity and high accuracy to distinguish EMDs from normal findings. Regurgitation and heartburn did not have good accuracy for the diagnosis of EMDs. Clinical symptoms are not reliable enough to discriminate between EMDs. Clinical symptoms can, however, discriminate between normal findings and EMDs, especially achalasia.

Eye movement dysfunction in first-degree relatives of patients with schizophrenia: a meta-analytic evaluation of candidate endophenotypes.

PubMed

Calkins, Monica E; Iacono, William G; Ones, Deniz S

2008-12-01

Several forms of eye movement dysfunction (EMD) are regarded as promising candidate endophenotypes of schizophrenia. Discrepancies in individual study results have led to inconsistent conclusions regarding particular aspects of EMD in relatives of schizophrenia patients. To quantitatively evaluate and compare the candidacy of smooth pursuit, saccade and fixation deficits in first-degree biological relatives, we conducted a set of meta-analytic investigations. Among 18 measures of EMD, memory-guided saccade accuracy and error rate, global smooth pursuit dysfunction, intrusive saccades during fixation, antisaccade error rate and smooth pursuit closed-loop gain emerged as best differentiating relatives from controls (standardized mean differences ranged from .46 to .66), with no significant differences among these measures. Anticipatory saccades, but no other smooth pursuit component measures were also increased in relatives. Visually-guided reflexive saccades were largely normal. Moderator analyses examining design characteristics revealed few variables affecting the magnitude of the meta-analytically observed effects. Moderate effect sizes of relatives v. controls in selective aspects of EMD supports their endophenotype potential. Future work should focus on facilitating endophenotype utility through attention to heterogeneity of EMD performance, relationships among forms of EMD, and application in molecular genetics studies.

Preliminary flight test results of the F100 EMD engine in an F-15 airplane

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Myers, L. P.; Burcham, F. W., Jr.

1984-01-01

A flight evaluation of the F100 Engine Model Derivative (EMD) is conducted. The F100 EMD is an advanced version of the F100 engine that powers the F15 and F16 airplanes. The F100 EMD features a bigger fan, higher temperature turbine, a Digital Electronic Engine Control system (DEEC), and a newly designed 16 segment afterburner, all of which results in a 15 to 20 percent increase in sea level thrust. The flight evaluations consist of investigation of performance (thrust, fuel flow, and airflow) and operability (transient response and airstart) in the F-15 airplane. The performance of the F100 EMD is excellent. Aircraft acceleration time to Mach 2.0 is reduced by 23 percent with two F100 EMD engines. Several anomalies are discovered in the operability evaluations. A software change to the DEEC improved the throttle, and subsequent Cooper Harper ratings of 3 to 4 are obtained. In the extreme upper left hand corner of the flight enveloped, compressor stalls occurr when the throttle is retarded to idle power. These stalls are not predicted by altitude facility tests or stability for the compressor.

Mobile videoconferencing for enhanced emergency medical communication - a shot in the dark or a walk in the park? ‒‒ A simulation study.

PubMed

Melbye, Sigurd; Hotvedt, Martin; Bolle, Stein Roald

2014-06-02

Videoconferencing on mobile phones may enhance communication, but knowledge on its quality in various situations is needed before it can be used in medical emergencies. Mobile phones automatically activate loudspeaker functionality during videoconferencing, making calls particularly vulnerable to background noise. The aim of this study was to investigate if videoconferencing can be used between lay bystanders and Emergency Medical Dispatch (EMD) operators for initial emergency calls during medical emergencies, under suboptimal sound and light conditions. Videoconferencing was tested between 90 volunteers and an emergency medical dispatcher in a standardized scenario of a medical emergency. Three different environments were used for the trials: indoors with moderate background noise, outdoors with daylight and much background noise, and outdoors during nighttime with little background noise. Thirty participants were recruited for each of the three locations. After informed consent, each participant was asked to use a video mobile phone to communicate with an EMD operator. During the video call the EMD operator gave instructions for tasks to be performed by the participant. The video quality from the caller to the EMD was evaluated by the EMD operator and rated on a five step scale ranging from "not able to see" to "good video quality". Sound quality between participants and EMD operators was assessed by a method developed for this trial. Kruskal - Wallis and Chi-square tests were used for statistical analysis. Video quality was significantly different between the groups (p <0.001), and the nighttime group had lower video quality. For most sessions in the nighttime group it was still possible to see actions done at the simulated emergency site. All participants were able to perform their tasks according to the instructions given by dispatchers, although with a need for more repetitions during sessions with much background noise. No calls were rated by dispatchers as incomprehensible due to low sound quality and only 3% of the calls were considered somewhat difficult or very difficult to understand. Videoconferencing on mobile phones can be used for the initial emergency call during medical emergencies also in suboptimal conditions.

Seismic random noise attenuation method based on empirical mode decomposition of Hausdorff dimension

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yan, Z.; Luan, X.

2017-12-01

Introduction Empirical mode decomposition (EMD) is a noise suppression algorithm by using wave field separation, which is based on the scale differences between effective signal and noise. However, since the complexity of the real seismic wave field results in serious aliasing modes, it is not ideal and effective to denoise with this method alone. Based on the multi-scale decomposition characteristics of the signal EMD algorithm, combining with Hausdorff dimension constraints, we propose a new method for seismic random noise attenuation. First of all, We apply EMD algorithm adaptive decomposition of seismic data and obtain a series of intrinsic mode function (IMF)with different scales. Based on the difference of Hausdorff dimension between effectively signals and random noise, we identify IMF component mixed with random noise. Then we use threshold correlation filtering process to separate the valid signal and random noise effectively. Compared with traditional EMD method, the results show that the new method of seismic random noise attenuation has a better suppression effect. The implementation process The EMD algorithm is used to decompose seismic signals into IMF sets and analyze its spectrum. Since most of the random noise is high frequency noise, the IMF sets can be divided into three categories: the first category is the effective wave composition of the larger scale; the second category is the noise part of the smaller scale; the third category is the IMF component containing random noise. Then, the third kind of IMF component is processed by the Hausdorff dimension algorithm, and the appropriate time window size, initial step and increment amount are selected to calculate the Hausdorff instantaneous dimension of each component. The dimension of the random noise is between 1.0 and 1.05, while the dimension of the effective wave is between 1.05 and 2.0. On the basis of the previous steps, according to the dimension difference between the random noise and effective signal, we extracted the sample points, whose fractal dimension value is less than or equal to 1.05 for the each IMF components, to separate the residual noise. Using the IMF components after dimension filtering processing and the effective wave IMF components after the first selection for reconstruction, we can obtained the results of de-noising.

Electromagnetic Dissociation of Uranium in Heavy Ion Collisions at 120 Mev/a

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Justice, Marvin Lealon

The heavy-ion induced electromagnetic dissociation (EMD) of a 120 MeV/A ^{238}U beam incident on five targets (^9Be, ^{27}Al, ^ {nat}Cu, ^{nat} Ag, and ^{nat}U) has been studied experimentally. Electromagnetic dissociation at this beam energy is essentially a two step process involving the excitation of a giant resonance followed by particle decay. At 120 MeV/A there is predicted to be a significant contribution (~25%) of the giant quadrupole resonance to the EMD cross sections. The specific exit channel which was looked at was projectile fission. The two fission fragments were detected in coincidence by an array of solid-state DeltaE-E detectors, allowing the charges of the fragments to be determined to within +/- .5 units. The events were sorted on the basis of the sums of the fragments' charges, acceptance corrections were applied, and total cross sections for the most peripheral events (i.e. those leading to charge sums of approximately 92) were determined. Electromagnetic fission at the beam energy of this experiment always leads to a true charge sum of 92. Due to the imperfect resolution of the detectors, charge sums of 91 and 93 were included in order to account for all of the electromagnetic fission events. The experimentally observed cross sections are due to nuclear interaction processes as well as electromagnetic processes. Under the conditions of this experiment, the cross sections for the beryllium target are almost entirely due to nuclear processes. The nuclear cross sections for the other four targets were determined by extrapolation from the beryllium data using a geometrical scaling model. After subtraction of the nuclear cross sections, the resulting electromagnetic cross sections are compared to theoretical calculations based on the equivalent photon approximation. Systematic uncertainties associated with the normalization of the data make quantitative comparisons with theory difficult, however. The systematic uncertainties are discussed and suggestions for improving the experiment are given.

Method for exploratory cluster analysis and visualisation of single-trial ERP ensembles.

PubMed

Williams, N J; Nasuto, S J; Saddy, J D

2015-07-30

The validity of ensemble averaging on event-related potential (ERP) data has been questioned, due to its assumption that the ERP is identical across trials. Thus, there is a need for preliminary testing for cluster structure in the data. We propose a complete pipeline for the cluster analysis of ERP data. To increase the signal-to-noise (SNR) ratio of the raw single-trials, we used a denoising method based on Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD). Next, we used a bootstrap-based method to determine the number of clusters, through a measure called the Stability Index (SI). We then used a clustering algorithm based on a Genetic Algorithm (GA) to define initial cluster centroids for subsequent k-means clustering. Finally, we visualised the clustering results through a scheme based on Principal Component Analysis (PCA). After validating the pipeline on simulated data, we tested it on data from two experiments - a P300 speller paradigm on a single subject and a language processing study on 25 subjects. Results revealed evidence for the existence of 6 clusters in one experimental condition from the language processing study. Further, a two-way chi-square test revealed an influence of subject on cluster membership. Our analysis operates on denoised single-trials, the number of clusters are determined in a principled manner and the results are presented through an intuitive visualisation. Given the cluster structure in some experimental conditions, we suggest application of cluster analysis as a preliminary step before ensemble averaging. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A wavelet-based technique to predict treatment outcome for Major Depressive Disorder

PubMed Central

Xia, Likun; Mohd Yasin, Mohd Azhar; Azhar Ali, Syed Saad

2017-01-01

Treatment management for Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) has been challenging. However, electroencephalogram (EEG)-based predictions of antidepressant’s treatment outcome may help during antidepressant’s selection and ultimately improve the quality of life for MDD patients. In this study, a machine learning (ML) method involving pretreatment EEG data was proposed to perform such predictions for Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRIs). For this purpose, the acquisition of experimental data involved 34 MDD patients and 30 healthy controls. Consequently, a feature matrix was constructed involving time-frequency decomposition of EEG data based on wavelet transform (WT) analysis, termed as EEG data matrix. However, the resultant EEG data matrix had high dimensionality. Therefore, dimension reduction was performed based on a rank-based feature selection method according to a criterion, i.e., receiver operating characteristic (ROC). As a result, the most significant features were identified and further be utilized during the training and testing of a classification model, i.e., the logistic regression (LR) classifier. Finally, the LR model was validated with 100 iterations of 10-fold cross-validation (10-CV). The classification results were compared with short-time Fourier transform (STFT) analysis, and empirical mode decompositions (EMD). The wavelet features extracted from frontal and temporal EEG data were found statistically significant. In comparison with other time-frequency approaches such as the STFT and EMD, the WT analysis has shown highest classification accuracy, i.e., accuracy = 87.5%, sensitivity = 95%, and specificity = 80%. In conclusion, significant wavelet coefficients extracted from frontal and temporal pre-treatment EEG data involving delta and theta frequency bands may predict antidepressant’s treatment outcome for the MDD patients. PMID:28152063

Instantaneous Respiratory Estimation from Thoracic Impedance by Empirical Mode Decomposition.

PubMed

Wang, Fu-Tai; Chan, Hsiao-Lung; Wang, Chun-Li; Jian, Hung-Ming; Lin, Sheng-Hsiung

2015-07-07

Impedance plethysmography provides a way to measure respiratory activity by sensing the change of thoracic impedance caused by inspiration and expiration. This measurement imposes little pressure on the body and uses the human body as the sensor, thereby reducing the need for adjustments as body position changes and making it suitable for long-term or ambulatory monitoring. The empirical mode decomposition (EMD) can decompose a signal into several intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) that disclose nonstationary components as well as stationary components and, similarly, capture respiratory episodes from thoracic impedance. However, upper-body movements usually produce motion artifacts that are not easily removed by digital filtering. Moreover, large motion artifacts disable the EMD to decompose respiratory components. In this paper, motion artifacts are detected and replaced by the data mirrored from the prior and the posterior before EMD processing. A novel intrinsic respiratory reconstruction index that considers both global and local properties of IMFs is proposed to define respiration-related IMFs for respiration reconstruction and instantaneous respiratory estimation. Based on the experiments performing a series of static and dynamic physical activates, our results showed the proposed method had higher cross correlations between respiratory frequencies estimated from thoracic impedance and those from oronasal airflow based on small window size compared to the Fourier transform-based method.

Instantaneous Respiratory Estimation from Thoracic Impedance by Empirical Mode Decomposition

PubMed Central

Wang, Fu-Tai; Chan, Hsiao-Lung; Wang, Chun-Li; Jian, Hung-Ming; Lin, Sheng-Hsiung

2015-01-01

Impedance plethysmography provides a way to measure respiratory activity by sensing the change of thoracic impedance caused by inspiration and expiration. This measurement imposes little pressure on the body and uses the human body as the sensor, thereby reducing the need for adjustments as body position changes and making it suitable for long-term or ambulatory monitoring. The empirical mode decomposition (EMD) can decompose a signal into several intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) that disclose nonstationary components as well as stationary components and, similarly, capture respiratory episodes from thoracic impedance. However, upper-body movements usually produce motion artifacts that are not easily removed by digital filtering. Moreover, large motion artifacts disable the EMD to decompose respiratory components. In this paper, motion artifacts are detected and replaced by the data mirrored from the prior and the posterior before EMD processing. A novel intrinsic respiratory reconstruction index that considers both global and local properties of IMFs is proposed to define respiration-related IMFs for respiration reconstruction and instantaneous respiratory estimation. Based on the experiments performing a series of static and dynamic physical activates, our results showed the proposed method had higher cross correlations between respiratory frequencies estimated from thoracic impedance and those from oronasal airflow based on small window size compared to the Fourier transform-based method. PMID:26198231

Synthesis, characterization and application of doped electrolytic manganese dioxides

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jantscher, Wolfgang; Binder, Leo; Fiedler, Dirk A.; Andreaus, Reinhard; Kordesch, Karl

Electrolytic manganese dioxides (EMDs) were prepared on the 100 g scale by anodic deposition from acidic aqueous solutions of manganese sulfate. In situ doping with titanium ions was achieved by addition of tetra- n-butoxytitanium to the electrolytic bath. Samples were also doped ex situ by washing the products with aqueous barium hydroxide solution. The EMDs were characterized by electron microscopy studies and BET surface area determinations. Cyclic abrasive stripping voltammetry was successfully applied to evaluate the rechargeability of the newly synthesized undoped and doped EMDs in 9 M KOH. Relative discharge capacities at different depths of discharge (DOD) with respect to the first one-electron reduction of γ-MnO 2 are compared for different EMDs. At about 30% DOD, resulting relative discharge capacities show essentially the same trend as those measured in AA cells from about 10 to 20 discharge/charge cycles onwards. Accordingly, titanium-doped EMD was shown to exhibit superior charge retention and rechargeability when compared to the titanium-free samples.

Improving prediction accuracy of cooling load using EMD, PSR and RBFNN

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shen, Limin; Wen, Yuanmei; Li, Xiaohong

2017-08-01

To increase the accuracy for the prediction of cooling load demand, this work presents an EMD (empirical mode decomposition)-PSR (phase space reconstruction) based RBFNN (radial basis function neural networks) method. Firstly, analyzed the chaotic nature of the real cooling load demand, transformed the non-stationary cooling load historical data into several stationary intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) by using EMD. Secondly, compared the RBFNN prediction accuracies of each IMFs and proposed an IMF combining scheme that is combine the lower-frequency components (called IMF4-IMF6 combined) while keep the higher frequency component (IMF1, IMF2, IMF3) and the residual unchanged. Thirdly, reconstruct phase space for each combined components separately, process the highest frequency component (IMF1) by differential method and predict with RBFNN in the reconstructed phase spaces. Real cooling load data of a centralized ice storage cooling systems in Guangzhou are used for simulation. The results show that the proposed hybrid method outperforms the traditional methods.

A valuable approach to the use of electronic medical data in primary care research: Panning for gold.

PubMed

Barnett, Stephen; Henderson, Joan; Hodgkins, Adam; Harrison, Christopher; Ghosh, Abhijeet; Dijkmans-Hadley, Bridget; Britt, Helena; Bonney, Andrew

2017-05-01

Electronic medical data (EMD) from electronic health records of general practice computer systems have enormous research potential, yet many variables are unreliable. The aim of this study was to compare selected data variables from general practice EMD with a reliable, representative national dataset (Bettering the Evaluation and Care of Health (BEACH)) in order to validate their use for primary care research. EMD variables were compared with encounter data from the nationally representative BEACH program using χ 2 tests and robust 95% confidence intervals to test their validity (measure what they reportedly measure). The variables focused on for this study were patient age, sex, smoking status and medications prescribed at the visit. The EMD sample from six general practices in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia, yielded data on 196,515 patient encounters. Details of 90,553 encounters were recorded in the 2013 BEACH dataset from 924 general practitioners. No significant differences in patient age ( p = 0.36) or sex ( p = 0.39) were found. EMD had a lower rate of current smokers and higher average scripts per visit, but similar prescribing distribution patterns. Validating EMD variables offers avenues for improving primary care delivery and measuring outcomes of care to inform clinical practice and health policy.

Multidimensional k-nearest neighbor model based on EEMD for financial time series forecasting

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Ningning; Lin, Aijing; Shang, Pengjian

2017-07-01

In this paper, we propose a new two-stage methodology that combines the ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) with multidimensional k-nearest neighbor model (MKNN) in order to forecast the closing price and high price of the stocks simultaneously. The modified algorithm of k-nearest neighbors (KNN) has an increasingly wide application in the prediction of all fields. Empirical mode decomposition (EMD) decomposes a nonlinear and non-stationary signal into a series of intrinsic mode functions (IMFs), however, it cannot reveal characteristic information of the signal with much accuracy as a result of mode mixing. So ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD), an improved method of EMD, is presented to resolve the weaknesses of EMD by adding white noise to the original data. With EEMD, the components with true physical meaning can be extracted from the time series. Utilizing the advantage of EEMD and MKNN, the new proposed ensemble empirical mode decomposition combined with multidimensional k-nearest neighbor model (EEMD-MKNN) has high predictive precision for short-term forecasting. Moreover, we extend this methodology to the case of two-dimensions to forecast the closing price and high price of the four stocks (NAS, S&P500, DJI and STI stock indices) at the same time. The results indicate that the proposed EEMD-MKNN model has a higher forecast precision than EMD-KNN, KNN method and ARIMA.

Denoising of chaotic signal using independent component analysis and empirical mode decomposition with circulate translating

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wen-Bo, Wang; Xiao-Dong, Zhang; Yuchan, Chang; Xiang-Li, Wang; Zhao, Wang; Xi, Chen; Lei, Zheng

2016-01-01

In this paper, a new method to reduce noises within chaotic signals based on ICA (independent component analysis) and EMD (empirical mode decomposition) is proposed. The basic idea is decomposing chaotic signals and constructing multidimensional input vectors, firstly, on the base of EMD and its translation invariance. Secondly, it makes the independent component analysis on the input vectors, which means that a self adapting denoising is carried out for the intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) of chaotic signals. Finally, all IMFs compose the new denoised chaotic signal. Experiments on the Lorenz chaotic signal composed of different Gaussian noises and the monthly observed chaotic sequence on sunspots were put into practice. The results proved that the method proposed in this paper is effective in denoising of chaotic signals. Moreover, it can correct the center point in the phase space effectively, which makes it approach the real track of the chaotic attractor. Project supported by the National Science and Technology, China (Grant No. 2012BAJ15B04), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 41071270 and 61473213), the Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Province, China (Grant No. 2015CFB424), the State Key Laboratory Foundation of Satellite Ocean Environment Dynamics, China (Grant No. SOED1405), the Hubei Provincial Key Laboratory Foundation of Metallurgical Industry Process System Science, China (Grant No. Z201303), and the Hubei Key Laboratory Foundation of Transportation Internet of Things, Wuhan University of Technology, China (Grant No.2015III015-B02).

The effect of acidity of electrolyte on the porosity and the nanostructure morphology of electrolytic manganese dioxide

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Adelkhani, H.

2012-06-01

The effects of acidity of electrolyte (pH) on the hysteresis behavior, the specific surface area, and nanostructure morphology of electrolytic manganese dioxides (EMDs) have been studied by using the Barrett-Joyner-Halenda (BJH) analysis, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images analysis. EMD samples are electrodeposited at a variable pH (6 to 1) and many fixed pH (2, 3, 4, 5, and 6). Results indicate that pH play key roles in the characteristics of EMD. The samples obtained at low pH (2 and 3) show multi-branched morphology and represent a H4 hysteresis loop. At pH 4 and 5, a uniform and dense structure of MnO2 is obtained without hysteresis behavior. The sample electrodeposited at pH 6 shows a regular reticulate, that its adsorption-desorption isotherm show hysteresis behavior. By electrodeposition at a variable pH, the sample shows a cauliflower-like and multi-branched form. From the viewpoint of classification of isotherm, pH strongly affects on Type of isotherm. The results show that γ-MnO2 is as main-product of electrodeposition and α-MnO2 and β-MnO2 were obtained as side-product at low and high pH, respectively.

Effects of enamel matrix derivative on the proliferation and osteogenic differentiation of human gingival mesenchymal stem cells

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Introduction Gingiva-derived mesenchymal stem cells (GMSCs) have recently been harvested and applied for rebuilding lost periodontal tissue. Enamel matrix derivative (EMD) has been used for periodontal regeneration and the formation of new cementum with inserting collagen fibers; however, alveolar bone formation is minimal. Recently, EMD has been shown to enhance the proliferation and mineralization of human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells. Because the gingival flap is the major component to cover the surgical wound, the effects of EMD on the proliferation and mineralization of GMSCs were evaluated in the present study. Methods After single cell suspension, the GMSCs were isolated from the connective tissues of human gingiva. The colony forming unit assay of the isolated GMSCs was measured. The expression of stem cell markers was examined by flow cytometry. The cellular telomerase activity was identified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The osteogenic, adipogenic and neural differentiations of the GMSCs were further examined. The cell proliferation was determined by MTS assay, while the expression of mRNA and protein for mineralization (including core binding factor alpha, cbfα-1; alkaline phosphatase, ALP; and osteocalcin, OC; ameloblastin, AMBN) were analyzed by real time-PCR, enzyme activity and confocal laser scanning microscopy. Results The cell colonies could be easily identified and the colony forming rates and the telomerase activities increased after passaging. The GMSCs expressed high levels of surface markers for CD73, CD90, and CD105, but showed low expression of STRO-1. Osteogenic, adipogenic and neural differentiations were successfully induced. The proliferation of GMSCs was increased after EMD treatment. ALP mRNA was significantly augmented by treating with EMD for 3 hours, whereas AMBN mRNA was significantly increased at 6 hours after EMD treatment. The gene expression of OC was enhanced at the dose of 100 μg/ml EMD at day 3. Increased protein expression for cbfα-1 at day 3, for ALP at day 5 and 7, and for OC at week 4 after the EMD treatments were observed. Conclusions Human GMSCs could be successfully isolated and identified. EMD treatments not only induced the proliferation of GMSCs but also enhanced their osteogenic differentiation after induction. PMID:24739572

Evaluation of atrial electromechanical delay and diastolic functions in patients with hyperthyroidism.

PubMed

Sokmen, Abdullah; Acar, Gurkan; Sokmen, Gulizar; Akcay, Ahmet; Akkoyun, Murat; Koroglu, Sedat; Nacar, Alper Bugra; Ozkaya, Mesut

2013-11-01

Hyperthyroidism is a well-known cause of atrial fibrillation (AF) which is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Atrial electromechanical delay (EMD) is a significant predictor of AF. The aim of this study was to assess the atrial EMD and diastolic functions in subclinical and overt hyperthyroidism by using tissue Doppler imaging (TDI). The study population consisted of 3 groups: group I (30 healthy subjects), group II (38 patients with subclinical hyperthyroidism), and group III (25 patients with overt hyperthyroidism). Atrial electromechanical coupling was measured with TDI. Standard echocardiographic measurements and parameters of diastolic function were obtained by conventional echocardiography and TDI. Intra- and inter-atrial EMD were significantly prolonged in subclinical and overt hyperthyroidism compared with control group (P = 0.03 and P < 0.001 for intra-atrial EMD; P < 0.001 for inter-atrial EMD). In groups II and III, mitral A velocity (P = 0.005 and P = 0.001) and mitral E-wave deceleration time (P < 0.001 and P = 0.02) were significantly increased, and mitral E/A ratio (P = 0.005 and P = 0.001) was significantly decreased compared with the control group. The lateral mitral Em /Am ratio in group II and group III was significantly lower than controls (P = 0.001). Mitral Em /Am ratio (β = -0.32, P = 0.002) and thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) level (β = -0.27, P = 0.009) were negatively and independently correlated with inter-atrial EMD. This study showed that intra- and inter-atrial electromechanical intervals were prolonged and diastolic function was impaired in both overt and subclinical hyperthyroidism. TSH level and mitral Em /Am ratio were found as independent predictors of atrial EMD. © 2013, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Esophageal motor disorders are frequent during pre and post lung transplantation. Can they influence lung rejection?

PubMed

Ciriza de Los Ríos, Constanza; Canga Rodríguez-Valcárcel, Fernando; de Pablo Gafas, Alicia; Castel de Lucas, Isabel; Lora Pablos, David; Castellano Tortajada, Gregorio

2018-06-01

lung transplantation (LTx) is a viable option for most patients with end-stage lung diseases. Esophageal motor disorders (EMD) are frequent in candidates for LTx, but there is very little data about changes in esophageal motility post-LTx. the aim of our study was to assess esophageal motor disorders by high resolution manometry (HRM) both pre-LTx and six months post-LTx in patients with and without organ rejection. HRM (Manoscan®) was performed in 57 patients both pre-LTx and six months post-LTx. HRM plots were analyzed according to the Chicago classification 3.0. EMD were found in 33.3% and in 49.1% of patients pre-LTx and post-LTx, respectively, and abnormal peristalsis was more frequently found post-LTx (p = 0.018). Hypercontractile esophagus was frequently found post-LTx (1.8% and 19.3% pre-LTx and post-LTx, respectively). Esophagogastric junction (EGJ) morphology changed significantly pre-LTx and post-LTx; type I (normal) was more frequent post-LTx (63-2% and 82.5% respectively, p = 0.007). EMD were more frequent post-LTx in both the non-rejection and rejection group, although particularly in the rejection group (43.2% and 69.2% respectively, p = 0.09). EMD such as distal spasm, hypercontractile esophagus and EGJ outflow obstruction were also observed more frequently post-LTx in the rejection group. significant changes in esophageal motility were observed pre-LTx and particularly post-LTx; hypercontractile esophagus was a frequent EMD found post-LTx. EMD were more frequent in the group of patients that experienced organ rejection compared to the non-rejection group. EMD leading to an impaired esophageal clearance should be considered as an additional factor that contributes to LTx failure.

Assessment of atrial electromechanical delay and P-wave dispersion in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

PubMed

Demir, Kenan; Avci, Ahmet; Kaya, Zeynettin; Marakoglu, Kamile; Ceylan, Esra; Yilmaz, Ahmet; Ersecgin, Ahmet; Armutlukuyu, Mustafa; Altunkeser, Bulent Behlul

2016-04-01

Diabetes mellitus is an independent and strong risk factor for development of atrial fibrillation (AF). Electrophysiologic and electromechanical abnormalities are associated with a higher risk of AF. In this study we aimed to determine the correlation of atrial conduction abnormalities between the surface electrocardiographic and tissue Doppler echocardiographic measurements in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients. A total of 88 consecutive T2DM patients and 49 age-, gender-, and body mass index-matched healthy volunteers were included in the present study. Baseline characteristics were recorded and 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring, transthoracic echocardiography, and 12-lead surface electrocardiography were performed for all study participants. Atrial electromechanical delay (EMD) intervals were measured. Maximum P-wave duration and P-wave dispersion (Pd) were significantly higher in patients with T2DM (105.7±10.2ms vs. 102.2±7.5ms, p=0.02; 40.6±7.6ms vs. 33.6±5.9ms, p<0.001, respectively). Interatrial, intraatrial, and intraleft atrial EMD were significantly higher in the T2DM patients when compared with the controls (16.5±7.8ms vs.11.2±4.4ms, p<0.001; 9.0±7.3ms vs. 6.0±3.8ms, p=0.002, and 7.4±5.2ms vs. 5.1±3.2ms, p=0.002 respectively). Correlation analysis showed a positive correlation between interatrial EMD and Pd (r=0.429, p<0.001) and left atrial volume (r=0.428, p<0.001). In this study, there was significant EMD and Pd in patients with T2DM as compared with healthy volunteers. Additionally, interatrial EMD was correlated with Pd and left atrial volume index. Copyright © 2015 Japanese College of Cardiology. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Cellular Effects of Enamel Matrix Derivative Are Associated With Specific Protein Components

DTIC Science & Technology

2005-05-01

porcine teeth. Although EMD has been shown to enhance both soft tissue healing and regeneration of the periodontium, the mechanism of this action is still...to regenerate periodontal tissues that have been lost due to disease. The effectiveness of EMD has been proven both clinically and histologically in...however, a contrarian study implied that there is no difference in soft - tissue wound healing following periodontal surgery with the use of EMD (Hagenaars

Proline-Rich Peptide Mimics Effects of Enamel Matrix Derivative on Rat Oral Mucosa Incisional Wound Healing.

PubMed

Villa, Oscar; Wohlfahrt, Johan C; Mdla, Ibrahimu; Petzold, Christiane; Reseland, Janne E; Snead, Malcolm L; Lyngstadaas, Staale P

2015-12-01

Proline-rich peptides have been shown to promote periodontal regeneration. However, their effect on soft tissue wound healing has not yet been investigated. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of enamel matrix derivative (EMD), tyrosine-rich amelogenin peptide (TRAP), and a synthetic proline-rich peptide (P2) on acute wound healing after a full-thickness flap procedure in an incisional rat model. This experimental study has a split-mouth, randomized, placebo-controlled design. Test and control wounds were created on the palatal mucosa of 54 Sprague-Dawley rats. Wounds were histologically processed, and reepithelialization, leukocyte infiltration, and angiogenesis were assessed at days 1, 3, and 7 post-surgery. EMD and P2 significantly promoted early wound closure at day 1 (P <0.001 and P = 0.004, respectively). EMD maintained a significant acceleration of reepithelialization at day 3 (P = 0.004). Wounds treated by EMD and P2 showed increased angiogenesis during the first 3 days of healing (P = 0.03 and 0.001, respectively). Leukocyte infiltration was decreased in EMD-treated wounds at day 1 (P = 0.03), and P2 and TRAP induced a similar effect at days 3 (P = 0.002 and P <0.0001, respectively) and 7 (P = 0.005 and P <0.001). EMD and P2 promoted reepithelialization and neovascularization in full-thickness surgical wounds on rat oral mucosa.

Electromuscular incapacitating devices discharge and risk of severe bradycardia.

PubMed

Havranek, Stepan; Neuzil, Petr; Linhart, Ales

2015-06-01

Electromuscular incapacitating devices (EMDs) are high-voltage, low-current stimulators causing involuntary muscle contractions and sensory response. Existing evidence about cardiac effects of EMD remains inconclusive. The aim of our study was to analyze electrocardiographic, echocardiographic, and microvolt T-wave alternans (MTWA) changes induced by EMD discharge.We examined 26 volunteers (22 men; median age 30 years) who underwent single standard 5-second duration exposure to TASER X26 under continuous echocardiographic and electrocardiographic monitoring. Microvolt T-wave alternans testing was performed at baseline (MTWA-1), as well as immediately and 60 minutes after EMD exposure (MTWA-2 and MTWA-3, respectively).Mean heart rate (HR) increased significantly from 88 ± 17 beats per minute before to 129 ± 17 beats per minute after exposure (P < 0.001). However, in 2 individuals, an abrupt decrease in HR was observed. In one of them, interval between two consecutive beats increased up to 1.7 seconds during the discharge. New onset of supraventricular premature beats was observed after discharge in 1 patient. Results of MTWA-1, MTWA-2, and MTWA-3 tests were positive in one of the subjects, each time in a different case.Standard EMD exposure can be associated with a nonuniform reaction of HR and followed by heart rhythm disturbances. New MTWA positivity can reflect either the effect of EMD exposure or a potential false positivity of MTWA assessments.

Appropriate IMFs associated with cepstrum and envelope analysis for ball-bearing fault diagnosis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tsao, Wen-Chang; Pan, Min-Chun

2014-03-01

The traditional envelope analysis is an effective method for the fault detection of rolling bearings. However, all the resonant frequency bands must be examined during the bearing-fault detection process. To handle the above deficiency, this paper proposes using the empirical mode decomposition (EMD) to select a proper intrinsic mode function (IMF) for the subsequent detection tools; here both envelope analysis and cepstrum analysis are employed and compared. By virtue of the band-pass filtering nature of EMD, the resonant frequency bands of structure to be measured are captured in the IMFs. As impulses arising from rolling elements striking bearing faults modulate with structure resonance, proper IMFs potentially enable to characterize fault signatures. In the study, faulty ball bearings are used to justify the proposed method, and comparisons with the traditional envelope analysis are made. Post the use of IMFs highlighting faultybearing features, the performance of using envelope analysis and cepstrum analysis to single out bearing faults is objectively compared and addressed; it is noted that generally envelope analysis offers better performance.

The recognition of ocean red tide with hyper-spectral-image based on EMD

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, Wencang; Wei, Hongli; Shi, Changjiang; Ji, Guangrong

2008-05-01

A new technique is introduced in this paper regarding red tide recognition with remotely sensed hyper-spectral images based on empirical mode decomposition (EMD), from an artificial red tide experiment in the East China Sea in 2002. A set of characteristic parameters that describe absorbing crest and reflecting crest of the red tide and its recognition methods are put forward based on general picture data, with which the spectral information of certain non-dominant alga species of a red tide occurrence is analyzed for establishing the foundation to estimate the species. Comparative experiments have proved that the method is effective. Meanwhile, the transitional area between red-tide zone and non-red-tide zone can be detected with the information of thickness of algae influence, with which a red tide can be forecast.

The Army’s Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle (AMPV): Background and Issues for Congress

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-01-11

award a five-year Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) contract in May 2014 worth $458 million to a single contractor for 29 prototypes...had selected BAE Systems Land and Armaments L.P. as the winner of the EMD contract . The initial award is for 52 months, valued at about $382 million...289 vehicles for a total contract value of $1.2 billion. This EMD contract does not include EAB AMPV variants. The AMPV reportedly successfully

Daily air quality index forecasting with hybrid models: A case in China.

PubMed

Zhu, Suling; Lian, Xiuyuan; Liu, Haixia; Hu, Jianming; Wang, Yuanyuan; Che, Jinxing

2017-12-01

Air quality is closely related to quality of life. Air pollution forecasting plays a vital role in air pollution warnings and controlling. However, it is difficult to attain accurate forecasts for air pollution indexes because the original data are non-stationary and chaotic. The existing forecasting methods, such as multiple linear models, autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) and support vector regression (SVR), cannot fully capture the information from series of pollution indexes. Therefore, new effective techniques need to be proposed to forecast air pollution indexes. The main purpose of this research is to develop effective forecasting models for regional air quality indexes (AQI) to address the problems above and enhance forecasting accuracy. Therefore, two hybrid models (EMD-SVR-Hybrid and EMD-IMFs-Hybrid) are proposed to forecast AQI data. The main steps of the EMD-SVR-Hybrid model are as follows: the data preprocessing technique EMD (empirical mode decomposition) is utilized to sift the original AQI data to obtain one group of smoother IMFs (intrinsic mode functions) and a noise series, where the IMFs contain the important information (level, fluctuations and others) from the original AQI series. LS-SVR is applied to forecast the sum of the IMFs, and then, S-ARIMA (seasonal ARIMA) is employed to forecast the residual sequence of LS-SVR. In addition, EMD-IMFs-Hybrid first separately forecasts the IMFs via statistical models and sums the forecasting results of the IMFs as EMD-IMFs. Then, S-ARIMA is employed to forecast the residuals of EMD-IMFs. To certify the proposed hybrid model, AQI data from June 2014 to August 2015 collected from Xingtai in China are utilized as a test case to investigate the empirical research. In terms of some of the forecasting assessment measures, the AQI forecasting results of Xingtai show that the two proposed hybrid models are superior to ARIMA, SVR, GRNN, EMD-GRNN, Wavelet-GRNN and Wavelet-SVR. Therefore, the proposed hybrid models can be used as effective and simple tools for air pollution forecasting and warning as well as for management. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Intelligent diagnosis of short hydraulic signal based on improved EEMD and SVM with few low-dimensional training samples

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Meijun; Tang, Jian; Zhang, Xiaoming; Zhang, Jiaojiao

2016-03-01

The high accurate classification ability of an intelligent diagnosis method often needs a large amount of training samples with high-dimensional eigenvectors, however the characteristics of the signal need to be extracted accurately. Although the existing EMD(empirical mode decomposition) and EEMD(ensemble empirical mode decomposition) are suitable for processing non-stationary and non-linear signals, but when a short signal, such as a hydraulic impact signal, is concerned, their decomposition accuracy become very poor. An improve EEMD is proposed specifically for short hydraulic impact signals. The improvements of this new EEMD are mainly reflected in four aspects, including self-adaptive de-noising based on EEMD, signal extension based on SVM(support vector machine), extreme center fitting based on cubic spline interpolation, and pseudo component exclusion based on cross-correlation analysis. After the energy eigenvector is extracted from the result of the improved EEMD, the fault pattern recognition based on SVM with small amount of low-dimensional training samples is studied. At last, the diagnosis ability of improved EEMD+SVM method is compared with the EEMD+SVM and EMD+SVM methods, and its diagnosis accuracy is distinctly higher than the other two methods no matter the dimension of the eigenvectors are low or high. The improved EEMD is very propitious for the decomposition of short signal, such as hydraulic impact signal, and its combination with SVM has high ability for the diagnosis of hydraulic impact faults.

Osteoblastic differentiation of human stem cells derived from bone marrow and periodontal ligament under the effect of enamel matrix derivative and transforming growth factor-beta.

PubMed

Houshmand, Behzad; Behnia, Hossein; Khoshzaban, Ahad; Morad, Golnaz; Behrouzi, Gholamreza; Dashti, Seyedeh Ghazaleh; Khojasteh, Arash

2013-01-01

To increase the understanding of the applicability of biomaterials and growth factors in enhancing stem cell-based bone regeneration modalities, this study evaluated the effects of enamel matrix derivative (EMD) and recombinant human transforming growth factor-beta (rhTGF-β) on osteoblastic differentiation of human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (hBMSCs) as well as human periodontal ligament stem cells (hPDLSCs). hBMSCs and hPDLSCs were obtained, and identification of stem cell surface markers was performed according to the criteria of the International Society for Cellular Therapy. Each group of stem cells was separately treated with a serial dilution of EMD (10, 50, and 100 μg/mL) or rhTGF-β (10 ng/mL). Osteoblastic differentiation was examined through in vitro matrix mineralization by alizarin red staining, and mRNA expression of osteopontin and osteonectin was determined by quantitative reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction. hPDLSCs were further assessed for osteocalcin mRNA expression. Stem cells cultured in osteogenic medium were employed as a standard positive control group. In none of the experimental groups were bone-related mRNAs detected subsequent to treatment with EMD for 5, 10, and 15 days. Alizarin red staining on day 21 was negative in EMD-treated BMSC and PDLSC cultures. In rhTGF-β-supplemented BMSC culture, expression of osteonectin mRNA was demonstrated on day 15, which was statistically comparable to the positive control group. Nevertheless, extracellular matrix mineralization was inhibited in both groups of stem cells. Within the limitations of this study, it could be concluded that EMD with a concentration of 10, 50, or 100 μg/mL has no appreciable effect on osteoblastic differentiation of BMSCs and PDLSCs. Application of rhTGF-β increased osteonectin mRNA expression in BMSCs. This finding corroborates the hypothesis that TGF-β might be involved in early osteoblastic maturation.

Steady-state [Ca2+]i-force relationship in intact twitching cardiac muscle: direct evidence for modulation by isoproterenol and EMD 53998.

PubMed Central

Dobrunz, L E; Backx, P H; Yue, D T

1995-01-01

We have developed a novel method for measuring steady-state force-[Ca2+]i relations in isolated, membrane-intact rat trabeculae that are microinjected with Fura-2 salt. Twitches are markedly slowed after inhibition of phasic Ca2+ release and uptake from the sarcoplasmic reticulum by addition of cyclopiazonic acid and ryanodine. During relaxation of slowed twitches, force and [Ca2+]i trace a common trajectory in plots of force versus [Ca2+]i, despite very different histories of contraction. The common trajectory thereby provides a high resolution determination of the steady-state relation between force and [Ca2+]i. Using this method, we show that 1 microM isoproterenol, a beta-adrenergic agonist, causes a rightward shift (Hill function K1/2 increased from 0.39 +/- 0.07 microM to 0.82 +/- 0.23 microM, p < 0.02, n = 6) and a decreased slope (nH decreased from 5.4 +/- 1.1 to 4.0 +/- 1.4, p < 0.02) of the steady-state force-[Ca2+]i curve, with no change in maximal force (Fmax = 99.2 +/- 2.2% of control). In contrast, 2 microM EMD 53998, a racemic thiadiazinone derivative, causes a leftward shift (K1/2 decreased from 0.42 +/- 0.02 microM to 0.30 +/- 0.06 microM, p < 0.02, n = 4) with no change in slope of the steady-state force-[Ca2+]i curve, accompanied by a modest increase in maximal force (Fmax = 107.1 +/- 4.6% of control, p < 0.02). To gain mechanistic insight into these modulatory events, we developed a simple model of cooperative thin filament activation that predicts steady-state force-[Ca2+]i relationships. Model analysis suggests that isoproterenol decreases cooperativity arising from nearest-neighbor interactions between regulatory units on the thin filament, without change in the equilibrium constant for Ca2+ binding. In contrast, the effects of EMD 53998 are consistent with an increase in the affinity of strong-binding cross-bridges, without change in either the affinity of troponin C for Ca2+ or cooperative interactions. PMID:7669896

Alcohol and drug use among young adults driving to a drinking location.

PubMed

Voas, Robert B; Johnson, Mark B; Miller, Brenda A

2013-09-01

Clubs that feature electronic music dance events (EMDEs) draw young adults aged 18-34 who are at high-risk for alcohol-related crashes to locations where alcohol sales are the principal source of revenue. Up to 30% of these attendees may also use drugs. This provides an important context in which to study driving arrangements that reflect concern with impaired driving. We explored whether drivers were using less alcohol and fewer drugs at exit than their passengers were and whether a driver for the group ever changed after consuming too much during the evening. Using biological measures of alcohol consumption (breath tests) and drug use (oral fluid tests), 175 drivers and 272 passengers were surveyed among young adults arriving at and departing from EMDEs in San Francisco. Upon exit from the drinking locations, only 20% of the drivers, compared to 47% of the passengers, had a high breath alcohol concentration (defined as a BrAC of .05 g/dL or greater). Further, there was evidence that drivers with high BrACs switched to passenger status on exit and former passengers with lower BrACs replaced those drivers. However, there were no differences in the prevalence of drug use among drivers and passengers. These findings suggest that the effort by young adult drivers to avoid alcohol-impaired driving appears to be reducing the number of drivers with high BrACs returning from drinking locations, such as EMDEs, by about one third. However, there is no similar pattern for drugged driving. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Alcohol and Drug Use Among Young Adults Driving to a Drinking Location

PubMed Central

Voas, Robert B.; Johnson, Mark B.; Miller, Brenda A.

2013-01-01

Background Clubs that feature electronic music dance events (EMDEs) draw young adults aged 18 to 34 who are at high-risk for alcohol-related crashes to locations where alcohol sales are the principal source of revenue. Up to 30% of these attendees may also use drugs. This provides an important context in which to study driving arrangements that reflect concern with impaired driving. We explored whether drivers were using less alcohol and fewer drugs at exit than their passengers were and whether a driver for the group ever changed after consuming too much during the evening. Methods Using biological measures of alcohol consumption (breath tests) and drug use (oral fluid tests), 175 drivers and 272 passengers were surveyed among young adults arriving at and departing from EMDEs in San Francisco. Results Upon exit from the drinking locations, only 20% of the drivers, compared to 47% of the passengers, had a high breath alcohol concentration (defined as a BrAC of .05 g/dL or greater). Further, there was evidence that drivers with high BrACs switched to passenger status on exit and former passengers with lower BrACs replaced those drivers. However, there were no differences in the prevalence of drug use among drivers and passengers. Conclusions These findings suggest that the effort by young adult drivers to avoid alcohol-impaired driving appears to be reducing the number of drivers with high BrACs returning from drinking locations, such as EMDEs, by about one third. However, there is no similar pattern for drugged driving. PMID:23415848

A combined approach of enamel matrix derivative gel and autogenous bone grafts in treatment of intrabony periodontal defects. A case report.

PubMed

Leung, George; Jin, Lijian

2003-04-01

Enamel matrix derivative (EMD) has recently been introduced as a new modality in regenerative periodontal therapy. This case report demonstrates a combined approach in topical application of EMD gel (Emdogain) and autogenous bone grafts for treatment of intrabony defects and furcation involvement defects in a patient with chronic periodontitis. The seven-month post-surgery clinical and radiographic results were presented. The combined application of EMD gel with autogenous bone grafts in intrabony osseous defects resulted in clinically significant gain of attachment on diseased root surfaces and bone fill on radiographs. Further controlled clinical studies are required to confirm the long-term effectiveness of the combination of EMD gel and autogenous bone grafts in treatment of various osseous defects in subjects with chronic periodontitis.

Characterization of selected elementary motion detector cells to image primitives.

PubMed

Benson, Leslie A; Barrett, Steven F; Wright, Cameron H G

2008-01-01

Developing a visual sensing system, complete with motion processing hardware and software would have many applications to current technology. It could be mounted on many autonomous vehicles to provide information about the navigational environment, as well as obstacle avoidance features. Incorporating the motion processing capabilities into the sensor requires a new approach to the algorithm implementation. This research, and that of many others, have turned to nature for inspiration. Elementary motion detector (EMD) cells are involved in a biological preprocessing network to provide information to the motion processing lobes of the house degrees y Musca domestica. This paper describes the response of the photoreceptor inputs to the EMDs. The inputs to the EMD components are tested as they are stimulated with varying image primitives. This is the first of many steps in characterizing the EMD response to image primitives.

Enamel Matrix Derivative has No Effect on the Chondrogenic Differentiation of Mesenchymal Stem Cells

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Groeneveldt, Lisanne C.; Knuth, Callie; Witte-Bouma, Janneke

2014-09-02

Background: Treatment of large bone defects due to trauma, tumor resection, or congenital abnormalities is challenging. Bone tissue engineering using mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) represents a promising treatment option. However, the quantity and quality of engineered bone tissue are not sufficient to fill large bone defects. The aim of this study was to determine if the addition of enamel matrix derivative (EMD) improves in vitro chondrogenic priming of MSCs to ultimately improve in vivo MSC mediated endochondral bone formation. Methods: MSCs were chondrogenically differentiated in 2.0 × 10{sup 5} cell pellets in medium supplemented with TGFβ3 in the absence ormore » presence of 1, 10, or 100 μg/mL EMD. Samples were analyzed for gene expression of RUNX2, Col II, Col X, and Sox9. Protein and glycoaminoglycan (GAG) production were also investigated via DMB assays, histology, and immunohistochemistry. Osteogenic and adipogenic differentiation capacity were also assessed. Results: The addition of EMD did not negatively affect chondrogenic differentiation of adult human MSCs. EMD did not appear to alter GAG production or expression of chondrogenic genes. Osteogenic and adipogenic differentiation were also unaffected though a trend toward decreased adipogenic gene expression was observed. Conclusion: EMD does not affect chondrogenic differentiation of adult human MSCs. As such the use of EMD in combination with chondrogenically primed MSCs for periodontal bone tissue repair is unlikely to have negative effects on MSC differentiation.« less

Modal analysis of the thermal conductivity of nanowires: examining unique thermal transport features.

PubMed

Samaraweera, Nalaka; Larkin, Jason M; Chan, Kin L; Mithraratne, Kumar

2018-06-06

In this study, unique thermal transport features of nanowires over bulk materials are investigated using a combined analysis based on lattice dynamics and equilibrium molecular dynamics (EMD). The evaluation of the thermal conductivity (TC) of Lenard-Jones nanowires becomes feasible due to the multi-step normal mode decomposition (NMD) procedure implemented in the study. A convergence issue of the TC of nanowires is addressed by the NMD implementation for two case studies, which employ pristine nanowires (PNW) and superlattice nanowires. Interestingly, mode relaxation times at low frequencies of acoustic branches exhibit signs of approaching constant values, thus indicating the convergence of TC. The TC evaluation procedure is further verified by implementing EMD-based Green-Kubo analysis, which is based on a fundamentally different physical perspective. Having verified the NMD procedure, the non-monotonic trend of the TC of nanowires is addressed. It is shown that the principal cause for the observed trend is due to the competing effects of long wavelength phonons and phonon-surface scatterings as the nanowire's cross-sectional width is changed. A computational procedure is developed to decompose the different modal contribution to the TC of shell alloy nanowires (SANWs) using virtual crystal NMD and the Allen-Feldman theory. Several important conclusions can be drawn from the results. A propagons to non-propagons boundary appeared, resulting in a cut-off frequency (ω cut ); moreover, as alloy atomic mass is increased, ω cut shifts to lower frequencies. The existence of non-propagons partly causes the low TC of SANWs. It can be seen that modes with low frequencies demonstrate a similar behavior to corresponding modes of PNWs. Moreover, lower group velocities associated with higher alloy atomic mass resulted in a lower TC of SANWs.

Modal analysis of the thermal conductivity of nanowires: examining unique thermal transport features

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Samaraweera, Nalaka; Larkin, Jason M.; Chan, Kin L.; Mithraratne, Kumar

2018-06-01

In this study, unique thermal transport features of nanowires over bulk materials are investigated using a combined analysis based on lattice dynamics and equilibrium molecular dynamics (EMD). The evaluation of the thermal conductivity (TC) of Lenard–Jones nanowires becomes feasible due to the multi-step normal mode decomposition (NMD) procedure implemented in the study. A convergence issue of the TC of nanowires is addressed by the NMD implementation for two case studies, which employ pristine nanowires (PNW) and superlattice nanowires. Interestingly, mode relaxation times at low frequencies of acoustic branches exhibit signs of approaching constant values, thus indicating the convergence of TC. The TC evaluation procedure is further verified by implementing EMD-based Green–Kubo analysis, which is based on a fundamentally different physical perspective. Having verified the NMD procedure, the non-monotonic trend of the TC of nanowires is addressed. It is shown that the principal cause for the observed trend is due to the competing effects of long wavelength phonons and phonon–surface scatterings as the nanowire’s cross-sectional width is changed. A computational procedure is developed to decompose the different modal contribution to the TC of shell alloy nanowires (SANWs) using virtual crystal NMD and the Allen–Feldman theory. Several important conclusions can be drawn from the results. A propagons to non-propagons boundary appeared, resulting in a cut-off frequency (ω cut); moreover, as alloy atomic mass is increased, ω cut shifts to lower frequencies. The existence of non-propagons partly causes the low TC of SANWs. It can be seen that modes with low frequencies demonstrate a similar behavior to corresponding modes of PNWs. Moreover, lower group velocities associated with higher alloy atomic mass resulted in a lower TC of SANWs.

Clinical and histologic evaluation of non-surgical periodontal therapy with enamel matrix derivative: a report of four cases.

PubMed

Mellonig, James T; Valderrama, Pilar; Gregory, Holly J; Cochran, David L

2009-09-01

Enamel matrix derivative (EMD) is a composite of proteins that was demonstrated histologically to work as an adjunct to periodontal regenerative surgical therapy. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical and histologic effects of EMD as an adjunct to scaling and root planing. Four patients with severe chronic periodontitis and scheduled to receive complete dentures were accrued. Probing depth and clinical attachment levels were obtained. Unlimited time was allowed for hand and ultrasonic instrumentation. A notch was placed in the root >or=1 to 2 mm from the apical extent of root planing. EMD was inserted into the pocket, and a periodontal dressing was placed. Patients were seen every 2 weeks for plaque control. At 6 months post-treatment, soft tissue measurements were repeated, and the teeth were removed en bloc and prepared for histomorphologic analysis. Probing depth reduction and clinical attachment level gain were obtained in three-fourths of the specimens. Three of the four specimens analyzed histologically demonstrated new cementum, bone, periodontal ligament, and connective tissue attachment coronal to the notch. In one specimen, the gingival margin had receded below the notch. The results were unexpected and may represent an aberration. However, the substantial reduction in deep probing depths and clinical attachment level gain in three of four specimens, in addition to the histologic findings of new cementum, new bone, a new periodontal ligament, and a new connective tissue attachment, suggest that EMD may be useful as an adjunct to scaling and root planing in single-rooted teeth.

Diffusion and practice of ultrasound in emergency medicine departments in Italy

PubMed Central

Sofia, S.; Angelini, F.; Cianci, V.; Copetti, R.; Farina, R.; Scuderi, M.

2009-01-01

Introduction This paper reports data from a cognitive survey on the diffusion, practice and organization of ultrasound (US) in emergency medicine departments (EMDs) in Italy. The study was carried out by the Emergency Medicine Section of the Italian Society for Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology (SIUMB) in collaboration with the Italian Society for Emergency Medicine and Urgent Care (SIMEU). Methods We created a questionnaire with 10 items, relating to 4 thematic areas. The questionnaires were administered from September 2007 to February 2008, by email, telephone or regular mail. In August 2008 the data were subjected to nonparametric statistical analysis (Spearman's Rho and Pearson's chi-square – software SPSS). Results We analyzed 170 questionnaires from the EMDs of all Italian regions. A US scanner is present in 64.7% of the ERs, emergency US (E-US) is practiced only in 47.6% of the ERs, and only in 24% of these more than 60% of the ER team members have training in US. The diffusion of US in other operative units of the EMDs ranges from 8.2% to 26.5%. Discussion The presence of a US scanner in the ER is essential for the practice and training and is correlated with the level of the EMD. The use of US appears to be less common in less equipped hospitals, regardless of the size of the ER and the availability of radiological services. Wider diffusion of US and greater integration with other services for the installment of the required equipment is to be hoped for. PMID:23396902

A Signal Processing Approach with a Smooth Empirical Mode Decomposition to Reveal Hidden Trace of Corrosion in Highly Contaminated Guided Wave Signals for Concrete-Covered Pipes

PubMed Central

Rostami, Javad; Chen, Jingming; Tse, Peter W.

