Automated DBS microsampling, microscale automation and microflow LC-MS for therapeutic protein PK.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Qian; Tomazela, Daniela; Vasicek, Lisa A; Spellman, Daniel S; Beaumont, Maribel; Shyong, BaoJen; Kenny, Jacqueline; Fauty, Scott; Fillgrove, Kerry; Harrelson, Jane; Bateman, Kevin P

2016-04-01

Reduce animal usage for discovery-stage PK studies for biologics programs using microsampling-based approaches and microscale LC-MS. We report the development of an automated DBS-based serial microsampling approach for studying the PK of therapeutic proteins in mice. Automated sample preparation and microflow LC-MS were used to enable assay miniaturization and improve overall assay throughput. Serial sampling of mice was possible over the full 21-day study period with the first six time points over 24 h being collected using automated DBS sample collection. Overall, this approach demonstrated comparable data to a previous study using single mice per time point liquid samples while reducing animal and compound requirements by 14-fold. Reduction in animals and drug material is enabled by the use of automated serial DBS microsampling for mice studies in discovery-stage studies of protein therapeutics.

1366 Project Automate: Enabling Automation for <$0.10/W High-Efficiency Kerfless Wafers Manufactured in the US

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lorenz, Adam [1366 Technologies, Bedford, MA (United States)

2017-05-10

For photovoltaic (PV) manufacturing to thrive in the U.S., there must be an innovative core to the technology. Project Automate builds on 1366’s proprietary Direct Wafer® kerfless wafer technology and aims to unlock the cost and efficiency advantages of thin kerfless wafers. Direct Wafer is an innovative, U.S.-friendly (efficient, low-labor content) manufacturing process that addresses the main cost barrier limiting silicon PV cost-reductions – the 35-year-old grand challenge of manufacturing quality wafers (40% of the cost of modules) without the cost and waste of sawing. This simple, scalable process will allow 1366 to manufacture “drop-in” replacement wafers for the $10 billion silicon PV wafer market at 50% of the cost, 60% of the capital, and 30% of the electricity of conventional casting and sawing manufacturing processes. This SolarMat project developed the Direct Wafer processes’ unique capability to tailor the shape of wafers to simultaneously make thinner AND stronger wafers (with lower silicon usage) that enable high-efficiency cell architectures. By producing wafers with a unique target geometry including a thick border (which determines handling characteristics) and thin interior regions (which control light capture and electron transport and therefore determine efficiency), 1366 can simultaneously improve quality and lower cost (using less silicon).

CloVR-Comparative: automated, cloud-enabled comparative microbial genome sequence analysis pipeline.

Science.gov (United States)

Agrawal, Sonia; Arze, Cesar; Adkins, Ricky S; Crabtree, Jonathan; Riley, David; Vangala, Mahesh; Galens, Kevin; Fraser, Claire M; Tettelin, Hervé; White, Owen; Angiuoli, Samuel V; Mahurkar, Anup; Fricke, W Florian

2017-04-27

The benefit of increasing genomic sequence data to the scientific community depends on easy-to-use, scalable bioinformatics support. CloVR-Comparative combines commonly used bioinformatics tools into an intuitive, automated, and cloud-enabled analysis pipeline for comparative microbial genomics. CloVR-Comparative runs on annotated complete or draft genome sequences that are uploaded by the user or selected via a taxonomic tree-based user interface and downloaded from NCBI. CloVR-Comparative runs reference-free multiple whole-genome alignments to determine unique, shared and core coding sequences (CDSs) and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Output includes short summary reports and detailed text-based results files, graphical visualizations (phylogenetic trees, circular figures), and a database file linked to the Sybil comparative genome browser. Data up- and download, pipeline configuration and monitoring, and access to Sybil are managed through CloVR-Comparative web interface. CloVR-Comparative and Sybil are distributed as part of the CloVR virtual appliance, which runs on local computers or the Amazon EC2 cloud. Representative datasets (e.g. 40 draft and complete Escherichia coli genomes) are processed in genomics projects, while eliminating the need for on-site computational resources and expertise.

Optimization of automation: III. Development of optimization method for determining automation rate in nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Seung Min; Kim, Jong Hyun; Kim, Man Cheol; Seong, Poong Hyun

2016-01-01

Highlights: • We propose an appropriate automation rate that enables the best human performance. • We analyze the shortest working time considering Situation Awareness Recovery (SAR). • The optimized automation rate is estimated by integrating the automation and ostracism rate estimation methods. • The process to derive the optimized automation rate is demonstrated through case studies. - Abstract: Automation has been introduced in various industries, including the nuclear field, because it is commonly believed that automation promises greater efficiency, lower workloads, and fewer operator errors through reducing operator errors and enhancing operator and system performance. However, the excessive introduction of automation has deteriorated operator performance due to the side effects of automation, which are referred to as Out-of-the-Loop (OOTL), and this is critical issue that must be resolved. Thus, in order to determine the optimal level of automation introduction that assures the best human operator performance, a quantitative method of optimizing the automation is proposed in this paper. In order to propose the optimization method for determining appropriate automation levels that enable the best human performance, the automation rate and ostracism rate, which are estimation methods that quantitatively analyze the positive and negative effects of automation, respectively, are integrated. The integration was conducted in order to derive the shortest working time through considering the concept of situation awareness recovery (SAR), which states that the automation rate with the shortest working time assures the best human performance. The process to derive the optimized automation rate is demonstrated through an emergency operation scenario-based case study. In this case study, four types of procedures are assumed through redesigning the original emergency operating procedure according to the introduced automation and ostracism levels. Using the

Automated Data Quality Assurance using OGC Sensor Web Enablement Frameworks for Marine Observatories

Science.gov (United States)

Toma, Daniel; Bghiel, Ikram; del Rio, Joaquin; Hidalgo, Alberto; Carreras, Normandino; Manuel, Antoni

2014-05-01

Over the past years, environmental sensors have continuously improved by becoming smaller, cheaper, and more intelligent. Therefore, many sensor networks are increasingly deployed to monitor our environment. But due to the large number of sensor manufacturers, accompanying protocols and data encoding, automated integration and data quality assurance of diverse sensors in an observing systems is not straightforward, requiring development of data management code and manual tedious configuration. However, over the past few years it has been demonstrated that Open-Geospatial Consortium (OGC) frameworks can enable web services with fully-described sensor systems, including data processing, sensor characteristics and quality control tests and results. So far, the SWE framework does not describe how to integrate sensors on-the-fly with minimal human intervention. The data management software which enables access to sensors, data processing and quality control tests has to be implemented and the results have to be manually mapped to the SWE models. In this contribution, we describe a Sensor Plug & Play infrastructure for the Sensor Web by combining (1) OGC PUCK protocol - a simple standard embedded instrument protocol to store and retrieve directly from the devices the declarative description of sensor characteristics and quality control tests, (2) an automatic mechanism for data processing and quality control tests underlying the Sensor Web - the Sensor Interface Descriptor (SID) concept, as well as (3) a model for the declarative description of sensor which serves as a generic data management mechanism - designed as a profile and extension of OGC SWE's SensorML standard. We implement and evaluate our approach by applying it to the OBSEA Observatory, and can be used to demonstrate the ability to assess data quality for temperature, salinity, air pressure and wind speed and direction observations off the coast of Garraf, in the north-eastern Spain.

Future of Automated Insulin Delivery Systems

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Castle, Jessica R.; DeVries, J. Hans; Kovatchev, Boris

2017-01-01

Advances in continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) have brought on a paradigm shift in the management of type 1 diabetes. These advances have enabled the automation of insulin delivery, where an algorithm determines the insulin delivery rate in response to the CGM values. There are multiple automated

Enabling Wide-Scale Computer Science Education through Improved Automated Assessment Tools

Science.gov (United States)

Boe, Bryce A.

There is a proliferating demand for newly trained computer scientists as the number of computer science related jobs continues to increase. University programs will only be able to train enough new computer scientists to meet this demand when two things happen: when there are more primary and secondary school students interested in computer science, and when university departments have the resources to handle the resulting increase in enrollment. To meet these goals, significant effort is being made to both incorporate computational thinking into existing primary school education, and to support larger university computer science class sizes. We contribute to this effort through the creation and use of improved automated assessment tools. To enable wide-scale computer science education we do two things. First, we create a framework called Hairball to support the static analysis of Scratch programs targeted for fourth, fifth, and sixth grade students. Scratch is a popular building-block language utilized to pique interest in and teach the basics of computer science. We observe that Hairball allows for rapid curriculum alterations and thus contributes to wide-scale deployment of computer science curriculum. Second, we create a real-time feedback and assessment system utilized in university computer science classes to provide better feedback to students while reducing assessment time. Insights from our analysis of student submission data show that modifications to the system configuration support the way students learn and progress through course material, making it possible for instructors to tailor assignments to optimize learning in growing computer science classes.

Automated optical assembly

Science.gov (United States)

Bala, John L.

1995-08-01

Automation and polymer science represent fundamental new technologies which can be directed toward realizing the goal of establishing a domestic, world-class, commercial optics business. Use of innovative optical designs using precision polymer optics will enable the US to play a vital role in the next generation of commercial optical products. The increased cost savings inherent in the utilization of optical-grade polymers outweighs almost every advantage of using glass for high volume situations. Optical designers must gain experience with combined refractive/diffractive designs and broaden their knowledge base regarding polymer technology beyond a cursory intellectual exercise. Implementation of a fully automated assembly system, combined with utilization of polymer optics, constitutes the type of integrated manufacturing process which will enable the US to successfully compete with the low-cost labor employed in the Far East, as well as to produce an equivalent product.

Ecological Automation Design, Extending Work Domain Analysis

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Amelink, M.H.J.

2010-01-01

In high–risk domains like aviation, medicine and nuclear power plant control, automation has enabled new capabilities, increased the economy of operation and has greatly contributed to safety. However, automation increases the number of couplings in a system, which can inadvertently lead to more

A Semantically Automated Protocol Adapter for Mapping SOAP Web Services to RESTful HTTP Format to Enable the Web Infrastructure, Enhance Web Service Interoperability and Ease Web Service Migration

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Frank Doheny

2012-04-01

Full Text Available Semantic Web Services (SWS are Web Service (WS descriptions augmented with semantic information. SWS enable intelligent reasoning and automation in areas such as service discovery, composition, mediation, ranking and invocation. This paper applies SWS to a previous protocol adapter which, operating within clearly defined constraints, maps SOAP Web Services to RESTful HTTP format. However, in the previous adapter, the configuration element is manual and the latency implications are locally based. This paper applies SWS technologies to automate the configuration element and the latency tests are conducted in a more realistic Internet based setting.

"First generation" automated DNA sequencing technology.

Science.gov (United States)

Slatko, Barton E; Kieleczawa, Jan; Ju, Jingyue; Gardner, Andrew F; Hendrickson, Cynthia L; Ausubel, Frederick M

2011-10-01

Beginning in the 1980s, automation of DNA sequencing has greatly increased throughput, reduced costs, and enabled large projects to be completed more easily. The development of automation technology paralleled the development of other aspects of DNA sequencing: better enzymes and chemistry, separation and imaging technology, sequencing protocols, robotics, and computational advancements (including base-calling algorithms with quality scores, database developments, and sequence analysis programs). Despite the emergence of high-throughput sequencing platforms, automated Sanger sequencing technology remains useful for many applications. This unit provides background and a description of the "First-Generation" automated DNA sequencing technology. It also includes protocols for using the current Applied Biosystems (ABI) automated DNA sequencing machines. © 2011 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Automated quantitative cytological analysis using portable microfluidic microscopy.

Science.gov (United States)

Jagannadh, Veerendra Kalyan; Murthy, Rashmi Sreeramachandra; Srinivasan, Rajesh; Gorthi, Sai Siva

2016-06-01

In this article, a portable microfluidic microscopy based approach for automated cytological investigations is presented. Inexpensive optical and electronic components have been used to construct a simple microfluidic microscopy system. In contrast to the conventional slide-based methods, the presented method employs microfluidics to enable automated sample handling and image acquisition. The approach involves the use of simple in-suspension staining and automated image acquisition to enable quantitative cytological analysis of samples. The applicability of the presented approach to research in cellular biology is shown by performing an automated cell viability assessment on a given population of yeast cells. Further, the relevance of the presented approach to clinical diagnosis and prognosis has been demonstrated by performing detection and differential assessment of malaria infection in a given sample. © 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Marketing automation supporting sales

OpenAIRE

Sandell, Niko

2016-01-01

The past couple of decades has been a time of major changes in marketing. Digitalization has become a permanent part of marketing and at the same time enabled efficient collection of data. Personalization and customization of content are playing a crucial role in marketing when new customers are acquired. This has also created a need for automation to facilitate the distribution of targeted content. As a result of successful marketing automation more information of the customers is gathered ...

Assembly of Four Diverse Heterocyclic Libraries Enabled by Prins Cyclization, Au-Catalyzed Enyne Cycloisomerization, and Automated Amide Synthesis

Science.gov (United States)

Cui, Jiayue; Chai, David I.; Miller, Christopher; Hao, Jason; Thomas, Christopher; Wang, JingQi; Scheidt, Karl A.; Kozmin, Sergey A.

2013-01-01

We describe a unified synthetic strategy for efficient assembly of four new heterocyclic libraries. The synthesis began by creating a range of structurally diverse pyrrolidinones or piperidinones. Such compounds were obtained in a simple one-flask operation starting with readily available amines, ketoesters, and unsaturated anhydrides. The use of tetrahydropyran-containing ketoesters, which were rapidly assembled by our Prins cyclization protocol, enabled efficient fusion of pyran and piperidinone cores. A newly developed Au(I)-catalyzed cycloisomerization of alkyne-containing enamides further expanded heterocyclic diversity by providing rapid entry into a wide range of bicyclic and tricyclic dienamides. The final stage of the process entailed diversification of each of the initially produced carboxylic acids using a fully automated platform for amide synthesis, which delivered 1872 compounds in high diastereomeric and chemical purity. PMID:22860634

Combining Archetypes, Ontologies and Formalization Enables Automated Computation of Quality Indicators

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Legaz-García, María Del Carmen; Dentler, Kathrin; Fernández-Breis, Jesualdo Tomás; Cornet, Ronald

2017-01-01

ArchMS is a framework that represents clinical information and knowledge using ontologies in OWL, which facilitates semantic interoperability and thereby the exploitation and secondary use of clinical data. However, it does not yet support the automated assessment of quality of care. CLIF is a

Home Automation and Security System Using Android ADK

OpenAIRE

Deepali Javale; Mohd. Mohsin; Shreerang Nandanwar; Mayur Shingate

2013-01-01

Today we are living in 21st century where automation is playing important role in human life. Home automation allows us to control household appliances like light, door, fan, AC etc. It also provides home security and emergency system to be activated. Home automation not only refers to reduce human efforts but also energy efficiency and time saving. The main objective of home automation and security is to help handicapped and old aged people which will enable them to control home appliances a...

Biometrics Enabling Capability Increment 1 (BEC Inc 1)

Science.gov (United States)

2016-03-01

modal biometrics submissions to include iris, face, palm and finger prints from biometrics collection devices, which will support the Warfighter in...2016 Major Automated Information System Annual Report Biometrics Enabling Capability Increment 1 (BEC Inc 1) Defense Acquisition Management...Phone: 227-3119 DSN Fax: Date Assigned: July 15, 2015 Program Information Program Name Biometrics Enabling Capability Increment 1 (BEC Inc 1) DoD

Automated Planning and Scheduling for Planetary Rover Distributed Operations

Science.gov (United States)

Backes, Paul G.; Rabideau, Gregg; Tso, Kam S.; Chien, Steve

1999-01-01

Automated planning and Scheduling, including automated path planning, has been integrated with an Internet-based distributed operations system for planetary rover operations. The resulting prototype system enables faster generation of valid rover command sequences by a distributed planetary rover operations team. The Web Interface for Telescience (WITS) provides Internet-based distributed collaboration, the Automated Scheduling and Planning Environment (ASPEN) provides automated planning and scheduling, and an automated path planner provided path planning. The system was demonstrated on the Rocky 7 research rover at JPL.

Biomek Cell Workstation: A Variable System for Automated Cell Cultivation.

Science.gov (United States)

Lehmann, R; Severitt, J C; Roddelkopf, T; Junginger, S; Thurow, K

2016-06-01

Automated cell cultivation is an important tool for simplifying routine laboratory work. Automated methods are independent of skill levels and daily constitution of laboratory staff in combination with a constant quality and performance of the methods. The Biomek Cell Workstation was configured as a flexible and compatible system. The modified Biomek Cell Workstation enables the cultivation of adherent and suspension cells. Until now, no commercially available systems enabled the automated handling of both types of cells in one system. In particular, the automated cultivation of suspension cells in this form has not been published. The cell counts and viabilities were nonsignificantly decreased for cells cultivated in AutoFlasks in automated handling. The proliferation of manual and automated bioscreening by the WST-1 assay showed a nonsignificant lower proliferation of automatically disseminated cells associated with a mostly lower standard error. The disseminated suspension cell lines showed different pronounced proliferations in descending order, starting with Jurkat cells followed by SEM, Molt4, and RS4 cells having the lowest proliferation. In this respect, we successfully disseminated and screened suspension cells in an automated way. The automated cultivation and dissemination of a variety of suspension cells can replace the manual method. © 2015 Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening.

Automated Test Case Generation for an Autopilot Requirement Prototype

Science.gov (United States)

Giannakopoulou, Dimitra; Rungta, Neha; Feary, Michael

2011-01-01

Designing safety-critical automation with robust human interaction is a difficult task that is susceptible to a number of known Human-Automation Interaction (HAI) vulnerabilities. It is therefore essential to develop automated tools that provide support both in the design and rapid evaluation of such automation. The Automation Design and Evaluation Prototyping Toolset (ADEPT) enables the rapid development of an executable specification for automation behavior and user interaction. ADEPT supports a number of analysis capabilities, thus enabling the detection of HAI vulnerabilities early in the design process, when modifications are less costly. In this paper, we advocate the introduction of a new capability to model-based prototyping tools such as ADEPT. The new capability is based on symbolic execution that allows us to automatically generate quality test suites based on the system design. Symbolic execution is used to generate both user input and test oracles user input drives the testing of the system implementation, and test oracles ensure that the system behaves as designed. We present early results in the context of a component in the Autopilot system modeled in ADEPT, and discuss the challenges of test case generation in the HAI domain.

Ontology-Based Device Descriptions and Device Repository for Building Automation Devices

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dibowski Henrik

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Device descriptions play an important role in the design and commissioning of modern building automation systems and help reducing the design time and costs. However, all established device descriptions are specialized for certain purposes and suffer from several weaknesses. This hinders a further design automation, which is strongly needed for the more and more complex building automation systems. To overcome these problems, this paper presents novel Ontology-based Device Descriptions (ODDs along with a layered ontology architecture, a specific ontology view approach with virtual properties, a generic access interface, a triple store-based database backend, and a generic search mask GUI with underlying query generation algorithm. It enables a formal, unified, and extensible specification of building automation devices, ensures their comparability, and facilitates a computer-enabled retrieval, selection, and interoperability evaluation, which is essential for an automated design. The scalability of the approach to several ten thousand devices is demonstrated.

Virtual commissioning of automated micro-optical assembly

Science.gov (United States)

Schlette, Christian; Losch, Daniel; Haag, Sebastian; Zontar, Daniel; Roßmann, Jürgen; Brecher, Christian

2015-02-01

In this contribution, we present a novel approach to enable virtual commissioning for process developers in micro-optical assembly. Our approach aims at supporting micro-optics experts to effectively develop assisted or fully automated assembly solutions without detailed prior experience in programming while at the same time enabling them to easily implement their own libraries of expert schemes and algorithms for handling optical components. Virtual commissioning is enabled by a 3D simulation and visualization system in which the functionalities and properties of automated systems are modeled, simulated and controlled based on multi-agent systems. For process development, our approach supports event-, state- and time-based visual programming techniques for the agents and allows for their kinematic motion simulation in combination with looped-in simulation results for the optical components. First results have been achieved for simply switching the agents to command the real hardware setup after successful process implementation and validation in the virtual environment. We evaluated and adapted our system to meet the requirements set by industrial partners-- laser manufacturers as well as hardware suppliers of assembly platforms. The concept is applied to the automated assembly of optical components for optically pumped semiconductor lasers and positioning of optical components for beam-shaping

The Rotary Zone Thermal Cycler: A Low-Power System Enabling Automated Rapid PCR

Science.gov (United States)

Bartsch, Michael S.; Renzi, Ronald F.; Van de Vreugde, James L.; Kim, Hanyoup; Knight, Daniel L.; Sinha, Anupama; Branda, Steven S.; Patel, Kamlesh D.

2015-01-01

Advances in molecular biology, microfluidics, and laboratory automation continue to expand the accessibility and applicability of these methods beyond the confines of conventional, centralized laboratory facilities and into point of use roles in clinical, military, forensic, and field-deployed applications. As a result, there is a growing need to adapt the unit operations of molecular biology (e.g., aliquoting, centrifuging, mixing, and thermal cycling) to compact, portable, low-power, and automation-ready formats. Here we present one such adaptation, the rotary zone thermal cycler (RZTC), a novel wheel-based device capable of cycling up to four different fixed-temperature blocks into contact with a stationary 4-microliter capillary-bound sample to realize 1-3 second transitions with steady state heater power of less than 10 W. We demonstrate the utility of the RZTC for DNA amplification as part of a highly integrated rotary zone PCR (rzPCR) system that uses low-volume valves and syringe-based fluid handling to automate sample loading and unloading, thermal cycling, and between-run cleaning functionalities in a compact, modular form factor. In addition to characterizing the performance of the RZTC and the efficacy of different online cleaning protocols, we present preliminary results for rapid single-plex PCR, multiplex short tandem repeat (STR) amplification, and second strand cDNA synthesis. PMID:25826708

The rotary zone thermal cycler: a low-power system enabling automated rapid PCR.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michael S Bartsch

Full Text Available Advances in molecular biology, microfluidics, and laboratory automation continue to expand the accessibility and applicability of these methods beyond the confines of conventional, centralized laboratory facilities and into point of use roles in clinical, military, forensic, and field-deployed applications. As a result, there is a growing need to adapt the unit operations of molecular biology (e.g., aliquoting, centrifuging, mixing, and thermal cycling to compact, portable, low-power, and automation-ready formats. Here we present one such adaptation, the rotary zone thermal cycler (RZTC, a novel wheel-based device capable of cycling up to four different fixed-temperature blocks into contact with a stationary 4-microliter capillary-bound sample to realize 1-3 second transitions with steady state heater power of less than 10 W. We demonstrate the utility of the RZTC for DNA amplification as part of a highly integrated rotary zone PCR (rzPCR system that uses low-volume valves and syringe-based fluid handling to automate sample loading and unloading, thermal cycling, and between-run cleaning functionalities in a compact, modular form factor. In addition to characterizing the performance of the RZTC and the efficacy of different online cleaning protocols, we present preliminary results for rapid single-plex PCR, multiplex short tandem repeat (STR amplification, and second strand cDNA synthesis.

Automated Accounting. Instructor Guide.

Science.gov (United States)

Moses, Duane R.

This curriculum guide was developed to assist business instructors using Dac Easy Accounting College Edition Version 2.0 software in their accounting programs. The module consists of four units containing assignment sheets and job sheets designed to enable students to master competencies identified in the area of automated accounting. The first…

The Automation-by-Expertise-by-Training Interaction.

Science.gov (United States)

Strauch, Barry

2017-03-01

I introduce the automation-by-expertise-by-training interaction in automated systems and discuss its influence on operator performance. Transportation accidents that, across a 30-year interval demonstrated identical automation-related operator errors, suggest a need to reexamine traditional views of automation. I review accident investigation reports, regulator studies, and literature on human computer interaction, expertise, and training and discuss how failing to attend to the interaction of automation, expertise level, and training has enabled operators to commit identical automation-related errors. Automated systems continue to provide capabilities exceeding operators' need for effective system operation and provide interfaces that can hinder, rather than enhance, operator automation-related situation awareness. Because of limitations in time and resources, training programs do not provide operators the expertise needed to effectively operate these automated systems, requiring them to obtain the expertise ad hoc during system operations. As a result, many do not acquire necessary automation-related system expertise. Integrating automation with expected operator expertise levels, and within training programs that provide operators the necessary automation expertise, can reduce opportunities for automation-related operator errors. Research to address the automation-by-expertise-by-training interaction is needed. However, such research must meet challenges inherent to examining realistic sociotechnical system automation features with representative samples of operators, perhaps by using observational and ethnographic research. Research in this domain should improve the integration of design and training and, it is hoped, enhance operator performance.

Implementation analysis of lean enablers for managing engineering programs

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

von Arnim, Joachim; Oehmen, Josef; Rebentisch, Eric

2014-01-01

This paper presents research to improve the applicability of the Lean Enablers and consists of two parts. The first is a case study of a very successful project management maturity improvement initiative at Siemens Industry Sector’s Industry Automation division in the US. It views the initiative...... from the perspective of the Lean Enablers [Oehmen 2012] and is based on information from [Sopko 2012a], [Sopko 2012b], [Sopko 2010], [Sopko 2009], interviews, internal documentation, and the used MSP program management methodology [UK 2011]. The analysis of Lean Enablers incorporated in the MSP...

Using automated environmental management information systems to enable compliance: Ten questions to answer before selecting a software system

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gilbert, J.B.

1999-07-01

As technology invades the arena of environmental information management, hundreds of software packages have become available in the marketplace. How does the already overwhelmed environmental manager or IT professional decide what's right for the organization? Is there a software package that meets the needs of the organization, and is there a successful way to implement the system? Does this require abandoning existing systems with which users are comfortable? Can the system really save time and/or money? This paper discusses three topics: What drives the need for a system; Ten questions to aid in selecting a system that is right for your organization; and enabling technology and software systems available today, and the future application of technology to environmental data management. Motivating factors for EMIS include regulatory, business and IT drivers. Because of the ever-increasing regulatory burden, the need to demonstrate compliance often is the strongest driver. But they cannot ignore business and IT drivers from the discussion, especially with issues such as Enterprise Resource Planning and The Year 2000 impacting many systems projects. Before selecting a system, the organization should address, at a minimum, the following ten issues: (1) Organization objectives; (2) Organization readiness; (3) High-level processes to be automated; (4) Integration and interfaces; (5) User community and needs; (6) Technical requirements; (7) Degree of customization; (8) Project timing; (9) Implementation resource needs; and (10) System justification. Today, there are hundreds of EH and S software packages available too help automate daily business processes. Only a few are multimedia packages, and all require significant implementation efforts. The EMIS market is still evolving, and software vendors continue to enhance product features and usability.

A Capping Step During Automated Glycan Assembly Enables Access to Complex Glycans in High Yield.

Science.gov (United States)

Yu, Yang; Kononov, Andrew; Delbianco, Martina; Seeberger, Peter H

2018-04-20

The products of multi-step automated solid phase syntheses are purified after release from the resin. Capping of unreacted nucleophiles is commonplace in automated oligonucleotide synthesis to minimize accumulation of deletion sequences. To date, capping was not used routinely during automated glycan assembly (AGA) since previous capping protocols suffered from long reaction times and conditions incompatible with some protective groups. Here, a method using methanesulfonic acid and acetic anhydride for the fast and quantitative capping of hydroxyl groups that failed to be glycosylated is reported. Commonly used protective groups in AGA are stable under these capping conditions. The introduction of a capping step into the coupling cycle drastically improved overall yields by decreasing side-products and simplifying purification, while reducing building block consumption. To illustrate the method, the biologically important tetrasaccharide Lc4, as well as a 50-mer polymannoside were prepared. © 2018 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Enzyme activity assays within microstructured optical fibers enabled by automated alignment.

Science.gov (United States)

Warren-Smith, Stephen C; Nie, Guiying; Schartner, Erik P; Salamonsen, Lois A; Monro, Tanya M

2012-12-01

A fluorescence-based enzyme activity assay has been demonstrated within a small-core microstructured optical fiber (MOF) for the first time. To achieve this, a reflection-based automated alignment system has been developed, which uses feedback and piezoelectric actuators to maintain optical alignment. The auto-alignment system provides optical stability for the time required to perform an activity assay. The chosen assay is based on the enzyme proprotein convertase 5/6 (PC6) and has important applications in women's health.

Lighting Automation - Flying an Earthlike Habit Project

Science.gov (United States)

Falker, Jay; Howard, Ricky; Culbert, Christopher; Clark, Toni Anne; Kolomenski, Andrei

2017-01-01

Our proposal will enable the development of automated spacecraft habitats for long duration missions. Majority of spacecraft lighting systems employ lamps or zone specific switches and dimmers. Automation is not in the "picture". If we are to build long duration environments, which provide earth-like habitats, minimize crew time, and optimize spacecraft power reserves, innovation in lighting automation is a must. To transform how spacecraft lighting environments are automated, we will provide performance data on a standard lighting communication protocol. We will investigate utilization and application of an industry accepted lighting control protocol, DMX512. We will demonstrate how lighting automation can conserve power, assist with lighting countermeasures, and utilize spatial body tracking. By using DMX512 we will prove the "wheel" does not need to be reinvented in terms of smart lighting and future spacecraft can use a standard lighting protocol to produce an effective, optimized and potentially earthlike habitat.

Policy challenges of increasing automation in driving

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ata M. Khan

2012-03-01

Full Text Available The convergence of information and communication technologies (ICT with automotive technologies has already resulted in automation features in road vehicles and this trend is expected to continue in the future owing to consumer demand, dropping costs of components, and improved reliability. While the automation features that have taken place so far are mainly in the form of information and driver warning technologies (classified as level I pre-2010, future developments in the medium term (level II 2010–2025 are expected to exhibit connected cognitive vehicle features and encompass increasing degree of automation in the form of advanced driver assistance systems. Although autonomous vehicles have been developed for research purposes and are being tested in controlled driving missions, the autonomous driving case is only a long term (level III 2025+ scenario. This paper contributes knowledge on technological forecasts regarding automation, policy challenges for each level of technology development and application context, and the essential instrument of cost-effectiveness for policy analysis which enables policy decisions on the automation systems to be assessed in a consistent and balanced manner. The cost of a system per vehicle is viewed against its effectiveness in meeting policy objectives of improving safety, efficiency, mobility, convenience and reducing environmental effects. Example applications are provided that illustrate the contribution of the methodology in providing information for supporting policy decisions. Given the uncertainties in system costs as well as effectiveness, the tool for assessing policies for future generation features probabilistic and utility-theoretic analysis capability. The policy issues defined and the assessment framework enable the resolution of policy challenges while allowing worthy innovative automation in driving to enhance future road transportation.

A Review of Automated Decision Support System

African Journals Online (AJOL)

pc

2018-03-05

Mar 5, 2018 ... Intelligence AI that enable decision automation based on existing facts, knowledge ... The growing reliance on data impacts dynamic data extraction and retrieval of the ... entertainment, medical, and the web. III. DECISION ...

Automated Agricultural Field Extraction from Multi-temporal Web Enabled Landsat Data

Science.gov (United States)

Yan, L.; Roy, D. P.

2012-12-01

Agriculture has caused significant anthropogenic surface change. In many regions agricultural field sizes may be increasing to maximize yields and reduce costs resulting in decreased landscape spatial complexity and increased homogenization of land uses with potential for significant biogeochemical and ecological effects. To date, studies of the incidence, drivers and impacts of changing field sizes have not been undertaken over large areas because of computational constraints and because consistently processed appropriate resolution data have not been available or affordable. The Landsat series of satellites provides near-global coverage, long term, and appropriate spatial resolution (30m) satellite data to document changing field sizes. The recent free availability of all the Landsat data in the U.S. Landsat archive now provides the opportunity to study field size changes in a global and consistent way. Commercial software can be used to extract fields from Landsat data but are inappropriate for large area application because they require considerable human interaction. This paper presents research to develop and validate an automated computational Geographic Object Based Image Analysis methodology to extract agricultural fields and derive field sizes from Web Enabled Landsat Data (WELD) (http://weld.cr.usgs.gov/). WELD weekly products (30m reflectance and brightness temperature) are classified into Satellite Image Automatic Mapper™ (SIAM™) spectral categories and an edge intensity map and a map of the probability of each pixel being agricultural are derived from five years of 52 weeks of WELD and corresponding SIAM™ data. These data are fused to derive candidate agriculture field segments using a variational region-based geometric active contour model. Geometry-based algorithms are used to decompose connected segments belonging to multiple fields into coherent isolated field objects with a divide and conquer strategy to detect and merge partial circle

Toward a human-centered aircraft automation philosophy

Science.gov (United States)

Billings, Charles E.

1989-01-01

The evolution of automation in civil aircraft is examined in order to discern trends in the respective roles and functions of automation technology and the humans who operate these aircraft. The effects of advances in automation technology on crew reaction is considered and it appears that, though automation may well have decreased the frequency of certain types of human errors in flight, it may also have enabled new categories of human errors, some perhaps less obvious and therefore more serious than those it has alleviated. It is suggested that automation could be designed to keep the pilot closer to the control of the vehicle, while providing an array of information management and aiding functions designed to provide the pilot with data regarding flight replanning, degraded system operation, and the operational status and limits of the aircraft, its systems, and the physical and operational environment. The automation would serve as the pilot's assistant, providing and calculating data, watching for the unexpected, and keeping track of resources and their rate of expenditure.

NASP - Enabling new space launch options

Science.gov (United States)

Froning, David; Gaubatz, William; Mathews, George

1990-10-01

Successful NASP developments in the United States are bringing about the possibility of effective, fully reusable vehicles for transport of people and cargo between earth and space. These developments include: extension of airbreathing propulsion to a much higher speed; densification of propellants for greater energy per unit volume of mass; structures with much greater strength-to-weight at high temperatures; computational advancements that enable more optimal design and integration of airframes, engines and controls; and advances in avionics, robotics, artificial intelligence and automation that enable accomplishment of earth-to-orbit (ETO) operations with much less manpower support and cost. This paper describes the relative magnitude of improvement that these developments may provide.

Maneuver Automation Software

Science.gov (United States)

Uffelman, Hal; Goodson, Troy; Pellegrin, Michael; Stavert, Lynn; Burk, Thomas; Beach, David; Signorelli, Joel; Jones, Jeremy; Hahn, Yungsun; Attiyah, Ahlam;

Space power subsystem automation technology

Science.gov (United States)

Graves, J. R. (Compiler)

1982-01-01

The technology issues involved in power subsystem automation and the reasonable objectives to be sought in such a program were discussed. The complexities, uncertainties, and alternatives of power subsystem automation, along with the advantages from both an economic and a technological perspective were considered. Whereas most spacecraft power subsystems now use certain automated functions, the idea of complete autonomy for long periods of time is almost inconceivable. Thus, it seems prudent that the technology program for power subsystem automation be based upon a growth scenario which should provide a structured framework of deliberate steps to enable the evolution of space power subsystems from the current practice of limited autonomy to a greater use of automation with each step being justified on a cost/benefit basis. Each accomplishment should move toward the objectives of decreased requirement for ground control, increased system reliability through onboard management, and ultimately lower energy cost through longer life systems that require fewer resources to operate and maintain. This approach seems well-suited to the evolution of more sophisticated algorithms and eventually perhaps even the use of some sort of artificial intelligence. Multi-hundred kilowatt systems of the future will probably require an advanced level of autonomy if they are to be affordable and manageable.

The cobas® 6800/8800 System: a new era of automation in molecular diagnostics.

Science.gov (United States)

Cobb, Bryan; Simon, Christian O; Stramer, Susan L; Body, Barbara; Mitchell, P Shawn; Reisch, Natasa; Stevens, Wendy; Carmona, Sergio; Katz, Louis; Will, Stephen; Liesenfeld, Oliver

2017-02-01

Molecular diagnostics is a key component of laboratory medicine. Here, the authors review key triggers of ever-increasing automation in nucleic acid amplification testing (NAAT) with a focus on specific automated Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) testing and platforms such as the recently launched cobas® 6800 and cobas® 8800 Systems. The benefits of such automation for different stakeholders including patients, clinicians, laboratory personnel, hospital administrators, payers, and manufacturers are described. Areas Covered: The authors describe how molecular diagnostics has achieved total laboratory automation over time, rivaling clinical chemistry to significantly improve testing efficiency. Finally, the authors discuss how advances in automation decrease the development time for new tests enabling clinicians to more readily provide test results. Expert Commentary: The advancements described enable complete diagnostic solutions whereby specific test results can be combined with relevant patient data sets to allow healthcare providers to deliver comprehensive clinical recommendations in multiple fields ranging from infectious disease to outbreak management and blood safety solutions.

Identifying Requirements for Effective Human-Automation Teamwork

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jeffrey C. Joe; John O' Hara; Heather D. Medema; Johanna H. Oxstrand

2014-06-01

Previous studies have shown that poorly designed human-automation collaboration, such as poorly designed communication protocols, often leads to problems for the human operators, such as: lack of vigilance, complacency, and loss of skills. These problems often lead to suboptimal system performance. To address this situation, a considerable amount of research has been conducted to improve human-automation collaboration and to make automation function better as a “team player.” Much of this research is based on an understanding of what it means to be a good team player from the perspective of a human team. However, the research is often based on a simplified view of human teams and teamwork. In this study, we sought to better understand the capabilities and limitations of automation from the standpoint of human teams. We first examined human teams to identify the principles for effective teamwork. We next reviewed the research on integrating automation agents and human agents into mixed agent teams to identify the limitations of automation agents to conform to teamwork principles. This research resulted in insights that can lead to more effective human-automation collaboration by enabling a more realistic set of requirements to be developed based on the strengths and limitations of all agents.

Distribution automation at BC Hydro : a case study

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Siew, C. [BC Hydro, Vancouver, BC (Canada). Smart Grid Development Program

2009-07-01

This presentation discussed a distribution automation study conducted by BC Hydro to determine methods of improving grid performance by supporting intelligent transmission and distribution systems. The utility's smart grid program includes a number of utility-side and customer-side applications, including enabled demand response, microgrid, and operational efficiency applications. The smart grid program will improve reliability and power quality by 40 per cent, improve conservation and energy efficiency throughout the province, and provide enhanced customer service. Programs and initiatives currently underway at the utility include distribution management, smart metering, distribution automation, and substation automation programs. The utility's automation functionality will include fault interruption and locating, restoration capability, and restoration success. A decision support system has also been established to assist control room and field operating personnel with monitoring and control of the electric distribution system. Protection, control and monitoring (PCM) and volt VAR optimization upgrades are also planned. Reclosers are also being automated, and an automation guide has been developed for switches. tabs., figs.

Automated image quality assessment for chest CT scans.

Science.gov (United States)

Reeves, Anthony P; Xie, Yiting; Liu, Shuang

2018-02-01

Medical image quality needs to be maintained at standards sufficient for effective clinical reading. Automated computer analytic methods may be applied to medical images for quality assessment. For chest CT scans in a lung cancer screening context, an automated quality assessment method is presented that characterizes image noise and image intensity calibration. This is achieved by image measurements in three automatically segmented homogeneous regions of the scan: external air, trachea lumen air, and descending aorta blood. Profiles of CT scanner behavior are also computed. The method has been evaluated on both phantom and real low-dose chest CT scans and results show that repeatable noise and calibration measures may be realized by automated computer algorithms. Noise and calibration profiles show relevant differences between different scanners and protocols. Automated image quality assessment may be useful for quality control for lung cancer screening and may enable performance improvements to automated computer analysis methods. © 2017 American Association of Physicists in Medicine.

Demonstration of automated price response in large customers in New York City using Auto-DR and OpenADR

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kim, Joyce Jihyun [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Schetrit, Oren [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Yin, Rongxin [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Kiliccote, Sila [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

2014-05-01

Demand response (DR) – allowing customers to respond to reliability requests and market prices by changing electricity use from their normal consumption pattern – continues to be seen as an attractive means of demand-side management and a fundamental smart-grid improvement that links supply and demand. From October 2011 to December 2013, the Demand Response Research Center at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, and partners Honeywell and Akuacom, have conducted a demonstration project enabling Automated Demand Response (Auto-DR) in large commercial buildings located in New York City using Open Automated Demand Response (OpenADR) communication protocols. In particular, this project focuses on demonstrating how the OpenADR platform, enabled by Akuacom, can automate and simplify interactions between buildings and various stakeholders in New York State and enable the automation of customers’ price response to yield bill savings under dynamic pricing. In this paper, the cost control opportunities under day-ahead hourly pricing and Auto-DR control strategies are presented for four demonstration buildings; present the breakdown of Auto-DR enablement costs; summarize the field test results and their load impact; and show potential bill savings by enabling automated price response under Consolidated Edison’s Mandatory Hourly Pricing (MHP) tariff. For one of the sites, the potential bill savings at the site’s current retail rate are shown. Facility managers were given granular equipment-level opt-out capability to ensure full control of the sites during the Auto-DR implementation. The expected bill savings ranged from 1.1% to 8.0% of the total MHP bill. The automation and enablement costs ranged from $70 to $725 per kW shed. The results show that OpenADR can facilitate the automation of price response, deliver savings to the customers and opt-out capability of the implementation retains control of the

A Toolset for Supporting Iterative Human Automation: Interaction in Design

Science.gov (United States)

Feary, Michael S.

2010-01-01

The addition of automation has greatly extended humans' capability to accomplish tasks, including those that are difficult, complex and safety critical. The majority of Human - Automation Interacton (HAl) results in more efficient and safe operations, ho,,:,ever ertain unpected atomatlon behaviors or "automation surprises" can be frustrating and, In certain safety critical operations (e.g. transporttion, manufacturing control, medicine), may result in injuries or. the loss of life.. (Mellor, 1994; Leveson, 1995; FAA, 1995; BASI, 1998; Sheridan, 2002). This papr describes he development of a design tool that enables on the rapid development and evaluation. of automaton prototypes. The ultimate goal of the work is to provide a design platform upon which automation surprise vulnerability analyses can be integrated.

Automated CD-SEM metrology for efficient TD and HVM

Science.gov (United States)

Starikov, Alexander; Mulapudi, Satya P.

2008-03-01

CD-SEM is the metrology tool of choice for patterning process development and production process control. We can make these applications more efficient by extracting more information from each CD-SEM image. This enables direct monitors of key process parameters, such as lithography dose and focus, or predicting the outcome of processing, such as etched dimensions or electrical parameters. Automating CD-SEM recipes at the early stages of process development can accelerate technology characterization, segmentation of variance and process improvements. This leverages the engineering effort, reduces development costs and helps to manage the risks inherent in new technology. Automating CD-SEM for manufacturing enables efficient operations. Novel SEM Alarm Time Indicator (SATI) makes this task manageable. SATI pulls together data mining, trend charting of the key recipe and Operations (OPS) indicators, Pareto of OPS losses and inputs for root cause analysis. This approach proved natural to our FAB personnel. After minimal initial training, we applied new methods in 65nm FLASH manufacture. This resulted in significant lasting improvements of CD-SEM recipe robustness, portability and automation, increased CD-SEM capacity and MT productivity.

Do 'enabling technologies' affect customer performance in price-responsive load programs?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Goldman, Charles A.; Kintner-Meyer, Michael; Heffner, Grayson

2002-01-01

Price-responsive load (PRL) programs vary significantly in overall design, the complexity of relationships between program administrators, load aggregators, and customers, and the availability of ''enabling technologies''. Enabling technologies include such features as web-based power system and price monitoring, control and dispatch of curtailable loads, communications and information systems links to program participants, availability of interval metering data to customers in near real time, and building/facility/end-use automation and management capabilities. Two state agencies - NYSERDA in New York and the CEC in California - have been conspicuous leaders in the demonstration of demand response (DR) programs utilizing enabling technologies. In partnership with key stakeholders in these two states (e.g., grid operator, state energy agencies, and program administrators), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) surveyed 56 customers who worked with five contractors participating in CEC or NYSERDA-sponsored DR programs. We combined market research and actual load curtailment data when available (i.e., New York) or customer load reduction targets in order to explore the relative importance of contractor's program design features, sophistication of control strategies, and reliance on enabling technologies in predicting customer's ability to deliver load reductions in DR programs targeted to large commercial/industrial customers. We found preliminary evidence that DR enabling technology has a positive effect on load curtailment potential. Many customers indicated that web-based energy information tools were useful for facilitating demand response (e.g., assessing actual performance compared to load reduction contract commitments), that multiple notification channels facilitated timely response, and that support for and use of backup generation allowed customers to achieve significant and predictable load

Configuring the Orion Guidance, Navigation, and Control Flight Software for Automated Sequencing

Science.gov (United States)

Odegard, Ryan G.; Siliwinski, Tomasz K.; King, Ellis T.; Hart, Jeremy J.