2017-01-01

Ultrasonic guided waves have been extensively applied for non-destructive testing of plate-like structures particularly pipes in past two decades. In this regard, if a structure has a simple geometry, obtained guided waves’ signals are easy to explain. However, any small degree of complexity in the geometry such as contacting with other materials may cause an extra amount of complication in the interpretation of guided wave signals. The problem deepens if defects have irregular shapes such as natural corrosion. Signal processing techniques that have been proposed for guided wave signals’ analysis are generally good for simple signals obtained in a highly controlled experimental environment. In fact, guided wave signals in a real situation such as the existence of natural corrosion in wall-covered pipes are much more complicated. Considering pipes in residential buildings that pass through concrete walls, in this paper we introduced Smooth Empirical Mode Decomposition (SEMD) to efficiently separate overlapped guided waves. As empirical mode decomposition (EMD) which is a good candidate for analyzing non-stationary signals, suffers from some shortcomings, wavelet transform was adopted in the sifting stage of EMD to improve its outcome in SEMD. However, selection of mother wavelet that suits best for our purpose plays an important role. Since in guided wave inspection, the incident waves are well known and are usually tone-burst signals, we tailored a complex tone-burst signal to be used as our mother wavelet. In the sifting stage of EMD, wavelet de-noising was applied to eliminate unwanted frequency components from each IMF. SEMD greatly enhances the performance of EMD in guided wave analysis for highly contaminated signals. In our experiment on concrete covered pipes with natural corrosion, this method not only separates the concrete wall indication clearly in time domain signal, a natural corrosion with complex geometry that was hidden and located inside the concrete section was successfully exposed. PMID:28178220

A Signal Processing Approach with a Smooth Empirical Mode Decomposition to Reveal Hidden Trace of Corrosion in Highly Contaminated Guided Wave Signals for Concrete-Covered Pipes.

PubMed

Rostami, Javad; Chen, Jingming; Tse, Peter W

2017-02-07

Ultrasonic guided waves have been extensively applied for non-destructive testing of plate-like structures particularly pipes in past two decades. In this regard, if a structure has a simple geometry, obtained guided waves' signals are easy to explain. However, any small degree of complexity in the geometry such as contacting with other materials may cause an extra amount of complication in the interpretation of guided wave signals. The problem deepens if defects have irregular shapes such as natural corrosion. Signal processing techniques that have been proposed for guided wave signals' analysis are generally good for simple signals obtained in a highly controlled experimental environment. In fact, guided wave signals in a real situation such as the existence of natural corrosion in wall-covered pipes are much more complicated. Considering pipes in residential buildings that pass through concrete walls, in this paper we introduced Smooth Empirical Mode Decomposition (SEMD) to efficiently separate overlapped guided waves. As empirical mode decomposition (EMD) which is a good candidate for analyzing non-stationary signals, suffers from some shortcomings, wavelet transform was adopted in the sifting stage of EMD to improve its outcome in SEMD. However, selection of mother wavelet that suits best for our purpose plays an important role. Since in guided wave inspection, the incident waves are well known and are usually tone-burst signals, we tailored a complex tone-burst signal to be used as our mother wavelet. In the sifting stage of EMD, wavelet de-noising was applied to eliminate unwanted frequency components from each IMF. SEMD greatly enhances the performance of EMD in guided wave analysis for highly contaminated signals. In our experiment on concrete covered pipes with natural corrosion, this method not only separates the concrete wall indication clearly in time domain signal, a natural corrosion with complex geometry that was hidden and located inside the concrete section was successfully exposed.

SigEMD: A powerful method for differential gene expression analysis in single-cell RNA sequencing data.

PubMed

Wang, Tianyu; Nabavi, Sheida

2018-04-24

Differential gene expression analysis is one of the significant efforts in single cell RNA sequencing (scRNAseq) analysis to discover the specific changes in expression levels of individual cell types. Since scRNAseq exhibits multimodality, large amounts of zero counts, and sparsity, it is different from the traditional bulk RNA sequencing (RNAseq) data. The new challenges of scRNAseq data promote the development of new methods for identifying differentially expressed (DE) genes. In this study, we proposed a new method, SigEMD, that combines a data imputation approach, a logistic regression model and a nonparametric method based on the Earth Mover's Distance, to precisely and efficiently identify DE genes in scRNAseq data. The regression model and data imputation are used to reduce the impact of large amounts of zero counts, and the nonparametric method is used to improve the sensitivity of detecting DE genes from multimodal scRNAseq data. By additionally employing gene interaction network information to adjust the final states of DE genes, we further reduce the false positives of calling DE genes. We used simulated datasets and real datasets to evaluate the detection accuracy of the proposed method and to compare its performance with those of other differential expression analysis methods. Results indicate that the proposed method has an overall powerful performance in terms of precision in detection, sensitivity, and specificity. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Dynamic characterization of a damaged beam using empirical mode decomposition and Hilbert spectrum method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chang, Chih-Chen; Poon, Chun-Wing

2004-07-01

Recently, the empirical mode decomposition (EMD) in combination with the Hilbert spectrum method has been proposed to identify the dynamic characteristics of linear structures. In this study, this EMD and Hilbert spectrum method is used to analyze the dynamic characteristics of a damaged reinforced concrete (RC) beam in the laboratory. The RC beam is 4m long with a cross section of 200mm X 250mm. The beam is sequentially subjected to a concentrated load of different magnitudes at the mid-span to produce different degrees of damage. An impact load is applied around the mid-span to excite the beam. Responses of the beam are recorded by four accelerometers. Results indicate that the EMD and Hilbert spectrum method can reveal the variation of the dynamic characteristics in the time domain. These results are also compared with those obtained using the Fourier analysis. In general, it is found that the two sets of results correlate quite well in terms of mode counts and frequency values. Some differences, however, can be seen in the damping values, which perhaps can be attributed to the linear assumption of the Fourier transform.

Evaluating skeletal muscle electromechanical delay with intramuscular pressure.

PubMed

Go, Shanette A; Litchy, William J; Evertz, Loribeth Q; Kaufman, Kenton R

2018-06-08

Intramuscular pressure (IMP) is the fluid pressure generated within skeletal muscle and directly reflects individual muscle tension. The purpose of this study was to assess the development of force, IMP, and electromyography (EMG) in the tibialis anterior (TA) muscle during ramped isometric contractions and evaluate electromechanical delay (EMD). Force, EMG, and IMP were simultaneously measured during ramped isometric contractions in eight young, healthy human subjects. The EMD between the onset of force and EMG activity (Δt-EMG force) and the onset of IMP and EMG activity (Δt EMG-IMP) were calculated. A statistically significant difference (p < 0.05) was found between the mean force-EMG EMD (36 ± 31 ms) and the mean IMP-EMG EMD (3 ± 21 ms). IMP reflects changes in muscle tension due to the contractile muscle elements. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

On the Hilbert-Huang Transform Data Processing System Development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kizhner, Semion; Flatley, Thomas P.; Huang, Norden E.; Cornwell, Evette; Smith, Darell

2003-01-01

One of the main heritage tools used in scientific and engineering data spectrum analysis is the Fourier Integral Transform and its high performance digital equivalent - the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT). The Fourier view of nonlinear mechanics that had existed for a long time, and the associated FFT (fairly recent development), carry strong a-priori assumptions about the source data, such as linearity and of being stationary. Natural phenomena measurements are essentially nonlinear and nonstationary. A very recent development at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), known as the Hilbert-Huang Transform (HHT) proposes a novel approach to the solution for the nonlinear class of spectrum analysis problems. Using the Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) followed by the Hilbert Transform of the empirical decomposition data (HT), the HHT allows spectrum analysis of nonlinear and nonstationary data by using an engineering a-posteriori data processing, based on the EMD algorithm. This results in a non-constrained decomposition of a source real value data vector into a finite set of Intrinsic Mode Functions (IMF) that can be further analyzed for spectrum interpretation by the classical Hilbert Transform. This paper describes phase one of the development of a new engineering tool, the HHT Data Processing System (HHTDPS). The HHTDPS allows applying the "T to a data vector in a fashion similar to the heritage FFT. It is a generic, low cost, high performance personal computer (PC) based system that implements the HHT computational algorithms in a user friendly, file driven environment. This paper also presents a quantitative analysis for a complex waveform data sample, a summary of technology commercialization efforts and the lessons learned from this new technology development.

A data-driven method to enhance vibration signal decomposition for rolling bearing fault analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grasso, M.; Chatterton, S.; Pennacchi, P.; Colosimo, B. M.

2016-12-01

Health condition analysis and diagnostics of rotating machinery requires the capability of properly characterizing the information content of sensor signals in order to detect and identify possible fault features. Time-frequency analysis plays a fundamental role, as it allows determining both the existence and the causes of a fault. The separation of components belonging to different time-frequency scales, either associated to healthy or faulty conditions, represents a challenge that motivates the development of effective methodologies for multi-scale signal decomposition. In this framework, the Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) is a flexible tool, thanks to its data-driven and adaptive nature. However, the EMD usually yields an over-decomposition of the original signals into a large number of intrinsic mode functions (IMFs). The selection of most relevant IMFs is a challenging task, and the reference literature lacks automated methods to achieve a synthetic decomposition into few physically meaningful modes by avoiding the generation of spurious or meaningless modes. The paper proposes a novel automated approach aimed at generating a decomposition into a minimal number of relevant modes, called Combined Mode Functions (CMFs), each consisting in a sum of adjacent IMFs that share similar properties. The final number of CMFs is selected in a fully data driven way, leading to an enhanced characterization of the signal content without any information loss. A novel criterion to assess the dissimilarity between adjacent CMFs is proposed, based on probability density functions of frequency spectra. The method is suitable to analyze vibration signals that may be periodically acquired within the operating life of rotating machineries. A rolling element bearing fault analysis based on experimental data is presented to demonstrate the performances of the method and the provided benefits.

A novel technique for phase synchrony measurement from the complex motor imaginary potential of combined body and limb action

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhou, Zhong-xing; Wan, Bai-kun; Ming, Dong; Qi, Hong-zhi

2010-08-01

In this study, we proposed and evaluated the use of the empirical mode decomposition (EMD) technique combined with phase synchronization analysis to investigate the human brain synchrony of the supplementary motor area (SMA) and primary motor area (M1) during complex motor imagination of combined body and limb action. We separated the EEG data of the SMA and M1 into intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) using the EMD method and determined the characteristic IMFs by power spectral density (PSD) analysis. Thereafter, the instantaneous phases of the characteristic IMFs were obtained by the Hilbert transformation, and the single-trial phase-locking value (PLV) features for brain synchrony measurement between the SMA and M1 were investigated separately. The classification performance suggests that the proposed approach is effective for phase synchronization analysis and is promising for the application of a brain-computer interface in motor nerve reconstruction of the lower limbs.

Evaluation of EMD 128 130 occupancy of the 5-HT1A and the D2 receptor: a human PET study with [11C]WAY-100635 and [11C]raclopride.

PubMed

Rabiner, Eugenii A; Gunn, Roger N; Wilkins, Martin R; Sedman, Ewen; Grasby, Paul M

2002-09-01

The use of so-called, atypical antipsychotic medication is becoming more widespread in the treatment of psychotic disorders. EMD 128 130 is a novel compound acting as an agonist at the 5-HT1A receptor, and as an antagonist at the dopamine-2 (D2) receptor. This dual action may confer additional benefits over selective D2 antagonists in the treatment of psychotic disorders. In this study, we investigated the occupancy of EMD 128 130 in vivo at the human D2 and 5-HT1A receptors with positron emission tomography using the radiotracers [11C]raclopride and [11C]WAY-100635. Seven healthy volunteers were examined before and after 5 days of treatment with EMD 128 130, administered in an incremental dose building up to 50 mg, b.d. A significant occupancy was demonstrated at the human D2 receptor (40% following a dose of 50 mg, b.d.) while there was no consistent effect observed at the 5-HT1A receptor, despite a similar affinity of EMD 128 130 for cloned human D2 and 5-HT1A receptors, and the presence of typical, central 5-HT1A agonist side-effects. The differential effects of EMD 128 130 at the D2 and the 5-HT1A receptor (antagonist at D2 receptor, agonist at the 5-HTIA receptor) may explain the differences in occupancy observed.

Outcome of enamel matrix derivative treatment in the presence of chronic stress: histometric study in rats.

PubMed

Corrêa, Mônica G; Gomes Campos, Mirella L; Marques, Marcelo Rocha; Bovi Ambrosano, Glaucia Maria; Casati, Marcio Z; Nociti, Francisco H; Sallum, Enilson A

2014-07-01

Psychologic stress and clinical hypercortisolism have been related to direct effects on bone metabolism. However, there is a lack of information regarding the outcomes of regenerative approaches under the influence of chronic stress (CS). Enamel matrix derivative (EMD) has been used in periodontal regenerative procedures, resulting in improvement of clinical parameters. Thus, the aim of this histomorphometric study is to evaluate the healing of periodontal defects after treatment with EMD under the influence of CS in the rat model. Twenty Wistar rats were randomly assigned to two groups; G1: CS (restraint stress for 12 hours/day) (n = 10), and G2: not exposed to CS (n = 10). Fifteen days after initiation of CS, fenestration defects were created at the buccal aspect of the first mandibular molar of all animals from both groups. After the surgeries, the defects of each animal were randomly assigned to two subgroups: non-treated control and treated with EMD. The animals were euthanized 21 days later. G1 showed less bone density (BD) compared to G2. EMD provided an increased defect fill (DF) in G1 and higher BD and new cementum formation (NCF) in both groups. The number of tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase-positive osteoclasts was significantly higher in G1 when compared to G2 and in EMD-treated sites of both groups. CS may produce a significant detrimental effect on BD. EMD may provide greater DF compared to non-treated control in the presence of CS and increased BD and NCF in the presence or absence of CS.

Association of dopamine gene variants, emotion dysregulation and ADHD in autism spectrum disorder.

PubMed

Gadow, Kenneth D; Pinsonneault, Julia K; Perlman, Greg; Sadee, Wolfgang

2014-07-01

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the association of dopaminergic gene variants with emotion dysregulation (EMD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Three dopamine transporter gene (SLC6A3/DAT1) polymorphisms (intron8 5/6 VNTR, 3'-UTR 9/10 VNTR, rs27072 in the 3'-UTR) and one dopamine D2 receptor gene (DRD2) variant (rs2283265) were selected for genotyping based on à priori evidence of regulatory activity or, in the case of DAT1 9/10 VNTR, commonly reported associations with ADHD. A sample of 110 children with ASD was assessed with a rigorously validated DSM-IV-referenced rating scale. Global EMD severity (parents' ratings) was associated with DAT1 intron8 (ηp(2)=.063) and rs2283265 (ηp(2)=.044). Findings for DAT1 intron8 were also significant for two EMD subscales, generalized anxiety (ηp(2)=.065) and depression (ηp(2)=.059), and for DRD2 rs2283265, depression (ηp(2)=.053). DRD2 rs2283265 was associated with teachers' global ratings of ADHD (ηp(2)=.052). DAT1 intron8 was associated with parent-rated hyperactivity (ηp(2)=.045) and both DAT1 9/10 VNTR (ηp(2)=.105) and DRD2 rs2283265 (ηp(2)=.069) were associated with teacher-rated inattention. These findings suggest that dopaminergic gene polymorphisms may modulate EMD and ADHD symptoms in children with ASD but require replication with larger independent samples. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

On the motion of hairy black holes in Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton theories

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Julié, Félix-Louis

2018-01-01

Starting from the static, spherically symmetric black hole solutions in massless Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton (EMD) theories, we build a "skeleton" action, that is, we phenomenologically replace black holes by an appropriate effective point particle action, which is well suited to the formal treatment of the many-body problem in EMD theories. We find that, depending crucially on the value of their scalar cosmological environment, black holes can undergo steep "scalarization" transitions, inducing large deviations to the general relativistic two-body dynamics, as shown, for example, when computing the first post-Keplerian Lagrangian of EMD theories.

Pharmacological evaluation of the anxiolytic-like effects of EMD 386088, a partial 5-HT6 receptor agonist, in the rat elevated plus-maze and Vogel conflict tests.

PubMed

Jastrzębska-Więsek, Magdalena; Siwek, Agata; Partyka, Anna; Kubacka, Monika; Mogilski, Szczepan; Wasik, Anna; Kołaczkowski, Marcin; Wesołowska, Anna

2014-10-01

The 5-HT6 is one of the most recent additions to the 5-HT receptor family. Its pharmacological profile and anatomical distribution is suggestive of a putative role in mood disorders. Most of preclinical evidence suggests an anxiolytic-like action of 5-HT6 receptor antagonists. Evaluation the anxiolytic-like effects of EMD 386088, a partial 5-HT6receptor agonist, and its putative mechanism of action in rats. EMD 386088, administered intraperitoneally at a dose of 2.5 mg/kg evoked specific anxiolytic-like activity in the automated version of the conflict drinking Vogel and the elevated plus-maze tests visible by increasing all parameters indicating a potential anti-anxiety effect. Its activity was blocked by the selective 5-HT6 receptor antagonist SB 271046, but not by the selective GABAA/benzodiazepine receptor antagonist flumazenil. EMD 386088 did not intensify an anxiolytic-like effect produced by diazepam in the elevated plus-maze test. These findings suggest that EMD 386088, a 5-HT6 receptor agonist, produces anxiolytic-like activity after systemic administration which may result from direct stimulation of 5-HT6 receptors. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Early Healing Events after Periodontal Surgery: Observations on Soft Tissue Healing, Microcirculation, and Wound Fluid Cytokine Levels.

PubMed

Kaner, Doğan; Soudan, Mouaz; Zhao, Han; Gaßmann, Georg; Schönhauser, Anna; Friedmann, Anton

2017-01-27

Early wound healing after periodontal surgery with or without enamel matrix derivative/biphasic calcium phosphate (EMD/BCP) was characterized in terms of soft tissue closure, changes of microcirculation, and expression of pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines in gingival crevicular fluid/wound fluid (GCF/WF). Periodontal surgery was carried out in 30 patients (18 patients: application of EMD/BCP for regeneration of bony defects; 12 patients: surgical crown lengthening (SCL)). Healthy sites were observed as untreated controls. GCF/WF samples were collected during two post-surgical weeks. Flap microcirculation was measured using laser Doppler flowmetry (LDF). Soft tissue healing was evaluated after two weeks. GCF/WF levels of interleukin 1β (IL-1β), tumour necrosis factor (TNF-α), IL-6, and IL-10 were determined using a multiplex immunoassay. Surgery caused similar reductions of flap microcirculation followed by recovery within two weeks in both EMD/BCP and SCL groups. GCF/WF and pro-inflammatory cytokine levels were immediately increased after surgery, and returned only partially to baseline levels within the two-week observation period. Levels of IL-10 were temporarily reduced in all surgical sites. Flap dehiscence caused prolonged elevated levels of GCF/WF, IL-1β, and TNF-α. These findings show that periodontal surgery triggers an immediate inflammatory reaction corresponding to the early inflammatory phase of wound healing, and these inflammation measures are temporary in case of maintained closure of the flap. However, flap dehiscence causes prolonged inflammatory exudation from the periodontal wound. If the biological pre-conditions for periodontal wound healing are considered important for the clinical outcome, care should be taken to maintain primary closure of the flap.

Detection of the ice assertion on aircraft using empirical mode decomposition enhanced by multi-objective optimization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bagherzadeh, Seyed Amin; Asadi, Davood

2017-05-01

In search of a precise method for analyzing nonlinear and non-stationary flight data of an aircraft in the icing condition, an Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) algorithm enhanced by multi-objective optimization is introduced. In the proposed method, dissimilar IMF definitions are considered by the Genetic Algorithm (GA) in order to find the best decision parameters of the signal trend. To resolve disadvantages of the classical algorithm caused by the envelope concept, the signal trend is estimated directly in the proposed method. Furthermore, in order to simplify the performance and understanding of the EMD algorithm, the proposed method obviates the need for a repeated sifting process. The proposed enhanced EMD algorithm is verified by some benchmark signals. Afterwards, the enhanced algorithm is applied to simulated flight data in the icing condition in order to detect the ice assertion on the aircraft. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed EMD algorithm in aircraft ice detection by providing a figure of merit for the icing severity.

Qualitative Investigation of the Earthquake Precuesors Prior to the March 14,2012 Earthquake in Japan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Raghuwanshi, Shailesh Kumar; Gwal, Ashok Kumar

Abstract: In this study we have used the Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) method in conjunction with the Cross Correlation analysis to analyze ionospheric foF2 parameter Japan earthquake with magnitude M = 6.9. The data are collected from Kokubunji (35.70N, 139.50E) and Yamakawa (31.20N, 130.60E) ionospheric stations. The EMD method was used for removing the geophysical noise from the foF2 data and then to calculate the correlation coefficient between them. It was found that the ionospheric foF2 parameter shows anomalous change few days before the earthquake. The results are in agreement with the theoretical model evidencing ionospheric modification prior to Japan earthquake in a certain area around the epicenter.

Temporal structure of neuronal population oscillations with empirical model decomposition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Xiaoli

2006-08-01

Frequency analysis of neuronal oscillation is very important for understanding the neural information processing and mechanism of disorder in the brain. This Letter addresses a new method to analyze the neuronal population oscillations with empirical mode decomposition (EMD). Following EMD of neuronal oscillation, a series of intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) are obtained, then Hilbert transform of IMFs can be used to extract the instantaneous time frequency structure of neuronal oscillation. The method is applied to analyze the neuronal oscillation in the hippocampus of epileptic rats in vivo, the results show the neuronal oscillations have different descriptions during the pre-ictal, seizure onset and ictal periods of the epileptic EEG at the different frequency band. This new method is very helpful to provide a view for the temporal structure of neural oscillation.

Empirical mode decomposition-based facial pose estimation inside video sequences

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Qing, Chunmei; Jiang, Jianmin; Yang, Zhijing

2010-03-01

We describe a new pose-estimation algorithm via integration of the strength in both empirical mode decomposition (EMD) and mutual information. While mutual information is exploited to measure the similarity between facial images to estimate poses, EMD is exploited to decompose input facial images into a number of intrinsic mode function (IMF) components, which redistribute the effect of noise, expression changes, and illumination variations as such that, when the input facial image is described by the selected IMF components, all the negative effects can be minimized. Extensive experiments were carried out in comparisons to existing representative techniques, and the results show that the proposed algorithm achieves better pose-estimation performances with robustness to noise corruption, illumination variation, and facial expressions.

An epileptic seizures detection algorithm based on the empirical mode decomposition of EEG.

PubMed

Orosco, Lorena; Laciar, Eric; Correa, Agustina Garces; Torres, Abel; Graffigna, Juan P

2009-01-01

Epilepsy is a neurological disorder that affects around 50 million people worldwide. The seizure detection is an important component in the diagnosis of epilepsy. In this study, the Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) method was proposed on the development of an automatic epileptic seizure detection algorithm. The algorithm first computes the Intrinsic Mode Functions (IMFs) of EEG records, then calculates the energy of each IMF and performs the detection based on an energy threshold and a minimum duration decision. The algorithm was tested in 9 invasive EEG records provided and validated by the Epilepsy Center of the University Hospital of Freiburg. In 90 segments analyzed (39 with epileptic seizures) the sensitivity and specificity obtained with the method were of 56.41% and 75.86% respectively. It could be concluded that EMD is a promissory method for epileptic seizure detection in EEG records.

Bearing performance degradation assessment based on a combination of empirical mode decomposition and k-medoids clustering

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rai, Akhand; Upadhyay, S. H.

2017-09-01

Bearing is the most critical component in rotating machinery since it is more susceptible to failure. The monitoring of degradation in bearings becomes of great concern for averting the sudden machinery breakdown. In this study, a novel method for bearing performance degradation assessment (PDA) based on an amalgamation of empirical mode decomposition (EMD) and k-medoids clustering is encouraged. The fault features are extracted from the bearing signals using the EMD process. The extracted features are then subjected to k-medoids based clustering for obtaining the normal state and failure state cluster centres. A confidence value (CV) curve based on dissimilarity of the test data object to the normal state is obtained and employed as the degradation indicator for assessing the health of bearings. The proposed outlook is applied on the vibration signals collected in run-to-failure tests of bearings to assess its effectiveness in bearing PDA. To validate the superiority of the suggested approach, it is compared with commonly used time-domain features RMS and kurtosis, well-known fault diagnosis method envelope analysis (EA) and existing PDA classifiers i.e. self-organizing maps (SOM) and Fuzzy c-means (FCM). The results demonstrate that the recommended method outperforms the time-domain features, SOM and FCM based PDA in detecting the early stage degradation more precisely. Moreover, EA can be used as an accompanying method to confirm the early stage defect detected by the proposed bearing PDA approach. The study shows the potential application of k-medoids clustering as an effective tool for PDA of bearings.

Acellular dermal matrix graft with or without enamel matrix derivative for root coverage in smokers: a randomized clinical study.

PubMed

Alves, Luciana B; Costa, Priscila P; Scombatti de Souza, Sérgio Luís; de Moraes Grisi, Márcio F; Palioto, Daniela B; Taba, Mario; Novaes, Arthur B

2012-04-01

The aim of this randomized controlled clinical study was to compare the use of an acellular dermal matrix graft (ADMG) with or without the enamel matrix derivative (EMD) in smokers to evaluate which procedure would provide better root coverage. Nineteen smokers with bilateral Miller Class I or II gingival recessions ≥3 mm were selected. The test group was treated with an association of ADMG and EMD, and the control group with ADMG alone. Probing depth, relative clinical attachment level, gingival recession height, gingival recession width, keratinized tissue width and keratinized tissue thickness were evaluated before the surgeries and after 6 months. Wilcoxon test was used for the statistical analysis at significance level of 5%. No significant differences were found between groups in all parameters at baseline. The mean gain recession height between baseline and 6 months and the complete root coverage favored the test group (p = 0.042, p = 0.019 respectively). Smoking may negatively affect the results achieved through periodontal plastic procedures; however, the association of ADMG and EMD is beneficial in the root coverage of gingival recessions in smokers, 6 months after the surgery. © 2012 John Wiley & Sons A/S.

NetWeaver for EMDS user guide (version 1.1): a knowledge base development system.

Treesearch

Keith M. Reynolds

1999-01-01

The guide describes use of the NetWeaver knowledge base development system. Knowledge representation in NetWeaver is based on object-oriented fuzzy-logic networks that offer several significant advantages over the more traditional rulebased representation. Compared to rule-based knowledge bases, NetWeaver knowledge bases are easier to build, test, and maintain because...

14 CFR § 1216.302 - Responsibilities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... responsible for overseeing and guiding NASA's integration of NEPA into the Agency's planning and decision... NEPA analysis into Agency planning and decision-making processes. The SEO shall monitor this process to... Agency's planning and decision making for all NASA activities. The HQ/EMD provides advice and...

CEREF: A hybrid data-driven model for forecasting annual streamflow from a socio-hydrological system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Hongbo; Singh, Vijay P.; Wang, Bin; Yu, Yinghao

2016-09-01

Hydrological forecasting is complicated by flow regime alterations in a coupled socio-hydrologic system, encountering increasingly non-stationary, nonlinear and irregular changes, which make decision support difficult for future water resources management. Currently, many hybrid data-driven models, based on the decomposition-prediction-reconstruction principle, have been developed to improve the ability to make predictions of annual streamflow. However, there exist many problems that require further investigation, the chief among which is the direction of trend components decomposed from annual streamflow series and is always difficult to ascertain. In this paper, a hybrid data-driven model was proposed to capture this issue, which combined empirical mode decomposition (EMD), radial basis function neural networks (RBFNN), and external forces (EF) variable, also called the CEREF model. The hybrid model employed EMD for decomposition and RBFNN for intrinsic mode function (IMF) forecasting, and determined future trend component directions by regression with EF as basin water demand representing the social component in the socio-hydrologic system. The Wuding River basin was considered for the case study, and two standard statistical measures, root mean squared error (RMSE) and mean absolute error (MAE), were used to evaluate the performance of CEREF model and compare with other models: the autoregressive (AR), RBFNN and EMD-RBFNN. Results indicated that the CEREF model had lower RMSE and MAE statistics, 42.8% and 7.6%, respectively, than did other models, and provided a superior alternative for forecasting annual runoff in the Wuding River basin. Moreover, the CEREF model can enlarge the effective intervals of streamflow forecasting compared to the EMD-RBFNN model by introducing the water demand planned by the government department to improve long-term prediction accuracy. In addition, we considered the high-frequency component, a frequent subject of concern in EMD-based forecasting, and results showed that removing high-frequency component is an effective measure to improve forecasting precision and is suggested for use with the CEREF model for better performance. Finally, the study concluded that the CEREF model can be used to forecast non-stationary annual streamflow change as a co-evolution of hydrologic and social systems with better accuracy. Also, the modification about removing high-frequency can further improve the performance of the CEREF model. It should be noted that the CEREF model is beneficial for data-driven hydrologic forecasting in complex socio-hydrologic systems, and as a simple data-driven socio-hydrologic forecasting model, deserves more attention.

[An Extraction and Recognition Method of the Distributed Optical Fiber Vibration Signal Based on EMD-AWPP and HOSA-SVM Algorithm].

PubMed

Zhang, Yanjun; Liu, Wen-zhe; Fu, Xing-hu; Bi, Wei-hong

2016-02-01

Given that the traditional signal processing methods can not effectively distinguish the different vibration intrusion signal, a feature extraction and recognition method of the vibration information is proposed based on EMD-AWPP and HOSA-SVM, using for high precision signal recognition of distributed fiber optic intrusion detection system. When dealing with different types of vibration, the method firstly utilizes the adaptive wavelet processing algorithm based on empirical mode decomposition effect to reduce the abnormal value influence of sensing signal and improve the accuracy of signal feature extraction. Not only the low frequency part of the signal is decomposed, but also the high frequency part the details of the signal disposed better by time-frequency localization process. Secondly, it uses the bispectrum and bicoherence spectrum to accurately extract the feature vector which contains different types of intrusion vibration. Finally, based on the BPNN reference model, the recognition parameters of SVM after the implementation of the particle swarm optimization can distinguish signals of different intrusion vibration, which endows the identification model stronger adaptive and self-learning ability. It overcomes the shortcomings, such as easy to fall into local optimum. The simulation experiment results showed that this new method can effectively extract the feature vector of sensing information, eliminate the influence of random noise and reduce the effects of outliers for different types of invasion source. The predicted category identifies with the output category and the accurate rate of vibration identification can reach above 95%. So it is better than BPNN recognition algorithm and improves the accuracy of the information analysis effectively.

Temporal Associations between Weather and Headache: Analysis by Empirical Mode Decomposition

PubMed Central

Yang, Albert C.; Fuh, Jong-Ling; Huang, Norden E.; Shia, Ben-Chang; Peng, Chung-Kang; Wang, Shuu-Jiun

2011-01-01

Background Patients frequently report that weather changes trigger headache or worsen existing headache symptoms. Recently, the method of empirical mode decomposition (EMD) has been used to delineate temporal relationships in certain diseases, and we applied this technique to identify intrinsic weather components associated with headache incidence data derived from a large-scale epidemiological survey of headache in the Greater Taipei area. Methodology/Principal Findings The study sample consisted of 52 randomly selected headache patients. The weather time-series parameters were detrended by the EMD method into a set of embedded oscillatory components, i.e. intrinsic mode functions (IMFs). Multiple linear regression models with forward stepwise methods were used to analyze the temporal associations between weather and headaches. We found no associations between the raw time series of weather variables and headache incidence. For decomposed intrinsic weather IMFs, temperature, sunshine duration, humidity, pressure, and maximal wind speed were associated with headache incidence during the cold period, whereas only maximal wind speed was associated during the warm period. In analyses examining all significant weather variables, IMFs derived from temperature and sunshine duration data accounted for up to 33.3% of the variance in headache incidence during the cold period. The association of headache incidence and weather IMFs in the cold period coincided with the cold fronts. Conclusions/Significance Using EMD analysis, we found a significant association between headache and intrinsic weather components, which was not detected by direct comparisons of raw weather data. Contributing weather parameters may vary in different geographic regions and different seasons. PMID:21297940

Towards a unified understanding of event-related changes in the EEG: the firefly model of synchronization through cross-frequency phase modulation.

PubMed

Burgess, Adrian P

2012-01-01

Although event-related potentials (ERPs) are widely used to study sensory, perceptual and cognitive processes, it remains unknown whether they are phase-locked signals superimposed upon the ongoing electroencephalogram (EEG) or result from phase-alignment of the EEG. Previous attempts to discriminate between these hypotheses have been unsuccessful but here a new test is presented based on the prediction that ERPs generated by phase-alignment will be associated with event-related changes in frequency whereas evoked-ERPs will not. Using empirical mode decomposition (EMD), which allows measurement of narrow-band changes in the EEG without predefining frequency bands, evidence was found for transient frequency slowing in recognition memory ERPs but not in simulated data derived from the evoked model. Furthermore, the timing of phase-alignment was frequency dependent with the earliest alignment occurring at high frequencies. Based on these findings, the Firefly model was developed, which proposes that both evoked and induced power changes derive from frequency-dependent phase-alignment of the ongoing EEG. Simulated data derived from the Firefly model provided a close match with empirical data and the model was able to account for i) the shape and timing of ERPs at different scalp sites, ii) the event-related desynchronization in alpha and synchronization in theta, and iii) changes in the power density spectrum from the pre-stimulus baseline to the post-stimulus period. The Firefly Model, therefore, provides not only a unifying account of event-related changes in the EEG but also a possible mechanism for cross-frequency information processing.

Towards a Unified Understanding of Event-Related Changes in the EEG: The Firefly Model of Synchronization through Cross-Frequency Phase Modulation

PubMed Central

Burgess, Adrian P.

2012-01-01

Although event-related potentials (ERPs) are widely used to study sensory, perceptual and cognitive processes, it remains unknown whether they are phase-locked signals superimposed upon the ongoing electroencephalogram (EEG) or result from phase-alignment of the EEG. Previous attempts to discriminate between these hypotheses have been unsuccessful but here a new test is presented based on the prediction that ERPs generated by phase-alignment will be associated with event-related changes in frequency whereas evoked-ERPs will not. Using empirical mode decomposition (EMD), which allows measurement of narrow-band changes in the EEG without predefining frequency bands, evidence was found for transient frequency slowing in recognition memory ERPs but not in simulated data derived from the evoked model. Furthermore, the timing of phase-alignment was frequency dependent with the earliest alignment occurring at high frequencies. Based on these findings, the Firefly model was developed, which proposes that both evoked and induced power changes derive from frequency-dependent phase-alignment of the ongoing EEG. Simulated data derived from the Firefly model provided a close match with empirical data and the model was able to account for i) the shape and timing of ERPs at different scalp sites, ii) the event-related desynchronization in alpha and synchronization in theta, and iii) changes in the power density spectrum from the pre-stimulus baseline to the post-stimulus period. The Firefly Model, therefore, provides not only a unifying account of event-related changes in the EEG but also a possible mechanism for cross-frequency information processing. PMID:23049827

Occupational burnout levels in emergency medicine--a nationwide study and analysis.

PubMed

Popa, Florian; Raed, Arafat; Purcarea, Victor Lorin; Lală, Adrian; Bobirnac, George

2010-01-01

The specificity of the emergency medical act strongly manifests itself on account of a wide series of psycho-traumatizing factors augmented both by the vulnerable situation of the patient and the paroxysmal state of the act. Also, it has been recognized that the physical solicitation and distress levels are the highest among all medical specialties, this being a valuable marker for establishing the quality of the medical act. We have surveyed a total of 4725 emergency medical workers with the MBI-HSS instrument, receiving 4693 valid surveys (99.32% response rate). Professional categories included Emergency Department doctors (M-EMD), ambulance doctors (M-AMB), ED doctors with field work in emergency and resuscitation (including mobile intensive care units and airborne intensive care units) (D-SMU), medical nurses in Emergency Departments (N-EMD), medical nurses in the ambulance service (N-AMB), ED medical nurses with field activity in emergency and resuscitation (N-SMU), ambulance drivers (DRV) and paramedic (EMT). The n values for every category of subjects and percentage of system coverage (table 3) shows that we have covered an estimated total of 29.94% of the Romanian emergency medical field workers. MBI-HSS results show a moderate to high level of occupational stress for the surveyed subjects. The average values for the three parameters, corresponding to the entire Romanian emergency medical field were 1.41 for EE, 0.99 for DP and 4.47 for PA (95% CI). Average results stratified by professional category show higher EE average values (v) for the M-SMU (v=2.01, 95%CI) and M-EMD (v=2.21, 95% CI) groups corresponding to higher DP values for the same groups (vM-EMD=1.41 and vM-SMU=1.22, 95% CI). PA values for these groups are below average, corresponding to an increased risk factor for high degrees of burnout. Calculated PA values are 4.30 for the M-EMD group and 4.20 for the M-SMU group. Of all surveyed groups, our study shows a high risk of burnout consisting of high emotional exhaustion (EE) and high depersonalization (DP) values for Emergency Department doctors, Emergency, and Resuscitation Service doctors (M-SMU). Possible explanations for this might be linked to high patient flow, Emergency Department crowding, long work hours and individual parameters such as coping mechanisms, social development and work environment.

What are the pros and cons of electronically monitoring inhaler use in asthma? A multistakeholder perspective.

PubMed

Howard, Sam; Lang, Alexandra; Sharples, Sarah; Shaw, Dominick

2016-01-01

Electronic monitoring devices (EMDs) are the optimal method for collecting objective data on inhaler use in asthma. Recent research has investigated the attitudes of patients with asthma towards these devices. However, no research to date has formally considered the opinions of stakeholders and decision-makers in asthma care. These individuals have important clinical requirements that need to be taken into account if EMDs are to be successfully provisioned, making collecting their opinions on the key barriers facing these devices a valuable process. Three rounds of surveys in a Delphi format were used to assess the most important pros and cons of EMDs for asthma care in a sample of 31 stakeholders which included healthcare professionals and members of clinical commissioning groups. The respondents identified 29 pros and 32 cons. Pros that were rated as most important included new visual evidence to aid clinical discussions with a patient and an increase in patient involvement and motivation. The cons that were rated as most important included a need for more clinical evidence of the effectiveness of EMDs, as well as better clarity over who has responsibilities in managing, interpreting and discussing data with a patient. The research provides a guide for EMD developers by highlighting where these devices may provide the most benefit as well as prioritising the key issues that need addressing if they are to be used effectively in everyday asthma care.

What are the pros and cons of electronically monitoring inhaler use in asthma? A multistakeholder perspective

PubMed Central

Howard, Sam; Lang, Alexandra; Sharples, Sarah; Shaw, Dominick

2016-01-01

Introduction Electronic monitoring devices (EMDs) are the optimal method for collecting objective data on inhaler use in asthma. Recent research has investigated the attitudes of patients with asthma towards these devices. However, no research to date has formally considered the opinions of stakeholders and decision-makers in asthma care. These individuals have important clinical requirements that need to be taken into account if EMDs are to be successfully provisioned, making collecting their opinions on the key barriers facing these devices a valuable process. Methods Three rounds of surveys in a Delphi format were used to assess the most important pros and cons of EMDs for asthma care in a sample of 31 stakeholders which included healthcare professionals and members of clinical commissioning groups. Results The respondents identified 29 pros and 32 cons. Pros that were rated as most important included new visual evidence to aid clinical discussions with a patient and an increase in patient involvement and motivation. The cons that were rated as most important included a need for more clinical evidence of the effectiveness of EMDs, as well as better clarity over who has responsibilities in managing, interpreting and discussing data with a patient. Conclusions The research provides a guide for EMD developers by highlighting where these devices may provide the most benefit as well as prioritising the key issues that need addressing if they are to be used effectively in everyday asthma care. PMID:27933181

Regenerative effect of basic fibroblast growth factor on periodontal healing in two-wall intrabony defects in dogs.

PubMed

Shirakata, Yoshinori; Taniyama, Katsuyoshi; Yoshimoto, Takehiko; Miyamoto, Motoharu; Takeuchi, Naoshi; Matsuyama, Takashi; Noguchi, Kazuyuki

2010-04-01

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of a basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) candidate treatment on periodontal healing in two-wall intrabony defects in dogs. Two-wall intrabony defects (5 x 5 x 5 mm) were created surgically on the distal and mesial sides of bilateral mandibular second and fourth premolars in four Beagle dogs. bFGF, enamel matrix derivative (EMD) and platelet-derived growth factor with beta-tricalcium phosphate (PDGF/beta-TCP) treatments, and sham-surgery (OFD) were rotated among the four defects in each animal, EMD and PDGF/beta-TCP serving as benchmark controls. The animals were euthanized for radiographic and histologic evaluation at 8 weeks. Bone formation was significantly greater in the bFGF group (4.11 +/- 0.77 mm) than in the EMD (3.32 +/- 0.71 mm; p<0.05) and OFD (3.09 +/- 0.52 mm; p<0.01) groups. The EMD (4.59 +/- 1.19 mm) and PDGF/beta-TCP (4.66 +/- 0.7 mm) groups exhibited significantly greater cementum regeneration with periodontal ligament-like tissue than the OFD group (2.96 +/- 0.69 mm; p<0.01). No significant differences were observed between the bFGF and the PDGF/beta-TCP groups in any of the histometric parameters. The candidate bFGF treatment supported periodontal regeneration comparable with that of established benchmarks: EMD and PDGF/beta-TCP.

Structure constrained semi-nonnegative matrix factorization for EEG-based motor imagery classification.

PubMed

Lu, Na; Li, Tengfei; Pan, Jinjin; Ren, Xiaodong; Feng, Zuren; Miao, Hongyu

2015-05-01

Electroencephalogram (EEG) provides a non-invasive approach to measure the electrical activities of brain neurons and has long been employed for the development of brain-computer interface (BCI). For this purpose, various patterns/features of EEG data need to be extracted and associated with specific events like cue-paced motor imagery. However, this is a challenging task since EEG data are usually non-stationary time series with a low signal-to-noise ratio. In this study, we propose a novel method, called structure constrained semi-nonnegative matrix factorization (SCS-NMF), to extract the key patterns of EEG data in time domain by imposing the mean envelopes of event-related potentials (ERPs) as constraints on the semi-NMF procedure. The proposed method is applicable to general EEG time series, and the extracted temporal features by SCS-NMF can also be combined with other features in frequency domain to improve the performance of motor imagery classification. Real data experiments have been performed using the SCS-NMF approach for motor imagery classification, and the results clearly suggest the superiority of the proposed method. Comparison experiments have also been conducted. The compared methods include ICA, PCA, Semi-NMF, Wavelets, EMD and CSP, which further verified the effectivity of SCS-NMF. The SCS-NMF method could obtain better or competitive performance over the state of the art methods, which provides a novel solution for brain pattern analysis from the perspective of structure constraint. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Eye Movement Dysfunction in First-Degree Relatives of Patients with Schizophrenia: A Meta-Analytic Evaluation of Candidate Endophenotypes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Calkins, Monica E.; Iacono, William G.; Ones, Deniz S.

2008-01-01

Several forms of eye movement dysfunction (EMD) are regarded as promising candidate endophenotypes of schizophrenia. Discrepancies in individual study results have led to inconsistent conclusions regarding particular aspects of EMD in relatives of schizophrenia patients. To quantitatively evaluate and compare the candidacy of smooth pursuit,…

Patient-Specific Seizure Detection in Long-Term EEG Using Signal-Derived Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD)-based Dictionary Approach.

PubMed

Kaleem, Muhammad; Gurve, Dharmendra; Guergachi, Aziz; Krishnan, Sridhar

2018-06-25

The objective of the work described in this paper is development of a computationally efficient methodology for patient-specific automatic seizure detection in long-term multi-channel EEG recordings. Approach: A novel patient-specific seizure detection approach based on signal-derived Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD)-based dictionary approach is proposed. For this purpose, we use an empirical framework for EMD-based dictionary creation and learning, inspired by traditional dictionary learning methods, in which the EMD-based dictionary is learned from the multi-channel EEG data being analyzed for automatic seizure detection. We present the algorithm for dictionary creation and learning, whose purpose is to learn dictionaries with a small number of atoms. Using training signals belonging to seizure and non-seizure classes, an initial dictionary, termed as the raw dictionary, is formed. The atoms of the raw dictionary are composed of intrinsic mode functions obtained after decomposition of the training signals using the empirical mode decomposition algorithm. The raw dictionary is then trained using a learning algorithm, resulting in a substantial decrease in the number of atoms in the trained dictionary. The trained dictionary is then used for automatic seizure detection, such that coefficients of orthogonal projections of test signals against the trained dictionary form the features used for classification of test signals into seizure and non-seizure classes. Thus no hand-engineered features have to be extracted from the data as in traditional seizure detection approaches. Main results: The performance of the proposed approach is validated using the CHB-MIT benchmark database, and averaged accuracy, sensitivity and specificity values of 92.9%, 94.3% and 91.5%, respectively, are obtained using support vector machine classifier and five-fold cross-validation method. These results are compared with other approaches using the same database, and the suitability of the approach for seizure detection in long-term multi-channel EEG recordings is discussed. Significance: The proposed approach describes a computationally efficient method for automatic seizure detection in long-term multi-channel EEG recordings. The method does not rely on hand-engineered features, as are required in traditional approaches. Furthermore, the approach is suitable for scenarios where the dictionary once formed and trained can be used for automatic seizure detection of newly recorded data, making the approach suitable for long-term multi-channel EEG recordings. © 2018 IOP Publishing Ltd.

The relationship between atrial electromechanical delay and left atrial mechanical function in stroke patients

PubMed Central

Akıl, Mehmet Ata; Akıl, Eşref; Bilik, Mehmet Zihni; Oylumlu, Mustafa; Acet, Halit; Yıldız, Abdülkadir; Akyüz, Abdurrahman; Ertaş, Faruk; Toprak, Nizamettin

2015-01-01

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between atrial electromechanical delay (EMD) measured with tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) and left atrial (LA) mechanical functions in patients with ischemic stroke and compare them with healthy controls. Methods: Thirty patients with ischemic stroke were enrolled into this cross-sectional, observational study. The control group consisted of 35 age- and gender-matched apparently healthy individuals patients. Acute cerebral infarcts of probable embolic origin were diagnosed via imaging and were confirmed by a neurologist. Echocardiographically, time intervals from the beginning of P wave to beginning of A wave from the lateral and septal mitral and right ventricular tricuspid annuli in TDI were recorded. The differences between these intervals gave the mechanical delays (inter- and intra-atrial). Left atrial (LA) volumes were measured using the biplane area-length method, and LA mechanical function parameters were calculated. Statistical analysis was performed using student’s t-test, chi-squared test, and Pearson’s test. Results: The laboratory and clinical characteristics were similar in the two groups. Increased left atrial EMD (21.36±10.38 ms versus 11.74±6.06 ms, p<0.001), right atrial EMD (13.66±8.62 ms versus 9.66±6.81 ms, p=0.040), and interatrial EMD (35.03±9.95 ms versus 21.40±8.47 ms, p<0.001) were observed in stroke patients as compared to controls. Active LA emptying volume and fraction and passive LA emptying volumes and fraction were similar between controls and stroke patients. Total LA emptying volumes were significantly increased in stroke patients as compared to healthy controls (33.19±11.99 mL/m2 versus 27.48±7.08 mL/m2, p=0.021). Conclusion: According to the results of our study, interatrial electromechanical delay may be a new predictor for ischemic stroke. PMID:25537998

Segmentation of ECG from Surface EMG Using DWT and EMD: A Comparison Study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shahbakhti, Mohammad; Heydari, Elnaz; Luu, Gia Thien

2014-10-01

The electrocardiographic (ECG) signal is a major artifact during recording the surface electromyography (SEMG). Removal of this artifact is one of the important tasks before SEMG analysis for biomedical goals. In this paper, the application of discrete wavelet transform (DWT) and empirical mode decomposition (EMD) for elimination of ECG artifact from SEMG is investigated. The focus of this research is to reach the optimized number of decomposed levels using mean power frequency (MPF) by both techniques. In order to implement the proposed methods, ten simulated and three real ECG contaminated SEMG signals have been tested. Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and mean square error (MSE) between the filtered and the pure signals are applied as the performance indexes of this research. The obtained results suggest both techniques could remove ECG artifact from SEMG signals fair enough, however, DWT performs much better and faster in real data.

Analyzing Tropical Waves Using the Parallel Ensemble Empirical Model Decomposition Method: Preliminary Results from Hurricane Sandy

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shen, Bo-Wen; Cheung, Samson; Li, Jui-Lin F.; Wu, Yu-ling

2013-01-01

In this study, we discuss the performance of the parallel ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EMD) in the analysis of tropical waves that are associated with tropical cyclone (TC) formation. To efficiently analyze high-resolution, global, multiple-dimensional data sets, we first implement multilevel parallelism into the ensemble EMD (EEMD) and obtain a parallel speedup of 720 using 200 eight-core processors. We then apply the parallel EEMD (PEEMD) to extract the intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) from preselected data sets that represent (1) idealized tropical waves and (2) large-scale environmental flows associated with Hurricane Sandy (2012). Results indicate that the PEEMD is efficient and effective in revealing the major wave characteristics of the data, such as wavelengths and periods, by sifting out the dominant (wave) components. This approach has a potential for hurricane climate study by examining the statistical relationship between tropical waves and TC formation.

Time distortion associated with smartphone addiction: Identifying smartphone addiction via a mobile application (App).

PubMed

Lin, Yu-Hsuan; Lin, Yu-Cheng; Lee, Yang-Han; Lin, Po-Hsien; Lin, Sheng-Hsuan; Chang, Li-Ren; Tseng, Hsien-Wei; Yen, Liang-Yu; Yang, Cheryl C H; Kuo, Terry B J

2015-06-01

Global smartphone penetration has brought about unprecedented addictive behaviors. We report a proposed diagnostic criteria and the designing of a mobile application (App) to identify smartphone addiction. We used a novel empirical mode decomposition (EMD) to delineate the trend in smartphone use over one month. The daily use count and the trend of this frequency are associated with smartphone addiction. We quantify excessive use by daily use duration and frequency, as well as the relationship between the tolerance symptoms and the trend for the median duration of a use epoch. The psychiatrists' assisted self-reporting use time is significant lower than and the recorded total smartphone use time via the App and the degree of underestimation was positively correlated with actual smartphone use. Our study suggests the identification of smartphone addiction by diagnostic interview and via the App-generated parameters with EMD analysis. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Ecosystem Management Decision Support (EMDS) Applied to Watershed Assessment on California's North Coast

Treesearch

Rich Walker; Chris Keithley; Russ Henly; Scott Downie; Steve Cannata

2007-01-01

In 2001, the state of California initiated the North Coast Watershed Assessment Program (2003a) to assemble information on the status of coastal watersheds that have historically supported anadromous fish. The five-agency consortium explored the use of Ecosystem Management Decision Support (EMDS) (Reynolds and others 1996) as a means to help assess overall watershed...

Decision support for evaluating the U.S. national criteria and indicators for forest ecosystem sustainability

Treesearch

Keith M. Reynolds

2006-01-01

This paper describes and illustrates the use of the Ecosystem Management Decision Support (EMDS) system for evaluating the U.S. national criteria and indicators for forest ecosystem sustainability at the scale of Resource Planning Act (RPA) regions. The evaluation component of EMDS uses a logic engine to evaluate landscape condition, and the RPA-scale application...

National fuel-treatment budgeting in US federal agencies: capturing opportunities for transparent decision-making

Treesearch

Keith M. Reynolds; Paul F. Hessburg; Robert E. Keane; James P. Menakis

2009-01-01

The Ecosystem Management Decision Support (EMDS) system has been used by the US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service and Bureaus of the Department of the Interior since 2006 to evaluate wildfire potential across all administrative units in the continental US, and to establish priorities for allocating fuel-treatment budgets. This article discusses an EMDS fuels-...

The English Monolingual Dictionary: Its Use among Second Year Students of University Technology of Malaysia, International Campus, Kuala Lumpur

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Manan, Amerrudin Abd.; Al-Zubaidi, Khairi Obaid

2011-01-01

This research was conducted to seek information on English Monolingual Dictionary (EMD) use among 2nd year students of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, International Campus, Kuala Lumpur (UTMKL). Specifically, the researchers wish to discover, firstly, the students' habit and attitude in EMD use; secondly, to discover their knowledge with regard to…

EMDS 3.0: A modeling framework for coping with complexity in environmental assessment and planning.

Treesearch

K.M. Reynolds

2006-01-01

EMDS 3.0 is implemented as an ArcMap® extension and integrates the logic engine of NetWeaver® to perform landscape evaluations, and the decision modeling engine of Criterium DecisionPlus® for evaluating management priorities. Key features of the system's evaluation component include abilities to (1) reason about large, abstract, multifaceted ecosystem management...

Body-Earth Mover's Distance: A Matching-Based Approach for Sleep Posture Recognition.

PubMed

Xu, Xiaowei; Lin, Feng; Wang, Aosen; Hu, Yu; Huang, Ming-Chun; Xu, Wenyao

2016-10-01

Sleep posture is a key component in sleep quality assessment and pressure ulcer prevention. Currently, body pressure analysis has been a popular method for sleep posture recognition. In this paper, a matching-based approach, Body-Earth Mover's Distance (BEMD), for sleep posture recognition is proposed. BEMD treats pressure images as weighted 2D shapes, and combines EMD and Euclidean distance for similarity measure. Compared with existing work, sleep posture recognition is achieved with posture similarity rather than multiple features for specific postures. A pilot study is performed with 14 persons for six different postures. The experimental results show that the proposed BEMD can achieve 91.21% accuracy, which outperforms the previous method with an improvement of 8.01%.

Telephone-quality pathological speech classification using empirical mode decomposition.

PubMed

Kaleem, M F; Ghoraani, B; Guergachi, A; Krishnan, S

2011-01-01

This paper presents a computationally simple and effective methodology based on empirical mode decomposition (EMD) for classification of telephone quality normal and pathological speech signals. EMD is used to decompose continuous normal and pathological speech signals into intrinsic mode functions, which are analyzed to extract physically meaningful and unique temporal and spectral features. Using continuous speech samples from a database of 51 normal and 161 pathological speakers, which has been modified to simulate telephone quality speech under different levels of noise, a linear classifier is used with the feature vector thus obtained to obtain a high classification accuracy, thereby demonstrating the effectiveness of the methodology. The classification accuracy reported in this paper (89.7% for signal-to-noise ratio 30 dB) is a significant improvement over previously reported results for the same task, and demonstrates the utility of our methodology for cost-effective remote voice pathology assessment over telephone channels.

Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System Not Ready for Production Decision (REDACTED)

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-09-07

Average Procurement Unit Cost CMDS Cruise Missile Defense Systems CPD Capability Production Document EMD Engineering and Manufacturing...Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics also determined that continuing test and evaluation of the two JLENS Engineering and Manufacturing...Program (Category ID) that was established in January 1996 and, during the audit, was in the Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) phase of

Influence of LVAD function on mechanical unloading and electromechanical delay: a simulation study.

PubMed

Heikhmakhtiar, Aulia Khamas; Ryu, Ah Jin; Shim, Eun Bo; Song, Kwang-Soup; Trayanova, Natalia A; Lim, Ki Moo

2018-05-01

This study hypothesized that a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) shortens the electromechanical delay (EMD) by mechanical unloading. The goal of this study is to examine, by computational modeling, the influence of LVAD on EMD for four heart failure (HF) cases ranging from mild HF to severe HF. We constructed an integrated model of an LVAD-implanted cardiovascular system, then we altered the Ca 2+ transient magnitude, with scaling factors 1, 0.9, 0.8, and 0.7 representing HF1, HF2, HF3, and HF4, respectively, in order of increasing HF severity. The four HF conditions are classified into two groups. Group one is the four HF conditions without LVAD, and group two is the conditions treated with continuous LVAD pump. The single-cell mechanical responses showed that EMD was prolonged with the higher load. The findings indicated that in group one, the HF-induced Ca2 + transient remodeling prolonged the mechanical activation time (MAT) and decreased the contractile tension, which reduced the left ventricle (LV) pressure, and increased the end-diastolic strain. In group two, LVAD shortened MAT of the ventricles. Furthermore, LVAD reduced the contractile tension, and end-diastolic strain, but increased the aortic pressure. The computational study demonstrated that LVAD shortens EMD by mechanical unloading of the ventricle.

Contribution of the serotonin 5-HT1A receptor agonism of 8-OH-DPAT and EMD 128130 to the regulation of haloperidol-induced muscle rigidity in rats.

PubMed

Lorenc-Koci, E; Wardas, J; Bartoszyk, G D; Wolfarth, S

2003-12-01

The aim of the present study was to find out whether (+/-)-8-hydroxy-2(di-n-propylamino)tetralin (8-OH-DPAT), a prototypical 5-HT1A agonist, and (R)-(-)-2-[5-(4-fluorophenyl)-3-pyridylmethylaminomethyl]-chromane HCl (EMD 128130), a compound with serotonin 5-HT1A-agonist and dopamine D2-like antagonist properties, are able to attenuate the haloperidol-induced (1 mg/kg) muscle rigidity in rats. Muscle tone was examined using a combined mechano- and electromyographic (EMG) method that simultaneously measured the mechanical muscle resistance (MMG) of the rat's hind foot to passive movements in the ankle joint, and the EMG activity of two antagonist muscles. Both 8-OH-DPAT (0.125-0.5 mg/kg i.p.) and EMD 128130 (1-10 mg/kg i.p.) dose-dependently decreased the haloperidol-enhanced MMG to passive movements, as well as the tonic and the long-latency reflex EMG activities. Provided these results can be extrapolated to humans, the efficacy of EMD 128130 in relieving the haloperidol-induced muscle rigidity supports the concept that novel antipsychotics with 5-HT1A agonist and dopamine D2 antagonist activities should have a favourable extrapyramidal side-effect profile.

Evaluation of peri-implant crevicular fluid prostaglandin E2 levels in augmented extraction sockets by different biomaterials.

PubMed

Alkan, Eylem Ayhan; Tüter, Gülay; Parlar, Ateş; Yücel, Ayşegül; Kurtiş, Bülent

2016-10-01

This study compares peri-implant crevicular fluid (PICF) prostaglandin E 2 (PGE 2 ) levels, clinical parameters and implant stability quotient (ISQ) values around implants placed in augmented extraction sockets. The sockets (24 in total) were randomly augmented using either EMD or Bio-Oss Collagen. Implant placements were performed after three months of healing. ISQ readings were evaluated at three points: at the time of surgery, at the first month and at the third month. PICF was collected for PGE 2 evaluation after the first and the third months of implant surgery. After the first month, a higher level of PICF PGE 2 was observed in the EMD group than in the Bio-Oss Collagen group, and this increase was of statistical significance; however, at the third month there was no statistically significant difference in PICF PGE 2 levels between the two groups. For implants placed in EMD sites, ISQ values were statistically higher at the third month than at the first month, while no significant differences in ISQ value were detected between the first and third months in Bio-Oss Collagen sites. The results of this research suggest that both EMD and Bio-Oss Collagen are effective treatment modalities for stimulating the formation of new bone at extraction sites prior to implant surgery.

Change Detection of High-Resolution Remote Sensing Images Based on Adaptive Fusion of Multiple Features

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, G. H.; Wang, H. B.; Fan, W. F.; Liu, Y.; Chen, C.

2018-04-01

In view of the traditional change detection algorithm mainly depends on the spectral information image spot, failed to effectively mining and fusion of multi-image feature detection advantage, the article borrows the ideas of object oriented analysis proposed a multi feature fusion of remote sensing image change detection algorithm. First by the multi-scale segmentation of image objects based; then calculate the various objects of color histogram and linear gradient histogram; utilizes the color distance and edge line feature distance between EMD statistical operator in different periods of the object, using the adaptive weighted method, the color feature distance and edge in a straight line distance of combination is constructed object heterogeneity. Finally, the curvature histogram analysis image spot change detection results. The experimental results show that the method can fully fuse the color and edge line features, thus improving the accuracy of the change detection.

Assessment of vocal cord nodules: a case study in speech processing by using Hilbert-Huang Transform

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Civera, M.; Filosi, C. M.; Pugno, N. M.; Silvestrini, M.; Surace, C.; Worden, K.

2017-05-01

Vocal cord nodules represent a pathological condition for which the growth of unnatural masses on vocal folds affects the patients. Among other effects, changes in the vocal cords’ overall mass and stiffness alter their vibratory behaviour, thus changing the vocal emission generated by them. This causes dysphonia, i.e. abnormalities in the patients’ voice, which can be analysed and inspected via audio signals. However, the evaluation of voice condition through speech processing is not a trivial task, as standard methods based on the Fourier Transform, fail to fit the non-stationary nature of vocal signals. In this study, four audio tracks, provided by a volunteer patient, whose vocal fold nodules have been surgically removed, were analysed using a relatively new technique: the Hilbert-Huang Transform (HHT) via Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD); specifically, by using the CEEMDAN (Complete Ensemble EMD with Adaptive Noise) algorithm. This method has been applied here to speech signals, which were recorded before removal surgery and during convalescence, to investigate specific trends. Possibilities offered by the HHT are exposed, but also some limitations of decomposing the signals into so-called intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) are highlighted. The results of these preliminary studies are intended to be a basis for the development of new viable alternatives to the softwares currently used for the analysis and evaluation of pathological voice.

A Four-Stage Hybrid Model for Hydrological Time Series Forecasting

PubMed Central

Di, Chongli; Yang, Xiaohua; Wang, Xiaochao

2014-01-01

Hydrological time series forecasting remains a difficult task due to its complicated nonlinear, non-stationary and multi-scale characteristics. To solve this difficulty and improve the prediction accuracy, a novel four-stage hybrid model is proposed for hydrological time series forecasting based on the principle of ‘denoising, decomposition and ensemble’. The proposed model has four stages, i.e., denoising, decomposition, components prediction and ensemble. In the denoising stage, the empirical mode decomposition (EMD) method is utilized to reduce the noises in the hydrological time series. Then, an improved method of EMD, the ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD), is applied to decompose the denoised series into a number of intrinsic mode function (IMF) components and one residual component. Next, the radial basis function neural network (RBFNN) is adopted to predict the trend of all of the components obtained in the decomposition stage. In the final ensemble prediction stage, the forecasting results of all of the IMF and residual components obtained in the third stage are combined to generate the final prediction results, using a linear neural network (LNN) model. For illustration and verification, six hydrological cases with different characteristics are used to test the effectiveness of the proposed model. The proposed hybrid model performs better than conventional single models, the hybrid models without denoising or decomposition and the hybrid models based on other methods, such as the wavelet analysis (WA)-based hybrid models. In addition, the denoising and decomposition strategies decrease the complexity of the series and reduce the difficulties of the forecasting. With its effective denoising and accurate decomposition ability, high prediction precision and wide applicability, the new model is very promising for complex time series forecasting. This new forecast model is an extension of nonlinear prediction models. PMID:25111782

A four-stage hybrid model for hydrological time series forecasting.

PubMed

Di, Chongli; Yang, Xiaohua; Wang, Xiaochao

2014-01-01

Hydrological time series forecasting remains a difficult task due to its complicated nonlinear, non-stationary and multi-scale characteristics. To solve this difficulty and improve the prediction accuracy, a novel four-stage hybrid model is proposed for hydrological time series forecasting based on the principle of 'denoising, decomposition and ensemble'. The proposed model has four stages, i.e., denoising, decomposition, components prediction and ensemble. In the denoising stage, the empirical mode decomposition (EMD) method is utilized to reduce the noises in the hydrological time series. Then, an improved method of EMD, the ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD), is applied to decompose the denoised series into a number of intrinsic mode function (IMF) components and one residual component. Next, the radial basis function neural network (RBFNN) is adopted to predict the trend of all of the components obtained in the decomposition stage. In the final ensemble prediction stage, the forecasting results of all of the IMF and residual components obtained in the third stage are combined to generate the final prediction results, using a linear neural network (LNN) model. For illustration and verification, six hydrological cases with different characteristics are used to test the effectiveness of the proposed model. The proposed hybrid model performs better than conventional single models, the hybrid models without denoising or decomposition and the hybrid models based on other methods, such as the wavelet analysis (WA)-based hybrid models. In addition, the denoising and decomposition strategies decrease the complexity of the series and reduce the difficulties of the forecasting. With its effective denoising and accurate decomposition ability, high prediction precision and wide applicability, the new model is very promising for complex time series forecasting. This new forecast model is an extension of nonlinear prediction models.

Tourism forecasting using modified empirical mode decomposition and group method of data handling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yahya, N. A.; Samsudin, R.; Shabri, A.

2017-09-01

In this study, a hybrid model using modified Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) and Group Method of Data Handling (GMDH) model is proposed for tourism forecasting. This approach reconstructs intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) produced by EMD using trial and error method. The new component and the remaining IMFs is then predicted respectively using GMDH model. Finally, the forecasted results for each component are aggregated to construct an ensemble forecast. The data used in this experiment are monthly time series data of tourist arrivals from China, Thailand and India to Malaysia from year 2000 to 2016. The performance of the model is evaluated using Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) and Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) where conventional GMDH model and EMD-GMDH model are used as benchmark models. Empirical results proved that the proposed model performed better forecasts than the benchmarked models.

Automatic sleep staging using empirical mode decomposition, discrete wavelet transform, time-domain, and nonlinear dynamics features of heart rate variability signals.

PubMed

Ebrahimi, Farideh; Setarehdan, Seyed-Kamaledin; Ayala-Moyeda, Jose; Nazeran, Homer

2013-10-01

The conventional method for sleep staging is to analyze polysomnograms (PSGs) recorded in a sleep lab. The electroencephalogram (EEG) is one of the most important signals in PSGs but recording and analysis of this signal presents a number of technical challenges, especially at home. Instead, electrocardiograms (ECGs) are much easier to record and may offer an attractive alternative for home sleep monitoring. The heart rate variability (HRV) signal proves suitable for automatic sleep staging. Thirty PSGs from the Sleep Heart Health Study (SHHS) database were used. Three feature sets were extracted from 5- and 0.5-min HRV segments: time-domain features, nonlinear-dynamics features and time-frequency features. The latter was achieved by using empirical mode decomposition (EMD) and discrete wavelet transform (DWT) methods. Normalized energies in important frequency bands of HRV signals were computed using time-frequency methods. ANOVA and t-test were used for statistical evaluations. Automatic sleep staging was based on HRV signal features. The ANOVA followed by a post hoc Bonferroni was used for individual feature assessment. Most features were beneficial for sleep staging. A t-test was used to compare the means of extracted features in 5- and 0.5-min HRV segments. The results showed that the extracted features means were statistically similar for a small number of features. A separability measure showed that time-frequency features, especially EMD features, had larger separation than others. There was not a sizable difference in separability of linear features between 5- and 0.5-min HRV segments but separability of nonlinear features, especially EMD features, decreased in 0.5-min HRV segments. HRV signal features were classified by linear discriminant (LD) and quadratic discriminant (QD) methods. Classification results based on features from 5-min segments surpassed those obtained from 0.5-min segments. The best result was obtained from features using 5-min HRV segments classified by the LD classifier. A combination of linear/nonlinear features from HRV signals is effective in automatic sleep staging. Moreover, time-frequency features are more informative than others. In addition, a separability measure and classification results showed that HRV signal features, especially nonlinear features, extracted from 5-min segments are more discriminative than those from 0.5-min segments in automatic sleep staging. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Antepartum fetal heart rate feature extraction and classification using empirical mode decomposition and support vector machine

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Background Cardiotocography (CTG) is the most widely used tool for fetal surveillance. The visual analysis of fetal heart rate (FHR) traces largely depends on the expertise and experience of the clinician involved. Several approaches have been proposed for the effective interpretation of FHR. In this paper, a new approach for FHR feature extraction based on empirical mode decomposition (EMD) is proposed, which was used along with support vector machine (SVM) for the classification of FHR recordings as 'normal' or 'at risk'. Methods The FHR were recorded from 15 subjects at a sampling rate of 4 Hz and a dataset consisting of 90 randomly selected records of 20 minutes duration was formed from these. All records were labelled as 'normal' or 'at risk' by two experienced obstetricians. A training set was formed by 60 records, the remaining 30 left as the testing set. The standard deviations of the EMD components are input as features to a support vector machine (SVM) to classify FHR samples. Results For the training set, a five-fold cross validation test resulted in an accuracy of 86% whereas the overall geometric mean of sensitivity and specificity was 94.8%. The Kappa value for the training set was .923. Application of the proposed method to the testing set (30 records) resulted in a geometric mean of 81.5%. The Kappa value for the testing set was .684. Conclusions Based on the overall performance of the system it can be stated that the proposed methodology is a promising new approach for the feature extraction and classification of FHR signals. PMID:21244712

Hierarchical clustering of EMD based interest points for road sign detection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Khan, Jesmin; Bhuiyan, Sharif; Adhami, Reza

2014-04-01

This paper presents an automatic road traffic signs detection and recognition system based on hierarchical clustering of interest points and joint transform correlation. The proposed algorithm consists of the three following stages: interest points detection, clustering of those points and similarity search. At the first stage, good discriminative, rotation and scale invariant interest points are selected from the image edges based on the 1-D empirical mode decomposition (EMD). We propose a two-step unsupervised clustering technique, which is adaptive and based on two criterion. In this context, the detected points are initially clustered based on the stable local features related to the brightness and color, which are extracted using Gabor filter. Then points belonging to each partition are reclustered depending on the dispersion of the points in the initial cluster using position feature. This two-step hierarchical clustering yields the possible candidate road signs or the region of interests (ROIs). Finally, a fringe-adjusted joint transform correlation (JTC) technique is used for matching the unknown signs with the existing known reference road signs stored in the database. The presented framework provides a novel way to detect a road sign from the natural scenes and the results demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed technique, which yields a very low false hit rate.

Agile Methods and Request for Change (RFC): Observations from DoD Acquisition Programs

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-01-01

at the Software Development Plan, then it’s worth having a conversation with the contractor that includes answering the above questions. MSA TD EMD...Lap- ham 2010] CMU/SEI-2013-TN-031 | 18 those undertaken in more traditional waterfall-based developments. Some of the government PMO enabling

Benefits of Earthquake Early Warning to Large Municipalities (Invited)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Featherstone, J.

2013-12-01

The City of Los Angeles has been involved in the testing of the Cal Tech Shake Alert, Earthquake Early Warning (EQEW) system, since February 2012. This system accesses a network of seismic monitors installed throughout California. The system analyzes and processes seismic information, and transmits a warning (audible and visual) when an earthquake occurs. In late 2011, the City of Los Angeles Emergency Management Department (EMD) was approached by Cal Tech regarding EQEW, and immediately recognized the value of the system. Simultaneously, EMD was in the process of finalizing a report by a multi-discipline team that visited Japan in December 2011, which spoke to the effectiveness of EQEW for the March 11, 2011 earthquake that struck that country. Information collected by the team confirmed that the EQEW systems proved to be very effective in alerting the population of the impending earthquake. The EQEW in Japan is also tied to mechanical safeguards, such as the stopping of high-speed trains. For a city the size and complexity of Los Angeles, the implementation of a reliable EQEW system will save lives, reduce loss, ensure effective and rapid emergency response, and will greatly enhance the ability of the region to recovery from a damaging earthquake. The current Shake Alert system is being tested at several governmental organizations and private businesses in the region. EMD, in cooperation with Cal Tech, identified several locations internal to the City where the system would have an immediate benefit. These include the staff offices within EMD, the Los Angeles Police Department's Real Time Analysis and Critical Response Division (24 hour crime center), and the Los Angeles Fire Department's Metropolitan Fire Communications (911 Dispatch). All three of these agencies routinely manage the collaboration and coordination of citywide emergency information and response during times of crisis. Having these three key public safety offices connected and included in the early testing of an EQEW system will help shape the EQEW policy which will determine the seismic safety of millions of Californians in the years to come.

Clinical and histologic evaluation of an enamel matrix derivative combined with a biphasic calcium phosphate for the treatment of human intrabony periodontal defects.

PubMed

Sculean, Anton; Windisch, Péter; Szendröi-Kiss, Dóra; Horváth, Attila; Rosta, Péter; Becker, Jürgen; Gera, István; Schwarz, Frank

2008-10-01

The goal of this study was to evaluate clinically and histologically the healing of advanced intrabony defects following regenerative periodontal surgery with an enamel matrix derivative (EMD) combined with a new biphasic calcium phosphate (BCP). Ten subjects, each of them displaying advanced combined 1- and 2-wall intrabony defects around teeth scheduled for extraction because of advanced chronic periodontitis and further prosthodontic considerations, were included in the study. The defects were consecutively treated with a combination of EMD + BCP. A notch was placed at the most apical extent of the calculus present on the root surface or at the most apical part of the defect (if no calculus was present) to serve as a reference for the histologic evaluation. At 9 months after regenerative surgery, nine of 10 teeth were extracted with some of their surrounding soft and hard tissues and processed for histologic evaluation. There were no adverse effects related to EMD or the graft material used in any of the treated subjects. One tooth was not extracted because of the excellent clinical outcome. The clinical measurements at the nine biopsied teeth demonstrated a mean probing depth reduction of 3.3 +/- 1.4 mm and a mean clinical attachment level gain of 3.0 +/- 1.6 mm. The histologic findings indicated formation of cementum with inserting collagen fibers to a varying extent. A long junctional epithelium was observed in three of the nine biopsies. Mean new connective tissue attachment (i.e., new cementum with inserting collagen fibers) varied from 0.0 to 2.1 mm. The amount of newly formed bone was limited and varied from 0.0 to 0.7 mm. At 9 months, graft particles were still present and were mostly encapsulated in connective tissue, whereas formation of bone around the graft particles was observed only occasionally. Direct contact between the graft particles and the root surface (cementum or dentin) was not observed in any of the analyzed specimens. The combination of EMD with a BCP bone substitute did not interfere with the regenerative potential reported for EMD and may result in formation of new cementum with an associated periodontal ligament. However, the combination of EMD + BCP resulted in no to minimal new bone formation.

Whole-body vibration does not influence knee joint neuromuscular function or proprioception.

PubMed

Hannah, R; Minshull, C; Folland, J P

2013-02-01

This study examined the acute effects of whole-body vibration (WBV) on knee joint position sense and indices of neuromuscular function, specifically strength, electromechanical delay and the rate of force development. Electromyography and electrically evoked contractions were used to investigate neural and contractile responses to WBV. Fourteen healthy males completed two treatment conditions on separate occasions: (1) 5 × 1 min of unilateral isometric squat exercise on a synchronous vibrating platform [30 Hz, 4 mm peak-to-peak amplitude] (WBV) and (2) a control condition (CON) of the same exercise without WBV. Knee joint position sense (joint angle replication task) and quadriceps neuromuscular function were assessed pre-, immediately-post and 1 h post-exercise. During maximum voluntary knee extensions, the peak force (PF(V)), electromechanical delay (EMD(V)), rate of force development (RFD(V)) and EMG of the quadriceps were measured. Twitch contractions of the knee extensors were electrically evoked to assess EMD(E) and RFD(E). The results showed no influence of WBV on knee joint position, EMD(V), PF(V) and RFD(V) during the initial 50, 100 or 150 ms of contraction. Similarly, electrically evoked neuromuscular function and neural activation remained unchanged following the vibration exercise. A single session of unilateral WBV did not influence any indices of thigh muscle neuromuscular performance or knee joint proprioception. © 2011 John Wiley & Sons A/S.

EMD-regression for modelling multi-scale relationships, and application to weather-related cardiovascular mortality

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Masselot, Pierre; Chebana, Fateh; Bélanger, Diane; St-Hilaire, André; Abdous, Belkacem; Gosselin, Pierre; Ouarda, Taha B. M. J.

2018-01-01

In a number of environmental studies, relationships between natural processes are often assessed through regression analyses, using time series data. Such data are often multi-scale and non-stationary, leading to a poor accuracy of the resulting regression models and therefore to results with moderate reliability. To deal with this issue, the present paper introduces the EMD-regression methodology consisting in applying the empirical mode decomposition (EMD) algorithm on data series and then using the resulting components in regression models. The proposed methodology presents a number of advantages. First, it accounts of the issues of non-stationarity associated to the data series. Second, this approach acts as a scan for the relationship between a response variable and the predictors at different time scales, providing new insights about this relationship. To illustrate the proposed methodology it is applied to study the relationship between weather and cardiovascular mortality in Montreal, Canada. The results shed new knowledge concerning the studied relationship. For instance, they show that the humidity can cause excess mortality at the monthly time scale, which is a scale not visible in classical models. A comparison is also conducted with state of the art methods which are the generalized additive models and distributed lag models, both widely used in weather-related health studies. The comparison shows that EMD-regression achieves better prediction performances and provides more details than classical models concerning the relationship.

Different effects of 25-kDa amelogenin on the proliferation, attachment and migration of various periodontal cells

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Li, Xiting; Shu, Rong, E-mail: shurong123@hotmail.com; Liu, Dali

Previous studies have assumed that amelogenin is responsible for the therapeutic effect of the enamel matrix derivative (EMD) in periodontal tissue healing and regeneration. However, it is difficult to confirm this hypothesis because both the EMD and the amelogenins are complex mixtures of multiple proteins. Further adding to the difficulties is the fact that periodontal tissue regeneration involves various types of cells and a sequence of associated cellular events including the attachment, migration and proliferation of various cells. In this study, we investigated the potential effect of a 25-kDa recombinant porcine amelogenin (rPAm) on primarily cultured periodontal ligament fibroblasts (PDLF),more » gingival fibroblasts (GF) and gingival epithelial cells (GEC). The cells were treated with 25-kDa recombinant porcine amelogenin at a concentration of 10 {mu}g/mL. We found that rPAm significantly promoted the proliferation and migration of PDLF, but not their adhesion. Similarly, the proliferation and adhesion of GF were significantly enhanced by treatment with rPAm, while migration was greatly inhibited. Interestingly, this recombinant protein inhibited the growth rate, cell adhesion and migration of GEC. These data suggest that rPAm may play an essential role in periodontal regeneration through the activation of periodontal fibroblasts and inhibition of the cellular behaviors of gingival epithelial cells.« less

Is 2010 the Year Army Acquisitions Turned the Corner to Affordability

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-12-01

enacted as public law on May 22, 2009. The goal of the legislation, summarized by President Obama will limit cost overruns before they spiral out...mention that one Navy program that did complete a should cost analysis benefited from the newly acquired knowledge by negotiating a 4.5% reduction on a...the cost analysis requirements description indicates that a sole source contract for EMD will be pursued negating any benefits from competition (DOD

Functional identification and regulatory analysis of Δ6-fatty acid desaturase from the oleaginous fungus Mucor sp. EIM-10.

PubMed

Jiang, Xianzhang; Liu, Hongjiao; Niu, Yongchao; Qi, Feng; Zhang, Mingliang; Huang, Jianzhong

2017-03-01

To enlarge the diversity of the desaturases associated with PUFA biosynthesis and to better understand the transcriptional regulation of desaturases, a Δ 6 -desaturase gene (Md6) from Mucor sp. and its 5'-upstream sequence was functionally identified in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Expression of the Δ 6 -fatty acid desaturase (Md6) in S. cerevisiae showed that Md6 could convert linolenic acid to γ-linolenic acid. Computational analysis of the promoter of Md6 suggested it contains several eukaryotic fundamental transcription regulatory elements. In vivo functional analysis of the promoter showed the 5'-upstream sequence of Md6 could initiate expression of GFP and Md6 itself in S. cerevisiae. A series deletion analysis of the promoter suggested that sequence between -919 to -784 bp (relative to start site) named as eMd6 is the key factor for high activity of Δ 6 -desaturase. The activity of Δ 6 -desaturase was increased by 2.8-fold and 2.5-fold when the eMd6 sequence was placed upstream of -434 with forward or reverse orientations respectively. To our best knowledge, the native promoter of Md6 from Mucor is the strongest promoter for Δ 6 -desaturase reported so far and the sequence between -919 to -784 bp is an enhancer for Δ 6 -desaturase activity.

The Antidepressant 5-HT2A Receptor Antagonists Pizotifen and Cyproheptadine Inhibit Serotonin-Enhanced Platelet Function

PubMed Central

Lin, Olivia A.; Karim, Zubair A.; Vemana, Hari Priya; Espinosa, Enma V. P.; Khasawneh, Fadi T.

2014-01-01

There is considerable interest in defining new agents or targets for antithrombotic purposes. The 5-HT2A receptor is a G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) expressed on many cell types, and a known therapeutic target for many disease states. This serotonin receptor is also known to regulate platelet function. Thus, in our FDA-approved drug repurposing efforts, we investigated the antiplatelet activity of cyproheptadine and pizotifen, two antidepressant 5-HT2A Receptor antagonists. Our results revealed that cyproheptadine and pizotifen reversed serotonin-enhanced ADP-induced platelet aggregation in vitro and ex vivo. And the inhibitory effects of these two agents were found to be similar to that of EMD 281014, a 5-HT2A Receptor antagonist under development. In separate experiments, our studies revealed that these 5-HT2A receptor antagonists have the capacity to reduce serotonin-enhanced ADP-induced elevation in intracellular calcium levels and tyrosine phosphorylation. Using flow cytometry, we also observed that cyproheptadine, pizotifen, and EMD 281014 inhibited serotonin-enhanced ADP-induced phosphatidylserine (PS) exposure, P-selectin expression, and glycoprotein IIb-IIIa activation. Furthermore, using a carotid artery thrombosis model, these agents prolonged the time for thrombotic occlusion in mice in vivo. Finally, the tail-bleeding time was investigated to assess the effect of cyproheptadine and pizotifen on hemostasis. Our findings indicated prolonged bleeding time in both cyproheptadine- and pizotifen-treated mice. Notably, the increases in occlusion and bleeding times associated with these two agents were comparable to that of EMD 281014, and to clopidogrel, a commonly used antiplatelet drug, again, in a fashion comparable to clopidogrel and EMD 281014. Collectively, our data indicate that the antidepressant 5-HT2A antagonists, cyproheptadine and pizotifen do exert antiplatelet and thromboprotective effects, but similar to clopidogrel and EMD 281014, their use may interfere with normal hemostasis. PMID:24466319

Fast Algorithms for Earth Mover’s Distance Based on Optimal Transport and L1 Type Regularization I

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-09-01

which EMD can be reformulated as a familiar homogeneous degree 1 regularized minimization. The new minimization problem is very similar to problems which...which is also named the Monge problem or the Wasserstein metric, plays a central role in many applications, including image processing, computer vision

Eye tracking to evaluate evidence recognition in crime scene investigations.

PubMed

Watalingam, Renuka Devi; Richetelli, Nicole; Pelz, Jeff B; Speir, Jacqueline A

2017-11-01

Crime scene analysts are the core of criminal investigations; decisions made at the scene greatly affect the speed of analysis and the quality of conclusions, thereby directly impacting the successful resolution of a case. If an examiner fails to recognize the pertinence of an item on scene, the analyst's theory regarding the crime will be limited. Conversely, unselective evidence collection will most likely include irrelevant material, thus increasing a forensic laboratory's backlog and potentially sending the investigation into an unproductive and costly direction. Therefore, it is critical that analysts recognize and properly evaluate forensic evidence that can assess the relative support of differing hypotheses related to event reconstruction. With this in mind, the aim of this study was to determine if quantitative eye tracking data and qualitative reconstruction accuracy could be used to distinguish investigator expertise. In order to assess this, 32 participants were successfully recruited and categorized as experts or trained novices based on their practical experiences and educational backgrounds. Each volunteer then processed a mock crime scene while wearing a mobile eye tracker, wherein visual fixations, durations, search patterns, and reconstruction accuracy were evaluated. The eye tracking data (dwell time and task percentage on areas of interest or AOIs) were compared using Earth Mover's Distance (EMD) and the Needleman-Wunsch (N-W) algorithm, revealing significant group differences for both search duration (EMD), as well as search sequence (N-W). More specifically, experts exhibited greater dissimilarity in search duration, but greater similarity in search sequences than their novice counterparts. In addition to the quantitative visual assessment of examiner variability, each participant's reconstruction skill was assessed using a 22-point binary scoring system, in which significant group differences were detected as a function of total reconstruction accuracy. This result, coupled with the fact that the study failed to detect a significant difference between the groups when evaluating the total time needed to complete the investigation, indicates that experts are more efficient and effective. Finally, the results presented here provide a basis for continued research in the use of eye trackers to assess expertise in complex and distributed environments, including suggestions for future work, and cautions regarding the degree to which visual attention can infer cognitive understanding. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Biomarkers for pulmonary injury following deployment

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-10-01

construed as an official Department of the Army position, policy or decision unless so designated by other documentation. 2 REPORT DOCUMENTATION...cc x 3). BALF sample preparation for proteome analysis. Samples were thawed and desalted and concentrated with Amicon 3K MWCO spin filters (EMD...of the correlation heatmaps designate control and disease, respectively. Figure 2. PCA plot of BALF and urine datasets on left and right

Noise-assisted data processing with empirical mode decomposition in biomedical signals.

PubMed

Karagiannis, Alexandros; Constantinou, Philip

2011-01-01

In this paper, a methodology is described in order to investigate the performance of empirical mode decomposition (EMD) in biomedical signals, and especially in the case of electrocardiogram (ECG). Synthetic ECG signals corrupted with white Gaussian noise are employed and time series of various lengths are processed with EMD in order to extract the intrinsic mode functions (IMFs). A statistical significance test is implemented for the identification of IMFs with high-level noise components and their exclusion from denoising procedures. Simulation campaign results reveal that a decrease of processing time is accomplished with the introduction of preprocessing stage, prior to the application of EMD in biomedical time series. Furthermore, the variation in the number of IMFs according to the type of the preprocessing stage is studied as a function of SNR and time-series length. The application of the methodology in MIT-BIH ECG records is also presented in order to verify the findings in real ECG signals.

Adaptive photoacoustic imaging quality optimization with EMD and reconstruction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guo, Chengwen; Ding, Yao; Yuan, Jie; Xu, Guan; Wang, Xueding; Carson, Paul L.

2016-10-01

Biomedical photoacoustic (PA) signal is characterized with extremely low signal to noise ratio which will yield significant artifacts in photoacoustic tomography (PAT) images. Since PA signals acquired by ultrasound transducers are non-linear and non-stationary, traditional data analysis methods such as Fourier and wavelet method cannot give useful information for further research. In this paper, we introduce an adaptive method to improve the quality of PA imaging based on empirical mode decomposition (EMD) and reconstruction. Data acquired by ultrasound transducers are adaptively decomposed into several intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) after a sifting pre-process. Since noise is randomly distributed in different IMFs, depressing IMFs with more noise while enhancing IMFs with less noise can effectively enhance the quality of reconstructed PAT images. However, searching optimal parameters by means of brute force searching algorithms will cost too much time, which prevent this method from practical use. To find parameters within reasonable time, heuristic algorithms, which are designed for finding good solutions more efficiently when traditional methods are too slow, are adopted in our method. Two of the heuristic algorithms, Simulated Annealing Algorithm, a probabilistic method to approximate the global optimal solution, and Artificial Bee Colony Algorithm, an optimization method inspired by the foraging behavior of bee swarm, are selected to search optimal parameters of IMFs in this paper. The effectiveness of our proposed method is proved both on simulated data and PA signals from real biomedical tissue, which might bear the potential for future clinical PA imaging de-noising.

Safety of clinical and non-clinical decision makers in telephone triage: a narrative review.

PubMed

Wheeler, Sheila Q; Greenberg, Mary E; Mahlmeister, Laura; Wolfe, Nicole

2015-09-01

Patient safety is a persistent problem in telephone triage research; however, studies have not differentiated between clinicians' and non-clinicians' respective safety. Currently, four groups of decision makers perform aspects of telephone triage: clinicians (physicians, nurses), and non-clinicians (emergency medical dispatchers (EMD) and clerical staff). Using studies published between 2002-2012, we applied Donabedian's structure-process-outcome model to examine groups' systems for evidence of system completeness (a minimum measure of structure and quality). We defined system completeness as the presence of a decision maker and four additional components: guidelines, documentation, training, and standards. Defining safety as appropriate referrals (AR) - (right time, right place with the right person), we measured each groups' corresponding AR rate percentages (outcomes). We analyzed each group's respective decision-making process as a safe match to the telephone triage task, based on each group's system structure completeness, process and AR rates (outcome). Studies uniformly noted system component presence: nurses (2-4), physicians (1), EMDs (2), clerical staff (1). Nurses had the highest average appropriate referral (AR) rates (91%), physicians' AR (82% average). Clerical staff had no system and did not perform telephone triage by standard definitions; EMDs may represent the use of the wrong system. Telephone triage appears least safe after hours when decision makers with the least complete systems (physicians, clerical staff) typically manage calls. At minimum, telephone triage decision makers should be clinicians; however, clinicians' safety calls for improvement. With improved training, standards and CDSS quality, the 24/7 clinical call center has potential to represent the national standard. © The Author(s) 2015.

Alternatives to connective tissue graft in the treatment of localized gingival recessions: A systematic review.

PubMed

Amine, K; El Amrani, Y; Chemlali, S; Kissa, J

2018-02-01

The aim of this Systematic Review (SR) was to assess the clinical efficacy of alternatives procedures; Acellular Dermal Matrix (ADM), Xenogeneic Collagen Matrix (XCM), Enamel Matrix Derivative (EMD) and Platelet Rich Fibrin (PRF), compared to conventional procedures in the treatment of localized gingival recessions. Electronic searches were performed to identify randomized clinical trials (RCTs) on treatment of single gingival recession with at least 6 months of follow-up. Applying guidelines of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses statement (PRISMA). The risk of bias was assessed using the Cochrane Collaboration's Risk of Bias tool. Eighteen randomized controlled trials (RCTs) with a total of 390 treated patients (606 recessions) were included. This systematic review showed that: Coronally Advanced Flap (CAF) in conjunction with ADM was significantly better than CAF alone, while the comparison between CAF+ADM and CTG was affected by large uncertainty. The CAF+EMD was significantly better than CAF alone, whereas the comparison between CAF+EMD and CTG was affected by large uncertainty. No significant difference was recorded when comparing CAF+XCM with CAF alone, and the comparison between CAF+XCM and CTG was affected by large uncertainty. The comparison between PRF and others technique was affected by large uncertainty. ADM, XCM and EMD assisted to CAF might be considered alternatives of CTG in the treatment of Miller class I and II gingival recession. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

A survey on regenerative surgery performed by Swiss specialists in periodontology with special emphasis on the application of enamel matrix derivatives in infrabony defects.

PubMed

Schröen, Ola; Sahrmann, Philipp; Roos, Malgorzata; Attin, Thomas; Schmidlin, Patrick R

2011-01-01

This survey aimed to evaluate the common practice of regenerative periodontal surgery with special regard to the use of enamel matrix derivatives (EMD, Emdogain® ) by board-certified specialists in periodontology and non-certified, but active members of the Swiss Society of Periodontology (SSP). A cross-sectional postal survey of 533 dentists, representing all members of the SSP practising in Switzerland, was conducted. The questionnaire consisted of three sections, assessing: 1) general personal information regarding the practice setting and education, 2) general questions regarding periodontal surgery practices and 3) specific questions regarding the use of EMD. The information obtained was compared and differences between specialists and non-specialists were calculated. P-values smaller than 5% were considered significant. Sixty-nine percent of the specialists answered the questionnaire, compared to only 37.4% of the non-specialists (overall: 42.4%). In general, specialists performed surgeries more frequently, and presented a significantly higher percentage of EMD users than the non-specialists. The application guidelines were followed in general. Some differences were observed in application and selection criteria. The subjective perception of clinical success varied greatly among clinicians. Residual pockets were reported to be present in approximately one third of the defects after therapy. In conclusion, this survey revealed that EMD was used on a regular basis by dentists performing periodontal therapy. In addition, the answers by both groups generally corresponded well with the current available literature.

Nonlinear QR code based optical image encryption using spiral phase transform, equal modulus decomposition and singular value decomposition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kumar, Ravi; Bhaduri, Basanta; Nishchal, Naveen K.

2018-01-01

In this study, we propose a quick response (QR) code based nonlinear optical image encryption technique using spiral phase transform (SPT), equal modulus decomposition (EMD) and singular value decomposition (SVD). First, the primary image is converted into a QR code and then multiplied with a spiral phase mask (SPM). Next, the product is spiral phase transformed with particular spiral phase function, and further, the EMD is performed on the output of SPT, which results into two complex images, Z 1 and Z 2. Among these, Z 1 is further Fresnel propagated with distance d, and Z 2 is reserved as a decryption key. Afterwards, SVD is performed on Fresnel propagated output to get three decomposed matrices i.e. one diagonal matrix and two unitary matrices. The two unitary matrices are modulated with two different SPMs and then, the inverse SVD is performed using the diagonal matrix and modulated unitary matrices to get the final encrypted image. Numerical simulation results confirm the validity and effectiveness of the proposed technique. The proposed technique is robust against noise attack, specific attack, and brutal force attack. Simulation results are presented in support of the proposed idea.

Quantifying Burnout among Emergency Medicine Professionals

PubMed Central

Wilson, William; Raj, Jeffrey Pradeep; Narayan, Girish; Ghiya, Murtuza; Murty, Shakuntala; Joseph, Bobby

2017-01-01

Background: Burnout is a syndrome explained as serious emotional depletion with poor adaptation at work due to prolonged occupational stress. It has three principal components namely emotional exhaustion(EE), depersonalization(DP) and diminished feelings of personal accomplishment(PA). Thus, we aimed at measuring the degree of burnout in doctors and nurses working in emergency medicine department (EMD) of 4 select tertiary care teaching hospitals in South India. Methods: A cross sectional survey was conducted among EMD professionals using a 30-item standardized pilot tested questionnaire as well as the Maslach burnout inventory. Univariate and Multivariate analyses were conducted using binary logistic regression models to identify predictors of burnout. Results: Total number of professionals interviewed were 105 of which 71.5% were women and 51.4% were doctors. Majority (78.1%) belonged to the age group 20-30 years. Prevalence of moderate to severe burnout in the 3 principal components EE, DP and PA were 64.8%, 71.4% and 73.3% respectively. After multivariate analysis, the risk factors [adjusted odds ratio (95% confidence intervals) for DP included facing more criticism [3.57(1.25,10.19)], disturbed sleep [6.44(1.45,28.49)] and being short tempered [3.14(1.09,9.09)]. While there were no statistically significant risk factors for EE, being affected by mortality [2.35(1.12,3.94)] and fear of medication errors [3.61(1.26, 10.37)] appeared to be significant predictors of PA. Conclusion: Degree of burn out among doctors and nurses is moderately high in all of the three principal components and some of the predictors identified were criticism, disturbed sleep, short tempered nature, fear of committing errors and witnessing death in EMD. PMID:29097859

Quantifying Burnout among Emergency Medicine Professionals.

PubMed

Wilson, William; Raj, Jeffrey Pradeep; Narayan, Girish; Ghiya, Murtuza; Murty, Shakuntala; Joseph, Bobby

2017-01-01

Burnout is a syndrome explained as serious emotional depletion with poor adaptation at work due to prolonged occupational stress. It has three principal components namely emotional exhaustion(EE), depersonalization(DP) and diminished feelings of personal accomplishment(PA). Thus, we aimed at measuring the degree of burnout in doctors and nurses working in emergency medicine department (EMD) of 4 select tertiary care teaching hospitals in South India. A cross sectional survey was conducted among EMD professionals using a 30-item standardized pilot tested questionnaire as well as the Maslach burnout inventory. Univariate and Multivariate analyses were conducted using binary logistic regression models to identify predictors of burnout. Total number of professionals interviewed were 105 of which 71.5% were women and 51.4% were doctors. Majority (78.1%) belonged to the age group 20-30 years. Prevalence of moderate to severe burnout in the 3 principal components EE, DP and PA were 64.8%, 71.4% and 73.3% respectively. After multivariate analysis, the risk factors [adjusted odds ratio (95% confidence intervals) for DP included facing more criticism [3.57(1.25,10.19)], disturbed sleep [6.44(1.45,28.49)] and being short tempered [3.14(1.09,9.09)]. While there were no statistically significant risk factors for EE, being affected by mortality [2.35(1.12,3.94)] and fear of medication errors [3.61(1.26, 10.37)] appeared to be significant predictors of PA. Degree of burn out among doctors and nurses is moderately high in all of the three principal components and some of the predictors identified were criticism, disturbed sleep, short tempered nature, fear of committing errors and witnessing death in EMD.

Determining temporal scales of the soil moisture variations by Empirical Mode Decompositions and wavelet methods and its use for validation of SMOS data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Usowicz, Jerzy, B.; Marczewski, Wojciech; Usowicz, Boguslaw; Lipiec, Jerzy; Lukowski, Mateusz I.

2010-05-01

This paper presents the results of the time series analysis of the soil moisture observed at two test sites Podlasie, Polesie, in the Cal/Val AO 3275 campaigns in Poland, during the interval 2006-2009. The test sites have been selected on a basis of their contrasted hydrological conditions. The region Podlasie (Trzebieszow) is essentially drier than the wetland region Polesie (Urszulin). It is worthwhile to note that the soil moisture variations can be represented as a non-stationary random process, and therefore appropriate analysis methods are required. The so-called Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) method has been chosen, since it is one of the best methods for the analysis of non-stationary and nonlinear time series. To confirm the results obtained by the EMD we have also used the wavelet methods. Firstly, we have used EMD (analyze step) to decompose the original time series into the so-called Intrinsic Mode Functions (IMFs) and then by grouping and addition similar IMFs (synthesize step) to obtain a few signal components with corresponding temporal scales. Such an adaptive procedure enables to decompose the original time series into diurnal, seasonal and trend components. Revealing of all temporal scales which operates in the original time series is our main objective and this approach may prove to be useful in other studies. Secondly, we have analyzed the soil moisture time series from both sites using the cross-wavelet and wavelet coherency. These methods allow us to study the degree of spatial coherence, which may vary in various intervals of time. We hope the obtained results provide some hints and guidelines for the validation of ESA SMOS data. References: B. Usowicz, J.B. Usowicz, Spatial and temporal variation of selected physical and chemical properties of soil, Institute of Agrophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Lublin 2004, ISBN 83-87385-96-4 Rao, A.R., Hsu, E.-C., Hilbert-Huang Transform Analysis of Hydrological and Environmental Time Series, Springer, 2008, ISBN: 978-1-4020-6453-1 Acknowledgements. This work was funded in part by the PECS - Programme for European Cooperating States, No. 98084 "SWEX/R - Soil Water and Energy Exchange/Research".

SHARP's systems engineering challenge: rectifying integrated product team requirements with performance issues in an evolutionary spiral development acquisition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kuehl, C. Stephen

2003-08-01

Completing its final development and early deployment on the Navy's multi-role aircraft, the F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet, the SHAred Reconnaissance Pod (SHARP) provides the war fighter with the latest digital tactical reconnaissance (TAC Recce) Electro-Optical/Infrared (EO/IR) sensor system. The SHARP program is an evolutionary acquisition that used a spiral development process across a prototype development phase tightly coupled into overlapping Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) and Low Rate Initial Production (LRIP) phases. Under a tight budget environment with a highly compressed schedule, SHARP challenged traditional acquisition strategies and systems engineering (SE) processes. Adopting tailored state-of-the-art systems engineering process models allowd the SHARP program to overcome the technical knowledge transition challenges imposed by a compressed program schedule. The program's original goal was the deployment of digital TAC Recce mission capabilities to the fleet customer by summer of 2003. Hardware and software integration technical challenges resulted from requirements definition and analysis activities performed across a government-industry led Integrated Product Team (IPT) involving Navy engineering and test sites, Boeing, and RTSC-EPS (with its subcontracted hardware and government furnished equipment vendors). Requirements development from a bottoms-up approach was adopted using an electronic requirements capture environment to clarify and establish the SHARP EMD product baseline specifications as relevant technical data became available. Applying Earned-Value Management (EVM) against an Integrated Master Schedule (IMS) resulted in efficiently managing SE task assignments and product deliveries in a dynamically evolving customer requirements environment. Application of Six Sigma improvement methodologies resulted in the uncovering of root causes of errors in wiring interconnectivity drawings, pod manufacturing processes, and avionics requirements specifications. Utilizing the draft NAVAIR SE guideline handbook and the ANSI/EIA-632 standard: Processes for Engineering a System, a systems engineering tailored process approach was adopted for the accelerated SHARP EMD prgram. Tailoring SE processes in this accelerated product delivery environment provided unique opportunities to be technically creative in the establishment of a product performance baseline. This paper provides an historical overview of the systems engineering activities spanning the prototype phase through the EMD SHARP program phase, the performance requirement capture activities and refinement process challenges, and what SE process improvements can be applied to future SHARP-like programs adopting a compressed, evolutionary spiral development acquisition paradigm.

Multiscale Characterization of PM2.5 in Southern Taiwan based on Noise-assisted Multivariate Empirical Mode Decomposition and Time-dependent Intrinsic Correlation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hsiao, Y. R.; Tsai, C.

2017-12-01

As the WHO Air Quality Guideline indicates, ambient air pollution exposes world populations under threat of fatal symptoms (e.g. heart disease, lung cancer, asthma etc.), raising concerns of air pollution sources and relative factors. This study presents a novel approach to investigating the multiscale variations of PM2.5 in southern Taiwan over the past decade, with four meteorological influencing factors (Temperature, relative humidity, precipitation and wind speed),based on Noise-assisted Multivariate Empirical Mode Decomposition(NAMEMD) algorithm, Hilbert Spectral Analysis(HSA) and Time-dependent Intrinsic Correlation(TDIC) method. NAMEMD algorithm is a fully data-driven approach designed for nonlinear and nonstationary multivariate signals, and is performed to decompose multivariate signals into a collection of channels of Intrinsic Mode Functions (IMFs). TDIC method is an EMD-based method using a set of sliding window sizes to quantify localized correlation coefficients for multiscale signals. With the alignment property and quasi-dyadic filter bank of NAMEMD algorithm, one is able to produce same number of IMFs for all variables and estimates the cross correlation in a more accurate way. The performance of spectral representation of NAMEMD-HSA method is compared with Complementary Empirical Mode Decomposition/ Hilbert Spectral Analysis (CEEMD-HSA) and Wavelet Analysis. The nature of NAMAMD-based TDICC analysis is then compared with CEEMD-based TDIC analysis and the traditional correlation analysis.

Torque-onset determination: Unintended consequences of the threshold method.

PubMed

Dotan, Raffy; Jenkins, Glenn; O'Brien, Thomas D; Hansen, Steve; Falk, Bareket

2016-12-01

Compared with visual torque-onset-detection (TOD), threshold-based TOD produces onset bias, which increases with lower torques or rates of torque development (RTD). To compare the effects of differential TOD-bias on common contractile parameters in two torque-disparate groups. Fifteen boys and 12 men performed maximal, explosive, isometric knee-extensions. Torque and EMG were recorded for each contraction. Best contractions were selected by peak torque (MVC) and peak RTD. Visual-TOD-based torque-time traces, electromechanical delays (EMD), and times to peak RTD (tRTD) were compared with corresponding data derived from fixed 4-Nm- and relative 5%MVC-thresholds. The 5%MVC TOD-biases were similar for boys and men, but the corresponding 4-Nm-based biases were markedly different (40.3±14.1 vs. 18.4±7.1ms, respectively; p<0.001). Boys-men EMD differences were most affected, increasing from 5.0ms (visual) to 26.9ms (4Nm; p<0.01). Men's visually-based torque kinetics tended to be faster than the boys' (NS), but the 4-Nm-based kinetics erroneously depicted the boys as being much faster to any given %MVC (p<0.001). When comparing contractile properties of dissimilar groups, e.g., children vs. adults, threshold-based TOD methods can misrepresent reality and lead to erroneous conclusions. Relative-thresholds (e.g., 5% MVC) still introduce error, but group-comparisons are not confounded. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Multiscale characterization and prediction of monsoon rainfall in India using Hilbert-Huang transform and time-dependent intrinsic correlation analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Adarsh, S.; Reddy, M. Janga

2017-07-01

In this paper, the Hilbert-Huang transform (HHT) approach is used for the multiscale characterization of All India Summer Monsoon Rainfall (AISMR) time series and monsoon rainfall time series from five homogeneous regions in India. The study employs the Complete Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition with Adaptive Noise (CEEMDAN) for multiscale decomposition of monsoon rainfall in India and uses the Normalized Hilbert Transform and Direct Quadrature (NHT-DQ) scheme for the time-frequency characterization. The cross-correlation analysis between orthogonal modes of All India monthly monsoon rainfall time series and that of five climate indices such as Quasi Biennial Oscillation (QBO), El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), Sunspot Number (SN), Atlantic Multi Decadal Oscillation (AMO), and Equatorial Indian Ocean Oscillation (EQUINOO) in the time domain showed that the links of different climate indices with monsoon rainfall are expressed well only for few low-frequency modes and for the trend component. Furthermore, this paper investigated the hydro-climatic teleconnection of ISMR in multiple time scales using the HHT-based running correlation analysis technique called time-dependent intrinsic correlation (TDIC). The results showed that both the strength and nature of association between different climate indices and ISMR vary with time scale. Stemming from this finding, a methodology employing Multivariate extension of EMD and Stepwise Linear Regression (MEMD-SLR) is proposed for prediction of monsoon rainfall in India. The proposed MEMD-SLR method clearly exhibited superior performance over the IMD operational forecast, M5 Model Tree (MT), and multiple linear regression methods in ISMR predictions and displayed excellent predictive skill during 1989-2012 including the four extreme events that have occurred during this period.

Bringing isolated dark matter out of isolation: Late-time reheating and indirect detection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Erickcek, Adrienne L.; Sinha, Kuver; Watson, Scott

2016-09-01

In standard cosmology, the growth of structure becomes significant following matter-radiation equality. In nonthermal histories, where an effectively matter-dominated phase occurs due to scalar oscillations prior to big bang nucleosynthesis, a new scale at smaller wavelengths appears in the matter power spectrum. Density perturbations that enter the horizon during the early matter-dominated era (EMDE) grow linearly with the scale factor prior to the onset of radiation domination, which leads to enhanced inhomogeneity on small scales if dark matter (DM) thermally and kinetically decouples during the EMDE. The microhalos that form from these enhanced perturbations significantly boost the self-annihilation rate for dark matter. This has important implications for indirect detection experiments: the larger annihilation rate may result in observable signals from dark matter candidates that are usually deemed untestable. As a proof of principle, we consider binos in heavy supersymmetry with an intermediate extended Higgs sector and all other superpartners decoupled. We find that these isolated binos, which lie under the neutrino floor, can account for the dark matter relic density and decouple from the standard model early enough to preserve the enhanced small-scale inhomogeneity generated during the EMDE. If early forming microhalos survive as subhalos within larger microhalos, the resulting boost to the annihilation rate for bino dark matter near the pseudoscalar resonance exceeds the upper limit established by Fermi-LAT's observations of dwarf spheroidal galaxies. These DM candidates motivate the N -body simulations required to eliminate uncertainties in the microhalos' internal structure by exemplifying how an EMDE can enable Fermi-LAT to probe isolated dark matter.

Mulliken's populations and electron momentum densities of transition metal tungstates using LCAO scheme

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meena, B. S.; Heda, N. L.; Ahuja, B. L.

2018-05-01

We have computed the Mulliken's populations (MP) and electron momentum densities (EMDs) for TMWO4 (TM=Co, Ni, Cu and Zn) using linear combination of atomic orbitals (LCAO) scheme. The latest hybridization of Hartree-Fock (HF) and density functional theory (DFT) under the framework of LCAO approximations (so called WC1LYP and B1WC) have been employed. The theoretical EMDs have been compared with the available experimental data which show that WC1LYP scheme gives slightly better agreement with the experimental data for all the reported tungstates. Such trend shows the applicability of Lee-Yang-Parr (LYP) correlation energies within hybrid approximations in predicting the electronic properties of these compounds. Further, the MP data show the charge transfer from Co/Ni/Cu/Zn and W to O atoms. In addition, we have plotted the total EMDs at the same normalized area which show almost similar type of localization of 3d electrons (in real space) of Cu and Zn, which is lower than that of Ni and Co atoms in their tungstates environment.

Minimum time and fuel flight profiles for an F-15 airplane with a Highly Integrated Digital Electronic Control (HIDEC) system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Haering, E. A., Jr.; Burcham, F. W., Jr.

1984-01-01

A simulation study was conducted to optimize minimum time and fuel consumption paths for an F-15 airplane powered by two F100 Engine Model Derivative (EMD) engines. The benefits of using variable stall margin (uptrim) to increase performance were also determined. This study supports the NASA Highly Integrated Digital Electronic Control (HIDEC) program. The basis for this comparison was minimum time and fuel used to reach Mach 2 at 13,716 m (45,000 ft) from the initial conditions of Mach 0.15 at 1524 m (5000 ft). Results were also compared to a pilot's estimated minimum time and fuel trajectory determined from the F-15 flight manual and previous experience. The minimum time trajectory took 15 percent less time than the pilot's estimate for the standard EMD engines, while the minimum fuel trajectory used 1 percent less fuel than the pilot's estimate for the minimum fuel trajectory. The F-15 airplane with EMD engines and uptrim, was 23 percent faster than the pilot's estimate. The minimum fuel used was 5 percent less than the estimate.