2010-01-01

The Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle is being designed with greater automation capabilities than any other crewed spacecraft in NASA s history. The Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GN&C) flight software architecture is designed to provide a flexible and evolvable framework that accommodates increasing levels of automation over time. Within the GN&C flight software, a data-driven approach is used to configure software. This approach allows data reconfiguration and updates to automated sequences without requiring recompilation of the software. Because of the great dependency of the automation and the flight software on the configuration data, the data management is a vital component of the processes for software certification, mission design, and flight operations. To enable the automated sequencing and data configuration of the GN&C subsystem on Orion, a desktop database configuration tool has been developed. The database tool allows the specification of the GN&C activity sequences, the automated transitions in the software, and the corresponding parameter reconfigurations. These aspects of the GN&C automation on Orion are all coordinated via data management, and the database tool provides the ability to test the automation capabilities during the development of the GN&C software. In addition to providing the infrastructure to manage the GN&C automation, the database tool has been designed with capabilities to import and export artifacts for simulation analysis and documentation purposes. Furthermore, the database configuration tool, currently used to manage simulation data, is envisioned to evolve into a mission planning tool for generating and testing GN&C software sequences and configurations. A key enabler of the GN&C automation design, the database tool allows both the creation and maintenance of the data artifacts, as well as serving the critical role of helping to manage, visualize, and understand the data-driven parameters both during software development

Status of automated nuclear scanning systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gold, R.; Roberts, J.H.; Preston, C.C.; McNeece, J.P.; Ruddy, F.H.

1983-07-01

Present day minicomputers and microprocessors enable a range of automation, from partial to total, of tasks once thought beyond approach. The status of three computer controlled systems for quantitative track measurements is reviewed. Two systems, the Hanford optical track scanner (HOTS) and an automated scanning electron microscope (ASEM) are used for scanning solid state track recorders (SSTR). The third systems, the emulsion scanning processor (ESP), is an interactive system used to measure the length of proton tracks in nuclear research emulsions (NRE). Current limitations of these systems for quantitative track scanning are presented. Experimental uncertainties attained with these computer controlled systems are described using results obtained from reactor neutron dosimetry

Automated and temperature-controlled micro-PIV measurements enabling long-term-stable microchannel acoustophoresis characterization

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Augustsson, Per; Barnkob, Rune; Wereley, Steven T.

2011-01-01

We present a platform for micro particle image velocimetry (μPIV), capable of carrying out full-channel, temperature-controlled, long-term-stable, and automated μPIV-measurement of microchannel acoustophoresis with uncertainties below 5% and a spatial resolution in the order of 20 μm. A method to...

AUTOMATION OF CHAMPAGNE WINES PROCESS IN SPARKLING WINE PRESSURE TANK

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

E. V. Lukyanchuk

2016-08-01

Full Text Available The wine industry is now successfully solved the problem for the implementation of automation receiving points of grapes, crushing and pressing departments installation continuous fermentation work, blend tanks, production lines ordinary Madeira continuously working plants for ethyl alcohol installations champagne wine in continuous flow, etc. With the development of automation of technological progress productivity winemaking process develops in the following areas: organization of complex avtomatization sites grape processing with bulk transportation of the latter; improving the quality and durability of wines by the processing of a wide applying wine cold and heat, as well as technical and microbiological control most powerful automation equipment; the introduction of automated production processes of continuous technical champagne, sherry wine and cognac alcohol madery; the use of complex automation auxiliary production sites (boilers, air conditioners, refrigeration unitsand other.; complex avtomatization creation of enterprises, and sites manufactory bottling wines. In the wine industry developed more sophisticated schemes of automation and devices that enable the transition to integrated production automation, will create, are indicative automated enterprise serving for laboratories to study of the main problems of automation of production processes of winemaking.

Automated sampling and data processing derived from biomimetic membranes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Perry, Mark; Vissing, Thomas; Boesen, P.

2009-01-01

data processing software to analyze and organize the large amounts of data generated. In this work, we developed an automated instrumental voltage clamp solution based on a custom-designed software controller application (the WaveManager), which enables automated on-line voltage clamp data acquisition...... applicable to long-time series experiments. We designed another software program for off-line data processing. The automation of the on-line voltage clamp data acquisition and off-line processing was furthermore integrated with a searchable database (DiscoverySheet (TM)) for efficient data management......Recent advances in biomimetic membrane systems have resulted in an increase in membrane lifetimes from hours to days and months. Long-lived membrane systems demand the development of both new automated monitoring equipment capable of measuring electrophysiological membrane characteristics and new...

A companion agent for automated training systems

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Buiël, E.F.T.; Lubbers, J.

2007-01-01

TNO Defence, Security & Safety has a long history of applied research in the area of automated simulator-based training by means of Computer-Assisted Instruction (CAI). Traditionally, a CAI system does not enable a true dialogue between the learner and the virtual instructor. Most frequently, the

Realtime Automation Networks in moVing industrial Environments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rafael Leidinger

2012-04-01

Full Text Available The radio-based wireless data communication has made the realization of new technical solutions possible in many fields of the automation technology (AT. For about ten years, a constant disproportionate growth of wireless technologies can be observed in the automation technology. However, it shows that especially for the AT, conven-tional technologies of office automation are unsuitable and/or not manageable. The employment of mobile ser-vices in the industrial automation technology has the potential of significant cost and time savings. This leads to an increased productivity in various fields of the AT, for example in the factory and process automation or in production logistics. In this paper technologies and solu-tions for an automation-suited supply of mobile wireless services will be introduced under the criteria of real time suitability, IT-security and service orientation. Emphasis will be put on the investigation and develop-ment of wireless convergence layers for different radio technologies, on the central provision of support services for an easy-to-use, central, backup enabled management of combined wired / wireless networks and on the study on integrability in a Profinet real-time Ethernet network [1].

Software complex AS (automation of spectrometry). User interface of experiment automation system implementation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Astakhova, N.V.; Beskrovnyj, A.I.; Bogdzel', A.A.; Butorin, P.E.; Vasilovskij, S.G.; Gundorin, N.A.; Zlokazov, V.B.; Kutuzov, S.A.; Salamatin, I.M.; Shvetsov, V.N.

2003-01-01

An instrumental software complex for automation of spectrometry (AS) that enables prompt realization of experiment automation systems for spectrometers, which use data buferisation, has been developed. In the development new methods of programming and building of automation systems together with novel net technologies were employed. It is suggested that programs to schedule and conduct experiments should be based on the parametric model of the spectrometer, the approach that will make it possible to write programs suitable for any FLNP (Frank Laboratory of Neutron Physics) spectrometer and experimental technique applied and use different hardware interfaces for introducing the spectrometric data into the data acquisition system. The article describes the possibilities provided to the user in the field of scheduling and control of the experiment, data viewing, and control of the spectrometer parameters. The possibility of presenting the current spectrometer state, programs and the experimental data in the Internet in the form of dynamically formed protocols and graphs, as well as of the experiment control via the Internet is realized. To use the means of the Internet on the side of the client, applied programs are not needed. It suffices to know how to use the two programs to carry out experiments in the automated mode. The package is designed for experiments in condensed matter and nuclear physics and is ready for using. (author)

Regimes of data output from an automated scanning system into a computer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ovsov, Yu.V.; Shaislamov, P.T.

1984-01-01

A method is described for accomplishment of rather a complex algorithm of various coordinate and service data transmission from different automated scanning system devices into a monitoring computer in the automated system for processing images from bubble chambers. The accepted data output algorithm and the developed appropriate equipment enable data transmission both in separate words and word arrays

Improving automated load flexibility of nuclear power plants with ALFC

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kuhn, Andreas [AREVA GmbH, Karlstein (Germany). Plant Control/Training; Klaus, Peter [E.ON NPP Isar 2, Essenbach (Germany). Plant Operation/Production Engineering

2016-07-01

In several German and Swiss Nuclear Power Plants with Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) the control of the reactor power was and will be improved in order to be able to support the energy transition with increasing volatile renewable energy in the grid by flexible load operation according to the need of the load dispatcher (power system stability). Especially regarding the mentioned German NPPs with a nominal electric power of approx. 1,500 MW, the general objectives are the main automated grid relevant operation modes. The new possibilities of digital I and C (as TELEPERM {sup registered} XS) enable the automation of the operating modes provided that manual support is no longer necessary. These possibilities were and will be implemented by AREVA within the ALFC-projects. Manifold adaption algorithms to the reactor physical variations during the nuclear load cycle enable a precise control of the axial power density distribution and of the reactivity management in the reactor core. Finally this is the basis for a highly automated load flexibility with the parallel respect and surveillance of the operational limits of a PWR.

Improving automated load flexibility of nuclear power plants with ALFC

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kuhn, Andreas [AREVA GmbH, Karlstein (Germany). Section Manager Training; Klaus, Peter [Preussenelektra NPP, Essenbach (Germany). Production Engineering

2017-03-15

In several German and Swiss Nuclear Power Plants with Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) the control of the reactor power was and will be improved in order to be able to support the energy transition with increasing volatile renewable energy in the grid by flexible load operation according to the need of the load dispatcher (power system stability). Especially regarding the mentioned German NPPs with a nominal electric power of approx. 1500 MW, the general objectives are several automated grid relevant operation modes. The new possibilities of digital I and C (as TELEPERM {sup registered} XS) enable the automation of this operating modes provided that manual support is no longer necessary. These possibilities were and will be implemented by AREVA within the ALFC-projects. Manifold adaption algorithms to the reactor physical variations during the nuclear load cycle enable a precise control of the axial power density distribution and of the reactivity manage - ment in the reactor core. Finally this is the basis for a highly automated load flexibility with the parallel respect and surveillance of the operational limits of a PWR.

Future of Automated Insulin Delivery Systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Castle, Jessica R; DeVries, J Hans; Kovatchev, Boris

2017-06-01

Advances in continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) have brought on a paradigm shift in the management of type 1 diabetes. These advances have enabled the automation of insulin delivery, where an algorithm determines the insulin delivery rate in response to the CGM values. There are multiple automated insulin delivery (AID) systems in development. A system that automates basal insulin delivery has already received Food and Drug Administration approval, and more systems are likely to follow. As the field of AID matures, future systems may incorporate additional hormones and/or multiple inputs, such as activity level. All AID systems are impacted by CGM accuracy and future CGM devices must be shown to be sufficiently accurate to be safely incorporated into AID. In this article, we summarize recent achievements in AID development, with a special emphasis on CGM sensor performance, and discuss the future of AID systems from the point of view of their input-output characteristics, form factor, and adaptability.

Camera-enabled techniques for organic synthesis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Steven V. Ley

2013-05-01

Full Text Available A great deal of time is spent within synthetic chemistry laboratories on non-value-adding activities such as sample preparation and work-up operations, and labour intensive activities such as extended periods of continued data collection. Using digital cameras connected to computer vision algorithms, camera-enabled apparatus can perform some of these processes in an automated fashion, allowing skilled chemists to spend their time more productively. In this review we describe recent advances in this field of chemical synthesis and discuss how they will lead to advanced synthesis laboratories of the future.

Control and automation of the Pegasus multi-point Thomson scattering system

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bodner, G. M., E-mail: gbodner@wisc.edu; Bongard, M. W.; Fonck, R. J.; Reusch, J. A.; Rodriguez Sanchez, C.; Schlossberg, D. J. [Department of Engineering Physics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706 (United States)

2016-11-15

A new control system for the Pegasus Thomson scattering diagnostic has recently been deployed to automate the laser operation, data collection process, and interface with the system-wide Pegasus control code. Automation has been extended to areas outside of data collection, such as manipulation of beamline cameras and remotely controlled turning mirror actuators to enable intra-shot beam alignment. Additionally, the system has been upgraded with a set of fast (∼1 ms) mechanical shutters to mitigate contamination from background light. Modification and automation of the Thomson system have improved both data quality and diagnostic reliability.

Development of design principles for automated systems in transport control.

Science.gov (United States)

Balfe, Nora; Wilson, John R; Sharples, Sarah; Clarke, Theresa

2012-01-01

This article reports the results of a qualitative study investigating attitudes towards and opinions of an advanced automation system currently used in UK rail signalling. In-depth interviews were held with 10 users, key issues associated with automation were identified and the automation's impact on the signalling task investigated. The interview data highlighted the importance of the signallers' understanding of the automation and their (in)ability to predict its outputs. The interviews also covered the methods used by signallers to interact with and control the automation, and the perceived effects on their workload. The results indicate that despite a generally low level of understanding and ability to predict the actions of the automation system, signallers have developed largely successful coping mechanisms that enable them to use the technology effectively. These findings, along with parallel work identifying desirable attributes of automation from the literature in the area, were used to develop 12 principles of automation which can be used to help design new systems which better facilitate cooperative working. The work reported in this article was completed with the active involvement of operational rail staff who regularly use automated systems in rail signalling. The outcomes are currently being used to inform decisions on the extent and type of automation and user interfaces in future generations of rail control systems.

Longwall automation 2

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

David Hainsworth; David Reid; Con Caris; J.C. Ralston; C.O. Hargrave; Ron McPhee; I.N. Hutchinson; A. Strange; C. Wesner [CSIRO (Australia)

2008-05-15

This report covers a nominal two-year extension to the Major Longwall Automation Project (C10100). Production standard implementation of Longwall Automation Steering Committee (LASC) automation systems has been achieved at Beltana and Broadmeadow mines. The systems are now used on a 24/7 basis and have provided production benefits to the mines. The LASC Information System (LIS) has been updated and has been implemented successfully in the IT environment of major coal mining houses. This enables 3D visualisation of the longwall environment and equipment to be accessed on line. A simulator has been specified and a prototype system is now ready for implementation. The Shearer Position Measurement System (SPMS) has been upgraded to a modular commercial production standard hardware solution.A compact hardware solution for visual face monitoring has been developed, an approved enclosure for a thermal infrared camera has been produced and software for providing horizon control through faulted conditions has been delivered. The incorporation of the LASC Cut Model information into OEM horizon control algorithms has been bench and underground tested. A prototype system for shield convergence monitoring has been produced and studies to identify techniques for coal flow optimisation and void monitoring have been carried out. Liaison with equipment manufacturers has been maintained and technology delivery mechanisms for LASC hardware and software have been established.

Chattanooga Electric Power Board Case Study Distribution Automation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Glass, Jim [Chattanooga Electric Power Board (EPB), TN (United States); Melin, Alexander M. [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Starke, Michael R. [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Ollis, Ben [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

2016-10-01

In 2009, the U.S. Department of Energy under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) awarded a grant to the Chattanooga, Tennessee, Electric Power Board (EPB) as part of the Smart Grid Investment Grant Program. The grant had the objective “to accelerate the transformation of the nation’s electric grid by deploying smart grid technologies.” This funding award enabled EPB to expedite the original smart grid implementation schedule from an estimated 10-12 years to 2.5 years. With this funding, EPB invested heavily in distribution automation technologies including installing over 1,200 automated circuit switches and sensors on 171 circuits. For utilities considering a commitment to distribution automation, there are underlying questions such as the following: “What is the value?” and “What are the costs?” This case study attempts to answer these questions. The primary benefit of distribution automation is increased reliability or reduced power outage duration and frequency. Power outages directly impact customer economics by interfering with business functions. In the past, this economic driver has been difficult to effectively evaluate. However, as this case study demonstrates, tools and analysis techniques are now available. In this case study, the impact on customer costs associated with power outages before and after the implementation of distribution automation are compared. Two example evaluations are performed to demonstrate the benefits: 1) a savings baseline for customers under normal operations1 and 2) customer savings for a single severe weather event. Cost calculations for customer power outages are performed using the US Department of Energy (DOE) Interruption Cost Estimate (ICE) calculator2. This tool uses standard metrics associated with outages and the customers to calculate cost impact. The analysis shows that EPB customers have seen significant reliability improvements from the implementation of distribution automation. Under

Air Force Information Workflow Automation through Synchronized Air Power Management (SAPM)

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Benkley, Carl; Chang, Irene; Crowley, John; Oristian, Thomas

2004-01-01

.... Implementing Extensible Markup Language (XML) messages, web services, and workflow automation, SAPM expands existing web-based capabilities, enables machine-to-machine interfaces, and streamlines the war fighter kill chain process...

Investigating Patterns of Automation and Growth Performance among Low Level Users of Manufacturing Automation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Matthiesen, Rikke Vestergaard; Kromann, Lene

instrument with a new, innovative way of characterizing and measuring automation levels in the production process. The survey data is merged with elaborate Danish register data on economic performance, market, and worker characteristics. The data is available from 2000 to 2010 across a broad range......-movers; companies that develop their level of automation further and companies that remain on the 2005 level up until 2010. We compare the presence of drivers and enablers in the 5-year period leading up to 2005 and investigate patterns in growth performance on a range of economic indicators between the two groups....... However, the cross sectional nature of most studies prohibits analysis of direction; is growth and economic performance the driver of manufacturing technology investment or vice versa. Longitudinal data is required to study this. The present study analyses panel data obtained using a retrospective survey...

Automated complex spectra processing of actinide α-radiation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anichenkov, S.V.; Popov, Yu.S.; Tselishchev, I.V.; Mishenev, V.B.; Timofeev, G.A.

1989-01-01

Earlier described algorithms of automated processing of complex α - spectra of actinides with the use of Ehlektronika D3-28 computer line, connected with ICA-070 multichannel amplitude pulse analyzer, were realized. The developed program enables to calculated peak intensity and the relative isotope content, to conduct energy calibration of spectra, to calculate peak center of gravity and energy resolution, to perform integral counting in particular part of the spectrum. Error of the method of automated processing depens on the degree of spectrum complication and lies within the limits of 1-12%. 8 refs.; 4 figs.; 2 tabs

Simulation study of an automated storage/retrieval system

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Berg, van den J.P.; Gademann, A.J.R.M.

2000-01-01

In this paper we present a simulation study of an automated storage/retrieval system and examine a wide variety of control policies. We compare several storage location assignment policies. For the class-based storage policy, we apply a recent algorithm that enables us to evaluate the trade-off

Extended -Regular Sequence for Automated Analysis of Microarray Images

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jin Hee-Jeong

2006-01-01

Full Text Available Microarray study enables us to obtain hundreds of thousands of expressions of genes or genotypes at once, and it is an indispensable technology for genome research. The first step is the analysis of scanned microarray images. This is the most important procedure for obtaining biologically reliable data. Currently most microarray image processing systems require burdensome manual block/spot indexing work. Since the amount of experimental data is increasing very quickly, automated microarray image analysis software becomes important. In this paper, we propose two automated methods for analyzing microarray images. First, we propose the extended -regular sequence to index blocks and spots, which enables a novel automatic gridding procedure. Second, we provide a methodology, hierarchical metagrid alignment, to allow reliable and efficient batch processing for a set of microarray images. Experimental results show that the proposed methods are more reliable and convenient than the commercial tools.

AUTOMATED BATCH CHARACTERIZATION OF ICF SHELLS WITH VISION-ENABLED OPTICAL MICROSCOPE SYSTEM

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

HUANG, H.; STEPHENS, R.B.; HILL, D.W.; LYON, C.; NIKROO, A.; STEINMAN, D.A.

2003-09-01

OAK-B135 Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) shells are mesoscale objects with nano-scale dimensional and nano-surface finish requirements. Currently, the shell dimensions are measured by white-light interferometry and an image analysis method. These two methods complement each other and give a rather complete data set on a single shell. The process is, however, labor intensive. They have developed an automation routine to fully characterize a shell in one shot and perform unattended batch measurements. The method is useful to the ICF program both for production screening and for full characterization. It also has potential for Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE) power plant where half a million shells need to be processed daily

Lighting Automation Flying an Earthlike Habitat

Science.gov (United States)

Clark, Toni A.; Kolomenski, Andrei

2017-01-01

Currently, spacecraft lighting systems are not demonstrating innovations in automation due to perceived costs in designing circuitry for the communication and automation of lights. The majority of spacecraft lighting systems employ lamps or zone specific manual switches and dimmers. This type of 'hardwired' solution does not easily convert to automation. With advances in solid state lighting, the potential to enhance a spacecraft habitat is lost if the communication and automation problem is not tackled. If we are to build long duration environments, which provide earth-like habitats, minimize crew time, and optimize spacecraft power reserves, innovation in lighting automation is a must. This project researched the use of the DMX512 communication protocol originally developed for high channel count lighting systems. DMX512 is an internationally governed, industry-accepted, lighting communication protocol with wide industry support. The lighting industry markets a wealth of hardware and software that utilizes DMX512, and there may be incentive to space certify the system. Our goal in this research is to enable the development of automated spacecraft habitats for long duration missions. To transform how spacecraft lighting environments are automated, our project conducted a variety of tests to determine a potential scope of capability. We investigated utilization and application of an industry accepted lighting control protocol, DMX512 by showcasing how the lighting system could help conserve power, assist with lighting countermeasures, and utilize spatial body tracking. We hope evaluation and the demonstrations we built will inspire other NASA engineers, architects and researchers to consider employing DMX512 "smart lighting" capabilities into their system architecture. By using DMX512 we will prove the 'wheel' does not need to be reinvented in terms of smart lighting and future spacecraft can use a standard lighting protocol to produce an effective, optimized and

Lighting Automation - Flying an Earthlike Habitat

Science.gov (United States)

Clark, Tori A. (Principal Investigator); Kolomenski, Andrei

2017-01-01

Currently, spacecraft lighting systems are not demonstrating innovations in automation due to perceived costs in designing circuitry for the communication and automation of lights. The majority of spacecraft lighting systems employ lamps or zone specific manual switches and dimmers. This type of 'hardwired' solution does not easily convert to automation. With advances in solid state lighting, the potential to enhance a spacecraft habitat is lost if the communication and automation problem is not tackled. If we are to build long duration environments, which provide earth-like habitats, minimize crew time, and optimize spacecraft power reserves, innovation in lighting automation is a must. This project researched the use of the DMX512 communication protocol originally developed for high channel count lighting systems. DMX512 is an internationally governed, industry-accepted, lighting communication protocol with wide industry support. The lighting industry markets a wealth of hardware and software that utilizes DMX512, and there may be incentive to space certify the system. Our goal in this research is to enable the development of automated spacecraft habitats for long duration missions. To transform how spacecraft lighting environments are automated, our project conducted a variety of tests to determine a potential scope of capability. We investigated utilization and application of an industry accepted lighting control protocol, DMX512 by showcasing how the lighting system could help conserve power, assist with lighting countermeasures, and utilize spatial body tracking. We hope evaluation and the demonstrations we built will inspire other NASA engineers, architects and researchers to consider employing DMX512 "smart lighting" capabilities into their system architecture. By using DMX512 we will prove the 'wheel' does not need to be reinvented in terms of smart lighting and future spacecraft can use a standard lighting protocol to produce an effective, optimized and

Automated sampling and data processing derived from biomimetic membranes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Perry, M; Vissing, T; Hansen, J S; Nielsen, C H; Boesen, T P; Emneus, J

2009-01-01

Recent advances in biomimetic membrane systems have resulted in an increase in membrane lifetimes from hours to days and months. Long-lived membrane systems demand the development of both new automated monitoring equipment capable of measuring electrophysiological membrane characteristics and new data processing software to analyze and organize the large amounts of data generated. In this work, we developed an automated instrumental voltage clamp solution based on a custom-designed software controller application (the WaveManager), which enables automated on-line voltage clamp data acquisition applicable to long-time series experiments. We designed another software program for off-line data processing. The automation of the on-line voltage clamp data acquisition and off-line processing was furthermore integrated with a searchable database (DiscoverySheet(TM)) for efficient data management. The combined solution provides a cost efficient and fast way to acquire, process and administrate large amounts of voltage clamp data that may be too laborious and time consuming to handle manually. (communication)

Automated sampling and data processing derived from biomimetic membranes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Perry, M; Vissing, T; Hansen, J S; Nielsen, C H [Aquaporin A/S, Diplomvej 377, DK-2800 Kgs. Lyngby (Denmark); Boesen, T P [Xefion ApS, Kildegaardsvej 8C, DK-2900 Hellerup (Denmark); Emneus, J, E-mail: Claus.Nielsen@fysik.dtu.d [DTU Nanotech, Technical University of Denmark, DK-2800 Kgs. Lyngby (Denmark)

2009-12-15

Recent advances in biomimetic membrane systems have resulted in an increase in membrane lifetimes from hours to days and months. Long-lived membrane systems demand the development of both new automated monitoring equipment capable of measuring electrophysiological membrane characteristics and new data processing software to analyze and organize the large amounts of data generated. In this work, we developed an automated instrumental voltage clamp solution based on a custom-designed software controller application (the WaveManager), which enables automated on-line voltage clamp data acquisition applicable to long-time series experiments. We designed another software program for off-line data processing. The automation of the on-line voltage clamp data acquisition and off-line processing was furthermore integrated with a searchable database (DiscoverySheet(TM)) for efficient data management. The combined solution provides a cost efficient and fast way to acquire, process and administrate large amounts of voltage clamp data that may be too laborious and time consuming to handle manually. (communication)

The Automated Circulation Marketplace: Active and Heating Up.

Science.gov (United States)

Matthews, Joseph R.

1982-01-01

Predicts that the growing market for automated circulation systems will expand even faster in the near future, given the availability of a wide variety of systems and computer types, which enables libraries of all sizes to obtain a system to fit their needs. Currently there are 301 systems installed. (RAA)

An algometer for the automated measurement of pain threshold.

Science.gov (United States)

MacDonald, W; Atkins, R M

1990-12-01

An automated device is described which enables operator independent measurement of pain threshold. Pressure is applied across a joint of the digit by means of a controlled pneumatic actuator. Testing 10 normal subjects indicated good reproducibility (r2 = 0.75, one-way analysis of variance).

Transfusion management using a remote-controlled, automated blood storage.

Science.gov (United States)

Pagliaro, Pasqualepaolo; Turdo, Rosalia

2008-04-01

Generally, the safety of transfusion terapies for patients depends in part on the distribution of the blood products. The prevention of adverse events can be aided by technological means, which, besides improving the traceability of the process, make errors less likely. In this context, the latest frontier in automation and computerisation is the remote-controlled, automated refrigerator for blood storage. Computer cross-matching is an efficient and safe method for assigning blood components, based on Information Technology applied to typing and screening. This method can be extended to the management of an automated blood refrigerator, the programme of which is interfaced with the Transfusion Service's information system. The connection we made in our Service between EmoNet and Hemosafe enables real-time, remote-controlled management of the following aspects of blood component distribution: a) release of autologous and allogeneic units already allocated to a patient, b) release of available units, which can be allocated by remote-control to known patients, in the presence of a valid computer cross-match, c) release of O-negative units of blood for emergencies. Our system combines an information database, which enables computer cross-matching, with an automated refrigerator for blood storage with controlled access managed remotely by the Transfusion Service. The effectiveness and safety of the system were validated during the 4 months of its routine use in the Transfusion Service's outpatient department. The safety and efficiency of the distribution of blood products can and must be increased by the use of technological innovations. With the EmoNet/Hemosafe system, the responsibility for the remote-controlled distribution of red blood cell concentrates remains with the chief of the Transfusion Services, through the use of automated computer procedures and supported by continuous training of technicians and nursing staff.

Study radiolabeling of urea-based PSMA inhibitor with 68-Galliu: Comparative evaluation of automated and not automated methods

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Alcarde, Lais Fernanda

2016-01-01

The methods for clinical diagnosis of prostate cancer include rectal examination and the dosage of the prostatic specific antigen (PSA). However, the PSA level is elevated in about 20 to 30% of cases related to benign pathologies, resulting in false positives and leading patients to unnecessary biopsies. The prostate specific membrane antigen (PSMA), in contrast, is over expressed in prostate cancer and founded at low levels in healthy organs. As a result, it stimulated the development of small molecule inhibitors of PSMA, which carry imaging agents to the tumor and are not affected by their microvasculature. Recent studies suggest that the HBED-CC chelator intrinsically contributes to the binding of the PSMA inhibitor peptide based on urea (Glu-urea-Lys) to the pharmacophore group. This work describes the optimization of radiolabeling conditions of PSMA-HBED-CC with "6"8Ga, using automated system (synthesis module) and no automated method, seeking to establish an appropriate condition to prepare this new radiopharmaceutical, with emphasis on the labeling yield and radiochemical purity of the product. It also aimed to evaluate the stability of the radiolabeled peptide in transport conditions and study the biological distribution of the radiopharmaceutical in healthy mice. The study of radiolabeling parameters enabled to define a non-automated method which resulted in high radiochemical purity (> 95 %) without the need for purification of the labeled peptide. The automated method has been adapted, using a module of synthesis and software already available at IPEN, and also resulted in high synthetic yield (≥ 90%) specially when compared with those described in the literature, with the associated benefit of greater control of the production process in compliance with Good Manufacturing Practices. The study of radiolabeling parameters afforded the PSMA-HBED-CC-"6"8Ga with higher specific activity than observed in published clinical studies (≥ 140,0 GBq

Using Publish-Subscribe Messaging for System Status and Automation

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Danford S.

2015-01-01

The NASA Goddard Mission Services Evolution Center (GMSEC) system is a message-based plug-and-play open system architecture used in many of NASA mission operations centers. This presentation will focus on the use of GMSEC standard messages to report and analyze the status of a system and enable the automation of the system's components. In GMSEC systems, each component reports its status using a keep-alive message and also publishes status and activities as log messages. In addition, the components can accept functional directive messages from the GMSEC message bus. Over the past several years, development teams have found ways to utilize these messages to create innovative display pages and increasingly sophisticated approaches to automation. This presentation will show the flexibility and value of the message-based approach to system awareness and automation.

Automated quantification of proliferation with automated hot-spot selection in phosphohistone H3/MART1 dual-stained stage I/II melanoma.

Science.gov (United States)

Nielsen, Patricia Switten; Riber-Hansen, Rikke; Schmidt, Henrik; Steiniche, Torben

2016-04-09

Staging of melanoma includes quantification of a proliferation index, i.e., presumed melanocytic mitoses of H&E stains are counted manually in hot spots. Yet, its reproducibility and prognostic impact increases by immunohistochemical dual staining for phosphohistone H3 (PHH3) and MART1, which also may enable fully automated quantification by image analysis. To ensure manageable workloads and repeatable measurements in modern pathology, the study aimed to present an automated quantification of proliferation with automated hot-spot selection in PHH3/MART1-stained melanomas. Formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue from 153 consecutive stage I/II melanoma patients was immunohistochemically dual-stained for PHH3 and MART1. Whole slide images were captured, and the number of PHH3/MART1-positive cells was manually and automatically counted in the global tumor area and in a manually and automatically selected hot spot, i.e., a fixed 1-mm(2) square. Bland-Altman plots and hypothesis tests compared manual and automated procedures, and the Cox proportional hazards model established their prognostic impact. The mean difference between manual and automated global counts was 2.9 cells/mm(2) (P = 0.0071) and 0.23 cells per hot spot (P = 0.96) for automated counts in manually and automatically selected hot spots. In 77 % of cases, manual and automated hot spots overlapped. Fully manual hot-spot counts yielded the highest prognostic performance with an adjusted hazard ratio of 5.5 (95 % CI, 1.3-24, P = 0.024) as opposed to 1.3 (95 % CI, 0.61-2.9, P = 0.47) for automated counts with automated hot spots. The automated index and automated hot-spot selection were highly correlated to their manual counterpart, but altogether their prognostic impact was noticeably reduced. Because correct recognition of only one PHH3/MART1-positive cell seems important, extremely high sensitivity and specificity of the algorithm is required for prognostic purposes. Thus, automated

Flexible automated manufacturing for SMEs

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Grube Hansen, David; Bilberg, Arne; Madsen, Erik Skov

2017-01-01

SMEs are in general highly flexible and agile in order to accommodate the customer demands in the paradigm of High Mix-Low Volume manufacturing. The flexibility and agility have mainly been enabled by manual labor, but as we are entering the technology and data driven fourth industrial revolution......, where augmented operators and machines work in cooperation in a highly flexible and productive manufacturing system both an opportunity and a need has raised for developing highly flexible and efficient automation....

Highly Automated Arrival Management and Control System Suitable for Early NextGen

Science.gov (United States)

Swenson, Harry N.; Jung, Jaewoo

2013-01-01

This is a presentation of previously published work conducted in the development of the Terminal Area Precision Scheduling and Spacing (TAPSS) system. Included are concept and technical descriptions of the TAPSS system and results from human in the loop simulations conducted at Ames Research Center. The Terminal Area Precision Scheduling and Spacing system has demonstrated through research and extensive high-fidelity simulation studies to have benefits in airport arrival throughput, supporting efficient arrival descents, and enabling mixed aircraft navigation capability operations during periods of high congestion. NASA is currently porting the TAPSS system into the FAA TBFM and STARS system prototypes to ensure its ability to operate in the FAA automation Infrastructure. NASA ATM Demonstration Project is using the the TAPSS technologies to provide the ground-based automation tools to enable airborne Interval Management (IM) capabilities. NASA and the FAA have initiated a Research Transition Team to enable potential TAPSS and IM Technology Transfer.

Automated fault-management in a simulated spaceflight micro-world

Science.gov (United States)

Lorenz, Bernd; Di Nocera, Francesco; Rottger, Stefan; Parasuraman, Raja

2002-01-01

BACKGROUND: As human spaceflight missions extend in duration and distance from Earth, a self-sufficient crew will bear far greater onboard responsibility and authority for mission success. This will increase the need for automated fault management (FM). Human factors issues in the use of such systems include maintenance of cognitive skill, situational awareness (SA), trust in automation, and workload. This study examine the human performance consequences of operator use of intelligent FM support in interaction with an autonomous, space-related, atmospheric control system. METHODS: An expert system representing a model-base reasoning agent supported operators at a low level of automation (LOA) by a computerized fault finding guide, at a medium LOA by an automated diagnosis and recovery advisory, and at a high LOA by automate diagnosis and recovery implementation, subject to operator approval or veto. Ten percent of the experimental trials involved complete failure of FM support. RESULTS: Benefits of automation were reflected in more accurate diagnoses, shorter fault identification time, and reduced subjective operator workload. Unexpectedly, fault identification times deteriorated more at the medium than at the high LOA during automation failure. Analyses of information sampling behavior showed that offloading operators from recovery implementation during reliable automation enabled operators at high LOA to engage in fault assessment activities CONCLUSIONS: The potential threat to SA imposed by high-level automation, in which decision advisories are automatically generated, need not inevitably be counteracted by choosing a lower LOA. Instead, freeing operator cognitive resources by automatic implementation of recover plans at a higher LOA can promote better fault comprehension, so long as the automation interface is designed to support efficient information sampling.

Open Automated Demand Response Communications Specification (Version 1.0)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Piette, Mary Ann; Ghatikar, Girish; Kiliccote, Sila; Koch, Ed; Hennage, Dan; Palensky, Peter; McParland, Charles

2009-02-28

The development of the Open Automated Demand Response Communications Specification, also known as OpenADR or Open Auto-DR, began in 2002 following the California electricity crisis. The work has been carried out by the Demand Response Research Center (DRRC), which is managed by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. This specification describes an open standards-based communications data model designed to facilitate sending and receiving demand response price and reliability signals from a utility or Independent System Operator to electric customers. OpenADR is one element of the Smart Grid information and communications technologies that are being developed to improve optimization between electric supply and demand. The intention of the open automated demand response communications data model is to provide interoperable signals to building and industrial control systems that are preprogrammed to take action based on a demand response signal, enabling a demand response event to be fully automated, with no manual intervention. The OpenADR specification is a flexible infrastructure to facilitate common information exchange between the utility or Independent System Operator and end-use participants. The concept of an open specification is intended to allow anyone to implement the signaling systems, the automation server or the automation clients.

Submicrometric Magnetic Nanoporous Carbons Derived from Metal-Organic Frameworks Enabling Automated Electromagnet-Assisted Online Solid-Phase Extraction.

Science.gov (United States)

Frizzarin, Rejane M; Palomino Cabello, Carlos; Bauzà, Maria Del Mar; Portugal, Lindomar A; Maya, Fernando; Cerdà, Víctor; Estela, José M; Turnes Palomino, Gemma

2016-07-19

We present the first application of submicrometric magnetic nanoporous carbons (μMNPCs) as sorbents for automated solid-phase extraction (SPE). Small zeolitic imidazolate framework-67 crystals are obtained at room temperature and directly carbonized under an inert atmosphere to obtain submicrometric nanoporous carbons containing magnetic cobalt nanoparticles. The μMNPCs have a high contact area, high stability, and their preparation is simple and cost-effective. The prepared μMNPCs are exploited as sorbents in a microcolumn format in a sequential injection analysis (SIA) system with online spectrophotometric detection, which includes a specially designed three-dimensional (3D)-printed holder containing an automatically actuated electromagnet. The combined action of permanent magnets and an automatically actuated electromagnet enabled the movement of the solid bed of particles inside the microcolumn, preventing their aggregation, increasing the versatility of the system, and increasing the preconcentration efficiency. The method was optimized using a full factorial design and Doehlert Matrix. The developed system was applied to the determination of anionic surfactants, exploiting the retention of the ion-pairs formed with Methylene Blue on the μMNPC. Using sodium dodecyl sulfate as a model analyte, quantification was linear from 50 to 1000 μg L(-1), and the detection limit was equal to 17.5 μg L(-1), the coefficient of variation (n = 8; 100 μg L(-1)) was 2.7%, and the analysis throughput was 13 h(-1). The developed approach was applied to the determination of anionic surfactants in water samples (natural water, groundwater, and wastewater), yielding recoveries of 93% to 110% (95% confidence level).

Automating data citation: the eagle-i experience.

Science.gov (United States)

Alawini, Abdussalam; Chen, Leshang; Davidson, Susan B; Da Silva, Natan Portilho; Silvello, Gianmaria

2017-06-01

Data citation is of growing concern for owners of curated databases, who wish to give credit to the contributors and curators responsible for portions of the dataset and enable the data retrieved by a query to be later examined. While several databases specify how data should be cited, they leave it to users to manually construct the citations and do not generate them automatically. We report our experiences in automating data citation for an RDF dataset called eagle-i, and discuss how to generalize this to a citation framework that can work across a variety of different types of databases (e.g. relational, XML, and RDF). We also describe how a database administrator would use this framework to automate citation for a particular dataset.

Making progress with the automation of systematic reviews: principles of the International Collaboration for the Automation of Systematic Reviews (ICASR).

Science.gov (United States)

Beller, Elaine; Clark, Justin; Tsafnat, Guy; Adams, Clive; Diehl, Heinz; Lund, Hans; Ouzzani, Mourad; Thayer, Kristina; Thomas, James; Turner, Tari; Xia, Jun; Robinson, Karen; Glasziou, Paul

2018-05-19

Systematic reviews (SR) are vital to health care, but have become complicated and time-consuming, due to the rapid expansion of evidence to be synthesised. Fortunately, many tasks of systematic reviews have the potential to be automated or may be assisted by automation. Recent advances in natural language processing, text mining and machine learning have produced new algorithms that can accurately mimic human endeavour in systematic review activity, faster and more cheaply. Automation tools need to be able to work together, to exchange data and results. Therefore, we initiated the International Collaboration for the Automation of Systematic Reviews (ICASR), to successfully put all the parts of automation of systematic review production together. The first meeting was held in Vienna in October 2015. We established a set of principles to enable tools to be developed and integrated into toolkits.This paper sets out the principles devised at that meeting, which cover the need for improvement in efficiency of SR tasks, automation across the spectrum of SR tasks, continuous improvement, adherence to high quality standards, flexibility of use and combining components, the need for a collaboration and varied skills, the desire for open source, shared code and evaluation, and a requirement for replicability through rigorous and open evaluation.Automation has a great potential to improve the speed of systematic reviews. Considerable work is already being done on many of the steps involved in a review. The 'Vienna Principles' set out in this paper aim to guide a more coordinated effort which will allow the integration of work by separate teams and build on the experience, code and evaluations done by the many teams working across the globe.

ORIGAMI Automator Primer. Automated ORIGEN Source Terms and Spent Fuel Storage Pool Analysis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wieselquist, William A. [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Thompson, Adam B. [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Bowman, Stephen M. [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Peterson, Joshua L. [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

2016-04-01

Source terms and spent nuclear fuel (SNF) storage pool decay heat load analyses for operating nuclear power plants require a large number of Oak Ridge Isotope Generation and Depletion (ORIGEN) calculations. SNF source term calculations also require a significant amount of bookkeeping to track quantities such as core and assembly operating histories, spent fuel pool (SFP) residence times, heavy metal masses, and enrichments. The ORIGEN Assembly Isotopics (ORIGAMI) module in the SCALE code system provides a simple scheme for entering these data. However, given the large scope of the analysis, extensive scripting is necessary to convert formats and process data to create thousands of ORIGAMI input files (one per assembly) and to process the results into formats readily usable by follow-on analysis tools. This primer describes a project within the SCALE Fulcrum graphical user interface (GUI) called ORIGAMI Automator that was developed to automate the scripting and bookkeeping in large-scale source term analyses. The ORIGAMI Automator enables the analyst to (1) easily create, view, and edit the reactor site and assembly information, (2) automatically create and run ORIGAMI inputs, and (3) analyze the results from ORIGAMI. ORIGAMI Automator uses the standard ORIGEN binary concentrations files produced by ORIGAMI, with concentrations available at all time points in each assembly’s life. The GUI plots results such as mass, concentration, activity, and decay heat using a powerful new ORIGEN Post-Processing Utility for SCALE (OPUS) GUI component. This document includes a description and user guide for the GUI, a step-by-step tutorial for a simplified scenario, and appendices that document the file structures used.

Combining adaptive automation and adaptive teams in a naval command centre

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Greef, T. de; Arciszewski, H.

2008-01-01

Motivation - Adaptive teams and adaptive automation promote a flexible work division between humans mutually and between humans and machine in order to overcome limitations in human information processing under highly variable workloads. We wanted to construct a framework that enables both

Service-oriented architectural framework for support and automation of collaboration tasks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ana Sasa

2011-06-01

Full Text Available Due to more and more demanding requirements for business flexibility and agility, automation of end-to-end industrial processes has become an important topic. Systems supporting business process execution need to enable automated tasks execution as well as integrate human performed tasks (human tasks into a business process. In this paper, we focus on collaboration tasks, which are an important type of composite human tasks. We propose a service-oriented architectural framework describing a service responsible for human task execution (Human task service, which not only implements collaboration tasks but also improves their execution by automated and semi-automated decision making and collaboration based on ontologies and agent technology. The approach is very generic and can be used for any type of business processes. A case study was performed for a human task intensive business process from an electric power transmission domain.

The impact of automation on pharmacy staff experience of workplace stressors.

Science.gov (United States)

James, K Lynette; Barlow, Dave; Bithell, Anne; Hiom, Sarah; Lord, Sue; Oakley, Pat; Pollard, Mike; Roberts, Dave; Way, Cheryl; Whittlesea, Cate

2013-04-01

Determine the effect of installing an original pack automated dispensing system (ADS) on staff experience of occupational stressors. Pharmacy staff in a National Health Service hospital in Wales, UK, were administered an anonymous occupational stressor questionnaire pre- (n = 45) and post-automation (n = 32). Survey responses pre- and post-automation were compared using Mann-Whitney U test. Statistical significance was P ≤ 0.05. Four focus groups were conducted (two groups of accredited checking technicians (ACTs) (group 1: n = 4; group 2: n = 6), one group of pharmacists (n = 17), and one group of technicians (n = 4) post-automation to explore staff experiences of occupational stressors. Focus group transcripts were analysed according to framework analysis. Survey response rate pre-automation was 78% (n = 35) and 49% (n = 16) post-automation. Automation had a positive impact on staff experience of stress (P = 0.023), illogical workload allocation (P = 0.004) and work-life balance (P = 0.05). All focus-group participants reported that automation had created a spacious working environment. Pharmacists and ACTs reported that automation had enabled the expansion of their roles. Technicians felt like 'production-line workers.' Robot malfunction was a source of stress. The findings suggest that automation had a positive impact on staff experience of stressors, improving working conditions and workload. Technicians reported that ADS devalued their skills. When installing ADS, pharmacy managers must consider the impact of automation on staff. Strategies to reduce stressors associated with automation include rotating staff activities and role expansions. © 2012 The Authors. IJPP © 2012 Royal Pharmaceutical Society.

Conflict Resolution Automation and Pilot Situation Awareness

Science.gov (United States)

Dao, Arik-Quang V.; Brandt, Summer L.; Bacon, Paige; Kraut, Josh; Nguyen, Jimmy; Minakata, Katsumi; Raza, Hamzah; Rozovski, David; Johnson, Walter W.

2010-01-01

This study compared pilot situation awareness across three traffic management concepts. The Concepts varied in terms of the allocation of traffic avoidance responsibility between the pilot on the flight deck, the air traffic controllers, and a conflict resolution automation system. In Concept 1, the flight deck was equipped with conflict resolution tools that enable them to fully handle the responsibility of weather avoidance and maintaining separation between ownship and surrounding traffic. In Concept 2, pilots were not responsible for traffic separation, but were provided tools for weather and traffic avoidance. In Concept 3, flight deck tools allowed pilots to deviate for weather, but conflict detection tools were disabled. In this concept pilots were dependent on ground based automation for conflict detection and resolution. Situation awareness of the pilots was measured using online probes. Results showed that individual situation awareness was highest in Concept 1, where the pilots were most engaged, and lowest in Concept 3, where automation was heavily used. These findings suggest that for conflict resolution tasks, situation awareness is improved when pilots remain in the decision-making loop.

Automated Prediction of Catalytic Mechanism and Rate Law Using Graph-Based Reaction Path Sampling.

Science.gov (United States)

Habershon, Scott

2016-04-12

In a recent article [ J. Chem. Phys. 2015 , 143 , 094106 ], we introduced a novel graph-based sampling scheme which can be used to generate chemical reaction paths in many-atom systems in an efficient and highly automated manner. The main goal of this work is to demonstrate how this approach, when combined with direct kinetic modeling, can be used to determine the mechanism and phenomenological rate law of a complex catalytic cycle, namely cobalt-catalyzed hydroformylation of ethene. Our graph-based sampling scheme generates 31 unique chemical products and 32 unique chemical reaction pathways; these sampled structures and reaction paths enable automated construction of a kinetic network model of the catalytic system when combined with density functional theory (DFT) calculations of free energies and resultant transition-state theory rate constants. Direct simulations of this kinetic network across a range of initial reactant concentrations enables determination of both the reaction mechanism and the associated rate law in an automated fashion, without the need for either presupposing a mechanism or making steady-state approximations in kinetic analysis. Most importantly, we find that the reaction mechanism which emerges from these simulations is exactly that originally proposed by Heck and Breslow; furthermore, the simulated rate law is also consistent with previous experimental and computational studies, exhibiting a complex dependence on carbon monoxide pressure. While the inherent errors of using DFT simulations to model chemical reactivity limit the quantitative accuracy of our calculated rates, this work confirms that our automated simulation strategy enables direct analysis of catalytic mechanisms from first principles.

Challenges in Gaining Large Scale Carbon Reductions through Wireless Home Automation Systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Larsen, Peter Gorm; Rovsing, Poul Ejnar; Toftegaard, Thomas Skjødeberg

2010-01-01

Buildings account for more than a 35 % of the energy consumption in Europe. Therefore a step towards more sustainable lifestile is to use home automation to optimize the energy consumption “automatically”. This paper reports about the usage and some of the remaining challenges of especially...... wireless but also powerline communication in a home automation setting. For many years, home automation has been visible to many, but accessible to only a few, because of inadequate integration of systems. A vast number of both standard and proprietary communication protocols are used, and systems...... are often difficult to install and configure so professional assistance is needed. In this paper we report about our experience in constructing an open universal home automation framework enabling interoperability of multiple communication protocols. The framework can easily be expanded in order to support...

Automated Cooperative Trajectories for a More Efficient and Responsive Air Transportation System

Science.gov (United States)

Hanson, Curt

2015-01-01

The NASA Automated Cooperative Trajectories project is developing a prototype avionics system that enables multi-vehicle cooperative control by integrating 1090 MHz ES ADS-B digital communications with onboard autopilot systems. This cooperative control capability will enable meta-aircraft operations for enhanced airspace utilization, as well as improved vehicle efficiency through wake surfing. This briefing describes the objectives and approach to a flight evaluation of this system planned for 2016.

Altering user' acceptance of automation through prior automation exposure.

Science.gov (United States)

Bekier, Marek; Molesworth, Brett R C

2017-06-01

Air navigation service providers worldwide see increased use of automation as one solution to overcome the capacity constraints imbedded in the present air traffic management (ATM) system. However, increased use of automation within any system is dependent on user acceptance. The present research sought to determine if the point at which an individual is no longer willing to accept or cooperate with automation can be manipulated. Forty participants underwent training on a computer-based air traffic control programme, followed by two ATM exercises (order counterbalanced), one with and one without the aid of automation. Results revealed after exposure to a task with automation assistance, user acceptance of high(er) levels of automation ('tipping point') decreased; suggesting it is indeed possible to alter automation acceptance. Practitioner Summary: This paper investigates whether the point at which a user of automation rejects automation (i.e. 'tipping point') is constant or can be manipulated. The results revealed after exposure to a task with automation assistance, user acceptance of high(er) levels of automation decreased; suggesting it is possible to alter automation acceptance.

Demand Response Advanced Controls Framework and Assessment of Enabling Technology Costs

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Potter, Jennifer; Cappers, Peter

2017-08-28

The Demand Response Advanced Controls Framework and Assessment of Enabling Technology Costs research describe a variety of DR opportunities and the various bulk power system services they can provide. The bulk power system services are mapped to a generalized taxonomy of DR “service types”, which allows us to discuss DR opportunities and bulk power system services in fewer yet broader categories that share similar technological requirements which mainly drive DR enablement costs. The research presents a framework for the costs to automate DR and provides descriptions of the various elements that drive enablement costs. The report introduces the various DR enabling technologies and end-uses, identifies the various services that each can provide to the grid and provides the cost assessment for each enabling technology. In addition to a report, this research includes a Demand Response Advanced Controls Database and User Manual. They are intended to provide users with the data that underlies this research and instructions for how to use that database more effectively and efficiently.

Long-term maintenance of human induced pluripotent stem cells by automated cell culture system.

Science.gov (United States)

Konagaya, Shuhei; Ando, Takeshi; Yamauchi, Toshiaki; Suemori, Hirofumi; Iwata, Hiroo

2015-11-17

Pluripotent stem cells, such as embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, are regarded as new sources for cell replacement therapy. These cells can unlimitedly expand under undifferentiated conditions and be differentiated into multiple cell types. Automated culture systems enable the large-scale production of cells. In addition to reducing the time and effort of researchers, an automated culture system improves the reproducibility of cell cultures. In the present study, we newly designed a fully automated cell culture system for human iPS maintenance. Using an automated culture system, hiPS cells maintained their undifferentiated state for 60 days. Automatically prepared hiPS cells had a potency of differentiation into three germ layer cells including dopaminergic neurons and pancreatic cells.

Design Space Toolbox V2: Automated Software Enabling a Novel Phenotype-Centric Modeling Strategy for Natural and Synthetic Biological Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jason Gunther Lomnitz

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Mathematical models of biochemical systems provide a means to elucidate the link between the genotype, environment and phenotype. A subclass of mathematical models, known as mechanistic models, quantitatively describe the complex non-linear mechanisms that capture the intricate interactions between biochemical components. However, the study of mechanistic models is challenging because most are analytically intractable and involve large numbers of system parameters. Conventional methods to analyze them rely on local analyses about a nominal parameter set and they do not reveal the vast majority of potential phenotypes possible for a given system design. We have recently developed a new modeling approach that does not require estimated values for the parameters initially and inverts the typical steps of the conventional modeling strategy. Instead, this approach relies on architectural features of the model to identify the phenotypic repertoire and then predict values for the parameters that yield specific instances of the system that realize desired phenotypic characteristics. Here, we present a collection of software tools, the Design Space Toolbox V2 based on the System Design Space method, that automates (1 enumeration of the repertoire of model phenotypes, (2 prediction of values for the parameters for any model phenotype and (3 analysis of model phenotypes through analytical and numerical methods. The result is an enabling technology that facilitates this radically new, phenotype-centric, modeling approach. We illustrate the power of these new tools by applying them to a synthetic gene circuit that can exhibit multi-stability. We then predict values for the system parameters such that the design exhibits 2, 3 and 4 stable steady states. In one example, inspection of the basins of attraction reveals that the circuit can count between 3 stable states by transient stimulation through one of two input channels: a positive channel that increases

Design Space Toolbox V2: Automated Software Enabling a Novel Phenotype-Centric Modeling Strategy for Natural and Synthetic Biological Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Lomnitz, Jason G.; Savageau, Michael A.

2016-01-01

Mathematical models of biochemical systems provide a means to elucidate the link between the genotype, environment, and phenotype. A subclass of mathematical models, known as mechanistic models, quantitatively describe the complex non-linear mechanisms that capture the intricate interactions between biochemical components. However, the study of mechanistic models is challenging because most are analytically intractable and involve large numbers of system parameters. Conventional methods to analyze them rely on local analyses about a nominal parameter set and they do not reveal the vast majority of potential phenotypes possible for a given system design. We have recently developed a new modeling approach that does not require estimated values for the parameters initially and inverts the typical steps of the conventional modeling strategy. Instead, this approach relies on architectural features of the model to identify the phenotypic repertoire and then predict values for the parameters that yield specific instances of the system that realize desired phenotypic characteristics. Here, we present a collection of software tools, the Design Space Toolbox V2 based on the System Design Space method, that automates (1) enumeration of the repertoire of model phenotypes, (2) prediction of values for the parameters for any model phenotype, and (3) analysis of model phenotypes through analytical and numerical methods. The result is an enabling technology that facilitates this radically new, phenotype-centric, modeling approach. We illustrate the power of these new tools by applying them to a synthetic gene circuit that can exhibit multi-stability. We then predict values for the system parameters such that the design exhibits 2, 3, and 4 stable steady states. In one example, inspection of the basins of attraction reveals that the circuit can count between three stable states by transient stimulation through one of two input channels: a positive channel that increases the count

Design Space Toolbox V2: Automated Software Enabling a Novel Phenotype-Centric Modeling Strategy for Natural and Synthetic Biological Systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Lomnitz, Jason G; Savageau, Michael A

2016-01-01

Mathematical models of biochemical systems provide a means to elucidate the link between the genotype, environment, and phenotype. A subclass of mathematical models, known as mechanistic models, quantitatively describe the complex non-linear mechanisms that capture the intricate interactions between biochemical components. However, the study of mechanistic models is challenging because most are analytically intractable and involve large numbers of system parameters. Conventional methods to analyze them rely on local analyses about a nominal parameter set and they do not reveal the vast majority of potential phenotypes possible for a given system design. We have recently developed a new modeling approach that does not require estimated values for the parameters initially and inverts the typical steps of the conventional modeling strategy. Instead, this approach relies on architectural features of the model to identify the phenotypic repertoire and then predict values for the parameters that yield specific instances of the system that realize desired phenotypic characteristics. Here, we present a collection of software tools, the Design Space Toolbox V2 based on the System Design Space method, that automates (1) enumeration of the repertoire of model phenotypes, (2) prediction of values for the parameters for any model phenotype, and (3) analysis of model phenotypes through analytical and numerical methods. The result is an enabling technology that facilitates this radically new, phenotype-centric, modeling approach. We illustrate the power of these new tools by applying them to a synthetic gene circuit that can exhibit multi-stability. We then predict values for the system parameters such that the design exhibits 2, 3, and 4 stable steady states. In one example, inspection of the basins of attraction reveals that the circuit can count between three stable states by transient stimulation through one of two input channels: a positive channel that increases the count

Complacency and Automation Bias in the Use of Imperfect Automation.

Science.gov (United States)

Wickens, Christopher D; Clegg, Benjamin A; Vieane, Alex Z; Sebok, Angelia L

2015-08-01

We examine the effects of two different kinds of decision-aiding automation errors on human-automation interaction (HAI), occurring at the first failure following repeated exposure to correctly functioning automation. The two errors are incorrect advice, triggering the automation bias, and missing advice, reflecting complacency. Contrasts between analogous automation errors in alerting systems, rather than decision aiding, have revealed that alerting false alarms are more problematic to HAI than alerting misses are. Prior research in decision aiding, although contrasting the two aiding errors (incorrect vs. missing), has confounded error expectancy. Participants performed an environmental process control simulation with and without decision aiding. For those with the aid, automation dependence was created through several trials of perfect aiding performance, and an unexpected automation error was then imposed in which automation was either gone (one group) or wrong (a second group). A control group received no automation support. The correct aid supported faster and more accurate diagnosis and lower workload. The aid failure degraded all three variables, but "automation wrong" had a much greater effect on accuracy, reflecting the automation bias, than did "automation gone," reflecting the impact of complacency. Some complacency was manifested for automation gone, by a longer latency and more modest reduction in accuracy. Automation wrong, creating the automation bias, appears to be a more problematic form of automation error than automation gone, reflecting complacency. Decision-aiding automation should indicate its lower degree of confidence in uncertain environments to avoid the automation bias. © 2015, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.

Revolutionizing our roadways : the challenges and benefits of making automated vehicles a reality.

Science.gov (United States)

2014-02-01

Automated vehicles (AVs)a combination of technologies and sensors that : enable vehicles to operate with limited or no driver inputare rapidly moving : from science fiction to real-world application. Low-level, limited function AV : technologie...

A Systems Approach to Information Technology (IT) Infrastructure Design for Utility Management Automation Systems

OpenAIRE

A. Fereidunian; H. Lesani; C. Lucas; M. Lehtonen; M. M. Nordman

2006-01-01

Almost all of electric utility companies are planning to improve their management automation system, in order to meet the changing requirements of new liberalized energy market and to benefit from the innovations in information and communication technology (ICT or IT). Architectural design of the utility management automation (UMA) systems for their IT-enabling requires proper selection of IT choices for UMA system, which leads to multi-criteria decision-makings (MCDM). In resp...

Automated monitoring: a potential solution for achieving sustainable improvement in hand hygiene practices.

Science.gov (United States)

Levchenko, Alexander I; Boscart, Veronique M; Fernie, Geoff R

2014-08-01

Adequate hand hygiene is often considered as the most effective method of reducing the rates of hospital-acquired infections, which are one of the major causes of increased cost, morbidity, and mortality in healthcare. Electronic monitoring technologies provide a promising direction for achieving sustainable hand hygiene improvement by introducing the elements of automated feedback and creating the possibility to automatically collect individual hand hygiene performance data. The results of the multiphase testing of an automated hand hygiene reminding and monitoring system installed in a complex continuing care setting are presented. The study included a baseline Phase 1, with the system performing automated data collection only, a preintervention Phase 2 with hand hygiene status indicator enabled, two intervention Phases 3 and 4 with the system generating hand hygiene reminding signals and periodic performance feedback sessions provided, and a postintervention Phase 5 with only hand hygiene status indicator enabled and no feedback sessions provided. A significant increase in hand hygiene performance observed during the first intervention Phase 3 was sustained over the second intervention Phase 4, with the postintervention phase also indicating higher hand hygiene activity rates compared with the preintervention and baseline phases. The overall trends observed during the multiphase testing, the factors affecting acceptability of the automated hand hygiene monitoring system, and various strategies of technology deployment are discussed.

Open Automated Demand Response for Small Commerical Buildings

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dudley, June Han; Piette, Mary Ann; Koch, Ed; Hennage, Dan

2009-05-01

This report characterizes small commercial buildings by market segments, systems and end-uses; develops a framework for identifying demand response (DR) enabling technologies and communication means; and reports on the design and development of a low-cost OpenADR enabling technology that delivers demand reductions as a percentage of the total predicted building peak electric demand. The results show that small offices, restaurants and retail buildings are the major contributors making up over one third of the small commercial peak demand. The majority of the small commercial buildings in California are located in southern inland areas and the central valley. Single-zone packaged units with manual and programmable thermostat controls make up the majority of heating ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems for small commercial buildings with less than 200 kW peak electric demand. Fluorescent tubes with magnetic ballast and manual controls dominate this customer group's lighting systems. There are various ways, each with its pros and cons for a particular application, to communicate with these systems and three methods to enable automated DR in small commercial buildings using the Open Automated Demand Response (or OpenADR) communications infrastructure. Development of DR strategies must consider building characteristics, such as weather sensitivity and load variability, as well as system design (i.e. under-sizing, under-lighting, over-sizing, etc). Finally, field tests show that requesting demand reductions as a percentage of the total building predicted peak electric demand is feasible using the OpenADR infrastructure.

Automated comparison of Bayesian reconstructions of experimental profiles with physical models

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Irishkin, Maxim

2014-01-01

In this work we developed an expert system that carries out in an integrated and fully automated way i) a reconstruction of plasma profiles from the measurements, using Bayesian analysis ii) a prediction of the reconstructed quantities, according to some models and iii) an intelligent comparison of the first two steps. This system includes systematic checking of the internal consistency of the reconstructed quantities, enables automated model validation and, if a well-validated model is used, can be applied to help detecting interesting new physics in an experiment. The work shows three applications of this quite general system. The expert system can successfully detect failures in the automated plasma reconstruction and provide (on successful reconstruction cases) statistics of agreement of the models with the experimental data, i.e. information on the model validity. (author) [fr

Comparison of Thrust Characteristics in Pencil Sized Cylinder-type Linear Motors with Different Magnet Arrays(Asia-Pacific Symposium on Applied Electromagnetics and Mechanics (APSAEM08))

OpenAIRE

K., Nakaiwa; A., Yamada; K., Tashiro; H., Wakiwaka; Tamagawa-Seiki Co., Ltd; Shinshu University; Shinshu University; Shinshu University

2009-01-01

From a strong demand on the miniaturization of a chip mounter or a semiconductor device, the thrust improvement considering the magnets arrangement is studied. We accept a core stator with a Halbach type magnet array for a current linear motor. The thrust characteristics are compared with two kinds of mover, a NS magnet array and a Halbach magnet array.

Comparison of Thrust Characteristics in Pencil Sized Cylinder-type Linear Motors with Different Magnet Arrays

OpenAIRE

Nakaiwa, K; Yamada, A; Tashiro, K; Wakiwaka, H

2009-01-01

From a strong demand on the miniaturization of a chip mounter or a semiconductor device, the thrust improvement considering the magnets arrangement is studied. We accept a core stator with a Halbach type magnet array for a current linear motor. The thrust characteristics are compared with two kinds of mover, a NS magnet array and a Halbach magnet array.

High-Throughput Screening Enhances Kidney Organoid Differentiation from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells and Enables Automated Multidimensional Phenotyping.

Science.gov (United States)

Czerniecki, Stefan M; Cruz, Nelly M; Harder, Jennifer L; Menon, Rajasree; Annis, James; Otto, Edgar A; Gulieva, Ramila E; Islas, Laura V; Kim, Yong Kyun; Tran, Linh M; Martins, Timothy J; Pippin, Jeffrey W; Fu, Hongxia; Kretzler, Matthias; Shankland, Stuart J; Himmelfarb, Jonathan; Moon, Randall T; Paragas, Neal; Freedman, Benjamin S

2018-05-15

Organoids derived from human pluripotent stem cells are a potentially powerful tool for high-throughput screening (HTS), but the complexity of organoid cultures poses a significant challenge for miniaturization and automation. Here, we present a fully automated, HTS-compatible platform for enhanced differentiation and phenotyping of human kidney organoids. The entire 21-day protocol, from plating to differentiation to analysis, can be performed automatically by liquid-handling robots, or alternatively by manual pipetting. High-content imaging analysis reveals both dose-dependent and threshold effects during organoid differentiation. Immunofluorescence and single-cell RNA sequencing identify previously undetected parietal, interstitial, and partially differentiated compartments within organoids and define conditions that greatly expand the vascular endothelium. Chemical modulation of toxicity and disease phenotypes can be quantified for safety and efficacy prediction. Screening in gene-edited organoids in this system reveals an unexpected role for myosin in polycystic kidney disease. Organoids in HTS formats thus establish an attractive platform for multidimensional phenotypic screening. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Automated Detection of Sepsis Using Electronic Medical Record Data: A Systematic Review.

Science.gov (United States)

Despins, Laurel A

Severe sepsis and septic shock are global issues with high mortality rates. Early recognition and intervention are essential to optimize patient outcomes. Automated detection using electronic medical record (EMR) data can assist this process. This review describes automated sepsis detection using EMR data. PubMed retrieved publications between January 1, 2005 and January 31, 2015. Thirteen studies met study criteria: described an automated detection approach with the potential to detect sepsis or sepsis-related deterioration in real or near-real time; focused on emergency department and hospitalized neonatal, pediatric, or adult patients; and provided performance measures or results indicating the impact of automated sepsis detection. Detection algorithms incorporated systemic inflammatory response and organ dysfunction criteria. Systems in nine studies generated study or care team alerts. Care team alerts did not consistently lead to earlier interventions. Earlier interventions did not consistently translate to improved patient outcomes. Performance measures were inconsistent. Automated sepsis detection is potentially a means to enable early sepsis-related therapy but current performance variability highlights the need for further research.

The Molecular Industrial Revolution: Automated Synthesis of Small Molecules.

Science.gov (United States)

Trobe, Melanie; Burke, Martin D

2018-04-09

Today we are poised for a transition from the highly customized crafting of specific molecular targets by hand to the increasingly general and automated assembly of different types of molecules with the push of a button. Creating machines that are capable of making many different types of small molecules on demand, akin to that which has been achieved on the macroscale with 3D printers, is challenging. Yet important progress is being made toward this objective with two complementary approaches: 1) Automation of customized synthesis routes to different targets by machines that enable the use of many reactions and starting materials, and 2) automation of generalized platforms that make many different targets using common coupling chemistry and building blocks. Continued progress in these directions has the potential to shift the bottleneck in molecular innovation from synthesis to imagination, and thereby help drive a new industrial revolution on the molecular scale. © 2018 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Enabling collaboration on semiformal mathematical knowledge by semantic web integration

CERN Document Server

Lange, C

2011-01-01

Mathematics is becoming increasingly collaborative, but software does not sufficiently support that: Social Web applications do not currently make mathematical knowledge accessible to automated agents that have a deeper understanding of mathematical structures. Such agents exist but focus on individual research tasks, such as authoring, publishing, peer-review, or verification, instead of complex collaboration workflows. This work effectively enables their integration by bridging the document-oriented perspective of mathematical authoring and publishing, and the network perspective of threaded

Trends and applications of integrated automated ultra-trace sample handling and analysis (T9)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kingston, H.M.S.; Ye Han; Stewart, L.; Link, D.

2002-01-01

Full text: Automated analysis, sub-ppt detection limits, and the trend toward speciated analysis (rather than just elemental analysis) force the innovation of sophisticated and integrated sample preparation and analysis techniques. Traditionally, the ability to handle samples at ppt and sub-ppt levels has been limited to clean laboratories and special sample handling techniques and equipment. The world of sample handling has passed a threshold where older or 'old fashioned' traditional techniques no longer provide the ability to see the sample due to the influence of the analytical blank and the fragile nature of the analyte. When samples require decomposition, extraction, separation and manipulation, application of newer more sophisticated sample handling systems are emerging that enable ultra-trace analysis and species manipulation. In addition, new instrumentation has emerged which integrate sample preparation and analysis to enable on-line near real-time analysis. Examples of those newer sample-handling methods will be discussed and current examples provided as alternatives to traditional sample handling. Two new techniques applying ultra-trace microwave energy enhanced sample handling have been developed that permit sample separation and refinement while performing species manipulation during decomposition. A demonstration, that applies to semiconductor materials, will be presented. Next, a new approach to the old problem of sample evaporation without losses will be demonstrated that is capable of retaining all elements and species tested. Both of those methods require microwave energy manipulation in specialized systems and are not accessible through convection, conduction, or other traditional energy applications. A new automated integrated method for handling samples for ultra-trace analysis has been developed. An on-line near real-time measurement system will be described that enables many new automated sample handling and measurement capabilities. This

Web-Altairis: An Internet-Enabled Ground System

Science.gov (United States)

Miller, Phil; Coleman, Jason; Gemoets, Darren; Hughes, Kevin

2000-01-01

This paper describes Web-Altairis, an Internet-enabled ground system software package funded by the Advanced Automation and Architectures Branch (Code 588) of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Web-Altairis supports the trend towards "lights out" ground systems, where the control center is unattended and problems are resolved by remote operators. This client/server software runs on most popular platforms and provides for remote data visualization using the rich functionality of the VisAGE toolkit. Web-Altairis also supports satellite commanding over the Internet. This paper describes the structure of Web-Altairis and VisAGE, the underlying technologies, the provisions for security, and our experiences in developing and testing the software.

The Automated Assembly Team contributions to the APRIMED Agile Manufacturing Project

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jones, R.E.; Ames, A.L.; Calton, T.L.

1995-06-01

The Automated Assembly Team of the APRIMED Project (abbreviated as A') consists of two parts: the Archimedes Project, which is an ongoing project developing automated assembly technology, and the A' Robot Team. Archimedes is a second generation assembly planning system that both provides a general high-level assembly sequencing capability and, for a smaller class of products, facilitates automatic programming of a robotic workcell to assemble them. The A' robot team designed, developed, and implemented a flexible robot workcell which served as the automated factory of the A' project. In this document we briefly describe the role of automated assembly planning in agile manufacturing, and specifically describe the contributions of the Archimedes project and the A' robot team to the A' project. We introduce the concepts of the Archimedes automated assembly planning project, and discuss the enhancements to Archimedes which were developed in response to the needs of the A' project. We also present the work of the A' robot team in designing and developing the A' robot workcell, including all tooling and programming to support assembly of the A' discriminator devices. Finally, we discuss the process changes which these technologies have enabled in the A' project

The contaminant analysis automation robot implementation for the automated laboratory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Younkin, J.R.; Igou, R.E.; Urenda, T.D.

1995-01-01

The Contaminant Analysis Automation (CAA) project defines the automated laboratory as a series of standard laboratory modules (SLM) serviced by a robotic standard support module (SSM). These SLMs are designed to allow plug-and-play integration into automated systems that perform standard analysis methods (SAM). While the SLMs are autonomous in the execution of their particular chemical processing task, the SAM concept relies on a high-level task sequence controller (TSC) to coordinate the robotic delivery of materials requisite for SLM operations, initiate an SLM operation with the chemical method dependent operating parameters, and coordinate the robotic removal of materials from the SLM when its commands and events has been established to allow ready them for transport operations as well as performing the Supervisor and Subsystems (GENISAS) software governs events from the SLMs and robot. The Intelligent System Operating Environment (ISOE) enables the inter-process communications used by GENISAS. CAA selected the Hewlett-Packard Optimized Robot for Chemical Analysis (ORCA) and its associated Windows based Methods Development Software (MDS) as the robot SSM. The MDS software is used to teach the robot each SLM position and required material port motions. To allow the TSC to command these SLM motions, a hardware and software implementation was required that allowed message passing between different operating systems. This implementation involved the use of a Virtual Memory Extended (VME) rack with a Force CPU-30 computer running VxWorks; a real-time multitasking operating system, and a Radiuses PC compatible VME computer running MDS. A GENISAS server on The Force computer accepts a transport command from the TSC, a GENISAS supervisor, over Ethernet and notifies software on the RadiSys PC of the pending command through VMEbus shared memory. The command is then delivered to the MDS robot control software using a Windows Dynamic Data Exchange conversation

Automated computation of autonomous spectral submanifolds for nonlinear modal analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Ponsioen, Sten; Pedergnana, Tiemo; Haller, George

2018-04-01

We discuss an automated computational methodology for computing two-dimensional spectral submanifolds (SSMs) in autonomous nonlinear mechanical systems of arbitrary degrees of freedom. In our algorithm, SSMs, the smoothest nonlinear continuations of modal subspaces of the linearized system, are constructed up to arbitrary orders of accuracy, using the parameterization method. An advantage of this approach is that the construction of the SSMs does not break down when the SSM folds over its underlying spectral subspace. A further advantage is an automated a posteriori error estimation feature that enables a systematic increase in the orders of the SSM computation until the required accuracy is reached. We find that the present algorithm provides a major speed-up, relative to numerical continuation methods, in the computation of backbone curves, especially in higher-dimensional problems. We illustrate the accuracy and speed of the automated SSM algorithm on lower- and higher-dimensional mechanical systems.

An Automated Negotiation-based Framework via Multi-Agent System for the Construction Domain

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Moamin Mahmoud

2015-12-01

Full Text Available In this paper, we propose an automated multi-agent negotiation framework for decision making in the construction domain. It enables software agents to conduct negotiations and autonomously make decisions. The proposed framework consists of two types of components, internal and external. Internal components are integrated into the agent architecture while the external components are blended within the environment to facilitate the negotiation process. The internal components are negotiation algorithm, negotiation style, negotiation protocol, and solution generators. The external components are the negotiation base and the conflict resolution algorithm. We also discuss the decision making process flow in such system. There are three main processes in decision making for specific projects, which are propose solutions, negotiate solutions and handling conflict outcomes (conflict resolution. We finally present the proposed architecture that enables software agents to conduct automated negotiation in the construction domain.

Improving the driver-automation interaction: an approach using automation uncertainty.

Science.gov (United States)

Beller, Johannes; Heesen, Matthias; Vollrath, Mark

2013-12-01

The aim of this study was to evaluate whether communicating automation uncertainty improves the driver-automation interaction. A false system understanding of infallibility may provoke automation misuse and can lead to severe consequences in case of automation failure. The presentation of automation uncertainty may prevent this false system understanding and, as was shown by previous studies, may have numerous benefits. Few studies, however, have clearly shown the potential of communicating uncertainty information in driving. The current study fills this gap. We conducted a driving simulator experiment, varying the presented uncertainty information between participants (no uncertainty information vs. uncertainty information) and the automation reliability (high vs.low) within participants. Participants interacted with a highly automated driving system while engaging in secondary tasks and were required to cooperate with the automation to drive safely. Quantile regressions and multilevel modeling showed that the presentation of uncertainty information increases the time to collision in the case of automation failure. Furthermore, the data indicated improved situation awareness and better knowledge of fallibility for the experimental group. Consequently, the automation with the uncertainty symbol received higher trust ratings and increased acceptance. The presentation of automation uncertaintythrough a symbol improves overall driver-automation cooperation. Most automated systems in driving could benefit from displaying reliability information. This display might improve the acceptance of fallible systems and further enhances driver-automation cooperation.

Cassini-Huygens maneuver automation for navigation

Science.gov (United States)

Goodson, Troy; Attiyah, Amy; Buffington, Brent; Hahn, Yungsun; Pojman, Joan; Stavert, Bob; Strange, Nathan; Stumpf, Paul; Wagner, Sean; Wolff, Peter;

GNSS CORS hardware and software enabling new science

Science.gov (United States)

Drummond, P.

2009-12-01

GNSS CORS networks are enabling new opportunities for science and public and private sector business. This paper will explore how the newest geodetic monitoring software and GNSS receiver hardware from Trimble Navigation Ltd are enabling new science. Technology trends and science opportunities will be explored. These trends include the installation of active GNSS control, automation of observations and processing, and the advantages of multi-observable and multi-constellation observations, all performed with the use of off the shelf products and industry standard open-source data formats. Also the possibilities with moving science from an after-the-fact postprocessed model to a real-time epoch-by-epoch solution will be explored. This presentation will also discuss the combination of existing GNSS CORS networks with project specific installations used for monitoring. Experience is showing GNSS is able to provide higher resolution data than previous methods, providing new tools for science, decision makers and financial planners.

PR-PR: cross-platform laboratory automation system.

Science.gov (United States)

Linshiz, Gregory; Stawski, Nina; Goyal, Garima; Bi, Changhao; Poust, Sean; Sharma, Monica; Mutalik, Vivek; Keasling, Jay D; Hillson, Nathan J

2014-08-15

To enable protocol standardization, sharing, and efficient implementation across laboratory automation platforms, we have further developed the PR-PR open-source high-level biology-friendly robot programming language as a cross-platform laboratory automation system. Beyond liquid-handling robotics, PR-PR now supports microfluidic and microscopy platforms, as well as protocol translation into human languages, such as English. While the same set of basic PR-PR commands and features are available for each supported platform, the underlying optimization and translation modules vary from platform to platform. Here, we describe these further developments to PR-PR, and demonstrate the experimental implementation and validation of PR-PR protocols for combinatorial modified Golden Gate DNA assembly across liquid-handling robotic, microfluidic, and manual platforms. To further test PR-PR cross-platform performance, we then implement and assess PR-PR protocols for Kunkel DNA mutagenesis and hierarchical Gibson DNA assembly for microfluidic and manual platforms.

Automating expert role to determine design concept in Kansei Engineering

Science.gov (United States)

Lokman, Anitawati Mohd; Haron, Mohammad Bakri Che; Abidin, Siti Zaleha Zainal; Khalid, Noor Elaiza Abd

2016-02-01

Affect has become imperative in product quality. In affective design field, Kansei Engineering (KE) has been recognized as a technology that enables discovery of consumer's emotion and formulation of guide to design products that win consumers in the competitive market. Albeit powerful technology, there is no rule of thumb in its analysis and interpretation process. KE expertise is required to determine sets of related Kansei and the significant concept of emotion. Many research endeavors become handicapped with the limited number of available and accessible KE experts. This work is performed to simulate the role of experts with the use of Natphoric algorithm thus providing sound solution to the complexity and flexibility in KE. The algorithm is designed to learn the process by implementing training datasets taken from previous KE research works. A framework for automated KE is then designed to realize the development of automated KE system. A comparative analysis is performed to determine feasibility of the developed prototype to automate the process. The result shows that the significant Kansei is determined by manual KE implementation and the automated process is highly similar. KE research advocates will benefit this system to automatically determine significant design concepts.

Space station as a vital focus for advancing the technologies of automation and robotics

Science.gov (United States)

Varsi, Giulio; Herman, Daniel H.

1988-01-01

A major guideline for the design of the U.S. Space Station is that the Space Station address a wide variety of functions. These functions include the servicing of unmanned assets in space, the support of commercial labs in space and the efficient management of the Space Station itself; the largest space asset. The technologies of Automation and Robotics have the promise to help in reducing Space Station operating costs and to achieve a highly efficient use of the human in space. The use of advanced automation and artificial intelligence techniques, such as expert systems, in Space Station subsystems for activity planning and failure mode management will enable us to reduce dependency on a mission control center and could ultimately result in breaking the umbilical link from Earth to the Space Station. The application of robotic technologies with advanced perception capability and hierarchical intelligent control to servicing system will enable the servicing of assets either in space or in situ with a high degree of human efficiency. The results of studies leading toward the formulation of an automation and robotics plan for Space Station development are presented.

Automation and semantics: the CombeChem experience

OpenAIRE

Frey, Jeremy G.

2004-01-01

Some of the experiences of the CombeChem e-Science project in relation to both automation and the need for semantics in combining modern computer science techniques and chemistry are discussed. In particular the aspects of the smart laboratory, large scale data handling and the way this impacts on the necessary database technology are discussed. In addition some of the ways in which the grid can enable greater user interaction with services such as the National Crystallography Service and imp...

Towards automated crystallographic structure refinement with phenix.refine

OpenAIRE

Afonine, Pavel V.; Grosse-Kunstleve, Ralf W.; Echols, Nathaniel; Headd, Jeffrey J.; Moriarty, Nigel W.; Mustyakimov, Marat; Terwilliger, Thomas C.; Urzhumtsev, Alexandre; Zwart, Peter H.; Adams, Paul D.

2012-01-01

phenix.refine is a program within the PHENIX package that supports crystallographic structure refinement against experimental data with a wide range of upper resolution limits using a large repertoire of model parameterizations. It has several automation features and is also highly flexible. Several hundred parameters enable extensive customizations for complex use cases. Multiple user-defined refinement strategies can be applied to specific parts of the model in a single refinement run. An i...

Accuracy of determining preoperative cancer extent measured by automated breast ultrasonography.

Science.gov (United States)

Tozaki, Mitsuhiro; Fukuma, Eisuke

2010-12-01

The aim of this study was to determine the accuracy of measuring preoperative cancer extent using automated breast ultrasonography (US). This retrospective study consisted of 40 patients with histopathologically confirmed breast cancer. All of the patients underwent automated breast US (ABVS; Siemens Medical Solutions, Mountain View, CA, USA) on the day before the surgery. The sizes of the lesions on US were measured on coronal multiplanar reconstruction images using the ABVS workstation. Histopathological measurement of tumor size included not only the invasive foci but also any in situ component and was used as the gold standard. The discrepancy of the tumor extent between automated breast US and the histological examination was calculated. Automated breast US enabled visualization of the breast carcinomas in all patients. The mean size of the lesions on US was 12 mm (range 4-62 mm). The histopathological diagnosis was ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) in seven patients and invasive ductal carcinoma in 33 patients (18 without an intraductal component, 15 with an intraductal component). Lesions ranged in diameter from 4 to 65 mm (mean 16 mm). The accuracy of determination of the tumor extent with a deviation in length of <2 cm was 98% (39/40). Automated breast US is thought to be useful for evaluating tumor extent preoperatively.

Joint force protection advanced security system (JFPASS) "the future of force protection: integrate and automate"

Science.gov (United States)

Lama, Carlos E.; Fagan, Joe E.

2009-09-01

The United States Department of Defense (DoD) defines 'force protection' as "preventive measures taken to mitigate hostile actions against DoD personnel (to include family members), resources, facilities, and critical information." Advanced technologies enable significant improvements in automating and distributing situation awareness, optimizing operator time, and improving sustainability, which enhance protection and lower costs. The JFPASS Joint Capability Technology Demonstration (JCTD) demonstrates a force protection environment that combines physical security and Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and Explosive (CBRNE) defense through the application of integrated command and control and data fusion. The JFPASS JCTD provides a layered approach to force protection by integrating traditional sensors used in physical security, such as video cameras, battlefield surveillance radars, unmanned and unattended ground sensors. The optimization of human participation and automation of processes is achieved by employment of unmanned ground vehicles, along with remotely operated lethal and less-than-lethal weapon systems. These capabilities are integrated via a tailorable, user-defined common operational picture display through a data fusion engine operating in the background. The combined systems automate the screening of alarms, manage the information displays, and provide assessment and response measures. The data fusion engine links disparate sensors and systems, and applies tailored logic to focus the assessment of events. It enables timely responses by providing the user with automated and semi-automated decision support tools. The JFPASS JCTD uses standard communication/data exchange protocols, which allow the system to incorporate future sensor technologies or communication networks, while maintaining the ability to communicate with legacy or existing systems.

Low cost automation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1987-03-01

This book indicates method of building of automation plan, design of automation facilities, automation and CHIP process like basics of cutting, NC processing machine and CHIP handling, automation unit, such as drilling unit, tapping unit, boring unit, milling unit and slide unit, application of oil pressure on characteristics and basic oil pressure circuit, application of pneumatic, automation kinds and application of process, assembly, transportation, automatic machine and factory automation.

“The Naming of Cats”: Automated Genre Classification

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yunhyong Kim

2007-07-01

Full Text Available This paper builds on the work presented at the ECDL 2006 in automated genre classification as a step toward automating metadata extraction from digital documents for ingest into digital repositories such as those run by archives, libraries and eprint services (Kim & Ross, 2006b. We have previously proposed dividing features of a document into five types (features for visual layout, language model features, stylometric features, features for semantic structure, and contextual features as an object linked to previously classified objects and other external sources and have examined visual and language model features. The current paper compares results from testing classifiers based on image and stylometric features in a binary classification to show that certain genres have strong image features which enable effective separation of documents belonging to the genre from a large pool of other documents.

Automated sequence-specific protein NMR assignment using the memetic algorithm MATCH

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Volk, Jochen; Herrmann, Torsten; Wuethrich, Kurt

2008-01-01

MATCH (Memetic Algorithm and Combinatorial Optimization Heuristics) is a new memetic algorithm for automated sequence-specific polypeptide backbone NMR assignment of proteins. MATCH employs local optimization for tracing partial sequence-specific assignments within a global, population-based search environment, where the simultaneous application of local and global optimization heuristics guarantees high efficiency and robustness. MATCH thus makes combined use of the two predominant concepts in use for automated NMR assignment of proteins. Dynamic transition and inherent mutation are new techniques that enable automatic adaptation to variable quality of the experimental input data. The concept of dynamic transition is incorporated in all major building blocks of the algorithm, where it enables switching between local and global optimization heuristics at any time during the assignment process. Inherent mutation restricts the intrinsically required randomness of the evolutionary algorithm to those regions of the conformation space that are compatible with the experimental input data. Using intact and artificially deteriorated APSY-NMR input data of proteins, MATCH performed sequence-specific resonance assignment with high efficiency and robustness

Shot Automation for the National Ignition Facility

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lagin, L J; Bettenhausen, R C; Beeler, R G; Bowers, G A; Carey, R.; Casavant, D.D.; Cline, B.D.; Demaret, R.D.; Domyancic, D.M.; Elko, S.D.; Fisher, J.M.; Hermann, M.R.; Krammen, J.E.; Kohut, T.R.; Marshall, C.D.; Mathisen, D.G.; Ludwigsen, A.P.; Patterson, Jr. R.W.; Sanchez, R.J.; Stout, E.A.; Van Arsdall, P.J.; Van Wonterghem, B.M.

2005-01-01

shot. A graphical model editor facilitates the definition and viewing of an execution model. A change manager tool enables ''de-participation'' of individual devices, of entire laser segments (beams, quads, or bundles of beams) or individual diagnostics. This software has been deployed to the NIF facility and is currently being used to support NIF main laser commissioning shots and build-out of the NIF laser. This will be used to automate future target and experimental shot campaigns

The use of automation with the new pneumatic irradiation facility of the ORNL HFIR

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dyer, F.F.; Robinson, L.; Emery, J.F.

1988-01-01

The High Flux Isotope Reactor at Oak Ridge National Laboratory has two pneumatic irradiation systems: PT-1 installed in 1970 and PT-2 installed in 1987, which are used for neutron activation analysis. Both systems have been described in the literature. By means of a Gould programmable controller, considerable progress has been made in a cost-effective manner to operate and automate the features of the new facility. A neutron counter is an integral part of the new pneumatic tube, and all of the hardware is present to enable automated delayed neutron counting. Some automation of the old system has also been accomplished by the use of a Zymark general purpose programmable robot. This paper describes the automated features of both systems. The reactor has been shut down for safety evaluation since November 1986, so that no irradiations have been made in the new pneumatic tube

Automated sensor networks to advance ocean science

Science.gov (United States)

Schofield, O.; Orcutt, J. A.; Arrott, M.; Vernon, F. L.; Peach, C. L.; Meisinger, M.; Krueger, I.; Kleinert, J.; Chao, Y.; Chien, S.; Thompson, D. R.; Chave, A. D.; Balasuriya, A.

2010-12-01

The National Science Foundation has funded the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI), which over the next five years will deploy infrastructure to expand scientist’s ability to remotely study the ocean. The deployed infrastructure will be linked by a robust cyberinfrastructure (CI) that will integrate marine observatories into a coherent system-of-systems. OOI is committed to engaging the ocean sciences community during the construction pahse. For the CI, this is being enabled by using a “spiral design strategy” allowing for input throughout the construction phase. In Fall 2009, the OOI CI development team used an existing ocean observing network in the Mid-Atlantic Bight (MAB) to test OOI CI software. The objective of this CI test was to aggregate data from ships, autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), shore-based radars, and satellites and make it available to five different data-assimilating ocean forecast models. Scientists used these multi-model forecasts to automate future glider missions in order to demonstrate the feasibility of two-way interactivity between the sensor web and predictive models. The CI software coordinated and prioritized the shared resources that allowed for the semi-automated reconfiguration of assett-tasking, and thus enabled an autonomous execution of observation plans for the fixed and mobile observation platforms. Efforts were coordinated through a web portal that provided an access point for the observational data and model forecasts. Researchers could use the CI software in tandem with the web data portal to assess the performance of individual numerical model results, or multi-model ensembles, through real-time comparisons with satellite, shore-based radar, and in situ robotic measurements. The resulting sensor net will enable a new means to explore and study the world’s oceans by providing scientists a responsive network in the world’s oceans that can be accessed via any wireless network.

Automated evaluation of one-loop scattering amplitudes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Deurzen, Hans van

2015-01-01

In this dissertation the developments toward fully automated evaluation of one-loop scattering amplitudes will be presented, as implemented in the GoSam framework. The code Xsamurai, part of GoSam, is described, which implements the integrand reduction algorithm including an extension to higher-rank capability. GoSam was used to compute several Higgs boson production channels at NLO QCD. An interface between GoSam and a Monte Carlo program was constructed, which enables computing any process at NLO precision needed in the LHC era.

Autonomy and Automation

Science.gov (United States)

Shively, Jay

2017-01-01

A significant level of debate and confusion has surrounded the meaning of the terms autonomy and automation. Automation is a multi-dimensional concept, and we propose that Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) automation should be described with reference to the specific system and task that has been automated, the context in which the automation functions, and other relevant dimensions. In this paper, we present definitions of automation, pilot in the loop, pilot on the loop and pilot out of the loop. We further propose that in future, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) RPAS Panel avoids the use of the terms autonomy and autonomous when referring to automated systems on board RPA. Work Group 7 proposes to develop, in consultation with other workgroups, a taxonomy of Levels of Automation for RPAS.

An automated optofluidic biosensor platform combining interferometric sensors and injection moulded microfluidics.