Detection of the electromechanical delay and its components during voluntary isometric contraction of the quadriceps femoris muscle.

PubMed

Begovic, Haris; Zhou, Guang-Quan; Li, Tianjie; Wang, Yi; Zheng, Yong-Ping

2014-01-01

Electromechanical delay (EMD) was described as a time elapsed between first trigger and force output. Various results have been reported based on the measurement method with observed inconsistent results when the trigger is elicited by voluntary contraction. However, mechanomyographic (MMG) sensor placed far away on the skin from the contracting muscle was used to detect muscle fiber motion and excitation-contraction (EC) coupling which may give unreliable results. On this basis, the purpose of this study was to detect EMD during active muscle contraction whilst introducing an ultrafast ultrasound (US) method to detect muscle fiber motion from a certain depth of the muscle. Time delays between onsets of EMG-MMG, EMG-US, MMG-FORCE, US-FORCE, and EMG-FORCE were calculated as 20.5 ± 4.73, 28.63 ± 6.31, 19.21 ± 6.79, 30.52 ± 8.85, and 49.73 ± 6.99 ms, respectively. Intrarater correlation coefficient (ICC) was higher than MMG when ultrafast US was used for detecton of the Δt EMG-US and Δt US-FORCE, ICC values of 0.75 and 0.70, respectively. Synchronization of the ultrafast ultrasound with EMG and FORCE sensors can reveal reliable and clinically useful results related to the EMD and its components when muscle is voluntarily contracted. With ultrafast US, we detect onset from the certain depth of the muscle excluding the tissues above the muscle acting as a low-pass filter which can lead to inaccurate time detection about the onset of the contracting muscle fibers. With this non-invasive technique, understanding of the muscle dynamics can be facilitated.

Generation and periodontal differentiation of human gingival fibroblasts-derived integration-free induced pluripotent stem cells

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Yin, Xiaohui; Peking University Stem Cell Research Center and Department of Cell Biology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Peking University, 38 Xueyuan Road, Beijing 100191; Li, Yang

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) have been recognized as a promising cell source for periodontal tissue regeneration. However, the conventional virus-based reprogramming approach is associated with a high risk of genetic mutation and limits their therapeutic utility. Here, we successfully generated iPSCs from readily accessible human gingival fibroblasts (hGFs) through an integration-free and feeder-free approach via delivery of reprogramming factors of Oct4, Sox2, Klf4, L-myc, Lin28 and TP53 shRNA with episomal plasmid vectors. The iPSCs presented similar morphology and proliferation characteristics as embryonic stem cells (ESCs), and expressed pluripotent markers including Oct4, Tra181, Nanog and SSEA-4. Additionally, these cells maintainedmore » a normal karyotype and showed decreased CpG methylation ratio in the promoter regions of Oct4 and Nanog. In vivo teratoma formation assay revealed the development of tissues representative of three germ layers, confirming the acquisition of pluripotency. Furthermore, treatment of the iPSCs in vitro with enamel matrix derivative (EMD) or growth/differentiation factor-5 (GDF-5) significantly up-regulated the expression of periodontal tissue markers associated with bone, periodontal ligament and cementum respectively. Taken together, our data demonstrate that hGFs are a valuable cell source for generating integration-free iPSCs, which could be sequentially induced toward periodontal cells under the treatment of EMD and GDF-5. - Highlights: • Integration-free iPSCs are successfully generated from hGFs via an episomal approach. • EMD promotes differentiation of the hGFs-derived iPSCs toward periodontal cells. • GDF-5 promotes differentiation of the hGFs-derived iPSCs toward periodontal cells. • hGFs-derived iPSCs could be a promising cell source for periodontal regeneration.« less

A Prospective Randomized Trial on the Effect of Using an Electronic Monitoring Drug Dispensing Device to Improve Adherence and Compliance.

PubMed

Henriksson, Jarmo; Tydén, Gunnar; Höijer, Jonas; Wadström, Jonas

2016-01-01

Outcome after renal transplantation depends on patient compliance and adherence for early detection of complications and identification of intervention opportunities. Compliance describes the degree to which patients follow medical advice and take their medications. Adherence has been defined as the extent to which a patients' behavior coincides with clinical prescriptions. Patients were randomized 7 to 14 days after transplantation into groups with (n = 40) and without (n = 40) an electronic medication dispenser (EMD). The EMD, which was used for the 1-year study period, recorded the date and time the patient took their medications and was monitored via a web-based application. Patients were monitored for 1 year regarding outpatient follow-up visits, emergency hospitalizations, renal biopsies, rejection episodes, renal function, and blood concentration of medications. Compliance in the intervention group was 97.8% (the control group was not assessed). Number of missed doses varied significantly by weekday (P = 0.033); patients were most likely to miss doses on Saturdays and Thursdays. Patients missed a total of 11 follow-up visits. During the study, 92 biopsies were performed on 55 patients (intervention group: 32 [17]; control group, 60 [38]). Biopsy-verified rejection was three times more common among controls (13 patients vs. 4; P = 0.054, not significant). Average P-creatinine level was slightly lower in the intervention group than the control group (131 vs. 150 μmol/L, not significant), whereas mean tacrolimus was similar (7.32 vs. 7.22 ng/mL, n.s.). The EMD is associated with high compliance, and there are also indications of a lower rejection rate.

El efecto de la panfotocoagulación con láser en edema macular diabético con el fotocoagulador Pascal® versus el láser de argón convencional.

PubMed

Mahgoub, Mohamed M; Macky, Tamer A

2017-07-11

Objetivo: El objetivo de este estudio fue comparar el efecto de la panfotocoagulación (PFC) en el edema macular diabético (EMD) en pacientes con retinopatía diabética proliferativa (RDP) con el fotocoagulador Pascal® (FP) vs. un fotocoagulador con láser de argón convencional (FLAC). Métodos: Se aleatorizó el uso de FP o FLAC en ochenta ojos con RDP y EMD con afectación central de la mácula. Ambos grupos tuvieron una evaluación de base de mejor agudeza visual corregida y fueron examinados con tomografía de coherencia óptica y angiografía con fluoresceína. Resultados: El número medio de disparos de láser en los grupos de FP y FLAC fue 1.726,10 y 752,00 en la sesión 1 y 1.589,00 y 830,00 (p < 0,001) en la sesión 2, respectivamente. El grosor foveal central (GFC) medio antes de comenzar el estudio fue 306 ± 100 y 314 ± 98 en los grupos de FP y FLAC, respectivamente. A las 8 semanas, el GFC medio fue 332 ± 116 y 347 ± 111 en los grupos de FP y FLAC, respectivamente (p > 0,05). La MAVC media fue similar durante el periodo de estudio y no hubo ninguna diferencia significativa entre los grupos (p > 0,05). Conclusiones: El FP y el FLAC mostraron efectos similares en el EMD en ojos con RDP y fueron igualmente seguros sin un aumento significativo del GFC. © 2017 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Optical diagnosis of cervical cancer by intrinsic mode functions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mukhopadhyay, Sabyasachi; Pratiher, Sawon; Pratiher, Souvik; Pradhan, Asima; Ghosh, Nirmalya; Panigrahi, Prasanta K.

2017-03-01

In this paper, we make use of the empirical mode decomposition (EMD) to discriminate the cervical cancer tissues from normal ones based on elastic scattering spectroscopy. The phase space has been reconstructed through decomposing the optical signal into a finite set of bandlimited signals known as intrinsic mode functions (IMFs). It has been shown that the area measure of the analytic IMFs provides a good discrimination performance. Simulation results validate the efficacy of the IMFs followed by SVM based classification.

Fault Detection of a Roller-Bearing System through the EMD of a Wavelet Denoised Signal

PubMed Central

Ahn, Jong-Hyo; Kwak, Dae-Ho; Koh, Bong-Hwan

2014-01-01

This paper investigates fault detection of a roller bearing system using a wavelet denoising scheme and proper orthogonal value (POV) of an intrinsic mode function (IMF) covariance matrix. The IMF of the bearing vibration signal is obtained through empirical mode decomposition (EMD). The signal screening process in the wavelet domain eliminates noise-corrupted portions that may lead to inaccurate prognosis of bearing conditions. We segmented the denoised bearing signal into several intervals, and decomposed each of them into IMFs. The first IMF of each segment is collected to become a covariance matrix for calculating the POV. We show that covariance matrices from healthy and damaged bearings exhibit different POV profiles, which can be a damage-sensitive feature. We also illustrate the conventional approach of feature extraction, of observing the kurtosis value of the measured signal, to compare the functionality of the proposed technique. The study demonstrates the feasibility of wavelet-based de-noising, and shows through laboratory experiments that tracking the proper orthogonal values of the covariance matrix of the IMF can be an effective and reliable measure for monitoring bearing fault. PMID:25196008

Thermal conductance at the interface between crystals using equilibrium and nonequilibrium molecular dynamics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Merabia, Samy; Termentzidis, Konstantinos

2012-09-01

In this article, we compare the results of nonequilibrium (NEMD) and equilibrium (EMD) molecular dynamics methods to compute the thermal conductance at the interface between solids. We propose to probe the thermal conductance using equilibrium simulations measuring the decay of the thermally induced energy fluctuations of each solid. We also show that NEMD and EMD give generally speaking inconsistent results for the thermal conductance: Green-Kubo simulations probe the Landauer conductance between two solids which assumes phonons on both sides of the interface to be at equilibrium. On the other hand, we show that NEMD give access to the out-of-equilibrium interfacial conductance consistent with the interfacial flux describing phonon transport in each solid. The difference may be large and reaches typically a factor 5 for interfaces between usual semiconductors. We analyze finite size effects for the two determinations of the interfacial thermal conductance, and show that the equilibrium simulations suffer from severe size effects as compared to NEMD. We also compare the predictions of the two above-mentioned methods—EMD and NEMD—regarding the interfacial conductance of a series of mass mismatched Lennard-Jones solids. We show that the Kapitza conductance obtained with EMD can be well described using the classical diffuse mismatch model (DMM). On the other hand, NEMD simulation results are consistent with an out-of-equilibrium generalization of the acoustic mismatch model (AMM). These considerations are important in rationalizing previous results obtained using molecular dynamics, and help in pinpointing the physical scattering mechanisms taking place at atomically perfect interfaces between solids, which is a prerequisite to understand interfacial heat transfer across real interfaces.

A detailed evaluation of TomoDirect 3DCRT planning for whole-breast radiation therapy

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Fields, Emma C.; Rabinovitch, Rachel; Ryan, Nicole E.

2013-01-01

The goal of this work was to develop planning strategies for whole-breast radiotherapy (WBRT) using TomoDirect three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy (TD-3DCRT) and to compare TD-3DCRT with conventional 3DCRT and TD intensity-modulated radiation therapy (TD-IMRT) to evaluate differences in WBRT plan quality. Computed tomography (CT) images of 10 women were used to generate 150 WBRT plans, varying in target structures, field width (FW), pitch, and number of beams. Effects on target and external maximum doses (EMD), organ-at-risk (OAR) doses, and treatment time were assessed for each parameter to establish an optimal planning technique. Using this technique, TD-3DCRT plans were generated andmore » compared with TD-IMRT and standard 3DCRT plans. FW 5.0 cm with pitch = 0.250 cm significantly decreased EMD without increasing lung V20 Gy. Increasing number of beams from 2 to 6 and using an additional breast planning structure decreased EMD though increased lung V20 Gy. Changes in pitch had minimal effect on plan metrics. TD-3DCRT plans were subsequently generated using FW 5.0 cm, pitch = 0.250 cm, and 2 beams, with additional beams or planning structures added to decrease EMD when necessary. TD-3DCRT and TD-IMRT significantly decreased target maximum dose compared to standard 3DCRT. FW 5.0 cm with 2 to 6 beams or novel planning structures or both allow for TD-3DCRT WBRT plans with excellent target coverage and OAR doses. TD-3DCRT plans are comparable to plans generated using TD-IMRT and provide an alternative to conventional 3DCRT for WBRT.« less

Black-Hole Solutions to Einstein's Equations in the Presence of Matter and Modifications of Gravitation in Extra Dimensions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Goutéraux, B.

2010-11-01

In this thesis, we wish to examine the black-hole solutions of modified gravity theories inspired by String Theory or Cosmology. Namely, these modifications will take the guise of additional gauge and scalar fields for the so-called Einstein-Maxwell-Dilaton theories with an exponential Liouville potential; and of extra spatial dimensions for Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet theories. The black-hole solutions of EMD theories as well as their integrability are reviewed. One of the main results is that a master equation is obtained in the case of planar horizon topology, which allows to completely integrate the problem for s special relationship between the couplings. We also classify existing solutions. We move on to the study of Gauss-Bonnet black holes, focusing on the six-dimensional case. It is found that the Gauss-Bonnet coupling exposes the Weyl tensor of the horizon to the dynamics, severely restricting the Einstein spaces admissible and effectively lifting some of the degeneracy on the horizon topology. We then turn to the study of the thermodynamic properties of black holes, in General Relativity as well as in EMD theories. For the latter, phase transitions may be found in the canonical ensemble, which resemble the phase transitions for Reissner-Nordström black holes. Generically, we find that the thermodynamic properties (stability, order of phase transitions) depend crucially on the values of the EMD coupling constants. Finally, we interpret our planar EMD solutions holographically as Infra-Red geometries through the AdS/CFT correspondence, taking into account various validity constraints. We also compute AC and DC conductivities as applications to Condensed Matter Systems, and find some properties characteristic of strange metal behaviour.

Muscle group specific changes in the electromechanical delay following short-term resistance training.

PubMed

Stock, Matt S; Olinghouse, Kendra D; Mota, Jacob A; Drusch, Alexander S; Thompson, Brennan J

2016-09-01

The time delay between the onset of a muscle's electrical activity and force is believed to have important functional implications, and has been shown to decrease following resistance training in males. The purpose of this investigation was to examine changes in the voluntary electromechanical delay (EMD) for the leg extensors and flexors following a short-term resistance training intervention in females. Pretest/posttest control group experiment. Twenty-two previously untrained females (mean±SD age=21±2 years; mass=65.4±13.3kg) were randomly assigned to training (n=10) and control (n=12) groups. The training group performed barbell back squats and deadlifts twice per week for four weeks. EMD for the vastus lateralis (extensors) and biceps femoris (flexors) was examined during maximal voluntary contractions at pre- and posttesting. Data were examined using analyses of covariance (ANCOVAs) with the pretest and posttest scores serving as the covariate and dependent variable, respectively, and by evaluating the number of participants that exceeded the minimal difference statistic. For the leg extensors, the adjusted EMD posttest mean for the training group was significantly lower than that for the control group (74.3 vs. 91.8ms; p=0.015; ή(2)=0.275), and five training participants displayed decreases that exceeded the minimal difference. The ANCOVA for the leg flexors was not significant (adjusted means=98.0 vs. 90.0ms; p=0.487; ή(2)=.026). Four weeks of multi-joint resistance training resulted in decreased EMD for the leg extensors, but not the flexors. Copyright © 2015 Sports Medicine Australia. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Expanding the Extent of a UMLS Semantic Type via Group Neighborhood Auditing

PubMed Central

Chen, Yan; Gu, Huanying; Perl, Yehoshua; Halper, Michael; Xu, Junchuan

2009-01-01

Objective Each Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) concept is assigned one or more semantic types (ST). A dynamic methodology for aiding an auditor in finding concepts that are missing the assignment of a given ST, S is presented. Design The first part of the methodology exploits the previously introduced Refined Semantic Network and accompanying refined semantic types (RST) to help narrow the search space for offending concepts. The auditing is focused in a neighborhood surrounding the extent of an RST, T (of S) called an envelope, consisting of parents and children of concepts in the extent. The audit moves outward as long as missing assignments are discovered. In the second part, concepts not reached previously are processed and reassigned T as needed during the processing of S's other RSTs. The set of such concepts is expanded in a similar way to that in the first part. Measurements The number of errors discovered is reported. To measure the methodology's efficiency, “error hit rates” (i.e., errors found in concepts examined) are computed. Results The methodology was applied to three STs: Experimental Model of Disease (EMD), Environmental Effect of Humans, and Governmental or Regulatory Activity. The EMD experienced the most drastic change. For its RST “EMD ∩ Neoplastic Process” (RST “EMD”) with only 33 (31) original concepts, 915 (134) concepts were found by the first (second) part to be missing the EMD assignment. Changes to the other two STs were smaller. Conclusion The results show that the proposed auditing methodology can help to effectively and efficiently identify concepts lacking the assignment of a particular semantic type. PMID:19567802

Effect of Emdogain enamel matrix derivative and BMP-2 on the gene expression and mineralized nodule formation of alveolar bone proper-derived stem/progenitor cells.

PubMed

Fawzy El-Sayed, Karim M; Dörfer, Christof; Ungefroren, Hendrick; Kassem, Neemat; Wiltfang, Jörg; Paris, Sebastian

2014-07-01

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of Emdogain (Enamel Matrix Derivative, EMD) and Bone Morphogenetic Protein-2 (BMP-2), either solely or in combination, on the gene expression and mineralized nodule formation of alveolar bone proper-derived stem/progenitor cells. Stem/progenitor cells were isolated from human alveolar bone proper, magnetically sorted using STRO-1 antibodies, characterized flowcytometrically for their surface markers' expression, and examined for colony formation and multilineage differentiation potential. Subsequently, cells were treated over three weeks with 100 μg/ml Emdogain (EMD-Group), or 100 ng/ml BMP-2 (BMP-Group), or a combination of 100 ng/ml BMP-2 and 100 μg/ml Emdogain (BMP/EMD-Group). Unstimulated stem/progenitor cells (MACS(+)-Group) and osteoblasts (OB-Group) served as controls. Osteogenic gene expression was analyzed using RTq-PCR after 1, 2 and 3 weeks (N = 3/group). Mineralized nodule formation was evaluated by Alizarin-Red staining. BMP and EMD up-regulated the osteogenic gene expression. The BMP Group showed significantly higher expression of Collagen-I, III, and V, Alkaline phosphatase and Osteonectin compared to MACS(+)- and OB-Group (p < 0.05; Two-way ANOVA/Bonferroni) with no mineralized nodule formation. Under in-vitro conditions, Emdogain and BMP-2 up-regulate the osteogenic gene expression of stem/progenitor cells. The combination of BMP-2 and Emdogain showed no additive effect and would not be recommended for a combined clinical stimulation. Copyright © 2013 European Association for Cranio-Maxillo-Facial Surgery. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Do recent observations of very large electromagnetic dissociation cross sections signify a transition towards non-perturbative QED?

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Norbury, John W.

1992-01-01

The very large electromagnetic dissociation (EMD) cross section recently observed by Hill, Wohn, Schwellenbach, and Smith do not agree with Weizsacker-Williams (WW) theory or any simple modification thereof. Calculations are presented for the reaction probabilities for this experiment and the entire single and double nucleon removal EMD data set. It is found that for those few reactions where theory and experiment disagree, the probabilities are exceptionally large. This indicates that WW theory is not valid for these reactions and that one must consider higher order corrections and perhaps even a non-perturbative approach to quantum electrodynamics (QED).

Alzheimer's disease-like impaired cognition in endothelial-specific megalin-null mice.

PubMed

Dietrich, Marcelo; Antequera, Desiree; Pascual, Consuelo; Castro, Nerea; Bolos, Marta; Carro, Eva

2014-01-01

Megalin has been suggested to be involved in Alzheimer's disease (AD), mediating blood-brain barrier (BBB) transport of multiple ligands, including amyloid-β peptide (Aβ), but also neuroprotective factors. Because no transgenic model is currently available to study this concept, we have obtained transgenic mice blocking megalin expression at the BBB. These endothelial megalin deficient (EMD) mice developed increased anxiety behavior and impaired learning ability and recognition memory, similar to symptoms described in AD. Degenerating neurons were also observed in the cerebral cortex of EMD mice. In view of our findings we suggest that, in mice, megalin deficiency at the BBB leads to neurodegeneration.

Modeling and measuring the visual detection of ecologically relevant motion by an Anolis lizard.

PubMed

Pallus, Adam C; Fleishman, Leo J; Castonguay, Philip M

2010-01-01

Motion in the visual periphery of lizards, and other animals, often causes a shift of visual attention toward the moving object. This behavioral response must be more responsive to relevant motion (predators, prey, conspecifics) than to irrelevant motion (windblown vegetation). Early stages of visual motion detection rely on simple local circuits known as elementary motion detectors (EMDs). We presented a computer model consisting of a grid of correlation-type EMDs, with videos of natural motion patterns, including prey, predators and windblown vegetation. We systematically varied the model parameters and quantified the relative response to the different classes of motion. We carried out behavioral experiments with the lizard Anolis sagrei and determined that their visual response could be modeled with a grid of correlation-type EMDs with a spacing parameter of 0.3 degrees visual angle, and a time constant of 0.1 s. The model with these parameters gave substantially stronger responses to relevant motion patterns than to windblown vegetation under equivalent conditions. However, the model is sensitive to local contrast and viewer-object distance. Therefore, additional neural processing is probably required for the visual system to reliably distinguish relevant from irrelevant motion under a full range of natural conditions.

DISPLACEMENT CASCADE SIMULATION IN TUNGSTEN UP TO 200 KEV OF DAMAGE ENERGY AT 300, 1025, AND 2050 K

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Setyawan, Wahyu; Nandipati, Giridhar; Roche, Kenneth J.

2015-09-22

We generated molecular dynamics database of primary defects that adequately covers the range of tungsten recoil energy imparted by 14-MeV neutrons. During this semi annual period, cascades at 150 and 200 keV at 300 and 1025 K were simulated. Overall, we included damage energy up to 200 keV at 300 and 1025 K, and up to 100 keV at 2050 K. We report the number of surviving Frenkel pairs (NF) and the size distribution of defect clusters. The slope of the NF curve versus cascade damage energy (EMD), on a log-log scale, changes at a transition energy (μ). For EMDmore » > μ, the cascade forms interconnected damage regions that facilitate the formation of large clusters of defects. At 300 K and EMD = 200 keV, the largest size of interstitial cluster and vacancy cluster is 266 and 335, respectively. Similarly, at 1025 K and EMD = 200 keV, the largest size of interstitial cluster and vacancy cluster is 296 and 338, respectively. At 2050 K, large interstitial clusters also routinely form, but practically no large vacancy clusters do« less

The structure and ordering of ɛ-MnO 2

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, Chang-Hoon; Akase, Zentaro; Zhang, Lichun; Heuer, Arthur H.; Newman, Aron E.; Hughes, Paula J.

2006-03-01

The presence of ɛ-MnO 2 as a major component of electrolytic manganese dioxide (EMD) has been demonstrated by a combined X-ray diffraction/transmission electron microscopy (TEM) study. ɛ-MnO 2 usually has a partially ordered defect NiAs structure containing 50% cation vacancies; these vacancies can be fully ordered by a low temperature (200 °C) heat treatment to form a pseudohexagonal but monoclinic superlattice. Numerous fine-scale anti-phase domain boundaries are present in ordered ɛ-MnO 2 and cause extensive peak broadening and a massive shift of a very intense, 0.37 nm superlattice peak. This suggests a radically different explanation of the ubiquitous, very broad ˜0.42 nm peak (˜21-22° 2 θ, Cu Kα radiation) in EMDs, which heretofore has been attributed to Ramsdellite containing numerous planar defects. This work confirms the multi-phase model of equiaxed EMDs proposed by Heuer et al. [ITE Lett. 1(6) (2000) B50; Proc. Seventh Int. Symp. Adv. Phys. Fields 92 (2001)], rather than the defective single-phase model of Chabre and Pannetier [Prog. Solid State Chem. 23 (1995) 1] and Bowden et al. [ITE Lett. 4(1) (2003) B1].

Electromagnetic Dissociation Cross Sections for High LET Fragments

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Norbury, John

2016-01-01

Nuclear interaction cross sections are used in space radiation transport codes to calculate the probability of fragment emission in high energy nucleus-nucleus collisions. Strong interactions usually dominate in these collisions, but electromagnetic (EM) interactions can also sometimes be important. Strong interactions typically occur when the projectile nucleus hits a target nucleus, with a small impact parameter. For impact parameters larger than the sum of the nuclear radii, EM reactions dominate and the process is called electromagnetic dissociation (EMD) if one of the nuclei undergo fragmentation. Previous models of EMD have been used to calculate single proton (p) production, single neutron (n) production or light ion production, where a light ion is defined as an isotope of hydrogen (H) or helium (He), such as a deuteron (2H), a triton (3H), a helion (3He) or an alpha particle (4He). A new model is described which can also account for multiple nucleon production, such as 2p, 2n, 1p1n, 2p1n, 2p2n, etc. in addition to light ion production. Such processes are important to include for the following reasons. Consider, for example, the EMD reaction 56Fe + Al --> 52Cr + X + Al, for a 56Fe projectile impacting Al, which produces the high linear energy transfer (LET) fragment 52Cr. In this reaction, the most probable particles representing X are either 2p2n or 4He. Therefore, production of the high LET fragment 52Cr, must include the multiple nucleon production of 2p2n in addition to the light ion production of 4He. Previous models, such as the NUCFRG3 model, could only account for the 4He production process in this reaction and could not account for 2p2n. The new EMD model presented in this work accounts for both the light ion and multiple nucleon processes, and is therefore able to correctly account for the production of high LET products such as 52Cr. The model will be described and calculations will be presented that show the importance of light ion and multiple nucleon production. The work will also show that EMD reactions contribute most to those fragments with the highest LET.

Empirical mode decomposition for analyzing acoustical signals

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Huang, Norden E. (Inventor)

2005-01-01

The present invention discloses a computer implemented signal analysis method through the Hilbert-Huang Transformation (HHT) for analyzing acoustical signals, which are assumed to be nonlinear and nonstationary. The Empirical Decomposition Method (EMD) and the Hilbert Spectral Analysis (HSA) are used to obtain the HHT. Essentially, the acoustical signal will be decomposed into the Intrinsic Mode Function Components (IMFs). Once the invention decomposes the acoustic signal into its constituting components, all operations such as analyzing, identifying, and removing unwanted signals can be performed on these components. Upon transforming the IMFs into Hilbert spectrum, the acoustical signal may be compared with other acoustical signals.

A Study of Emergency Management Policy Regarding the Use of Tornado Sirens during Severe Weather in the State of Missouri

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ebner, Nicholas William

In recent years there have been many devastating tornadoes which have hit cities of all sizes across the state of Missouri, including St. Louis (April 22, 2011) rated EF 4, Joplin (May 22, 2011) rated EF 5 and Sedalia (May 25, 2011) rated EF-2. These, along with other catastrophic tornadoes in cities such as Tuscaloosa and Birmingham, Alabama, have increased the conversation regarding public policy of the use of tornado sirens. In many Missouri counties, guidelines and procedures regarding when to warn the public are inconsistent. After the media, emergency management directors and tornado sirens are the largest source and fastest way of informing the public of impending severe weather with the capability of producing tornadoes. With inconsistencies from county to county in Missouri and a lack of oversight by the state, uncertain and unregulated policies can cause citizens to be confused as to the specific meaning of these sirens. These variations in policy can range from who has responsibility over siren activation to the circumstances in which sirens are sounded. Frequently, in these time-sensitive situations, emergency managers do not have the sole responsibility of when to sound sirens. This decision is often left up to an assortment of individuals such as the police or fire department. It is well documented that citizens have become desensitized to tornado sirens based on the frequent number of soundings that have proven either to be a false alarm or siren activation provoked by other non-tornadic weather events. This occurs because many counties use their tornado sirens for reasons other than to alert citizens specifically of the immediate threat of tornadoes. Using a survey and archival research to gather information such as the jurisdiction policies on who activates sirens and the activation guidelines, a better understanding of how the warning process throughout Missouri was achieved. Suggestions are made that can be used by Emergency Management Directors (EMDs) when siren activation may be necessary. The goal is to use this research to assist the development of statewide guidelines on appropriate activation of tornado sirens during severe weather events. If the suggested policies are considered by EMDs, it is hopeful a unified policy throughout the state can be developed. Thus, the desensitization of the public to sirens can be reduced and allow for the effective use of tornado sirens in warning the public.

Processing, Assembly and Localization of a Bacillus anthracis Spore Protein

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-01-01

phage transduction, using the CP51 phage as described by Thorne (1968). All mutations were confirmed by PCR analysis (Supplementary Table S1). Protein...with End-It (Epicentre) and self-ligated, creating pKH-KSM4. The region between the T7 terminator and T7 promoter of pET23A (EMD Table 1. Strains and...represent full-length BxpA, we analysed the electrophoretic behaviour of a full-length, histidine-tagged and T7 -tagged version of BxpA overproduced in E

Health monitoring of pipeline girth weld using empirical mode decomposition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rezaei, Davood; Taheri, Farid

2010-05-01

In the present paper the Hilbert-Huang transform (HHT), as a time-series analysis technique, has been combined with a local diagnostic approach in an effort to identify flaws in pipeline girth welds. This method is based on monitoring the free vibration signals of the pipe at its healthy and flawed states, and processing the signals through the HHT and its associated signal decomposition technique, known as empirical mode decomposition (EMD). The EMD method decomposes the vibration signals into a collection of intrinsic mode functions (IMFs). The deviations in structural integrity, measured from a healthy-state baseline, are subsequently evaluated by two damage sensitive parameters. The first is a damage index, referred to as the EM-EDI, which is established based on an energy comparison of the first or second IMF of the vibration signals, before and after occurrence of damage. The second parameter is the evaluation of the lag in instantaneous phase, a quantity derived from the HHT. In the developed methodologies, the pipe's free vibration is monitored by piezoceramic sensors and a laser Doppler vibrometer. The effectiveness of the proposed techniques is demonstrated through a set of numerical and experimental studies on a steel pipe with a mid-span girth weld, for both pressurized and nonpressurized conditions. To simulate a crack, a narrow notch is cut on one side of the girth weld. Several damage scenarios, including notches of different depths and at various locations on the pipe, are investigated. Results from both numerical and experimental studies reveal that in all damage cases the sensor located at the notch vicinity could successfully detect the notch and qualitatively predict its severity. The effect of internal pressure on the damage identification method is also monitored. Overall, the results are encouraging and promise the effectiveness of the proposed approaches as inexpensive systems for structural health monitoring purposes.

Analysis of turbine-grid interaction of grid-connected wind turbine using HHT

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, A.; Wu, W.; Miao, J.; Xie, D.

2018-05-01

This paper processes the output power of the grid-connected wind turbine with the denoising and extracting method based on Hilbert Huang transform (HHT) to discuss the turbine-grid interaction. At first, the detailed Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) and the Hilbert Transform (HT) are introduced. Then, on the premise of decomposing the output power of the grid-connected wind turbine into a series of Intrinsic Mode Functions (IMFs), energy ratio and power volatility are calculated to detect the unessential components. Meanwhile, combined with vibration function of turbine-grid interaction, data fitting of instantaneous amplitude and phase of each IMF is implemented to extract characteristic parameters of different interactions. Finally, utilizing measured data of actual parallel-operated wind turbines in China, this work accurately obtains the characteristic parameters of turbine-grid interaction of grid-connected wind turbine.

A new multiscale noise tuning stochastic resonance for enhanced fault diagnosis in wind turbine drivetrains

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hu, Bingbing; Li, Bing

2016-02-01

It is very difficult to detect weak fault signatures due to the large amount of noise in a wind turbine system. Multiscale noise tuning stochastic resonance (MSTSR) has proved to be an effective way to extract weak signals buried in strong noise. However, the MSTSR method originally based on discrete wavelet transform (DWT) has disadvantages such as shift variance and the aliasing effects in engineering application. In this paper, the dual-tree complex wavelet transform (DTCWT) is introduced into the MSTSR method, which makes it possible to further improve the system output signal-to-noise ratio and the accuracy of fault diagnosis by the merits of DTCWT (nearly shift invariant and reduced aliasing effects). Moreover, this method utilizes the relationship between the two dual-tree wavelet basis functions, instead of matching the single wavelet basis function to the signal being analyzed, which may speed up the signal processing and be employed in on-line engineering monitoring. The proposed method is applied to the analysis of bearing outer ring and shaft coupling vibration signals carrying fault information. The results confirm that the method performs better in extracting the fault features than the original DWT-based MSTSR, the wavelet transform with post spectral analysis, and EMD-based spectral analysis methods.

The first of a series of high efficiency, high bmep, turbocharged two-stroke cycle diesel engines; the general motors EMD 645FB engine

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kotlin, J.J.; Dunteman, N.R.; Scott, D.I.

1983-01-01

The current Electro-Motive Division 645 Series turbocharged engines are the Model FB and EC. The FB engine combines the highest thermal efficiency with the highest specific output of any EMD engine to date. The FB Series incorporates 16:1 compression ratio with a fire ring piston and an improved turbocharger design. Engine components included in the FB engine provide very high output levels with exceptional reliability. This paper also describes the performance of the lower rated Model EC engine series which feature high thermal efficiency and utilize many engine components well proven in service and basic to the Model FB Series.

Hybrid empirical mode decomposition- ARIMA for forecasting exchange rates

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abadan, Siti Sarah; Shabri, Ani; Ismail, Shuhaida

2015-02-01

This paper studied the forecasting of monthly Malaysian Ringgit (MYR)/ United State Dollar (USD) exchange rates using the hybrid of two methods which are the empirical model decomposition (EMD) and the autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA). MYR is pegged to USD during the Asian financial crisis causing the exchange rates are fixed to 3.800 from 2nd of September 1998 until 21st of July 2005. Thus, the chosen data in this paper is the post-July 2005 data, starting from August 2005 to July 2010. The comparative study using root mean square error (RMSE) and mean absolute error (MAE) showed that the EMD-ARIMA outperformed the single-ARIMA and the random walk benchmark model.

Information-Theoretical Quantifier of Brain Rhythm Based on Data-Driven Multiscale Representation

PubMed Central

2015-01-01

This paper presents a data-driven multiscale entropy measure to reveal the scale dependent information quantity of electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings. This work is motivated by the previous observations on the nonlinear and nonstationary nature of EEG over multiple time scales. Here, a new framework of entropy measures considering changing dynamics over multiple oscillatory scales is presented. First, to deal with nonstationarity over multiple scales, EEG recording is decomposed by applying the empirical mode decomposition (EMD) which is known to be effective for extracting the constituent narrowband components without a predetermined basis. Following calculation of Renyi entropy of the probability distributions of the intrinsic mode functions extracted by EMD leads to a data-driven multiscale Renyi entropy. To validate the performance of the proposed entropy measure, actual EEG recordings from rats (n = 9) experiencing 7 min cardiac arrest followed by resuscitation were analyzed. Simulation and experimental results demonstrate that the use of the multiscale Renyi entropy leads to better discriminative capability of the injury levels and improved correlations with the neurological deficit evaluation after 72 hours after cardiac arrest, thus suggesting an effective diagnostic and prognostic tool. PMID:26380297

Defects diagnosis in laser brazing using near-infrared signals based on empirical mode decomposition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cheng, Liyong; Mi, Gaoyang; Li, Shuo; Wang, Chunming; Hu, Xiyuan

2018-03-01

Real-time monitoring of laser welding plays a very important role in the modern automated production and online defects diagnosis is necessary to be implemented. In this study, the status of laser brazing was monitored in real time using an infrared photoelectric sensor. Four kinds of braze seams (including healthy weld, unfilled weld, hole weld and rough surface weld) along with corresponding near-infrared signals were obtained. Further, a new method called Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) was proposed to analyze the near-infrared signals. The results showed that the EMD method had a good performance in eliminating the noise on the near-infrared signals. And then, the correlation coefficient was developed for selecting the Intrinsic Mode Function (IMF) more sensitive to the weld defects. A more accurate signal was reconstructed with the selected IMF components. Simultaneously, the spectrum of selected IMF components was solved using fast Fourier transform, and the frequency characteristics were clearly revealed. The frequency energy of different frequency bands was computed to diagnose the defects. There was a significant difference in four types of weld defects. This approach has been proved to be an effective and efficient method for monitoring laser brazing defects.

Detection of ionospheric scintillation effects using LMD-DFA

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tadivaka, Raghavendra Vishnu; Paruchuri, Bhanu Priyanka; Miriyala, Sridhar; Koppireddi, Padma Raju; Devanaboyina, Venkata Ratnam

2017-08-01

The performance and measurement accuracy of global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receivers is greatly affected by ionospheric scintillations. Rapid amplitude and phase variations in the received GPS signal, known as ionospheric scintillation, affects the tracking of signals by GNSS receivers. Hence, there is a need to investigate the monitoring of various activities of the ionosphere and to develop a novel approach for mitigation of ionospheric scintillation effects. A method based on Local Mean Decomposition (LMD)-Detrended Fluctuation Analysis (DFA) has been proposed. The GNSS data recorded at Koneru Lakshmaiah (K L) University, Guntur, India were considered for analysis. The carrier to noise ratio (C/N0) of GNSS satellite vehicles were decomposed into several product functions (PF) using LMD to extract the intrinsic features in the signal. Scintillation noise was removed by the DFA algorithm by selecting a suitable threshold. It was observed that the performance of the proposed LMD-DFA was better than that of empirical mode decomposition (EMD)-DFA.

Driving decisions when leaving electronic music dance events: driver, passenger, and group effects.

PubMed

Johnson, Mark B; Voas, Robert B; Miller, Brenda A

2012-01-01

The goal of this article was to identify characteristics of drivers and passengers that predicted peer groups whose drivers exit dance clubs with alcohol levels indicative of impairment (blood alcohol content [BAC] ≥ 0.05 g/dL). We used the portal survey methodology to randomly sample groups of electronic music dance event (EMDE) patrons as they entered and exited a club. From May through November 2010, data were collected from 38 EMDEs hosted by 8 clubs in the San Francisco Bay area. Data included in these analyses are results from breath samples for measuring BAC and self-report data on demographics, recent drinking history drinking, drinking intentions, travel to and from the clubs, and the familiarity/experience with other group members. These data were collected from a subset of 175 drivers and 272 passengers. Although drivers drank less than passengers, one driver in 5 groups had a BAC indicative of elevated crash risk (BAC ≥ 0.05 g/dL). Groups of drivers and/or passengers with a recent history of binge drinking were more likely to have drivers with BACs ≥ 0.05 g/dL. One unanticipated finding was that drivers who knew more group members relatively well were more likely to exit the club with a BAC ≥ 0.05 g/dL. Additionally, we found that groups with all female passengers were at greater risk for having a driver whose BAC was ≥ 0.05 g/dL. Some group characteristics predicted drivers who exit clubs with BACs ≥ 0.05 g/dL. One intervention strategy to promote safety might be to encourage group members to reconsider who is sober enough to drive away from the club; for some groups, a change of drivers would be a safer choice, because a passenger may have a relatively safe BAC. Groups of females appear to have a particularly elevated risk of having a driver whose BAC exceeds 0.05 g/dL, and new intervention efforts should be particularly directed to these at-risk groups.

Human histologic evaluation of an intrabony defect treated with enamel matrix derivative, xenograft, and GTR.

PubMed

Sculean, Anton; Windisch, Peter; Chiantella, Giovanni Carlo

2004-08-01

The purpose of the present case report is to clinically and histologically evaluate the healing of one advanced intrabony defect following treatment with an enamel matrix protein derivative (EMD) combined with a bovine-derived xenograft (BDX) and guided tissue regeneration (GTR). One patient with generalized chronic periodontitis and one advanced intrabony defect was treated with EMD + BDX + GTR. Notches were placed in the root at the level of the calculus and alveolar crest to aid histologic identification of new periodontal tissues. Postoperative healing was uneventful. At the 7-month histologic examination, healing in the intrabony component of the defect was characterized by formation of new connective tissue attachment (new cellular cementum with inserting collagen fibers) and new bone in the intrabony component. The BDX particles were surrounded by bone-like tissue. No direct contact between the graft particles and root surface (cementum or dentin) was observed. Healing in the suprabony defect component occurred through epithelial downgrowth that stopped at the level of the coronal notch. The BDX particles were entirely encapsulated in dense connective tissue, without any signs of bone formation. The present case report shows formation of new attachment apparatus consisting of new bone, cementum, and periodontal ligament in the intrabony component of one human defect treated with EMD + BDX + GTR.

Nonadherence in the era of severe asthma biologics and thermoplasty

PubMed Central

Lee, Joy; Tay, Tunn Ren; Radhakrishna, Naghmeh; Hore-Lacy, Fiona; Mackay, Anna; Hoy, Ryan; Dabscheck, Eli; O'Hehir, Robyn; Hew, Mark

2018-01-01

Nonadherence to inhaled preventers impairs asthma control. Electronic monitoring devices (EMDs) can objectively measure adherence. Their use has not been reported in difficult asthma patients potentially suitable for novel therapies, i.e. biologics and bronchial thermoplasty. Consecutive patients with difficult asthma were assessed for eligibility for novel therapies. Medication adherence, defined as taking >75% of prescribed doses, was assessed by EMD and compared with standardised clinician assessment over an 8-week period. Among 69 difficult asthma patients, adherence could not be analysed in 13, due to device incompatibility or malfunction. Nonadherence was confirmed in 20 out of 45 (44.4%) patients. Clinical assessment of nonadherence was insensitive (physician 15%, nurse 28%). Serum eosinophils were higher in nonadherent patients. Including 11 patients with possible nonadherence (device refused or not returned) increased the nonadherence rate to 31 out of 56 (55%) patients. Severe asthma criteria were fulfilled by 59 out of 69 patients. 47 were eligible for novel therapies, with confirmed nonadherence in 16 out of 32 (50%) patients with EMD data; including seven patients with possible nonadherence increased the nonadherence rate to 23 out of 39 (59%). At least half the patients eligible for novel therapies were nonadherent to preventers. Nonadherence was often undetectable by clinical assessments. Preventer adherence must be confirmed objectively before employing novel severe asthma therapies. PMID:29519922

Thermal conductivity of molten salt mixtures: Theoretical model supported by equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations.

PubMed

Gheribi, Aïmen E; Chartrand, Patrice

2016-02-28

A theoretical model for the description of thermal conductivity of molten salt mixtures as a function of composition and temperature is presented. The model is derived by considering the classical kinetic theory and requires, for its parametrization, only information on thermal conductivity of pure compounds. In this sense, the model is predictive. For most molten salt mixtures, no experimental data on thermal conductivity are available in the literature. This is a hindrance for many industrial applications (in particular for thermal energy storage technologies) as well as an obvious barrier for the validation of the theoretical model. To alleviate this lack of data, a series of equilibrium molecular dynamics (EMD) simulations has been performed on several molten chloride systems in order to determine their thermal conductivity in the entire range of composition at two different temperatures: 1200 K and 1300 K. The EMD simulations are first principles type, as the potentials used to describe the interactions have been parametrized on the basis of first principle electronic structure calculations. In addition to the molten chlorides system, the model predictions are also compared to a recent similar EMD study on molten fluorides and with the few reliable experimental data available in the literature. The accuracy of the proposed model is within the reported numerical and/or experimental errors.

Treatment of gingival recession with coronally advanced flap procedures: a systematic review.

PubMed

Cairo, Francesco; Pagliaro, Umberto; Nieri, Michele

2008-09-01

The treatment of buccal gingival recessions is a common requirement due to aesthetic concern or root sensitivity. The aim of this manuscript was to systematically review the literature on coronally advanced flap (CAF) alone or in combination with tissue grafts, barrier membranes (BM), enamel matrix derivative (EMD) or other material for treating gingival recession. Randomized clinical trials on treatment of Miller Class I and II gingival recessions with at least 6 months of follow-up were identified. Data sources included electronic databases and hand-searched journals. The primary outcome variable was complete root coverage (CRC). The secondary outcome variables were recession reduction, clinical attachment gain, keratinized tissue gain, aesthetic satisfaction, root sensitivity, post-operative patient pain and complications. A total of 794 Miller Class I and II gingival recessions in 530 patients from 25 RCTs were evaluated in this systematic review. CAF was associated with mean recession reduction and CRC. The addition of connective tissue graft (CTG) or EMD enhanced the clinical outcomes of CAF in terms of CRC, while BM did not. The results with respect to the adjunctive use of acellular dermal matrix were controversial. CTG or EMD in conjunction with CAF enhances the probability of obtaining CRC in Miller Class I and II single gingival recessions.

Fault feature analysis of cracked gear based on LOD and analytical-FE method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, Jiateng; Yang, Yu; Yang, Xingkai; Cheng, Junsheng

2018-01-01

At present, there are two main ideas for gear fault diagnosis. One is the model-based gear dynamic analysis; the other is signal-based gear vibration diagnosis. In this paper, a method for fault feature analysis of gear crack is presented, which combines the advantages of dynamic modeling and signal processing. Firstly, a new time-frequency analysis method called local oscillatory-characteristic decomposition (LOD) is proposed, which has the attractive feature of extracting fault characteristic efficiently and accurately. Secondly, an analytical-finite element (analytical-FE) method which is called assist-stress intensity factor (assist-SIF) gear contact model, is put forward to calculate the time-varying mesh stiffness (TVMS) under different crack states. Based on the dynamic model of the gear system with 6 degrees of freedom, the dynamic simulation response was obtained for different tooth crack depths. For the dynamic model, the corresponding relation between the characteristic parameters and the degree of the tooth crack is established under a specific condition. On the basis of the methods mentioned above, a novel gear tooth root crack diagnosis method which combines the LOD with the analytical-FE is proposed. Furthermore, empirical mode decomposition (EMD) and ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) are contrasted with the LOD by gear crack fault vibration signals. The analysis results indicate that the proposed method performs effectively and feasibility for the tooth crack stiffness calculation and the gear tooth crack fault diagnosis.

Characterization of large-scale fluctuations and short-term variability of Seine river daily streamflow (France) over the period 1950-2008 by empirical mode decomposition and the Hilbert-Huang transform

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Massei, N.; Fournier, M.

2010-12-01

Daily Seine river flow from 1950 to 2008 was analyzed using Hilbert-Huang Tranform (HHT). For the last ten years, this method which combines the so-called Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) multiresolution analysis and the Hilbert transform has proven its efficiency for the analysis of transient oscillatory signals, although the mathematical definition of the EMD is not totally established yet. HHT also provides an interesting alternative to other time-frequency or time-scale analysis of non-stationary signals, the most famous of which being wavelet-based approaches. In this application of HHT to the analysis of the hydrological variability of the Seine river, we seek to characterize the interannual patterns of daily flow, differenciate them from the short-term dynamics and eventually interpret them in the context of regional climate regime fluctuations. In this aim, HHT is also applied to the North-Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) through the annual winter-months NAO index time series. For both hydrological and climatic signals, dominant variability scales are extracted and their temporal variations analyzed by determination of the intantaneous frequency of each component. When compared to previous ones obtained from continuous wavelet transform (CWT) on the same data, HHT results highlighted the same scales and somewhat the same internal components for each signal. However, HHT allowed the identification and extraction of much more similar features during the 1950-2008 period (e.g., around 7-yr, between NAO and Seine flow than what was obtained from CWT, which comes to say that variability scales in flow likely to originate from climatic regime fluctuations were much properly identified in river flow. In addition, a more accurate determination of singularities in the natural processes analyzed were authorized by HHT compared to CWT, in which case the time-frequency resolution partly depends on the basic properties of the filter (i.e., the reference wavelet chosen initially). Compared to CWT or even to discrete wavelet multiresolution analysis, HHT is auto-adaptive, non-parametric, allows an orthogonal decomposition of the signal analyzed and provides a more accurate estimation of changing variability scales across time for highly transient signals.

Removal of power line interference of space bearing vibration signal based on the morphological filter and blind source separation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dong, Shaojiang; Sun, Dihua; Xu, Xiangyang; Tang, Baoping

2017-06-01

Aiming at the problem that it is difficult to extract the feature information from the space bearing vibration signal because of different noise, for example the running trend information, high-frequency noise and especially the existence of lot of power line interference (50Hz) and its octave ingredients of the running space simulated equipment in the ground. This article proposed a combination method to eliminate them. Firstly, the EMD is used to remove the running trend item information of the signal, the running trend that affect the signal processing accuracy is eliminated. Then the morphological filter is used to eliminate high-frequency noise. Finally, the components and characteristics of the power line interference are researched, based on the characteristics of the interference, the revised blind source separation model is used to remove the power line interferences. Through analysis of simulation and practical application, results suggest that the proposed method can effectively eliminate those noise.

Adjunctive Systemic Antimicrobial Therapy vs Asepsis in Conjunction with Guided Tissue Regeneration: A Randomized, Controlled Clinical Trial.

PubMed

Abu-Ta'a, Mahmoud

2016-01-01

This randomized clinical trial compares the usefulness of adjunctive antibiotics, while strict asepsis was followed during periodontal surgery involving guided tissue regeneration. Two groups of 20 consecutive patients each with advanced periodontal disease were randomly assigned to treatment. They displayed one angular defect each with an intrabony component ≥3 mm, probing pocket depth and probing attachment level (PAL) ≥7 mm. Test group included 13 males, mean age 60 years, treated with enamel matrix derivative (EMD) and demineralized freeze-dried bone allograft with modified papilla preservation technique, received oral amoxicillin 1 gm, 1 hour preoperatively and 2 gm for 2 days postoperatively. Control group included 10 males, mean age 57 years, treated with EMD and demineralized freeze-dried bone allograft with modified papilla preservation technique, received no antibiotics. Outcome measures were clinical attachment level (CAL) gain, residual periodontal pocket depth (res. PD), gingival recession (GR), bleeding on probing (BOP), adverse events and postoperative complications. Patients were followed up to 12 months after periodontal surgery involving guided tissue regeneration. There were no significant differences between both groups for CAL gain, res. PD, GR, BOP nor other clinical parameters, though patients' subjective perception of postoperative discomfort was significantly smaller in the group receiving antibiotics. Antibiotics do not provide significant advantages concerning clinical periodontal parameters nor concerning postoperative infections in case of proper asepsis. It does, on the contrary, reduce postoperative discomfort. Regarding the results of this study, adjunc-tive systemic antibiotics in combination with guided tissue regeneration may be useful in reducing postoperative discomfort but may not be helpful for improving periodontal regeneration outcomes.

Identification of coffee bean varieties using hyperspectral imaging: influence of preprocessing methods and pixel-wise spectra analysis.

PubMed

Zhang, Chu; Liu, Fei; He, Yong

2018-02-01

Hyperspectral imaging was used to identify and to visualize the coffee bean varieties. Spectral preprocessing of pixel-wise spectra was conducted by different methods, including moving average smoothing (MA), wavelet transform (WT) and empirical mode decomposition (EMD). Meanwhile, spatial preprocessing of the gray-scale image at each wavelength was conducted by median filter (MF). Support vector machine (SVM) models using full sample average spectra and pixel-wise spectra, and the selected optimal wavelengths by second derivative spectra all achieved classification accuracy over 80%. Primarily, the SVM models using pixel-wise spectra were used to predict the sample average spectra, and these models obtained over 80% of the classification accuracy. Secondly, the SVM models using sample average spectra were used to predict pixel-wise spectra, but achieved with lower than 50% of classification accuracy. The results indicated that WT and EMD were suitable for pixel-wise spectra preprocessing. The use of pixel-wise spectra could extend the calibration set, and resulted in the good prediction results for pixel-wise spectra and sample average spectra. The overall results indicated the effectiveness of using spectral preprocessing and the adoption of pixel-wise spectra. The results provided an alternative way of data processing for applications of hyperspectral imaging in food industry.

Anomalous volatility scaling in high frequency financial data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nava, Noemi; Di Matteo, T.; Aste, Tomaso

2016-04-01

Volatility of intra-day stock market indices computed at various time horizons exhibits a scaling behaviour that differs from what would be expected from fractional Brownian motion (fBm). We investigate this anomalous scaling by using empirical mode decomposition (EMD), a method which separates time series into a set of cyclical components at different time-scales. By applying the EMD to fBm, we retrieve a scaling law that relates the variance of the components to a power law of the oscillating period. In contrast, when analysing 22 different stock market indices, we observe deviations from the fBm and Brownian motion scaling behaviour. We discuss and quantify these deviations, associating them to the characteristics of financial markets, with larger deviations corresponding to less developed markets.

Energy resources and changing land use, Front Range of Colorado : AAPG-EMD field trip guide, in association with the 2001 AAPG-EMD annual meeting

USGS Publications Warehouse

Fishman, Neil S.; Roberts, Stephen B.

2001-01-01

Over the past 30 years, communities in the Northern Front Range of Colorado have experienced tremendous urban and commercial growth rivaling or surpassing that in most other parts of the United States. Much of this growth coincides with areas underlain by critically needed natural resources (such as oil, natural gas, construction aggregate (stone, sand, and gravel), and water), thus presenting serious challenges for city, county, and state planners as well as producers of these natural resources. With projections for as much as a 51 percent increase in population in Colorado over the next 25 years (Colorado Department of Local Affairs, 2001), it is likely that these challenges will increase.

Modelling heat conduction in polycrystalline hexagonal boron-nitride films

PubMed Central

Mortazavi, Bohayra; Pereira, Luiz Felipe C.; Jiang, Jin-Wu; Rabczuk, Timon

2015-01-01

We conducted extensive molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the thermal conductivity of polycrystalline hexagonal boron-nitride (h-BN) films. To this aim, we constructed large atomistic models of polycrystalline h-BN sheets with random and uniform grain configuration. By performing equilibrium molecular dynamics (EMD) simulations, we investigated the influence of the average grain size on the thermal conductivity of polycrystalline h-BN films at various temperatures. Using the EMD results, we constructed finite element models of polycrystalline h-BN sheets to probe the thermal conductivity of samples with larger grain sizes. Our multiscale investigations not only provide a general viewpoint regarding the heat conduction in h-BN films but also propose that polycrystalline h-BN sheets present high thermal conductivity comparable to monocrystalline sheets. PMID:26286820

Electromagnetic dissociation of U-238 in heavy-ion collisions at 120 MeV/A

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Justice, M. L.