Science.gov (United States)

Szydzik, C; Gavela, A F; Herranz, S; Roccisano, J; Knoerzer, M; Thurgood, P; Khoshmanesh, K; Mitchell, A; Lechuga, L M

2017-08-08

A primary limitation preventing practical implementation of photonic biosensors within point-of-care platforms is their integration with fluidic automation subsystems. For most diagnostic applications, photonic biosensors require complex fluid handling protocols; this is especially prominent in the case of competitive immunoassays, commonly used for detection of low-concentration, low-molecular weight biomarkers. For this reason, complex automated microfluidic systems are needed to realise the full point-of-care potential of photonic biosensors. To fulfil this requirement, we propose an on-chip valve-based microfluidic automation module, capable of automating such complex fluid handling. This module is realised through application of a PDMS injection moulding fabrication technique, recently described in our previous work, which enables practical fabrication of normally closed pneumatically actuated elastomeric valves. In this work, these valves are configured to achieve multiplexed reagent addressing for an on-chip diaphragm pump, providing the sample and reagent processing capabilities required for automation of cyclic competitive immunoassays. Application of this technique simplifies fabrication and introduces the potential for mass production, bringing point-of-care integration of complex automated microfluidics into the realm of practicality. This module is integrated with a highly sensitive, label-free bimodal waveguide photonic biosensor, and is demonstrated in the context of a proof-of-concept biosensing assay, detecting the low-molecular weight antibiotic tetracycline.

A Fully Automated Approach to Spike Sorting.

Science.gov (United States)

Chung, Jason E; Magland, Jeremy F; Barnett, Alex H; Tolosa, Vanessa M; Tooker, Angela C; Lee, Kye Y; Shah, Kedar G; Felix, Sarah H; Frank, Loren M; Greengard, Leslie F

2017-09-13

Understanding the detailed dynamics of neuronal networks will require the simultaneous measurement of spike trains from hundreds of neurons (or more). Currently, approaches to extracting spike times and labels from raw data are time consuming, lack standardization, and involve manual intervention, making it difficult to maintain data provenance and assess the quality of scientific results. Here, we describe an automated clustering approach and associated software package that addresses these problems and provides novel cluster quality metrics. We show that our approach has accuracy comparable to or exceeding that achieved using manual or semi-manual techniques with desktop central processing unit (CPU) runtimes faster than acquisition time for up to hundreds of electrodes. Moreover, a single choice of parameters in the algorithm is effective for a variety of electrode geometries and across multiple brain regions. This algorithm has the potential to enable reproducible and automated spike sorting of larger scale recordings than is currently possible. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Automated Calibration of Dosimeters for Diagnostic Radiology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Romero Acosta, A.; Gutierrez Lores, S.

2015-01-01

Calibration of dosimeters for diagnostic radiology includes current and charge measurements, which are often repetitive. However, these measurements are usually done using modern electrometers, which are equipped with an RS-232 interface that enables instrument control from a computer. This paper presents an automated system aimed to the measurements for the calibration of dosimeters used in diagnostic radiology. A software application was developed, in order to achieve the acquisition of the electric charge readings, measured values of the monitor chamber, calculation of the calibration coefficient and issue of a calibration certificate. A primary data record file is filled and stored in the computer hard disk. The calibration method used was calibration by substitution. With this system, a better control over the calibration process is achieved and the need for human intervention is reduced. the automated system will be used in the calibration of dosimeters for diagnostic radiology at the Cuban Secondary Standard Dosimetry Laboratory of the Center for Radiation Protection and Hygiene. (Author)

Automated classification of cell morphology by coherence-controlled holographic microscopy

Science.gov (United States)

Strbkova, Lenka; Zicha, Daniel; Vesely, Pavel; Chmelik, Radim

2017-08-01

In the last few years, classification of cells by machine learning has become frequently used in biology. However, most of the approaches are based on morphometric (MO) features, which are not quantitative in terms of cell mass. This may result in poor classification accuracy. Here, we study the potential contribution of coherence-controlled holographic microscopy enabling quantitative phase imaging for the classification of cell morphologies. We compare our approach with the commonly used method based on MO features. We tested both classification approaches in an experiment with nutritionally deprived cancer tissue cells, while employing several supervised machine learning algorithms. Most of the classifiers provided higher performance when quantitative phase features were employed. Based on the results, it can be concluded that the quantitative phase features played an important role in improving the performance of the classification. The methodology could be valuable help in refining the monitoring of live cells in an automated fashion. We believe that coherence-controlled holographic microscopy, as a tool for quantitative phase imaging, offers all preconditions for the accurate automated analysis of live cell behavior while enabling noninvasive label-free imaging with sufficient contrast and high-spatiotemporal phase sensitivity.

Low-Cost 3D Printers Enable High-Quality and Automated Sample Preparation and Molecular Detection.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kamfai Chan

Full Text Available Most molecular diagnostic assays require upfront sample preparation steps to isolate the target's nucleic acids, followed by its amplification and detection using various nucleic acid amplification techniques. Because molecular diagnostic methods are generally rather difficult to perform manually without highly trained users, automated and integrated systems are highly desirable but too costly for use at point-of-care or low-resource settings. Here, we showcase the development of a low-cost and rapid nucleic acid isolation and amplification platform by modifying entry-level 3D printers that cost between $400 and $750. Our modifications consisted of replacing the extruder with a tip-comb attachment that houses magnets to conduct magnetic particle-based nucleic acid extraction. We then programmed the 3D printer to conduct motions that can perform high-quality extraction protocols. Up to 12 samples can be processed simultaneously in under 13 minutes and the efficiency of nucleic acid isolation matches well against gold-standard spin-column-based extraction technology. Additionally, we used the 3D printer's heated bed to supply heat to perform water bath-based polymerase chain reactions (PCRs. Using another attachment to hold PCR tubes, the 3D printer was programmed to automate the process of shuttling PCR tubes between water baths. By eliminating the temperature ramping needed in most commercial thermal cyclers, the run time of a 35-cycle PCR protocol was shortened by 33%. This article demonstrates that for applications in resource-limited settings, expensive nucleic acid extraction devices and thermal cyclers that are used in many central laboratories can be potentially replaced by a device modified from inexpensive entry-level 3D printers.

Low-Cost 3D Printers Enable High-Quality and Automated Sample Preparation and Molecular Detection

Science.gov (United States)

Chan, Kamfai; Coen, Mauricio; Hardick, Justin; Gaydos, Charlotte A.; Wong, Kah-Yat; Smith, Clayton; Wilson, Scott A.; Vayugundla, Siva Praneeth; Wong, Season

2016-01-01

Most molecular diagnostic assays require upfront sample preparation steps to isolate the target’s nucleic acids, followed by its amplification and detection using various nucleic acid amplification techniques. Because molecular diagnostic methods are generally rather difficult to perform manually without highly trained users, automated and integrated systems are highly desirable but too costly for use at point-of-care or low-resource settings. Here, we showcase the development of a low-cost and rapid nucleic acid isolation and amplification platform by modifying entry-level 3D printers that cost between $400 and $750. Our modifications consisted of replacing the extruder with a tip-comb attachment that houses magnets to conduct magnetic particle-based nucleic acid extraction. We then programmed the 3D printer to conduct motions that can perform high-quality extraction protocols. Up to 12 samples can be processed simultaneously in under 13 minutes and the efficiency of nucleic acid isolation matches well against gold-standard spin-column-based extraction technology. Additionally, we used the 3D printer’s heated bed to supply heat to perform water bath-based polymerase chain reactions (PCRs). Using another attachment to hold PCR tubes, the 3D printer was programmed to automate the process of shuttling PCR tubes between water baths. By eliminating the temperature ramping needed in most commercial thermal cyclers, the run time of a 35-cycle PCR protocol was shortened by 33%. This article demonstrates that for applications in resource-limited settings, expensive nucleic acid extraction devices and thermal cyclers that are used in many central laboratories can be potentially replaced by a device modified from inexpensive entry-level 3D printers. PMID:27362424

Development and Evaluation of an Automated, Home-Based, Electronic Questionnaire for Detecting COPD Exacerbations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Francisco de B. Velazquez-Peña

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Collaboration between patients and their medical and technical experts enabled the development of an automated questionnaire for the early detection of COPD exacerbations (AQCE. The questionnaire consisted of fourteen questions and was implemented on a computer system for use by patients at home in an un-supervised environment. Psychometric evaluation was conducted after a 6-month field trial. Fifty-two patients were involved in the development of the questionnaire. Reproducibility was studied using 19 patients (ICC = 0.94. Sixteen out of the 19 subjects started the 6 month-field trial with the computer application. Cronbach’s alpha of 0.81 was achieved. In the concurrent validity analysis, a correlation of 0.80 (p = 0.002 with the CCQ was reported. The results suggest that AQCE is a valid and reliable questionnaire, showing that an automated home-based electronic questionnaire may enable early detection of exacerbations of COPD.

An Automated Detection System for Microaneurysms That Is Effective across Different Racial Groups.

Science.gov (United States)

Saleh, George Michael; Wawrzynski, James; Caputo, Silvestro; Peto, Tunde; Al Turk, Lutfiah Ismail; Wang, Su; Hu, Yin; Da Cruz, Lyndon; Smith, Phil; Tang, Hongying Lilian

2016-01-01

Patients without diabetic retinopathy (DR) represent a large proportion of the caseload seen by the DR screening service so reliable recognition of the absence of DR in digital fundus images (DFIs) is a prime focus of automated DR screening research. We investigate the use of a novel automated DR detection algorithm to assess retinal DFIs for absence of DR. A retrospective, masked, and controlled image-based study was undertaken. 17,850 DFIs of patients from six different countries were assessed for DR by the automated system and by human graders. The system's performance was compared across DFIs from the different countries/racial groups. The sensitivities for detection of DR by the automated system were Kenya 92.8%, Botswana 90.1%, Norway 93.5%, Mongolia 91.3%, China 91.9%, and UK 90.1%. The specificities were Kenya 82.7%, Botswana 83.2%, Norway 81.3%, Mongolia 82.5%, China 83.0%, and UK 79%. There was little variability in the calculated sensitivities and specificities across the six different countries involved in the study. These data suggest the possible scalability of an automated DR detection platform that enables rapid identification of patients without DR across a wide range of races.

Enablers and inhibitors for sustainability of continuous improvement: A study in the automotive industry suppliers in the Valencia Region Facilitadores y barreras para la sostenibilidad de la mejora continua: Un estudio en proveedores del automóvil de la Comunidad Valenciana

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Juan A. Marin-Garcia

2009-04-01

Full Text Available In recent years it has been widely discussed the use of continuous improvement in all kind of business and particularly in companies belonging to the automotive industry. Many authors mention improvements, in key indicators of production through the use of continuous improvement tools. At the same time, different authors talk about how to sustain the continuous improvement over time, and try to identify inhibitors and enablers for the sustainability of continuous improvement. But despite this, one can still find first tier suppliers in the automotive industry which have not implemented systems of continuous improvement. This study aims to identify, classify, prioritize and discuss the different enablers and inhibitors which can be found in automotive suppliers companies. For that reason some interviews were conducted with first tier suppliers in the automotive industry that have succeeded or failed in implementing continuous improvement. We have tried to understand better the problems for the implementation and sustainability of continuous improvement.En los últimos años se ha descrito ampliamente el uso de la mejora continua en todo tipo de empresas y fundamentalmente, en las empresas pertenecientes al sector del automóvil. Muchos autores citan las mejoras de los principales indicadores productivos a través del uso de herramientas de mejora continua. Al mismo tiempo, diferentes autores hablan de cómo poder sostener dicha mejora continua a través del tiempo y tratan de identificar barreras y facilitadores para la sostenibilidad de la mejora continua. Pero, a pesar de ello, se pueden encontrar proveedores de primer nivel del sector del automóvil que no tienen implantados sistemas de mejora continua. El presente estudio tiene por objeto identificar clasificar y priorizar las diferentes barreras y facilitadores que se pueden encontrar en las empresas proveedoras de la industria del automóvil. Para ello se han realizado entrevistas con

Automated, parallel mass spectrometry imaging and structural identification of lipids

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ellis, Shane R.; Paine, Martin R.L.; Eijkel, Gert B.

2018-01-01

We report a method that enables automated data-dependent acquisition of lipid tandem mass spectrometry data in parallel with a high-resolution mass spectrometry imaging experiment. The method does not increase the total image acquisition time and is combined with automatic structural assignments....... This lipidome-per-pixel approach automatically identified and validated 104 unique molecular lipids and their spatial locations from rat cerebellar tissue....

Towards automated processing of the right of access in inter-organizational Web Service compositions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Herkenhöner, Ralph; De Meer, Hermann; Jensen, Meiko

2010-01-01

with trade secret protection. In this paper, we present an automated architecture to enable exercising the right of access in the domain of inter-organizational business processes based on Web Services technology. Deriving its requirements from the legal, economical, and technical obligations, we show...

ReaderBench Learns Dutch: Building a Comprehensive Automated Essay Scoring System for Dutch Language

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Dascalu, Mihai; Westera, Wim; Ruseti, Stefan; Trausan-Matu, Stefan; Kurvers, Hub

2018-01-01

Automated Essay Scoring has gained a wider applicability and usage with the integration of advanced Natural Language Processing techniques which enabled in-depth analyses of discourse in order capture the specificities of written texts. In this paper, we introduce a novel Automatic Essay Scoring

Robofurnace: A semi-automated laboratory chemical vapor deposition system for high-throughput nanomaterial synthesis and process discovery

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Oliver, C. Ryan; Westrick, William; Koehler, Jeremy; Brieland-Shoultz, Anna; Anagnostopoulos-Politis, Ilias; Cruz-Gonzalez, Tizoc; Hart, A. John

2013-01-01

Laboratory research and development on new materials, such as nanostructured thin films, often utilizes manual equipment such as tube furnaces due to its relatively low cost and ease of setup. However, these systems can be prone to inconsistent outcomes due to variations in standard operating procedures and limitations in performance such as heating and cooling rates restrict the parameter space that can be explored. Perhaps more importantly, maximization of research throughput and the successful and efficient translation of materials processing knowledge to production-scale systems, relies on the attainment of consistent outcomes. In response to this need, we present a semi-automated lab-scale chemical vapor deposition (CVD) furnace system, called “Robofurnace.” Robofurnace is an automated CVD system built around a standard tube furnace, which automates sample insertion and removal and uses motion of the furnace to achieve rapid heating and cooling. The system has a 10-sample magazine and motorized transfer arm, which isolates the samples from the lab atmosphere and enables highly repeatable placement of the sample within the tube. The system is designed to enable continuous operation of the CVD reactor, with asynchronous loading/unloading of samples. To demonstrate its performance, Robofurnace is used to develop a rapid CVD recipe for carbon nanotube (CNT) forest growth, achieving a 10-fold improvement in CNT forest mass density compared to a benchmark recipe using a manual tube furnace. In the long run, multiple systems like Robofurnace may be linked to share data among laboratories by methods such as Twitter. Our hope is Robofurnace and like automation will enable machine learning to optimize and discover relationships in complex material synthesis processes

Robofurnace: A semi-automated laboratory chemical vapor deposition system for high-throughput nanomaterial synthesis and process discovery

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Oliver, C. Ryan; Westrick, William; Koehler, Jeremy; Brieland-Shoultz, Anna; Anagnostopoulos-Politis, Ilias; Cruz-Gonzalez, Tizoc [Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109 (United States); Hart, A. John, E-mail: ajhart@mit.edu [Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109 (United States); Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 (United States)

2013-11-15

Laboratory research and development on new materials, such as nanostructured thin films, often utilizes manual equipment such as tube furnaces due to its relatively low cost and ease of setup. However, these systems can be prone to inconsistent outcomes due to variations in standard operating procedures and limitations in performance such as heating and cooling rates restrict the parameter space that can be explored. Perhaps more importantly, maximization of research throughput and the successful and efficient translation of materials processing knowledge to production-scale systems, relies on the attainment of consistent outcomes. In response to this need, we present a semi-automated lab-scale chemical vapor deposition (CVD) furnace system, called “Robofurnace.” Robofurnace is an automated CVD system built around a standard tube furnace, which automates sample insertion and removal and uses motion of the furnace to achieve rapid heating and cooling. The system has a 10-sample magazine and motorized transfer arm, which isolates the samples from the lab atmosphere and enables highly repeatable placement of the sample within the tube. The system is designed to enable continuous operation of the CVD reactor, with asynchronous loading/unloading of samples. To demonstrate its performance, Robofurnace is used to develop a rapid CVD recipe for carbon nanotube (CNT) forest growth, achieving a 10-fold improvement in CNT forest mass density compared to a benchmark recipe using a manual tube furnace. In the long run, multiple systems like Robofurnace may be linked to share data among laboratories by methods such as Twitter. Our hope is Robofurnace and like automation will enable machine learning to optimize and discover relationships in complex material synthesis processes.

Automated analysis of short responses in an interactive synthetic tutoring system for introductory physics

Science.gov (United States)

Nakamura, Christopher M.; Murphy, Sytil K.; Christel, Michael G.; Stevens, Scott M.; Zollman, Dean A.

2016-06-01

Computer-automated assessment of students' text responses to short-answer questions represents an important enabling technology for online learning environments. We have investigated the use of machine learning to train computer models capable of automatically classifying short-answer responses and assessed the results. Our investigations are part of a project to develop and test an interactive learning environment designed to help students learn introductory physics concepts. The system is designed around an interactive video tutoring interface. We have analyzed 9 with about 150 responses or less. We observe for 4 of the 9 automated assessment with interrater agreement of 70% or better with the human rater. This level of agreement may represent a baseline for practical utility in instruction and indicates that the method warrants further investigation for use in this type of application. Our results also suggest strategies that may be useful for writing activities and questions that are more appropriate for automated assessment. These strategies include building activities that have relatively few conceptually distinct ways of perceiving the physical behavior of relatively few physical objects. Further success in this direction may allow us to promote interactivity and better provide feedback in online learning systems. These capabilities could enable our system to function more like a real tutor.

Automated analysis of short responses in an interactive synthetic tutoring system for introductory physics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christopher M. Nakamura

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Computer-automated assessment of students’ text responses to short-answer questions represents an important enabling technology for online learning environments. We have investigated the use of machine learning to train computer models capable of automatically classifying short-answer responses and assessed the results. Our investigations are part of a project to develop and test an interactive learning environment designed to help students learn introductory physics concepts. The system is designed around an interactive video tutoring interface. We have analyzed 9 with about 150 responses or less. We observe for 4 of the 9 automated assessment with interrater agreement of 70% or better with the human rater. This level of agreement may represent a baseline for practical utility in instruction and indicates that the method warrants further investigation for use in this type of application. Our results also suggest strategies that may be useful for writing activities and questions that are more appropriate for automated assessment. These strategies include building activities that have relatively few conceptually distinct ways of perceiving the physical behavior of relatively few physical objects. Further success in this direction may allow us to promote interactivity and better provide feedback in online learning systems. These capabilities could enable our system to function more like a real tutor.

Automated genotyping of dinucleotide repeat markers

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Perlin, M.W.; Hoffman, E.P. [Carnegie Mellon Univ., Pittsburgh, PA (United States)]|[Univ. of Pittsburgh, PA (United States)

1994-09-01

The dinucleotide repeats (i.e., microsatellites) such as CA-repeats are a highly polymorphic, highly abundant class of PCR-amplifiable markers that have greatly streamlined genetic mapping experimentation. It is expected that over 30,000 such markers (including tri- and tetranucleotide repeats) will be characterized for routine use in the next few years. Since only size determination, and not sequencing, is required to determine alleles, in principle, dinucleotide repeat genotyping is easily performed on electrophoretic gels, and can be automated using DNA sequencers. Unfortunately, PCR stuttering with these markers generates not one band for each allele, but a pattern of bands. Since closely spaced alleles must be disambiguated by human scoring, this poses a key obstacle to full automation. We have developed methods that overcome this obstacle. Our model is that the observed data is generated by arithmetic superposition (i.e., convolution) of multiple allele patterns. By quantitatively measuring the size of each component band, and exploiting the unique stutter pattern associated with each marker, closely spaced alleles can be deconvolved; this unambiguously reconstructs the {open_quotes}true{close_quotes} allele bands, with stutter artifact removed. We used this approach in a system for automated diagnosis of (X-linked) Duchenne muscular dystrophy; four multiplexed CA-repeats within the dystrophin gene were assayed on a DNA sequencer. Our method accurately detected small variations in gel migration that shifted the allele size estimate. In 167 nonmutated alleles, 89% (149/167) showed no size variation, 9% (15/167) showed 1 bp variation, and 2% (3/167) showed 2 bp variation. We are currently developing a library of dinucleotide repeat patterns; together with our deconvolution methods, this library will enable fully automated genotyping of dinucleotide repeats from sizing data.

Automation of ultrasonic testing of turbine disk billets

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gorodkov, V.E.; Domashevskij, B.N.; Pron', N.I.; Tkachenko, V.A.

1984-01-01

cations of ultrasonic facility for automation of testing turbine disk billets of 25Kh2PMFA and 34KhM1A steels are considered. The operating principle and the design of ''Disk-1'' facility are described, its test results are presented. It is shown that the facility increases the test efficiency five times, enables to estimate dimensions of revealed defect with regard to the quality of acoustic contact, thus facilitating the work of personnel and improving the test quality

Home Automation

OpenAIRE

Ahmed, Zeeshan

2010-01-01

In this paper I briefly discuss the importance of home automation system. Going in to the details I briefly present a real time designed and implemented software and hardware oriented house automation research project, capable of automating house's electricity and providing a security system to detect the presence of unexpected behavior.

Robotics and automation for oil sands bitumen production and maintenance

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lipsett, M.G. [Alberta Univ., Edmonton, AB (Canada). Dept. of Mechanical Engineering

2008-07-01

This presentation examined technical challenges and commercial challenges related to robotics and automation processes in the mining and oil sands industries. The oil sands industry has on-going cost pressures. Challenges include the depths to which miners must travel, as well as problems related to equipment reliability and safety. Surface mines must operate in all weather conditions with a variety of complex systems. Barriers for new technologies include high capital and operating expenses. It has also proven difficult to integrate new technologies within established mining practices. However, automation has the potential to improve mineral processing, production, and maintenance processes. Step changes can be placed in locations that are hazardous or inaccessible. Automated sizing, material, and ventilation systems are can also be implemented as well as tele-operated equipment. Prototypes currently being developed include advanced systems for cutting; rock bolting; loose rock detection systems; lump size estimation; unstructured environment sensing; environment modelling; and automatic task execution. Enabling technologies are now being developed for excavation, haulage, material handling systems, mining and reclamation methods, and integrated control and reliability. tabs., figs.

An Automated DAKOTA and VULCAN-CFD Framework with Application to Supersonic Facility Nozzle Flowpath Optimization

Science.gov (United States)

Axdahl, Erik L.

2015-01-01

Removing human interaction from design processes by using automation may lead to gains in both productivity and design precision. This memorandum describes efforts to incorporate high fidelity numerical analysis tools into an automated framework and applying that framework to applications of practical interest. The purpose of this effort was to integrate VULCAN-CFD into an automated, DAKOTA-enabled framework with a proof-of-concept application being the optimization of supersonic test facility nozzles. It was shown that the optimization framework could be deployed on a high performance computing cluster with the flow of information handled effectively to guide the optimization process. Furthermore, the application of the framework to supersonic test facility nozzle flowpath design and optimization was demonstrated using multiple optimization algorithms.

Optimization of automation: I. Estimation method of cognitive automation rates reflecting the effects of automation on human operators in nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Seung Min; Kim, Jong Hyun; Seong, Poong Hyun

2014-01-01

Highlights: • We propose an estimation method of the automation rate by taking the advantages of automation as the estimation measures. • We conduct the experiments to examine the validity of the suggested method. • The higher the cognitive automation rate is, the greater the decreased rate of the working time will be. • The usefulness of the suggested estimation method is proved by statistical analyses. - Abstract: Since automation was introduced in various industrial fields, the concept of the automation rate has been used to indicate the inclusion proportion of automation among all work processes or facilities. Expressions of the inclusion proportion of automation are predictable, as is the ability to express the degree of the enhancement of human performance. However, many researchers have found that a high automation rate does not guarantee high performance. Therefore, to reflect the effects of automation on human performance, this paper proposes a new estimation method of the automation rate that considers the effects of automation on human operators in nuclear power plants (NPPs). Automation in NPPs can be divided into two types: system automation and cognitive automation. Some general descriptions and characteristics of each type of automation are provided, and the advantages of automation are investigated. The advantages of each type of automation are used as measures of the estimation method of the automation rate. One advantage was found to be a reduction in the number of tasks, and another was a reduction in human cognitive task loads. The system and the cognitive automation rate were proposed as quantitative measures by taking advantage of the aforementioned benefits. To quantify the required human cognitive task loads and thus suggest the cognitive automation rate, Conant’s information-theory-based model was applied. The validity of the suggested method, especially as regards the cognitive automation rate, was proven by conducting

Automated Analysis of Short Responses in an Interactive Synthetic Tutoring System for Introductory Physics

Science.gov (United States)

Nakamura, Christopher M.; Murphy, Sytil K.; Christel, Michael G.; Stevens, Scott M.; Zollman, Dean A.

2016-01-01

Computer-automated assessment of students' text responses to short-answer questions represents an important enabling technology for online learning environments. We have investigated the use of machine learning to train computer models capable of automatically classifying short-answer responses and assessed the results. Our investigations are part…

Minimising life cycle costs of automated valves in offshore platforms

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yli-Petays, Juha [Metso Automation do Brasil Ltda., Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil); Niemela, Ismo [Metso Automation, Imatra (Finland)

2012-07-01

Automated process valves play an essential role in offshore platforms operation. If you are able to optimize their operation and maintenance activities you can receive extensive operational savings with minimal investment. Valves used in offshore platforms doesn't differentiate that much from the valves used in downstream but there are certain specialties, which makes the operations more challenging in offshore: Process valves are more difficult to access and maintain because of space limitations. Also spare part inventories and deliveries are challenging because of offshore platform's remote location. To overcome these challenges usage of digital positioners with diagnostic features has become more common because predictive maintenance capabilities enable possibilities to plan the maintenance activities and this way optimise the spare part orders regarding to valves. There are intelligent controllers available for control valves, automated on/off valves as well as ESD-valves and whole network of automated valves on platforms can be controlled by intelligent valve controllers. This creates many new opportunities in regards of optimized process performance or predictive maintenance point-of-view. By means of intelligent valve controllers and predictive diagnostics, condition monitoring and maintenance planning can also be performed remotely from an onshore location. Thus, intelligent valve controllers provide good way to minimize spending related to total cost of ownership of automated process valves. When purchase value of control valve represent 20% of TCO, intelligent positioner and predictive maintenance methods can enable as high as 30% savings over the life cycle of asset so basically it benefit savings higher than whole investment of monitored asset over its life cycle. This is mainly achieved through the optimized maintenance activities since real life examples has shown that with time based maintenance (preventive maintenance) approach 70% of

Automation of cDNA Synthesis and Labelling Improves Reproducibility

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daniel Klevebring

2009-01-01

Full Text Available Background. Several technologies, such as in-depth sequencing and microarrays, enable large-scale interrogation of genomes and transcriptomes. In this study, we asses reproducibility and throughput by moving all laboratory procedures to a robotic workstation, capable of handling superparamagnetic beads. Here, we describe a fully automated procedure for cDNA synthesis and labelling for microarrays, where the purification steps prior to and after labelling are based on precipitation of DNA on carboxylic acid-coated paramagnetic beads. Results. The fully automated procedure allows for samples arrayed on a microtiter plate to be processed in parallel without manual intervention and ensuring high reproducibility. We compare our results to a manual sample preparation procedure and, in addition, use a comprehensive reference dataset to show that the protocol described performs better than similar manual procedures. Conclusions. We demonstrate, in an automated gene expression microarray experiment, a reduced variance between replicates, resulting in an increase in the statistical power to detect differentially expressed genes, thus allowing smaller differences between samples to be identified. This protocol can with minor modifications be used to create cDNA libraries for other applications such as in-depth analysis using next-generation sequencing technologies.

The automated ground network system

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Miles T.; Militch, Peter N.

1993-01-01

The primary goal of the Automated Ground Network System (AGNS) project is to reduce Ground Network (GN) station life-cycle costs. To accomplish this goal, the AGNS project will employ an object-oriented approach to develop a new infrastructure that will permit continuous application of new technologies and methodologies to the Ground Network's class of problems. The AGNS project is a Total Quality (TQ) project. Through use of an open collaborative development environment, developers and users will have equal input into the end-to-end design and development process. This will permit direct user input and feedback and will enable rapid prototyping for requirements clarification. This paper describes the AGNS objectives, operations concept, and proposed design.

Automated CD-SEM recipe creation technology for mass production using CAD data

Science.gov (United States)

Kawahara, Toshikazu; Yoshida, Masamichi; Tanaka, Masashi; Ido, Sanyu; Nakano, Hiroyuki; Adachi, Naokaka; Abe, Yuichi; Nagatomo, Wataru

2011-03-01

Critical Dimension Scanning Electron Microscope (CD-SEM) recipe creation needs sample preparation necessary for matching pattern registration, and recipe creation on CD-SEM using the sample, which hinders the reduction in test production cost and time in semiconductor manufacturing factories. From the perspective of cost reduction and improvement of the test production efficiency, automated CD-SEM recipe creation without the sample preparation and the manual operation has been important in the production lines. For the automated CD-SEM recipe creation, we have introduced RecipeDirector (RD) that enables the recipe creation by using Computer-Aided Design (CAD) data and text data that includes measurement information. We have developed a system that automatically creates the CAD data and the text data necessary for the recipe creation on RD; and, for the elimination of the manual operation, we have enhanced RD so that all measurement information can be specified in the text data. As a result, we have established an automated CD-SEM recipe creation system without the sample preparation and the manual operation. For the introduction of the CD-SEM recipe creation system using RD to the production lines, the accuracy of the pattern matching was an issue. The shape of design templates for the matching created from the CAD data was different from that of SEM images in vision. Thus, a development of robust pattern matching algorithm that considers the shape difference was needed. The addition of image processing of the templates for the matching and shape processing of the CAD patterns in the lower layer has enabled the robust pattern matching. This paper describes the automated CD-SEM recipe creation technology for the production lines without the sample preparation and the manual operation using RD applied in Sony Semiconductor Kyusyu Corporation Kumamoto Technology Center (SCK Corporation Kumamoto TEC).

Process automation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Moser, D.R.

1986-01-01

Process automation technology has been pursued in the chemical processing industries and to a very limited extent in nuclear fuel reprocessing. Its effective use has been restricted in the past by the lack of diverse and reliable process instrumentation and the unavailability of sophisticated software designed for process control. The Integrated Equipment Test (IET) facility was developed by the Consolidated Fuel Reprocessing Program (CFRP) in part to demonstrate new concepts for control of advanced nuclear fuel reprocessing plants. A demonstration of fuel reprocessing equipment automation using advanced instrumentation and a modern, microprocessor-based control system is nearing completion in the facility. This facility provides for the synergistic testing of all chemical process features of a prototypical fuel reprocessing plant that can be attained with unirradiated uranium-bearing feed materials. The unique equipment and mission of the IET facility make it an ideal test bed for automation studies. This effort will provide for the demonstration of the plant automation concept and for the development of techniques for similar applications in a full-scale plant. A set of preliminary recommendations for implementing process automation has been compiled. Some of these concepts are not generally recognized or accepted. The automation work now under way in the IET facility should be useful to others in helping avoid costly mistakes because of the underutilization or misapplication of process automation. 6 figs

Automated Passive Capillary Lysimeters for Estimating Water Drainage in the Vadose Zone

Science.gov (United States)

Jabro, J.; Evans, R.

2009-04-01

In this study, we demonstrated and evaluated the performance and accuracy of an automated PCAP lysimeters that we designed for in-situ continuous measuring and estimating of drainage water below the rootzone of a sugarbeet-potato-barley rotation under two irrigation frequencies. Twelve automated PCAPs with sampling surface dimensions of 31 cm width * 91 cm long and 87 cm in height were placed 90 cm below the soil surface in a Lihen sandy loam. Our state-of-the-art design incorporated Bluetooth wireless technology to enable an automated datalogger to transmit drainage water data simultaneously every 15 minutes to a remote host and had a greater efficiency than other types of lysimeters. It also offered a significantly larger coverage area (2700 cm2) than similarly designed vadose zone lysimeters. The cumulative manually extracted drainage water was compared with the cumulative volume of drainage water recorded by the datalogger from the tipping bucket using several statistical methods. Our results indicated that our automated PCAPs are accurate and provided convenient means for estimating water drainage in the vadose zone without the need for costly and manually time-consuming supportive systems.

Automation of the control scheme for IUAC Linac

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sahu, B.K.; Dutt, R.N.; Antony, J.; Mathuria, D.S.; Pandey, A.; Singh, K.; Ahuja, R.; Chowdhury, G.K.; Rai, A.; Patra, P.; Ghosh, S.; Ajithkumar, B.P.; Kanjilal, D.; Roy, A.

2011-01-01

Improvement of the Linac control scheme is undertaken for automation with minimum human intervention during beam acceleration. Python language interface with the present control scheme is used in writing automation routines to monitor the status of the phase/amplitude lock during operation and shut-down the locking mechanism to reduce the RF power, if required. Simultaneous pulse conditioning of the resonators is made possible by using dedicated hardware interfaced and Python based client interface. Movement of the drive coupler is enabled from operation console with position read back. The manual control of the slow-tuner electronics module to bring the frequency close to reference during phase locking is interfaced with the present control scheme for remote operation. Monitoring of amplitude and absolute phase of each cavity is made possible from operation console. An alternate tuning mechanism using piezoelectric actuator and stepper motor combination has been successfully tested in the test cryostat. (author)

Automation of the shearer loader technique - an overview; Automatisierung der Walzenladertechnik - ein Ueberblick

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hackelboerger, B.; Hoelling, B. [Eickhoff Bergbautechnik GmbH, Bochum (Germany); Nienhaus, K.; Winkel, R. [RWTH Aachen (DE). Lehr- und Forschungsgebiet Betriebsmittel fuer die Gewinnung mineralischer Rohstoffe (BGMR)

2007-09-06

The present paper deals with the automation of the shearer loader technology. Starting with the reasons for automation: These are firstly the increase of production by way of rationalization, secondly the gentle material handling associated with health protection and safety at work. Consecutive the development of the automation concept by Eickhoff Bergbautechnik GmbH is being presented which commenced in 1986 with the introduction of the Memory Cut at DSK and successfully continued in 1993 with the first-time utilization of the Defined Face Opening (DFO) in Australia. The authors will present the state-of-the-art in the automation of Eickhoff shearer loaders with the EiControl concept. Besides tramming and ranging arm autosteering it comprises further additional modules for the automatic and semi-automatic cutting sequence to enable control and stabilization of the machine. An overview of the supplied systems combined with the experiences made by the respective mine operators will complete our glance at today's opportunities provided by the advanced shearer loader technology. The Outlook discusses the existing limits of automation and presents future development potentials such as coal boundary layer detection and collision prevention which paves the road to automatic longwall control with the vision of an unmanned face. (orig.)

An Automated Detection System for Microaneurysms That Is Effective across Different Racial Groups

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

George Michael Saleh

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Patients without diabetic retinopathy (DR represent a large proportion of the caseload seen by the DR screening service so reliable recognition of the absence of DR in digital fundus images (DFIs is a prime focus of automated DR screening research. We investigate the use of a novel automated DR detection algorithm to assess retinal DFIs for absence of DR. A retrospective, masked, and controlled image-based study was undertaken. 17,850 DFIs of patients from six different countries were assessed for DR by the automated system and by human graders. The system’s performance was compared across DFIs from the different countries/racial groups. The sensitivities for detection of DR by the automated system were Kenya 92.8%, Botswana 90.1%, Norway 93.5%, Mongolia 91.3%, China 91.9%, and UK 90.1%. The specificities were Kenya 82.7%, Botswana 83.2%, Norway 81.3%, Mongolia 82.5%, China 83.0%, and UK 79%. There was little variability in the calculated sensitivities and specificities across the six different countries involved in the study. These data suggest the possible scalability of an automated DR detection platform that enables rapid identification of patients without DR across a wide range of races.

An integrated system for buildings’ energy-efficient automation: Application in the tertiary sector

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Marinakis, Vangelis; Doukas, Haris; Karakosta, Charikleia; Psarras, John

2013-01-01

Highlights: ► We developed an interactive software for building automation systems. ► Monitoring of energy consumption in real time. ► Optimization of energy consumption implementing appropriate control scenarios. ► Pilot appraisal on remote control of active systems in the tertiary sector building. ► Significant decrease in energy and operating cost of A/C system. -- Abstract: Although integrated building automation systems have become increasingly popular, an integrated system which includes remote control technology to enable real-time monitoring of the energy consumption by energy end-users, as well as optimization functions is required. To respond to this common interest, the main aim of the paper is to present an integrated system for buildings’ energy-efficient automation. The proposed system is based on a prototype software tool for the simulation and optimization of energy consumption in the building sector, enhancing the interactivity of building automation systems. The system can incorporate energy-efficient automation functions for heating, cooling and/or lighting based on recent guidance and decisions of the National Law, energy efficiency requirements of EN 15232 and ISO 50001 Energy Management Standard among others. The presented system was applied to a supermarket building in Greece and focused on the remote control of active systems.

Automated classification of cell morphology by coherence-controlled holographic microscopy.

Science.gov (United States)

Strbkova, Lenka; Zicha, Daniel; Vesely, Pavel; Chmelik, Radim

2017-08-01

In the last few years, classification of cells by machine learning has become frequently used in biology. However, most of the approaches are based on morphometric (MO) features, which are not quantitative in terms of cell mass. This may result in poor classification accuracy. Here, we study the potential contribution of coherence-controlled holographic microscopy enabling quantitative phase imaging for the classification of cell morphologies. We compare our approach with the commonly used method based on MO features. We tested both classification approaches in an experiment with nutritionally deprived cancer tissue cells, while employing several supervised machine learning algorithms. Most of the classifiers provided higher performance when quantitative phase features were employed. Based on the results, it can be concluded that the quantitative phase features played an important role in improving the performance of the classification. The methodology could be valuable help in refining the monitoring of live cells in an automated fashion. We believe that coherence-controlled holographic microscopy, as a tool for quantitative phase imaging, offers all preconditions for the accurate automated analysis of live cell behavior while enabling noninvasive label-free imaging with sufficient contrast and high-spatiotemporal phase sensitivity. (2017) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE).

Automated electronic filter design

CERN Document Server

Banerjee, Amal

2017-01-01

This book describes a novel, efficient and powerful scheme for designing and evaluating the performance characteristics of any electronic filter designed with predefined specifications. The author explains techniques that enable readers to eliminate complicated manual, and thus error-prone and time-consuming, steps of traditional design techniques. The presentation includes demonstration of efficient automation, using an ANSI C language program, which accepts any filter design specification (e.g. Chebyschev low-pass filter, cut-off frequency, pass-band ripple etc.) as input and generates as output a SPICE(Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis) format netlist. Readers then can use this netlist to run simulations with any version of the popular SPICE simulator, increasing accuracy of the final results, without violating any of the key principles of the traditional design scheme.

Influencing Trust for Human-Automation Collaborative Scheduling of Multiple Unmanned Vehicles.

Science.gov (United States)

Clare, Andrew S; Cummings, Mary L; Repenning, Nelson P

2015-11-01

We examined the impact of priming on operator trust and system performance when supervising a decentralized network of heterogeneous unmanned vehicles (UVs). Advances in autonomy have enabled a future vision of single-operator control of multiple heterogeneous UVs. Real-time scheduling for multiple UVs in uncertain environments requires the computational ability of optimization algorithms combined with the judgment and adaptability of human supervisors. Because of system and environmental uncertainty, appropriate operator trust will be instrumental to maintain high system performance and prevent cognitive overload. Three groups of operators experienced different levels of trust priming prior to conducting simulated missions in an existing, multiple-UV simulation environment. Participants who play computer and video games frequently were found to have a higher propensity to overtrust automation. By priming gamers to lower their initial trust to a more appropriate level, system performance was improved by 10% as compared to gamers who were primed to have higher trust in the automation. Priming was successful at adjusting the operator's initial and dynamic trust in the automated scheduling algorithm, which had a substantial impact on system performance. These results have important implications for personnel selection and training for futuristic multi-UV systems under human supervision. Although gamers may bring valuable skills, they may also be potentially prone to automation bias. Priming during training and regular priming throughout missions may be one potential method for overcoming this propensity to overtrust automation. © 2015, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.

LAIR: A Language for Automated Semantics-Aware Text Sanitization based on Frame Semantics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hedegaard, Steffen; Houen, Søren; Simonsen, Jakob Grue

2009-01-01

We present \\lair{}: A domain-specific language that enables users to specify actions to be taken upon meeting specific semantic frames in a text, in particular to rephrase and redact the textual content. While \\lair{} presupposes superficial knowledge of frames and frame semantics, it requires on...... with automated redaction of web pages for subjectively undesirable content; initial experiments suggest that using a small language based on semantic recognition of undesirable terms can be highly useful as a supplement to traditional methods of text sanitization.......We present \\lair{}: A domain-specific language that enables users to specify actions to be taken upon meeting specific semantic frames in a text, in particular to rephrase and redact the textual content. While \\lair{} presupposes superficial knowledge of frames and frame semantics, it requires only...... limited prior programming experience. It neither contain scripting or I/O primitives, nor does it contain general loop constructions and is not Turing-complete. We have implemented a \\lair{} compiler and integrated it in a pipeline for automated redaction of web pages. We detail our experience...

A Single-use Strategy to Enable Manufacturing of Affordable Biologics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Renaud Jacquemart

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The current processing paradigm of large manufacturing facilities dedicated to single product production is no longer an effective approach for best manufacturing practices. Increasing competition for new indications and the launch of biosimilars for the monoclonal antibody market have put pressure on manufacturers to produce at lower cost. Single-use technologies and continuous upstream processes have proven to be cost-efficient options to increase biomass production but as of today the adoption has been only minimal for the purification operations, partly due to concerns related to cost and scale-up. This review summarizes how a single-use holistic process and facility strategy can overcome scale limitations and enable cost-efficient manufacturing to support the growing demand for affordable biologics. Technologies enabling high productivity, right-sized, small footprint, continuous, and automated upstream and downstream operations are evaluated in order to propose a concept for the flexible facility of the future.

Cloud-Based Automated Design and Additive Manufacturing: A Usage Data-Enabled Paradigm Shift.

Science.gov (United States)

Lehmhus, Dirk; Wuest, Thorsten; Wellsandt, Stefan; Bosse, Stefan; Kaihara, Toshiya; Thoben, Klaus-Dieter; Busse, Matthias

2015-12-19

Integration of sensors into various kinds of products and machines provides access to in-depth usage information as basis for product optimization. Presently, this large potential for more user-friendly and efficient products is not being realized because (a) sensor integration and thus usage information is not available on a large scale and (b) product optimization requires considerable efforts in terms of manpower and adaptation of production equipment. However, with the advent of cloud-based services and highly flexible additive manufacturing techniques, these obstacles are currently crumbling away at rapid pace. The present study explores the state of the art in gathering and evaluating product usage and life cycle data, additive manufacturing and sensor integration, automated design and cloud-based services in manufacturing. By joining and extrapolating development trends in these areas, it delimits the foundations of a manufacturing concept that will allow continuous and economically viable product optimization on a general, user group or individual user level. This projection is checked against three different application scenarios, each of which stresses different aspects of the underlying holistic concept. The following discussion identifies critical issues and research needs by adopting the relevant stakeholder perspectives.

Cloud-Based Automated Design and Additive Manufacturing: A Usage Data-Enabled Paradigm Shift

Science.gov (United States)

Lehmhus, Dirk; Wuest, Thorsten; Wellsandt, Stefan; Bosse, Stefan; Kaihara, Toshiya; Thoben, Klaus-Dieter; Busse, Matthias

2015-01-01

Integration of sensors into various kinds of products and machines provides access to in-depth usage information as basis for product optimization. Presently, this large potential for more user-friendly and efficient products is not being realized because (a) sensor integration and thus usage information is not available on a large scale and (b) product optimization requires considerable efforts in terms of manpower and adaptation of production equipment. However, with the advent of cloud-based services and highly flexible additive manufacturing techniques, these obstacles are currently crumbling away at rapid pace. The present study explores the state of the art in gathering and evaluating product usage and life cycle data, additive manufacturing and sensor integration, automated design and cloud-based services in manufacturing. By joining and extrapolating development trends in these areas, it delimits the foundations of a manufacturing concept that will allow continuous and economically viable product optimization on a general, user group or individual user level. This projection is checked against three different application scenarios, each of which stresses different aspects of the underlying holistic concept. The following discussion identifies critical issues and research needs by adopting the relevant stakeholder perspectives. PMID:26703606

Moving toward the automation of the systematic review process: a summary of discussions at the second meeting of International Collaboration for the Automation of Systematic Reviews (ICASR).

Science.gov (United States)

O'Connor, Annette M; Tsafnat, Guy; Gilbert, Stephen B; Thayer, Kristina A; Wolfe, Mary S

2018-01-09

The second meeting of the International Collaboration for Automation of Systematic Reviews (ICASR) was held 3-4 October 2016 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. ICASR is an interdisciplinary group whose aim is to maximize the use of technology for conducting rapid, accurate, and efficient systematic reviews of scientific evidence. Having automated tools for systematic review should enable more transparent and timely review, maximizing the potential for identifying and translating research findings to practical application. The meeting brought together multiple stakeholder groups including users of summarized research, methodologists who explore production processes and systematic review quality, and technologists such as software developers, statisticians, and vendors. This diversity of participants was intended to ensure effective communication with numerous stakeholders about progress toward automation of systematic reviews and stimulate discussion about potential solutions to identified challenges. The meeting highlighted challenges, both simple and complex, and raised awareness among participants about ongoing efforts by various stakeholders. An outcome of this forum was to identify several short-term projects that participants felt would advance the automation of tasks in the systematic review workflow including (1) fostering better understanding about available tools, (2) developing validated datasets for testing new tools, (3) determining a standard method to facilitate interoperability of tools such as through an application programming interface or API, and (4) establishing criteria to evaluate the quality of tools' output. ICASR 2016 provided a beneficial forum to foster focused discussion about tool development and resources and reconfirm ICASR members' commitment toward systematic reviews' automation.

Automated and temperature-controlled micro-PIV measurements enabling long-term-stable microchannel acoustophoresis characterization.

Science.gov (United States)

Augustsson, Per; Barnkob, Rune; Wereley, Steven T; Bruus, Henrik; Laurell, Thomas

2011-12-21

We present a platform for micro particle image velocimetry (μPIV), capable of carrying out full-channel, temperature-controlled, long-term-stable, and automated μPIV-measurement of microchannel acoustophoresis with uncertainties below 5% and a spatial resolution in the order of 20 μm. A method to determine optimal μPIV-settings for obtaining high-quality results of the spatially inhomogeneous acoustophoretic velocity fields of large dynamical range is presented. In particular we study the dependence of the results on the μPIV interrogation window size and the number of repeated experiments. The μPIV-method was further verified by comparing it with our previously published particle tracking method. Using the μPIV platform we present a series of high-resolution measurements of the acoustophoretic velocity field as a function of the driving frequency, the driving voltage, and the resonator temperature. Finally, we establish a direct and consistent connection between the obtained acoustophoretic velocity fields, and continuous flow mode acoustophoresis, commonly used in applications.

Automation in an addiction treatment research clinic: computerised contingency management, ecological momentary assessment and a protocol workflow system.

Science.gov (United States)

Vahabzadeh, Massoud; Lin, Jia-Ling; Mezghanni, Mustapha; Epstein, David H; Preston, Kenzie L

2009-01-01

A challenge in treatment research is the necessity of adhering to protocol and regulatory strictures while maintaining flexibility to meet patients' treatment needs and to accommodate variations among protocols. Another challenge is the acquisition of large amounts of data in an occasionally hectic environment, along with the provision of seamless methods for exporting, mining and querying the data. We have automated several major functions of our outpatient treatment research clinic for studies in drug abuse and dependence. Here we describe three such specialised applications: the Automated Contingency Management (ACM) system for the delivery of behavioural interventions, the transactional electronic diary (TED) system for the management of behavioural assessments and the Protocol Workflow System (PWS) for computerised workflow automation and guidance of each participant's daily clinic activities. These modules are integrated into our larger information system to enable data sharing in real time among authorised staff. ACM and the TED have each permitted us to conduct research that was not previously possible. In addition, the time to data analysis at the end of each study is substantially shorter. With the implementation of the PWS, we have been able to manage a research clinic with an 80 patient capacity, having an annual average of 18,000 patient visits and 7300 urine collections with a research staff of five. Finally, automated data management has considerably enhanced our ability to monitor and summarise participant safety data for research oversight. When developed in consultation with end users, automation in treatment research clinics can enable more efficient operations, better communication among staff and expansions in research methods.

Automated titration method for use on blended asphalts

Science.gov (United States)

Pauli, Adam T [Cheyenne, WY; Robertson, Raymond E [Laramie, WY; Branthaver, Jan F [Chatham, IL; Schabron, John F [Laramie, WY

2012-08-07

A system for determining parameters and compatibility of a substance such as an asphalt or other petroleum substance uses titration to highly accurately determine one or more flocculation occurrences and is especially applicable to the determination or use of Heithaus parameters and optimal mixing of various asphalt stocks. In a preferred embodiment, automated titration in an oxygen gas exclusive system and further using spectrophotometric analysis (2-8) of solution turbidity is presented. A reversible titration technique enabling in-situ titration measurement of various solution concentrations is also presented.

Smart grids clouds, communications, open source, and automation

CERN Document Server

Bakken, David

2014-01-01

The utilization of sensors, communications, and computer technologies to create greater efficiency in the generation, transmission, distribution, and consumption of electricity will enable better management of the electric power system. As the use of smart grid technologies grows, utilities will be able to automate meter reading and billing and consumers will be more aware of their energy usage and the associated costs. The results will require utilities and their suppliers to develop new business models, strategies, and processes.With an emphasis on reducing costs and improving return on inve

Current status and future prospects for enabling chemistry technology in the drug discovery process.

Science.gov (United States)

Djuric, Stevan W; Hutchins, Charles W; Talaty, Nari N

2016-01-01

This review covers recent advances in the implementation of enabling chemistry technologies into the drug discovery process. Areas covered include parallel synthesis chemistry, high-throughput experimentation, automated synthesis and purification methods, flow chemistry methodology including photochemistry, electrochemistry, and the handling of "dangerous" reagents. Also featured are advances in the "computer-assisted drug design" area and the expanding application of novel mass spectrometry-based techniques to a wide range of drug discovery activities.

Balance between automation and human actions in nuclear power plant operation. Results of international cooperation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sun, B.; Olmstead, R.; Oudiz, A.; Jenkinson, J.; Kossilov, A.

1990-01-01

Automation has long been an established feature of power plants. In some applications, the use of automation has been the significant factor which has enabled plant technology to progress to its current state. Societal demands for increased levels of safety have led to greater use of redundancy and diversity and this, in turn, has increased levels of automation. However, possibly the greatest contributory factor in increased automation has resulted from improvements in information technology. Much recent attention has been focused on the concept of inherently safe reactors, which may simplify safety system requirements and information and control system complexity. The allocation of tasks between man and machine may be one of the most critical activity in the design of new nuclear plants and major retro-fits and it therefore warrants a design approach which is commensurate in quality with the high levels of safety and production performance sought from nuclear plants. Facing this climate, in 1989 the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) formed an advisory group from member countries with extensive experience in nuclear power plant automation. The task of this group was to advise on the appropriate balance between manual and automatic actions in plant operation

Balance between automation and human actions in nuclear power plant operation. Results of international cooperation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sun, B.; Olmstead, R.; Oudiz, A.; Jenkinson, J.; Kossilov, A.

1990-01-01

Automation has long been an established feature of power plants. In some applications, the use of automation has been the significant factor which has enabled plant technology to progress to its current state. Societal demands for increased levels of safety have led to greater use of redundancy and diversity and this, in turn, has increased levels of automation. However, possibly the greatest contributory factor in increased automation has resulted from improvements in information technology. Much recent attention has been focused on the concept of inherently safe reactors, which may simplify safety system requirements and information and control system complexity. The allocation of tasks between man and machine may be one of the most critical activity in the design of new nuclear plants and major retro-fits and it therefore warrants a design approach which is commensurate in quality with the high levels of safety and production performance sought from nuclear plants. Facing this climate, in 1989 the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) formed an advisory group from member countries with extensive experience in nuclear power plant automation. The task of this group was to advise on the appropriate balance between manual and automatic actions in plant operation. (author) [fr

Land Cover and Land Use Classification with TWOPAC: towards Automated Processing for Pixel- and Object-Based Image Classification

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stefan Dech

2012-09-01

Full Text Available We present a novel and innovative automated processing environment for the derivation of land cover (LC and land use (LU information. This processing framework named TWOPAC (TWinned Object and Pixel based Automated classification Chain enables the standardized, independent, user-friendly, and comparable derivation of LC and LU information, with minimized manual classification labor. TWOPAC allows classification of multi-spectral and multi-temporal remote sensing imagery from different sensor types. TWOPAC enables not only pixel-based classification, but also allows classification based on object-based characteristics. Classification is based on a Decision Tree approach (DT for which the well-known C5.0 code has been implemented, which builds decision trees based on the concept of information entropy. TWOPAC enables automatic generation of the decision tree classifier based on a C5.0-retrieved ascii-file, as well as fully automatic validation of the classification output via sample based accuracy assessment.Envisaging the automated generation of standardized land cover products, as well as area-wide classification of large amounts of data in preferably a short processing time, standardized interfaces for process control, Web Processing Services (WPS, as introduced by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC, are utilized. TWOPAC’s functionality to process geospatial raster or vector data via web resources (server, network enables TWOPAC’s usability independent of any commercial client or desktop software and allows for large scale data processing on servers. Furthermore, the components of TWOPAC were built-up using open source code components and are implemented as a plug-in for Quantum GIS software for easy handling of the classification process from the user’s perspective.

Automation of radiochemical analysis by flow injection techniques. Am-Pu separation using TRU-resinTM sorbent extraction column

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Egorov, O.; Washington Univ., Seattle, WA; Grate, J.W.; Ruzicka, J.

1998-01-01

A rapid automated flow injection analysis (FIA) procedure was developed for efficient separation of Am and Pu from each other and from interfering matrix and radionuclide components using a TRU-resin TM column. Selective Pu elution is enabled via on-column reduction. The separation was developed using on-line radioactivity detection. After the separation had been developed, fraction collection was used to obtain the separated fractions. In this manner, a FIA instrument functions as an automated separation workstation capable of unattended operation. (author)

Single-particle levitation system for automated study of homogeneous solute nucleation

OpenAIRE

Olsen, Adam P.; Flagan, Richard C.; Kornfield, Julia A.

2006-01-01

We present an instrument that addresses two critical requirements for quantitative measurements of the homogeneous crystal nucleation rate in supersaturated aqueous solution. First, the need to perform repeated measurements of nucleation incubation times is met by automating experiments to enable programmable cycling of thermodynamic conditions. Second, the need for precise and robust control of the chemical potential in supersaturated aqueous solution is met by implementing a novel technique...

Lean automation development : applying lean principles to the automation development process

OpenAIRE

Granlund, Anna; Wiktorsson, Magnus; Grahn, Sten; Friedler, Niklas

2014-01-01

By a broad empirical study it is indicated that automation development show potential of improvement. In the paper, 13 lean product development principles are contrasted to the automation development process and it is suggested why and how these principles can facilitate, support and improve the automation development process. The paper summarises a description of what characterises a lean automation development process and what consequences it entails. Main differences compared to current pr...

Visual Servoing-Based Nanorobotic System for Automated Electrical Characterization of Nanotubes inside SEM.

Science.gov (United States)

Ding, Huiyang; Shi, Chaoyang; Ma, Li; Yang, Zhan; Wang, Mingyu; Wang, Yaqiong; Chen, Tao; Sun, Lining; Toshio, Fukuda

2018-04-08

The maneuvering and electrical characterization of nanotubes inside a scanning electron microscope (SEM) has historically been time-consuming and laborious for operators. Before the development of automated nanomanipulation-enabled techniques for the performance of pick-and-place and characterization of nanoobjects, these functions were still incomplete and largely operated manually. In this paper, a dual-probe nanomanipulation system vision-based feedback was demonstrated to automatically perform 3D nanomanipulation tasks, to investigate the electrical characterization of nanotubes. The XY-position of Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) cantilevers and individual carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were precisely recognized via a series of image processing operations. A coarse-to-fine positioning strategy in the Z-direction was applied through the combination of the sharpness-based depth estimation method and the contact-detection method. The use of nanorobotic magnification-regulated speed aided in improving working efficiency and reliability. Additionally, we proposed automated alignment of manipulator axes by visual tracking the movement trajectory of the end effector. The experimental results indicate the system's capability for automated measurement electrical characterization of CNTs. Furthermore, the automated nanomanipulation system has the potential to be extended to other nanomanipulation tasks.

Cell-Detection Technique for Automated Patch Clamping

Science.gov (United States)

McDowell, Mark; Gray, Elizabeth

2008-01-01

A unique and customizable machinevision and image-data-processing technique has been developed for use in automated identification of cells that are optimal for patch clamping. [Patch clamping (in which patch electrodes are pressed against cell membranes) is an electrophysiological technique widely applied for the study of ion channels, and of membrane proteins that regulate the flow of ions across the membranes. Patch clamping is used in many biological research fields such as neurobiology, pharmacology, and molecular biology.] While there exist several hardware techniques for automated patch clamping of cells, very few of those techniques incorporate machine vision for locating cells that are ideal subjects for patch clamping. In contrast, the present technique is embodied in a machine-vision algorithm that, in practical application, enables the user to identify good and bad cells for patch clamping in an image captured by a charge-coupled-device (CCD) camera attached to a microscope, within a processing time of one second. Hence, the present technique can save time, thereby increasing efficiency and reducing cost. The present technique involves the utilization of cell-feature metrics to accurately make decisions on the degree to which individual cells are "good" or "bad" candidates for patch clamping. These metrics include position coordinates (x,y) in the image plane, major-axis length, minor-axis length, area, elongation, roundness, smoothness, angle of orientation, and degree of inclusion in the field of view. The present technique does not require any special hardware beyond commercially available, off-the-shelf patch-clamping hardware: A standard patchclamping microscope system with an attached CCD camera, a personal computer with an imagedata- processing board, and some experience in utilizing imagedata- processing software are all that are needed. A cell image is first captured by the microscope CCD camera and image-data-processing board, then the image

A novel DTI-QA tool: Automated metric extraction exploiting the sphericity of an agar filled phantom.

Science.gov (United States)

Chavez, Sofia; Viviano, Joseph; Zamyadi, Mojdeh; Kingsley, Peter B; Kochunov, Peter; Strother, Stephen; Voineskos, Aristotle

2018-02-01

To develop a quality assurance (QA) tool (acquisition guidelines and automated processing) for diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data using a common agar-based phantom used for fMRI QA. The goal is to produce a comprehensive set of automated, sensitive and robust QA metrics. A readily available agar phantom was scanned with and without parallel imaging reconstruction. Other scanning parameters were matched to the human scans. A central slab made up of either a thick slice or an average of a few slices, was extracted and all processing was performed on that image. The proposed QA relies on the creation of two ROIs for processing: (i) a preset central circular region of interest (ccROI) and (ii) a signal mask for all images in the dataset. The ccROI enables computation of average signal for SNR calculations as well as average FA values. The production of the signal masks enables automated measurements of eddy current and B0 inhomogeneity induced distortions by exploiting the sphericity of the phantom. Also, the signal masks allow automated background localization to assess levels of Nyquist ghosting. The proposed DTI-QA was shown to produce eleven metrics which are robust yet sensitive to image quality changes within site and differences across sites. It can be performed in a reasonable amount of scan time (~15min) and the code for automated processing has been made publicly available. A novel DTI-QA tool has been proposed. It has been applied successfully on data from several scanners/platforms. The novelty lies in the exploitation of the sphericity of the phantom for distortion measurements. Other novel contributions are: the computation of an SNR value per gradient direction for the diffusion weighted images (DWIs) and an SNR value per non-DWI, an automated background detection for the Nyquist ghosting measurement and an error metric reflecting the contribution of EPI instability to the eddy current induced shape changes observed for DWIs. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier

Application of automated blind for daylighting in tropical region

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chaiwiwatworakul, Pipat; Chirarattananon, Surapong; Rakkwamsuk, Pattana

2009-01-01

This paper reports an experimental and simulation study on application of automated Venetian blind for daylighting in tropical climate. A horizontal blind system operating automatically under programmed control was constructed and integrated onto the glazed windows to form a window system with an automated blind in a room of a laboratory building. A dimming controller was also integrated to the lighting system of the room. Different operation schemes of the window system were devised and tested in the attempt to maximize energy savings while maintaining the quality of the visual environment in the room. Intensive measurement of illuminance of the interior space was undertaken during the experiments. A methodology for calculation of interior daylight illuminance and associated glare corresponding to the configurations of the experiments was adopted. The method was coded into a computer program. Results of calculation from the program agree well with those from experiments for all the schemes of operation conducted. The program was used to simulate the situation when each scheme of operation was implemented for a whole year. It was found that such window system with automated blind enabled energy savings of 80%, but a more sophisticated scheme also helped maintain the interior visual quality at high level.

Is partially automated driving a bad idea? Observations from an on-road study.

Science.gov (United States)

Banks, Victoria A; Eriksson, Alexander; O'Donoghue, Jim; Stanton, Neville A

2018-04-01

The automation of longitudinal and lateral control has enabled drivers to become "hands and feet free" but they are required to remain in an active monitoring state with a requirement to resume manual control if required. This represents the single largest allocation of system function problem with vehicle automation as the literature suggests that humans are notoriously inefficient at completing prolonged monitoring tasks. To further explore whether partially automated driving solutions can appropriately support the driver in completing their new monitoring role, video observations were collected as part of an on-road study using a Tesla Model S being operated in Autopilot mode. A thematic analysis of video data suggests that drivers are not being properly supported in adhering to their new monitoring responsibilities and instead demonstrate behaviour indicative of complacency and over-trust. These attributes may encourage drivers to take more risks whilst out on the road. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A new TLD badge with machine readable ID for fully automated readout

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kannan, S. Ratna P.; Kulkarni, M.S.

2003-01-01

The TLD badge currently being used for personnel monitoring of more than 40,000 radiation workers has a few drawbacks such as lack of on-badge machine readable ID code, delicate two-point clamping of dosimeters on an aluminium card with the chances of dosimeters falling off during handling or readout, projections on one side making automation of readout difficult etc. A new badge has been designed with a 8-digit identification code in the form of an array of holes and smooth exteriors to enable full automation of readout. The new badge also permits changing of dosimeters when necessary. The new design does not affect the readout time or the dosimetric characteristics. The salient features and the dosimetric characteristics are discussed. (author)

Drone Mission Definition and Implementation for Automated Infrastructure Inspection Using Airborne Sensors.

Science.gov (United States)

Besada, Juan A; Bergesio, Luca; Campaña, Iván; Vaquero-Melchor, Diego; López-Araquistain, Jaime; Bernardos, Ana M; Casar, José R

2018-04-11

This paper describes a Mission Definition System and the automated flight process it enables to implement measurement plans for discrete infrastructure inspections using aerial platforms, and specifically multi-rotor drones. The mission definition aims at improving planning efficiency with respect to state-of-the-art waypoint-based techniques, using high-level mission definition primitives and linking them with realistic flight models to simulate the inspection in advance. It also provides flight scripts and measurement plans which can be executed by commercial drones. Its user interfaces facilitate mission definition, pre-flight 3D synthetic mission visualisation and flight evaluation. Results are delivered for a set of representative infrastructure inspection flights, showing the accuracy of the flight prediction tools in actual operations using automated flight control.

Application of a non-hazardous vital dye for cell counting with automated cell counters.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Soo In; Kim, Hyun Jeong; Lee, Ho-Jae; Lee, Kiwon; Hong, Dongpyo; Lim, Hyunchang; Cho, Keunchang; Jung, Neoncheol; Yi, Yong Weon

2016-01-01

Recent advances in automated cell counters enable us to count cells more easily with consistency. However, the wide use of the traditional vital dye trypan blue (TB) raises environmental and health concerns due to its potential teratogenic effects. To avoid this chemical hazard, it is of importance to introduce an alternative non-hazardous vital dye that is compatible with automated cell counters. Erythrosin B (EB) is a vital dye that is impermeable to biological membranes and is used as a food additive. Similarly to TB, EB stains only nonviable cells with disintegrated membranes. However, EB is less popular than TB and is seldom used with automated cell counters. We found that cell counting accuracy with EB was comparable to that with TB. EB was found to be an effective dye for accurate counting of cells with different viabilities across three different automated cell counters. In contrast to TB, EB was less toxic to cultured HL-60 cells during the cell counting process. These results indicate that replacing TB with EB for use with automated cell counters will significantly reduce the hazardous risk while producing comparable results. Copyright © 2015 Logos Biosystems, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Both Automation and Paper.

Science.gov (United States)

Purcell, Royal

1988-01-01

Discusses the concept of a paperless society and the current situation in library automation. Various applications of automation and telecommunications are addressed, and future library automation is considered. Automation at the Monroe County Public Library in Bloomington, Indiana, is described as an example. (MES)

Automated Groundwater Screening

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Taylor, Glenn A.; Collard, Leonard B.

2005-01-01

The Automated Intruder Analysis has been extended to include an Automated Ground Water Screening option. This option screens 825 radionuclides while rigorously applying the National Council on Radiation Protection (NCRP) methodology. An extension to that methodology is presented to give a more realistic screening factor for those radionuclides which have significant daughters. The extension has the promise of reducing the number of radionuclides which must be tracked by the customer. By combining the Automated Intruder Analysis with the Automated Groundwater Screening a consistent set of assumptions and databases is used. A method is proposed to eliminate trigger values by performing rigorous calculation of the screening factor thereby reducing the number of radionuclides sent to further analysis. Using the same problem definitions as in previous groundwater screenings, the automated groundwater screening found one additional nuclide, Ge-68, which failed the screening. It also found that 18 of the 57 radionuclides contained in NCRP Table 3.1 failed the screening. This report describes the automated groundwater screening computer application

Fully automated MRI-guided robotics for prostate brachytherapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stoianovici, D.; Vigaru, B.; Petrisor, D.; Muntener, M.; Patriciu, A.; Song, D.

2008-01-01

The uncertainties encountered in the deployment of brachytherapy seeds are related to the commonly used ultrasound imager and the basic instrumentation used for the implant. An alternative solution is under development in which a fully automated robot is used to place the seeds according to the dosimetry plan under direct MRI-guidance. Incorporation of MRI-guidance creates potential for physiological and molecular image-guided therapies. Moreover, MRI-guided brachytherapy is also enabling for re-estimating dosimetry during the procedure, because with the MRI the seeds already implanted can be localised. An MRI compatible robot (MrBot) was developed. The robot is designed for transperineal percutaneous prostate interventions, and customised for fully automated MRI-guided brachytherapy. With different end-effectors, the robot applies to other image-guided interventions of the prostate. The robot is constructed of non-magnetic and dielectric materials and is electricity free using pneumatic actuation and optic sensing. A new motor (PneuStep) was purposely developed to set this robot in motion. The robot fits alongside the patient in closed-bore MRI scanners. It is able to stay fully operational during MR imaging without deteriorating the quality of the scan. In vitro, cadaver, and animal tests showed millimetre needle targeting accuracy, and very precise seed placement. The robot tested without any interference up to 7T. The robot is the first fully automated robot to function in MRI scanners. Its first application is MRI-guided seed brachytherapy. It is capable of automated, highly accurate needle placement. Extensive testing is in progress prior to clinical trials. Preliminary results show that the robot may become a useful image-guided intervention instrument. (author)

Unmanned Aerial Systems Traffic Management (UTM): Safely Enabling UAS Operations in Low-Altitude Airspace

Science.gov (United States)

Rios, Joseph

2016-01-01

Currently, there is no established infrastructure to enable and safely manage the widespread use of low-altitude airspace and UAS flight operations. Given this, and understanding that the FAA faces a mandate to modernize the present air traffic management system through computer automation and significantly reduce the number of air traffic controllers by FY 2020, the FAA maintains that a comprehensive, yet fully automated UAS traffic management (UTM) system for low-altitude airspace is needed. The concept of UTM is to begin by leveraging concepts from the system of roads, lanes, stop signs, rules and lights that govern vehicles on the ground today. Building on its legacy of work in air traffic management (ATM), NASA is working with industry to develop prototype technologies for a UAS Traffic Management (UTM) system that would evolve airspace integration procedures for enabling safe, efficient low-altitude flight operations that autonomously manage UAS operating in an approved low-altitude airspace environment. UTM is a cloud-based system that will autonomously manage all traffic at low altitudes to include UASs being operated beyond visual line of sight of an operator. UTM would thus enable safe and efficient flight operations by providing fully integrated traffic management services such as airspace design, corridors, dynamic geofencing, severe weather and wind avoidance, congestion management, terrain avoidance, route planning re-routing, separation management, sequencing spacing, and contingency management. UTM removes the need for human operators to continuously monitor aircraft operating in approved areas. NASA envisions concepts for two types of UTM systems. The first would be a small portable system, which could be moved between geographical areas in support of operations such as precision agriculture and public safety. The second would be a Persistent system, which would support low-altitude operations in an approved area by providing continuous automated

Biocoder: A programming language for standardizing and automating biology protocols.

Science.gov (United States)

Ananthanarayanan, Vaishnavi; Thies, William

2010-11-08

Published descriptions of biology protocols are often ambiguous and incomplete, making them difficult to replicate in other laboratories. However, there is increasing benefit to formalizing the descriptions of protocols, as laboratory automation systems (such as microfluidic chips) are becoming increasingly capable of executing them. Our goal in this paper is to improve both the reproducibility and automation of biology experiments by using a programming language to express the precise series of steps taken. We have developed BioCoder, a C++ library that enables biologists to express the exact steps needed to execute a protocol. In addition to being suitable for automation, BioCoder converts the code into a readable, English-language description for use by biologists. We have implemented over 65 protocols in BioCoder; the most complex of these was successfully executed by a biologist in the laboratory using BioCoder as the only reference. We argue that BioCoder exposes and resolves ambiguities in existing protocols, and could provide the software foundations for future automation platforms. BioCoder is freely available for download at http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/india/projects/biocoder/. BioCoder represents the first practical programming system for standardizing and automating biology protocols. Our vision is to change the way that experimental methods are communicated: rather than publishing a written account of the protocols used, researchers will simply publish the code. Our experience suggests that this practice is tractable and offers many benefits. We invite other researchers to leverage BioCoder to improve the precision and completeness of their protocols, and also to adapt and extend BioCoder to new domains.

The effects of total laboratory automation on the management of a clinical chemistry laboratory. Retrospective analysis of 36 years.

Science.gov (United States)

Sarkozi, Laszlo; Simson, Elkin; Ramanathan, Lakshmi

2003-03-01

Thirty-six years of data and history of laboratory practice at our institution has enabled us to follow the effects of analytical automation, then recently pre-analytical and post-analytical automation on productivity, cost reduction and enhanced quality of service. In 1998, we began the operation of a pre- and post-analytical automation system (robotics), together with an advanced laboratory information system to process specimens prior to analysis, deliver them to various automated analytical instruments, specimen outlet racks and finally to refrigerated stockyards. By the end of 3 years of continuous operation, we compared the chemistry part of the system with the prior 33 years and quantitated the financial impact of the various stages of automation. Between 1965 and 2000, the Consumer Price Index increased by a factor of 5.5 in the United States. During the same 36 years, at our institution's Chemistry Department the productivity (indicated as the number of reported test results/employee/year) increased from 10,600 to 104,558 (9.3-fold). When expressed in constant 1965 dollars, the total cost per test decreased from 0.79 dollars to 0.15 dollars. Turnaround time for availability of results on patient units decreased to the extent that Stat specimens requiring a turnaround time of productivity together with decreased operational cost. It enabled us to significantly increase our workload together with a reduction of personnel. In addition, stats are handled easily and there are benefits such as safer working conditions and improved sample identification, which are difficult to quantify at this stage.

Current status and future prospects for enabling chemistry technology in the drug discovery process

Science.gov (United States)

Djuric, Stevan W.; Hutchins, Charles W.; Talaty, Nari N.

2016-01-01

This review covers recent advances in the implementation of enabling chemistry technologies into the drug discovery process. Areas covered include parallel synthesis chemistry, high-throughput experimentation, automated synthesis and purification methods, flow chemistry methodology including photochemistry, electrochemistry, and the handling of “dangerous” reagents. Also featured are advances in the “computer-assisted drug design” area and the expanding application of novel mass spectrometry-based techniques to a wide range of drug discovery activities. PMID:27781094

Automated detection of a prostate Ni-Ti stent in electronic portal images.

Science.gov (United States)

Carl, Jesper; Nielsen, Henning; Nielsen, Jane; Lund, Bente; Larsen, Erik Hoejkjaer

2006-12-01

Planning target volumes (PTV) in fractionated radiotherapy still have to be outlined with wide margins to the clinical target volume due to uncertainties arising from daily shift of the prostate position. A recently proposed new method of visualization of the prostate is based on insertion of a thermo-expandable Ni-Ti stent. The current study proposes a new detection algorithm for automated detection of the Ni-Ti stent in electronic portal images. The algorithm is based on the Ni-Ti stent having a cylindrical shape with a fixed diameter, which was used as the basis for an automated detection algorithm. The automated method uses enhancement of lines combined with a grayscale morphology operation that looks for enhanced pixels separated with a distance similar to the diameter of the stent. The images in this study are all from prostate cancer patients treated with radiotherapy in a previous study. Images of a stent inserted in a humanoid phantom demonstrated a localization accuracy of 0.4-0.7 mm which equals the pixel size in the image. The automated detection of the stent was compared to manual detection in 71 pairs of orthogonal images taken in nine patients. The algorithm was successful in 67 of 71 pairs of images. The method is fast, has a high success rate, good accuracy, and has a potential for unsupervised localization of the prostate before radiotherapy, which would enable automated repositioning before treatment and allow for the use of very tight PTV margins.

Automated detection of a prostate Ni-Ti stent in electronic portal images

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Carl, Jesper; Nielsen, Henning; Nielsen, Jane; Lund, Bente; Larsen, Erik Hoejkjaer

2006-01-01

Planning target volumes (PTV) in fractionated radiotherapy still have to be outlined with wide margins to the clinical target volume due to uncertainties arising from daily shift of the prostate position. A recently proposed new method of visualization of the prostate is based on insertion of a thermo-expandable Ni-Ti stent. The current study proposes a new detection algorithm for automated detection of the Ni-Ti stent in electronic portal images. The algorithm is based on the Ni-Ti stent having a cylindrical shape with a fixed diameter, which was used as the basis for an automated detection algorithm. The automated method uses enhancement of lines combined with a grayscale morphology operation that looks for enhanced pixels separated with a distance similar to the diameter of the stent. The images in this study are all from prostate cancer patients treated with radiotherapy in a previous study. Images of a stent inserted in a humanoid phantom demonstrated a localization accuracy of 0.4-0.7 mm which equals the pixel size in the image. The automated detection of the stent was compared to manual detection in 71 pairs of orthogonal images taken in nine patients. The algorithm was successful in 67 of 71 pairs of images. The method is fast, has a high success rate, good accuracy, and has a potential for unsupervised localization of the prostate before radiotherapy, which would enable automated repositioning before treatment and allow for the use of very tight PTV margins

BLINKER: Automated Extraction of Ocular Indices from EEG Enabling Large-Scale Analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Kleifges, Kelly; Bigdely-Shamlo, Nima; Kerick, Scott E; Robbins, Kay A

2017-01-01

Electroencephalography (EEG) offers a platform for studying the relationships between behavioral measures, such as blink rate and duration, with neural correlates of fatigue and attention, such as theta and alpha band power. Further, the existence of EEG studies covering a variety of subjects and tasks provides opportunities for the community to better characterize variability of these measures across tasks and subjects. We have implemented an automated pipeline (BLINKER) for extracting ocular indices such as blink rate, blink duration, and blink velocity-amplitude ratios from EEG channels, EOG channels, and/or independent components (ICs). To illustrate the use of our approach, we have applied the pipeline to a large corpus of EEG data (comprising more than 2000 datasets acquired at eight different laboratories) in order to characterize variability of certain ocular indicators across subjects. We also investigate dependence of ocular indices on task in a shooter study. We have implemented our algorithms in a freely available MATLAB toolbox called BLINKER. The toolbox, which is easy to use and can be applied to collections of data without user intervention, can automatically discover which channels or ICs capture blinks. The tools extract blinks, calculate common ocular indices, generate a report for each dataset, dump labeled images of the individual blinks, and provide summary statistics across collections. Users can run BLINKER as a script or as a plugin for EEGLAB. The toolbox is available at https://github.com/VisLab/EEG-Blinks. User documentation and examples appear at http://vislab.github.io/EEG-Blinks/.

Improvement of Vivarium Biodecontamination through Data-acquisition Systems and Automation.

Science.gov (United States)

Devan, Shakthi Rk; Vasu, Suresh; Mallikarjuna, Yogesha; Ponraj, Ramkumar; Kamath, Gireesh; Poosala, Suresh

2018-03-01

Biodecontamination is important for eliminating pathogens at research animal facilities, thereby preventing contamination within barrier systems. We enhanced our facility's standard biodecontamination method to replace the traditional foggers, and the new system was used effectively after creating bypass ducts in HVAC units so that individual rooms could be isolated. The entire system was controlled by inhouse-developed supervisory control and data-acquisition software that supported multiple cycles of decontamination by equipment, which had different decontamination capacities, operated in parallel, and used different agents, including H2O2 vapor and ClO2 gas. The process was validated according to facility mapping, and effectiveness was assessed by using biologic (Geobacillus stearothermophilus) and chemical indicator strips, which were positioned before decontamination, and by sampling contact plates after the completion of each cycle. The results of biologic indicators showed 6-log reduction in microbial counts after successful decontamination cycles for both agents and found to be compatible with clean-room panels including commonly used materials in vivarium such as racks, cages, trolleys, cage changing stations, biosafety cabinets, refrigerators and other equipment in both procedure and animal rooms. In conclusion, the automated process enabled users to perform effective decontamination through multiple cycles with realtime documentation and provided additional capability to deal with potential outbreaks. Enabling software integration of automation improved quality-control systems in our vivarium.

Automation in an Addiction Treatment Research Clinic: Computerized Contingency Management, Ecological Momentary Assessment, and a Protocol Workflow System

Science.gov (United States)

Vahabzadeh, Massoud; Lin, Jia-Ling; Mezghanni, Mustapha; Epstein, David H.; Preston, Kenzie L.

2009-01-01

Issues A challenge in treatment research is the necessity of adhering to protocol and regulatory strictures while maintaining flexibility to meet patients’ treatment needs and accommodate variations among protocols. Another challenge is the acquisition of large amounts of data in an occasionally hectic environment, along with provision of seamless methods for exporting, mining, and querying the data. Approach We have automated several major functions of our outpatient treatment research clinic for studies in drug abuse and dependence. Here we describe three such specialized applications: the Automated Contingency Management (ACM) system for delivery of behavioral interventions, the Transactional Electronic Diary (TED) system for management of behavioral assessments, and the Protocol Workflow System (PWS) for computerized workflow automation and guidance of each participant’s daily clinic activities. These modules are integrated into our larger information system to enable data sharing in real time among authorized staff. Key Findings ACM and TED have each permitted us to conduct research that was not previously possible. In addition, the time to data analysis at the end of each study is substantially shorter. With the implementation of the PWS, we have been able to manage a research clinic with an 80-patient capacity having an annual average of 18,000 patient-visits and 7,300 urine collections with a research staff of five. Finally, automated data management has considerably enhanced our ability to monitor and summarize participant-safety data for research oversight. Implications and conclusion When developed in consultation with end users, automation in treatment-research clinics can enable more efficient operations, better communication among staff, and expansions in research methods. PMID:19320669

Automated model building

CERN Document Server

Caferra, Ricardo; Peltier, Nicholas

2004-01-01

This is the first book on automated model building, a discipline of automated deduction that is of growing importance Although models and their construction are important per se, automated model building has appeared as a natural enrichment of automated deduction, especially in the attempt to capture the human way of reasoning The book provides an historical overview of the field of automated deduction, and presents the foundations of different existing approaches to model construction, in particular those developed by the authors Finite and infinite model building techniques are presented The main emphasis is on calculi-based methods, and relevant practical results are provided The book is of interest to researchers and graduate students in computer science, computational logic and artificial intelligence It can also be used as a textbook in advanced undergraduate courses

Robotics-assisted mass spectrometry assay platform enabled by open-source electronics.

Science.gov (United States)

Chiu, Shih-Hao; Urban, Pawel L

2015-02-15

Mass spectrometry (MS) is an important analytical technique with numerous applications in clinical analysis, biochemistry, environmental analysis, geology and physics. Its success builds on the ability of MS to determine molecular weights of analytes, and elucidate their structures. However, sample handling prior to MS requires a lot of attention and labor. In this work we were aiming to automate processing samples for MS so that analyses could be conducted without much supervision of experienced analysts. The goal of this study was to develop a robotics and information technology-oriented platform that could control the whole analysis process including sample delivery, reaction-based assay, data acquisition, and interaction with the analyst. The proposed platform incorporates a robotic arm for handling sample vials delivered to the laboratory, and several auxiliary devices which facilitate and secure the analysis process. They include: multi-relay board, infrared sensors, photo-interrupters, gyroscopes, force sensors, fingerprint scanner, barcode scanner, touch screen panel, and internet interface. The control of all the building blocks is achieved through implementation of open-source electronics (Arduino), and enabled by custom-written programs in C language. The advantages of the proposed system include: low cost, simplicity, small size, as well as facile automation of sample delivery and processing without the intervention of the analyst. It is envisaged that this simple robotic system may be the forerunner of automated laboratories dedicated to mass spectrometric analysis of biological samples. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Enhancing Business Process Automation by Integrating RFID Data and Events

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Xiaohui; Liu, Chengfei; Lin, Tao

Business process automation is one of the major benefits for utilising Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology. Through readers to RFID middleware systems, the information and the movements of tagged objects can be used to trigger business transactions. These features change the way of business applications for dealing with the physical world from mostly quantity-based to object-based. Aiming to facilitate business process automation, this paper introduces a new method to model and incorporate business logics into RFID edge systems from an object-oriented perspective with emphasises on RFID's event-driven characteristics. A framework covering business rule modelling, event handling and system operation invocations is presented on the basis of the event calculus. In regard to the identified delayed effects in RFID-enabled applications, a two-block buffering mechanism is proposed to improve RFID query efficiency within the framework. The performance improvements are analysed with related experiments.

Development of an EtherCAT enabled digital servo controller for the Green Bank Telescope

Science.gov (United States)

Whiteis, Peter G.; Mello, Melinda J.

2012-09-01

EtherCAT (Ethernet for Control Automation Technology) is gaining wide spread popularity in the automation industry as a real time field bus based on low cost, Ethernet hardware. EtherCAT maximizes use of 100Mbps Ethernet hardware by using a collision free ring topology, efficient Ethernet frame utilization (> 95%), and data exchange "on the fly". These characteristics enable EtherCAT to achieve Master to Slave node data exchange rates of > 1000 Hz. The Green Bank Telescope, commissioned in 2000, utilizes an analog control system for motion control of 8 elevation and 16 azimuth motors. This architecture, while sufficient for observations at frequencies up to 50GHz, has significant limitations for the current scientific goals of observing at 115GHz. Accordingly, the Green Bank staff has embarked on a servo upgrade project to develop a digital servo system which accommodates development and implementation of advanced control algorithms. This paper describes how the new control system requirements, use of existing infrastructure and budget constraints led us to define a distributed motion control architecture where EtherCAT real-time Ethernet was selected as the communication bus. Finally, design details are provided that describe how NRAO developed a custom EtherCAT-enabled motor controller interface for the GBT's legacy motor drives in order to provide technical benefits and flexibility not available in commercial products.

Virtual reality applications to automated rendezvous and capture

Science.gov (United States)

Hale, Joseph; Oneil, Daniel

Virtual Reality (VR) is a rapidly developing Human/Computer Interface (HCI) technology. The evolution of high-speed graphics processors and development of specialized anthropomorphic user interface devices, that more fully involve the human senses, have enabled VR technology. Recently, the maturity of this technology has reached a level where it can be used as a tool in a variety of applications. This paper provides an overview of: VR technology, VR activities at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), applications of VR to Automated Rendezvous and Capture (AR&C), and identifies areas of VR technology that requires further development.

78 FR 53466 - Modification of Two National Customs Automation Program (NCAP) Tests Concerning Automated...

Science.gov (United States)

2013-08-29

... Customs Automation Program (NCAP) Tests Concerning Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) Document Image... National Customs Automation Program (NCAP) tests concerning document imaging, known as the Document Image... the National Customs Automation Program (NCAP) tests concerning document imaging, known as the...

Function Allocation between Automation and Human Pilot for Airborne Separation Assurance

Science.gov (United States)

Idris, Husni; Enea, Gabriele; Lewis, TImothy A.

2016-01-01

Maintaining safe separation between aircraft is a key determinant of the airspace capacity to handle air transportation. With the advent of satellite-based surveillance, aircraft equipped with the needed technologies are now capable of maintaining awareness of their location in the airspace and sharing it with their surrounding traffic. As a result, concepts and cockpit automation are emerging to enable delegating the responsibility of maintaining safe separation from traffic to the pilot; thus increasing the airspace capacity by alleviating the limitation of the current non-scalable centralized ground-based system. In this paper, an analysis of allocating separation assurance functions to the human pilot and cockpit automation is presented to support the design of these concepts and technologies. A task analysis was conducted with the help of Petri nets to identify the main separation assurance functions and their interactions. Each function was characterized by three behavior levels that may be needed to perform the task: skill, rule and knowledge based levels. Then recommendations are made for allocating each function to an automation scale based on their behavior level characterization and with the help of Subject matter experts.

Automated work packages architecture: An initial set of human factors and instrumentation and controls requirements

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Agarwal, Vivek [Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States); Oxstrand, Johanna H. [Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States); Le Blanc, Katya L. [Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)

2014-09-01

The work management process in current fleets of national nuclear power plants is so highly dependent on large technical staffs and quality of work instruction, i.e., paper-based, that this puts nuclear energy at somewhat of a long-term economic disadvantage and increase the possibility of human errors. Technologies like mobile portable devices and computer-based procedures can play a key role in improving the plant work management process, thereby increasing productivity and decreasing cost. Automated work packages are a fundamentally an enabling technology for improving worker productivity and human performance in nuclear power plants work activities because virtually every plant work activity is accomplished using some form of a work package. As part of this year’s research effort, automated work packages architecture is identified and an initial set of requirements identified, that are essential and necessary for implementation of automated work packages in nuclear power plants.

A fully automated microfluidic femtosecond laser axotomy platform for nerve regeneration studies in C. elegans.

Science.gov (United States)

Gokce, Sertan Kutal; Guo, Samuel X; Ghorashian, Navid; Everett, W Neil; Jarrell, Travis; Kottek, Aubri; Bovik, Alan C; Ben-Yakar, Adela

2014-01-01

Femtosecond laser nanosurgery has been widely accepted as an axonal injury model, enabling nerve regeneration studies in the small model organism, Caenorhabditis elegans. To overcome the time limitations of manual worm handling techniques, automation and new immobilization technologies must be adopted to improve throughput in these studies. While new microfluidic immobilization techniques have been developed that promise to reduce the time required for axotomies, there is a need for automated procedures to minimize the required amount of human intervention and accelerate the axotomy processes crucial for high-throughput. Here, we report a fully automated microfluidic platform for performing laser axotomies of fluorescently tagged neurons in living Caenorhabditis elegans. The presented automation process reduces the time required to perform axotomies within individual worms to ∼17 s/worm, at least one order of magnitude faster than manual approaches. The full automation is achieved with a unique chip design and an operation sequence that is fully computer controlled and synchronized with efficient and accurate image processing algorithms. The microfluidic device includes a T-shaped architecture and three-dimensional microfluidic interconnects to serially transport, position, and immobilize worms. The image processing algorithms can identify and precisely position axons targeted for ablation. There were no statistically significant differences observed in reconnection probabilities between axotomies carried out with the automated system and those performed manually with anesthetics. The overall success rate of automated axotomies was 67.4±3.2% of the cases (236/350) at an average processing rate of 17.0±2.4 s. This fully automated platform establishes a promising methodology for prospective genome-wide screening of nerve regeneration in C. elegans in a truly high-throughput manner.

Automated Photoreceptor Cell Identification on Nonconfocal Adaptive Optics Images Using Multiscale Circular Voting.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Jianfei; Jung, HaeWon; Dubra, Alfredo; Tam, Johnny

2017-09-01

Adaptive optics scanning light ophthalmoscopy (AOSLO) has enabled quantification of the photoreceptor mosaic in the living human eye using metrics such as cell density and average spacing. These rely on the identification of individual cells. Here, we demonstrate a novel approach for computer-aided identification of cone photoreceptors on nonconfocal split detection AOSLO images. Algorithms for identification of cone photoreceptors were developed, based on multiscale circular voting (MSCV) in combination with a priori knowledge that split detection images resemble Nomarski differential interference contrast images, in which dark and bright regions are present on the two sides of each cell. The proposed algorithm locates dark and bright region pairs, iteratively refining the identification across multiple scales. Identification accuracy was assessed in data from 10 subjects by comparing automated identifications with manual labeling, followed by computation of density and spacing metrics for comparison to histology and published data. There was good agreement between manual and automated cone identifications with overall recall, precision, and F1 score of 92.9%, 90.8%, and 91.8%, respectively. On average, computed density and spacing values using automated identification were within 10.7% and 11.2% of the expected histology values across eccentricities ranging from 0.5 to 6.2 mm. There was no statistically significant difference between MSCV-based and histology-based density measurements (P = 0.96, Kolmogorov-Smirnov 2-sample test). MSCV can accurately detect cone photoreceptors on split detection images across a range of eccentricities, enabling quick, objective estimation of photoreceptor mosaic metrics, which will be important for future clinical trials utilizing adaptive optics.