1991-04-01

This thesis describes a measurement of the heavy-ion induced electromagnetic dissociation of a 120 MeV/A U-238 beam incident on five targets: Be-9, Al-27, Cu, Ag, and U. Electromagnetic dissociation at this beam energy is essentially a two step process involving the excitation of a giant resonance followed by particle decay. At 120 MeV/A there is predicted to be a significant contribution of the giant quadrupole resonance to the EMD cross sections. The specific exit channel which was looked at was projectile fission. The two fission fragments were detected in coincidence by an array of solid-state (Delta)E-E detectors, allowing the changes of the fragments to be determined to within (+/-) .5 units. The events were sorted on the basis of the sums of the fragments' charges, acceptance corrections were applied, and total cross sections for the most peripheral events were determined. Electromagnetic fission at the beam energy of this experiment always leads to a true charge sum of 92. Due to the imperfect resolution of the detectors, charge sums of 91 and 93 were included in order to account for all of the electromagnetic fission events. The experimentally observed cross sections are due to nuclear interaction processes as well as electromagnetic processes. Under the conditions of this experiment, the cross sections for the beryllium target are almost entirely due to nuclear processes. The nuclear cross sections for the other four targets were determined by extrapolation from the beryllium data using a geometrical scaling model. After subtraction of the nuclear cross sections, the resulting electromagnetic cross sections are compared to theoretical calculations based on the equivalent photon approximation. Systematic uncertainties are discussed and suggestions for improving the experiment are given.

The Identification of the Deformation Stage of a Metal Specimen Based on Acoustic Emission Data Analysis

PubMed Central

Zou, Shenao; Yan, Fengying; Yang, Guoan; Sun, Wei

2017-01-01

The acoustic emission (AE) signals of metal materials have been widely used to identify the deformation stage of a pressure vessel. In this work, Q235 steel samples with different propagation distances and geometrical structures are stretched to get the corresponding acoustic emission signals. Then the obtained acoustic emission signals are de-noised by empirical mode decomposition (EMD), and then decomposed into two different frequency ranges, i.e., one mainly corresponding to metal deformation and the other mainly corresponding to friction signals. The ratio of signal energy between two frequency ranges is defined as a new acoustic emission characteristic parameter. Differences can be observed at different deformation stages in both magnitude and data distribution range. Compared with other acoustic emission parameters, the proposed parameter is valid in different setups of the propagation medium and the coupled stiffness. PMID:28387703

Identification of significant intrinsic mode functions for the diagnosis of induction motor fault.

PubMed

Cho, Sangjin; Shahriar, Md Rifat; Chong, Uipil

2014-08-01

For the analysis of non-stationary signals generated by a non-linear process like fault of an induction motor, empirical mode decomposition (EMD) is the best choice as it decomposes the signal into its natural oscillatory modes known as intrinsic mode functions (IMFs). However, some of these oscillatory modes obtained from a fault signal are not significant as they do not bear any fault signature and can cause misclassification of the fault instance. To solve this issue, a novel IMF selection algorithm is proposed in this work.

Analysis of Human's Motions Based on Local Mean Decomposition in Through-wall Radar Detection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lu, Qi; Liu, Cai; Zeng, Zhaofa; Li, Jing; Zhang, Xuebing

2016-04-01

Observation of human motions through a wall is an important issue in security applications and search-and rescue. Radar has advantages in looking through walls where other sensors give low performance or cannot be used at all. Ultrawideband (UWB) radar has high spatial resolution as a result of employment of ultranarrow pulses. It has abilities to distinguish the closely positioned targets and provide time-lapse information of targets. Moreover, the UWB radar shows good performance in wall penetration when the inherently short pulses spread their energy over a broad frequency range. Human's motions show periodic features including respiration, swing arms and legs, fluctuations of the torso. Detection of human targets is based on the fact that there is always periodic motion due to breathing or other body movements like walking. The radar can gain the reflections from each human body parts and add the reflections at each time sample. The periodic movements will cause micro-Doppler modulation in the reflected radar signals. Time-frequency analysis methods are consider as the effective tools to analysis and extract micro-Doppler effects caused by the periodic movements in the reflected radar signal, such as short-time Fourier transform (STFT), wavelet transform (WT), and Hilbert-Huang transform (HHT).The local mean decomposition (LMD), initially developed by Smith (2005), is to decomposed amplitude and frequency modulated signals into a small set of product functions (PFs), each of which is the product of an envelope signal and a frequency modulated signal from which a time-vary instantaneous phase and instantaneous frequency can be derived. As bypassing the Hilbert transform, the LMD has no demodulation error coming from window effect and involves no negative frequency without physical sense. Also, the instantaneous attributes obtained by LMD are more stable and precise than those obtained by the empirical mode decomposition (EMD) because LMD uses smoothed local means and local magnitudes that facilitate a more natural decomposition than that using the cubic spline approach of EMD. In this paper, we apply the UWB radar system in through-wall human detections and present a method to characterize human's motions. We start with a walker's motion model and periodic motion features are given the analysis of the experimental data based on the combination of the LMT and fast Fourier Transform (FFT). The characteristics of human's motions including respiration, swing arms and legs, and fluctuations of the torso are extracted. At last, we calculate the actual distance between the human and the wall. This work was supported in part by National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 41574109 and 41430322.

Single-Input and Multiple-Output Surface Acoustic Wave Sensing for Damage Quantification in Piezoelectric Sensors.

PubMed

Pamwani, Lavish; Habib, Anowarul; Melandsø, Frank; Ahluwalia, Balpreet Singh; Shelke, Amit

2018-06-22

The main aim of the paper is damage detection at the microscale in the anisotropic piezoelectric sensors using surface acoustic waves (SAWs). A novel technique based on the single input and multiple output of Rayleigh waves is proposed to detect the microscale cracks/flaws in the sensor. A convex-shaped interdigital transducer is fabricated for excitation of divergent SAWs in the sensor. An angularly shaped interdigital transducer (IDT) is fabricated at 0 degrees and ±20 degrees for sensing the convex shape evolution of SAWs. A precalibrated damage was introduced in the piezoelectric sensor material using a micro-indenter in the direction perpendicular to the pointing direction of the SAW. Damage detection algorithms based on empirical mode decomposition (EMD) and principal component analysis (PCA) are implemented to quantify the evolution of damage in piezoelectric sensor material. The evolution of the damage was quantified using a proposed condition indicator (CI) based on normalized Euclidean norm of the change in principal angles, corresponding to pristine and damaged states. The CI indicator provides a robust and accurate metric for detection and quantification of damage.

Triggering risk factors of the burnout syndrome in OB/GYN physicians from a reference public university of Brazil.

PubMed

Ferreira Bortoletti, Fátima; Teresa Benevides-Pereira, Ana Maria; Vasconcellos, Esdras Guerreiro; Siqueira, José Oliveira; Araujo Júnior, Edward; Nardozza, Luciano Marcondes Machado; Sebastiani, Ricardo Werner; Moron, Antonio Fernandes

2012-01-01

Objective. To identify the risk factors to the development of Burnout Syndrome in Ob/Gyn Brazilian physicians in four dimensions: emotional exhaustion (EE), professional repression (PR), dehumanization (De), and emotional distancing (EmD). Methods. A prospective cross-sectional study was realized with 48 Ob/Gyn physicians (12 lecturers, 12 attending physicians, 12 medical residents, and 12 graduate students) from Department of Obstetrics, São Paulo Federal University (UNIFESP). We used a sociodemographic questionnaire focusing on the activities (administrative, educational, healthcare, and research). We applied a Burnout Syndrome Inventory (BSI) composed of two parts: triggering factors (ISB1) and the Burnout Syndrome (ISB2). The ISB1 is composed of two scales: positive organizational conditions (POC) and negative organizational conditions (NOC). The ISB2 is composed of four scales: EE, PR, De, and EmD. Results. We observed a rate below and above average to POC and NOC, respectively. The dimensions recorded a level above average to EE, an index at the upper limit of the average to De, a median index to EmD, and a median index to PR. Conclusions. The Ob/Gyn physicians are in an area of vulnerability for the development of Burnout Syndrome due to the high level of EE and De, associated with a median index of PR. The high rate of NOC contributes to the triggering of this scenery.

Follow-up of ankle stiffness and electromechanical delay in immobilized children: three cases studies.

PubMed

Grosset, Jean-François; Lapole, Thomas; Mora, Isabelle; Verhaeghe, Martine; Doutrellot, Pierre-Louis; Pérot, Chantal

2010-08-01

Clinical manual tests refer to increased ankle stiffness in children immobilized due to hip osteochondritis. The aim of the present study was to investigate musculo-articular stiffness via different techniques in immobilized children to confirm or not and quantify these observations. Ankle stiffness was quantified monthly during the long immobilization period in three diseased children and compared to healthy age-matched children. Sinusoidal perturbations were used to evaluate musculo-articular (MA) stiffness of the ankle plantar-flexors. The stiffness index (SI(MA-EMG)) was the slope of the linear relationship between angular stiffness and plantar-flexion torque normalized with electromyographic activity of the triceps surae (TS). The stiffness of the ankle plantar-flexors was also indirectly evaluated using the TS electromechanical delay (EMD). SI(MA-EMG) was greater for diseased children, and this higher stiffness was confirmed by the higher EMD values found in these immobilized children. Furthermore, both parameters indicated that ankle stiffness continues to increase through immobilization period. This study gives a quantitative evaluation of ankle stiffness changes through the immobilization period imposed to children treated for hip osteochondritis. The use of EMD measurement to indirectly evaluate these stiffness changes is also validated. This study shed for the first time some light into the patterns of muscle modifications following immobilization in children. Copyright (c) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Triggering Risk Factors of the Burnout Syndrome in Ob/Gyn Physicians from a Reference Public University of Brazil

PubMed Central

Ferreira Bortoletti, Fátima; Teresa Benevides-Pereira, Ana Maria; Vasconcellos, Esdras Guerreiro; Siqueira, José Oliveira; Araujo Júnior, Edward; Nardozza, Luciano Marcondes Machado; Sebastiani, Ricardo Werner; Moron, Antonio Fernandes

2012-01-01

Objective. To identify the risk factors to the development of Burnout Syndrome in Ob/Gyn Brazilian physicians in four dimensions: emotional exhaustion (EE), professional repression (PR), dehumanization (De), and emotional distancing (EmD). Methods. A prospective cross-sectional study was realized with 48 Ob/Gyn physicians (12 lecturers, 12 attending physicians, 12 medical residents, and 12 graduate students) from Department of Obstetrics, São Paulo Federal University (UNIFESP). We used a sociodemographic questionnaire focusing on the activities (administrative, educational, healthcare, and research). We applied a Burnout Syndrome Inventory (BSI) composed of two parts: triggering factors (ISB1) and the Burnout Syndrome (ISB2). The ISB1 is composed of two scales: positive organizational conditions (POC) and negative organizational conditions (NOC). The ISB2 is composed of four scales: EE, PR, De, and EmD. Results. We observed a rate below and above average to POC and NOC, respectively. The dimensions recorded a level above average to EE, an index at the upper limit of the average to De, a median index to EmD, and a median index to PR. Conclusions. The Ob/Gyn physicians are in an area of vulnerability for the development of Burnout Syndrome due to the high level of EE and De, associated with a median index of PR. The high rate of NOC contributes to the triggering of this scenery. PMID:23304541

A Control Scheme That Uses Dynamic Postural Synergies to Coordinate a Hybrid Walking Neuroprosthesis: Theory and Experiments.

PubMed

Alibeji, Naji A; Molazadeh, Vahidreza; Dicianno, Brad E; Sharma, Nitin

2018-01-01

A hybrid walking neuroprosthesis that combines functional electrical stimulation (FES) with a powered lower limb exoskeleton can be used to restore walking in persons with paraplegia. It provides therapeutic benefits of FES and torque reliability of the powered exoskeleton. Moreover, by harnessing metabolic power of muscles via FES, the hybrid combination has a potential to lower power consumption and reduce actuator size in the powered exoskeleton. Its control design, however, must overcome the challenges of actuator redundancy due to the combined use of FES and electric motor. Further, dynamic disturbances such as electromechanical delay (EMD) and muscle fatigue must be considered during the control design process. This ensures stability and control performance despite disparate dynamics of FES and electric motor. In this paper, a general framework to coordinate FES of multiple gait-governing muscles with electric motors is presented. A muscle synergy-inspired control framework is used to derive the controller and is motivated mainly to address the actuator redundancy issue. Dynamic postural synergies between FES of the muscles and the electric motors were artificially generated through optimizations and result in key dynamic postures when activated. These synergies were used in the feedforward path of the control system. A dynamic surface control technique, modified with a delay compensation term, is used as the feedback controller to address model uncertainty, the cascaded muscle activation dynamics, and EMD. To address muscle fatigue, the stimulation levels in the feedforward path were gradually increased based on a model-based fatigue estimate. A Lyapunov-based stability approach was used to derive the controller and guarantee its stability. The synergy-based controller was demonstrated experimentally on an able-bodied subject and person with an incomplete spinal cord injury.

Damage detection of an in-service condensation pipeline joint

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Briand, Julie; Rezaei, Davood; Taheri, Farid

2010-04-01

The early detection of damage in structural or mechanical systems is of vital importance. With early detection, the damage may be repaired before the integrity of the system is jeopardized, resulting in monetary losses, loss of life or limb, and environmental impacts. Among the various types of structural health monitoring techniques, vibration-based methods are of significant interest since the damage location does not need to be known beforehand, making it a more versatile approach. The non-destructive damage detection method used for the experiments herein is a novel vibration-based method which uses an index called the EMD Energy Damage Index, developed with the aim of providing improved qualitative results compared to those methods currently available. As part of an effort to establish the integrity and limitation of this novel damage detection method, field testing was completed on a mechanical pipe joint on a condensation line, located in the physical plant of Dalhousie University. Piezoceramic sensors, placed at various locations around the joint were used to monitor the free vibration of the pipe imposed through the use of an impulse hammer. Multiple damage progression scenarios were completed, each having a healthy state and multiple damage cases. Subsequently, the recorded signals from the healthy and damaged joint were processed through the EMD Energy Damage Index developed in-house in an effort to detect the inflicted damage. The proposed methodology successfully detected the inflicted damages. In this paper, the effects of impact location, sensor location, frequency bandwidth, intrinsic mode functions, and boundary conditions are discussed.

EMD 121974 in Treating Patients With Locally Advanced or Metastatic Cancer

ClinicalTrials.gov

2014-09-16

Chronic Myeloproliferative Disorders; Leukemia; Lymphoma; Multiple Myeloma and Plasma Cell Neoplasm; Myelodysplastic Syndromes; Precancerous/Nonmalignant Condition; Small Intestine Cancer; Unspecified Adult Solid Tumor, Protocol Specific

Tsunami Preparedness in Washington (video)

USGS Publications Warehouse

Loeffler, Kurt; Gesell, Justine

2010-01-01

Tsunamis are a constant threat to the coasts of our world. Although tsunamis are infrequent along the West coast of the United States, it is possible and necessary to prepare for potential tsunami hazards to minimize loss of life and property. Community awareness programs are important, as they strive to create an informed society by providing education and training. This video about tsunami preparedness in Washington distinguishes between a local tsunami and a distant event and focus on the specific needs of this region. It offers guidelines for correct tsunami response and community preparedness from local emergency managers, first-responders, and leading experts on tsunami hazards and warnings, who have been working on ways of making the tsunami affected regions safer for the people and communities on a long-term basis. This video was produced by the US Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with Washington Emergency Management Division (EMD) and with funding by the National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program.

Efficacy of periodontal plastic surgery procedures in the treatment of localized facial gingival recessions. A systematic review.

PubMed

Cairo, Francesco; Nieri, Michele; Pagliaro, Umberto

2014-04-01

The aim of this Systematic Review (SR) was to assess the clinical efficacy of periodontal plastic surgery procedures in the treatment of localized gingival recessions (Rec) with or without inter-dental clinical attachment loss (iCAL). Electronic and hand searches were performed to identify randomized clinical trials (RCTs) on treatment of single gingival recessions with at least 6 months of follow-up. Primary outcome variable was complete root coverage (CRC). Secondary outcome variables were recession reduction (RecRed) and keratinized tissue (KT) gain. To evaluate treatment effect, Odds Ratios were combined for dichotomous data and mean differences in continuous data using a random-effect model. Fifty-one RCTs (53 articles) with a total of 1574 treated patients (1744 recessions) were included in this SR. Finally, 30 groups of comparisons were identified and a total of 80 meta-analyses were performed. Coronally Advanced Flap (CAF) was associated with higher probability of CRC and higher amount of RecRed than Semilunar Coronal Positioned Flap (SCPF). The combination CAF plus Connective Tissue Graft (CAF+CTG) or CAF plus Enamel Matrix Derivative (CAF+EMD) was more effective than CAF alone in terms of CRC and RecRed. The combination CAF plus Collagen Matrix (CAF+CM) achieved higher RecRed than CAF alone. In addition, CAF+CTG achieved CRC more frequently than CAF+EMD, SCPF, Free Gingival Graft (FGG) and Laterally Positioned Flap (LPS). CAF+CTG was also associated with higher RecRed than Barrier Membranes (CAF+GTR), CAF+EMD and CAF+CM. GTR was not able to improve the clinical efficacy of CAF. Studies adding Acellular Dermal Matrix (ADM) under CAF showed a large heterogeneity and not significant benefits compared with CAF alone. Multiple combinations, using more than a single graft/biomaterial under the flap, usually provide similar or less benefits than simpler, control procedures in term of root coverage outcomes. CAF procedures alone or with CTG, EMD are supported by large evidence in modern periodontal plastic surgery. CAF+CTG achieved the best clinical outcomes in single gingival recessions with or without iCAL. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

A molecular dynamics study of the effect of thermal boundary conductance on thermal transport of ideal crystal of n-alkanes with different number of carbon atoms

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Rastgarkafshgarkolaei, Rouzbeh; Zeng, Yi; Khodadadi, J. M., E-mail: khodajm@auburn.edu

2016-05-28

Phase change materials such as n-alkanes that exhibit desirable characteristics such as high latent heat, chemical stability, and negligible supercooling are widely used in thermal energy storage applications. However, n-alkanes have the drawback of low thermal conductivity values. The low thermal conductivity of n-alkanes is linked to formation of randomly oriented nano-domains of molecules in their solid structure that is responsible for excessive phonon scattering at the grain boundaries. Thus, understanding the thermal boundary conductance at the grain boundaries can be crucial for improving the effectiveness of thermal storage systems. The concept of the ideal crystal is proposed in thismore » paper, which describes a simplified model such that all the nano-domains of long-chain n-alkanes are artificially aligned perfectly in one direction. In order to study thermal transport of the ideal crystal of long-chain n-alkanes, four (4) systems (C{sub 20}H{sub 42}, C{sub 24}H{sub 50}, C{sub 26}H{sub 54}, and C{sub 30}H{sub 62}) are investigated by the molecular dynamics simulations. Thermal boundary conductance between the layers of ideal crystals is determined using both non-equilibrium molecular dynamics (NEMD) and equilibrium molecular dynamics (EMD) simulations. Both NEMD and EMD simulations exhibit no significant change in thermal conductance with the molecular length. However, the values obtained from the EMD simulations are less than the values from NEMD simulations with the ratio being nearly three (3) in most cases. This difference is due to the nature of EMD simulations where all the phonons are assumed to be in equilibrium at the interface. Thermal conductivity of the n-alkanes in three structures including liquid, solid, and ideal crystal is investigated utilizing NEMD simulations. Our results exhibit a very slight rise in thermal conductivity values as the number of carbon atoms of the chain increases. The key understanding is that thermal transport can be significantly altered by how the molecules and the nano-domains are oriented in the structure rather than by the length of the n-alkane molecules.« less

Regenerative surgical therapy for peri-implantitis using deproteinized bovine bone mineral with 10% collagen, enamel matrix derivative and Doxycycline-A prospective 3-year cohort study.

PubMed

Mercado, Faustino; Hamlet, Stephen; Ivanovski, Saso

2018-05-16

There is limited evidence regarding the long-term efficacy of regenerative treatment for peri-implantitis. The aim of this study was to evaluate a combination therapy of deproteinized bovine bone mineral with 10% collagen (DBBMC), enamel matrix derivative (EMD) and Doxycycline in the regeneration of bone defects associated with peri-implantitis. Thirty patients diagnosed with peri-implantitis (BoP/suppuration, probing depth greater than 4 mm, minimum radiographic bone loss of 20%, at least 2 years in function) were enrolled in the study. Clinical measurements included probing depths, recession, radiographic bone fill, gingival inflammation and bleeding on probing/suppuration. Following surgical access and debridement, the implant surfaces were decontaminated with 24% EDTA for 2 min, and the bone defects were filled with a combined mixture of DBBMC, EMD and Doxycycline powder. The defects were covered with connective tissue grafts where necessary. Clinical measurements were recorded after 12, 24 and 36 months. The mean probing depth and bone loss at the initial visit was 8.9 mm (±1.9) and 6.92 mm (±1.26), respectively. Both mean probing depth and bone loss reduced significantly from baseline to 3.55 mm (±0.50) and 2.85 mm (±0.73) at 12 months, 3.50 (±0.50) and 2.62 mm (±0.80) at 24 months and 3.50 mm (±0.50) and 2.60 mm (±0.73) at 36 months. 56.6% of the implants were considered successfully treated (according to Successful Treatment Outcome Criterion: PD < 5 mm, no further bone loss >10%, no BoP/suppuration, no recession >0.5 mm for anterior implants and >1.5 mm for posterior implants) after 36 months. Regenerative treatment of peri-implantitis using a combined mixture of DBBMC, EMD and Doxycycline achieved promising results. The benefits of this protocol incorporating EMD should be tested in randomized clinical trials. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Quantifying Spasticity With Limited Swinging Cycles Using Pendulum Test Based on Phase Amplitude Coupling.

PubMed

Yeh, Chien Hung; Young, Hsu Wen Vincent; Wang, Cheng Yen; Wang, Yung Hung; Lee, Po Lei; Kang, Jiunn Horng; Lo, Men Tzung

2016-10-01

Parameters derived from the goniometer measures in the Pendulum test are insufficient in describing the function of abnormal muscle activity in the spasticity. To explore a quantitative evaluation of muscle activation-movement interaction, we propose a novel index based on phase amplitude coupling (PAC) analysis with the consideration of the relations between movement and surface electromyography (SEMG) activity among 22 hemiplegic stroke patients. To take off trend and noise, we use the empirical mode decomposition (EMD) to obtain intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) of the angular velocity due to its superior decomposing ability in nonlinear oscillations. Shannon entropy based on angular velocity (phase)-envelope of EMG (amplitude) distribution was calculated to demonstrate characteristics of the coupling between SEMG activity and joint movement. We also compare our results with those from traditional methods such as the normalized relaxation index derived from the Pendulum test and the mean root mean square (RMS) of the SEMG signals in the study. Our results show effective discrimination ability between spastic and nonaffected limbs using our method . This study indicates the feasibility of using the novel indices based on the PAC in evaluation the spasticity among the hemiplegic stroke patients with less than three swinging cycles.

Influence of dental resin material composition on cross-polarization-optical coherence tomography imaging

PubMed Central

Lammeier, Carmen; Li, YuPing; Lunos, Scott; Fok, Alex; Rudney, Joel

2012-01-01

Abstract. The purpose of this study was to investigate cross-polarization-optical coherence tomography (CP-OCT) signal attenuation through different resin material compositions. Four distinct composite systems were used: Filtek supreme ultra (FSU) (3M ESPE), IPS empress direct (EMD) (Ivoclar Vivadent), estelite sigma quick (SQK) (Tokuyama Dental), and Z100 (3M ESPE). Cross-sectional images of different composite-demineralized phantoms (n=108) were collected using a 1310-nm intraoral cross-polarization swept source OCT (CP-OCT) imaging system. %T quantified the CP-OCT signal attenuation. Scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and energy-dispersive x-ray spectrometer chemical analysis was utilized to determine how different matrix/filler compositions affected attenuation of the near infrared (NIR) signal. CP-OCT imaging of dental resin composites showed enormous variation in signal attenuation. For each of our composite systems, there was not a consistent attenuation difference in the NIR signal for A to D shades. The four composites had similar measured backscattering values but attenuated the overall signal to different degrees. When comparing the A2 shades between the four different composite systems, the order of highest to lowest of %T was EMD>Z100, FSU>SQK (ANOVA, Tukey, p<0.0001). As a result, we demonstrate the importance of understanding how the constituents of composite materials affect CP-OCT signal attenuation. PMID:23224001

Twelve months effect of self-referral to inpatient treatment on patient activation, recovery, symptoms and functioning: A randomized controlled study.

PubMed

Moljord, I E O; Lara-Cabrera, M L; Salvesen, Ø; Rise, M B; Bjørgen, D; Antonsen, D Ø; Olsø, T M; Evensen, G H; Gudde, C B; Linaker, O M; Steinsbekk, A; Eriksen, L

2017-06-01

To investigate the effect of having a contract for self-referral to inpatient treatment (SRIT) in patients with severe mental disorders. A randomized controlled trial with 53 adult patients; 26 participants received a SRIT contract, which they could use to refer themselves into a Community Mental Health Centre up to five days for each referral without contacting a doctor in advance. Outcomes were assessed after 12 months with the self-report questionnaires Patient Activation Measure (PAM-13), Recovery Assessment Scale (RAS), and the Behavior and Symptom Identification Scale (BASIS-32) and analyzed using linear mixed and regression models. There was no significant effect on PAM-13 (estimated mean difference (emd) -0.41, 95% CI (CI):-7.49-6.67), nor on the RAS (emd 0.02, CI:-0.27-0.31) or BASIS-32 (0.09, CI:-0.28-0.45). An exploratory post hoc analysis showed effect of SRIT in those with low PAM below ≤47 (p=0.049). There were no group differences after 12 months, but both groups maintained their baseline levels. SRIT contracts can be recommended as it supports the rights to self-determination, promote user participation in decision-making in own treatment without any indication of adverse effects. Copyright © 2017 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Influence of dental resin material composition on cross-polarization-optical coherence tomography imaging

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lammeier, Carmen; Li, YuPing; Lunos, Scott; Fok, Alex; Rudney, Joel; Jones, Robert S.

2012-10-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate cross-polarization-optical coherence tomography (CP-OCT) signal attenuation through different resin material compositions. Four distinct composite systems were used: Filtek supreme ultra (FSU) (3M ESPE), IPS empress direct (EMD) (Ivoclar Vivadent), estelite sigma quick (SQK) (Tokuyama Dental), and Z100 (3M ESPE). Cross-sectional images of different composite-demineralized phantoms (n=108) were collected using a 1310-nm intraoral cross-polarization swept source OCT (CP-OCT) imaging system. %T quantified the CP-OCT signal attenuation. Scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and energy-dispersive x-ray spectrometer chemical analysis was utilized to determine how different matrix/filler compositions affected attenuation of the near infrared (NIR) signal. CP-OCT imaging of dental resin composites showed enormous variation in signal attenuation. For each of our composite systems, there was not a consistent attenuation difference in the NIR signal for A to D shades. The four composites had similar measured backscattering values but attenuated the overall signal to different degrees. When comparing the A2 shades between the four different composite systems, the order of highest to lowest of %T was EMD>Z100, FSU>SQK (ANOVA, Tukey, p<0.0001). As a result, we demonstrate the importance of understanding how the constituents of composite materials affect CP-OCT signal attenuation.

Detection of the Vibration Signal from Human Vocal Folds Using a 94-GHz Millimeter-Wave Radar

PubMed Central

Chen, Fuming; Li, Sheng; Zhang, Yang; Wang, Jianqi

2017-01-01

The detection of the vibration signal from human vocal folds provides essential information for studying human phonation and diagnosing voice disorders. Doppler radar technology has enabled the noncontact measurement of the human-vocal-fold vibration. However, existing systems must be placed in close proximity to the human throat and detailed information may be lost because of the low operating frequency. In this paper, a long-distance detection method, involving the use of a 94-GHz millimeter-wave radar sensor, is proposed for detecting the vibration signals from human vocal folds. An algorithm that combines empirical mode decomposition (EMD) and the auto-correlation function (ACF) method is proposed for detecting the signal. First, the EMD method is employed to suppress the noise of the radar-detected signal. Further, the ratio of the energy and entropy is used to detect voice activity in the radar-detected signal, following which, a short-time ACF is employed to extract the vibration signal of the human vocal folds from the processed signal. For validating the method and assessing the performance of the radar system, a vibration measurement sensor and microphone system are additionally employed for comparison. The experimental results obtained from the spectrograms, the vibration frequency of the vocal folds, and coherence analysis demonstrate that the proposed method can effectively detect the vibration of human vocal folds from a long detection distance. PMID:28282892

Identification of varying time scales in sediment transport using the Hilbert-Huang Transform method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kuai, Ken Z.; Tsai, Christina W.

2012-02-01

SummarySediment transport processes vary at a variety of time scales - from seconds, hours, days to months and years. Multiple time scales exist in the system of flow, sediment transport and bed elevation change processes. As such, identification and selection of appropriate time scales for flow and sediment processes can assist in formulating a system of flow and sediment governing equations representative of the dynamic interaction of flow and particles at the desired details. Recognizing the importance of different varying time scales in the fluvial processes of sediment transport, we introduce the Hilbert-Huang Transform method (HHT) to the field of sediment transport for the time scale analysis. The HHT uses the Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) method to decompose a time series into a collection of the Intrinsic Mode Functions (IMFs), and uses the Hilbert Spectral Analysis (HSA) to obtain instantaneous frequency data. The EMD extracts the variability of data with different time scales, and improves the analysis of data series. The HSA can display the succession of time varying time scales, which cannot be captured by the often-used Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) method. This study is one of the earlier attempts to introduce the state-of-the-art technique for the multiple time sales analysis of sediment transport processes. Three practical applications of the HHT method for data analysis of both suspended sediment and bedload transport time series are presented. The analysis results show the strong impact of flood waves on the variations of flow and sediment time scales at a large sampling time scale, as well as the impact of flow turbulence on those time scales at a smaller sampling time scale. Our analysis reveals that the existence of multiple time scales in sediment transport processes may be attributed to the fractal nature in sediment transport. It can be demonstrated by the HHT analysis that the bedload motion time scale is better represented by the ratio of the water depth to the settling velocity, h/ w. In the final part, HHT results are compared with an available time scale formula in literature.

Continuous and simultaneous estimation of finger kinematics using inputs from an EMG-to-muscle activation model.

PubMed

Ngeo, Jimson G; Tamei, Tomoya; Shibata, Tomohiro

2014-08-14

Surface electromyography (EMG) signals are often used in many robot and rehabilitation applications because these reflect motor intentions of users very well. However, very few studies have focused on the accurate and proportional control of the human hand using EMG signals. Many have focused on discrete gesture classification and some have encountered inherent problems such as electro-mechanical delays (EMD). Here, we present a new method for estimating simultaneous and multiple finger kinematics from multi-channel surface EMG signals. In this study, surface EMG signals from the forearm and finger kinematic data were extracted from ten able-bodied subjects while they were tasked to do individual and simultaneous multiple finger flexion and extension movements in free space. Instead of using traditional time-domain features of EMG, an EMG-to-Muscle Activation model that parameterizes EMD was used and shown to give better estimation performance. A fast feed forward artificial neural network (ANN) and a nonparametric Gaussian Process (GP) regressor were both used and evaluated to estimate complex finger kinematics, with the latter rarely used in the other related literature. The estimation accuracies, in terms of mean correlation coefficient, were 0.85 ± 0.07, 0.78 ± 0.06 and 0.73 ± 0.04 for the metacarpophalangeal (MCP), proximal interphalangeal (PIP) and the distal interphalangeal (DIP) finger joint DOFs, respectively. The mean root-mean-square error in each individual DOF ranged from 5 to 15%. We show that estimation improved using the proposed muscle activation inputs compared to other features, and that using GP regression gave better estimation results when using fewer training samples. The proposed method provides a viable means of capturing the general trend of finger movements and shows a good way of estimating finger joint kinematics using a muscle activation model that parameterizes EMD. The results from this study demonstrates a potential control strategy based on EMG that can be applied for simultaneous and continuous control of multiple DOF(s) devices such as robotic hand/finger prostheses or exoskeletons.

Short and long-term effects of supervised versus unsupervised exercise training on health-related quality of life and functional outcomes following lung cancer surgery - a randomized controlled trial.

PubMed

Brocki, Barbara Cristina; Andreasen, Jane; Nielsen, Lene Rodkjaer; Nekrasas, Vytautas; Gorst-Rasmussen, Anders; Westerdahl, Elisabeth

2014-01-01

Surgical resection enhances long-term survival after lung cancer, but survivors face functional deficits and report on poor quality of life long time after surgery. This study evaluated short and long-term effects of supervised group exercise training on health-related quality of life and physical performance in patients, who were radically operated for lung cancer. A randomized, assessor-blinded, controlled trial was performed on 78 patients undergoing lung cancer surgery. The intervention group (IG, n=41) participated in supervised out-patient exercise training sessions, one hour once a week for ten weeks. The sessions were based on aerobic exercises with target intensity of 60-80% of work capacity, resistance training and dyspnoea management. The control group (CG, n=37) received one individual instruction in exercise training. Measurements consisted of: health-related quality of life (SF36), six minute walk test (6MWT) and lung function (spirometry), assessed three weeks after surgery and after four and twelve months. Both groups were comparable at baseline on demographic characteristic and outcome values. We found a statistically significant effect after four months in the bodily pain domain of SF36, with an estimated mean difference (EMD) of 15.3 (95% CI:4 to 26.6, p=0.01) and a trend in favour of the intervention for role physical functioning (EMD 12.04, 95% CI: -1 to 25.1, p=0.07) and physical component summary (EMD 3.76, 95% CI:-0.1 to 7.6, p=0.06). At 12 months, the tendency was reversed, with the CG presenting overall slightly better measures. We found no effect of the intervention on 6MWT or lung volumes at any time-point. Supervised compared to unsupervised exercise training resulted in no improvement in health-related quality of life, except for the bodily pain domain, four months after lung cancer surgery. No effects of the intervention were found for any outcome after one year. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Macroscopic shape change of melt-processed YBa{sub 2}Cu{sub 3}O{sub x-}Y{sub 2}BaCuO{sub 5} bulk superconductors.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Diko, P.; Goretta, K. C.; Energy Technology

A macroscopic change in the shape of five-domain melt-processed YBa{sub 2}Cu{sub 3}O{sub x}/Y{sub 2}BaCuO{sub 5} bulk superconductors is reported and explained. The change, a distortion from circular cross-section, is attributed to liquid transport from a slower growth front in an a-axis direction to a faster growth front in a c-axis direction at the edge between the a- and c-growth fronts, a phenomenon that we call the edge melt distribution (EMD) effect. Formation of bands of higher Y{sub 2}BaCuO{sub 5} particle density along the a/c growth boundaries, which nearly coincide with {l_brace}110{r_brace}-type planes, is explained by the EMD effect.

Dynamic correlations at different time-scales with empirical mode decomposition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nava, Noemi; Di Matteo, T.; Aste, Tomaso

2018-07-01

We introduce a simple approach which combines Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) and Pearson's cross-correlations over rolling windows to quantify dynamic dependency at different time scales. The EMD is a tool to separate time series into implicit components which oscillate at different time-scales. We apply this decomposition to intraday time series of the following three financial indices: the S&P 500 (USA), the IPC (Mexico) and the VIX (volatility index USA), obtaining time-varying multidimensional cross-correlations at different time-scales. The correlations computed over a rolling window are compared across the three indices, across the components at different time-scales and across different time lags. We uncover a rich heterogeneity of interactions, which depends on the time-scale and has important lead-lag relations that could have practical use for portfolio management, risk estimation and investment decisions.

Obesity and neuroinflammatory phenotype in mice lacking endothelial megalin.

PubMed

Bartolome, Fernando; Antequera, Desiree; Tavares, Eva; Pascual, Consuelo; Maldonado, Rosario; Camins, Antoni; Carro, Eva

2017-01-31

The multiligand receptor megalin controls the brain uptake of a number of ligands, including insulin and leptin. Despite the role of megalin in the transport of these metabolically relevant hormones, the role of megalin at the blood-brain-barrier (BBB) has not yet been explored in the context of metabolic regulation. Here we investigate the role of brain endothelial megalin in energy metabolism and leptin signaling using an endothelial cell-specific megalin deficient (EMD) mouse model. We found megalin is important to protect mice from developing obesity and metabolic syndrome when mice are fed a normal chow diet. EMD mice developed neuroinflammation, by triggering several pro-inflammatory cytokines, displayed reduced neurogenesis and mitochondrial deregulation. These results implicate brain endothelial megalin expression in obesity-related metabolic changes through the leptin signaling pathway proposing a potential link between obesity and neurodegeneration.

Unconventional energy resources: 2007-2008 review

USGS Publications Warehouse

Warwick, Peter D.; ,

2009-01-01

This paper summarizes five 2007–2008 resource commodity committee reports prepared by the Energy Minerals Division (EMD) of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. Current United States and global research and development activities related to gas hydrates, gas shales, geothermal resources, oil sands, and uranium resources are included in this review. These commodity reports were written to advise EMD leadership and membership of the current status of research and development of unconventional energy resources. Unconventional energy resources are defined as those resources other than conventional oil and natural gas that typically occur in sandstone and carbonate rocks. Gas hydrate resources are potentially enormous; however, production technologies are still under development. Gas shale, geothermal, oil sand, and uranium resources are now increasing targets of exploration and development, and are rapidly becoming important energy resources that will continue to be developed in the future.

Avelumab: First Global Approval.

PubMed

Kim, Esther S

2017-05-01

Avelumab (Bavencio ® ) is an intravenously administered programmed cell death ligand-1-blocking human antibody initially developed by EMD Serono Inc. (the biopharmaceutical division of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany) [now jointly developed and commercialized by EMD Serono Inc. and Pfizer] for the treatment of various tumours. It has received accelerated approval in the USA for the treatment of metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma (mMCC) in adults and paediatric patients aged ≥12 years. The marketing authorization application for avelumab in the treatment of mMCC is undergoing regulatory review in the EU, the biologics license application for avelumab in the treatment of urothelial carcinoma is undergoing priority review by the FDA, and avelumab is in various stages of development internationally for a variety of cancers. This article summarizes the milestones in the development of avelumab leading to this first approval for mMCC.

Electrolytic Manganese Dioxide Coatings on High Aspect Ratio Micro-Pillar Arrays for 3D Thin Film Lithium Ion Batteries.

PubMed

Zargouni, Yafa; Deheryan, Stella; Radisic, Alex; Alouani, Khaled; Vereecken, Philippe M

2017-05-27

In this work, we present the electrochemical deposition of manganese dioxide (MnO₂) thin films on carbon-coated TiN/Si micro-pillars. The carbon buffer layer, grown by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD), is used as a protective coating for the underlying TiN current collector from oxidation, during the film deposition, while improving the electrical conductivity of the stack. A conformal electrolytic MnO₂ (EMD) coating is successfully achieved on high aspect ratio C/TiN/Si pillar arrays by tailoring the deposition process. Lithiation/Delithiation cycling tests have been performed. Reversible insertion and extraction of Li⁺ through EMD structure are observed. The fabricated stack is thus considered as a good candidate not only for 3D micorbatteries but also for other energy storage applications.

Electrolytic Manganese Dioxide Coatings on High Aspect Ratio Micro-Pillar Arrays for 3D Thin Film Lithium Ion Batteries

PubMed Central

Zargouni, Yafa; Deheryan, Stella; Radisic, Alex; Alouani, Khaled; Vereecken, Philippe M.

2017-01-01

In this work, we present the electrochemical deposition of manganese dioxide (MnO2) thin films on carbon-coated TiN/Si micro-pillars. The carbon buffer layer, grown by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD), is used as a protective coating for the underlying TiN current collector from oxidation, during the film deposition, while improving the electrical conductivity of the stack. A conformal electrolytic MnO2 (EMD) coating is successfully achieved on high aspect ratio C/TiN/Si pillar arrays by tailoring the deposition process. Lithiation/Delithiation cycling tests have been performed. Reversible insertion and extraction of Li+ through EMD structure are observed. The fabricated stack is thus considered as a good candidate not only for 3D micorbatteries but also for other energy storage applications. PMID:28555017

Experimental mixture design as a tool to enhance glycosyl hydrolases production by a new Trichoderma harzianum P49P11 strain cultivated under controlled bioreactor submerged fermentation.

PubMed

Delabona, Priscila da Silva; Farinas, Cristiane Sanchez; Lima, Deise Juliana da Silva; Pradella, José Geraldo da Cruz

2013-03-01

This work investigates the glycosyl hydrolase (GH) profile of a new Trichoderma harzianum strain cultivated under controlled bioreactor submerged fermentation. The influence of different medium components (delignified steam-exploded sugarcane bagasse, sucrose, and soybean flour) on GH biosynthesis was assessed using experimental mixture design (EMD). Additionally, the effect of increased component concentrations in culture media selected from the EMD was studied. It was found that that a mixed culture medium could significantly maximize GH biosynthesis rate, especially for xylanase enzymes which achieved a 2-fold increment. Overall, it was demonstrated that T. harzianumP49P11 enzymes have a great potential to be used in the deconstruction of biomass. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

[Differences between Chicago and traditional classifications in the diagnosis of esophageal motor disorders with high-resolution manometry and topography of esophageal pressure].

PubMed

Abreu-Y Abreu, A T; González Sánchez, C B; Villanueva Sáenz, E; Valdovinos Díaz, M A

2010-01-01

With the introduction of high resolution manometry (HRM) and esophageal topography a novel classification (Chicago Classification) has been proposed for the diagnosis of esophageal motor disorders (EMD). Clinical differences with the traditional classification are currently under evaluation. To investigate differences between the Chicago (CC) and traditional (TC) classifications in the diagnosis of EMD. Consecutive patients with indication for esophageal manometry were studied. HRM was performed with a 36 sensors solid-state catheter and Manoview software (V2.0).Conventional manometric tracings were analyzed by an investigator blinded to the results of HRM. Diagnosis by CC and CT were compared. Two hundred patients were studied, 106 (53%) of them women (53%) with a mean patient age of 43.4 (range 16 - 84) years. Preoperative evaluation for GERD 152 (76%) was the most frequent indication. Achalasia (8), scleroderma (2) and peristaltic dysfunction (60 vs. 59) were similarly diagnosed by CC and CT. Spastic disorders were more frequently identified by CC: nutcracker esophagus (NC) in 3, spastic NC in3 and segmental NC in 11 patients versus TC: NC 5. Three patients had spasm with CC and 1 with TC. Non specific motor disorder was diagnosed by TC and 2 patients had functional obstruction with CC. Hypotensive lower esophageal sphincter was identified in 63 patients with CC vs.57 with TC. Spastic disorders and functional obstruction were the EMD better identified by HRM and CC.

Treatment of the organic brain syndrome in the elderly. A double-blind comparison on the effects of a neurotropic drug and placebo.

PubMed

Noël, G; Jeanmart, M; Reinhardt, B

1983-01-01

100 inpatients of both sexes, most of them older than 65 years and suffering from symptoms of the organic brain syndrome (OBS), primarily associated with aging were included in a 6-week double-blind study. Patients were randomly assigned to two treatment groups of 50 patients each and received either a neurotropic drug (3 X 200 mg EMD 21657) or placebo coated tablets of identical appearance. Patients were evaluated at the beginning of the study and after 6 weeks of treatment using a physician's symptom rating, the Nurses' Observation Scale for Inpatient Evaluation ( NOSIE ), EEG, and a psychometric test battery to assess level of mental and memory functioning ( Rey test, Benton visual retention test, block design test by Kohs ). At the final assessment global response and overall tolerance were rated by the physician. The therapeutic effects of EMD 21657 were shown to be statistically significant compared to placebo in global response (p less than or equal to 0.05), in the factor 'cognitive disturbances' (p less than or equal to 0.05 doctor's symptom rating) and in the negative factors of the NOSIE (p less than or equal to 0.05). In the other parameters of the scales, the EEG and the mental ability tests no statistically significant changes could be demonstrated in the two groups after 6 weeks of treatment. The drugs were well tolerated. EMD 21657 treatment was interrupted because of side effects (increased aggressiveness, rash) in 2 cases.

Psychometric Properties of the Persian Language Version of Yang Internet Addiction Questionnaire: An Explanatory Factor Analysis.

PubMed

Mohammadsalehi, Narges; Mohammadbeigi, Abolfazl; Jadidi, Rahmatollah; Anbari, Zohreh; Ghaderi, Ebrahim; Akbari, Mojtaba

2015-09-01

Reliability and validity are the key concepts in measurement processes. Young internet addiction test (YIAT) is regarded as a valid and reliable questionnaire in English speaking countries for diagnosis of Internet-related behavior disorders. This study aimed at validating the Persian version of YIAT in the Iranian society. A pilot and a cross-sectional study were conducted on 28 and 254 students of Qom University of Medical Sciences, respectively, in order to validate the Persian version of YIAT. Forward and backward translations were conducted to develop a Persian version of the scale. Reliability was measured by test-retest, Cronbach's alpha and interclass correlation coefficient (ICC). Face, content and construct validity were approved by the importance score index, content validity ratio (CVR), content validity index (CVI), correlation matrix and factor analysis. The SPSS software was used for data analysis. The Cronbach's alpha was 0.917 (CI 95%; 0.901 - 0.931). The average of scale-level CVI was calculated to be 0.74; the CVI index for each item was higher than 0.83 and the average of CVI index was equal to 0.89. Factor analysis extracted three factors including personal activities disorder (PAD), emotional and mood disorder (EMD) and social activities disorder (SAD), with more than 55.8% of total variances. The ICC for different factors of Persian version of Young Questionnaire including PAD, EMD and for SAD was r = 0.884; CI 95%; 0.861 - 0.904, r = 0.766; CI 95%; 0.718 - 0.808 and r = 0.745; CI 95%; 0.686 - 0.795, respectively. Our study showed that the Persian version of YIAT is good and usable on Iranian people. The reliability of the instrument was very good. Moreover, the validity of the Persian translated version of the scale was sufficient. In addition, the reliability and validity of the three extracted factors of YIAT were evaluated and were acceptable.

Psychometric Properties of the Persian Language Version of Yang Internet Addiction Questionnaire: An Explanatory Factor Analysis

PubMed Central

Mohammadsalehi, Narges; Mohammadbeigi, Abolfazl; Jadidi, Rahmatollah; Anbari, Zohreh; Ghaderi, Ebrahim; Akbari, Mojtaba

2015-01-01

Background: Reliability and validity are the key concepts in measurement processes. Young internet addiction test (YIAT) is regarded as a valid and reliable questionnaire in English speaking countries for diagnosis of Internet-related behavior disorders. Objectives: This study aimed at validating the Persian version of YIAT in the Iranian society. Patients and Methods: A pilot and a cross-sectional study were conducted on 28 and 254 students of Qom University of Medical Sciences, respectively, in order to validate the Persian version of YIAT. Forward and backward translations were conducted to develop a Persian version of the scale. Reliability was measured by test-retest, Cronbach’s alpha and interclass correlation coefficient (ICC). Face, content and construct validity were approved by the importance score index, content validity ratio (CVR), content validity index (CVI), correlation matrix and factor analysis. The SPSS software was used for data analysis. Results: The Cronbach’s alpha was 0.917 (CI 95%; 0.901 - 0.931). The average of scale-level CVI was calculated to be 0.74; the CVI index for each item was higher than 0.83 and the average of CVI index was equal to 0.89. Factor analysis extracted three factors including personal activities disorder (PAD), emotional and mood disorder (EMD) and social activities disorder (SAD), with more than 55.8% of total variances. The ICC for different factors of Persian version of Young Questionnaire including PAD, EMD and for SAD was r = 0.884; CI 95%; 0.861 - 0.904, r = 0.766; CI 95%; 0.718 - 0.808 and r = 0.745; CI 95%; 0.686 - 0.795, respectively. Conclusions: Our study showed that the Persian version of YIAT is good and usable on Iranian people. The reliability of the instrument was very good. Moreover, the validity of the Persian translated version of the scale was sufficient. In addition, the reliability and validity of the three extracted factors of YIAT were evaluated and were acceptable. PMID:26495253

Classification and modeling of human activities using empirical mode decomposition with S-band and millimeter-wave micro-Doppler radars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fairchild, Dustin P.; Narayanan, Ram M.

2012-06-01

The ability to identify human movements can be an important tool in many different applications such as surveillance, military combat situations, search and rescue operations, and patient monitoring in hospitals. This information can provide soldiers, security personnel, and search and rescue workers with critical knowledge that can be used to potentially save lives and/or avoid a dangerous situation. Most research involving human activity recognition is focused on using the Short-Time Fourier Transform (STFT) as a method of analyzing the micro-Doppler signatures. Because of the time-frequency resolution limitations of the STFT and because Fourier transform-based methods are not well-suited for use with non-stationary and nonlinear signals, we have chosen a different approach. Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) has been shown to be a valuable time-frequency method for processing non-stationary and nonlinear data such as micro-Doppler signatures and EMD readily provides a feature vector that can be utilized for classification. For classification, the method of a Support Vector Machine (SVMs) was chosen. SVMs have been widely used as a method of pattern recognition due to their ability to generalize well and also because of their moderately simple implementation. In this paper, we discuss the ability of these methods to accurately identify human movements based on their micro-Doppler signatures obtained from S-band and millimeter-wave radar systems. Comparisons will also be made based on experimental results from each of these radar systems. Furthermore, we will present simulations of micro-Doppler movements for stationary subjects that will enable us to compare our experimental Doppler data to what we would expect from an "ideal" movement.

Machine fault feature extraction based on intrinsic mode functions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fan, Xianfeng; Zuo, Ming J.

2008-04-01

This work employs empirical mode decomposition (EMD) to decompose raw vibration signals into intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) that represent the oscillatory modes generated by the components that make up the mechanical systems generating the vibration signals. The motivation here is to develop vibration signal analysis programs that are self-adaptive and that can detect machine faults at the earliest onset of deterioration. The change in velocity of the amplitude of some IMFs over a particular unit time will increase when the vibration is stimulated by a component fault. Therefore, the amplitude acceleration energy in the intrinsic mode functions is proposed as an indicator of the impulsive features that are often associated with mechanical component faults. The periodicity of the amplitude acceleration energy for each IMF is extracted by spectrum analysis. A spectrum amplitude index is introduced as a method to select the optimal result. A comparison study of the method proposed here and some well-established techniques for detecting machinery faults is conducted through the analysis of both gear and bearing vibration signals. The results indicate that the proposed method has superior capability to extract machine fault features from vibration signals.

Statistical properties and time-frequency analysis of temperature, salinity and turbidity measured by the MAREL Carnot station in the coastal waters of Boulogne-sur-Mer (France)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kbaier Ben Ismail, Dhouha; Lazure, Pascal; Puillat, Ingrid

2016-10-01

In marine sciences, many fields display high variability over a large range of spatial and temporal scales, from seconds to thousands of years. The longer recorded time series, with an increasing sampling frequency, in this field are often nonlinear, nonstationary, multiscale and noisy. Their analysis faces new challenges and thus requires the implementation of adequate and specific methods. The objective of this paper is to highlight time series analysis methods already applied in econometrics, signal processing, health, etc. to the environmental marine domain, assess advantages and inconvenients and compare classical techniques with more recent ones. Temperature, turbidity and salinity are important quantities for ecosystem studies. The authors here consider the fluctuations of sea level, salinity, turbidity and temperature recorded from the MAREL Carnot system of Boulogne-sur-Mer (France), which is a moored buoy equipped with physico-chemical measuring devices, working in continuous and autonomous conditions. In order to perform adequate statistical and spectral analyses, it is necessary to know the nature of the considered time series. For this purpose, the stationarity of the series and the occurrence of unit-root are addressed with the Augmented-Dickey Fuller tests. As an example, the harmonic analysis is not relevant for temperature, turbidity and salinity due to the nonstationary condition, except for the nearly stationary sea level datasets. In order to consider the dominant frequencies associated to the dynamics, the large number of data provided by the sensors should enable the estimation of Fourier spectral analysis. Different power spectra show a complex variability and reveal an influence of environmental factors such as tides. However, the previous classical spectral analysis, namely the Blackman-Tukey method, requires not only linear and stationary data but also evenly-spaced data. Interpolating the time series introduces numerous artifacts to the data. The Lomb-Scargle algorithm is adapted to unevenly-spaced data and is used as an alternative. The limits of the method are also set out. It was found that beyond 50% of missing measures, few significant frequencies are detected, several seasonalities are no more visible, and even a whole range of high frequency disappears progressively. Furthermore, two time-frequency decomposition methods, namely wavelets and Hilbert-Huang Transformation (HHT), are applied for the analysis of the entire dataset. Using the Continuous Wavelet Transform (CWT), some properties of the time series are determined. Then, the inertial wave and several low-frequency tidal waves are identified by the application of the Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD). Finally, EMD based Time Dependent Intrinsic Correlation (TDIC) analysis is applied to consider the correlation between two nonstationary time series.

Changing On Diurnal Cycle Of Rainfall In Northern Coastal Of West Java

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yulihastin, E.; Hadi, T. W.; Ningsih, N. S.

2017-12-01

The floods event in the north of Java was largely due to persistent of rainfall that occurred in the morning which indicated of deviation of diurnal pattern of rainfall. The shift of the phase of diurnal rainfall cycle using TRMM satellite hourly data of 3B41RT on the rainy period of 2000-2016 exhibits over land from Late Afternoon-Early Midnight (LA-EM) to morning. The peak of the cycle changes from diurnal to semidiurnal with a peak occurring in LA-EM and morning. Location of rainfall which usually occurs in the oceans shifted into near coastal area. The classification of diurnal rainfall cycles based on composite analysis shows four types: Normal (N) Type (45.6%) with one peak rainfall occurring in the afternoon until night, Diurnal (D) Type (26%) with one peak and phase opposite to normal type, Semidiurnal (SD) Type (6.5 %) with two peaks and the main peak occurring in the afternoon until night, Third Diurnal (TD) Type (21.7%) with three peaks and the main peak occurs in the morning. The classification was confirmed using the objective method of Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) and obtained three IMFs representing three diurnal cycle modes of Type TD (67.8%) with the main rain peak taking place in the afternoon, Type D with rain peak occurring in the early hours (18.9%), and SD type (9.9%) with the first peak occurred in the afternoon. For D Type, the results also prove that the diurnal cycle with significant deviations in amplitude occurred in February 2002, 2004, 2008, 2014, wich is the maximum rainfall occurs in the EM. It also seems that in those years, rainfall intensity is concentrated on the northern coast of West Java while in the Java Sea rainfall was minimum.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Schlecht, William; Li, King-Lun; Hu, Dehong

By examining the behavior of each Ca2+ -sensitizer on cTnC at different levels of reconstitution (cTnI-cTnC, full troponin, or full troponin in thin filament) the importance of these proteins on sensitizer efficacy was evaluated, lending insight into the mechanism of action behind each drug. A fluorescence based approach was used to monitor the opening and closing of cardiac troponin C's hydrophobic pocket in the presence and absence of four common Ca2+ -sensitizers: EMD 57033, levosimendan, bepridil and pimobendan. Ca2+ -titration experiments were employed to determine the effect on Ca2+- sensitivity and cooperativity of cTnC opening, while stopped flow experiments weremore » used to investigate the impact on cTnC relaxation kinetics. This study shows EMD 57033 is unable to sensitize cTnC to Ca2+, and likely requires the presence of myosin to illicit a response. Levosimendan, bepridil, and pimobendan were all able to increase the sensitivity of cTnC for Ca2+ to varying degrees; levosimendan and pimobendan reduced the rate of cTnC closing, while bepridil increased this rate. Additionally the same experiments were run on thin filament samples containing cTnT (T204E), a known Ca2+- blunting phosphorylation mimic. Levosimendan, bepridil, and pimobendan were found to elevate the Ca2+-sensitivity of cTnT(T204E) containing thin filaments to within range of the wild type thin filaments.« less

Early postoperative healing following buccal single flap approach to access intraosseous periodontal defects.

PubMed

Farina, Roberto; Simonelli, Anna; Rizzi, Alessandro; Pramstraller, Mattia; Cucchi, Alessandro; Trombelli, Leonardo

2013-07-01

This study aims to evaluate the early postoperative healing of papillary incision wounds and its association with (1) patient/site-related factors and technical (surgical) aspects as well as with (2) 6-month clinical outcomes following buccal single flap approach (SFA) in the treatment of intraosseous periodontal defects. Forty-three intraosseous defects in 35 patients were accessed with a buccal SFA alone or in combination with a reconstructive technology (graft, enamel matrix derivative (EMD), graft + EMD, or graft + membrane). Postoperative healing was evaluated at 2 weeks using the Early Wound-Healing Index (EHI). EHI ranged from score 1 (i.e., complete flap closure and optimal healing) to score 4 (i.e., loss of primary closure and partial tissue necrosis). SFA resulted in a complete wound closure at 2 weeks in the great majority of sites. A significantly more frequent presence of interdental contact point and interdental soft tissue crater, and narrower base of the interdental papilla were observed at sites with either EHI > 1 or EHI = 4 compared to sites with EHI = 1. No association between EHI and the 6-month clinical outcomes was observed. At 2 weeks, buccal SFA may result in highly predictable complete flap closure. Site-specific characteristics may influence the early postoperative healing of the papillary incision following SFA procedure. Two-week soft tissue healing, however, was not associated with the 6-month clinical outcomes.

New procedure for gear fault detection and diagnosis using instantaneous angular speed

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Bing; Zhang, Xining; Wu, Jili

2017-02-01

Besides the extreme complexity of gear dynamics, the fault diagnosis results in terms of vibration signal are sometimes easily misled and even distorted by the interference of transmission channel or other components like bearings, bars. Recently, the research field of Instantaneous Angular Speed (IAS) has attracted significant attentions due to its own advantages over conventional vibration analysis. On the basis of IAS signal's advantages, this paper presents a new feature extraction method by combining the Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) and Autocorrelation Local Cepstrum (ALC) for fault diagnosis of sophisticated multistage gearbox. Firstly, as a pre-processing step, signal reconstruction is employed to address the oversampled issue caused by the high resolution of the angular sensor and the test speed. Then the adaptive EMD is used to acquire a number of Intrinsic Mode Functions (IMFs). Nevertheless, not all the IMFs are needed for the further analysis since different IMFs have different sensitivities to fault. Hence, the cosine similarity metric is introduced to select the most sensitive IMF. Even though, the sensitive IMF is still insufficient for the gear fault diagnosis due to the weakness of the fault component related to the gear fault. Therefore, as the final step, ALC is used for the purpose of signal de-noising and feature extraction. The effectiveness and robustness of the new approach has been validated experimentally on the basis of two gear test rigs with gears under different working conditions. Diagnosis results show that the new approach is capable of effectively handling the gear fault diagnosis i.e., the highlighted quefrency and its rahmonics corresponding to the rotary period and its multiple are displayed clearly in the cepstrum record of the proposed method.

Empirical Mode Decomposition of Geophysical Well-log Data of Bombay Offshore Basin, Mumbai, India

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Siddharth Gairola, Gaurav; Chandrasekhar, Enamundram

2016-04-01

Geophysical well-log data manifest the nonlinear behaviour of their respective physical properties of the heterogeneous subsurface layers as a function of depth. Therefore, nonlinear data analysis techniques must be implemented, to quantify the degree of heterogeneity in the subsurface lithologies. One such nonlinear data adaptive technique is empirical mode decomposition (EMD) technique, which facilitates to decompose the data into oscillatory signals of different wavelengths called intrinsic mode functions (IMF). In the present study EMD has been applied to gamma-ray log and neutron porosity log of two different wells: Well B and Well C located in the western offshore basin of India to perform heterogeneity analysis and compare the results with those obtained by multifractal studies of the same data sets. By establishing a relationship between the IMF number (m) and the mean wavelength associated with each IMF (Im), a heterogeneity index (ρ) associated with subsurface layers can be determined using the relation, Im=kρm, where 'k' is a constant. The ρ values bear an inverse relation with the heterogeneity of the subsurface: smaller ρ values designate higher heterogeneity and vice-versa. The ρ values estimated for different limestone payzones identified in the wells clearly show that Well C has higher degree of heterogeneity than Well B. This correlates well with the estimated Vshale values for the limestone reservoir zone showing higher shale content in Well C than Well B. The ρ values determined for different payzones of both wells will be used to quantify the degree of heterogeneity in different wells. The multifractal behaviour of each IMF of both the logs of both the wells will be compared with one another and discussed on the lines of their heterogeneity indices.

Unabated global surface temperature warming: evaluating the evidence

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Karl, T. R.; Arguez, A.

2015-12-01

New insights related to time-dependent bias corrections in global surface temperatures have led to higher rates of warming over the past few decades than previously reported in the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (2014). Record high global temperatures in the past few years have also contributed to larger trends. The combination of these factors and new analyses of the rate of temperature change show unabated global warming since at least the mid-Twentieth Century. New time-dependent bias corrections account for: (1) differences in temperatures measured from ships and drifting buoys; (2) improved corrections to ship measured temperatures; and (3) the larger rates of warming in polar regions (particularly the Arctic). Since 1951, the period over which IPCC (2014) attributes over half of the observed global warming to human causes, it is shown that there has been a remarkably robust and sustained warming, punctuated with inter-annual and decadal variability. This finding is confirmed through simple trend analysis and Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD). Trend analysis however, especially for decadal trends, is sensitive to selection bias of beginning and ending dates. EMD has no selection bias. Additionally, it can highlight both short- and long-term processes affecting the global temperature times series since it addresses both non-linear and non-stationary processes. For the new NOAA global temperature data set, our analyses do not support the notion of a hiatus or slowing of long-term global warming. However, sub-decadal periods of little (or no warming) and rapid warming can also be found, clearly showing the impact of inter-annual and decadal variability that previously has been attributed to both natural and human-induced non-greenhouse forcings.

A novel time of arrival estimation algorithm using an energy detector receiver in MMW systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liang, Xiaolin; Zhang, Hao; Lyu, Tingting; Xiao, Han; Gulliver, T. Aaron

2017-12-01

This paper presents a new time of arrival (TOA) estimation technique using an improved energy detection (ED) receiver based on the empirical mode decomposition (EMD) in an impulse radio (IR) 60 GHz millimeter wave (MMW) system. A threshold is employed via analyzing the characteristics of the received energy values with an extreme learning machine (ELM). The effect of the channel and integration period on the TOA estimation is evaluated. Several well-known ED-based TOA algorithms are used to compare with the proposed technique. It is shown that this ELM-based technique has lower TOA estimation error compared to other approaches and provides robust performance with the IEEE 802.15.3c channel models.

Genetic parameters for carcass and meat quality traits and their relationships to liveweight and wool production in hogget Merino rams.

PubMed

Greeff, J C; Safari, E; Fogarty, N M; Hopkins, D L; Brien, F D; Atkins, K D; Mortimer, S I; van der Werf, J H J

2008-06-01

Genetic parameters for carcass and meat quality traits of about 18-month-old Merino rams (n = 5870), the progeny of 543 sires from three research resource flocks, were estimated. The estimates of heritability for hot carcass weight (HCW) and the various fat and muscle dimension measurements were moderate and ranged from 0.20 to 0.37. The brightness of meat (colour L*, 0.18 +/- 0.03 standard error) and meat pH (0.22 +/- 0.03) also had moderate estimates of heritability, although meat relative redness (colour a*, 0.10 +/- 0.03) and relative yellowness (colour b*, 0.10 +/- 0.03) were lower. Heritability estimates for live weights were moderate and ranged from 0.29 to 0.41 with significant permanent maternal environmental effects (0.13 to 0.10). The heritability estimates for the hogget wool traits were moderate to high and ranged from 0.27 to 0.60. The ultrasound measurements of fat depth (FATUS) and eye muscle depth (EMDUS) on live animals were highly genetically correlated with the corresponding carcass measurements (0.69 +/- 0.09 FATC and 0.77 +/- 0.07 EMD). Carcass tissue depth (FATGR) had moderate to low genetic correlations with carcass muscle measurements [0.18 +/- 0.10 EMD and 0.05 +/- 0.10 eye muscle area (EMA)], while those with FATC were negative. The genetic correlation between EMD and eye muscle width (EMW) was 0.41 +/- 0.08, while EMA was highly correlated with EMD (0.89 +/- 0.0) and EMW (0.78 +/- 0.04). The genetic correlations for muscle colour with muscle measurements were moderately negative, while those with fat measurements were close to zero. Meat pH was positively correlated with muscle measurements (0.14 to 0.17) and negatively correlated with fat measurements (-0.06 to -0.18). EMDUS also showed a similar pattern of correlations to EMD with meat quality indicator traits, although FATUS had positive correlations with these traits which were generally smaller than their standard error. The genetic correlations among the meat colour traits were high and positive while those with meat pH were high and negative, which were all in the favourable direction. Generally, phenotypic correlations were similar or slightly lower than the corresponding genetic correlations. There were generally small to moderate negative genetic correlations between clean fleece weight (CFW) and carcass fat traits while those with muscle traits were close to zero. As the Merino is already a relatively lean breed, this implies that particular attention should be given to this relationship in Merino breeding programmes to prevent the reduction of fat reserves as a correlated response to selection for increased fleece weight. The ultrasound scan traits generally showed a similar pattern to the corresponding carcass fat and muscle traits. There was a small unfavourable genetic correlation between CFW and meat pH (0.19 +/- 0.07).

Blunt Impact Tests of Retired Passenger Locomotive Fuel Tanks

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2017-08-01

The Transportation Technology Center, Inc. conducted impact tests on three locomotive fuel tanks as part of the Federal Railroad Administrations locomotive fuel tank crashworthiness improvement program. Three fuel tanks, two from EMD F40PH locomot...

Blunt impact tests of retired passenger locomotive fuel tanks

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2017-08-01

The Transportation Technology Center, Inc. conducted impact tests on three locomotive fuel tanks as part of the Federal Railroad Administrations locomotive fuel tank crashworthiness improvement program. Three fuel tanks, two from EMD F40PH locomot...

Asymmetric optical image encryption using Kolmogorov phase screens and equal modulus decomposition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kumar, Ravi; Bhaduri, Basanta; Quan, Chenggen

2017-11-01

An asymmetric technique for optical image encryption is proposed using Kolmogorov phase screens (KPSs) and equal modulus decomposition (EMD). The KPSs are generated using the power spectral density of Kolmogorov turbulence. The input image is first randomized and then Fresnel propagated with distance d. Further, the output in the Fresnel domain is modulated with a random phase mask, and the gyrator transform (GT) of the modulated image is obtained with an angle α. The EMD is operated on the GT spectrum to get the complex images, Z1 and Z2. Among these, Z2 is reserved as a private key for decryption and Z1 is propagated through a medium consisting of four KPSs, located at specified distances, to get the final encrypted image. The proposed technique provides a large set of security keys and is robust against various potential attacks. Numerical simulation results validate the effectiveness and security of the proposed technique.

[Hereditary eye dieseas in the Entlebucher Mountaindog in Switzerland: a retrospective study from 1999 to 2009].

PubMed

Kuster, N; Hässig, M; Spiess, B

2011-06-01

The aim of this study was to analyze the prevalence and the incidence of hereditary cataract and progressive retinal atrophy (PRA) in the Entlebucher Mountaindog (EMD) and to evaluate possible changes over time. In addition, the influence of selective breeding programs and DNA-testing for PRA was also investigated. Data of eye certifications for hereditary eye diseases was used. Between 1999 and 2009 a total of 798 ocular examinations were carried out in 285 EMD. 20.4 % had cataracts and 69 % of these were of the posterior polar type. PRA was diagnosed in 6.3 % of the dogs. Cataracts were diagnosed at 5.24 ± 2.71 years (mean ± standard error), while PRA was diagnosed at 4.93 ± 1.32 years of age. The incidence of PRA and cataract showed a decreasing trend (p-value > 0.2) without being significant.

A Combined Methodology to Eliminate Artifacts in Multichannel Electrogastrogram Based on Independent Component Analysis and Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition.

PubMed

Sengottuvel, S; Khan, Pathan Fayaz; Mariyappa, N; Patel, Rajesh; Saipriya, S; Gireesan, K

2018-06-01

Cutaneous measurements of electrogastrogram (EGG) signals are heavily contaminated by artifacts due to cardiac activity, breathing, motion artifacts, and electrode drifts whose effective elimination remains an open problem. A common methodology is proposed by combining independent component analysis (ICA) and ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) to denoise gastric slow-wave signals in multichannel EGG data. Sixteen electrodes are fixed over the upper abdomen to measure the EGG signals under three gastric conditions, namely, preprandial, postprandial immediately, and postprandial 2 h after food for three healthy subjects and a subject with a gastric disorder. Instantaneous frequencies of intrinsic mode functions that are obtained by applying the EEMD technique are analyzed to individually identify and remove each of the artifacts. A critical investigation on the proposed ICA-EEMD method reveals its ability to provide a higher attenuation of artifacts and lower distortion than those obtained by the ICA-EMD method and conventional techniques, like bandpass and adaptive filtering. Characteristic changes in the slow-wave frequencies across the three gastric conditions could be determined from the denoised signals for all the cases. The results therefore encourage the use of the EEMD-based technique for denoising gastric signals to be used in clinical practice.

Empirical mode decomposition of the ECG signal for noise removal

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Khan, Jesmin; Bhuiyan, Sharif; Murphy, Gregory; Alam, Mohammad

2011-04-01

Electrocardiography is a diagnostic procedure for the detection and diagnosis of heart abnormalities. The electrocardiogram (ECG) signal contains important information that is utilized by physicians for the diagnosis and analysis of heart diseases. So good quality ECG signal plays a vital role for the interpretation and identification of pathological, anatomical and physiological aspects of the whole cardiac muscle. However, the ECG signals are corrupted by noise which severely limit the utility of the recorded ECG signal for medical evaluation. The most common noise presents in the ECG signal is the high frequency noise caused by the forces acting on the electrodes. In this paper, we propose a new ECG denoising method based on the empirical mode decomposition (EMD). The proposed method is able to enhance the ECG signal upon removing the noise with minimum signal distortion. Simulation is done on the MIT-BIH database to verify the efficacy of the proposed algorithm. Experiments show that the presented method offers very good results to remove noise from the ECG signal.

Whole-Body Vibration Improves Early Rate of Torque Development in Individuals With Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction.

PubMed

Pamukoff, Derek N; Pietrosimone, Brian; Ryan, Eric D; Lee, Dustin R; Brown, Lee E; Blackburn, J Troy

2017-11-01

Pamukoff, DN, Pietrosimone, B, Ryan, ED, Lee, DR, Brown, LE, and Blackburn, JT. Whole body vibration improves early rate of torque development in individuals with anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction. J Strength Cond Res 31(11): 2992-3000, 2017-The purpose of this study was to compare the effect of whole-body vibration (WBV) and local muscle vibration (LMV) on early and late quadriceps rate of torque development (RTD), and electromechanical delay (EMD) in individuals with anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR). Twenty individuals with ACLR were recruited for this study. Participants performed isometric squats while being exposed to WBV, LMV, or no vibration (control) in a randomized order during separate visits. Early and late quadriceps RTD and EMD were assessed during a maximal voluntary isometric knee extension before and immediately after WBV, LMV, or control. There was a significant condition by time interaction for early RTD (p = 0.045) but not for late RTD (p = 0.11) or EMD of the vastus medialis (p = 0.15), vastus lateralis (p = 0.17), or rectus femoris (p = 0.39). Post hoc analyses indicated a significant increase in early RTD after WBV (+5.59 N·m·s·kg; 95% confidence interval, 1.47-12.72; p = 0.007). No differences were observed in the LMV or control conditions, and no difference was observed between conditions at posttest. The ability to rapidly produce knee extension torque is essential to physical function, and WBV may be appropriate to aid in the restoration of RTD after ACLR.

Research on Ship-Radiated Noise Denoising Using Secondary Variational Mode Decomposition and Correlation Coefficient.

PubMed

Li, Yuxing; Li, Yaan; Chen, Xiao; Yu, Jing

2017-12-26

As the sound signal of ships obtained by sensors contains other many significant characteristics of ships and called ship-radiated noise (SN), research into a denoising algorithm and its application has obtained great significance. Using the advantage of variational mode decomposition (VMD) combined with the correlation coefficient for denoising, a hybrid secondary denoising algorithm is proposed using secondary VMD combined with a correlation coefficient (CC). First, different kinds of simulation signals are decomposed into several bandwidth-limited intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) using VMD, where the decomposition number by VMD is equal to the number by empirical mode decomposition (EMD); then, the CCs between the IMFs and the simulation signal are calculated respectively. The noise IMFs are identified by the CC threshold and the rest of the IMFs are reconstructed in order to realize the first denoising process. Finally, secondary denoising of the simulation signal can be accomplished by repeating the above steps of decomposition, screening and reconstruction. The final denoising result is determined according to the CC threshold. The denoising effect is compared under the different signal-to-noise ratio and the time of decomposition by VMD. Experimental results show the validity of the proposed denoising algorithm using secondary VMD (2VMD) combined with CC compared to EMD denoising, ensemble EMD (EEMD) denoising, VMD denoising and cubic VMD (3VMD) denoising, as well as two denoising algorithms presented recently. The proposed denoising algorithm is applied to feature extraction and classification for SN signals, which can effectively improve the recognition rate of different kinds of ships.

The neuromotor effects of transverse friction massage.

PubMed

Begovic, Haris; Zhou, Guang-Quan; Schuster, Snježana; Zheng, Yong-Ping

2016-12-01

Transverse friction massage (TFM), as an often used technique by therapists, is known for its effect in reducing the pain and loosing the scar tissues. Nevertheless, its effects on neuromotor driving mechanism including the electromechanical delay (EMD), force transmission and excitation-contraction (EC) coupling which could be used as markers of stiffness changes, has not been computed using ultrafast ultrasound (US) when combined with external sensors. Hence, the aim of this study was to find out produced neuromotor changes associated to stiffness when TFM was applied over Quadriceps femoris (QF) tendon in healthy subjcets. Fourteen healthy males and fifteen age-gender matched controls were recruited. Surface EMG (sEMG), ultrafast US and Force sensors were synchronized and signals were analyzed to depict the time delays corresponding to EC coupling, force transmission, EMD, torque and rate of force development (RFD). TFM has been found to increase the time corresponding to EC coupling and EMD, whilst, reducing the time belonging to force transmission during the voluntary muscle contractions. A detection of the increased time of EC coupling from muscle itself would suggest that TFM applied over the tendon shows an influence on changing the neuro-motor driving mechanism possibly via afferent pathways and therefore decreasing the active muscle stiffness. On the other hand, detection of decreased time belonging to force transmission during voluntary contraction would suggest that TFM increases the stiffness of tendon, caused by faster force transmission along non-contractile elements. Torque and RFD have not been influenced by TFM. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Spin-on metal oxide materials for N7 and beyond patterning applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mannaert, G.; Altamirano-Sanchez, E.; Hopf, T.; Sebaai, F.; Lorant, C.; Petermann, C.; Hong, S.-E.; Mullen, S.; Wolfer, E.; Mckenzie, D.; Yao, H.; Rahman, D.; Cho, J.-Y.; Padmanaban, M.; Piumi, D.

2017-04-01

There is a growing interest in new spin on metal oxide hard mask materials for advanced patterning solutions both in BEOL and FEOL processing. Understanding how these materials respond to plasma conditions may create a competitive advantage. In this study patterning development was done for two challenging FEOL applications where the traditional Si based films were replaced by EMD spin on metal oxides, which acted as highly selective hard masks. The biggest advantage of metal oxide hard masks for advanced patterning lays in the process window improvement at lower or similar cost compared to other existing solutions.

The value of early flight evaluation of propulsion concepts using the NASA F-15 research airplane

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Burcham, Frank W., Jr.; Ray, Ronald J.

1987-01-01

The value of early flight evaluation of propulsion and propulsion control concepts was demonstrated on the NASA F-15 airplane in programs such as highly integrated digital electronic control (HIDEC), the F100 engine model derivative (EMD), and digital electronic engine control (DEEC). (In each case, the value of flight demonstration was conclusively demonstrated). This paper described these programs, and discusses the results that were not expected, based on ground test or analytical prediction. The role of flight demonstration in facilitating transfer of technology from the laboratory to operational airplanes is discussed.

Genetic parameters for wool traits, live weight, and ultrasound carcass traits in Merino sheep.

PubMed

Mortimer, S I; Hatcher, S; Fogarty, N M; van der Werf, J H J; Brown, D J; Swan, A A; Greeff, J C; Refshauge, G; Edwards, J E Hocking; Gaunt, G M

2017-05-01

Genetic correlations between 29 wool production and quality traits and live weight and ultrasound fat depth (FAT) and eye muscle depth (EMD) traits were estimated from the Information Nucleus (IN). The IN comprised 8 genetically linked flocks managed across a range of Australian sheep production environments. The data were from a maximum of 9,135 progeny born over 5 yr from 184 Merino sires and 4,614 Merino dams. The wool traits included records for yearling and adult fleece weight, fiber diameter (FD), staple length (SL), fiber diameter CV (FDCV), scoured color, and visual scores for breech and body wrinkle. We found high heritability for the major yearling wool production traits and some wool quality traits, whereas other wool quality traits, wool color, and visual traits were moderately heritable. The estimates of heritability for live weight generally increased with age as maternal effects declined. Estimates of heritability for the ultrasound traits were also higher when measured at yearling age rather than at postweaning age. The genetic correlations for fleece weight with live weights were positive (favorable) and moderate (approximately 0.5 ± 0.1), whereas those with FD were approximately 0.3 (unfavorable). The other wool traits had lower genetic correlations with the live weights. The genetic correlations for FAT and EMD with FD and SL were positive and low, with FDCV low to moderate negative, but variable with wool weight and negligible for the other wool traits. The genetic correlations for FAT and EMD with postweaning weight were positive and high (0.61 ± 0.18 to 0.75 ± 0.14) but were generally moderate with weights at other ages. Selection for increased live weight will result in a moderate correlated increase in wool weight as well as favorable reductions in breech cover and wrinkle, along with some unfavorable increases in FD and wool yellowness but little impact on other wool traits. The ultrasound meat traits, FAT and EMD, were highly positively genetically correlated (0.8), and selection to increase them would result in a small unfavorable correlated increase in FD, moderately favorable reductions in breech cover and wrinkle, but equivocal or negligible changes in other wool traits. The estimated parameters provide the basis for calculation of more accurate Australian Sheep Breeding Values and selection indexes that combine wool and meat objectives in Merino breeding programs.

On the Hilbert-Huang Transform Theoretical Foundation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kizhner, Semion; Blank, Karin; Huang, Norden E.

2004-01-01

The Hilbert-Huang Transform [HHT] is a novel empirical method for spectrum analysis of non-linear and non-stationary signals. The HHT is a recent development and much remains to be done to establish the theoretical foundation of the HHT algorithms. This paper develops the theoretical foundation for the convergence of the HHT sifting algorithm and it proves that the finest spectrum scale will always be the first generated by the HHT Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) algorithm. The theoretical foundation for cutting an extrema data points set into two parts is also developed. This then allows parallel signal processing for the HHT computationally complex sifting algorithm and its optimization in hardware.

Comparison of wavelet based denoising schemes for gear condition monitoring: An Artificial Neural Network based Approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ahmed, Rounaq; Srinivasa Pai, P.; Sriram, N. S.; Bhat, Vasudeva

2018-02-01

Vibration Analysis has been extensively used in recent past for gear fault diagnosis. The vibration signals extracted is usually contaminated with noise and may lead to wrong interpretation of results. The denoising of extracted vibration signals helps the fault diagnosis by giving meaningful results. Wavelet Transform (WT) increases signal to noise ratio (SNR), reduces root mean square error (RMSE) and is effective to denoise the gear vibration signals. The extracted signals have to be denoised by selecting a proper denoising scheme in order to prevent the loss of signal information along with noise. An approach has been made in this work to show the effectiveness of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to denoise gear vibration signal. In this regard three selected wavelet based denoising schemes namely PCA, Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD), Neighcoeff Coefficient (NC), has been compared with Adaptive Threshold (AT) an extensively used wavelet based denoising scheme for gear vibration signal. The vibration signals acquired from a customized gear test rig were denoised by above mentioned four denoising schemes. The fault identification capability as well as SNR, Kurtosis and RMSE for the four denoising schemes have been compared. Features extracted from the denoised signals have been used to train and test artificial neural network (ANN) models. The performances of the four denoising schemes have been evaluated based on the performance of the ANN models. The best denoising scheme has been identified, based on the classification accuracy results. PCA is effective in all the regards as a best denoising scheme.

Power independent EMG based gesture recognition for robotics.

PubMed

Li, Ling; Looney, David; Park, Cheolsoo; Rehman, Naveed U; Mandic, Danilo P

2011-01-01

A novel method for detecting muscle contraction is presented. This method is further developed for identifying four different gestures to facilitate a hand gesture controlled robot system. It is achieved based on surface Electromyograph (EMG) measurements of groups of arm muscles. The cross-information is preserved through a simultaneous processing of EMG channels using a recent multivariate extension of Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD). Next, phase synchrony measures are employed to make the system robust to different power levels due to electrode placements and impedances. The multiple pairwise muscle synchronies are used as features of a discrete gesture space comprising four gestures (flexion, extension, pronation, supination). Simulations on real-time robot control illustrate the enhanced accuracy and robustness of the proposed methodology.

Quantifying and Reducing Motion Artifacts in Wearable Seismocardiogram Measurements During Walking to Assess Left Ventricular Health.

PubMed

Javaid, Abdul Q; Ashouri, Hazar; Dorier, Alexis; Etemadi, Mozziyar; Heller, J Alex; Roy, Shuvo; Inan, Omer T

2017-06-01

Our objective is to provide a framework for extracting signals of interest from the wearable seismocardiogram (SCG) measured during walking at normal (subject's preferred pace) and moderately fast (1.34-1.45 m/s) speeds. We demonstrate, using empirical mode decomposition (EMD) and feature tracking algorithms, that the pre-ejection period (PEP) can be accurately estimated from a wearable patch that simultaneously measures electrocardiogram and sternal acceleration signals. We also provide a method to determine the minimum number of heartbeats required for an accurate estimate to be obtained for the PEP from the accelerometer signals during walking. The EMD-based denoising approach provides a statistically significant increase in the signal-to-noise ratio of wearable SCG signals and also improves estimation of PEP during walking. The algorithms described in this paper can be used to provide hemodynamic assessment from wearable SCG during walking. A major limitation in the use of the SCG, a measure of local chest vibrations caused by cardiac ejection of blood in the vasculature, is that a user must remain completely still for high-quality measurements. The motion can create artifacts and practically render the signal unreadable. Addressing this limitation could allow, for the first time, SCG measurements to be obtained reliably during movement-aside from increasing the coverage throughout the day of cardiovascular monitoring, analyzing SCG signals during movement would quantify the cardiovascular system's response to stress (exercise), and thus provide a more holistic assessment of overall health.

Empirical mode decomposition and long-range correlation analysis of sunspot time series

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhou, Yu; Leung, Yee

2010-12-01

Sunspots, which are the best known and most variable features of the solar surface, affect our planet in many ways. The number of sunspots during a period of time is highly variable and arouses strong research interest. When multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis (MF-DFA) is employed to study the fractal properties and long-range correlation of the sunspot series, some spurious crossover points might appear because of the periodic and quasi-periodic trends in the series. However many cycles of solar activities can be reflected by the sunspot time series. The 11-year cycle is perhaps the most famous cycle of the sunspot activity. These cycles pose problems for the investigation of the scaling behavior of sunspot time series. Using different methods to handle the 11-year cycle generally creates totally different results. Using MF-DFA, Movahed and co-workers employed Fourier truncation to deal with the 11-year cycle and found that the series is long-range anti-correlated with a Hurst exponent, H, of about 0.12. However, Hu and co-workers proposed an adaptive detrending method for the MF-DFA and discovered long-range correlation characterized by H≈0.74. In an attempt to get to the bottom of the problem in the present paper, empirical mode decomposition (EMD), a data-driven adaptive method, is applied to first extract the components with different dominant frequencies. MF-DFA is then employed to study the long-range correlation of the sunspot time series under the influence of these components. On removing the effects of these periods, the natural long-range correlation of the sunspot time series can be revealed. With the removal of the 11-year cycle, a crossover point located at around 60 months is discovered to be a reasonable point separating two different time scale ranges, H≈0.72 and H≈1.49. And on removing all cycles longer than 11 years, we have H≈0.69 and H≈0.28. The three cycle-removing methods—Fourier truncation, adaptive detrending and the proposed EMD-based method—are further compared, and possible reasons for the different results are given. Two numerical experiments are designed for quantitatively evaluating the performances of these three methods in removing periodic trends with inexact/exact cycles and in detecting the possible crossover points.

To what extent can global warming events influence scaling properties of climatic fluctuations in glacial periods?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alberti, Tommaso; Lepreti, Fabio; Vecchio, Antonio; Carbone, Vincenzo

2017-04-01

The Earth's climate is an extremely unstable complex system consisting of nonlinear and still rather unknown interactions among atmosphere, land surface, ice and oceans. The system is mainly driven by solar irradiance, even if internal components as volcanic eruptions and human activities affect the atmospheric composition thus acting as a driver for climate changes. Since the extreme climate variability is the result of a set of phenomena operating from daily to multi-millennial timescales, with different correlation times, a study of the scaling properties of the system can evidence non-trivial persistent structures, internal or external physical processes. Recently, the scaling properties of the paleoclimate changes have been analyzed by distinguish between interglacial and glacial climates [Shao and Ditlevsen, 2016]. The results show that the last glacial record (20-120 kyr BP) presents some elements of multifractality, while the last interglacial period (0-10 kyr BP), say the Holocene period, seems to be characterized by a mono-fractal structure. This is associated to the absence of Dansgaard-Oeschger (DO) events in the interglacial climate that could be the cause for the absence of multifractality. This hypothesis is supported by the analysis of the period between 18 and 27 kyr BP, i.e. during the Last Glacial Period, in which a single DO event have been registred. Through the Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) we were able to detect a timescale separation within the Last Glacial Period (20-120 kyr BP) in two main components: a high-frequency component, related to the occurrence of DO events, and a low-frequency one, associated to the cooling/warming phase switch [Alberti et al., 2014]. Here, we investigate the scaling properties of the climate fluctuations within the Last Glacial Period, where abrupt climate changes, characterized by fast increase of temperature usually called Dansgaard-Oeschger (DO) events, have been particularly pronounced. By using the MultiFractal Detrended Fluctuation Analysis (MF-DFA), we show that a multifractal structure exists for both high- and low-frequency fluctuations in Northern and Southern hemispheres, with different scaling exponents, thus indicating a long-range persistence of the climatic variability within the whole Last Glacial Period. Our results evidence that both DO events and cooling/warming cycles must be considered as processes of the internal component of the Earth's climate, rather than processes related to external forcings. This study should be helpful for investigation of the internal origin of climate changes. References Shao, Z.G. and Ditlevsen, P.D., Nature Commun., 7, 10951, (2016). Alberti, T., Lepreti, F., Vecchio, A., Bevacqua, E., Capparelli, V. and Carbone, V., Clim. Past, 10, 1751 (2014).

Multi-scale pixel-based image fusion using multivariate empirical mode decomposition.

PubMed

Rehman, Naveed ur; Ehsan, Shoaib; Abdullah, Syed Muhammad Umer; Akhtar, Muhammad Jehanzaib; Mandic, Danilo P; McDonald-Maier, Klaus D

2015-05-08

A novel scheme to perform the fusion of multiple images using the multivariate empirical mode decomposition (MEMD) algorithm is proposed. Standard multi-scale fusion techniques make a priori assumptions regarding input data, whereas standard univariate empirical mode decomposition (EMD)-based fusion techniques suffer from inherent mode mixing and mode misalignment issues, characterized respectively by either a single intrinsic mode function (IMF) containing multiple scales or the same indexed IMFs corresponding to multiple input images carrying different frequency information. We show that MEMD overcomes these problems by being fully data adaptive and by aligning common frequency scales from multiple channels, thus enabling their comparison at a pixel level and subsequent fusion at multiple data scales. We then demonstrate the potential of the proposed scheme on a large dataset of real-world multi-exposure and multi-focus images and compare the results against those obtained from standard fusion algorithms, including the principal component analysis (PCA), discrete wavelet transform (DWT) and non-subsampled contourlet transform (NCT). A variety of image fusion quality measures are employed for the objective evaluation of the proposed method. We also report the results of a hypothesis testing approach on our large image dataset to identify statistically-significant performance differences.

Multi-Scale Pixel-Based Image Fusion Using Multivariate Empirical Mode Decomposition

PubMed Central

Rehman, Naveed ur; Ehsan, Shoaib; Abdullah, Syed Muhammad Umer; Akhtar, Muhammad Jehanzaib; Mandic, Danilo P.; McDonald-Maier, Klaus D.

2015-01-01

A novel scheme to perform the fusion of multiple images using the multivariate empirical mode decomposition (MEMD) algorithm is proposed. Standard multi-scale fusion techniques make a priori assumptions regarding input data, whereas standard univariate empirical mode decomposition (EMD)-based fusion techniques suffer from inherent mode mixing and mode misalignment issues, characterized respectively by either a single intrinsic mode function (IMF) containing multiple scales or the same indexed IMFs corresponding to multiple input images carrying different frequency information. We show that MEMD overcomes these problems by being fully data adaptive and by aligning common frequency scales from multiple channels, thus enabling their comparison at a pixel level and subsequent fusion at multiple data scales. We then demonstrate the potential of the proposed scheme on a large dataset of real-world multi-exposure and multi-focus images and compare the results against those obtained from standard fusion algorithms, including the principal component analysis (PCA), discrete wavelet transform (DWT) and non-subsampled contourlet transform (NCT). A variety of image fusion quality measures are employed for the objective evaluation of the proposed method. We also report the results of a hypothesis testing approach on our large image dataset to identify statistically-significant performance differences. PMID:26007714

Emergency Medical Dispatch. National Standard Curriculum. Instructor Guide. Trainee Guide.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (DOT), Washington, DC.

This guide contains all instructor materials and requirements for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Emergency Medical Dispatch (EMD) National Standard Curriculum. It includes lesson plans, instructional aids, and tools and supporting information designed to elevate trained and experienced public safety telecommunicators…

Assessment of Control Techniques for Reducing Emissions from Locomotive Engines

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1973-04-01

The primary objective of this study was to determine the most effective method of reducing emissions of oxides of nitrogen from a two-cylinder version of an EMD series 567C locomotive engine. The NOx control techniques selected for use in this study ...

Best Practices & Outstanding Initiatives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Training, 2011

2011-01-01

In this article, "Training" editors recognize innovative and successful learning and development programs and practices. They share best practices from Automatic Data Processing, Inc., Farmers Insurance Group, FedEx Express, InterContinental Hotels Group, and Oakwood Temporary Housing. They also present the outstanding initiatives of EMD Serono,…

Methodology for Determination of Grade Crossing Resource-Allocation Guidelines

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1975-04-01

The primary objective of this study was to determine the most effective method of reducing emissions of oxides of nitrogen from a two-cylinder version of an EMD series 567C locomotive engine. The NOx control techniques selected for use in this study ...

EMD self-adaptive selecting relevant modes algorithm for FBG spectrum signal

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Yong; Wu, Chun-ting; Liu, Huan-lin

2017-07-01

Noise may reduce the demodulation accuracy of fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensing signal so as to affect the quality of sensing detection. Thus, the recovery of a signal from observed noisy data is necessary. In this paper, a precise self-adaptive algorithm of selecting relevant modes is proposed to remove the noise of signal. Empirical mode decomposition (EMD) is first used to decompose a signal into a set of modes. The pseudo modes cancellation is introduced to identify and eliminate false modes, and then the Mutual Information (MI) of partial modes is calculated. MI is used to estimate the critical point of high and low frequency components. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm estimates the critical point more accurately than the traditional algorithms for FBG spectral signal. While, compared to the similar algorithms, the signal noise ratio of the signal can be improved more than 10 dB after processing by the proposed algorithm, and correlation coefficient can be increased by 0.5, so it demonstrates better de-noising effect.

Self-organizing map network-based precipitation regionalization for the Tibetan Plateau and regional precipitation variability

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Nini; Yin, Jianchuan

2017-12-01

A precipitation-based regionalization for the Tibetan Plateau (TP) was investigated for regional precipitation trend analysis and frequency analysis using data from 1113 grid points covering the period 1900-2014. The results utilizing self-organizing map (SOM) network suggest that four clusters of precipitation coherent zones can be identified, including the southwestern edge, the southern edge, the southeastern region, and the north central region. Regionalization results of the SOM network satisfactorily represent the influences of the atmospheric circulation systems such as the East Asian summer monsoon, the south Asian summer monsoon, and the mid-latitude westerlies. Regionalization results also well display the direct impacts of physical geographical features of the TP such as orography, topography, and land-sea distribution. Regional-scale annual precipitation trend as well as regional differences of annual and seasonal total precipitation were investigated by precipitation index such as precipitation concentration index (PCI) and Standardized Anomaly Index (SAI). Results demonstrate significant negative long-term linear trends in southeastern TP and the north central part of the TP, indicating arid and semi-arid regions in the TP are getting drier. The empirical mode decomposition (EMD) method shows an evolution of the main cycle with 4 and 12 months for all the representative grids of four sub-regions. The cross-wavelet analysis suggests that predominant and effective period of Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) on monthly precipitation is around ˜12 months, except for the representative grid of the northwestern region.

Identification of sudden stiffness changes in the acceleration response of a bridge to moving loads using ensemble empirical mode decomposition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aied, H.; González, A.; Cantero, D.

2016-01-01

The growth of heavy traffic together with aggressive environmental loads poses a threat to the safety of an aging bridge stock. Often, damage is only detected via visual inspection at a point when repairing costs can be quite significant. Ideally, bridge managers would want to identify a stiffness change as soon as possible, i.e., as it is occurring, to plan for prompt measures before reaching a prohibitive cost. Recent developments in signal processing techniques such as wavelet analysis and empirical mode decomposition (EMD) have aimed to address this need by identifying a stiffness change from a localised feature in the structural response to traffic. However, the effectiveness of these techniques is limited by the roughness of the road profile, the vehicle speed and the noise level. In this paper, ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) is applied by the first time to the acceleration response of a bridge model to a moving load with the purpose of capturing sudden stiffness changes. EEMD is more adaptive and appears to be better suited to non-linear signals than wavelets, and it reduces the mode mixing problem present in EMD. EEMD is tested in a variety of theoretical 3D vehicle-bridge interaction scenarios. Stiffness changes are successfully identified, even for small affected regions, relatively poor profiles, high vehicle speeds and significant noise. The latter is due to the ability of EEMD to separate high frequency components associated to sudden stiffness changes from other frequency components associated to the vehicle-bridge interaction system.

Toward an Improvement of the Analysis of Neural Coding.

PubMed

Alegre-Cortés, Javier; Soto-Sánchez, Cristina; Albarracín, Ana L; Farfán, Fernando D; Val-Calvo, Mikel; Ferrandez, José M; Fernandez, Eduardo

2017-01-01

Machine learning and artificial intelligence have strong roots on principles of neural computation. Some examples are the structure of the first perceptron, inspired in the retina, neuroprosthetics based on ganglion cell recordings or Hopfield networks. In addition, machine learning provides a powerful set of tools to analyze neural data, which has already proved its efficacy in so distant fields of research as speech recognition, behavioral states classification, or LFP recordings. However, despite the huge technological advances in neural data reduction of dimensionality, pattern selection, and clustering during the last years, there has not been a proportional development of the analytical tools used for Time-Frequency (T-F) analysis in neuroscience. Bearing this in mind, we introduce the convenience of using non-linear, non-stationary tools, EMD algorithms in particular, for the transformation of the oscillatory neural data (EEG, EMG, spike oscillations…) into the T-F domain prior to its analysis with machine learning tools. We support that to achieve meaningful conclusions, the transformed data we analyze has to be as faithful as possible to the original recording, so that the transformations forced into the data due to restrictions in the T-F computation are not extended to the results of the machine learning analysis. Moreover, bioinspired computation such as brain-machine interface may be enriched from a more precise definition of neuronal coding where non-linearities of the neuronal dynamics are considered.

Jaffrey, N.H. Facility to Upgrade its Wastewater Treatment Systems Under Clean Water Act Settlement

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Under the terms of a Consent Decree lodged in federal court, EMD Millipore Corp. of Jaffrey, N.H., will upgrade its on-site wastewater treatment system to comply with the terms of the company’s industrial wastewater discharge permit & prevent...

A Vibration-Based Strategy for Health Monitoring of Offshore Pipelines' Girth-Welds

PubMed Central

Razi, Pejman; Taheri, Farid

2014-01-01

This study presents numerical simulations and experimental verification of a vibration-based damage detection technique. Health monitoring of a submerged pipe's girth-weld against an advancing notch is attempted. Piezoelectric transducers are bonded on the pipe for sensing or actuation purposes. Vibration of the pipe is excited by two means: (i) an impulsive force; (ii) using one of the piezoelectric transducers as an actuator to propagate chirp waves into the pipe. The methodology adopts the empirical mode decomposition (EMD), which processes vibration data to establish energy-based damage indices. The results obtained from both the numerical and experimental studies confirm the integrity of the approach in identifying the existence, and progression of the advancing notch. The study also discusses and compares the performance of the two vibration excitation means in damage detection. PMID:25225877

78 FR 22025 - Petition for Waiver of Compliance

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-04-12

... from certain provisions of the Federal railroad safety regulations contained at 49 CFR part 230, Steam... railroad system of transportation. BHC currently has three oil-burning, Baldwin steam locomotives; one EMD... Locomotive BHC 7 (BHC 7), a 2-6-2 tender-type steam locomotive built in 1919. The locomotive originally...

Mindfulness, Emotional Availability, and Emotional Attachment: Three Pillars of Daily Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Biringen, Zeynep; Closson, Lia; Derr-Moore, Abigail; Pratt, Deborah; Pybus, Kylie; Saunders, Hannah; Warren, Virginia; Lucas-Thompson, Rachel G.; Harman, J. J.; Neu, Madalynn

2015-01-01

Caregiver-child relationships offer the first opportunity for a healthy start and the possibility for a secure attachment. Balanced and healthy dyadic emotional communication is referred to as "emotional availability" (EA; Biringen, Robinson, & Emde, 1998). EA in a family is enhanced when there is lower stress, often addressed…

75 FR 17939 - EMD Chemicals, Inc.; Withdrawal of Color Additive Petition

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-04-08

... of composite pigments prepared from synthetic iron oxide, mica, and titanium dioxide to color food... further review of the petition, the agency determined that these pigments are composite pigments, not... regulations to provide for the safe use of composite pigments prepared from combinations of synthetic iron...

Locomotive emissions measurements for various blends of biodiesel fuel.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2014-12-01

The objective of this project was to assess the effects of various blends of biodiesel on locomotive engine exhaust emissions. The : emission tests were conducted on two locomotive models, a Tier 2 EMD SD70ACe and a Tier 1 Plus GE Dash9-44CW, using t...

A New Approach of evaluating the damage in simply-supported reinforced concrete beam by Local mean decomposition (LMD)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Xuebing; Liu, Ning; Xi, Jiaxin; Zhang, Yunqi; Zhang, Wenchun; Yang, Peipei

2017-08-01

How to analyze the nonstationary response signals and obtain vibration characters is extremely important in the vibration-based structural diagnosis methods. In this work, we introduce a more reasonable time-frequency decomposition method termed local mean decomposition (LMD) to instead the widely-used empirical mode decomposition (EMD). By employing the LMD method, one can derive a group of component signals, each of which is more stationary, and then analyze the vibration state and make the assessment of structural damage of a construction or building. We illustrated the effectiveness of LMD by a synthetic data and an experimental data recorded in a simply-supported reinforced concrete beam. Then based on the decomposition results, an elementary method of damage diagnosis was proposed.

Inkjet-printed vertically emitting solid-state organic lasers

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Mhibik, Oussama; Chénais, Sébastien; Forget, Sébastien

In this paper, we show that Inkjet Printing can be successfully applied to external-cavity vertically emitting thin-film organic lasers and can be used to generate a diffraction-limited output beam with an output energy as high as 33.6 μJ with a slope efficiency S of 34%. Laser emission shows to be continuously tunable from 570 to 670 nm using an intracavity polymer-based Fabry-Perot etalon. High-optical quality films with several μm thicknesses are realized, thanks to ink-jet printing. We introduce a new optical material where EMD6415 commercial ink constitutes the optical host matrix and exhibits a refractive index of 1.5 and an absorption coefficientmore » of 0.66 cm{sup −1} at 550–680 nm. Standard laser dyes like Pyrromethene 597 and Rhodamine 640 are incorporated in solution to the EMD6415 ink. Such large size “printed pixels” of 50 mm{sup 2} present uniform and flat surfaces, with roughness measured as low as 1.5 nm in different locations of a 50 μm × 50 μm AFM scan. Finally, as the gain capsules fabricated by Inkjet printing are simple and do not incorporate any tuning or cavity element, they are simple to make, have a negligible fabrication cost, and can be used as fully disposable items. This work opens the way towards the fabrication of really low-cost tunable visible lasers with an affordable technology that has the potential to be widely disseminated.« less

Hilbert-Huang spectral analysis for characterizing the intrinsic time-scales of variability in decennial time-series of surface solar radiation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bengulescu, Marc; Blanc, Philippe; Wald, Lucien

2016-04-01

An analysis of the variability of the surface solar irradiance (SSI) at different local time-scales is presented in this study. Since geophysical signals, such as long-term measurements of the SSI, are often produced by the non-linear interaction of deterministic physical processes that may also be under the influence of non-stationary external forcings, the Hilbert-Huang transform (HHT), an adaptive, noise-assisted, data-driven technique, is employed to extract locally - in time and in space - the embedded intrinsic scales at which a signal oscillates. The transform consists of two distinct steps. First, by means of the Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD), the time-series is "de-constructed" into a finite number - often small - of zero-mean components that have distinct temporal scales of variability, termed hereinafter the Intrinsic Mode Functions (IMFs). The signal model of the components is an amplitude modulation - frequency modulation (AM - FM) one, and can also be thought of as an extension of a Fourier series having both time varying amplitude and frequency. Following the decomposition, Hilbert spectral analysis is then employed on the IMFs, yielding a time-frequency-energy representation that portrays changes in the spectral contents of the original data, with respect to time. As measurements of surface solar irradiance may possibly be contaminated by the manifestation of different type of stochastic processes (i.e. noise), the identification of real, physical processes from this background of random fluctuations is of interest. To this end, an adaptive background noise null hypothesis is assumed, based on the robust statistical properties of the EMD when applied to time-series of different classes of noise (e.g. white, red or fractional Gaussian). Since the algorithm acts as an efficient constant-Q dyadic, "wavelet-like", filter bank, the different noise inputs are decomposed into components having the same spectral shape, but that are translated to the next lower octave in the spectral domain. Thus, when the sampling step is increased, the spectral shape of IMFs cannot remain at its original position, due to the new lower Nyquist frequency, and is instead pushed toward the lower scaled frequency. Based on these features, the identification of potential signals within the data should become possible without any prior knowledge of the background noises. When applying the above outlined procedure to decennial time-series of surface solar irradiance, only the component that has an annual time-scale of variability is shown to have statistical properties that diverge from those of noise. Nevertheless, the noise-like components are not completely devoid of information, as it is found that their AM components have a non-null rank correlation coefficient with the annual mode, i.e. the background noise intensity seems to be modulated by the seasonal cycle. The findings have possible implications on the modelling and forecast of the surface solar irradiance, by discriminating its deterministic from its quasi-stochastic constituents, at distinct local time-scales.

Bayesian network meta-analysis of root coverage procedures: ranking efficacy and identification of best treatment.

PubMed

Buti, Jacopo; Baccini, Michela; Nieri, Michele; La Marca, Michele; Pini-Prato, Giovan P

2013-04-01

The aim of this work was to conduct a Bayesian network meta-analysis (NM) of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to establish a ranking in efficacy and the best technique for coronally advanced flap (CAF)-based root coverage procedures. A literature search on PubMed, Cochrane libraries, EMBASE, and hand-searched journals until June 2012 was conducted to identify RCTs on treatments of Miller Class I and II gingival recessions with at least 6 months of follow-up. The treatment outcomes were recession reduction (RecRed), clinical attachment gain (CALgain), keratinized tissue gain (KTgain), and complete root coverage (CRC). Twenty-nine studies met the inclusion criteria, 20 of which were classified as at high risk of bias. The CAF+connective tissue graft (CTG) combination ranked highest in effectiveness for RecRed (Probability of being the best = 40%) and CALgain (Pr = 33%); CAF+enamel matrix derivative (EMD) was slightly better for CRC; CAF+Collagen Matrix (CM) appeared effective for KTgain (Pr = 69%). Network inconsistency was low for all outcomes excluding CALgain. CAF+CTG might be considered the gold standard in root coverage procedures. The low amount of inconsistency gives support to the reliability of the present findings. © 2012 John Wiley & Sons A/S.

Detecting weak position fluctuations from encoder signal using singular spectrum analysis.

PubMed

Xu, Xiaoqiang; Zhao, Ming; Lin, Jing

2017-11-01

Mechanical fault or defect will cause some weak fluctuations to the position signal. Detection of such fluctuations via encoders can help determine the health condition and performance of the machine, and offer a promising alternative to the vibration-based monitoring scheme. However, besides the interested fluctuations, encoder signal also contains a large trend and some measurement noise. In applications, the trend is normally several orders larger than the concerned fluctuations in magnitude, which makes it difficult to detect the weak fluctuations without signal distortion. In addition, the fluctuations can be complicated and amplitude modulated under non-stationary working condition. To overcome this issue, singular spectrum analysis (SSA) is proposed for detecting weak position fluctuations from encoder signal in this paper. It enables complicated encode signal to be reduced into several interpretable components including a trend, a set of periodic fluctuations and noise. A numerical simulation is given to demonstrate the performance of the method, it shows that SSA outperforms empirical mode decomposition (EMD) in terms of capability and accuracy. Moreover, linear encoder signals from a CNC machine tool are analyzed to determine the magnitudes and sources of fluctuations during feed motion. The proposed method is proven to be feasible and reliable for machinery condition monitoring. Copyright © 2017 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

How fast does water flow in carbon nanotubes?

PubMed

Kannam, Sridhar Kumar; Todd, B D; Hansen, J S; Daivis, Peter J

2013-03-07

The purpose of this paper is threefold. First, we review the existing literature on flow rates of water in carbon nanotubes. Data for the slip length which characterizes the flow rate are scattered over 5 orders of magnitude for nanotubes of diameter 0.81-10 nm. Second, we precisely compute the slip length using equilibrium molecular dynamics (EMD) simulations, from which the interfacial friction between water and carbon nanotubes can be found, and also via external field driven non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations (NEMD). We discuss some of the issues in simulation studies which may be reasons for the large disagreements reported. By using the EMD method friction coefficient to determine the slip length, we overcome the limitations of NEMD simulations. In NEMD simulations, for each tube we apply a range of external fields to check the linear response of the fluid to the field and reliably extrapolate the results for the slip length to values of the field corresponding to experimentally accessible pressure gradients. Finally, we comment on several issues concerning water flow rates in carbon nanotubes which may lead to some future research directions in this area.

Measurement of the Total Cross Section of Uranium-Uranium Collisions at √{sNN} = 192 . 8 GeV

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baltz, A. J.; Fischer, W.; Blaskiewicz, M.; Gassner, D.; Drees, K. A.; Luo, Y.; Minty, M.; Thieberger, P.; Wilinski, M.; Pshenichnov, I. A.

2014-03-01

The total cross section of Uranium-Uranium at √{sNN} = 192 . 8 GeV has been measured to be 515 +/-13stat +/-22sys barn, which agrees with the calculated theoretical value of 487.3 barn within experimental error. That this total cross section is more than an order of magnitude larger than the geometric ion-ion cross section is primarily due to Bound-Free Pair Production (BFPP) and Electro-Magnetic Dissociation (EMD). Nearly all beam losses were due to geometric, BFPP and EMD collisions. This allowed the determination of the total cross section from the measured beam loss rates and luminosity. The beam loss rate is calculated from a time-dependent measurement of the total beam intensity. The luminosity is measured via the detection of neutron pairs in time-coincidence in the Zero Degree Calorimeters. Apart from a general interest in verifying the calculations experimentally, an accurate prediction of the losses created in the heavy ion collisions is of practical interest for the LHC, where collision products have the potential to quench cryogenically cooled magnets.