World-wide distribution automation systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Devaney, T.M.

1994-01-01

A worldwide power distribution automation system is outlined. Distribution automation is defined and the status of utility automation is discussed. Other topics discussed include a distribution management system, substation feeder, and customer functions, potential benefits, automation costs, planning and engineering considerations, automation trends, databases, system operation, computer modeling of system, and distribution management systems

WIDAFELS flexible automation systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shende, P.S.; Chander, K.P.; Ramadas, P.

1990-01-01

After discussing the various aspects of automation, some typical examples of various levels of automation are given. One of the examples is of automated production line for ceramic fuel pellets. (M.G.B.)

Demo abstract: Flexhouse-2-an open source building automation platform with a focus on flexible control

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gehrke, Oliver; Kosek, Anna Magdalena; Svendsen, Mathias

2014-01-01

, an open-source implementation of a building automation system which has been designed with a strong focus on enabling the integration of the building into a smart power system and dedicated support for the requirements of an R&D environment. We will demonstrate the need for such a platform, discuss...

Automation in Clinical Microbiology

Science.gov (United States)

Ledeboer, Nathan A.

2013-01-01

Historically, the trend toward automation in clinical pathology laboratories has largely bypassed the clinical microbiology laboratory. In this article, we review the historical impediments to automation in the microbiology laboratory and offer insight into the reasons why we believe that we are on the cusp of a dramatic change that will sweep a wave of automation into clinical microbiology laboratories. We review the currently available specimen-processing instruments as well as the total laboratory automation solutions. Lastly, we outline the types of studies that will need to be performed to fully assess the benefits of automation in microbiology laboratories. PMID:23515547

AUTOMATED SYSTEM OF DATA PROCESSING WITH THE IMPLEMENTATION OF RATING TECHNOLOGY OF TEACHING

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

О. И. Дзювина

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Rating technology of teaching enables independent and individual work of students, increase their motivation.Purpose: to increase the efficiency of data processing with the implementation of rating technology of teaching.Method: analysis, synthesis,experiment.Results. Developed an automated data processing system for the implementation of rating technology of teaching.Practical implication. Education.Purchase on Elibrary.ru > Buy now

Virtual automation.

Science.gov (United States)

Casis, E; Garrido, A; Uranga, B; Vives, A; Zufiaurre, C

2001-01-01

Total laboratory automation (TLA) can be substituted in mid-size laboratories by a computer sample workflow control (virtual automation). Such a solution has been implemented in our laboratory using PSM, software developed in cooperation with Roche Diagnostics (Barcelona, Spain), to this purpose. This software is connected to the online analyzers and to the laboratory information system and is able to control and direct the samples working as an intermediate station. The only difference with TLA is the replacement of transport belts by personnel of the laboratory. The implementation of this virtual automation system has allowed us the achievement of the main advantages of TLA: workload increase (64%) with reduction in the cost per test (43%), significant reduction in the number of biochemistry primary tubes (from 8 to 2), less aliquoting (from 600 to 100 samples/day), automation of functional testing, drastic reduction of preanalytical errors (from 11.7 to 0.4% of the tubes) and better total response time for both inpatients (from up to 48 hours to up to 4 hours) and outpatients (from up to 10 days to up to 48 hours). As an additional advantage, virtual automation could be implemented without hardware investment and significant headcount reduction (15% in our lab).

Automated and observer based light field indicator edge evaluation in diagnostic X-ray equipment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bottaro, Marcio; Nagy, Balazs Vince; Soares, Fernanda Cristina Salvador; Rosendo, Danilo Cabral

2017-01-01

Introduction: To analyze edge detection and optical contrast calculation of light field-indicators used in X-ray via automated- and observer-based methods, and comparison with current standard approaches, which do not give exact definition for light field edge determination. Methods: Automated light sensor array was used to measure the penumbra zone of the edge in the standard X-ray equipment, while trained and naive human observers were asked to mark the light field edge according to their own determination. Different interpretations of the contrast were then calculated and compared. Results: In contrast to automated measurements of edge definition and detection, measurements by human observers showed large inter-observer variation independent of their training with X-ray equipment. Different contrast calculations considering the different edge definitions gave very different contrast values. Conclusion: As the main conclusion, we propose a more exact edge definition of the X-ray light field, corresponding well to the average human observer's edge determination. The new edge definition method with automated systems would reduce human variability in edge determination. Such errors could potentially affect the approval of X-ray equipment, and also increase the radiation dose. The automated measurement based on human observers’ edge definition and the corresponding contrast calculation may lead to a more precise light field calibration, which enables reduced irradiation doses on radiology patients. (author)

Automated and observer based light field indicator edge evaluation in diagnostic X-ray equipment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Márcio Bottaro

Full Text Available Abstract Introduction To analyze edge detection and optical contrast calculation of light field-indicators used in X-ray via automated- and observer-based methods, and comparison with current standard approaches, which do not give exact definition for light field edge determination. Methods Automated light sensor array was used to measure the penumbra zone of the edge in the standard X-ray equipment, while trained and naïve human observers were asked to mark the light field edge according to their own determination. Different interpretations of the contrast were then calculated and compared. Results In contrast to automated measurements of edge definition and detection, measurements by human observers showed large inter-observer variation independent of their training with X-ray equipment. Different contrast calculations considering the different edge definitions gave very different contrast values. Conclusion As the main conclusion, we propose a more exact edge definition of the X-ray light field, corresponding well to the average human observer’s edge determination. The new edge definition method with automated systems would reduce human variability in edge determination. Such errors could potentially affect the approval of X-ray equipment, and also increase the radiation dose. The automated measurement based on human observers’ edge definition and the corresponding contrast calculation may lead to a more precise light field calibration, which enables reduced irradiation doses on radiology patients.

Automated and observer based light field indicator edge evaluation in diagnostic X-ray equipment

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bottaro, Marcio; Nagy, Balazs Vince; Soares, Fernanda Cristina Salvador; Rosendo, Danilo Cabral, E-mail: marcio@iee.usp.br [Universidade de Sao Paulo (USP), SP (Brazil); Optics and Engineering Informatics, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest (Hungary)

2017-04-15

Introduction: To analyze edge detection and optical contrast calculation of light field-indicators used in X-ray via automated- and observer-based methods, and comparison with current standard approaches, which do not give exact definition for light field edge determination. Methods: Automated light sensor array was used to measure the penumbra zone of the edge in the standard X-ray equipment, while trained and naive human observers were asked to mark the light field edge according to their own determination. Different interpretations of the contrast were then calculated and compared. Results: In contrast to automated measurements of edge definition and detection, measurements by human observers showed large inter-observer variation independent of their training with X-ray equipment. Different contrast calculations considering the different edge definitions gave very different contrast values. Conclusion: As the main conclusion, we propose a more exact edge definition of the X-ray light field, corresponding well to the average human observer's edge determination. The new edge definition method with automated systems would reduce human variability in edge determination. Such errors could potentially affect the approval of X-ray equipment, and also increase the radiation dose. The automated measurement based on human observers’ edge definition and the corresponding contrast calculation may lead to a more precise light field calibration, which enables reduced irradiation doses on radiology patients. (author)

A computational framework for the automated construction of glycosylation reaction networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Gang; Neelamegham, Sriram

2014-01-01

Glycosylation is among the most common and complex post-translational modifications identified to date. It proceeds through the catalytic action of multiple enzyme families that include the glycosyltransferases that add monosaccharides to growing glycans, and glycosidases which remove sugar residues to trim glycans. The expression level and specificity of these enzymes, in part, regulate the glycan distribution or glycome of specific cell/tissue systems. Currently, there is no systematic method to describe the enzymes and cellular reaction networks that catalyze glycosylation. To address this limitation, we present a streamlined machine-readable definition for the glycosylating enzymes and additional methodologies to construct and analyze glycosylation reaction networks. In this computational framework, the enzyme class is systematically designed to store detailed specificity data such as enzymatic functional group, linkage and substrate specificity. The new classes and their associated functions enable both single-reaction inference and automated full network reconstruction, when given a list of reactants and/or products along with the enzymes present in the system. In addition, graph theory is used to support functions that map the connectivity between two or more species in a network, and that generate subset models to identify rate-limiting steps regulating glycan biosynthesis. Finally, this framework allows the synthesis of biochemical reaction networks using mass spectrometry (MS) data. The features described above are illustrated using three case studies that examine: i) O-linked glycan biosynthesis during the construction of functional selectin-ligands; ii) automated N-linked glycosylation pathway construction; and iii) the handling and analysis of glycomics based MS data. Overall, the new computational framework enables automated glycosylation network model construction and analysis by integrating knowledge of glycan structure and enzyme biochemistry. All

A computational framework for the automated construction of glycosylation reaction networks.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gang Liu

Full Text Available Glycosylation is among the most common and complex post-translational modifications identified to date. It proceeds through the catalytic action of multiple enzyme families that include the glycosyltransferases that add monosaccharides to growing glycans, and glycosidases which remove sugar residues to trim glycans. The expression level and specificity of these enzymes, in part, regulate the glycan distribution or glycome of specific cell/tissue systems. Currently, there is no systematic method to describe the enzymes and cellular reaction networks that catalyze glycosylation. To address this limitation, we present a streamlined machine-readable definition for the glycosylating enzymes and additional methodologies to construct and analyze glycosylation reaction networks. In this computational framework, the enzyme class is systematically designed to store detailed specificity data such as enzymatic functional group, linkage and substrate specificity. The new classes and their associated functions enable both single-reaction inference and automated full network reconstruction, when given a list of reactants and/or products along with the enzymes present in the system. In addition, graph theory is used to support functions that map the connectivity between two or more species in a network, and that generate subset models to identify rate-limiting steps regulating glycan biosynthesis. Finally, this framework allows the synthesis of biochemical reaction networks using mass spectrometry (MS data. The features described above are illustrated using three case studies that examine: i O-linked glycan biosynthesis during the construction of functional selectin-ligands; ii automated N-linked glycosylation pathway construction; and iii the handling and analysis of glycomics based MS data. Overall, the new computational framework enables automated glycosylation network model construction and analysis by integrating knowledge of glycan structure and enzyme

Automated delineation of stroke lesions using brain CT images

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Céline R. Gillebert

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Computed tomographic (CT images are widely used for the identification of abnormal brain tissue following infarct and hemorrhage in stroke. Manual lesion delineation is currently the standard approach, but is both time-consuming and operator-dependent. To address these issues, we present a method that can automatically delineate infarct and hemorrhage in stroke CT images. The key elements of this method are the accurate normalization of CT images from stroke patients into template space and the subsequent voxelwise comparison with a group of control CT images for defining areas with hypo- or hyper-intense signals. Our validation, using simulated and actual lesions, shows that our approach is effective in reconstructing lesions resulting from both infarct and hemorrhage and yields lesion maps spatially consistent with those produced manually by expert operators. A limitation is that, relative to manual delineation, there is reduced sensitivity of the automated method in regions close to the ventricles and the brain contours. However, the automated method presents a number of benefits in terms of offering significant time savings and the elimination of the inter-operator differences inherent to manual tracing approaches. These factors are relevant for the creation of large-scale lesion databases for neuropsychological research. The automated delineation of stroke lesions from CT scans may also enable longitudinal studies to quantify changes in damaged tissue in an objective and reproducible manner.

Digital microfluidics for automated hanging drop cell spheroid culture.

Science.gov (United States)

Aijian, Andrew P; Garrell, Robin L

2015-06-01

Cell spheroids are multicellular aggregates, grown in vitro, that mimic the three-dimensional morphology of physiological tissues. Although there are numerous benefits to using spheroids in cell-based assays, the adoption of spheroids in routine biomedical research has been limited, in part, by the tedious workflow associated with spheroid formation and analysis. Here we describe a digital microfluidic platform that has been developed to automate liquid-handling protocols for the formation, maintenance, and analysis of multicellular spheroids in hanging drop culture. We show that droplets of liquid can be added to and extracted from through-holes, or "wells," and fabricated in the bottom plate of a digital microfluidic device, enabling the formation and assaying of hanging drops. Using this digital microfluidic platform, spheroids of mouse mesenchymal stem cells were formed and maintained in situ for 72 h, exhibiting good viability (>90%) and size uniformity (% coefficient of variation <10% intraexperiment, <20% interexperiment). A proof-of-principle drug screen was performed on human colorectal adenocarcinoma spheroids to demonstrate the ability to recapitulate physiologically relevant phenomena such as insulin-induced drug resistance. With automatable and flexible liquid handling, and a wide range of in situ sample preparation and analysis capabilities, the digital microfluidic platform provides a viable tool for automating cell spheroid culture and analysis. © 2014 Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening.

Automating Hyperspectral Data for Rapid Response in Volcanic Emergencies

Science.gov (United States)

Davies, Ashley G.; Doubleday, Joshua R.; Chien, Steve A.

2013-01-01

In a volcanic emergency, time is of the essence. It is vital to quantify eruption parameters (thermal emission, effusion rate, location of activity) and distribute this information as quickly as possible to decision-makers in order to enable effective evaluation of eruption-related risk and hazard. The goal of this work was to automate and streamline processing of spacecraft hyperspectral data, automate product generation, and automate distribution of products. Visible and Short-Wave Infrared Images of volcanic eruption in Iceland in May 2010." class="caption" align="right">The software rapidly processes hyperspectral data, correcting for incident sunlight where necessary, and atmospheric transmission; detects thermally anomalous pixels; fits data with model black-body thermal emission spectra to determine radiant flux; calculates atmospheric convection thermal removal; and then calculates total heat loss. From these results, an estimation of effusion rate is made. Maps are generated of thermal emission and location (see figure). Products are posted online, and relevant parties notified. Effusion rate data are added to historical record and plotted to identify spikes in activity for persistently active eruptions. The entire process from start to end is autonomous. Future spacecraft, especially those in deep space, can react to detection of transient processes without the need to communicate with Earth, thus increasing science return. Terrestrially, this removes the need for human intervention.

An Automation Planning Primer.

Science.gov (United States)

Paynter, Marion

1988-01-01

This brief planning guide for library automation incorporates needs assessment and evaluation of options to meet those needs. A bibliography of materials on automation planning and software reviews, library software directories, and library automation journals is included. (CLB)

Automated multi-lesion detection for referable diabetic retinopathy in indigenous health care.

Science.gov (United States)

Pires, Ramon; Carvalho, Tiago; Spurling, Geoffrey; Goldenstein, Siome; Wainer, Jacques; Luckie, Alan; Jelinek, Herbert F; Rocha, Anderson

2015-01-01

Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) is a complication of diabetes mellitus that affects more than one-quarter of the population with diabetes, and can lead to blindness if not discovered in time. An automated screening enables the identification of patients who need further medical attention. This study aimed to classify retinal images of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples utilizing an automated computer-based multi-lesion eye screening program for diabetic retinopathy. The multi-lesion classifier was trained on 1,014 images from the São Paulo Eye Hospital and tested on retinal images containing no DR-related lesion, single lesions, or multiple types of lesions from the Inala Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health care centre. The automated multi-lesion classifier has the potential to enhance the efficiency of clinical practice delivering diabetic retinopathy screening. Our program does not necessitate image samples for training from any specific ethnic group or population being assessed and is independent of image pre- or post-processing to identify retinal lesions. In this Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population, the program achieved 100% sensitivity and 88.9% specificity in identifying bright lesions, while detection of red lesions achieved a sensitivity of 67% and specificity of 95%. When both bright and red lesions were present, 100% sensitivity with 88.9% specificity was obtained. All results obtained with this automated screening program meet WHO standards for diabetic retinopathy screening.

Automation in Immunohematology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Meenu Bajpai

2012-01-01

Full Text Available There have been rapid technological advances in blood banking in South Asian region over the past decade with an increasing emphasis on quality and safety of blood products. The conventional test tube technique has given way to newer techniques such as column agglutination technique, solid phase red cell adherence assay, and erythrocyte-magnetized technique. These new technologies are adaptable to automation and major manufacturers in this field have come up with semi and fully automated equipments for immunohematology tests in the blood bank. Automation improves the objectivity and reproducibility of tests. It reduces human errors in patient identification and transcription errors. Documentation and traceability of tests, reagents and processes and archiving of results is another major advantage of automation. Shifting from manual methods to automation is a major undertaking for any transfusion service to provide quality patient care with lesser turnaround time for their ever increasing workload. This article discusses the various issues involved in the process.

Automated Micro-Object Detection for Mobile Diagnostics Using Lens-Free Imaging Technology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohendra Roy

2016-05-01

Full Text Available Lens-free imaging technology has been extensively used recently for microparticle and biological cell analysis because of its high throughput, low cost, and simple and compact arrangement. However, this technology still lacks a dedicated and automated detection system. In this paper, we describe a custom-developed automated micro-object detection method for a lens-free imaging system. In our previous work (Roy et al., we developed a lens-free imaging system using low-cost components. This system was used to generate and capture the diffraction patterns of micro-objects and a global threshold was used to locate the diffraction patterns. In this work we used the same setup to develop an improved automated detection and analysis algorithm based on adaptive threshold and clustering of signals. For this purpose images from the lens-free system were then used to understand the features and characteristics of the diffraction patterns of several types of samples. On the basis of this information, we custom-developed an automated algorithm for the lens-free imaging system. Next, all the lens-free images were processed using this custom-developed automated algorithm. The performance of this approach was evaluated by comparing the counting results with standard optical microscope results. We evaluated the counting results for polystyrene microbeads, red blood cells, and HepG2, HeLa, and MCF7 cells. The comparison shows good agreement between the systems, with a correlation coefficient of 0.91 and linearity slope of 0.877. We also evaluated the automated size profiles of the microparticle samples. This Wi-Fi-enabled lens-free imaging system, along with the dedicated software, possesses great potential for telemedicine applications in resource-limited settings.

Automated Budget System -

Data.gov (United States)

Department of Transportation — The Automated Budget System (ABS) automates management and planning of the Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center (MMAC) budget by providing enhanced capability to plan,...

Bioprocessing automation in cell therapy manufacturing: Outcomes of special interest group automation workshop.

Science.gov (United States)

Ball, Oliver; Robinson, Sarah; Bure, Kim; Brindley, David A; Mccall, David

2018-04-01

Phacilitate held a Special Interest Group workshop event in Edinburgh, UK, in May 2017. The event brought together leading stakeholders in the cell therapy bioprocessing field to identify present and future challenges and propose potential solutions to automation in cell therapy bioprocessing. Here, we review and summarize discussions from the event. Deep biological understanding of a product, its mechanism of action and indication pathogenesis underpin many factors relating to bioprocessing and automation. To fully exploit the opportunities of bioprocess automation, therapeutics developers must closely consider whether an automation strategy is applicable, how to design an 'automatable' bioprocess and how to implement process modifications with minimal disruption. Major decisions around bioprocess automation strategy should involve all relevant stakeholders; communication between technical and business strategy decision-makers is of particular importance. Developers should leverage automation to implement in-process testing, in turn applicable to process optimization, quality assurance (QA)/ quality control (QC), batch failure control, adaptive manufacturing and regulatory demands, but a lack of precedent and technical opportunities can complicate such efforts. Sparse standardization across product characterization, hardware components and software platforms is perceived to complicate efforts to implement automation. The use of advanced algorithmic approaches such as machine learning may have application to bioprocess and supply chain optimization. Automation can substantially de-risk the wider supply chain, including tracking and traceability, cryopreservation and thawing and logistics. The regulatory implications of automation are currently unclear because few hardware options exist and novel solutions require case-by-case validation, but automation can present attractive regulatory incentives. Copyright © 2018 International Society for Cellular Therapy

Stromal vascular fraction isolated from lipo-aspirates using an automated processing system: bench and bed analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Doi, Kentaro; Tanaka, Shinsuke; Iida, Hideo; Eto, Hitomi; Kato, Harunosuke; Aoi, Noriyuki; Kuno, Shinichiro; Hirohi, Toshitsugu; Yoshimura, Kotaro

2013-11-01

The heterogeneous stromal vascular fraction (SVF), containing adipose-derived stem/progenitor cells (ASCs), can be easily isolated through enzymatic digestion of aspirated adipose tissue. In clinical settings, however, strict control of technical procedures according to standard operating procedures and validation of cell-processing conditions are required. Therefore, we evaluated the efficiency and reliability of an automated system for SVF isolation from adipose tissue. SVF cells, freshly isolated using the automated procedure, showed comparable number and viability to those from manual isolation. Flow cytometric analysis confirmed an SVF cell composition profile similar to that after manual isolation. In addition, the ASC yield after 1 week in culture was also not significantly different between the two groups. Our clinical study, in which SVF cells isolated with the automated system were transplanted with aspirated fat tissue for soft tissue augmentation/reconstruction in 42 patients, showed satisfactory outcomes with no serious side-effects. Taken together, our results suggested that the automated isolation system is as reliable a method as manual isolation and may also be useful in clinical settings. Automated isolation is expected to enable cell-based clinical trials in small facilities with an aseptic room, without the necessity of a good manufacturing practice-level cell processing area. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Analog integrated circuit design automation placement, routing and parasitic extraction techniques

CERN Document Server

Martins, Ricardo; Horta, Nuno

2017-01-01

This book introduces readers to a variety of tools for analog layout design automation. After discussing the placement and routing problem in electronic design automation (EDA), the authors overview a variety of automatic layout generation tools, as well as the most recent advances in analog layout-aware circuit sizing. The discussion includes different methods for automatic placement (a template-based Placer and an optimization-based Placer), a fully-automatic Router and an empirical-based Parasitic Extractor. The concepts and algorithms of all the modules are thoroughly described, enabling readers to reproduce the methodologies, improve the quality of their designs, or use them as starting point for a new tool. All the methods described are applied to practical examples for a 130nm design process, as well as placement and routing benchmark sets. Introduces readers to hierarchical combination of Pareto fronts of placements; Presents electromigration-aware routing with multilayer multiport terminal structures...

Automated Surveillance of Fruit Flies

Science.gov (United States)

Potamitis, Ilyas; Rigakis, Iraklis; Tatlas, Nicolaos-Alexandros

2017-01-01

Insects of the Diptera order of the Tephritidae family cause costly, annual crop losses worldwide. Monitoring traps are important components of integrated pest management programs used against fruit flies. Here we report the modification of typical, low-cost plastic traps for fruit flies by adding the necessary optoelectronic sensors to monitor the entrance of the trap in order to detect, time-stamp, GPS tag, and identify the species of incoming insects from the optoacoustic spectrum analysis of their wingbeat. We propose that the incorporation of automated streaming of insect counts, environmental parameters and GPS coordinates into informative visualization of collective behavior will finally enable better decision making across spatial and temporal scales, as well as administrative levels. The device presented is at product level of maturity as it has solved many pending issues presented in a previously reported study. PMID:28075346

Automated Surveillance of Fruit Flies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ilyas Potamitis

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Insects of the Diptera order of the Tephritidae family cause costly, annual crop losses worldwide. Monitoring traps are important components of integrated pest management programs used against fruit flies. Here we report the modification of typical, low-cost plastic traps for fruit flies by adding the necessary optoelectronic sensors to monitor the entrance of the trap in order to detect, time-stamp, GPS tag, and identify the species of incoming insects from the optoacoustic spectrum analysis of their wingbeat. We propose that the incorporation of automated streaming of insect counts, environmental parameters and GPS coordinates into informative visualization of collective behavior will finally enable better decision making across spatial and temporal scales, as well as administrative levels. The device presented is at product level of maturity as it has solved many pending issues presented in a previously reported study.

Distributed GIS for automated natural hazard zonation mapping Internet-SMS warning towards sustainable society

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Devanjan Bhattacharya

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Today, open systems are needed for real time analysis and warnings on geo-hazards and over time can be achieved using Open Source Geographical Information System (GIS-based platform such as GeoNode which is being contributed to by developers around the world. To develop on an open source platform is a very vital component for better disaster information management as far as spatial data infrastructures are concerned and this would be extremely vital when huge databases are to be created and consulted regularly for city planning at different scales, particularly satellite images and maps of locations. There is a big need for spatially referenced data creation, analysis, and management. Some of the salient points that this research would be able to definitely contribute with GeoNode, being an open source platform, are facilitating the creation, sharing, and collaborative use of geospatial data. The objective is development of an automated natural hazard zonation system with Internet-short message service (SMS warning utilizing geomatics for sustainable societies. A concept of developing an internet-resident geospatial geohazard warning system has been put forward in this research, which can communicate alerts via SMS. There has been a need to develop an automated integrated system to categorize hazard and issue warning that reaches users directly. At present, no web-enabled warning system exists which can disseminate warning after hazard evaluation at one go and in real time. The objective of this research work has been to formalize a notion of an integrated, independent, generalized, and automated geo-hazard warning system making use of geo-spatial data under popular usage platform. In this paper, a model of an automated geo-spatial hazard warning system has been elaborated. The functionality is to be modular in architecture having GIS-graphical user interface (GUI, input, understanding, rainfall prediction, expert, output, and warning modules. A

Assessing user acceptance towards automated and conventional sink use for hand decontamination using the technology acceptance model.

Science.gov (United States)

Dawson, Carolyn H; Mackrill, Jamie B; Cain, Rebecca

2017-12-01

Hand hygiene (HH) prevents harmful contaminants spreading in settings including domestic, health care and food handling. Strategies to improve HH range from behavioural techniques through to automated sinks that ensure hand surface cleaning. This study aimed to assess user experience and acceptance towards a new automated sink, compared to a normal sink. An adapted version of the technology acceptance model (TAM) assessed each mode of handwashing. A within-subjects design enabled N = 46 participants to evaluate both sinks. Perceived Ease of Use and Satisfaction of Use were significantly lower for the automated sink, compared to the conventional sink (p technology. We provide recommendations for future HH technology development to contribute a positive user experience, relevant to technology developers, ergonomists and those involved in HH across all sectors. Practitioner Summary: The need to facilitate timely, effective hand hygiene to prevent illness has led to a rise in automated handwashing systems across different contexts. User acceptance is a key factor in system uptake. This paper applies the technology acceptance model as a means to explore and optimise the design of such systems.

78 FR 66039 - Modification of National Customs Automation Program Test Concerning Automated Commercial...

Science.gov (United States)

2013-11-04

... Customs Automation Program Test Concerning Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) Cargo Release (Formerly...) plan to both rename and modify the National Customs Automation Program (NCAP) test concerning the... data elements required to obtain release for cargo transported by air. The test will now be known as...

Automation-aided Task Loads Index based on the Automation Rate Reflecting the Effects on Human Operators in NPPs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Seungmin; Seong, Poonghyun; Kim, Jonghyun

2013-01-01

Many researchers have found that a high automation rate does not guarantee high performance. Therefore, to reflect the effects of automation on human performance, a new estimation method of the automation rate that considers the effects of automation on human operators in nuclear power plants (NPPs) was suggested. These suggested measures express how much automation support human operators but it cannot express the change of human operators' workload, whether the human operators' workload is increased or decreased. Before considering automation rates, whether the adopted automation is good or bad might be estimated in advance. In this study, to estimate the appropriateness of automation according to the change of the human operators' task loads, automation-aided task loads index is suggested based on the concept of the suggested automation rate. To insure plant safety and efficiency on behalf of human operators, various automation systems have been installed in NPPs, and many works which were previously conducted by human operators can now be supported by computer-based operator aids. According to the characteristics of the automation types, the estimation method of the system automation and the cognitive automation rate were suggested. The proposed estimation method concentrates on the effects of introducing automation, so it directly express how much the automated system support human operators. Based on the suggested automation rates, the way to estimate how much the automated system can affect the human operators' cognitive task load is suggested in this study. When there is no automation, the calculated index is 1, and it means there is no change of human operators' task load

A completely automated flow, heat-capacity, calorimeter for use at high temperatures and pressures

Science.gov (United States)

Rogers, P. S. Z.; Sandarusi, Jamal

1990-11-01

An automated, flow calorimeter has been constructed to measure the isobaric heat capacities of concentrated, aqueous electrolyte solutions using a differential calorimetry technique. The calorimeter is capable of operation to 700 K and 40 MPa with a measurement accuracy of 0.03% relative to the heat capacity of the pure reference fluid (water). A novel design encloses the calorimeter within a double set of separately controlled, copper, adiabatic shields that minimize calorimeter heat losses and precisely control the temperature of the inlet fluids. A multistage preheat train, used to efficiently heat the flowing fluid, includes a counter-current heat exchanger for the inlet and outlet fluid streams in tandem with two calorimeter preheaters. Complete system automation is accomplished with a distributed control scheme using multiple processors, allowing the major control tasks of calorimeter operation and control, data logging and display, and pump control to be performed simultaneously. A sophisticated pumping strategy for the two separate syringe pumps allows continuous fluid delivery. This automation system enables the calorimeter to operate unattended except for the reloading of sample fluids. In addition, automation has allowed the development and implementation of an improved heat loss calibration method that provides calorimeter calibration with absolute accuracy comparable to the overall measurement precision, even for very concentrated solutions.

Asleep at the automated wheel-Sleepiness and fatigue during highly automated driving.

Science.gov (United States)

Vogelpohl, Tobias; Kühn, Matthias; Hummel, Thomas; Vollrath, Mark

2018-03-20

Due to the lack of active involvement in the driving situation and due to monotonous driving environments drivers with automation may be prone to become fatigued faster than manual drivers (e.g. Schömig et al., 2015). However, little is known about the progression of fatigue during automated driving and its effects on the ability to take back manual control after a take-over request. In this driving simulator study with Nö=ö60 drivers we used a three factorial 2ö×ö2ö×ö12 mixed design to analyze the progression (12ö×ö5ömin; within subjects) of driver fatigue in drivers with automation compared to manual drivers (between subjects). Driver fatigue was induced as either mainly sleep related or mainly task related fatigue (between subjects). Additionally, we investigated the drivers' reactions to a take-over request in a critical driving scenario to gain insights into the ability of fatigued drivers to regain manual control and situation awareness after automated driving. Drivers in the automated driving condition exhibited facial indicators of fatigue after 15 to 35ömin of driving. Manual drivers only showed similar indicators of fatigue if they suffered from a lack of sleep and then only after a longer period of driving (approx. 40ömin). Several drivers in the automated condition closed their eyes for extended periods of time. In the driving with automation condition mean automation deactivation times after a take-over request were slower for a certain percentage (about 30%) of the drivers with a lack of sleep (Mö=ö3.2; SDö=ö2.1ös) compared to the reaction times after a long drive (Mö=ö2.4; SDö=ö0.9ös). Drivers with automation also took longer than manual drivers to first glance at the speed display after a take-over request and were more likely to stay behind a braking lead vehicle instead of overtaking it. Drivers are unable to stay alert during extended periods of automated driving without non-driving related tasks. Fatigued drivers could

Automated packaging platform for low-cost high-performance optical components manufacturing

Science.gov (United States)

Ku, Robert T.

2004-05-01

Delivering high performance integrated optical components at low cost is critical to the continuing recovery and growth of the optical communications industry. In today's market, network equipment vendors need to provide their customers with new solutions that reduce operating expenses and enable new revenue generating IP services. They must depend on the availability of highly integrated optical modules exhibiting high performance, small package size, low power consumption, and most importantly, low cost. The cost of typical optical system hardware is dominated by linecards that are in turn cost-dominated by transmitters and receivers or transceivers and transponders. Cost effective packaging of optical components in these small size modules is becoming the biggest challenge to be addressed. For many traditional component suppliers in our industry, the combination of small size, high performance, and low cost appears to be in conflict and not feasible with conventional product design concepts and labor intensive manual assembly and test. With the advent of photonic integration, there are a variety of materials, optics, substrates, active/passive devices, and mechanical/RF piece parts to manage in manufacturing to achieve high performance at low cost. The use of automation has been demonstrated to surpass manual operation in cost (even with very low labor cost) as well as product uniformity and quality. In this paper, we will discuss the value of using an automated packaging platform.for the assembly and test of high performance active components, such as 2.5Gb/s and 10 Gb/s sources and receivers. Low cost, high performance manufacturing can best be achieved by leveraging a flexible packaging platform to address a multitude of laser and detector devices, integration of electronics and handle various package bodies and fiber configurations. This paper describes the operation and results of working robotic assemblers in the manufacture of a Laser Optical Subassembly

Procedure automation: the effect of automated procedure execution on situation awareness and human performance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Andresen, Gisle; Svengren, Haakan; Heimdal, Jan O.; Nilsen, Svein; Hulsund, John-Einar; Bisio, Rossella; Debroise, Xavier

2004-04-01

As advised by the procedure workshop convened in Halden in 2000, the Halden Project conducted an experiment on the effect of automation of Computerised Procedure Systems (CPS) on situation awareness and human performance. The expected outcome of the study was to provide input for guidance on CPS design, and to support the Halden Project's ongoing research on human reliability analysis. The experiment was performed in HAMMLAB using the HAMBO BWR simulator and the COPMA-III CPS. Eight crews of operators from Forsmark 3 and Oskarshamn 3 participated. Three research questions were investigated: 1) Does procedure automation create Out-Of-The-Loop (OOTL) performance problems? 2) Does procedure automation affect situation awareness? 3) Does procedure automation affect crew performance? The independent variable, 'procedure configuration', had four levels: paper procedures, manual CPS, automation with breaks, and full automation. The results showed that the operators experienced OOTL problems in full automation, but that situation awareness and crew performance (response time) were not affected. One possible explanation for this is that the operators monitored the automated procedure execution conscientiously, something which may have prevented the OOTL problems from having negative effects on situation awareness and crew performance. In a debriefing session, the operators clearly expressed their dislike for the full automation condition, but that automation with breaks could be suitable for some tasks. The main reason why the operators did not like the full automation was that they did not feel being in control. A qualitative analysis addressing factors contributing to response time delays revealed that OOTL problems did not seem to cause delays, but that some delays could be explained by the operators having problems with the freeze function of the CPS. Also other factors such as teamwork and operator tendencies were of importance. Several design implications were drawn

Smart metering and in-home energy feedback; enabling a low carbon life style

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Elburg, Henk van (SenterNovem (Netherlands)). e-mail: h.van.elburg@senternovem.nl

2009-07-01

Backed by raising energy demands, volatile oil prices and threat of climate change, the use of automated meter management (AMM), often referred to as 'smart metering', is rapidly gaining momentum across the world. Europe is expected to become a world leading centre of this development, thanks to the European Services Directive (ESD) of the European Commission. This Directive requires energy suppliers to provide consumers with competitively priced, accurate individual (smart) meters with information on time-of-use and accurate billing. Large scale deployments of smart meters have already been decided in Italy (Sweden) and The Netherlands. Serious considerations of implementing full smart metering penetration take place in countries like France, Ireland, Denmark and Finland. Oddly enough from an energy efficient life style point of view, a residential smart metering coverage alone does not automatically mean successful consumer involvement in general and enabling a lower carbon lifestyle in particular. These advantages require additional automation technologies 'beyond the meter', such as intuitive, aesthetic and affordable in-house displays and customized applications on web pages, cell phone or TV. To accelerate the development of contemporary 'add-on' information systems to keep pace with the deployment of smart meters, the technical and commercial in-home feedback innovations are being permanently reviewed in a worldwide selection of pioneering countries. At the eceee 2009 poster session, the latest insights regarding in-home communication to facilitate a modern energy efficient lifestyle will be revealed and an appealing, trendy and above all enabling in-house device will be presented.

Helping utilities harness the power of the web for substation automation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Finney, D.

2000-11-01

The significance of the Internet to the deregulated electric power industry and the ability to tap into the benefits of Web-enabled substation monitoring and control are reviewed. It is this author's contention that the convergence of Internet access from PCs, servers and Internet-ready intelligent electronic devices make it possible to have full-scale substation automation and control without the high price tag associated with SCADA systems. Whereas in the past automation solutions were thought to be appropriate only for big utilities, the potential of the Internet such as the GE-hosted enerVista.com service, which is made up of a number of modules which can provide many of the services of a complex enterprise management system at a fraction of the cost, make it possible for smaller utilities to overcome substation automation problems at an affordable cost. By having the communications link over the web, and data acquisition hosted by an outside vendor, even the smallest municipal utility can have the most up-to-date equipment at their disposal, and expand their control to SCADA-level functionality without having to incur the usual programming and technology costs. The example of Whitby Hydro to automate their three substation system with GE Power Management's Universal Relay (UR) intelligent electronic device system by installing a modem as an Internet appliance for 24/7 monitoring, optional protection and control, is cited. Utilities in Oshawa and Thunder Bay, Ontario, and others in New York State and Tennessee, are some of the other utilities currently involved in developing web-based applications that address their unique requirements. At present, there appears to be no limit to the role that the Internet can play in substation automation and control for utilities competing in a global market.

Automation-aided Task Loads Index based on the Automation Rate Reflecting the Effects on Human Operators in NPPs

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lee, Seungmin; Seong, Poonghyun [Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of); Kim, Jonghyun [KEPCO International Nuclear Graduate School, Ulsan (Korea, Republic of)

2013-05-15

Many researchers have found that a high automation rate does not guarantee high performance. Therefore, to reflect the effects of automation on human performance, a new estimation method of the automation rate that considers the effects of automation on human operators in nuclear power plants (NPPs) was suggested. These suggested measures express how much automation support human operators but it cannot express the change of human operators' workload, whether the human operators' workload is increased or decreased. Before considering automation rates, whether the adopted automation is good or bad might be estimated in advance. In this study, to estimate the appropriateness of automation according to the change of the human operators' task loads, automation-aided task loads index is suggested based on the concept of the suggested automation rate. To insure plant safety and efficiency on behalf of human operators, various automation systems have been installed in NPPs, and many works which were previously conducted by human operators can now be supported by computer-based operator aids. According to the characteristics of the automation types, the estimation method of the system automation and the cognitive automation rate were suggested. The proposed estimation method concentrates on the effects of introducing automation, so it directly express how much the automated system support human operators. Based on the suggested automation rates, the way to estimate how much the automated system can affect the human operators' cognitive task load is suggested in this study. When there is no automation, the calculated index is 1, and it means there is no change of human operators' task load.

Automated oil spill detection with multispectral imagery

Science.gov (United States)

Bradford, Brian N.; Sanchez-Reyes, Pedro J.

2011-06-01

In this publication we present an automated detection method for ocean surface oil, like that which existed in the Gulf of Mexico as a result of the April 20, 2010 Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion. Regions of surface oil in airborne imagery are isolated using red, green, and blue bands from multispectral data sets. The oil shape isolation procedure involves a series of image processing functions to draw out the visual phenomenological features of the surface oil. These functions include selective color band combinations, contrast enhancement and histogram warping. An image segmentation process then separates out contiguous regions of oil to provide a raster mask to an analyst. We automate the detection algorithm to allow large volumes of data to be processed in a short time period, which can provide timely oil coverage statistics to response crews. Geo-referenced and mosaicked data sets enable the largest identified oil regions to be mapped to exact geographic coordinates. In our simulation, multispectral imagery came from multiple sources including first-hand data collected from the Gulf. Results of the simulation show the oil spill coverage area as a raster mask, along with histogram statistics of the oil pixels. A rough square footage estimate of the coverage is reported if the image ground sample distance is available.

Automated daily quality control analysis for mammography in a multi-unit imaging center.

Science.gov (United States)

Sundell, Veli-Matti; Mäkelä, Teemu; Meaney, Alexander; Kaasalainen, Touko; Savolainen, Sauli

2018-01-01

Background The high requirements for mammography image quality necessitate a systematic quality assurance process. Digital imaging allows automation of the image quality analysis, which can potentially improve repeatability and objectivity compared to a visual evaluation made by the users. Purpose To develop an automatic image quality analysis software for daily mammography quality control in a multi-unit imaging center. Material and Methods An automated image quality analysis software using the discrete wavelet transform and multiresolution analysis was developed for the American College of Radiology accreditation phantom. The software was validated by analyzing 60 randomly selected phantom images from six mammography systems and 20 phantom images with different dose levels from one mammography system. The results were compared to a visual analysis made by four reviewers. Additionally, long-term image quality trends of a full-field digital mammography system and a computed radiography mammography system were investigated. Results The automated software produced feature detection levels comparable to visual analysis. The agreement was good in the case of fibers, while the software detected somewhat more microcalcifications and characteristic masses. Long-term follow-up via a quality assurance web portal demonstrated the feasibility of using the software for monitoring the performance of mammography systems in a multi-unit imaging center. Conclusion Automated image quality analysis enables monitoring the performance of digital mammography systems in an efficient, centralized manner.

Automation of radioimmunoassay

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yamaguchi, Chisato; Yamada, Hideo; Iio, Masahiro

1974-01-01

Automation systems for measuring Australian antigen by radioimmunoassay under development were discussed. Samples were processed as follows: blood serum being dispensed by automated sampler to the test tube, and then incubated under controlled time and temperature; first counting being omitted; labelled antibody being dispensed to the serum after washing; samples being incubated and then centrifuged; radioactivities in the precipitate being counted by auto-well counter; measurements being tabulated by automated typewriter. Not only well-type counter but also position counter was studied. (Kanao, N.)

77 FR 48527 - National Customs Automation Program (NCAP) Test Concerning Automated Commercial Environment (ACE...

Science.gov (United States)

2012-08-14

... National Customs Automation Program (NCAP) test concerning the simplified entry functionality in the... DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY U.S. Customs and Border Protection National Customs Automation Program (NCAP) Test Concerning Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) Simplified Entry: Modification of...

Automated multi-lesion detection for referable diabetic retinopathy in indigenous health care.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ramon Pires

Full Text Available Diabetic Retinopathy (DR is a complication of diabetes mellitus that affects more than one-quarter of the population with diabetes, and can lead to blindness if not discovered in time. An automated screening enables the identification of patients who need further medical attention. This study aimed to classify retinal images of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples utilizing an automated computer-based multi-lesion eye screening program for diabetic retinopathy. The multi-lesion classifier was trained on 1,014 images from the São Paulo Eye Hospital and tested on retinal images containing no DR-related lesion, single lesions, or multiple types of lesions from the Inala Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health care centre. The automated multi-lesion classifier has the potential to enhance the efficiency of clinical practice delivering diabetic retinopathy screening. Our program does not necessitate image samples for training from any specific ethnic group or population being assessed and is independent of image pre- or post-processing to identify retinal lesions. In this Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population, the program achieved 100% sensitivity and 88.9% specificity in identifying bright lesions, while detection of red lesions achieved a sensitivity of 67% and specificity of 95%. When both bright and red lesions were present, 100% sensitivity with 88.9% specificity was obtained. All results obtained with this automated screening program meet WHO standards for diabetic retinopathy screening.

9th International Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics

CERN Document Server

Bernard, Alain; Gusikhin, Oleg; Madani, Kurosh

2014-01-01

This book includes extended and revised versions of a set of selected papers from the Ninth International Conference on Informatics in Control Automation and Robotics (ICINCO 2012), held in Rome, Italy, from 28 to 31 July 2012. The conference was organized in four simultaneous tracks: Intelligent Control Systems and Optimization, Robotics and Automation, Systems Modeling, Signal Processing and Control and Industrial Engineering, Production and Management.   ICINCO 2012 received 360 paper submissions, from 58 countries in all continents. From these, after a blind review process, only 40 were accepted as full papers, of which 20 were selected for inclusion in this book, based on the classifications provided by the Program Committee. The selected papers reflect the interdisciplinary nature of the conference as well as the logic equilibrium between the four abovementioned tracks. The diversity of topics is an important feature of this conference, enabling an overall perception of several important scientific and...

Optimizing Decision Preparedness by Adapting Scenario Complexity and Automating Scenario Generation

Science.gov (United States)

Dunne, Rob; Schatz, Sae; Flore, Stephen M.; Nicholson, Denise

2011-01-01

Klein's recognition-primed decision (RPD) framework proposes that experts make decisions by recognizing similarities between current decision situations and previous decision experiences. Unfortunately, military personnel arQ often presented with situations that they have not experienced before. Scenario-based training (S8T) can help mitigate this gap. However, SBT remains a challenging and inefficient training approach. To address these limitations, the authors present an innovative formulation of scenario complexity that contributes to the larger research goal of developing an automated scenario generation system. This system will enable trainees to effectively advance through a variety of increasingly complex decision situations and experiences. By adapting scenario complexities and automating generation, trainees will be provided with a greater variety of appropriately calibrated training events, thus broadening their repositories of experience. Preliminary results from empirical testing (N=24) of the proof-of-concept formula are presented, and future avenues of scenario complexity research are also discussed.