Fault Detection of Roller-Bearings Using Signal Processing and Optimization Algorithms

PubMed Central

Kwak, Dae-Ho; Lee, Dong-Han; Ahn, Jong-Hyo; Koh, Bong-Hwan

2014-01-01

This study presents a fault detection of roller bearings through signal processing and optimization techniques. After the occurrence of scratch-type defects on the inner race of bearings, variations of kurtosis values are investigated in terms of two different data processing techniques: minimum entropy deconvolution (MED), and the Teager-Kaiser Energy Operator (TKEO). MED and the TKEO are employed to qualitatively enhance the discrimination of defect-induced repeating peaks on bearing vibration data with measurement noise. Given the perspective of the execution sequence of MED and the TKEO, the study found that the kurtosis sensitivity towards a defect on bearings could be highly improved. Also, the vibration signal from both healthy and damaged bearings is decomposed into multiple intrinsic mode functions (IMFs), through empirical mode decomposition (EMD). The weight vectors of IMFs become design variables for a genetic algorithm (GA). The weights of each IMF can be optimized through the genetic algorithm, to enhance the sensitivity of kurtosis on damaged bearing signals. Experimental results show that the EMD-GA approach successfully improved the resolution of detectability between a roller bearing with defect, and an intact system. PMID:24368701

Electromagnetic Nucleus - Nucleus Cross Sections Using Energy Dependent Branching Ratios

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Adamczyk, Anne; Norbury, John

2009-11-01

Energy dependent branching ratios, derived from Weisskopf-Ewing theory, are presented and compared to an energy independent formalism, developed by Norbury, Townsend, and Westfall. The energy dependent branching ratio formalism is more versatile since it allows for not only neutron and proton emission, but also alpha particle, deuteron, helion, and triton emission. A new theoretical method for calculating electromagnetic dissociation (EMD) nucleus - nucleus cross sections, with energy dependent branching ratios, is introduced. Comparisons of photonuclear and nucleus - nucleus cross sections, using energy dependent and independent branching ratios, to experiment are presented. Experimental efforts, by various groups, have focused on measuring cross sections for proton and neutron emission, because proton and neutron emission is generally more probable than heavier particle emission. Consequently, comparisons of energy dependent and independent branching ratios to experiment are made for photoneutron and photoproton cross sections. EMD cross sections for single neutron, proton, and alpha particle removal are calculated and compared to experimental data for a variety of projectile, target, and energy combinations. Results indicate that using energy dependent branching ratios yields better estimates.

Electromechanical delay of abdominal muscles is modified by low back pain prevention exercise.

PubMed

Szpala, Agnieszka; Rutkowska-Kucharska, Alicja; Drapala, Jaroslaw

2014-01-01

The objective of the research was to assess the effect of a 4-week-long training program on selected parameters: electromechanical delay (EMD) and amplitude of electromyographic signal (EMG). Fourteen female students of the University School of Physical Education participated in the study. Torques and surface electromyography were evaluated under static conditions. Surface electrodes were glued to both sides of the rectus abdominis (RA), external oblique (EO), and erector spinae (ES) muscles. The 4-week-long program was aimed at strengthening the abdominal muscles and resulted in increased EMD during maximum torque production by flexors of the trunk, increased amplitudes of the signals of the erector spinae ( p = 0.005), and increased EMG amplitude asymmetry of the lower ( p = 0.013) and upper part ( p = 0.006) of the rectus abdominis muscle. In a training program composed of a large number of repetitions of strength exercises, in which the training person uses their own weight as the load (like in exercises such as curl-ups), the process of recruitment of motor units is similar to that found during fatiguing exercises and plyometric training.

Equivalence of the equilibrium and the nonequilibrium molecular dynamics methods for thermal conductivity calculations: From bulk to nanowire silicon

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dong, Haikuan; Fan, Zheyong; Shi, Libin; Harju, Ari; Ala-Nissila, Tapio

2018-03-01

Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations play an important role in studying heat transport in complex materials. The lattice thermal conductivity can be computed either using the Green-Kubo formula in equilibrium MD (EMD) simulations or using Fourier's law in nonequilibrium MD (NEMD) simulations. These two methods have not been systematically compared for materials with different dimensions and inconsistencies between them have been occasionally reported in the literature. Here we give an in-depth comparison of them in terms of heat transport in three allotropes of Si: three-dimensional bulk silicon, two-dimensional silicene, and quasi-one-dimensional silicon nanowire. By multiplying the correlation time in the Green-Kubo formula with an appropriate effective group velocity, we can express the running thermal conductivity in the EMD method as a function of an effective length and directly compare it to the length-dependent thermal conductivity in the NEMD method. We find that the two methods quantitatively agree with each other for all the systems studied, firmly establishing their equivalence in computing thermal conductivity.

Ligand-surface interactions and surface oxidation of colloidal PbSe quantum dots revealed by thin-film positron annihilation methods

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shi, Wenqin; Eijt, Stephan W. H.; Suchand Sandeep, C. S.; Siebbeles, Laurens D. A.; Houtepen, Arjan J.; Kinge, Sachin; Brück, Ekkes; Barbiellini, Bernardo; Bansil, Arun

2016-02-01

Positron Two Dimensional Angular Correlation of Annihilation Radiation (2D-ACAR) measurements reveal modifications of the electronic structure and composition at the surfaces of PbSe quantum dots (QDs), deposited as thin films, produced by various ligands containing either oxygen or nitrogen atoms. In particular, the 2D-ACAR measurements on thin films of colloidal PbSe QDs capped with oleic acid ligands yield an increased intensity in the electron momentum density (EMD) at high momenta compared to PbSe quantum dots capped with oleylamine. Moreover, the EMD of PbSe QDs is strongly affected by the small ethylenediamine ligands, since these molecules lead to small distances between QDs and favor neck formation between near neighbor QDs, inducing electronic coupling between neighboring QDs. The high sensitivity to the presence of oxygen atoms at the surface can be also exploited to monitor the surface oxidation of PbSe QDs upon exposure to air. Our study clearly demonstrates that positron annihilation spectroscopy applied to thin films can probe surface transformations of colloidal semiconductor QDs embedded in functional layers.

Preliminary flight evaluation of F100 engine model derivative airstart capability in an F-15 airplane

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cho, T. K.; Burcham, F. W., Jr.

1984-01-01

A series of airstarts was conducted in an F-15 airplane with two prototype F100 engine model derivative (EMD) engines equipped with digital electronic engine control (DEEC) systems. The airstart envelope and time required for airstarts were defined. The success of an airstart is most heavily dependent on airspeed. Spooldown airstarts at 200 knots and higher were all successful. Spooldown airstart times ranged from 53 sec at 250 knots to 170 sec at 175 knots. Jet fuel starter (JFS) assisted airstarts were conducted at 175 knots at two altitudes, and airstart times were 50 and 60 sec, significantly faster than unassisted airstart. The effect of altitude on airstarts was small. In addition, the airstart characteristics of the two test engines were found to closely resemble each other. The F100 EMD airstart characteristics were very similar to the DEEC equipped F100 engine tested previously. Finally, the time required to spool down from intermediate power compressor rotor speed to a given compressor rotor speed was found to be a strong function of altitude and a weaker function of airspeed.

Propulsion control experience used in the Highly Integrated Digital Electronic Control (HIDEC) program

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Myers, L. P.; Burcham, F. W., Jr.

1984-01-01

The highly integrated digital electronic control (HIDEC) program will integrate the propulsion and flight control systems on an F-15 airplane at NASA Ames Research Center's Dryden Flight Research Facility. Ames-Dryden has conducted several propulsion control programs that have contributed to the HIDEC program. The digital electronic engine control (DEEC) flight evaluation investigated the performance and operability of the F100 engine equipped with a full-authority digital electronic control system. Investigations of nozzle instability, fault detection and accommodation, and augmentor transient capability provided important information for the HIDEC program. The F100 engine model derivative (EMD) was also flown in the F-15 airplane, and airplane performance was significantly improved. A throttle response problem was found and solved with a software fix to the control logic. For the HIDEC program, the F100 EMD engines equipped with DEEC controls will be integrated with the digital flight control system. The control modes to be implemented are an integrated flightpath management mode and an integrated adaptive engine control system mode. The engine control experience that will be used in the HIDEC program is discussed.

Thermal conductivity engineering of bulk and one-dimensional Si-Ge nanoarchitectures.

PubMed

Kandemir, Ali; Ozden, Ayberk; Cagin, Tahir; Sevik, Cem

2017-01-01

Various theoretical and experimental methods are utilized to investigate the thermal conductivity of nanostructured materials; this is a critical parameter to increase performance of thermoelectric devices. Among these methods, equilibrium molecular dynamics (EMD) is an accurate technique to predict lattice thermal conductivity. In this study, by means of systematic EMD simulations, thermal conductivity of bulk Si-Ge structures (pristine, alloy and superlattice) and their nanostructured one dimensional forms with square and circular cross-section geometries (asymmetric and symmetric) are calculated for different crystallographic directions. A comprehensive temperature analysis is evaluated for selected structures as well. The results show that one-dimensional structures are superior candidates in terms of their low lattice thermal conductivity and thermal conductivity tunability by nanostructuring, such as by diameter modulation, interface roughness, periodicity and number of interfaces. We find that thermal conductivity decreases with smaller diameters or cross section areas. Furthermore, interface roughness decreases thermal conductivity with a profound impact. Moreover, we predicted that there is a specific periodicity that gives minimum thermal conductivity in symmetric superlattice structures. The decreasing thermal conductivity is due to the reducing phonon movement in the system due to the effect of the number of interfaces that determine regimes of ballistic and wave transport phenomena. In some nanostructures, such as nanowire superlattices, thermal conductivity of the Si/Ge system can be reduced to nearly twice that of an amorphous silicon thermal conductivity. Additionally, it is found that one crystal orientation, [Formula: see text]100[Formula: see text], is better than the [Formula: see text]111[Formula: see text] crystal orientation in one-dimensional and bulk SiGe systems. Our results clearly point out the importance of lattice thermal conductivity engineering in bulk and nanostructures to produce high-performance thermoelectric materials.

Thermal conductivity engineering of bulk and one-dimensional Si-Ge nanoarchitectures

PubMed Central

Kandemir, Ali; Ozden, Ayberk; Cagin, Tahir; Sevik, Cem

2017-01-01

Various theoretical and experimental methods are utilized to investigate the thermal conductivity of nanostructured materials; this is a critical parameter to increase performance of thermoelectric devices. Among these methods, equilibrium molecular dynamics (EMD) is an accurate technique to predict lattice thermal conductivity. In this study, by means of systematic EMD simulations, thermal conductivity of bulk Si-Ge structures (pristine, alloy and superlattice) and their nanostructured one dimensional forms with square and circular cross-section geometries (asymmetric and symmetric) are calculated for different crystallographic directions. A comprehensive temperature analysis is evaluated for selected structures as well. The results show that one-dimensional structures are superior candidates in terms of their low lattice thermal conductivity and thermal conductivity tunability by nanostructuring, such as by diameter modulation, interface roughness, periodicity and number of interfaces. We find that thermal conductivity decreases with smaller diameters or cross section areas. Furthermore, interface roughness decreases thermal conductivity with a profound impact. Moreover, we predicted that there is a specific periodicity that gives minimum thermal conductivity in symmetric superlattice structures. The decreasing thermal conductivity is due to the reducing phonon movement in the system due to the effect of the number of interfaces that determine regimes of ballistic and wave transport phenomena. In some nanostructures, such as nanowire superlattices, thermal conductivity of the Si/Ge system can be reduced to nearly twice that of an amorphous silicon thermal conductivity. Additionally, it is found that one crystal orientation, <100>, is better than the <111> crystal orientation in one-dimensional and bulk SiGe systems. Our results clearly point out the importance of lattice thermal conductivity engineering in bulk and nanostructures to produce high-performance thermoelectric materials. PMID:28469733

Tsunami Preparedness Along the U.S. West Coast (video)

USGS Publications Warehouse

Filmed and edited by: Loeffler, Kurt; Gesell, Justine

2010-01-01

Tsunamis are a constant threat to the coasts of our world. Although tsunamis are infrequent along the West coast of the United States, it is possible and necessary to prepare for potential tsunami hazards to minimize loss of life and property. Community awareness programs are important, as they strive to create an informed society by providing education and training. This video about tsunami preparedness along the West coast distinguishes between a local tsunami and a distant event and focuses on the specific needs of each region. It offers guidelines for correct tsunami response and community preparedness from local emergency managers, first-responders, and leading experts on tsunami hazards and warnings, who have been working on ways of making the tsunami affected regions safer for the people and communities on a long-term basis. This video was produced by the US Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the California Emergency Management Agency (CalEMA), Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries (DOGAMI), Washington Emergency Management Division (EMD), Marin Office of Emergency Services, and Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E).

Intramuscular Pressure of Tibialis Anterior Reflects Ankle Torque but Does Not Follow Joint Angle-Torque Relationship.

PubMed

Ateş, Filiz; Davies, Brenda L; Chopra, Swati; Coleman-Wood, Krista; Litchy, William J; Kaufman, Kenton R

2018-01-01

Intramuscular pressure (IMP) is the hydrostatic fluid pressure that is directly related to muscle force production. Electromechanical delay (EMD) provides a link between mechanical and electrophysiological quantities and IMP has potential to detect local electromechanical changes. The goal of this study was to assess the relationship of IMP with the mechanical and electrical characteristics of the tibialis anterior muscle (TA) activity at different ankle positions. We hypothesized that (1) the TA IMP and the surface EMG (sEMG) and fine-wire EMG (fwEMG) correlate to ankle joint torque, (2) the isometric force of TA increases at increased muscle lengths, which were imposed by a change in ankle angle and IMP follows the length-tension relationship characteristics, and (3) the electromechanical delay (EMD) is greater than the EMD of IMP during isometric contractions. Fourteen healthy adults [7 female; mean ( SD ) age = 26.9 (4.2) years old with 25.9 (5.5) kg/m 2 body mass index] performed (i) three isometric dorsiflexion (DF) maximum voluntary contraction (MVC) and (ii) three isometric DF ramp contractions from 0 to 80% MVC at rate of 15% MVC/second at DF, Neutral, and plantarflexion (PF) positions. Ankle torque, IMP, TA fwEMG, and TA sEMG were measured simultaneously. The IMP, fwEMG, and sEMG were significantly correlated to the ankle torque during ramp contractions at each ankle position tested. This suggests that IMP captures in vivo mechanical properties of active muscles. The ankle torque changed significantly at different ankle positions however, the IMP did not reflect the change. This is explained with the opposing effects of higher compartmental pressure at DF in contrast to the increased force at PF position. Additionally, the onset of IMP activity is found to be significantly earlier than the onset of force which indicates that IMP can be designed to detect muscular changes in the course of neuromuscular diseases impairing electromechanical transmission.

5-HT6 receptor agonists and antagonists enhance learning and memory in a conditioned emotion response paradigm by modulation of cholinergic and glutamatergic mechanisms

PubMed Central

Woods, S; Clarke, NN; Layfield, R; Fone, KCF

2012-01-01

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 5-HT6 receptors are abundant in the hippocampus, nucleus accumbens and striatum, supporting their role in learning and memory. Selective 5-HT6 receptor antagonists produce pro-cognitive effects in several learning and memory paradigms while 5-HT6 receptor agonists have been found to enhance and impair memory. EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH The conditioned emotion response (CER) paradigm was validated in rats. Then we examined the effect of the 5-HT6 receptor antagonist, EMD 386088 (10 mg·kg−1, i.p.), and agonists, E-6801 (2.5 mg·kg−1, i.p.) and EMD 386088 (5 mg·kg−1, i.p.) on CER-induced behaviour either alone or after induction of memory impairment by the muscarinic receptor antagonist, scopolamine (0.3 mg·kg−1, i.p) or the NMDA receptor antagonist, MK-801 (0.1 mg·kg−1, i.p). KEY RESULTS Pairing unavoidable foot shocks with a light and tone cue during CER training induced a robust freezing response, providing a quantitative index of contextual memory when the rat was returned to the shock chamber 24 h later. Pretreatment (−20 min pre-training) with scopolamine or MK-801 reduced contextual freezing 24 h after CER training, showing production of memory impairment. Immediate post-training administration of 5-HT6 receptor antagonist, SB-270146, and agonists, EMD 386088 and E-6801, had little effect on CER freezing when given alone, but all significantly reversed scopolamine- and MK-801-induced reduction in freezing. CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS Both the 5-HT6 receptor agonists and antagonist reversed cholinergic- and glutamatergic-induced deficits in associative learning. These findings support the therapeutic potential of 5-HT6 receptor compounds in the treatment of cognitive dysfunction, such as seen in Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia. PMID:22568655

Event-based analysis of free-living behaviour.

PubMed

Granat, Malcolm H

2012-11-01

The quantification of free-living physical activities is important in understanding how physical activity and sedentary behaviour impact on health and also on how interventions might modify free-living behaviour to enhance health. Quantification, and the terminology used, has in many ways been determined by the choice of measurement technique. The inter-related issues around measurement devices and terminology used are explored. This paper proposes a terminology and a systematic approach for the analysis of free-living activity information using event-based activity data. The event-based approach uses a flexible hierarchical classification of events and, dependent on the research question, analysis can then be undertaken on a selection of these events. The quantification of free-living behaviour is therefore the result of the analysis on the patterns of these chosen events. The application of this approach is illustrated with results from a range of published studies by our group showing how event-based analysis provides a flexible yet robust method of addressing the research question(s) and provides a deeper insight into free-living behaviour. It is proposed that it is through event-based analysis we can more clearly understand how behaviour is related to health and also how we can produce more relevant outcome measures.

Characteristics of BeiDou Navigation Satellite System Multipath and Its Mitigation Method Based on Kalman Filter and Rauch-Tung-Striebel Smoother.

PubMed

Zhang, Qiuzhao; Yang, Wei; Zhang, Shubi; Liu, Xin

2018-01-12

Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) carrier phase measurement for short baseline meets the requirements of deformation monitoring of large structures. However, the carrier phase multipath effect is the main error source with double difference (DD) processing. There are lots of methods to deal with the multipath errors of Global Position System (GPS) carrier phase data. The BeiDou navigation satellite System (BDS) multipath mitigation is still a research hotspot because the unique constellation design of BDS makes it different to mitigate multipath effects compared to GPS. Multipath error periodically repeats for its strong correlation to geometry of satellites, reflective surface and antenna which is also repetitive. We analyzed the characteristics of orbital periods of BDS satellites which are consistent with multipath repeat periods of corresponding satellites. The results show that the orbital periods and multipath periods for BDS geostationary earth orbit (GEO) and inclined geosynchronous orbit (IGSO) satellites are about one day but the periods of MEO satellites are about seven days. The Kalman filter (KF) and Rauch-Tung-Striebel Smoother (RTSS) was introduced to extract the multipath models from single difference (SD) residuals with traditional sidereal filter (SF). Wavelet filter and Empirical mode decomposition (EMD) were also used to mitigate multipath effects. The experimental results show that the three filters methods all have obvious effect on improvement of baseline accuracy and the performance of KT-RTSS method is slightly better than that of wavelet filter and EMD filter. The baseline vector accuracy on east, north and up (E, N, U) components with KF-RTSS method were improved by 62.8%, 63.6%, 62.5% on day of year 280 and 57.3%, 53.4%, 55.9% on day of year 281, respectively.

Global Emergency Medicine: A Review of the Literature From 2015.

PubMed

Becker, Torben K; Hansoti, Bhakti; Bartels, Susan; Bisanzo, Mark; Jacquet, Gabrielle A; Lunney, Kevin; Marsh, Regan; Osei-Ampofo, Maxwell; Trehan, Indi; Lam, Christopher; Levine, Adam C

2016-10-01

The Global Emergency Medicine Literature Review (GEMLR) conducts an annual search of peer-reviewed and gray literature relevant to global emergency medicine (EM) to identify, review, and disseminate the most important new research in this field to a global audience of academics and clinical practitioners. This year 12,435 articles written in six languages were identified by our search. These articles were distributed among 20 reviewers for initial screening based on their relevance to the field of global EM. An additional two reviewers searched the gray literature. A total of 723 articles were deemed appropriate by at least one reviewer and approved by their editor for formal scoring of overall quality and importance. Two independent reviewers scored all articles. A total of 723 articles met our predetermined inclusion criteria and underwent full review. Sixty percent were categorized as emergency care in resource-limited settings (ECRLS), 17% as EM development (EMD), and 23% as disaster and humanitarian response (DHR). Twenty-four articles received scores of 18.5 or higher out of a maximum score 20 and were selected for formal summary and critique. Inter-rater reliability between reviewers gave an intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.71 (95% confidence interval = 0.66 to 0.75). Studies and reviews with a focus on infectious diseases, trauma, and the diagnosis and treatment of diseases common in resource-limited settings represented the majority of articles selected for final review. In 2015, there were almost twice as many articles found by our search compared to the 2014 review. The number of EMD articles increased, while the number ECRLS articles decreased. The number of DHR articles remained stable. As in prior years, the majority of articles focused on infectious diseases. © 2016 by the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine.

Hilbert-Huang Transform: A Spectral Analysis Tool Applied to Sunspot Number and Total Solar Irradiance Variations, as well as Near-Surface Atmospheric Variables

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barnhart, B. L.; Eichinger, W. E.; Prueger, J. H.

2010-12-01

Hilbert-Huang transform (HHT) is a relatively new data analysis tool which is used to analyze nonstationary and nonlinear time series data. It consists of an algorithm, called empirical mode decomposition (EMD), which extracts the cyclic components embedded within time series data, as well as Hilbert spectral analysis (HSA) which displays the time and frequency dependent energy contributions from each component in the form of a spectrogram. The method can be considered a generalized form of Fourier analysis which can describe the intrinsic cycles of data with basis functions whose amplitudes and phases may vary with time. The HHT will be introduced and compared to current spectral analysis tools such as Fourier analysis, short-time Fourier analysis, wavelet analysis and Wigner-Ville distributions. A number of applications are also presented which demonstrate the strengths and limitations of the tool, including analyzing sunspot number variability and total solar irradiance proxies as well as global averaged temperature and carbon dioxide concentration. Also, near-surface atmospheric quantities such as temperature and wind velocity are analyzed to demonstrate the nonstationarity of the atmosphere.

Investigation of Kelvin wave periods during Hai-Tang typhoon using Empirical Mode Decomposition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kishore, P.; Jayalakshmi, J.; Lin, Pay-Liam; Velicogna, Isabella; Sutterley, Tyler C.; Ciracì, Enrico; Mohajerani, Yara; Kumar, S. Balaji

2017-11-01

Equatorial Kelvin waves (KWs) are fundamental components of the tropical climate system. In this study, we investigate Kelvin waves (KWs) during the Hai-Tang typhoon of 2005 using Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) of regional precipitation, zonal and meridional winds. For the analysis, we use daily precipitation datasets from the Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) and wind datasets from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) Interim Re-analysis (ERA-Interim). As an additional measurement, we use in-situ precipitation datasets from rain-gauges over the Taiwan region. The maximum accumulated precipitation was approximately 2400 mm during the period July 17-21, 2005 over the southwestern region of Taiwan. The spectral analysis using the wind speed at 950 hPa found in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) reveals prevailing Kelvin wave periods of ∼3 days, ∼4-6 days, and ∼6-10 days, respectively. From our analysis of precipitation datasets, we found the Kelvin waves oscillated with periods between ∼8 and 20 days.

Vital sign sensing method based on EMD in terahertz band

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, Zhengwu; Liu, Tong

2014-12-01

Non-contact respiration and heartbeat rates detection could be applied to find survivors trapped in the disaster or the remote monitoring of the respiration and heartbeat of a patient. This study presents an improved algorithm that extracts the respiration and heartbeat rates of humans by utilizing the terahertz radar, which further lessens the effects of noise, suppresses the cross-term, and enhances the detection accuracy. A human target echo model for the terahertz radar is first presented. Combining the over-sampling method, low-pass filter, and Empirical Mode Decomposition improves the signal-to-noise ratio. The smoothed pseudo Wigner-Ville distribution time-frequency technique and the centroid of the spectrogram are used to estimate the instantaneous velocity of the target's cardiopulmonary motion. The down-sampling method is adopted to prevent serious distortion. Finally, a second time-frequency analysis is applied to the centroid curve to extract the respiration and heartbeat rates of the individual. Simulation results show that compared with the previously presented vital sign sensing method, the improved algorithm enhances the signal-to-noise ratio to 1 dB with a detection accuracy of 80%. The improved algorithm is an effective approach for the detection of respiration and heartbeat signal in a complicated environment.

Propellant Containers and Expulsion Charges for M483A1 and M509 Projectiles.

DTIC Science & Technology

1986-08-01

program. This malfunction occurred when a 58 g charge of MIO propellant misfired at -65*F. Phase II The celcon/acrylic bags had a history of a high...polyethylene loaded bags, making a total of 38 bags, each type containing 51 g of MIO propellant, were submitted to EMD, Chemistry Brioch for the following

The Army’s Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle (AMPV): Background and Issues for Congress

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-09-24

Christopher F. Foss, Jane’s Armour and Artillery, 2011-2012, 32nd Edition, pp. 470-478. 2 Tony Bertuca, “Optimism Emerges for the AMPV Program, Though Pre...for 29 EMD prototypes for testing between 2014 and 2017 and $1.08 billion for 289 low-rate initial production (LRIP) models between 2018 and 2020. The

Community Environmental Response Facilitation Act (CERFA) Report, Sacramento Army Depot, Sacramento, California

DTIC Science & Technology

1994-04-01

Response, Compensation, and Liability Information System CERFA Community Environmental Response Facilitation Act CORTESE State-designated hazardous...waste cleanup sites DESCOM U.S. Army Depot Systems Command DTSC Department of Toxic Substance Control EMD Environmental Management Division EPA U.S...Environmental Protection Agency ERNS Emergency Response Notification system FFA Federal Facility Agreement FINDS Facility index system HWCSA Hazardous

Toward geodesign for watershed restoration on the Fremont-Winema National Forest, Pacific Northwest, USA

Treesearch

Keith Reynolds; Philip Murphy; Steven Paplanus

2017-01-01

Spatial decision support systems for forest management have steadily evolved over the past 20+ years in order to better address the complexities of contemporary forest management issues such as the sustainability and resilience of ecosystems on forested landscapes. In this paper, we describe and illustrate new features of the Ecosystem Management Decision Support (EMDS...

The Multi-Frequency Correlation Between Eua and sCER Futures Prices: Evidence from the Emd Approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Yue-Jun; Huang, Yi-Song

2015-05-01

Currently European Union Allowances (EUA) and secondary Certified Emission Reduction (sCER) have become two dominant carbon trading assets for investors and their linkage attracts much attention from academia and practitioners in recent years. Under this circumstance, we use the empirical mode decomposition (EMD) approach to decompose the two carbon futures contract prices and discuss their correlation from the multi-frequency perspective. The empirical results indicate that, first, the EUA and sCER futures price movements can be divided into those triggered by the long-term, medium-term and short-term market impacts. Second, the price movements in the EUA and sCER futures markets are primarily caused by the long-term impact, while the short-term impact can only explain a small fraction. Finally, the long-term (short-term) effect on EUA prices is statistically uncorrelated with the short-term (long-term) effect of sCER prices, and there is a medium or strong lead-and-lag correlation between the EUA and sCER price components with the same time scales. These results may provide some important insights of price forecast and arbitraging activities for carbon futures market investors, analysts and regulators.

Textured Pr{sub 2}Fe{sub 14}B flakes with submicron or nanosize thickness prepared by surfactant-assisted ball milling

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zuo, Wen-Liang, E-mail: wlzuo@iphy.ac.cn, E-mail: shenbg@aphy.iphy.ac.cn; Liu, Rong-Ming; Zheng, Xin-Qi

2014-05-07

The textured Pr{sub 2}Fe{sub 14}B nanoflakes were produced by surfactant-assisted ball milling (SABM). Single phase tetragonal structure was characterized for the samples before and after SABM by X-ray diffraction (XRD). The thickness and length of the as-milled flakes are mainly in the range of 50–150 nm and 0.5–2 μm, respectively. For the field-aligned Pr{sub 2}Fe{sub 14}B nanoflakes, the out-of-plane texture (the easy magnetization direction (EMD) along the c-axis) is indicated from the increasing (00l) peaks in the XRD patterns. SEM image demonstrates that the EMD is parallel to flaky surface, which is different from the RCo{sub 5} (R = rare earth) system with EMDmore » perpendicular to the surface. We propose a hypothesis that the easy glide planes are related with the area of crystal planes. In addition, a large coercivity H{sub c} = 3.9 kOe is observed in the Pr{sub 2}Fe{sub 14}B flakes with strong texture.« less

Comparison of electromagnetic and nuclear dissociation of 17Ne

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wamers, F.; Marganiec, J.; Aksouh, F.; Aksyutina, Yu.; Alvarez-Pol, H.; Aumann, T.; Beceiro-Novo, S.; Bertulani, C. A.; Boretzky, K.; Borge, M. J. G.; Chartier, M.; Chatillon, A.; Chulkov, L. V.; Cortina-Gil, D.; Emling, H.; Ershova, O.; Fraile, L. M.; Fynbo, H. O. U.; Galaviz, D.; Geissel, H.; Heil, M.; Hoffmann, D. H. H.; Hoffman, J.; Johansson, H. T.; Jonson, B.; Karagiannis, C.; Kiselev, O. A.; Kratz, J. V.; Kulessa, R.; Kurz, N.; Langer, C.; Lantz, M.; Le Bleis, T.; Lehr, C.; Lemmon, R.; Litvinov, Yu. A.; Mahata, K.; Müntz, C.; Nilsson, T.; Nociforo, C.; Ott, W.; Panin, V.; Paschalis, S.; Perea, A.; Plag, R.; Reifarth, R.; Richter, A.; Riisager, K.; Rodriguez-Tajes, C.; Rossi, D.; Savran, D.; Schrieder, G.; Simon, H.; Stroth, J.; Sümmerer, K.; Tengblad, O.; Typel, S.; Weick, H.; Wiescher, M.; Wimmer, C.

2018-03-01

The Borromean drip-line nucleus 17Ne has been suggested to possess a two-proton halo structure in its ground state. In the astrophysical r p -process, where the two-proton capture reaction 15O(2 p ,γ )17Ne plays an important role, the calculated reaction rate differs by several orders of magnitude between different theoretical approaches. To add to the understanding of the 17Ne structure we have studied nuclear and electromagnetic dissociation. A 500 MeV/u 17Ne beam was directed toward lead, carbon, and polyethylene targets. Oxygen isotopes in the final state were measured in coincidence with one or two protons. Different reaction branches in the dissociation of 17Ne were disentangled. The relative populations of s and d states in 16F were determined for light and heavy targets. The differential cross section for electromagnetic dissociation (EMD) shows a continuous internal energy spectrum in the three-body system 15O+2 p . The 17Ne EMD data were compared to current theoretical models. None of them, however, yields satisfactory agreement with the experimental data presented here. These new data may facilitate future development of adequate models for description of the fragmentation process.

Adaptive variational mode decomposition method for signal processing based on mode characteristic

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lian, Jijian; Liu, Zhuo; Wang, Haijun; Dong, Xiaofeng

2018-07-01

Variational mode decomposition is a completely non-recursive decomposition model, where all the modes are extracted concurrently. However, the model requires a preset mode number, which limits the adaptability of the method since a large deviation in the number of mode set will cause the discard or mixing of the mode. Hence, a method called Adaptive Variational Mode Decomposition (AVMD) was proposed to automatically determine the mode number based on the characteristic of intrinsic mode function. The method was used to analyze the simulation signals and the measured signals in the hydropower plant. Comparisons have also been conducted to evaluate the performance by using VMD, EMD and EWT. It is indicated that the proposed method has strong adaptability and is robust to noise. It can determine the mode number appropriately without modulation even when the signal frequencies are relatively close.

Time-frequency techniques in biomedical signal analysis. a tutorial review of similarities and differences.

PubMed

Wacker, M; Witte, H

2013-01-01

This review outlines the methodological fundamentals of the most frequently used non-parametric time-frequency analysis techniques in biomedicine and their main properties, as well as providing decision aids concerning their applications. The short-term Fourier transform (STFT), the Gabor transform (GT), the S-transform (ST), the continuous Morlet wavelet transform (CMWT), and the Hilbert transform (HT) are introduced as linear transforms by using a unified concept of the time-frequency representation which is based on a standardized analytic signal. The Wigner-Ville distribution (WVD) serves as an example of the 'quadratic transforms' class. The combination of WVD and GT with the matching pursuit (MP) decomposition and that of the HT with the empirical mode decomposition (EMD) are explained; these belong to the class of signal-adaptive approaches. Similarities between linear transforms are demonstrated and differences with regard to the time-frequency resolution and interference (cross) terms are presented in detail. By means of simulated signals the effects of different time-frequency resolutions of the GT, CMWT, and WVD as well as the resolution-related properties of the interference (cross) terms are shown. The method-inherent drawbacks and their consequences for the application of the time-frequency techniques are demonstrated by instantaneous amplitude, frequency and phase measures and related time-frequency representations (spectrogram, scalogram, time-frequency distribution, phase-locking maps) of measured magnetoencephalographic (MEG) signals. The appropriate selection of a method and its parameter settings will ensure readability of the time-frequency representations and reliability of results. When the time-frequency characteristics of a signal strongly correspond with the time-frequency resolution of the analysis then a method may be considered 'optimal'. The MP-based signal-adaptive approaches are preferred as these provide an appropriate time-frequency resolution for all frequencies while simultaneously reducing interference (cross) terms.

Inverse Geochemical Reaction Path Modelling and the Impact of Climate Change on Hydrologic Structure in Snowmelt-Dominated Catchments in the Southwestern USA

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Driscoll, J. M.; Meixner, T.; Molotch, N. P.; Sickman, J. O.; Williams, M. W.; McIntosh, J. C.; Brooks, P. D.

2011-12-01

Snowmelt from alpine catchments provides 70-80% of the American Southwest's water resources. Climate change threatens to alter the timing and duration of snowmelt in high elevation catchments, which may also impact the quantity and the quality of these water resources. Modelling of these systems provides a robust theoretical framework to process the information extracted from the sparse physical measurement available in these sites due to their remote locations. Mass-balance inverse geochemical models (via PHREEQC, developed by the USGS) were applied to two snowmelt-dominated catchments; Green Lake 4 (GL4) in the Rockies and Emerald Lake (EMD) in the Sierra Nevada. Both catchments primarily consist of granite and granodiorite with a similar bulk geochemistry. The inputs for the models were the initial (snowpack) and final (catchment output) hydrochemistry and a catchment-specific suite of mineral weathering reactions. Models were run for wet and dry snow years, for early and late time periods (defined hydrologically as 1/2 of the total volume for the year). Multiple model solutions were reduced to a representative suite of reactions by choosing the model solution with the fewest phases and least overall phase change. The dominant weathering reactions (those which contributed the most solutes) were plagioclase for GL4 and albite for EMD. Results for GL4 show overall more plagioclase weathering during the dry year (214.2g) than wet year (89.9g). Both wet and dry years show more weathering in the early time periods (63% and 56%, respectively). These results show that the snowpack and outlet are chemically more similar during wet years than dry years. A possible hypothesis to explain this difference is a change in contribution from subsurface storage; during the wet year the saturated catchment reduces contact with surface materials that would result in mineral weathering reactions by some combination of reduced infiltration and decreased subsurface transit time. By contrast, during the dry year infiltration and subsequent displacement of stored water that has had longer contact time with minerals and therefore has become more geochemically evolved to produce a greater difference between snowmelt and catchment outlet hydrochemistry. The results for EMD show little distinction between albite weathering for wet and dry years (55.9g and 66.0g, relatively). A hypothesis for this lack of difference in mineral phase changes may be due to less subsurface storage capacity in EMD relative to GL4. The spatial distribution of snowmelt has also been shown to influence the integrated watershed response, and future work includes using the Alpine Hydrochemical Model (AHM) to further investigate catchment response to these spatial data. The AHM will also provide further insight of surface-groundwater interactions through a more integrated model which includes hydrochemical, biological and physical processes to elucidate catchment response to changes in snowmelt dynamics.

Optimizing Department of Defense Acquisition Development Test and Evaluation Scheduling

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-06-01

CPM Critical Path Method DOD Department of Defense DT&E development test and evaluation EMD engineering and manufacturing development GAMS...these, including the Program Evaluation Review Technique (PERT), the Critical Path Method ( CPM ), and the resource- constrained project-scheduling...problem (RCPSP). These are of particular interest to this thesis as the current scheduling method uses elements of the PERT/ CPM , and the test

Enhancement of lung sounds based on empirical mode decomposition and Fourier transform algorithm.

PubMed

Mondal, Ashok; Banerjee, Poulami; Somkuwar, Ajay

2017-02-01

There is always heart sound (HS) signal interfering during the recording of lung sound (LS) signals. This obscures the features of LS signals and creates confusion on pathological states, if any, of the lungs. In this work, a new method is proposed for reduction of heart sound interference which is based on empirical mode decomposition (EMD) technique and prediction algorithm. In this approach, first the mixed signal is split into several components in terms of intrinsic mode functions (IMFs). Thereafter, HS-included segments are localized and removed from them. The missing values of the gap thus produced, is predicted by a new Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) based prediction algorithm and the time domain LS signal is reconstructed by taking an inverse FFT of the estimated missing values. The experiments have been conducted on simulated and recorded HS corrupted LS signals at three different flow rates and various SNR levels. The performance of the proposed method is evaluated by qualitative and quantitative analysis of the results. It is found that the proposed method is superior to the baseline method in terms of quantitative and qualitative measurement. The developed method gives better results compared to baseline method for different SNR levels. Our method gives cross correlation index (CCI) of 0.9488, signal to deviation ratio (SDR) of 9.8262, and normalized maximum amplitude error (NMAE) of 26.94 for 0 dB SNR value. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Asymmetric multiscale detrended fluctuation analysis of California electricity spot price

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fan, Qingju

2016-01-01

In this paper, we develop a new method called asymmetric multiscale detrended fluctuation analysis, which is an extension of asymmetric detrended fluctuation analysis (A-DFA) and can assess the asymmetry correlation properties of series with a variable scale range. We investigate the asymmetric correlations in California 1999-2000 power market after filtering some periodic trends by empirical mode decomposition (EMD). Our findings show the coexistence of symmetric and asymmetric correlations in the price series of 1999 and strong asymmetric correlations in 2000. What is more, we detect subtle correlation properties of the upward and downward price series for most larger scale intervals in 2000. Meanwhile, the fluctuations of Δα(s) (asymmetry) and | Δα(s) | (absolute asymmetry) are more significant in 2000 than that in 1999 for larger scale intervals, and they have similar characteristics for smaller scale intervals. We conclude that the strong asymmetry property and different correlation properties of upward and downward price series for larger scale intervals in 2000 have important implications on the collapse of California power market, and our findings shed a new light on the underlying mechanisms of power price.

Job optimization in ATLAS TAG-based distributed analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mambelli, M.; Cranshaw, J.; Gardner, R.; Maeno, T.; Malon, D.; Novak, M.

2010-04-01

The ATLAS experiment is projected to collect over one billion events/year during the first few years of operation. The efficient selection of events for various physics analyses across all appropriate samples presents a significant technical challenge. ATLAS computing infrastructure leverages the Grid to tackle the analysis across large samples by organizing data into a hierarchical structure and exploiting distributed computing to churn through the computations. This includes events at different stages of processing: RAW, ESD (Event Summary Data), AOD (Analysis Object Data), DPD (Derived Physics Data). Event Level Metadata Tags (TAGs) contain information about each event stored using multiple technologies accessible by POOL and various web services. This allows users to apply selection cuts on quantities of interest across the entire sample to compile a subset of events that are appropriate for their analysis. This paper describes new methods for organizing jobs using the TAGs criteria to analyze ATLAS data. It further compares different access patterns to the event data and explores ways to partition the workload for event selection and analysis. Here analysis is defined as a broader set of event processing tasks including event selection and reduction operations ("skimming", "slimming" and "thinning") as well as DPD making. Specifically it compares analysis with direct access to the events (AOD and ESD data) to access mediated by different TAG-based event selections. We then compare different ways of splitting the processing to maximize performance.

Wearable Sensor-Based Human Activity Recognition Method with Multi-Features Extracted from Hilbert-Huang Transform.

PubMed

Xu, Huile; Liu, Jinyi; Hu, Haibo; Zhang, Yi

2016-12-02

Wearable sensors-based human activity recognition introduces many useful applications and services in health care, rehabilitation training, elderly monitoring and many other areas of human interaction. Existing works in this field mainly focus on recognizing activities by using traditional features extracted from Fourier transform (FT) or wavelet transform (WT). However, these signal processing approaches are suitable for a linear signal but not for a nonlinear signal. In this paper, we investigate the characteristics of the Hilbert-Huang transform (HHT) for dealing with activity data with properties such as nonlinearity and non-stationarity. A multi-features extraction method based on HHT is then proposed to improve the effect of activity recognition. The extracted multi-features include instantaneous amplitude (IA) and instantaneous frequency (IF) by means of empirical mode decomposition (EMD), as well as instantaneous energy density (IE) and marginal spectrum (MS) derived from Hilbert spectral analysis. Experimental studies are performed to verify the proposed approach by using the PAMAP2 dataset from the University of California, Irvine for wearable sensors-based activity recognition. Moreover, the effect of combining multi-features vs. a single-feature are investigated and discussed in the scenario of a dependent subject. The experimental results show that multi-features combination can further improve the performance measures. Finally, we test the effect of multi-features combination in the scenario of an independent subject. Our experimental results show that we achieve four performance indexes: recall, precision, F-measure, and accuracy to 0.9337, 0.9417, 0.9353, and 0.9377 respectively, which are all better than the achievements of related works.

Wearable Sensor-Based Human Activity Recognition Method with Multi-Features Extracted from Hilbert-Huang Transform

PubMed Central

Xu, Huile; Liu, Jinyi; Hu, Haibo; Zhang, Yi

2016-01-01

Wearable sensors-based human activity recognition introduces many useful applications and services in health care, rehabilitation training, elderly monitoring and many other areas of human interaction. Existing works in this field mainly focus on recognizing activities by using traditional features extracted from Fourier transform (FT) or wavelet transform (WT). However, these signal processing approaches are suitable for a linear signal but not for a nonlinear signal. In this paper, we investigate the characteristics of the Hilbert-Huang transform (HHT) for dealing with activity data with properties such as nonlinearity and non-stationarity. A multi-features extraction method based on HHT is then proposed to improve the effect of activity recognition. The extracted multi-features include instantaneous amplitude (IA) and instantaneous frequency (IF) by means of empirical mode decomposition (EMD), as well as instantaneous energy density (IE) and marginal spectrum (MS) derived from Hilbert spectral analysis. Experimental studies are performed to verify the proposed approach by using the PAMAP2 dataset from the University of California, Irvine for wearable sensors-based activity recognition. Moreover, the effect of combining multi-features vs. a single-feature are investigated and discussed in the scenario of a dependent subject. The experimental results show that multi-features combination can further improve the performance measures. Finally, we test the effect of multi-features combination in the scenario of an independent subject. Our experimental results show that we achieve four performance indexes: recall, precision, F-measure, and accuracy to 0.9337, 0.9417, 0.9353, and 0.9377 respectively, which are all better than the achievements of related works. PMID:27918414

Human buccal plate extraction socket regeneration with recombinant human platelet-derived growth factor BB or enamel matrix derivative.

PubMed

Nevins, Marc L; Camelo, Marcelo; Schupbach, Peter; Nevins, Myron; Kim, Soo-Woo; Kim, David M

2011-01-01

The objective of this study was to assess the osseous healing of buccal plate extraction socket defects. There were four cohorts: group A (mineral collagen bone substitute [MCBS] scaffold alone), group B (MCBS with recombinant human platelet-derived growth factor BB [rhPDGF-BB; 0.3 mg/mL]), group C (MCBS with enamel matrix derivative [EMD]), and group D (combination of EMD with bone ceramic). The primary outcome of bone quality was evaluated using light microscopy, backscatter scanning electron microscopy, and histomorphometrics. Reentry surgery provided an opportunity for clinical observation of the healed ridge morphology. Sixteen patients with buccal wall extraction socket defects were randomized into four treatment groups of equal size. Grafting was provided at the time of extraction with advancement of the buccal flap for primary closure. A trephine core biopsy of the implant site preparation was performed after 5 months for implant placement. Histologic examination identified new bone healing around the biomaterial scaffolds. Statistically significant differences in new bone formation were not observed among the treatment groups. There was a histomorphometric trend toward more new bone for the rhPDGF-BB-treated group (group B). This group had the most favorable ridge morphology for optimal implant placement.

Photoacoustic imaging optimization with raw signal deconvolution and empirical mode decomposition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guo, Chengwen; Wang, Jing; Qin, Yu; Zhan, Hongchen; Yuan, Jie; Cheng, Qian; Wang, Xueding

2018-02-01

Photoacoustic (PA) signal of an ideal optical absorb particle is a single N-shape wave. PA signals of a complicated biological tissue can be considered as the combination of individual N-shape waves. However, the N-shape wave basis not only complicates the subsequent work, but also results in aliasing between adjacent micro-structures, which deteriorates the quality of the final PA images. In this paper, we propose a method to improve PA image quality through signal processing method directly working on raw signals, which including deconvolution and empirical mode decomposition (EMD). During the deconvolution procedure, the raw PA signals are de-convolved with a system dependent point spread function (PSF) which is measured in advance. Then, EMD is adopted to adaptively re-shape the PA signals with two constraints, positive polarity and spectrum consistence. With our proposed method, the built PA images can yield more detail structural information. Micro-structures are clearly separated and revealed. To validate the effectiveness of this method, we present numerical simulations and phantom studies consist of a densely distributed point sources model and a blood vessel model. In the future, our study might hold the potential for clinical PA imaging as it can help to distinguish micro-structures from the optimized images and even measure the size of objects from deconvolved signals.

SLC30A8 nonsynonymous variant is associated with recovery following exercise and skeletal muscle size and strength.

PubMed

Sprouse, Courtney; Gordish-Dressman, Heather; Orkunoglu-Suer, E Funda; Lipof, Jason S; Moeckel-Cole, Stephanie; Patel, Ronak R; Adham, Kasra; Larkin, Justin S; Hubal, Monica J; Kearns, Amy K; Clarkson, Priscilla M; Thompson, Paul D; Angelopoulos, Theodore J; Gordon, Paul M; Moyna, Niall M; Pescatello, Linda S; Visich, Paul S; Zoeller, Robert F; Hoffman, Eric P; Tosi, Laura L; Devaney, Joseph M

2014-01-01

Genome-wide association studies have identified thousands of variants that are associated with numerous phenotypes. One such variant, rs13266634, a nonsynonymous single nucleotide polymorphism in the solute carrier family 30 (zinc transporter) member eight gene, is associated with a 53% increase in the risk of developing type 2 diabetes (T2D). We hypothesized that individuals with the protective allele against T2D would show a positive response to short-term and long-term resistance exercise. Two cohorts of young adults-the Eccentric Muscle Damage (EMD; n = 156) cohort and the Functional Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms Associated with Muscle Size and Strength Study (FAMuSS; n = 874)-were tested for association of the rs13266634 variant with measures of skeletal muscle response to resistance exercise. Our results were sexually dimorphic in both cohorts. Men in the EMD study with two copies of the protective allele showed less post-exercise bout strength loss, less soreness, and lower creatine kinase values. In addition, men in the FAMuSS, homozygous for the protective allele, showed higher pre-exercise strength and larger arm skeletal muscle volume, but did not show a significant difference in skeletal muscle hypertrophy or strength with resistance training.

Electronic properties of RDX and HMX: Compton scattering experiment and first-principles calculation.

PubMed

Ahuja, B L; Jain, Pradeep; Sahariya, Jagrati; Heda, N L; Soni, Pramod

2013-07-11

The first-ever electron momentum density (EMD) measurements of explosive materials, namely, RDX (1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazacyclohexane, (CH2-N-NO2)3) and HMX (1,3,5,7-tetranitro-1,3,5,7-tetraazacyclooctane, (CH2-N-NO2)4), have been reported using a 740 GBq (137)Cs Compton spectrometer. Experimental Compton profiles (CPs) are compared with the EMDs derived from linear combination of atomic orbitals with density functional theory. It is found that the CPs deduced from generalized gradient approximation (GGA) with Wu-Cohen exchange energies give a better agreement with the corresponding experimental profiles than those from local density approximation and other schemes of GGA. Further, Mulliken population, energy bands, partial and total density of states, and band gap have also been reported using GGA calculations. Present ground state calculations unambiguously show large band gap semiconductor nature of both RDX and HMX. A similar type of bonding in these materials is uniquely established using Compton data and density of states. It is also outstandingly consistent with the Mulliken population, which predicts almost equal amount of charge transfer (0.84 and 0.83 e(-)) from H1 + H2 + N2 to C1 + N1 + O1 + O2 in both the explosives.

Experimental validation of a structural damage detection method based on marginal Hilbert spectrum

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Banerji, Srishti; Roy, Timir B.; Sabamehr, Ardalan; Bagchi, Ashutosh

2017-04-01

Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) using dynamic characteristics of structures is crucial for early damage detection. Damage detection can be performed by capturing and assessing structural responses. Instrumented structures are monitored by analyzing the responses recorded by deployed sensors in the form of signals. Signal processing is an important tool for the processing of the collected data to diagnose anomalies in structural behavior. The vibration signature of the structure varies with damage. In order to attain effective damage detection, preservation of non-linear and non-stationary features of real structural responses is important. Decomposition of the signals into Intrinsic Mode Functions (IMF) by Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) and application of Hilbert-Huang Transform (HHT) addresses the time-varying instantaneous properties of the structural response. The energy distribution among different vibration modes of the intact and damaged structure depicted by Marginal Hilbert Spectrum (MHS) detects location and severity of the damage. The present work investigates damage detection analytically and experimentally by employing MHS. The testing of this methodology for different damage scenarios of a frame structure resulted in its accurate damage identification. The sensitivity of Hilbert Spectral Analysis (HSA) is assessed with varying frequencies and damage locations by means of calculating Damage Indices (DI) from the Hilbert spectrum curves of the undamaged and damaged structures.

Computational Depth of Anesthesia via Multiple Vital Signs Based on Artificial Neural Networks.

PubMed

Sadrawi, Muammar; Fan, Shou-Zen; Abbod, Maysam F; Jen, Kuo-Kuang; Shieh, Jiann-Shing

2015-01-01

This study evaluated the depth of anesthesia (DoA) index using artificial neural networks (ANN) which is performed as the modeling technique. Totally 63-patient data is addressed, for both modeling and testing of 17 and 46 patients, respectively. The empirical mode decomposition (EMD) is utilized to purify between the electroencephalography (EEG) signal and the noise. The filtered EEG signal is subsequently extracted to achieve a sample entropy index by every 5-second signal. Then, it is combined with other mean values of vital signs, that is, electromyography (EMG), heart rate (HR), pulse, systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and signal quality index (SQI) to evaluate the DoA index as the input. The 5 doctor scores are averaged to obtain an output index. The mean absolute error (MAE) is utilized as the performance evaluation. 10-fold cross-validation is performed in order to generalize the model. The ANN model is compared with the bispectral index (BIS). The results show that the ANN is able to produce lower MAE than BIS. For the correlation coefficient, ANN also has higher value than BIS tested on the 46-patient testing data. Sensitivity analysis and cross-validation method are applied in advance. The results state that EMG has the most effecting parameter, significantly.

Computational Depth of Anesthesia via Multiple Vital Signs Based on Artificial Neural Networks

PubMed Central

Sadrawi, Muammar; Fan, Shou-Zen; Abbod, Maysam F.; Jen, Kuo-Kuang; Shieh, Jiann-Shing

2015-01-01

This study evaluated the depth of anesthesia (DoA) index using artificial neural networks (ANN) which is performed as the modeling technique. Totally 63-patient data is addressed, for both modeling and testing of 17 and 46 patients, respectively. The empirical mode decomposition (EMD) is utilized to purify between the electroencephalography (EEG) signal and the noise. The filtered EEG signal is subsequently extracted to achieve a sample entropy index by every 5-second signal. Then, it is combined with other mean values of vital signs, that is, electromyography (EMG), heart rate (HR), pulse, systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and signal quality index (SQI) to evaluate the DoA index as the input. The 5 doctor scores are averaged to obtain an output index. The mean absolute error (MAE) is utilized as the performance evaluation. 10-fold cross-validation is performed in order to generalize the model. The ANN model is compared with the bispectral index (BIS). The results show that the ANN is able to produce lower MAE than BIS. For the correlation coefficient, ANN also has higher value than BIS tested on the 46-patient testing data. Sensitivity analysis and cross-validation method are applied in advance. The results state that EMG has the most effecting parameter, significantly. PMID:26568957

Modified complementary ensemble empirical mode decomposition and intrinsic mode functions evaluation index for high-speed train gearbox fault diagnosis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Dongyue; Lin, Jianhui; Li, Yanping

2018-06-01

Complementary ensemble empirical mode decomposition (CEEMD) has been developed for the mode-mixing problem in Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) method. Compared to the ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD), the CEEMD method reduces residue noise in the signal reconstruction. Both CEEMD and EEMD need enough ensemble number to reduce the residue noise, and hence it would be too much computation cost. Moreover, the selection of intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) for further analysis usually depends on experience. A modified CEEMD method and IMFs evaluation index are proposed with the aim of reducing the computational cost and select IMFs automatically. A simulated signal and in-service high-speed train gearbox vibration signals are employed to validate the proposed method in this paper. The results demonstrate that the modified CEEMD can decompose the signal efficiently with less computation cost, and the IMFs evaluation index can select the meaningful IMFs automatically.

An Assessment of Early Competitive Prototyping for Major Defense Acquisition Programs

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-04-30

with 20/80 share ratio for EMD; CPFF for test execution. o Percent change in PAUC from development baseline. -2.3%. 3. FAB -T–FET. The Air Force’s...Family of Advanced Beyond Line-of-Sight Terminals ( FAB -T) provides for survivable terminals for communicating strategic nuclear execution orders via...jam-resistant, low probability of intercept waveforms through the Milstar and Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellite constellations. FAB

West Europe Report

DTIC Science & Technology

1986-04-11

The biggest change has ■ been that the headquarters of the European Command was moved from France to Belgium when de Gaulle pulled France out.: NATO...1980 through 1984, the payments of the GRD amounted to 45 percent of the total expenditures of the EMD, of which about 1.2 billion Swiss francs , or...70 percent (55 percent to private industry and 13 percent to state armaments plants), were spent domestically and 500 million Swiss francs abroad

Periodontal soft tissue root coverage procedures: a consensus report from the AAP Regeneration Workshop.

PubMed

Tatakis, Dimitris N; Chambrone, Leandro; Allen, Edward P; Langer, Burton; McGuire, Michael K; Richardson, Christopher R; Zabalegui, Ion; Zadeh, Homayoun H

2015-02-01

Management of gingival recession defects, a common periodontal condition, using root coverage procedures is an important aspect of periodontal regenerative therapy. The goal of the periodontal soft tissue root coverage procedures group was to develop a consensus report based on the accompanying systematic review of root coverage procedures, including priorities for future research and identification of the best evidence available to manage different clinical scenarios. The group reviewed and discussed the accompanying systematic review, which covered treatment of single-tooth recession defects, multiple-tooth recession defects, and additional focused questions on relevant clinical topics. The consensus group members submitted additional material for consideration by the group in advance and at the time of the meeting. The group also identified priorities for future research. All reviewed root coverage procedures provide significant reduction in recession depth, especially for Miller Class I and II recession defects. Subepithelial connective tissue graft (SCTG) procedures provide the best root coverage outcomes. Acellular dermal matrix graft (ADMG) or enamel matrix derivative (EMD) in conjunction with a coronally advanced flap (CAF) can serve as alternatives to autogenous donor tissue. Additional research is needed to do the following: 1) assess the treatment outcomes for multiple-tooth recession defects, oral sites other than maxillary canine and premolar teeth, and Miller Class III and IV defects; 2) assess the role of patient- and site-specific factors on procedure outcomes; and 3) obtain evidence on patient-reported outcomes. Predictable root coverage is possible for single-tooth and multiple-tooth recession defects, with SCTG procedures providing the best root coverage outcomes. Alternatives to SCTG are supported by evidence of varying strength. Additional research is needed on treatment outcomes for specific oral sites. Clinical Recommendation: For Miller Class I and II single-tooth recession defects, SCTG procedures provide the best outcomes, whereas ADMG or EMD in conjunction with CAF may be used as an alternative.