Improvements in the automated radioimmunoassay for cAMP or cGMP

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brooker, G.

1988-01-01

The work others in developing antibodies and the original radioimmunoassay for cyclic nucleotides provides the basis for these sensitive assays. The acetylation radioimmunoassay for cyclic nucleotides has enabled the measurement of cyclic AMP and cyclic GMP in very small biological samples. This is because accurate determinations can be made in samples containing less than 1 fmol of cyclic AMP or cyclic GMP. The Gamma-Flo automated radioimmunoassay system has been adapted to these assays such that cyclic nucleotides can be automatically measured at a rate of about 60 samples/hr. The Gamma-Flo instrument provides high-precision assays and eliminates human intervention in all steps of the radioimmunoassay. The automated assay has been in continuous operation in our laboratory over the last 10 years and this chapter summarizes the methodology and delineates improvements which have occurred over that time frame. Details for the preparation of the radioligands apply also to the manual acetylated radioimmunoassay for cyclic nucleotides

Current Comparative Table (CCT) automates customized searches of dynamic biological databases.

Science.gov (United States)

Landsteiner, Benjamin R; Olson, Michael R; Rutherford, Robert

2005-07-01

The Current Comparative Table (CCT) software program enables working biologists to automate customized bioinformatics searches, typically of remote sequence or HMM (hidden Markov model) databases. CCT currently supports BLAST, hmmpfam and other programs useful for gene and ortholog identification. The software is web based, has a BioPerl core and can be used remotely via a browser or locally on Mac OS X or Linux machines. CCT is particularly useful to scientists who study large sets of molecules in today's evolving information landscape because it color-codes all result files by age and highlights even tiny changes in sequence or annotation. By empowering non-bioinformaticians to automate custom searches and examine current results in context at a glance, CCT allows a remote database submission in the evening to influence the next morning's bench experiment. A demonstration of CCT is available at http://orb.public.stolaf.edu/CCTdemo and the open source software is freely available from http://sourceforge.net/projects/orb-cct.

Laboratory Automation and Middleware.

Science.gov (United States)

Riben, Michael

2015-06-01

The practice of surgical pathology is under constant pressure to deliver the highest quality of service, reduce errors, increase throughput, and decrease turnaround time while at the same time dealing with an aging workforce, increasing financial constraints, and economic uncertainty. Although not able to implement total laboratory automation, great progress continues to be made in workstation automation in all areas of the pathology laboratory. This report highlights the benefits and challenges of pathology automation, reviews middleware and its use to facilitate automation, and reviews the progress so far in the anatomic pathology laboratory. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Automated Demand Response Technology Demonstration Project for Small and Medium Commercial Buildings

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Page, Janie; Kiliccote, Sila; Dudley, Junqiao Han; Piette, Mary Ann; Chiu, Albert K.; Kellow, Bashar; Koch, Ed; Lipkin, Paul

2011-07-01

Small and medium commercial customers in California make up about 20-25% of electric peak load in California. With the roll out of smart meters to this customer group, which enable granular measurement of electricity consumption, the investor-owned utilities will offer dynamic prices as default tariffs by the end of 2011. Pacific Gas and Electric Company, which successfully deployed Automated Demand Response (AutoDR) Programs to its large commercial and industrial customers, started investigating the same infrastructures application to the small and medium commercial customers. This project aims to identify available technologies suitable for automating demand response for small-medium commercial buildings; to validate the extent to which that technology does what it claims to be able to do; and determine the extent to which customers find the technology useful for DR purpose. Ten sites, enabled by eight vendors, participated in at least four test AutoDR events per site in the summer of 2010. The results showed that while existing technology can reliably receive OpenADR signals and translate them into pre-programmed response strategies, it is likely that better levels of load sheds could be obtained than what is reported here if better understanding of the building systems were developed and the DR response strategies had been carefully designed and optimized for each site.

Managing laboratory automation.

Science.gov (United States)

Saboe, T J

1995-01-01

This paper discusses the process of managing automated systems through their life cycles within the quality-control (QC) laboratory environment. The focus is on the process of directing and managing the evolving automation of a laboratory; system examples are given. The author shows how both task and data systems have evolved, and how they interrelate. A BIG picture, or continuum view, is presented and some of the reasons for success or failure of the various examples cited are explored. Finally, some comments on future automation need are discussed.

Determination of the Optimized Automation Rate considering Effects of Automation on Human Operators in Nuclear Power Plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Seung Min; Seong, Poong Hyun; Kim, Jong Hyun; Kim, Man Cheol

2015-01-01

Automation refers to the use of a device or a system to perform a function previously performed by a human operator. It is introduced to reduce the human errors and to enhance the performance in various industrial fields, including the nuclear industry. However, these positive effects are not always achieved in complex systems such as nuclear power plants (NPPs). An excessive introduction of automation can generate new roles for human operators and change activities in unexpected ways. As more automation systems are accepted, the ability of human operators to detect automation failures and resume manual control is diminished. This disadvantage of automation is called the Out-of-the- Loop (OOTL) problem. We should consider the positive and negative effects of automation at the same time to determine the appropriate level of the introduction of automation. Thus, in this paper, we suggest an estimation method to consider the positive and negative effects of automation at the same time to determine the appropriate introduction of automation. This concept is limited in that it does not consider the effects of automation on human operators. Thus, a new estimation method for automation rate was suggested to overcome this problem

An open-source, programmable pneumatic setup for operation and automated control of single- and multi-layer microfluidic devices

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kara Brower

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Microfluidic technologies have been used across diverse disciplines (e.g. high-throughput biological measurement, fluid physics, laboratory fluid manipulation but widespread adoption has been limited in part due to the lack of openly disseminated resources that enable non-specialist labs to make and operate their own devices. Here, we report the open-source build of a pneumatic setup capable of operating both single and multilayer (Quake-style microfluidic devices with programmable scripting automation. This setup can operate both simple and complex devices with 48 device valve control inputs and 18 sample inputs, with modular design for easy expansion, at a fraction of the cost of similar commercial solutions. We present a detailed step-by-step guide to building the pneumatic instrumentation, as well as instructions for custom device operation using our software, Geppetto, through an easy-to-use GUI for live on-chip valve actuation and a scripting system for experiment automation. We show robust valve actuation with near real-time software feedback and demonstrate use of the setup for high-throughput biochemical measurements on-chip. This open-source setup will enable specialists and novices alike to run microfluidic devices easily in their own laboratories. Keywords: Microfluidics, Pneumatics, Laboratory automation, Biochip, BioMEMs, Biohacking, Fluid handling, Micro total analysis systems (μTAS, Quake-style valves

78 FR 44142 - Modification of Two National Customs Automation Program (NCAP) Tests Concerning Automated...

Science.gov (United States)

2013-07-23

... Customs Automation Program (NCAP) Tests Concerning Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) Document Image... (CBP's) plan to modify the National Customs Automation Program (NCAP) tests concerning document imaging... entry process by reducing the number of data elements required to obtain release for cargo transported...

The Science of Home Automation

Science.gov (United States)

Thomas, Brian Louis

Smart home technologies and the concept of home automation have become more popular in recent years. This popularity has been accompanied by social acceptance of passive sensors installed throughout the home. The subsequent increase in smart homes facilitates the creation of home automation strategies. We believe that home automation strategies can be generated intelligently by utilizing smart home sensors and activity learning. In this dissertation, we hypothesize that home automation can benefit from activity awareness. To test this, we develop our activity-aware smart automation system, CARL (CASAS Activity-aware Resource Learning). CARL learns the associations between activities and device usage from historical data and utilizes the activity-aware capabilities to control the devices. To help validate CARL we deploy and test three different versions of the automation system in a real-world smart environment. To provide a foundation of activity learning, we integrate existing activity recognition and activity forecasting into CARL home automation. We also explore two alternatives to using human-labeled data to train the activity learning models. The first unsupervised method is Activity Detection, and the second is a modified DBSCAN algorithm that utilizes Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) as a distance metric. We compare the performance of activity learning with human-defined labels and with automatically-discovered activity categories. To provide evidence in support of our hypothesis, we evaluate CARL automation in a smart home testbed. Our results indicate that home automation can be boosted through activity awareness. We also find that the resulting automation has a high degree of usability and comfort for the smart home resident.

Adaptive Automation Design and Implementation

Science.gov (United States)

2015-09-17

with an automated system to a real-world adaptive au- tomation system implementation. There have been plenty of adaptive automation 17 Adaptive...of systems without increasing manpower requirements by allocating routine tasks to automated aids, improving safety through the use of au- tomated ...between intermediate levels of au- tomation , explicitly defining which human task a given level automates. Each model aids the creation and classification

Automated cleaning of electronic components

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Drotning, W.; Meirans, L.; Wapman, W.; Hwang, Y.; Koenig, L.; Petterson, B.

1994-01-01

Environmental and operator safety concerns are leading to the elimination of trichloroethylene and chlorofluorocarbon solvents in cleaning processes that remove rosin flux, organic and inorganic contamination, and particulates from electronic components. Present processes depend heavily on these solvents for manual spray cleaning of small components and subassemblies. Use of alternative solvent systems can lead to longer processing times and reduced quality. Automated spray cleaning can improve the quality of the cleaning process, thus enabling the productive use of environmentally conscious materials, while minimizing personnel exposure to hazardous materials. We describe the development of a prototype robotic system for cleaning electronic components in a spray cleaning workcell. An important feature of the prototype system is the capability to generate the robot paths and motions automatically from the CAD models of the part to be cleaned, and to embed cleaning process knowledge into the automatically programmed operations

Layered distributed architecture for plant automation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Aravamuthan, G.; Verma, Yachika; Ranjan, Jyoti; Chachondia, Alka S.; Ganesh, G.

2005-01-01

The development of plant automation system and associated software remains one of the greatest challenges to the widespread implementation of highly adaptive re-configurable automation technology. This paper presents a layered distributed architecture for a plant automation system designed to support rapid reconfiguration and redeployment of automation components. The paper first presents evolution of automation architecture and their associated environment in the past few decades and then presents the concept of layered system architecture and the use of automation components to support the construction of a wide variety of automation system. It also highlights the role of standards and technology, which can be used in the development of automation components. We have attempted to adhere to open standards and technology for the development of automation component at a various layers. It also highlights the application of this concept in the development of an Operator Information System (OIS) for Advanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR). (author)

Semantics-based Automated Web Testing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hai-Feng Guo

2015-08-01

Full Text Available We present TAO, a software testing tool performing automated test and oracle generation based on a semantic approach. TAO entangles grammar-based test generation with automated semantics evaluation using a denotational semantics framework. We show how TAO can be incorporated with the Selenium automation tool for automated web testing, and how TAO can be further extended to support automated delta debugging, where a failing web test script can be systematically reduced based on grammar-directed strategies. A real-life parking website is adopted throughout the paper to demonstrate the effectivity of our semantics-based web testing approach.

WIRELESS HOME AUTOMATION SYSTEM BASED ON MICROCONTROLLER

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

MUNA H. SALEH

2017-11-01

Full Text Available This paper presents the development of Global System Mobile (GSM-based control home air-conditioner for home automation system. The main aim of the prototype development is to reduce electricity wastage. GSM module was used for receiving Short Message Service (SMS from the user’s mobile phone that automatically enable the controller to take any further action such as to switch ON and OFF the home air-conditioner. The system controls the air-conditioner based on the temperature reading through the sensor. Every period temperature sensor sends the degree to Micro Controller Unit (MCU through ZigBee. Based on temperature degree MCU send ON or OFF signal to switch. Additionally, system allows user to operate or shut down the airconditioner remotely through SMS.

Automation in organizations: Eternal conflict

Science.gov (United States)

Dieterly, D. L.

1981-01-01

Some ideas on and insights into the problems associated with automation in organizations are presented with emphasis on the concept of automation, its relationship to the individual, and its impact on system performance. An analogy is drawn, based on an American folk hero, to emphasize the extent of the problems encountered when dealing with automation within an organization. A model is proposed to focus attention on a set of appropriate dimensions. The function allocation process becomes a prominent aspect of the model. The current state of automation research is mentioned in relation to the ideas introduced. Proposed directions for an improved understanding of automation's effect on the individual's efficiency are discussed. The importance of understanding the individual's perception of the system in terms of the degree of automation is highlighted.

Mobile home automation-merging mobile value added services and home automation technologies

OpenAIRE

Rosendahl, Andreas; Hampe, Felix J.; Botterweck, Goetz

2007-01-01

non-peer-reviewed In this paper we study mobile home automation, a field that emerges from an integration of mobile application platforms and home automation technologies. In a conceptual introduction we first illustrate the need for such applications by introducing a two-dimensional conceptual model of mobility. Subsequently we suggest an architecture and discuss different options of how a user might access a mobile home automation service and the controlled devices. As another contrib...

Automated Creation of Datamarts from a Clinical Data Warehouse, Driven by an Active Metadata Repository

Science.gov (United States)

Rogerson, Charles L.; Kohlmiller, Paul H.; Stutman, Harris

1998-01-01

A methodology and toolkit are described which enable the automated metadata-driven creation of datamarts from clinical data warehouses. The software uses schema-to-schema transformation driven by an active metadata repository. Tools for assessing datamart data quality are described, as well as methods for assessing the feasibility of implementing specific datamarts. A methodology for data remediation and the re-engineering of operational data capture is described.

Experience of automation failures in training: effects on trust, automation bias, complacency and performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Sauer, Juergen; Chavaillaz, Alain; Wastell, David

2016-06-01

This work examined the effects of operators' exposure to various types of automation failures in training. Forty-five participants were trained for 3.5 h on a simulated process control environment. During training, participants either experienced a fully reliable, automatic fault repair facility (i.e. faults detected and correctly diagnosed), a misdiagnosis-prone one (i.e. faults detected but not correctly diagnosed) or a miss-prone one (i.e. faults not detected). One week after training, participants were tested for 3 h, experiencing two types of automation failures (misdiagnosis, miss). The results showed that automation bias was very high when operators trained on miss-prone automation encountered a failure of the diagnostic system. Operator errors resulting from automation bias were much higher when automation misdiagnosed a fault than when it missed one. Differences in trust levels that were instilled by the different training experiences disappeared during the testing session. Practitioner Summary: The experience of automation failures during training has some consequences. A greater potential for operator errors may be expected when an automatic system failed to diagnose a fault than when it failed to detect one.

Future Trends in Process Automation

OpenAIRE

Jämsä-Jounela, Sirkka-Liisa

2007-01-01

The importance of automation in the process industries has increased dramatically in recent years. In the highly industrialized countries, process automation serves to enhance product quality, master the whole range of products, improve process safety and plant availability, efficiently utilize resources and lower emissions. In the rapidly developing countries, mass production is the main motivation for applying process automation. The greatest demand for process automation is in the chemical...

Automation in Warehouse Development

CERN Document Server

Verriet, Jacques

2012-01-01

The warehouses of the future will come in a variety of forms, but with a few common ingredients. Firstly, human operational handling of items in warehouses is increasingly being replaced by automated item handling. Extended warehouse automation counteracts the scarcity of human operators and supports the quality of picking processes. Secondly, the development of models to simulate and analyse warehouse designs and their components facilitates the challenging task of developing warehouses that take into account each customer’s individual requirements and logistic processes. Automation in Warehouse Development addresses both types of automation from the innovative perspective of applied science. In particular, it describes the outcomes of the Falcon project, a joint endeavour by a consortium of industrial and academic partners. The results include a model-based approach to automate warehouse control design, analysis models for warehouse design, concepts for robotic item handling and computer vision, and auton...

76 FR 34246 - Automated Commercial Environment (ACE); Announcement of National Customs Automation Program Test...

Science.gov (United States)

2011-06-13

... Environment (ACE); Announcement of National Customs Automation Program Test of Automated Procedures for In... Customs Automation Program (NCAP) test relating to highway movements of commercial goods that are transported in-bond through the United States from one point in Canada to another point in Canada. The NCAP...

User interface design principles for the SSM/PMAD automated power system

Science.gov (United States)

Jakstas, Laura M.; Myers, Chris J.

1991-01-01

Martin Marietta has developed a user interface for the space station module power management and distribution (SSM/PMAD) automated power system testbed which provides human access to the functionality of the power system, as well as exemplifying current techniques in user interface design. The testbed user interface was designed to enable an engineer to operate the system easily without having significant knowledge of computer systems, as well as provide an environment in which the engineer can monitor and interact with the SSM/PMAD system hardware. The design of the interface supports a global view of the most important data from the various hardware and software components, as well as enabling the user to obtain additional or more detailed data when needed. The components and representations of the SSM/PMAD testbed user interface are examined. An engineer's interactions with the system are also described.

Automated cloning methods.; TOPICAL

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Collart, F.

2001-01-01

Argonne has developed a series of automated protocols to generate bacterial expression clones by using a robotic system designed to be used in procedures associated with molecular biology. The system provides plate storage, temperature control from 4 to 37 C at various locations, and Biomek and Multimek pipetting stations. The automated system consists of a robot that transports sources from the active station on the automation system. Protocols for the automated generation of bacterial expression clones can be grouped into three categories (Figure 1). Fragment generation protocols are initiated on day one of the expression cloning procedure and encompass those protocols involved in generating purified coding region (PCR)

Automated identification of intergranular corrosion in X-ray CT images

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Howell, Patricia A.; Winfree, William P.

2003-01-01

Characterization of a material or structure by computed tomography results in the acquisition of large quantities of data that need to be tediously examined to determine the location and size of damage. Since the computed tomography images are digital, there is significant potential for reducing the human effort evolved in this process by digital processing of this data to enhance the signatures of flaws and perform automated identification of suspected flaws. Techniques are presented that enhance the contrast between corroded and uncorroded regions to simplify the analysis and improve quality of flaw identification. Algorithms developed in part for computer vision, such as anisotropic diffusion and edge detection techniques, are applied to the data. Anisotropic diffusion techniques are shown to significantly reduce image noise while maintaining the contrast between intergranular corrosion and uncorroded regions and preserving the important features of the flaw. Edge detection techniques are shown to enable a rapid location of regions requiring further analysis. In regions identified by the edge detection technique, neural network techniques are applied to automate defect detection of the intergranular corrosion

Automation, Performance and International Competition

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kromann, Lene; Sørensen, Anders

This paper presents new evidence on trade‐induced automation in manufacturing firms using unique data combining a retrospective survey that we have assembled with register data for 2005‐2010. In particular, we establish a causal effect where firms that have specialized in product types for which...... the Chinese exports to the world market has risen sharply invest more in automated capital compared to firms that have specialized in other product types. We also study the relationship between automation and firm performance and find that firms with high increases in scale and scope of automation have faster...... productivity growth than other firms. Moreover, automation improves the efficiency of all stages of the production process by reducing setup time, run time, and inspection time and increasing uptime and quantity produced per worker. The efficiency improvement varies by type of automation....

An automated procedure for themoluminescence dating of pottery and burnt stones

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mejdahl, V.

1982-01-01

An automated procedure for dating of quartz and feldspar inclusions in pottery has been developed and tested in a comprehensive programme comprising material from a number of well-dated Danish sites. The results indicate that TL dating of pottery can now be carried out on a routine basis with an accuracy of about 5%. Experiments on dating of large grains of alkali feldspars extracted from burnt stones are described. The results are encouraging and show that the method may enable a reduction of some of the uncertainties associated with the conventional inclusion technique. (author)

Systematic review automation technologies

Science.gov (United States)

2014-01-01

Systematic reviews, a cornerstone of evidence-based medicine, are not produced quickly enough to support clinical practice. The cost of production, availability of the requisite expertise and timeliness are often quoted as major contributors for the delay. This detailed survey of the state of the art of information systems designed to support or automate individual tasks in the systematic review, and in particular systematic reviews of randomized controlled clinical trials, reveals trends that see the convergence of several parallel research projects. We surveyed literature describing informatics systems that support or automate the processes of systematic review or each of the tasks of the systematic review. Several projects focus on automating, simplifying and/or streamlining specific tasks of the systematic review. Some tasks are already fully automated while others are still largely manual. In this review, we describe each task and the effect that its automation would have on the entire systematic review process, summarize the existing information system support for each task, and highlight where further research is needed for realizing automation for the task. Integration of the systems that automate systematic review tasks may lead to a revised systematic review workflow. We envisage the optimized workflow will lead to system in which each systematic review is described as a computer program that automatically retrieves relevant trials, appraises them, extracts and synthesizes data, evaluates the risk of bias, performs meta-analysis calculations, and produces a report in real time. PMID:25005128

Automated chromatographic laccase-mediator-system activity assay.

Science.gov (United States)

Anders, Nico; Schelden, Maximilian; Roth, Simon; Spiess, Antje C

2017-08-01

To study the interaction of laccases, mediators, and substrates in laccase-mediator systems (LMS), an on-line measurement was developed using high performance anion exchange chromatography equipped with a CarboPac™ PA 100 column coupled to pulsed amperometric detection (HPAEC-PAD). The developed method was optimized for overall chromatographic run time (45 to 120 min) and automated sample drawing. As an example, the Trametes versicolor laccase induced oxidation of 1-(3,4-dimethoxyphenyl)-2-(2-methoxyphenoxy)-1,3-dihydroxypropane (adlerol) using 1-hydroxybenzotriazole (HBT) as mediator was measured and analyzed on-line. Since the Au electrode of the PAD detects only hydroxyl group containing substances with a limit of detection being in the milligram/liter range, not all products are measureable. Therefore, this method was applied for the quantification of adlerol, and-based on adlerol conversion-for the quantification of the LMS activity at a specific T. versicolor laccase/HBT ratio. The automated chromatographic activity assay allowed for a defined reaction start of all laccase-mediator-system reactions mixtures, and the LMS reaction progress was automatically monitored for 48 h. The automatization enabled an integrated monitoring overnight and over-weekend and minimized all manual errors such as pipetting of solutions accordingly. The activity of the LMS based on adlerol consumption was determined to 0.47 U/mg protein for a laccase/mediator ratio of 1.75 U laccase/g HBT. In the future, the automated method will allow for a fast screening of combinations of laccases, mediators, and substrates which are efficient for lignin modification. In particular, it allows for a fast and easy quantification of the oxidizing activity of an LMS on a lignin-related substrate which is not covered by typical colorimetric laccase assays. ᅟ.

A high-throughput screening system for barley/powdery mildew interactions based on automated analysis of light micrographs.

Science.gov (United States)

Ihlow, Alexander; Schweizer, Patrick; Seiffert, Udo

2008-01-23

To find candidate genes that potentially influence the susceptibility or resistance of crop plants to powdery mildew fungi, an assay system based on transient-induced gene silencing (TIGS) as well as transient over-expression in single epidermal cells of barley has been developed. However, this system relies on quantitative microscopic analysis of the barley/powdery mildew interaction and will only become a high-throughput tool of phenomics upon automation of the most time-consuming steps. We have developed a high-throughput screening system based on a motorized microscope which evaluates the specimens fully automatically. A large-scale double-blind verification of the system showed an excellent agreement of manual and automated analysis and proved the system to work dependably. Furthermore, in a series of bombardment experiments an RNAi construct targeting the Mlo gene was included, which is expected to phenocopy resistance mediated by recessive loss-of-function alleles such as mlo5. In most cases, the automated analysis system recorded a shift towards resistance upon RNAi of Mlo, thus providing proof of concept for its usefulness in detecting gene-target effects. Besides saving labor and enabling a screening of thousands of candidate genes, this system offers continuous operation of expensive laboratory equipment and provides a less subjective analysis as well as a complete and enduring documentation of the experimental raw data in terms of digital images. In general, it proves the concept of enabling available microscope hardware to handle challenging screening tasks fully automatically.

CULTURE AND TECHNOLOGY: AUTOMATION IN THE CREATIVE PROCESSES OF NARRATIVE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fernando Fogliano

2013-12-01

Full Text Available The objective here is to think on the problem raised by the progressively opaque presence of technology in the contemporary artistic production. Automation is the most evident aspect of technology of devices used for production, post-production and dissemination of this cultural activity. Along the text the philosophers Vilém Flusser and Gilbert Simon are put in confrontation so that a more profound insight can be obtained. Language is considered here as the integrative factor in the search for a new convergent conceptual scenario that enable us understand the consequences of the technological convergence

Distribution automation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gruenemeyer, D.

1991-01-01

This paper reports on a Distribution Automation (DA) System enhances the efficiency and productivity of a utility. It also provides intangible benefits such as improved public image and market advantages. A utility should evaluate the benefits and costs of such a system before committing funds. The expenditure for distribution automation is economical when justified by the deferral of a capacity increase, a decrease in peak power demand, or a reduction in O and M requirements

IT-Enabled Integration of Renewables: A Concept for the Smart Power Grid

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sauter Thilo

2011-01-01

Full Text Available The wide utilisation of information and communication technologies is hoped to enable a more efficient and sustainable operation of electric power grids. This paper analyses the benefits of smart power grids for the integration of renewable energy resources into the existing grid infrastructure. Therefore, the concept of a smart power grid is analysed, and it is shown that it covers more than for example, time-of-use energy tariffs. Further, the communication technologies used for smart grids are discussed, and the challenge of interoperability between the smart grid itself and its active contributors such as functional buildings is shown. A significant share of electrical energy demand is and will be constituted by large functional buildings that are mostly equipped with automation systems and therefore enable a relatively simple IT integration into smart grids. This large potential of thermal storages and flexible consumption processes might be a future key to match demand and supply under the presence of a high share of fluctuating generation from renewables.

Understanding human management of automation errors

Science.gov (United States)

McBride, Sara E.; Rogers, Wendy A.; Fisk, Arthur D.

2013-01-01

Automation has the potential to aid humans with a diverse set of tasks and support overall system performance. Automated systems are not always reliable, and when automation errs, humans must engage in error management, which is the process of detecting, understanding, and correcting errors. However, this process of error management in the context of human-automation interaction is not well understood. Therefore, we conducted a systematic review of the variables that contribute to error management. We examined relevant research in human-automation interaction and human error to identify critical automation, person, task, and emergent variables. We propose a framework for management of automation errors to incorporate and build upon previous models. Further, our analysis highlights variables that may be addressed through design and training to positively influence error management. Additional efforts to understand the error management process will contribute to automation designed and implemented to support safe and effective system performance. PMID:25383042

MVO Automation Platform: Addressing Unmet Needs in Clinical Laboratories with Microcontrollers, 3D Printing, and Open-Source Hardware/Software.

Science.gov (United States)

Iglehart, Brian

2018-05-01

Laboratory automation improves test reproducibility, which is vital to patient care in clinical laboratories. Many small and specialty laboratories are excluded from the benefits of automation due to low sample number, cost, space, and/or lack of automation expertise. The Minimum Viable Option (MVO) automation platform was developed to address these hurdles and fulfill an unmet need. Consumer 3D printing enabled rapid iterative prototyping to allow for a variety of instrumentation and assay setups and procedures. Three MVO versions have been produced. MVOv1.1 successfully performed part of a clinical assay, and results were comparable to those of commercial automation. Raspberry Pi 3 Model B (RPI3) single-board computers with Sense Hardware Attached on Top (HAT) and Raspberry Pi Camera Module V2 hardware were remotely accessed and evaluated for their suitability to qualify the latest MVOv1.2 platform. Sense HAT temperature, barometric pressure, and relative humidity sensors were stable in climate-controlled environments and are useful in identifying appropriate laboratory spaces for automation placement. The RPI3 with camera plus digital dial indicator logged axis travel experiments. RPI3 with camera and Sense HAT as a light source showed promise when used for photometric dispensing tests. Individual well standard curves were necessary for well-to-well light and path length compensations.

Toward fully automated genotyping: Genotyping microsatellite markers by deconvolution

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Perlin, M.W.; Lancia, G.; See-Kiong, Ng [Carnegie Mellon Univ., Pittsburgh, PA (United States)

1995-11-01

Dense genetic linkage maps have been constructed for the human and mouse genomes, with average densities of 2.9 cM and 0.35 cM, respectively. These genetic maps are crucial for mapping both Mendelian and complex traits and are useful in clinical genetic diagnosis. Current maps are largely comprised of abundant, easily assayed, and highly polymorphic PCR-based microsatellite markers, primarily dinucleotide (CA){sub n} repeats. One key limitation of these length polymorphisms is the PCR stutter (or slippage) artifact that introduces additional stutter bands. With two (or more) closely spaced alleles, the stutter bands overlap, and it is difficult to accurately determine the correct alleles; this stutter phenomenon has all but precluded full automation, since a human must visually inspect the allele data. We describe here novel deconvolution methods for accurate genotyping that mathematically remove PCR stutter artifact from microsatellite markers. These methods overcome the manual interpretation bottleneck and thereby enable full automation of genetic map construction and use. New functionalities, including the pooling of DNAs and the pooling of markers, are described that may greatly reduce the associated experimentation requirements. 32 refs., 5 figs., 3 tabs.

Automated Localization of Multiple Pelvic Bone Structures on MRI.

Science.gov (United States)

Onal, Sinan; Lai-Yuen, Susana; Bao, Paul; Weitzenfeld, Alfredo; Hart, Stuart

2016-01-01

In this paper, we present a fully automated localization method for multiple pelvic bone structures on magnetic resonance images (MRI). Pelvic bone structures are at present identified manually on MRI to locate reference points for measurement and evaluation of pelvic organ prolapse (POP). Given that this is a time-consuming and subjective procedure, there is a need to localize pelvic bone structures automatically. However, bone structures are not easily differentiable from soft tissue on MRI as their pixel intensities tend to be very similar. In this paper, we present a model that combines support vector machines and nonlinear regression capturing global and local information to automatically identify the bounding boxes of bone structures on MRI. The model identifies the location of the pelvic bone structures by establishing the association between their relative locations and using local information such as texture features. Results show that the proposed method is able to locate the bone structures of interest accurately (dice similarity index >0.75) in 87-91% of the images. This research aims to enable accurate, consistent, and fully automated localization of bone structures on MRI to facilitate and improve the diagnosis of health conditions such as female POP.

Proposal for automated transformations on single-photon multipath qudits

Science.gov (United States)

Baldijão, R. D.; Borges, G. F.; Marques, B.; Solís-Prosser, M. A.; Neves, L.; Pádua, S.

2017-09-01

We propose a method for implementing automated state transformations on single-photon multipath qudits encoded in a one-dimensional transverse spatial domain. It relies on transferring the encoding from this domain to the orthogonal one by applying a spatial phase modulation with diffraction gratings, merging all the initial propagation paths by using a stable interferometric network, and filtering out the unwanted diffraction orders. The automation feature is attained by utilizing a programmable phase-only spatial light modulator (SLM) where properly designed diffraction gratings displayed on its screen will implement the desired transformations, including, among others, projections, permutations, and random operations. We discuss the losses in the process which is, in general, inherently nonunitary. Some examples of transformations are presented and, considering a realistic scenario, we analyze how they will be affected by the pixelated structure of the SLM screen. The method proposed here enables one to implement much more general transformations on multipath qudits than is possible with a SLM alone operating in the diagonal basis of which-path states. Therefore, it will extend the range of applicability for this encoding in high-dimensional quantum information and computing protocols as well as fundamental studies in quantum theory.

An automated approach to mapping corn from Landsat imagery

Science.gov (United States)

Maxwell, S.K.; Nuckols, J.R.; Ward, M.H.; Hoffer, R.M.

2004-01-01

Most land cover maps generated from Landsat imagery involve classification of a wide variety of land cover types, whereas some studies may only need spatial information on a single cover type. For example, we required a map of corn in order to estimate exposure to agricultural chemicals for an environmental epidemiology study. Traditional classification techniques, which require the collection and processing of costly ground reference data, were not feasible for our application because of the large number of images to be analyzed. We present a new method that has the potential to automate the classification of corn from Landsat satellite imagery, resulting in a more timely product for applications covering large geographical regions. Our approach uses readily available agricultural areal estimates to enable automation of the classification process resulting in a map identifying land cover as ‘highly likely corn,’ ‘likely corn’ or ‘unlikely corn.’ To demonstrate the feasibility of this approach, we produced a map consisting of the three corn likelihood classes using a Landsat image in south central Nebraska. Overall classification accuracy of the map was 92.2% when compared to ground reference data.

Subject-enabled analytics model on measurement statistics in health risk expert system for public health informatics.

Science.gov (United States)

Chung, Chi-Jung; Kuo, Yu-Chen; Hsieh, Yun-Yu; Li, Tsai-Chung; Lin, Cheng-Chieh; Liang, Wen-Miin; Liao, Li-Na; Li, Chia-Ing; Lin, Hsueh-Chun

2017-11-01

This study applied open source technology to establish a subject-enabled analytics model that can enhance measurement statistics of case studies with the public health data in cloud computing. The infrastructure of the proposed model comprises three domains: 1) the health measurement data warehouse (HMDW) for the case study repository, 2) the self-developed modules of online health risk information statistics (HRIStat) for cloud computing, and 3) the prototype of a Web-based process automation system in statistics (PASIS) for the health risk assessment of case studies with subject-enabled evaluation. The system design employed freeware including Java applications, MySQL, and R packages to drive a health risk expert system (HRES). In the design, the HRIStat modules enforce the typical analytics methods for biomedical statistics, and the PASIS interfaces enable process automation of the HRES for cloud computing. The Web-based model supports both modes, step-by-step analysis and auto-computing process, respectively for preliminary evaluation and real time computation. The proposed model was evaluated by computing prior researches in relation to the epidemiological measurement of diseases that were caused by either heavy metal exposures in the environment or clinical complications in hospital. The simulation validity was approved by the commercial statistics software. The model was installed in a stand-alone computer and in a cloud-server workstation to verify computing performance for a data amount of more than 230K sets. Both setups reached efficiency of about 10 5 sets per second. The Web-based PASIS interface can be used for cloud computing, and the HRIStat module can be flexibly expanded with advanced subjects for measurement statistics. The analytics procedure of the HRES prototype is capable of providing assessment criteria prior to estimating the potential risk to public health. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

小型円筒リニアモータの推力と高調波歪みに関する研究と考察

OpenAIRE

仲岩, 浩一; 脇若, 弘之; 田代, 晋久

2014-01-01

In recent years, the miniaturization of a linear motor has progressed by the chip mounter the miniaturization of a conveying machine, or the loading demand to a special use. There is a case where a smooth drive is required in it. It is important to take into account the influence of the Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) in the design of a linear motor. the THD of three magnet array were checked. At Halbach array which pursued high thrust density, the fundamental cause and effect relationship be...

Human-centred automation: an explorative study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hollnagel, Erik; Miberg, Ann Britt

1999-05-01

The purpose of the programme activity on human-centred automation at the HRP is to develop knowledge (in the form of models and theories) and tools (in the form of techniques and simulators) to support design of automation that ensures effective human performance and comprehension. This report presents the work done on both the analytical and experimental side of this project. The analytical work has surveyed common definitions of automation and traditional design principles. A general finding is that human-centred automation usually is defined in terms of what it is not. This is partly due to a lack of adequate models and of human-automation interaction. Another result is a clarification of the consequences of automation, in particular with regard to situation awareness and workload. The experimental work has taken place as an explorative experiment in HAMMLAB in collaboration with IPSN (France). The purpose of this experiment was to increase the understanding of how automation influences operator performance in NPP control rooms. Two different types of automation (extensive and limited) were considered in scenarios having two different degrees of complexity (high and low), and involving diagnostic and procedural tasks. Six licensed NPP crews from the NPP at Loviisa, Finland, participated in the experiment. The dependent variables applied were plant performance, operator performance, self-rated crew performance, situation awareness, workload, and operator trust in the automation. The results from the diagnostic scenarios indicated that operators' judgement of crew efficiency was related to their level of trust in the automation, and further that operators trusted automation least and rated crew performance lowest in situations where crew performance was efficient and vice versa. The results from procedural scenarios indicated that extensive automation efficiently supported operators' performance, and further that operator' judgement of crew performance efficiency

Configuration Management Automation (CMA) -

Data.gov (United States)

Department of Transportation — Configuration Management Automation (CMA) will provide an automated, integrated enterprise solution to support CM of FAA NAS and Non-NAS assets and investments. CMA...

Toward designing for trust in database automation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Duez, P. P.; Jamieson, G. A. [Cognitive Engineering Laboratory, Univ. of Toronto, 5 King' s College Rd., Toronto, Ont. M5S 3G8 (Canada)

2006-07-01

Appropriate reliance on system automation is imperative for safe and productive work, especially in safety-critical systems. It is unsafe to rely on automation beyond its designed use; conversely, it can be both unproductive and unsafe to manually perform tasks that are better relegated to automated tools. Operator trust in automated tools mediates reliance, and trust appears to affect how operators use technology. As automated agents become more complex, the question of trust in automation is increasingly important. In order to achieve proper use of automation, we must engender an appropriate degree of trust that is sensitive to changes in operating functions and context. In this paper, we present research concerning trust in automation in the domain of automated tools for relational databases. Lee and See have provided models of trust in automation. One model developed by Lee and See identifies three key categories of information about the automation that lie along a continuum of attributional abstraction. Purpose-, process-and performance-related information serve, both individually and through inferences between them, to describe automation in such a way as to engender r properly-calibrated trust. Thus, one can look at information from different levels of attributional abstraction as a general requirements analysis for information key to appropriate trust in automation. The model of information necessary to engender appropriate trust in automation [1] is a general one. Although it describes categories of information, it does not provide insight on how to determine the specific information elements required for a given automated tool. We have applied the Abstraction Hierarchy (AH) to this problem in the domain of relational databases. The AH serves as a formal description of the automation at several levels of abstraction, ranging from a very abstract purpose-oriented description to a more concrete description of the resources involved in the automated process

Toward designing for trust in database automation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Duez, P. P.; Jamieson, G. A.

2006-01-01

Appropriate reliance on system automation is imperative for safe and productive work, especially in safety-critical systems. It is unsafe to rely on automation beyond its designed use; conversely, it can be both unproductive and unsafe to manually perform tasks that are better relegated to automated tools. Operator trust in automated tools mediates reliance, and trust appears to affect how operators use technology. As automated agents become more complex, the question of trust in automation is increasingly important. In order to achieve proper use of automation, we must engender an appropriate degree of trust that is sensitive to changes in operating functions and context. In this paper, we present research concerning trust in automation in the domain of automated tools for relational databases. Lee and See have provided models of trust in automation. One model developed by Lee and See identifies three key categories of information about the automation that lie along a continuum of attributional abstraction. Purpose-, process-and performance-related information serve, both individually and through inferences between them, to describe automation in such a way as to engender r properly-calibrated trust. Thus, one can look at information from different levels of attributional abstraction as a general requirements analysis for information key to appropriate trust in automation. The model of information necessary to engender appropriate trust in automation [1] is a general one. Although it describes categories of information, it does not provide insight on how to determine the specific information elements required for a given automated tool. We have applied the Abstraction Hierarchy (AH) to this problem in the domain of relational databases. The AH serves as a formal description of the automation at several levels of abstraction, ranging from a very abstract purpose-oriented description to a more concrete description of the resources involved in the automated process

Automated electron microprobe

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Thompson, K.A.; Walker, L.R.

1986-01-01

The Plant Laboratory at the Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant has recently obtained a Cameca MBX electron microprobe with a Tracor Northern TN5500 automation system. This allows full stage and spectrometer automation and digital beam control. The capabilities of the system include qualitative and quantitative elemental microanalysis for all elements above and including boron in atomic number, high- and low-magnification imaging and processing, elemental mapping and enhancement, and particle size, shape, and composition analyses. Very low magnification, quantitative elemental mapping using stage control (which is of particular interest) has been accomplished along with automated size, shape, and composition analysis over a large relative area

Automate functional testing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ramesh Kalindri

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Currently, software engineers are increasingly turning to the option of automating functional tests, but not always have successful in this endeavor. Reasons range from low planning until over cost in the process. Some principles that can guide teams in automating these tests are described in this article.

Driver Psychology during Automated Platooning

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Heikoop, D.D.

2017-01-01

With the rapid increase in vehicle automation technology, the call for understanding how humans behave while driving in an automated vehicle becomes more urgent. Vehicles that have automated systems such as Lane Keeping Assist (LKA) or Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) not only support drivers in their

Automation of an X-ray photoelectron spectrometer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ashury, M.R.

2003-02-01

The Institute of Solid State Physics of the Vienna University of Technology is established with an X-ray Photoelectron Spectrometer Kratos XSAM 800. In its original state the instrument enables measurements of photoelectron spectra in a semiautomatical mode. After mounting of the specimen an eventual surface cleaning by argon ion sputtering is possible. Next steps are setting of x-ray tube high voltage and current, start energy and energy range of spectrum and time of measurement. Data are obtained by an x-t plotter and evaluations are performed from the registration charts. If necessary, measured spectra have to be digitized by means of a scanner. In the Introduction of this thesis the principle of X-ray photoelectron spectrometry is treated including a number of practical examples. It shows that an automation allows an extension of the performance of the instrument. Details are remote controlled experiments, wider energy ranges with improved energy resolution. Furthermore, the digitized data treatment enables background subtration, determination of line positions and integrated signal strengths, and is the detection of lowlevel of lines (the peak with lowamplitude) possible. A further advantage is the computer assisted documentation and comparison of results from different specimens. After this description of the essential requirements different possible solutions of an automation are discussed. Thus, it is decided to develop a completely new hardware for a perfect control of the spectrometer. A further decision is to be made on the most efficient kind of micro processor. From the considerations follows a completely new control board with a transputer as multi tasking processor. The complete control unit consists of a digital system, an analog system and a power unit. The digital system controls settings and spectra accumulation and includes the transputer board, the pc-link card, the i/o-card and the step scanning control board. The analog system controls the

Modeling Increased Complexity and the Reliance on Automation: FLightdeck Automation Problems (FLAP) Model

Science.gov (United States)

Ancel, Ersin; Shih, Ann T.

2014-01-01

This paper highlights the development of a model that is focused on the safety issue of increasing complexity and reliance on automation systems in transport category aircraft. Recent statistics show an increase in mishaps related to manual handling and automation errors due to pilot complacency and over-reliance on automation, loss of situational awareness, automation system failures and/or pilot deficiencies. Consequently, the aircraft can enter a state outside the flight envelope and/or air traffic safety margins which potentially can lead to loss-of-control (LOC), controlled-flight-into-terrain (CFIT), or runway excursion/confusion accidents, etc. The goal of this modeling effort is to provide NASA's Aviation Safety Program (AvSP) with a platform capable of assessing the impacts of AvSP technologies and products towards reducing the relative risk of automation related accidents and incidents. In order to do so, a generic framework, capable of mapping both latent and active causal factors leading to automation errors, is developed. Next, the framework is converted into a Bayesian Belief Network model and populated with data gathered from Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). With the insertion of technologies and products, the model provides individual and collective risk reduction acquired by technologies and methodologies developed within AvSP.

Advanced Microsystems for Automotive Applications 2015 : Smart Systems for Green and Automated Driving

CERN Document Server

Müller, Beate; Meyer, Gereon

2016-01-01

This edited volume presents the proceedings of the AMAA 2015 conference, Berlin, Germany. The topical focus of the 2015 conference lies on smart systems for green and automated driving. The automobile of the future has to respond to two major trends, the electrification of the drivetrain, and the automation of the transportation system. These trends will not only lead to greener and safer driving but re-define the concept of the car completely, particularly if they interact with each other in a synergetic way as for autonomous parking and charging, self-driving shuttles or mobile robots. Key functionalities like environment perception are enabled by electronic components and systems, sensors and actuators, communication nodes, cognitive systems and smart systems integration. The book will be a valuable read for research experts and professionals in the automotive industry but the book may also be beneficial for graduate students.

Semantic enrichment of medical forms - semi-automated coding of ODM-elements via web services.

Science.gov (United States)

Breil, Bernhard; Watermann, Andreas; Haas, Peter; Dziuballe, Philipp; Dugas, Martin

2012-01-01

Semantic interoperability is an unsolved problem which occurs while working with medical forms from different information systems or institutions. Standards like ODM or CDA assure structural homogenization but in order to compare elements from different data models it is necessary to use semantic concepts and codes on an item level of those structures. We developed and implemented a web-based tool which enables a domain expert to perform semi-automated coding of ODM-files. For each item it is possible to inquire web services which result in unique concept codes without leaving the context of the document. Although it was not feasible to perform a totally automated coding we have implemented a dialog based method to perform an efficient coding of all data elements in the context of the whole document. The proportion of codable items was comparable to results from previous studies.

Validation of an automated colony counting system for group A Streptococcus.

Science.gov (United States)

Frost, H R; Tsoi, S K; Baker, C A; Laho, D; Sanderson-Smith, M L; Steer, A C; Smeesters, P R

2016-02-08

cycle and when plated in blood following bactericidal assays. Agreement between these methods suggest the use of an automated colony counting technique for GAS will significantly reduce time spent counting bacteria to enable a more efficient and accurate measurement of bacteria concentration in culture.