A Flexible Hierarchical Bayesian Modeling Technique for Risk Analysis of Major Accidents.

PubMed

Yu, Hongyang; Khan, Faisal; Veitch, Brian

2017-09-01

Safety analysis of rare events with potentially catastrophic consequences is challenged by data scarcity and uncertainty. Traditional causation-based approaches, such as fault tree and event tree (used to model rare event), suffer from a number of weaknesses. These include the static structure of the event causation, lack of event occurrence data, and need for reliable prior information. In this study, a new hierarchical Bayesian modeling based technique is proposed to overcome these drawbacks. The proposed technique can be used as a flexible technique for risk analysis of major accidents. It enables both forward and backward analysis in quantitative reasoning and the treatment of interdependence among the model parameters. Source-to-source variability in data sources is also taken into account through a robust probabilistic safety analysis. The applicability of the proposed technique has been demonstrated through a case study in marine and offshore industry. © 2017 Society for Risk Analysis.

Resistance exercise increases intramuscular NF-κb signaling in untrained males.

PubMed

Townsend, Jeremy R; Stout, Jeffrey R; Jajtner, Adam R; Church, David D; Beyer, Kyle S; Oliveira, Leonardo P; La Monica, Michael B; Riffe, Joshua J; Muddle, Tyler W D; Baker, Kayla M; Fukuda, David H; Roberts, Michael D; Hoffman, Jay R

2016-12-01

The NF-κB signaling pathway regulates multiple cellular processes following exercise stress. This study aims to examine the effects of an acute lower-body resistance exercise protocol and subsequent recovery on intramuscular NF-κB signaling. Twenty-eight untrained males were assigned to either a control (CON; n = 11) or exercise group (EX; n = 17) and completed a lower-body resistance exercise protocol consisting of the back squat, leg press, and leg extension exercises. Skeletal muscle microbiopsies were obtained from the vastus lateralis pre-exercise (PRE), 1-hour (1H), 5-hours (5H), and 48-hours (48H) post-resistance exercise. Multiplex signaling assay kits (EMD Millipore, Billerica, MA, USA) were used to quantify the total protein (TNFR1, c-Myc) or phosphorylation status of proteins belonging to the NF-κB signaling pathway (IKKa/b, IkBα, NF-κB) using multiplex protein assay. Repeated measures ANOVA analysis was used to determine the effects of the exercise bout on intramuscular signaling at each time point. Additionally, change scores were analyzed by magnitude based inferences to determine a mechanistic interpretation. Repeated measures ANOVA indicated a trend for a two-way interaction between the EX and CON Group (p = 0.064) for c-Myc post resistance exercise. Magnitude based inference analysis suggest a "Very Likely" increase in total c-Myc from PRE-5H and a "Likely" increase in IkBα phosphorylation from PRE-5H post-resistance exercise. Results indicated that c-Myc transcription factor is elevated following acute intense resistance exercise in untrained males. Future studies should examine the role that post-resistance exercise NF-κβ signaling plays in c-Myc induction, ribosome biogenesis and skeletal muscle regeneration.

Image fusion method based on regional feature and improved bidimensional empirical mode decomposition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Qin, Xinqiang; Hu, Gang; Hu, Kai

2018-01-01

The decomposition of multiple source images using bidimensional empirical mode decomposition (BEMD) often produces mismatched bidimensional intrinsic mode functions, either by their number or their frequency, making image fusion difficult. A solution to this problem is proposed using a fixed number of iterations and a union operation in the sifting process. By combining the local regional features of the images, an image fusion method has been developed. First, the source images are decomposed using the proposed BEMD to produce the first intrinsic mode function (IMF) and residue component. Second, for the IMF component, a selection and weighted average strategy based on local area energy is used to obtain a high-frequency fusion component. Third, for the residue component, a selection and weighted average strategy based on local average gray difference is used to obtain a low-frequency fusion component. Finally, the fused image is obtained by applying the inverse BEMD transform. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm provides superior performance over methods based on wavelet transform, line and column-based EMD, and complex empirical mode decomposition, both in terms of visual quality and objective evaluation criteria.

Longterm monitoring of pressure, tilt and temperature at Logatchev Hydrothermal Vent Field, Mid-Atlantic Ridge

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Villinger, H. W.; Gennerich, H.-H.; Fabian, M.

2009-04-01

The geophysical parameters of pressure, tilt, acceleration and temperature at the Logatchev Hydrothermal Vent Field (LHF) which is located in 3050m water depth at about 15˚ N at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, were monitored with high resolution for more than two and a half years, from May 2005 until December 2007. An autonomously operating Ocean Bottom Pressure Station (OBP; resolution of 80 Pa in the first year, improved to 8 Pa afterwards, sampling period of 2 minutes in the first year, increased to 2 seconds afterwards) and a programmable Ocean Bottom Tiltmeter (OBT; resolution 1 rad, sampling period 6 seconds) measured local ocean-floor point motions derived from tilt and absolute pressure. In addition, vertical acceleration was measured using a MEMS accelerometer (resolution 10-5 m/s2, sampling rate 1.33 Hz) within the housing of the OBT. Numerous autonomous temperature loggers (resolution 0.001˚ C, sampling period 15 minutes) were installed at prominent places like mussel fields or soil fissures within the LHF. Time series are analyzed using Fourier-Transformation techniques but also using the novel approach called Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD). Pressure records show a modulated background noise level with increased amplitudes lasting for several days to weeks, and most likely show signals generated by local earthquakes. Bottom water temperature has transients with peak-to-peak-amplitudes of up to 0.1˚ C, which correlate for a number of events directly with earthquake signals. A comparison of pressure, tilt, acceleration and temperature data events shows that all four records are correlated. For a few of those events a direct causal link can be firmly established. The study is funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and part of Priority Program 1144 ("From Mantle to Ocean: Energy-, Material- and Life-cycles at Spreading Axes").

Dispatcher Recognition of Stroke Using the National Academy Medical Priority Dispatch System

PubMed Central

Buck, Brian H; Starkman, Sidney; Eckstein, Marc; Kidwell, Chelsea S; Haines, Jill; Huang, Rainy; Colby, Daniel; Saver, Jeffrey L

2009-01-01

Background Emergency Medical Dispatchers (EMDs) play an important role in optimizing stroke care if they are able to accurately identify calls regarding acute cerebrovascular disease. This study was undertaken to assess the diagnostic accuracy of the current national protocol guiding dispatcher questioning of 911 callers to identify stroke, QA Guide v 11.1 of the National Academy Medical Priority Dispatch System (MPDS). Methods We identified all Los Angeles Fire Department paramedic transports of patients to UCLA Medical Center during the 12 month period from January to December 2005 in a prospectively maintained database. Dispatcher-assigned MPDS codes for each of these patient transports were abstracted from the paramedic run sheets and compared to final hospital discharge diagnosis. Results Among 3474 transported patients, 96 (2.8%) had a final diagnosis of stroke or transient ischemic attack. Dispatchers assigned a code of potential stroke to 44.8% of patients with a final discharge diagnosis of stroke or TIA. Dispatcher identification of stroke showed a sensitivity of 0.41, specificity of 0.96, positive predictive value of 0.45, and negative predictive value of 0.95. Conclusions Dispatcher recognition of stroke calls using the widely employed MPDS algorithm is suboptimal, with failure to identify more than half of stroke patients as likely stroke. Revisions to the current national dispatcher structured interview and complaint identification algorithm for stroke may facilitate more accurate recognition of stroke by EMDs. PMID:19390065

Comparación de la efectividad de ranibizumab intravítreo para el tratamiento del edema macular diabético en ojos vitrectomizados y no vitrectomizados.

PubMed

Koyanagi, Yoshito; Yoshida, Shigeo; Kobayashi, Yoshiyuki; Kubo, Yuki; Yamaguchi, Muneo; Nakama, Takahito; Nakao, Shintaro; Ikeda, Yasuhiro; Ohshima, Yuji; Ishibashi, Tatsuro; Sonoda, Kohhei

2017-07-11

Objetivo: Comparar la efectividad de ranibizumab intravítreo (RIV) para el tratamiento del edema macular diabético (EMD) en ojos con y sin vitrectomía previa. Procedimientos: Evaluamos de manera prospectiva la mejor agudeza visual corregida (MAVC) y el grosor macular central (GMC) tras el tratamiento con RIV durante 6 meses. Resultados: No se observaron diferencias significativas en la MAVC o GMC inicial en ninguno de los dos grupos. En el grupo no vitrectomizado (n = 15), los cambios medios en la MAVC y GMC hasta el sexto mes de tratamiento con respecto al valor inicial resultaron significativos (p < 0,01). En el grupo vitrectomizado (n = 10), se observó una mejora más lenta, y la mejora media en la MAVC no resultó significativa (p = 0,5), aunque la media en la disminución del GMC sí que lo fue (p < 0,05). No se observaron diferencias significativas en los cambios medios en la MAVC y el GMC entre ambos grupos a los 6 meses del tratamiento. Conclusiones: La diferencia en la efectividad de RIV entre ambos grupos no resultó significativa. Ranibizumab intravítreo puede ser una opción de tratamiento incluso en pacientes vitrectomizados con EMD. © 2017 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Electromagnetic Dissociation Cross Sections using Weisskopf-Ewing Theory

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Adamczyk, Anne M.; Norbury, John W.

2011-01-01

It is important that accurate estimates of crew exposure to radiation are obtained for future long-term space missions. Presently, several space radiation transport codes exist to predict the radiation environment, all of which take as input particle interaction cross sections that describe the nuclear interactions between the particles and the shielding material. The space radiation transport code HZETRN uses the nuclear fragmentation model NUCFRG2 to calculate Electromagnetic Dissociation (EMD) cross sections. Currently, NUCFRG2 employs energy independent branching ratios to calculate these cross sections. Using Weisskopf-Ewing (WE) theory to calculate branching ratios, however, is more advantageous than the method currently employed in NUCFRG2. The WE theory can calculate not only neutron and proton emission, as in the energy independent branching ratio formalism used in NUCFRG2, but also deuteron, triton, helion, and alpha particle emission. These particles can contribute significantly to total exposure estimates. In this work, photonuclear cross sections are calculated using WE theory and the energy independent branching ratios used in NUCFRG2 and then compared to experimental data. It is found that the WE theory gives comparable, but mainly better agreement with data than the energy independent branching ratio. Furthermore, EMD cross sections for single neutron, proton, and alpha particle removal are calculated using WE theory and an energy independent branching ratio used in NUCFRG2 and compared to experimental data.

A new multivariate empirical mode decomposition method for improving the performance of SSVEP-based brain-computer interface

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Yi-Feng; Atal, Kiran; Xie, Sheng-Quan; Liu, Quan

2017-08-01

Objective. Accurate and efficient detection of steady-state visual evoked potentials (SSVEP) in electroencephalogram (EEG) is essential for the related brain-computer interface (BCI) applications. Approach. Although the canonical correlation analysis (CCA) has been applied extensively and successfully to SSVEP recognition, the spontaneous EEG activities and artifacts that often occur during data recording can deteriorate the recognition performance. Therefore, it is meaningful to extract a few frequency sub-bands of interest to avoid or reduce the influence of unrelated brain activity and artifacts. This paper presents an improved method to detect the frequency component associated with SSVEP using multivariate empirical mode decomposition (MEMD) and CCA (MEMD-CCA). EEG signals from nine healthy volunteers were recorded to evaluate the performance of the proposed method for SSVEP recognition. Main results. We compared our method with CCA and temporally local multivariate synchronization index (TMSI). The results suggest that the MEMD-CCA achieved significantly higher accuracy in contrast to standard CCA and TMSI. It gave the improvements of 1.34%, 3.11%, 3.33%, 10.45%, 15.78%, 18.45%, 15.00% and 14.22% on average over CCA at time windows from 0.5 s to 5 s and 0.55%, 1.56%, 7.78%, 14.67%, 13.67%, 7.33% and 7.78% over TMSI from 0.75 s to 5 s. The method outperformed the filter-based decomposition (FB), empirical mode decomposition (EMD) and wavelet decomposition (WT) based CCA for SSVEP recognition. Significance. The results demonstrate the ability of our proposed MEMD-CCA to improve the performance of SSVEP-based BCI.

Element analysis: a wavelet-based method for analysing time-localized events in noisy time series.

PubMed

Lilly, Jonathan M

2017-04-01

A method is derived for the quantitative analysis of signals that are composed of superpositions of isolated, time-localized 'events'. Here, these events are taken to be well represented as rescaled and phase-rotated versions of generalized Morse wavelets, a broad family of continuous analytic functions. Analysing a signal composed of replicates of such a function using another Morse wavelet allows one to directly estimate the properties of events from the values of the wavelet transform at its own maxima. The distribution of events in general power-law noise is determined in order to establish significance based on an expected false detection rate. Finally, an expression for an event's 'region of influence' within the wavelet transform permits the formation of a criterion for rejecting spurious maxima due to numerical artefacts or other unsuitable events. Signals can then be reconstructed based on a small number of isolated points on the time/scale plane. This method, termed element analysis , is applied to the identification of long-lived eddy structures in ocean currents as observed by along-track measurements of sea surface elevation from satellite altimetry.

Universal explosive detection system for homeland security applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Vincent Y.; Bromberg, Edward E. A.

2010-04-01

L-3 Communications CyTerra Corporation has developed a high throughput universal explosive detection system (PassPort) to automatically screen the passengers in airports without requiring them to remove their shoes. The technical approach is based on the patented energetic material detection (EMD) technology. By analyzing the results of sample heating with an infrared camera, one can distinguish the deflagration or decomposition of an energetic material from other clutters such as flammables and general background substances. This becomes the basis of a universal explosive detection system that does not require a library and is capable of detecting trace levels of explosives with a low false alarm rate. The PassPort is a simple turnstile type device and integrates a non-intrusive aerodynamic sampling scheme that has been shown capable of detecting trace levels of explosives on shoes. A detailed description of the detection theory and the automated sampling techniques, as well as the field test results, will be presented.

Comparison of 3 kidney injury multiplex panels in rats.

PubMed

John-Baptiste, Annette; Vitsky, Allison; Sace, Frederick; Zong, Qing; Ko, Mira; Yafawi, Rolla; Liu, Ling

2012-01-01

Kidney injury biomarkers have been utilized by pharmaceutical companies as a means to assess the potential of candidate drugs to induce nephrotoxicity. Multiple platforms and assay methods exist, but the comparison of these methods has not been described. Millipore's Kidney Toxicity panel, EMD/Novagen's Widescreen Kidney Toxicity panel, and Meso Scales Kidney Injury panel were selected based on published information. Kidney injury molecule 1, cystatin C, clusterin, and osteopontin were the 4 biomarkers common among all kits tested and the focus of this study. Rats were treated with a low and high dose of para-aminophenol, a known nephrotoxicant, and urine samples were collected and analyzed on the Bio-Plex 200 or MSD's Sector Imager 6000, according to manufacturers specifications. Comparatively, of the 3 kits, Millipore was the most consistent in detecting elevations of 3 out of the 4 biomarkers at both dose levels and indicated time points.

[The applications of periodontal gingival surgery. Ⅱ: alternative materials].

PubMed

Mao, Er-Jia

2018-04-01

The main purposes of periodontal graft surgery include achieving root coverage, improving the clinical attachment level and keratinized tissue, and advancing the procedure of periodontal plastic surgery. Autogenous graft, such as subepithelial connective tissue graft-based procedure, provide the best outcomes for mean and complete root coverage, as well as increase in keratinized tissue. However, a disadvantage of the procedure is in the location of the operation itself: the additional surgical site (palate). Therefore, clinicians are always looking for graft substitutes. This article will discuss the evidence supporting the use of 1) acellular dermal matrix (ADM); 2) xenogeneic collagen matrix (XCM); 3) recombinant human platelet-derived growth factor (rhPDGF); 4) enamel matrix derivative (EMD); 5) guided tissue regeneration (GTR); 6) living cellular construct (LCC), all of which are used in conjunction with coronally advanced flaps as alternatives to autogenous donor tissue. The decision tree for treatments of Miller recession-type defects are also discussed.

Limitations imposed on fire PRA methods as the result of incomplete and uncertain fire event data.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Nowlen, Steven Patrick; Hyslop, J. S.

2010-04-01

Fire probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) methods utilize data and insights gained from actual fire events in a variety of ways. For example, fire occurrence frequencies, manual fire fighting effectiveness and timing, and the distribution of fire events by fire source and plant location are all based directly on the historical experience base. Other factors are either derived indirectly or supported qualitatively based on insights from the event data. These factors include the general nature and intensity of plant fires, insights into operator performance, and insights into fire growth and damage behaviors. This paper will discuss the potential methodology improvements thatmore » could be realized if more complete fire event reporting information were available. Areas that could benefit from more complete event reporting that will be discussed in the paper include fire event frequency analysis, analysis of fire detection and suppression system performance including incipient detection systems, analysis of manual fire fighting performance, treatment of fire growth from incipient stages to fully-involved fires, operator response to fire events, the impact of smoke on plant operations and equipment, and the impact of fire-induced cable failures on plant electrical circuits.« less

Porcine Collagen Matrix With And Without Enamel Matrix Derivative For The Treatment Of Gingival Recession Defects

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-06-01

enhance angiogenesis and stimulate endothelial cells, which favors early healing of the soft tissue.30 EMD is FDA approved for application to root...aesthetic concerns, which can be important to a person’s identity and self -image.5 Another indication is root sensitivity which often results in pain to...cold, heat and even touch leading to an impaired ability to eat or drink and brush one’s teeth. Studies have shown soft tissue coverage procedures

Next Generation 9-1-1: Policy Implications of Incident Related Imagery on the Public Safety Answering Point

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-03-01

Enhanced 9-1-1 EMD eye movement desensitization and reprocessing EMS emergency medical service ESInet Emergency Service IP Network ETNS...Trident), football at Peter B’s, Texas Hold ‘ Em mid-IR, countless cups of Starbucks coffee, and of course, Manny’s Cuban brew. Each of you made this...something to consider. The military has done a good job of recognizing the effects of this [PTSD] trauma. Sadly, the Fire Service, EMS and Law

Thermography Control of Heat Insulation and Tightness of Buildings,

DTIC Science & Technology

1980-11-01

drawing, top to bottom: 100 + 50 mm mineral wool panels, bulk density 50 kg/m3 Vapor barrier of plastic foil 3/4" tongue and groove 13 mm gypsum panel...Horizontal steel bolts Horisontella Air leakage, in A Ireqlar Corrugated sheet metal 90 mm mineral wool (with sheathing paper) Ko"mir) emd 30 mm mineral ...bolt; Outward leakage of warm air from the room; Steel siding; 90 mm mineral wool (with wind protection); 30 mm mineral wool (with vapor barrier

Analyzing nonstationary financial time series via hilbert-huang transform (HHT)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Huang, Norden E. (Inventor)

2008-01-01

An apparatus, computer program product and method of analyzing non-stationary time varying phenomena. A representation of a non-stationary time varying phenomenon is recursively sifted using Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) to extract intrinsic mode functions (IMFs). The representation is filtered to extract intrinsic trends by combining a number of IMFs. The intrinsic trend is inherent in the data and identifies an IMF indicating the variability of the phenomena. The trend also may be used to detrend the data.

KSC-08pd3582

NASA Image and Video Library

2008-10-15

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, NASA Railroad locomotive 3 has been repainted. The Railroad Operation and Maintenance Team at Kennedy completed the refurbishment of locomotive 3 in October. The 15-month process, including a new paint scheme, dealt with extensive corrosion to the locomotive because of Kennedy's proximity to the Atlantic Ocean. Locomotives 1 and 2 also will be refurbished eventually. The NASA Railroad locomotives are SW-1500 switch engines built by Electro Motive Diesel (EMD). Photo credit: NASA/Amanda Diller

KSC-08pd3589

NASA Image and Video Library

2008-10-15

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, NASA Railroad locomotive 3 has been repainted. The Railroad Operation and Maintenance Team at Kennedy completed the refurbishment of locomotive 3 in October. The 15-month process, including a new paint scheme, dealt with extensive corrosion to the locomotive because of Kennedy's proximity to the Atlantic Ocean. Locomotives 1 and 2 also will be refurbished eventually. The NASA Railroad locomotives are SW-1500 switch engines built by Electro Motive Diesel (EMD). Photo credit: NASA/Amanda Diller

KSC-08pd3587

NASA Image and Video Library

2008-10-15

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, NASA Railroad locomotive 3 has been repainted. The Railroad Operation and Maintenance Team at Kennedy completed the refurbishment of locomotive 3 in October. The 15-month process, including a new paint scheme, dealt with extensive corrosion to the locomotive because of Kennedy's proximity to the Atlantic Ocean. Locomotives 1 and 2 also will be refurbished eventually. The NASA Railroad locomotives are SW-1500 switch engines built by Electro Motive Diesel (EMD). Photo credit: NASA/Amanda Diller

KSC-08pd3588

NASA Image and Video Library

2008-10-15

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – A closeup of the cab on NASA Railroad locomotive 3 which was recently refurbished by the Railroad Operation and Maintenance Team at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The 15-month process, including a new paint scheme, dealt with extensive corrosion to the locomotive because of Kennedy's proximity to the Atlantic Ocean. Locomotives 1 and 2 also will be refurbished eventually. The NASA Railroad locomotives are SW-1500 switch engines built by Electro Motive Diesel (EMD). Photo credit: NASA/Amanda Diller

Further Evidence on the Effect of Acquisition Policy and Process on Cost Growth of Major Defense Acquisition Programs (Revised)

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-08-01

climates . Second, the paper found that additional reforms after those introduced in mid-1969 by then Deputy Secretary of Defense David Packard did...Entered EMD during a Bust Funding Climate Acquisition Regime Period (FY) Average APUC Growth* McNamara-Clifford 1964–1969 90% (16) Defense...Funding Climates Acquisition Regime Period (FY) Average APUC Growth* ≥ X̅ + S McNamara-Clifford 1964–1969 90% (16) 3 DSARC 1970–1980 36% (49) 0

Computational investigation of non-covalent interactions in 1-butyl 3-methylimidazolium/bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide [bmim][Tf2N] in EMD and NEMD

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Blanco-Díaz, Edgar G.; Vázquez-Montelongo, Erik A.; Cisneros, G. Andrés; Castrejón-González, Edgar Omar

2018-02-01

Non-covalent interactions (NCIs) play a crucial role in the behavior and properties of ionic liquids (ILs). These interactions are particularly important for non-equilibrium properties such as the change in viscosity due to shearing forces (shear viscosity). Therefore, a detailed understanding of these interactions can improve our understanding of these important classes of liquids. Here, we have employed quantum mechanical energy decomposition analysis (EDA) and NCI analysis to investigate a series of representative 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide ([bmim][Tf2N]) ion pairs extracted from classical equilibrium and non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations. EDA based on symmetry-adapted perturbation theory (SAPT) for the complete monomers, as well as fragment SAPT (FSAPT), for the functional fragments has been carried out. In general, the electrostatic component comprises ≈80% of the intermolecular interaction, and significant contributions from other components (induction and dispersion) are also observed, especially for interactions involving bifurcated hydrogen bonds. The FSAPT analysis suggests that caution is warranted when employing simplified assumptions for non-bonded interactions, e.g., focusing only on hydrogen bonds between functional fragments, since this view may not provide a complete picture of the complicated interactions between the ions. In non-equilibrium molecular dynamics, the total interaction energies of some fragments have a significant qualitative change as the shear rate increases. Our results indicate that the inter-fragment interactions play a fundamental role in the viscous behavior of ILs, suggesting that the exclusive use of geometric criteria to analyze inter-molecular interactions in these systems is not sufficient to investigate shear-thinning effects.

Using the DOE Knowledge Base for Special Event Analysis

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Armstrong, H.M.; Harris, J.M.; Young, C.J.

1998-10-20

The DOE Knowledge Base is a library of detailed information whose purpose is to support the United States National Data Center (USNDC) in its mission to monitor compliance with the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). One of the important tasks which the USNDC must accomplish is to periodically perform detailed analysis of events of high interest, so-called "Special Events", to provide the national authority with information needed to make policy decisions. In this paper we investigate some possible uses of the Knowledge Base for Special Event Analysis (SEA), and make recommendations for improving Knowledge Base support for SEA. To analyzemore » an event in detail, there are two basic types of data which must be used sensor-derived data (wave- forms, arrivals, events, etc.) and regiohalized contextual data (known sources, geological characteristics, etc.). Cur- rently there is no single package which can provide full access to both types of data, so for our study we use a separate package for each MatSeis, the Sandia Labs-developed MATLAB-based seismic analysis package, for wave- form data analysis, and ArcView, an ESRI product, for contextual data analysis. Both packages are well-suited to pro- totyping because they provide a rich set of currently available functionality and yet are also flexible and easily extensible, . Using these tools and Phase I Knowledge Base data sets, we show how the Knowledge Base can improve both the speed and the quality of SEA. Empirically-derived interpolated correction information can be accessed to improve both location estimates and associated error estimates. This information can in turn be used to identi~ any known nearby sources (e.g. mines, volcanos), which may then trigger specialized processing of the sensor data. Based on the location estimate, preferred magnitude formulas and discriminants can be retrieved, and any known blockages can be identified to prevent miscalculations. Relevant historic events can be identilled either by spatial proximity searches or through waveform correlation processing. The locations and waveforms of these events can then be made available for side-by-side comparison and processing. If synthetic modeling is thought to be warranted, a wide variety of rele- vant contextu~l information (e.g. crustal thickness and layering, seismic velocities, attenuation factors) can be retrieved and sent to the appropriate applications. Once formedj the synthetics can then be brought in for side-by-side comparison and fhrther processing. Based on our study, we make two general recommendations. First, proper inter-process communication between sensor data analysis software and contextual data analysis sofisvare should be developed. Second, some of the Knowl- edge Base data sets should be prioritized or winnowed to streamline comparison with observed quantities.« less

Normalization Strategies for Enhancing Spatio-Temporal Analysis of Social Media Responses during Extreme Events: A Case Study based on Analysis of Four Extreme Events using Socio-Environmental Data Explorer (SEDE)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ajayakumar, J.; Shook, E.; Turner, V. K.

2017-10-01

With social media becoming increasingly location-based, there has been a greater push from researchers across various domains including social science, public health, and disaster management, to tap in the spatial, temporal, and textual data available from these sources to analyze public response during extreme events such as an epidemic outbreak or a natural disaster. Studies based on demographics and other socio-economic factors suggests that social media data could be highly skewed based on the variations of population density with respect to place. To capture the spatio-temporal variations in public response during extreme events we have developed the Socio-Environmental Data Explorer (SEDE). SEDE collects and integrates social media, news and environmental data to support exploration and assessment of public response to extreme events. For this study, using SEDE, we conduct spatio-temporal social media response analysis on four major extreme events in the United States including the "North American storm complex" in December 2015, the "snowstorm Jonas" in January 2016, the "West Virginia floods" in June 2016, and the "Hurricane Matthew" in October 2016. Analysis is conducted on geo-tagged social media data from Twitter and warnings from the storm events database provided by National Centers For Environmental Information (NCEI) for analysis. Results demonstrate that, to support complex social media analyses, spatial and population-based normalization and filtering is necessary. The implications of these results suggests that, while developing software solutions to support analysis of non-conventional data sources such as social media, it is quintessential to identify the inherent biases associated with the data sources, and adapt techniques and enhance capabilities to mitigate the bias. The normalization strategies that we have developed and incorporated to SEDE will be helpful in reducing the population bias associated with social media data and will be useful for researchers and decision makers to enhance their analysis on spatio-temporal social media responses during extreme events.

Multi-tissue analysis of co-expression networks by higher-order generalized singular value decomposition identifies functionally coherent transcriptional modules.

PubMed

Xiao, Xiaolin; Moreno-Moral, Aida; Rotival, Maxime; Bottolo, Leonardo; Petretto, Enrico

2014-01-01

Recent high-throughput efforts such as ENCODE have generated a large body of genome-scale transcriptional data in multiple conditions (e.g., cell-types and disease states). Leveraging these data is especially important for network-based approaches to human disease, for instance to identify coherent transcriptional modules (subnetworks) that can inform functional disease mechanisms and pathological pathways. Yet, genome-scale network analysis across conditions is significantly hampered by the paucity of robust and computationally-efficient methods. Building on the Higher-Order Generalized Singular Value Decomposition, we introduce a new algorithmic approach for efficient, parameter-free and reproducible identification of network-modules simultaneously across multiple conditions. Our method can accommodate weighted (and unweighted) networks of any size and can similarly use co-expression or raw gene expression input data, without hinging upon the definition and stability of the correlation used to assess gene co-expression. In simulation studies, we demonstrated distinctive advantages of our method over existing methods, which was able to recover accurately both common and condition-specific network-modules without entailing ad-hoc input parameters as required by other approaches. We applied our method to genome-scale and multi-tissue transcriptomic datasets from rats (microarray-based) and humans (mRNA-sequencing-based) and identified several common and tissue-specific subnetworks with functional significance, which were not detected by other methods. In humans we recapitulated the crosstalk between cell-cycle progression and cell-extracellular matrix interactions processes in ventricular zones during neocortex expansion and further, we uncovered pathways related to development of later cognitive functions in the cortical plate of the developing brain which were previously unappreciated. Analyses of seven rat tissues identified a multi-tissue subnetwork of co-expressed heat shock protein (Hsp) and cardiomyopathy genes (Bag3, Cryab, Kras, Emd, Plec), which was significantly replicated using separate failing heart and liver gene expression datasets in humans, thus revealing a conserved functional role for Hsp genes in cardiovascular disease.

Research on Visual Analysis Methods of Terrorism Events

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guo, Wenyue; Liu, Haiyan; Yu, Anzhu; Li, Jing

2016-06-01

Under the situation that terrorism events occur more and more frequency throughout the world, improving the response capability of social security incidents has become an important aspect to test governments govern ability. Visual analysis has become an important method of event analysing for its advantage of intuitive and effective. To analyse events' spatio-temporal distribution characteristics, correlations among event items and the development trend, terrorism event's spatio-temporal characteristics are discussed. Suitable event data table structure based on "5W" theory is designed. Then, six types of visual analysis are purposed, and how to use thematic map and statistical charts to realize visual analysis on terrorism events is studied. Finally, experiments have been carried out by using the data provided by Global Terrorism Database, and the results of experiments proves the availability of the methods.

Statistical analysis of life history calendar data.

PubMed

Eerola, Mervi; Helske, Satu

2016-04-01

The life history calendar is a data-collection tool for obtaining reliable retrospective data about life events. To illustrate the analysis of such data, we compare the model-based probabilistic event history analysis and the model-free data mining method, sequence analysis. In event history analysis, we estimate instead of transition hazards the cumulative prediction probabilities of life events in the entire trajectory. In sequence analysis, we compare several dissimilarity metrics and contrast data-driven and user-defined substitution costs. As an example, we study young adults' transition to adulthood as a sequence of events in three life domains. The events define the multistate event history model and the parallel life domains in multidimensional sequence analysis. The relationship between life trajectories and excess depressive symptoms in middle age is further studied by their joint prediction in the multistate model and by regressing the symptom scores on individual-specific cluster indices. The two approaches complement each other in life course analysis; sequence analysis can effectively find typical and atypical life patterns while event history analysis is needed for causal inquiries. © The Author(s) 2012.

Aerosol vertical distribution and optical properties over the arid and semi-arid areas of Northwest China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, L.; Tian, P.; Cao, X.; Liang, J.

2017-12-01

Atmospheric aerosols affect the energy budget of the Earth-atmosphere system by direct interaction with solar radiation through scattering and absorption, also indirectly affect weather and climate by altering cloud formation, albedo, and lightning activity. To better understand the information on aerosols over the arid and semi-arid areas of Northwest China, we carried out a series of observation experiments in Wuwei, Zhangye, Dunhuang, and a permanent site SACOL (the Semi-Arid Climate and Environment Observatory of Lanzhou University) (35.95°N, 104.14°E) in Lanzhou, and optical properties using satellite and ground-based remote-sensing measurements. A modified dual-wavelength Mie-scattering lidar (L2S-SM II) inversion algorithm was proposed to simulate the optical property of dust aerosol more accurately. We introduced the physical significance of intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) and the noise component removed from the empirical mode decomposition (EMD) method into the denoising process of the micro-pulse lidar (CE370-2,Cimel) backscattering signal, and developed an EMD-based automatic data-denoising algorithm, which was proven to be better than the wavelet method. Also, we improved the cloud discrimination. On the basis of these studies, aerosol vertical distribution and optical properties were investigated. The main results were as follows:(1) Dust could be lifted up to a 8 km height over Northwest China; (2) From 2005 to 2008, and aerosol existed in the layer below 4 km at SACOL, and the daily average AOD was 87.8% below 0.4; (3) The average depolarization ratio, Ångström exponent α440/870nm and effective radius of black carbon aerosols were 0.24, 0.86±0.30 and 0.54±0.17 μm, respectively, from November 2010 to February 2011; (4) Compared to other regions of China, the Taklamakan Desert and Tibetan Plateau regions exhibit higher depolarization and color ratios because of the natural dust origin. Our studies provided the key information on the long-term seasonal and spatial variations in the aerosol vertical distribution and optical properties, regional aerosol types, long-range transport and atmospheric stability, which could be utilized to more precisely assess the direct and indirect aerosol effects on weather and climate.

NASA Tech Briefs, November 2003

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2003-01-01

Topics covered include: Computer Program Recognizes Patterns in Time-Series Data; Program for User-Friendly Management of Input and Output Data Sets; Noncoherent Tracking of a Source of a Data-Modulated Signal; Software for Acquiring Image Data for PIV; Detecting Edges in Images by Use of Fuzzy Reasoning; A Timer for Synchronous Digital Systems; Prototype Parts of a Digital Beam-Forming Wide-Band Receiver; High-Voltage Droplet Dispenser; Network Extender for MIL-STD-1553 Bus; MMIC HEMT Power Amplifier for 140 to 170 GHz; Piezoelectric Diffraction-Based Optical Switches; Numerical Modeling of Nanoelectronic Devices; Organizing Diverse, Distributed Project Information; Eigensolver for a Sparse, Large Hermitian Matrix; Modified Polar-Format Software for Processing SAR Data; e-Stars Template Builder; Software for Acoustic Rendering; Functionally Graded Nanophase Beryllium/Carbon Composites; Thin Thermal-Insulation Blankets for Very High Temperatures; Prolonging Microgravity on Parabolic Airplane Flights; Device for Locking a Control Knob; Cable-Dispensing Cart; Foam Sensor Structures Would be Self-Deployable and Survive Hard Landings; Real-Gas Effects on Binary Mixing Layers; Earth-Space Link Attenuation Estimation via Ground Radar Kdp; Wedge Heat-Flux Indicators for Flash Thermography; Measuring Diffusion of Liquids by Common-Path Interferometry; Zero-Shear, Low-Disturbance Optical Delay Line; Whispering-Gallery Mode-Locked Lasers; Spatial Light Modulators as Optical Crossbar Switches; Update on EMD and Hilbert-Spectra Analysis of Time Series; Quad-Tree Visual-Calculus Analysis of Satellite Coverage; Dyakonov-Perel Effect on Spin Dephasing in n-Type GaAs; Update on Area Production in Mixing of Supercritical Fluids; and Quasi-Sun-Pointing of Spacecraft Using Radiation Pressure.

Event Reports Promoting Root Cause Analysis.

PubMed

Pandit, Swananda; Gong, Yang

2016-01-01

Improving health is the sole objective of medical care. Unfortunately, mishaps or patient safety events happen during the care. If the safety events were collected effectively, they would help identify patterns, underlying causes, and ultimately generate proactive and remedial solutions for prevention of recurrence. Based on the AHRQ Common Formats, we examine the quality of patient safety incident reports and describe the initial data requirement that can support and accelerate effective root cause analysis. The ultimate goal is to develop a knowledge base of patient safety events and their common solutions which can be readily available for sharing and learning.

Fault and event tree analyses for process systems risk analysis: uncertainty handling formulations.

PubMed

Ferdous, Refaul; Khan, Faisal; Sadiq, Rehan; Amyotte, Paul; Veitch, Brian

2011-01-01

Quantitative risk analysis (QRA) is a systematic approach for evaluating likelihood, consequences, and risk of adverse events. QRA based on event (ETA) and fault tree analyses (FTA) employs two basic assumptions. The first assumption is related to likelihood values of input events, and the second assumption is regarding interdependence among the events (for ETA) or basic events (for FTA). Traditionally, FTA and ETA both use crisp probabilities; however, to deal with uncertainties, the probability distributions of input event likelihoods are assumed. These probability distributions are often hard to come by and even if available, they are subject to incompleteness (partial ignorance) and imprecision. Furthermore, both FTA and ETA assume that events (or basic events) are independent. In practice, these two assumptions are often unrealistic. This article focuses on handling uncertainty in a QRA framework of a process system. Fuzzy set theory and evidence theory are used to describe the uncertainties in the input event likelihoods. A method based on a dependency coefficient is used to express interdependencies of events (or basic events) in ETA and FTA. To demonstrate the approach, two case studies are discussed. © 2010 Society for Risk Analysis.

Web Video Event Recognition by Semantic Analysis From Ubiquitous Documents.

PubMed

Yu, Litao; Yang, Yang; Huang, Zi; Wang, Peng; Song, Jingkuan; Shen, Heng Tao

2016-12-01

In recent years, the task of event recognition from videos has attracted increasing interest in multimedia area. While most of the existing research was mainly focused on exploring visual cues to handle relatively small-granular events, it is difficult to directly analyze video content without any prior knowledge. Therefore, synthesizing both the visual and semantic analysis is a natural way for video event understanding. In this paper, we study the problem of Web video event recognition, where Web videos often describe large-granular events and carry limited textual information. Key challenges include how to accurately represent event semantics from incomplete textual information and how to effectively explore the correlation between visual and textual cues for video event understanding. We propose a novel framework to perform complex event recognition from Web videos. In order to compensate the insufficient expressive power of visual cues, we construct an event knowledge base by deeply mining semantic information from ubiquitous Web documents. This event knowledge base is capable of describing each event with comprehensive semantics. By utilizing this base, the textual cues for a video can be significantly enriched. Furthermore, we introduce a two-view adaptive regression model, which explores the intrinsic correlation between the visual and textual cues of the videos to learn reliable classifiers. Extensive experiments on two real-world video data sets show the effectiveness of our proposed framework and prove that the event knowledge base indeed helps improve the performance of Web video event recognition.

Using Web Crawler Technology for Text Analysis of Geo-Events: A Case Study of the Huangyan Island Incident

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hu, H.; Ge, Y. J.

2013-11-01

With the social networking and network socialisation have brought more text information and social relationships into our daily lives, the question of whether big data can be fully used to study the phenomenon and discipline of natural sciences has prompted many specialists and scholars to innovate their research. Though politics were integrally involved in the hyperlinked word issues since 1990s, automatic assembly of different geospatial web and distributed geospatial information systems utilizing service chaining have explored and built recently, the information collection and data visualisation of geo-events have always faced the bottleneck of traditional manual analysis because of the sensibility, complexity, relativity, timeliness and unexpected characteristics of political events. Based on the framework of Heritrix and the analysis of web-based text, word frequency, sentiment tendency and dissemination path of the Huangyan Island incident is studied here by combining web crawler technology and the text analysis method. The results indicate that tag cloud, frequency map, attitudes pie, individual mention ratios and dissemination flow graph based on the data collection and processing not only highlight the subject and theme vocabularies of related topics but also certain issues and problems behind it. Being able to express the time-space relationship of text information and to disseminate the information regarding geo-events, the text analysis of network information based on focused web crawler technology can be a tool for understanding the formation and diffusion of web-based public opinions in political events.

Efficacy of platelet-rich fibrin vs. enamel matrix derivative in the treatment of periodontal intrabony defects: a clinical and cone beam computed tomography study.

PubMed

Gupta, Swyeta Jain; Jhingran, Rajesh; Gupta, Vivek; Bains, Vivek Kumar; Madan, Rohit; Rizvi, Iram

2014-07-01

To evaluate and compare the efficacy of platelet-rich fibrin (PRF) with enamel matrix derivative (EMD; Emdogain) in the treatment of periodontal intrabony defects in patients with chronic periodontitis, six months after surgery. Forty-four (44) intrabony defects in 30 patients (15 males) were randomly allocated into two treatment groups: EMD (n = 22) and PRF (n = 22). Measurement of the defects was done using clinical and cone beam computed tomography at baseline and 6 months. Clinical and radiographic parameters such as probing depth, clinical attachment level, intrabony defect depth and defect angle, were recorded at baseline and 6 months post-operatively. Within group change was evaluated using the Wilcoxon signed rank test. Intergroup comparisons were made using the Mann-Whitney U test. Postsurgical measurements revealed that there was an equal reduction in probing depth and a greater but statistically non-significant attachment gain for the Emdogain group when compared to the platelet-rich fibrin group. The Emdogain group presented with significantly greater percentage defect resolution (43.07% ± 12.21) than did the platelet-rich fibrin group (32.41% ± 14.61). Post-operatively the changes in defect width and defect angle were significant in both groups, but upon intergroup comparison they were found to be statistically non-significantly different. Both Emdogain and platelet-rich fibrin were effective in the regeneration of intrabony defects. Emdogain was significantly superior in terms of percentage defect resolution.

Don't Look Now - Tiltrotors Are Coming!

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dugan, Daniel C.; Hindson, William S. (Technical Monitor)

1997-01-01

This paper traces the history of tiltrotors, beginning with the XV-3 and XV-15, to the Marine's V-22 Osprey. The design of the first civil tiltrotor, the Bell-Boeing 609, is now complete and the revolutionary aircraft will debut in 2001 after completion of a rigorous test program. The XV-3 proved the safety and ease of transition from the helicopter mode to the airplane mode; however, it had aeroelastic stability and performance problems. The XV-15 was the tiltrotor of the late 70s and the 80s. In 1981, it was demonstrated to the international aviation community at the Paris Air Show. Its success led to the development of the V-22 Osprey and it returned to Paris in 1995 in the livery of a civil tiltrotor. There, it flew joint demonstrations with the Osprey. One is still flying today as a Civil Tiltrotor (CTR) demonstrator. The V-22 first flew in Mar 1989. After a stormy procurement cycle, the Full Scale Development (FSD) aircraft were superseded by the improved Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) aircraft. The #7 Osprey made its first flight eight years later. Many highlights of the FSD and EMD flight test programs will be covered and illustrated with video clips. The Bell-Boeing 609 design was unveiled at the Smithsonian in November, 1996 and the first orders have been taken for this 250 knot, corporate size tiltrotor. Flight testing of this innovative aircraft will commence in 1999.

PAREMD: A parallel program for the evaluation of momentum space properties of atoms and molecules

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meena, Deep Raj; Gadre, Shridhar R.; Balanarayan, P.

2018-03-01

The present work describes a code for evaluating the electron momentum density (EMD), its moments and the associated Shannon information entropy for a multi-electron molecular system. The code works specifically for electronic wave functions obtained from traditional electronic structure packages such as GAMESS and GAUSSIAN. For the momentum space orbitals, the general expression for Gaussian basis sets in position space is analytically Fourier transformed to momentum space Gaussian basis functions. The molecular orbital coefficients of the wave function are taken as an input from the output file of the electronic structure calculation. The analytic expressions of EMD are evaluated over a fine grid and the accuracy of the code is verified by a normalization check and a numerical kinetic energy evaluation which is compared with the analytic kinetic energy given by the electronic structure package. Apart from electron momentum density, electron density in position space has also been integrated into this package. The program is written in C++ and is executed through a Shell script. It is also tuned for multicore machines with shared memory through OpenMP. The program has been tested for a variety of molecules and correlated methods such as CISD, Møller-Plesset second order (MP2) theory and density functional methods. For correlated methods, the PAREMD program uses natural spin orbitals as an input. The program has been benchmarked for a variety of Gaussian basis sets for different molecules showing a linear speedup on a parallel architecture.

Gas shale/oil shale

USGS Publications Warehouse

Fishman, N.S.; Bereskin, S.R.; Bowker, K.A.; Cardott, B.J.; Chidsey, T.C.; Dubiel, R.F.; Enomoto, C.B.; Harrison, W.B.; Jarvie, D.M.; Jenkins, C.L.; LeFever, J.A.; Li, Peng; McCracken, J.N.; Morgan, C.D.; Nordeng, S.H.; Nyahay, R.E.; Schamel, Steven; Sumner, R.L.; Wray, L.L.

2011-01-01

The production of natural gas from shales continues to increase in North America, and shale gas exploration is on the rise in other parts of the world since the previous report by this committee was published by American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Energy Minerals Division (2009). For the United States, the volume of proved reserves of natural gas increased 11% from 2008 to 2009, the increase driven largely by shale gas development (Energy Information Administration 2010c). Furthermore, shales have increasingly become targets of exploration for oil and condensate as well as gas, which has served to greatly expand their significance as ‘‘unconventional’’ petroleum reservoirs.This report provides information about specific shales across North America and Europe from which gas (biogenic or thermogenic), oil, or natural gas liquids are produced or is actively being explored. The intent is to reflect the recently expanded mission of the Energy Minerals Division (EMD) Gas Shales Committee to serve as a single point of access to technical information on shales regardless of the type of hydrocarbon produced from them. The contents of this report were drawn largely from contributions by numerous members of the EMD Gas Shales Advisory Committee, with much of the data being available from public websites such as state or provincial geological surveys or other public institutions. Shales from which gas or oil is being produced in the United States are listed in alphabetical order by shale name. Information for Canada is presented by province, whereas for Europe, it is presented by country.

Methods for external event screening quantification: Risk Methods Integration and Evaluation Program (RMIEP) methods development

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ravindra, M.K.; Banon, H.

1992-07-01

In this report, the scoping quantification procedures for external events in probabilistic risk assessments of nuclear power plants are described. External event analysis in a PRA has three important goals; (1) the analysis should be complete in that all events are considered; (2) by following some selected screening criteria, the more significant events are identified for detailed analysis; (3) the selected events are analyzed in depth by taking into account the unique features of the events: hazard, fragility of structures and equipment, external-event initiated accident sequences, etc. Based on the above goals, external event analysis may be considered as amore » three-stage process: Stage I: Identification and Initial Screening of External Events; Stage II: Bounding Analysis; Stage III: Detailed Risk Analysis. In the present report, first, a review of published PRAs is given to focus on the significance and treatment of external events in full-scope PRAs. Except for seismic, flooding, fire, and extreme wind events, the contributions of other external events to plant risk have been found to be negligible. Second, scoping methods for external events not covered in detail in the NRC's PRA Procedures Guide are provided. For this purpose, bounding analyses for transportation accidents, extreme winds and tornadoes, aircraft impacts, turbine missiles, and chemical release are described.« less

Event coincidence analysis for quantifying statistical interrelationships between event time series. On the role of flood events as triggers of epidemic outbreaks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Donges, J. F.; Schleussner, C.-F.; Siegmund, J. F.; Donner, R. V.

2016-05-01

Studying event time series is a powerful approach for analyzing the dynamics of complex dynamical systems in many fields of science. In this paper, we describe the method of event coincidence analysis to provide a framework for quantifying the strength, directionality and time lag of statistical interrelationships between event series. Event coincidence analysis allows to formulate and test null hypotheses on the origin of the observed interrelationships including tests based on Poisson processes or, more generally, stochastic point processes with a prescribed inter-event time distribution and other higher-order properties. Applying the framework to country-level observational data yields evidence that flood events have acted as triggers of epidemic outbreaks globally since the 1950s. Facing projected future changes in the statistics of climatic extreme events, statistical techniques such as event coincidence analysis will be relevant for investigating the impacts of anthropogenic climate change on human societies and ecosystems worldwide.

g-PRIME: A Free, Windows Based Data Acquisition and Event Analysis Software Package for Physiology in Classrooms and Research Labs.

PubMed

Lott, Gus K; Johnson, Bruce R; Bonow, Robert H; Land, Bruce R; Hoy, Ronald R

2009-01-01

We present g-PRIME, a software based tool for physiology data acquisition, analysis, and stimulus generation in education and research. This software was developed in an undergraduate neurophysiology course and strongly influenced by instructor and student feedback. g-PRIME is a free, stand-alone, windows application coded and "compiled" in Matlab (does not require a Matlab license). g-PRIME supports many data acquisition interfaces from the PC sound card to expensive high throughput calibrated equipment. The program is designed as a software oscilloscope with standard trigger modes, multi-channel visualization controls, and data logging features. Extensive analysis options allow real time and offline filtering of signals, multi-parameter threshold-and-window based event detection, and two-dimensional display of a variety of parameters including event time, energy density, maximum FFT frequency component, max/min amplitudes, and inter-event rate and intervals. The software also correlates detected events with another simultaneously acquired source (event triggered average) in real time or offline. g-PRIME supports parameter histogram production and a variety of elegant publication quality graphics outputs. A major goal of this software is to merge powerful engineering acquisition and analysis tools with a biological approach to studies of nervous system function.

A study of Bangladesh's sub-surface water storages using satellite products and data assimilation scheme.

PubMed

Khaki, M; Forootan, E; Kuhn, M; Awange, J; Papa, F; Shum, C K

2018-06-01

Climate change can significantly influence terrestrial water changes around the world particularly in places that have been proven to be more vulnerable such as Bangladesh. In the past few decades, climate impacts, together with those of excessive human water use have changed the country's water availability structure. In this study, we use multi-mission remotely sensed measurements along with a hydrological model to separately analyze groundwater and soil moisture variations for the period 2003-2013, and their interactions with rainfall in Bangladesh. To improve the model's estimates of water storages, terrestrial water storage (TWS) data obtained from the Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite mission are assimilated into the World-Wide Water Resources Assessment (W3RA) model using the ensemble-based sequential technique of the Square Root Analysis (SQRA) filter. We investigate the capability of the data assimilation approach to use a non-regional hydrological model for a regional case study. Based on these estimates, we investigate relationships between the model derived sub-surface water storage changes and remotely sensed precipitations, as well as altimetry-derived river level variations in Bangladesh by applying the empirical mode decomposition (EMD) method. A larger correlation is found between river level heights and rainfalls (78% on average) in comparison to groundwater storage variations and rainfalls (57% on average). The results indicate a significant decline in groundwater storage (∼32% reduction) for Bangladesh between 2003 and 2013, which is equivalent to an average rate of 8.73 ± 2.45mm/year. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

[Rapid determination of COD in aquaculture water based on LS-SVM with ultraviolet/visible spectroscopy].

PubMed

Liu, Xue-Mei; Zhang, Hai-Liang

2014-10-01

Ultraviolet/visible (UV/Vis) spectroscopy was studied for the rapid determination of chemical oxygen demand (COD), which was an indicator to measure the concentration of organic matter in aquaculture water. In order to reduce the influence of the absolute noises of the spectra, the extracted 135 absorbance spectra were preprocessed by Savitzky-Golay smoothing (SG), EMD, and wavelet transform (WT) methods. The preprocessed spectra were then used to select latent variables (LVs) by partial least squares (PLS) methods. Partial least squares (PLS) was used to build models with the full spectra, and back- propagation neural network (BPNN) and least square support vector machine (LS-SVM) were applied to build models with the selected LVs. The overall results showed that BPNN and LS-SVM models performed better than PLS models, and the LS-SVM models with LVs based on WT preprocessed spectra obtained the best results with the determination coefficient (r2) and RMSE being 0. 83 and 14. 78 mg · L(-1) for calibration set, and 0.82 and 14.82 mg · L(-1) for the prediction set respectively. The method showed the best performance in LS-SVM model. The results indicated that it was feasible to use UV/Vis with LVs which were obtained by PLS method, combined with LS-SVM calibration could be applied to the rapid and accurate determination of COD in aquaculture water. Moreover, this study laid the foundation for further implementation of online analysis of aquaculture water and rapid determination of other water quality parameters.

A comparison of analysis methods to estimate contingency strength.

PubMed

Lloyd, Blair P; Staubitz, Johanna L; Tapp, Jon T

2018-05-09

To date, several data analysis methods have been used to estimate contingency strength, yet few studies have compared these methods directly. To compare the relative precision and sensitivity of four analysis methods (i.e., exhaustive event-based, nonexhaustive event-based, concurrent interval, concurrent+lag interval), we applied all methods to a simulated data set in which several response-dependent and response-independent schedules of reinforcement were programmed. We evaluated the degree to which contingency strength estimates produced from each method (a) corresponded with expected values for response-dependent schedules and (b) showed sensitivity to parametric manipulations of response-independent reinforcement. Results indicated both event-based methods produced contingency strength estimates that aligned with expected values for response-dependent schedules, but differed in sensitivity to response-independent reinforcement. The precision of interval-based methods varied by analysis method (concurrent vs. concurrent+lag) and schedule type (continuous vs. partial), and showed similar sensitivities to response-independent reinforcement. Recommendations and considerations for measuring contingencies are identified. © 2018 Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.

Fusing Symbolic and Numerical Diagnostic Computations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

James, Mark

2007-01-01

X-2000 Anomaly Detection Language denotes a developmental computing language, and the software that establishes and utilizes the language, for fusing two diagnostic computer programs, one implementing a numerical analysis method, the other implementing a symbolic analysis method into a unified event-based decision analysis software system for realtime detection of events (e.g., failures) in a spacecraft, aircraft, or other complex engineering system. The numerical analysis method is performed by beacon-based exception analysis for multi-missions (BEAMs), which has been discussed in several previous NASA Tech Briefs articles. The symbolic analysis method is, more specifically, an artificial-intelligence method of the knowledge-based, inference engine type, and its implementation is exemplified by the Spacecraft Health Inference Engine (SHINE) software. The goal in developing the capability to fuse numerical and symbolic diagnostic components is to increase the depth of analysis beyond that previously attainable, thereby increasing the degree of confidence in the computed results. In practical terms, the sought improvement is to enable detection of all or most events, with no or few false alarms.