Barge mounter ISER [intrinsically safe and economical reactor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kuwahara, Shin-ichi

1985-01-01

A forum in Japan has developed a new nuclear power plant ISER, a modified version of PIUS. ISER employs a conventional steel pressure vessel instead of PCRV used in the PIUS, thus allows the barge-mounted plant. This document introduces the concept of the barge-mounted ISER with its construction and siting

Automation systems for radioimmunoassay

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yamasaki, Paul

1974-01-01

The application of automation systems for radioimmunoassay (RIA) was discussed. Automated systems could be useful in the second step, of the four basic processes in the course of RIA, i.e., preparation of sample for reaction. There were two types of instrumentation, a semi-automatic pipete, and a fully automated pipete station, both providing for fast and accurate dispensing of the reagent or for the diluting of sample with reagent. Illustrations of the instruments were shown. (Mukohata, S.)

Accelerating the discovery of materials for clean energy in the era of smart automation

Science.gov (United States)

Tabor, Daniel P.; Roch, Loïc M.; Saikin, Semion K.; Kreisbeck, Christoph; Sheberla, Dennis; Montoya, Joseph H.; Dwaraknath, Shyam; Aykol, Muratahan; Ortiz, Carlos; Tribukait, Hermann; Amador-Bedolla, Carlos; Brabec, Christoph J.; Maruyama, Benji; Persson, Kristin A.; Aspuru-Guzik, Alán

2018-05-01

The discovery and development of novel materials in the field of energy are essential to accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy. Bringing recent technological innovations in automation, robotics and computer science together with current approaches in chemistry, materials synthesis and characterization will act as a catalyst for revolutionizing traditional research and development in both industry and academia. This Perspective provides a vision for an integrated artificial intelligence approach towards autonomous materials discovery, which, in our opinion, will emerge within the next 5 to 10 years. The approach we discuss requires the integration of the following tools, which have already seen substantial development to date: high-throughput virtual screening, automated synthesis planning, automated laboratories and machine learning algorithms. In addition to reducing the time to deployment of new materials by an order of magnitude, this integrated approach is expected to lower the cost associated with the initial discovery. Thus, the price of the final products (for example, solar panels, batteries and electric vehicles) will also decrease. This in turn will enable industries and governments to meet more ambitious targets in terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions at a faster pace.

Classification of Automated Search Traffic

Science.gov (United States)

Buehrer, Greg; Stokes, Jack W.; Chellapilla, Kumar; Platt, John C.

As web search providers seek to improve both relevance and response times, they are challenged by the ever-increasing tax of automated search query traffic. Third party systems interact with search engines for a variety of reasons, such as monitoring a web site’s rank, augmenting online games, or possibly to maliciously alter click-through rates. In this paper, we investigate automated traffic (sometimes referred to as bot traffic) in the query stream of a large search engine provider. We define automated traffic as any search query not generated by a human in real time. We first provide examples of different categories of query logs generated by automated means. We then develop many different features that distinguish between queries generated by people searching for information, and those generated by automated processes. We categorize these features into two classes, either an interpretation of the physical model of human interactions, or as behavioral patterns of automated interactions. Using the these detection features, we next classify the query stream using multiple binary classifiers. In addition, a multiclass classifier is then developed to identify subclasses of both normal and automated traffic. An active learning algorithm is used to suggest which user sessions to label to improve the accuracy of the multiclass classifier, while also seeking to discover new classes of automated traffic. Performance analysis are then provided. Finally, the multiclass classifier is used to predict the subclass distribution for the search query stream.

INSIGHT: RFID and Bluetooth enabled automated space for the blind and visually impaired.

Science.gov (United States)

Ganz, Aura; Gandhi, Siddhesh Rajan; Wilson, Carole; Mullett, Gary

2010-01-01

In this paper we introduce INSIGHT, an indoor location tracking and navigation system to help the blind and visually impaired to easily navigate to their chosen destination in a public building. INSIGHT makes use of RFID and Bluetooth technology deployed within the building to locate and track the users. The PDA based user device interacts with INSIGHT server and provides the user navigation instructions in an audio form. The proposed system provides multi-resolution localization of the users, facilitating the provision of accurate navigation instructions when the user is in the vicinity of the RFID tags as well as accommodating a PANIC button which provides navigation instructions when the user is anywhere in the building. Moreover, the system will continuously monitor the zone in which the user walks. This will enable the system to identify if the user is located in the wrong zone of the building which may not lead to the desired destination.

An automated swimming respirometer

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

STEFFENSEN, JF; JOHANSEN, K; BUSHNELL, PG

1984-01-01

An automated respirometer is described that can be used for computerized respirometry of trout and sharks.......An automated respirometer is described that can be used for computerized respirometry of trout and sharks....

Laboratory automation: trajectory, technology, and tactics.

Science.gov (United States)

Markin, R S; Whalen, S A

2000-05-01

Laboratory automation is in its infancy, following a path parallel to the development of laboratory information systems in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Changes on the horizon in healthcare and clinical laboratory service that affect the delivery of laboratory results include the increasing age of the population in North America, the implementation of the Balanced Budget Act (1997), and the creation of disease management companies. Major technology drivers include outcomes optimization and phenotypically targeted drugs. Constant cost pressures in the clinical laboratory have forced diagnostic manufacturers into less than optimal profitability states. Laboratory automation can be a tool for the improvement of laboratory services and may decrease costs. The key to improvement of laboratory services is implementation of the correct automation technology. The design of this technology should be driven by required functionality. Automation design issues should be centered on the understanding of the laboratory and its relationship to healthcare delivery and the business and operational processes in the clinical laboratory. Automation design philosophy has evolved from a hardware-based approach to a software-based approach. Process control software to support repeat testing, reflex testing, and transportation management, and overall computer-integrated manufacturing approaches to laboratory automation implementation are rapidly expanding areas. It is clear that hardware and software are functionally interdependent and that the interface between the laboratory automation system and the laboratory information system is a key component. The cost-effectiveness of automation solutions suggested by vendors, however, has been difficult to evaluate because the number of automation installations are few and the precision with which operational data have been collected to determine payback is suboptimal. The trend in automation has moved from total laboratory automation to a

Automated target recognition and tracking using an optical pattern recognition neural network

Science.gov (United States)

Chao, Tien-Hsin

1991-01-01

The on-going development of an automatic target recognition and tracking system at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory is presented. This system is an optical pattern recognition neural network (OPRNN) that is an integration of an innovative optical parallel processor and a feature extraction based neural net training algorithm. The parallel optical processor provides high speed and vast parallelism as well as full shift invariance. The neural network algorithm enables simultaneous discrimination of multiple noisy targets in spite of their scales, rotations, perspectives, and various deformations. This fully developed OPRNN system can be effectively utilized for the automated spacecraft recognition and tracking that will lead to success in the Automated Rendezvous and Capture (AR&C) of the unmanned Cargo Transfer Vehicle (CTV). One of the most powerful optical parallel processors for automatic target recognition is the multichannel correlator. With the inherent advantages of parallel processing capability and shift invariance, multiple objects can be simultaneously recognized and tracked using this multichannel correlator. This target tracking capability can be greatly enhanced by utilizing a powerful feature extraction based neural network training algorithm such as the neocognitron. The OPRNN, currently under investigation at JPL, is constructed with an optical multichannel correlator where holographic filters have been prepared using the neocognitron training algorithm. The computation speed of the neocognitron-type OPRNN is up to 10(exp 14) analog connections/sec that enabling the OPRNN to outperform its state-of-the-art electronics counterpart by at least two orders of magnitude.

Contaminant analysis automation, an overview

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hollen, R.; Ramos, O. Jr.

1996-01-01

To meet the environmental restoration and waste minimization goals of government and industry, several government laboratories, universities, and private companies have formed the Contaminant Analysis Automation (CAA) team. The goal of this consortium is to design and fabricate robotics systems that standardize and automate the hardware and software of the most common environmental chemical methods. In essence, the CAA team takes conventional, regulatory- approved (EPA Methods) chemical analysis processes and automates them. The automation consists of standard laboratory modules (SLMs) that perform the work in a much more efficient, accurate, and cost- effective manner

Selecting automation for the clinical chemistry laboratory.

Science.gov (United States)

Melanson, Stacy E F; Lindeman, Neal I; Jarolim, Petr

2007-07-01

Laboratory automation proposes to improve the quality and efficiency of laboratory operations, and may provide a solution to the quality demands and staff shortages faced by today's clinical laboratories. Several vendors offer automation systems in the United States, with both subtle and obvious differences. Arriving at a decision to automate, and the ensuing evaluation of available products, can be time-consuming and challenging. Although considerable discussion concerning the decision to automate has been published, relatively little attention has been paid to the process of evaluating and selecting automation systems. To outline a process for evaluating and selecting automation systems as a reference for laboratories contemplating laboratory automation. Our Clinical Chemistry Laboratory staff recently evaluated all major laboratory automation systems in the United States, with their respective chemistry and immunochemistry analyzers. Our experience is described and organized according to the selection process, the important considerations in clinical chemistry automation, decisions and implementation, and we give conclusions pertaining to this experience. Including the formation of a committee, workflow analysis, submitting a request for proposal, site visits, and making a final decision, the process of selecting chemistry automation took approximately 14 months. We outline important considerations in automation design, preanalytical processing, analyzer selection, postanalytical storage, and data management. Selecting clinical chemistry laboratory automation is a complex, time-consuming process. Laboratories considering laboratory automation may benefit from the concise overview and narrative and tabular suggestions provided.

PONDEROSA-C/S: client-server based software package for automated protein 3D structure determination.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Woonghee; Stark, Jaime L; Markley, John L

2014-11-01

Peak-picking Of Noe Data Enabled by Restriction Of Shift Assignments-Client Server (PONDEROSA-C/S) builds on the original PONDEROSA software (Lee et al. in Bioinformatics 27:1727-1728. doi: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btr200, 2011) and includes improved features for structure calculation and refinement. PONDEROSA-C/S consists of three programs: Ponderosa Server, Ponderosa Client, and Ponderosa Analyzer. PONDEROSA-C/S takes as input the protein sequence, a list of assigned chemical shifts, and nuclear Overhauser data sets ((13)C- and/or (15)N-NOESY). The output is a set of assigned NOEs and 3D structural models for the protein. Ponderosa Analyzer supports the visualization, validation, and refinement of the results from Ponderosa Server. These tools enable semi-automated NMR-based structure determination of proteins in a rapid and robust fashion. We present examples showing the use of PONDEROSA-C/S in solving structures of four proteins: two that enable comparison with the original PONDEROSA package, and two from the Critical Assessment of automated Structure Determination by NMR (Rosato et al. in Nat Methods 6:625-626. doi: 10.1038/nmeth0909-625 , 2009) competition. The software package can be downloaded freely in binary format from http://pine.nmrfam.wisc.edu/download_packages.html. Registered users of the National Magnetic Resonance Facility at Madison can submit jobs to the PONDEROSA-C/S server at http://ponderosa.nmrfam.wisc.edu, where instructions, tutorials, and instructions can be found. Structures are normally returned within 1-2 days.

Automated evaluation of pharmaceutically active ionic liquids’ (eco)toxicity through the inhibition of human carboxylesterase and Vibrio fischeri

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Costa, Susana P.F.; Justina, Vanessa D.; Bica, Katharina; Vasiloiu, Maria; Pinto, Paula C.A.G.; Saraiva, M. Lúcia M.F.S.

2014-01-01

Highlights: • IL-APIs toxicity on humans and aquatic environment was evaluated by inhibition assays. • The inhibition assays were implemented through automated screening bioassays. • Automation of bioassays enabled a rigorous control of the reaction conditions. • EC 50 obtained provide vital information on IL-APIs safety and potential use as drugs. -- Abstract: The toxicity of 16 pharmaceutical active ionic liquids (IL-APIs) was evaluated by automated approaches based on sequential injection analysis (SIA). The implemented bioassays were centered on the inhibition of human carboxylesterase 2 and Vibrio fischeri, in the presence of the tested compounds. The inhibitory effects were quantified by calculating the inhibitor concentration required to cause 50% of inhibition (EC 50 ). The EC 50 values demonstrated that the cetylpyridinium group was one of the most toxic cations and that the imidazolium group was the less toxic. The obtained results provide important information about the safety of the studied IL-APIs and their possible use as pharmaceutical drugs. The developed automated SIA methodologies are robust screening bioassays, and can be used as a generic tools to identify the (eco)toxicity of the structural elements of ILs, contributing to a sustainable development of drugs

SU-G-201-03: Automation of High Dose Rate Brachytherapy Quality Assurance: Development of a Radioluminescent Detection System for Simultaneous Detection of Activity, Timing, and Positioning

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jenkins, C; Xing, L; Fahimian, B [Stanford University, Stanford, CA (United States)

2016-06-15

Purpose: Accuracy of positioning, timing and activity is of critical importance for High Dose Rate (HDR) brachytherapy delivery. Respective measurements via film autoradiography, stop-watches and well chambers can be cumbersome, crude or lack dynamic source evaluation capabilities. To address such limitations, a single device radioluminescent detection system enabling automated real-time quantification of activity, position and timing accuracy is presented and experimentally evaluated. Methods: A radioluminescent sheet was fabricated by mixing Gd?O?S:Tb with PDMS and incorporated into a 3D printed device where it was fixated below a CMOS digital camera. An Ir-192 HDR source (VS2000, VariSource iX) with an effective active length of 5 mm was introduced using a 17-gauge stainless steel needle below the sheet. Pixel intensity values for determining activity were taken from an ROI centered on the source location. A calibration curve relating intensity values to activity was generated and used to evaluate automated activity determination with data gathered over 6 weeks. Positioning measurements were performed by integrating images for an entire delivery and fitting peaks to the resulting profile. Timing measurements were performed by evaluating source location and timestamps from individual images. Results: Average predicted activity error over 6 weeks was .35 ± .5%. The distance between four dwell positions was determined by the automated system to be 1.99 ± .02 cm. The result from autoradiography was 2.00 ± .03 cm. The system achieved a time resolution of 10 msec and determined the dwell time to be 1.01 sec ± .02 sec. Conclusion: The system was able to successfully perform automated detection of activity, positioning and timing concurrently under a single setup. Relative to radiochromic and radiographic film-based autoradiography, which can only provide a static evaluation positioning, optical detection of temporary radiation induced luminescence enables dynamic

Study radiolabeling of urea-based PSMA inhibitor with 68-Galliu: Comparative evaluation of automated and not automated methods; Estudo de radiomarcacao com Galio-68 do inibidor de PSMA baseado em ureia: avaliacao comparativa de metodo automatizado e nao automatizado

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Alcarde, Lais Fernanda

2016-07-01

The methods for clinical diagnosis of prostate cancer include rectal examination and the dosage of the prostatic specific antigen (PSA). However, the PSA level is elevated in about 20 to 30% of cases related to benign pathologies, resulting in false positives and leading patients to unnecessary biopsies. The prostate specific membrane antigen (PSMA), in contrast, is over expressed in prostate cancer and founded at low levels in healthy organs. As a result, it stimulated the development of small molecule inhibitors of PSMA, which carry imaging agents to the tumor and are not affected by their microvasculature. Recent studies suggest that the HBED-CC chelator intrinsically contributes to the binding of the PSMA inhibitor peptide based on urea (Glu-urea-Lys) to the pharmacophore group. This work describes the optimization of radiolabeling conditions of PSMA-HBED-CC with {sup 68}Ga, using automated system (synthesis module) and no automated method, seeking to establish an appropriate condition to prepare this new radiopharmaceutical, with emphasis on the labeling yield and radiochemical purity of the product. It also aimed to evaluate the stability of the radiolabeled peptide in transport conditions and study the biological distribution of the radiopharmaceutical in healthy mice. The study of radiolabeling parameters enabled to define a non-automated method which resulted in high radiochemical purity (> 95 %) without the need for purification of the labeled peptide. The automated method has been adapted, using a module of synthesis and software already available at IPEN, and also resulted in high synthetic yield (≥ 90%) specially when compared with those described in the literature, with the associated benefit of greater control of the production process in compliance with Good Manufacturing Practices. The study of radiolabeling parameters afforded the PSMA-HBED-CC-{sup 68}Ga with higher specific activity than observed in published clinical studies (≥ 140,0 GBq

The MyoRobot: A novel automated biomechatronics system to assess voltage/Ca2+ biosensors and active/passive biomechanics in muscle and biomaterials.

Science.gov (United States)

Haug, M; Reischl, B; Prölß, G; Pollmann, C; Buckert, T; Keidel, C; Schürmann, S; Hock, M; Rupitsch, S; Heckel, M; Pöschel, T; Scheibel, T; Haynl, C; Kiriaev, L; Head, S I; Friedrich, O

2018-04-15

We engineered an automated biomechatronics system, MyoRobot, for robust objective and versatile assessment of muscle or polymer materials (bio-)mechanics. It covers multiple levels of muscle biosensor assessment, e.g. membrane voltage or contractile apparatus Ca 2+ ion responses (force resolution 1µN, 0-10mN for the given sensor; [Ca 2+ ] range ~ 100nM-25µM). It replaces previously tedious manual protocols to obtain exhaustive information on active/passive biomechanical properties across various morphological tissue levels. Deciphering mechanisms of muscle weakness requires sophisticated force protocols, dissecting contributions from altered Ca 2+ homeostasis, electro-chemical, chemico-mechanical biosensors or visco-elastic components. From whole organ to single fibre levels, experimental demands and hardware requirements increase, limiting biomechanics research potential, as reflected by only few commercial biomechatronics systems that can address resolution, experimental versatility and mostly, automation of force recordings. Our MyoRobot combines optical force transducer technology with high precision 3D actuation (e.g. voice coil, 1µm encoder resolution; stepper motors, 4µm feed motion), and customized control software, enabling modular experimentation packages and automated data pre-analysis. In small bundles and single muscle fibres, we demonstrate automated recordings of (i) caffeine-induced-, (ii) electrical field stimulation (EFS)-induced force, (iii) pCa-force, (iv) slack-tests and (v) passive length-tension curves. The system easily reproduces results from manual systems (two times larger stiffness in slow over fast muscle) and provides novel insights into unloaded shortening velocities (declining with increasing slack lengths). The MyoRobot enables automated complex biomechanics assessment in muscle research. Applications also extend to material sciences, exemplarily shown here for spider silk and collagen biopolymers. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B

Automated detection of fluorescent cells in in-resin fluorescence sections for integrated light and electron microscopy.

Science.gov (United States)

Delpiano, J; Pizarro, L; Peddie, C J; Jones, M L; Griffin, L D; Collinson, L M

2018-04-26

Integrated array tomography combines fluorescence and electron imaging of ultrathin sections in one microscope, and enables accurate high-resolution correlation of fluorescent proteins to cell organelles and membranes. Large numbers of serial sections can be imaged sequentially to produce aligned volumes from both imaging modalities, thus producing enormous amounts of data that must be handled and processed using novel techniques. Here, we present a scheme for automated detection of fluorescent cells within thin resin sections, which could then be used to drive automated electron image acquisition from target regions via 'smart tracking'. The aim of this work is to aid in optimization of the data acquisition process through automation, freeing the operator to work on other tasks and speeding up the process, while reducing data rates by only acquiring images from regions of interest. This new method is shown to be robust against noise and able to deal with regions of low fluorescence. © 2018 The Authors. Journal of Microscopy published by JohnWiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Royal Microscopical Society.

Automated Vehicles Symposium 2014

CERN Document Server

Beiker, Sven; Road Vehicle Automation 2

2015-01-01

This paper collection is the second volume of the LNMOB series on Road Vehicle Automation. The book contains a comprehensive review of current technical, socio-economic, and legal perspectives written by experts coming from public authorities, companies and universities in the U.S., Europe and Japan. It originates from the Automated Vehicle Symposium 2014, which was jointly organized by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) and the Transportation Research Board (TRB) in Burlingame, CA, in July 2014. The contributions discuss the challenges arising from the integration of highly automated and self-driving vehicles into the transportation system, with a focus on human factors and different deployment scenarios. This book is an indispensable source of information for academic researchers, industrial engineers, and policy makers interested in the topic of road vehicle automation.

Work Planing Automation at Mechanical Subdivision

OpenAIRE

Dzindzelėta, Vytautas

2005-01-01

Work planing automation, installation possibilities and future outlook at mechanical subdivision. To study how the work planing has changed before and after automation process and to analyse automation process methodology.

Enabling a systems biology knowledgebase with gaggle and firegoose

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Baliga, Nitin S. [Institute for Systems Biology, Seattle, WA (United States)

2014-12-12

The overall goal of this project was to extend the existing Gaggle and Firegoose systems to develop an open-source technology that runs over the web and links desktop applications with many databases and software applications. This technology would enable researchers to incorporate workflows for data analysis that can be executed from this interface to other online applications. The four specific aims were to (1) provide one-click mapping of genes, proteins, and complexes across databases and species; (2) enable multiple simultaneous workflows; (3) expand sophisticated data analysis for online resources; and enhance open-source development of the Gaggle-Firegoose infrastructure. Gaggle is an open-source Java software system that integrates existing bioinformatics programs and data sources into a user-friendly, extensible environment to allow interactive exploration, visualization, and analysis of systems biology data. Firegoose is an extension to the Mozilla Firefox web browser that enables data transfer between websites and desktop tools including Gaggle. In the last phase of this funding period, we have made substantial progress on development and application of the Gaggle integration framework. We implemented the workspace to the Network Portal. Users can capture data from Firegoose and save them to the workspace. Users can create workflows to start multiple software components programmatically and pass data between them. Results of analysis can be saved to the cloud so that they can be easily restored on any machine. We also developed the Gaggle Chrome Goose, a plugin for the Google Chrome browser in tandem with an opencpu server in the Amazon EC2 cloud. This allows users to interactively perform data analysis on a single web page using the R packages deployed on the opencpu server. The cloud-based framework facilitates collaboration between researchers from multiple organizations. We have made a number of enhancements to the cmonkey2 application to enable and

Workflow-enabled distributed component-based information architecture for digital medical imaging enterprises.

Science.gov (United States)

Wong, Stephen T C; Tjandra, Donny; Wang, Huili; Shen, Weimin

2003-09-01

Few information systems today offer a flexible means to define and manage the automated part of radiology processes, which provide clinical imaging services for the entire healthcare organization. Even fewer of them provide a coherent architecture that can easily cope with heterogeneity and inevitable local adaptation of applications and can integrate clinical and administrative information to aid better clinical, operational, and business decisions. We describe an innovative enterprise architecture of image information management systems to fill the needs. Such a system is based on the interplay of production workflow management, distributed object computing, Java and Web techniques, and in-depth domain knowledge in radiology operations. Our design adapts the approach of "4+1" architectural view. In this new architecture, PACS and RIS become one while the user interaction can be automated by customized workflow process. Clinical service applications are implemented as active components. They can be reasonably substituted by applications of local adaptations and can be multiplied for fault tolerance and load balancing. Furthermore, the workflow-enabled digital radiology system would provide powerful query and statistical functions for managing resources and improving productivity. This paper will potentially lead to a new direction of image information management. We illustrate the innovative design with examples taken from an implemented system.

Physiological Self-Regulation and Adaptive Automation

Science.gov (United States)

Prinzell, Lawrence J.; Pope, Alan T.; Freeman, Frederick G.

2007-01-01

Adaptive automation has been proposed as a solution to current problems of human-automation interaction. Past research has shown the potential of this advanced form of automation to enhance pilot engagement and lower cognitive workload. However, there have been concerns voiced regarding issues, such as automation surprises, associated with the use of adaptive automation. This study examined the use of psychophysiological self-regulation training with adaptive automation that may help pilots deal with these problems through the enhancement of cognitive resource management skills. Eighteen participants were assigned to 3 groups (self-regulation training, false feedback, and control) and performed resource management, monitoring, and tracking tasks from the Multiple Attribute Task Battery. The tracking task was cycled between 3 levels of task difficulty (automatic, adaptive aiding, manual) on the basis of the electroencephalogram-derived engagement index. The other two tasks remained in automatic mode that had a single automation failure. Those participants who had received self-regulation training performed significantly better and reported lower National Aeronautics and Space Administration Task Load Index scores than participants in the false feedback and control groups. The theoretical and practical implications of these results for adaptive automation are discussed.

Buying Program of the Standard Automated Materiel Management System. Automated Small Purchase System: Defense Supply Center Philadelphia

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

2001-01-01

The Standard Automated Materiel Management System Automated Small Purchase System is a fully automated micro-purchases system used by the General and Industrial Directorate at the Defense Supply Center Philadelphia...

Comparison of Size Modulation Standard Automated Perimetry and Conventional Standard Automated Perimetry with a 10-2 Test Program in Glaucoma Patients.

Science.gov (United States)

Hirasawa, Kazunori; Takahashi, Natsumi; Satou, Tsukasa; Kasahara, Masayuki; Matsumura, Kazuhiro; Shoji, Nobuyuki

2017-08-01

This prospective observational study compared the performance of size modulation standard automated perimetry with the Octopus 600 10-2 test program, with stimulus size modulation during testing, based on stimulus intensity and conventional standard automated perimetry, with that of the Humphrey 10-2 test program in glaucoma patients. Eighty-seven eyes of 87 glaucoma patients underwent size modulation standard automated perimetry with Dynamic strategy and conventional standard automated perimetry using the SITA standard strategy. The main outcome measures were global indices, point-wise threshold, visual defect size and depth, reliability indices, and test duration; these were compared between size modulation standard automated perimetry and conventional standard automated perimetry. Global indices and point-wise threshold values between size modulation standard automated perimetry and conventional standard automated perimetry were moderately to strongly correlated (p 33.40, p modulation standard automated perimetry than with conventional standard automated perimetry, but the visual-field defect size was smaller (p modulation-standard automated perimetry than on conventional standard automated perimetry. The reliability indices, particularly the false-negative response, of size modulation standard automated perimetry were worse than those of conventional standard automated perimetry (p modulation standard automated perimetry than with conventional standard automated perimetry (p = 0.02). Global indices and the point-wise threshold value of the two testing modalities correlated well. However, the potential of a large stimulus presented at an area with a decreased sensitivity with size modulation standard automated perimetry could underestimate the actual threshold in the 10-2 test protocol, as compared with conventional standard automated perimetry.

Automating the control of robotic systems in unstructured environments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Harrigan, R.W.

1993-01-01

The US Department Energy's Office of Technology Development has sponsored the development of generic robotics technologies for application to a wide range of remote systems. Of primary interest is the development of technologies which enable faster, safer, and cheaper cleanup of hazardous waste sites than is possible using conventional human contact or remote manual approaches. The development of model-based sensor-directed robot control approaches supports these goals by developing modular control technologies which reduce the time and cost of development by allowing reuse of control system software. In addition, the use of computer models improves the safety of remote site cleanup by allowing automated errors detection and recovery while reducing the time for technology development

Automation and robotics

Science.gov (United States)

Montemerlo, Melvin

1988-01-01

The Autonomous Systems focus on the automation of control systems for the Space Station and mission operations. Telerobotics focuses on automation for in-space servicing, assembly, and repair. The Autonomous Systems and Telerobotics each have a planned sequence of integrated demonstrations showing the evolutionary advance of the state-of-the-art. Progress is briefly described for each area of concern.

Automating the radiographic NDT process

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Aman, J.K.

1986-01-01

Automation, the removal of the human element in inspection, has not been generally applied to film radiographic NDT. The justication for automating is not only productivity but also reliability of results. Film remains in the automated system of the future because of its extremely high image content, approximately 8 x 10 9 bits per 14 x 17. The equivalent to 2200 computer floppy discs. Parts handling systems and robotics applied for manufacturing and some NDT modalities, should now be applied to film radiographic NDT systems. Automatic film handling can be achieved with the daylight NDT film handling system. Automatic film processing is becoming the standard in industry and can be coupled to the daylight system. Robots offer the opportunity to automate fully the exposure step. Finally, computer aided interpretation appears on the horizon. A unit which laser scans a 14 x 17 (inch) film in 6 - 8 seconds can digitize film information for further manipulation and possible automatic interrogations (computer aided interpretation). The system called FDRS (for Film Digital Radiography System) is moving toward 50 micron (*approx* 16 lines/mm) resolution. This is believed to meet the need of the majority of image content needs. We expect the automated system to appear first in parts (modules) as certain operations are automated. The future will see it all come together in an automated film radiographic NDT system (author) [pt

Automated Vehicles Symposium 2015

CERN Document Server

Beiker, Sven

2016-01-01

This edited book comprises papers about the impacts, benefits and challenges of connected and automated cars. It is the third volume of the LNMOB series dealing with Road Vehicle Automation. The book comprises contributions from researchers, industry practitioners and policy makers, covering perspectives from the U.S., Europe and Japan. It is based on the Automated Vehicles Symposium 2015 which was jointly organized by the Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) and the Transportation Research Board (TRB) in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in July 2015. The topical spectrum includes, but is not limited to, public sector activities, human factors, ethical and business aspects, energy and technological perspectives, vehicle systems and transportation infrastructure. This book is an indispensable source of information for academic researchers, industrial engineers and policy makers interested in the topic of road vehicle automation.

A Crowd-Based Intelligence Approach for Measurable Security, Privacy, and Dependability in Internet of Automated Vehicles with Vehicular Fog

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ashish Rauniyar

2018-01-01

Full Text Available With the advent of Internet of things (IoT and cloud computing technologies, we are in the era of automation, device-to-device (D2D and machine-to-machine (M2M communications. Automated vehicles have recently gained a huge attention worldwide, and it has created a new wave of revolution in automobile industries. However, in order to fully establish automated vehicles and their connectivity to the surroundings, security, privacy, and dependability always remain a crucial issue. One cannot deny the fact that such automatic vehicles are highly vulnerable to different kinds of security attacks. Also, today’s such systems are built from generic components. Prior analysis of different attack trends and vulnerabilities enables us to deploy security solutions effectively. Moreover, scientific research has shown that a “group” can perform better than individuals in making decisions and predictions. Therefore, this paper deals with the measurable security, privacy, and dependability of automated vehicles through the crowd-based intelligence approach that is inspired from swarm intelligence. We have studied three use case scenarios of automated vehicles and systems with vehicular fog and have analyzed the security, privacy, and dependability metrics of such systems. Our systematic approaches to measuring efficient system configuration, security, privacy, and dependability of automated vehicles are essential for getting the overall picture of the system such as design patterns, best practices for configuration of system, metrics, and measurements.

Technical preparation of the Yuzhteploehnergomontazh trust for technological equipment mounting

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zayats, A.I.

1982-01-01

Measures of technical preparation for equipment mounting at the Zaporozhe NPP developed with the Yuzhteploehnergomontazh trust experts are considered. These measures envisage the construction of mounting base of heat facilities, calculation of labour contents and determination of necessary quantity of mounters, development of optimal flowsheet of mounting control, improvement of mounting qualification and creation of stable collective body, improvement of technical level of mounting and welding works, organizational-technical measures on mounting logistics. Factors affecting negatively technical preparation quality of equipment mounting at the Zaporozhe NPP are discussed. The flowsheet of mounting control is presented

Automated PCB Inspection System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Syed Usama BUKHARI

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Development of an automated PCB inspection system as per the need of industry is a challenging task. In this paper a case study is presented, to exhibit, a proposed system for an immigration process of a manual PCB inspection system to an automated PCB inspection system, with a minimal intervention on the existing production flow, for a leading automotive manufacturing company. A detailed design of the system, based on computer vision followed by testing and analysis was proposed, in order to aid the manufacturer in the process of automation.

SU-G-BRB-04: Automated Output Factor Measurements Using Continuous Data Logging for Linac Commissioning

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zhu, X; Li, S; Zheng, D; Wang, S; Lei, Y; Zhang, M; Ma, R; Fan, Q; Wang, X; Li, X; Verma, V; Enke, C; Zhou, S [University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE (United States)

2016-06-15

Purpose: Linac commissioning is a time consuming and labor intensive process, the streamline of which is highly desirable. In particular, manual measurement of output factors for a variety of field sizes and energy greatly hinders the commissioning efficiency. In this study, automated measurement of output factors was demonstrated as ‘one-click’ using data logging of an electrometer. Methods: Beams to be measured were created in the recording and verifying (R&V) system and configured for continuous delivery. An electrometer with an automatic data logging feature enabled continuous data collection for all fields without human intervention. The electrometer saved data into a spreadsheet every 0.5 seconds. A Matlab program was developed to analyze the excel data to monitor and check the data quality. Results: For each photon energy, output factors were measured for five configurations, including open field and four wedges. Each configuration includes 72 fields sizes, ranging from 4×4 to 20×30 cm{sup 2}. Using automation, it took 50 minutes to complete the measurement of 72 field sizes, in contrast to 80 minutes when using the manual approach. The automation avoided the necessity of redundant Linac status checks between fields as in the manual approach. In fact, the only limiting factor in such automation is Linac overheating. The data collection beams in the R&V system are reusable, and the simplified process is less error-prone. In addition, our Matlab program extracted the output factors faithfully from data logging, and the discrepancy between the automatic and manual measurement is within ±0.3%. For two separate automated measurements 30 days apart, consistency check shows a discrepancy within ±1% for 6MV photon with a 60 degree wedge. Conclusion: Automated output factor measurements can save time by 40% when compared with conventional manual approach. This work laid ground for further improvement for the automation of Linac commissioning.

SU-G-BRB-04: Automated Output Factor Measurements Using Continuous Data Logging for Linac Commissioning

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhu, X; Li, S; Zheng, D; Wang, S; Lei, Y; Zhang, M; Ma, R; Fan, Q; Wang, X; Li, X; Verma, V; Enke, C; Zhou, S

2016-01-01

Purpose: Linac commissioning is a time consuming and labor intensive process, the streamline of which is highly desirable. In particular, manual measurement of output factors for a variety of field sizes and energy greatly hinders the commissioning efficiency. In this study, automated measurement of output factors was demonstrated as ‘one-click’ using data logging of an electrometer. Methods: Beams to be measured were created in the recording and verifying (R&V) system and configured for continuous delivery. An electrometer with an automatic data logging feature enabled continuous data collection for all fields without human intervention. The electrometer saved data into a spreadsheet every 0.5 seconds. A Matlab program was developed to analyze the excel data to monitor and check the data quality. Results: For each photon energy, output factors were measured for five configurations, including open field and four wedges. Each configuration includes 72 fields sizes, ranging from 4×4 to 20×30 cm"2. Using automation, it took 50 minutes to complete the measurement of 72 field sizes, in contrast to 80 minutes when using the manual approach. The automation avoided the necessity of redundant Linac status checks between fields as in the manual approach. In fact, the only limiting factor in such automation is Linac overheating. The data collection beams in the R&V system are reusable, and the simplified process is less error-prone. In addition, our Matlab program extracted the output factors faithfully from data logging, and the discrepancy between the automatic and manual measurement is within ±0.3%. For two separate automated measurements 30 days apart, consistency check shows a discrepancy within ±1% for 6MV photon with a 60 degree wedge. Conclusion: Automated output factor measurements can save time by 40% when compared with conventional manual approach. This work laid ground for further improvement for the automation of Linac commissioning.

Automated integration of continuous glucose monitor data in the electronic health record using consumer technology.

Science.gov (United States)

Kumar, Rajiv B; Goren, Nira D; Stark, David E; Wall, Dennis P; Longhurst, Christopher A

2016-05-01

The diabetes healthcare provider plays a key role in interpreting blood glucose trends, but few institutions have successfully integrated patient home glucose data in the electronic health record (EHR). Published implementations to date have required custom interfaces, which limit wide-scale replication. We piloted automated integration of continuous glucose monitor data in the EHR using widely available consumer technology for 10 pediatric patients with insulin-dependent diabetes. Establishment of a passive data communication bridge via a patient's/parent's smartphone enabled automated integration and analytics of patient device data within the EHR between scheduled clinic visits. It is feasible to utilize available consumer technology to assess and triage home diabetes device data within the EHR, and to engage patients/parents and improve healthcare provider workflow. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Medical Informatics Association.

Automated lung nodule classification following automated nodule detection on CT: A serial approach

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Armato, Samuel G. III; Altman, Michael B.; Wilkie, Joel; Sone, Shusuke; Li, Feng; Doi, Kunio; Roy, Arunabha S.

2003-01-01

We have evaluated the performance of an automated classifier applied to the task of differentiating malignant and benign lung nodules in low-dose helical computed tomography (CT) scans acquired as part of a lung cancer screening program. The nodules classified in this manner were initially identified by our automated lung nodule detection method, so that the output of automated lung nodule detection was used as input to automated lung nodule classification. This study begins to narrow the distinction between the 'detection task' and the 'classification task'. Automated lung nodule detection is based on two- and three-dimensional analyses of the CT image data. Gray-level-thresholding techniques are used to identify initial lung nodule candidates, for which morphological and gray-level features are computed. A rule-based approach is applied to reduce the number of nodule candidates that correspond to non-nodules, and the features of remaining candidates are merged through linear discriminant analysis to obtain final detection results. Automated lung nodule classification merges the features of the lung nodule candidates identified by the detection algorithm that correspond to actual nodules through another linear discriminant classifier to distinguish between malignant and benign nodules. The automated classification method was applied to the computerized detection results obtained from a database of 393 low-dose thoracic CT scans containing 470 confirmed lung nodules (69 malignant and 401 benign nodules). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was used to evaluate the ability of the classifier to differentiate between nodule candidates that correspond to malignant nodules and nodule candidates that correspond to benign lesions. The area under the ROC curve for this classification task attained a value of 0.79 during a leave-one-out evaluation

Automated quantification of neuronal networks and single-cell calcium dynamics using calcium imaging.

Science.gov (United States)

Patel, Tapan P; Man, Karen; Firestein, Bonnie L; Meaney, David F

2015-03-30

Recent advances in genetically engineered calcium and membrane potential indicators provide the potential to estimate the activation dynamics of individual neurons within larger, mesoscale networks (100s-1000+neurons). However, a fully integrated automated workflow for the analysis and visualization of neural microcircuits from high speed fluorescence imaging data is lacking. Here we introduce FluoroSNNAP, Fluorescence Single Neuron and Network Analysis Package. FluoroSNNAP is an open-source, interactive software developed in MATLAB for automated quantification of numerous biologically relevant features of both the calcium dynamics of single-cells and network activity patterns. FluoroSNNAP integrates and improves upon existing tools for spike detection, synchronization analysis, and inference of functional connectivity, making it most useful to experimentalists with little or no programming knowledge. We apply FluoroSNNAP to characterize the activity patterns of neuronal microcircuits undergoing developmental maturation in vitro. Separately, we highlight the utility of single-cell analysis for phenotyping a mixed population of neurons expressing a human mutant variant of the microtubule associated protein tau and wild-type tau. We show the performance of semi-automated cell segmentation using spatiotemporal independent component analysis and significant improvement in detecting calcium transients using a template-based algorithm in comparison to peak-based or wavelet-based detection methods. Our software further enables automated analysis of microcircuits, which is an improvement over existing methods. We expect the dissemination of this software will facilitate a comprehensive analysis of neuronal networks, promoting the rapid interrogation of circuits in health and disease. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Automation of Electrical Cable Harnesses Testing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhuming Bi

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Traditional automated systems, such as industrial robots, are applied in well-structured environments, and many automated systems have a limited adaptability to deal with complexity and uncertainty; therefore, the applications of industrial robots in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs are very limited. The majority of manual operations in SMEs are too complicated for automation. The rapidly developed information technologies (IT has brought new opportunities for the automation of manufacturing and assembly processes in the ill-structured environments. Note that an automation solution should be designed to meet the given requirements of the specified application, and it differs from one application to another. In this paper, we look into the feasibility of automated testing for electric cable harnesses, and our focus is on some of the generic strategies for the improvement of the adaptability of automation solutions. Especially, the concept of modularization is adopted in developing hardware and software to maximize system adaptability in testing a wide scope of products. A proposed system has been implemented, and the system performances have been evaluated by executing tests on actual products. The testing experiments have shown that the automated system outperformed manual operations greatly in terms of cost-saving, productivity and reliability. Due to the potential of increasing system adaptability and cost reduction, the presented work has its theoretical and practical significance for an extension for other automation solutions in SMEs.

Current status and future prospects for enabling chemistry technology in the drug discovery process [version 1; referees: 2 approved

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stevan W. Djuric

2016-09-01

Full Text Available This review covers recent advances in the implementation of enabling chemistry technologies into the drug discovery process. Areas covered include parallel synthesis chemistry, high-throughput experimentation, automated synthesis and purification methods, flow chemistry methodology including photochemistry, electrochemistry, and the handling of “dangerous” reagents. Also featured are advances in the “computer-assisted drug design” area and the expanding application of novel mass spectrometry-based techniques to a wide range of drug discovery activities.

Quantitative Estimation for the Effectiveness of Automation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Seung Min; Seong, Poong Hyun

2012-01-01

In advanced MCR, various automation systems are applied to enhance the human performance and reduce the human errors in industrial fields. It is expected that automation provides greater efficiency, lower workload, and fewer human errors. However, these promises are not always fulfilled. As the new types of events related to application of the imperfect and complex automation are occurred, it is required to analyze the effects of automation system for the performance of human operators. Therefore, we suggest the quantitative estimation method to analyze the effectiveness of the automation systems according to Level of Automation (LOA) classification, which has been developed over 30 years. The estimation of the effectiveness of automation will be achieved by calculating the failure probability of human performance related to the cognitive activities

Automating spectral measurements

Science.gov (United States)

Goldstein, Fred T.

2008-09-01

This paper discusses the architecture of software utilized in spectroscopic measurements. As optical coatings become more sophisticated, there is mounting need to automate data acquisition (DAQ) from spectrophotometers. Such need is exacerbated when 100% inspection is required, ancillary devices are utilized, cost reduction is crucial, or security is vital. While instrument manufacturers normally provide point-and-click DAQ software, an application programming interface (API) may be missing. In such cases automation is impossible or expensive. An API is typically provided in libraries (*.dll, *.ocx) which may be embedded in user-developed applications. Users can thereby implement DAQ automation in several Windows languages. Another possibility, developed by FTG as an alternative to instrument manufacturers' software, is the ActiveX application (*.exe). ActiveX, a component of many Windows applications, provides means for programming and interoperability. This architecture permits a point-and-click program to act as automation client and server. Excel, for example, can control and be controlled by DAQ applications. Most importantly, ActiveX permits ancillary devices such as barcode readers and XY-stages to be easily and economically integrated into scanning procedures. Since an ActiveX application has its own user-interface, it can be independently tested. The ActiveX application then runs (visibly or invisibly) under DAQ software control. Automation capabilities are accessed via a built-in spectro-BASIC language with industry-standard (VBA-compatible) syntax. Supplementing ActiveX, spectro-BASIC also includes auxiliary serial port commands for interfacing programmable logic controllers (PLC). A typical application is automatic filter handling.

Ask the experts: automation: part I.

Science.gov (United States)

Allinson, John L; Blick, Kenneth E; Cohen, Lucinda; Higton, David; Li, Ming

2013-08-01

Bioanalysis invited a selection of leading researchers to express their views on automation in the bioanalytical laboratory. The topics discussed include the challenges that the modern bioanalyst faces when integrating automation into existing drug-development processes, the impact of automation and how they envision the modern bioanalytical laboratory changing in the near future. Their enlightening responses provide a valuable insight into the impact of automation and the future of the constantly evolving bioanalytical laboratory.

An Automation Survival Guide for Media Centers.

Science.gov (United States)

Whaley, Roger E.

1989-01-01

Reviews factors that should affect the decision to automate a school media center and offers suggestions for the automation process. Topics discussed include getting the library collection ready for automation, deciding what automated functions are needed, evaluating software vendors, selecting software, and budgeting. (CLB)

Automated profiling of individual cell-cell interactions from high-throughput time-lapse imaging microscopy in nanowell grids (TIMING).

Science.gov (United States)

Merouane, Amine; Rey-Villamizar, Nicolas; Lu, Yanbin; Liadi, Ivan; Romain, Gabrielle; Lu, Jennifer; Singh, Harjeet; Cooper, Laurence J N; Varadarajan, Navin; Roysam, Badrinath

2015-10-01

There is a need for effective automated methods for profiling dynamic cell-cell interactions with single-cell resolution from high-throughput time-lapse imaging data, especially, the interactions between immune effector cells and tumor cells in adoptive immunotherapy. Fluorescently labeled human T cells, natural killer cells (NK), and various target cells (NALM6, K562, EL4) were co-incubated on polydimethylsiloxane arrays of sub-nanoliter wells (nanowells), and imaged using multi-channel time-lapse microscopy. The proposed cell segmentation and tracking algorithms account for cell variability and exploit the nanowell confinement property to increase the yield of correctly analyzed nanowells from 45% (existing algorithms) to 98% for wells containing one effector and a single target, enabling automated quantification of cell locations, morphologies, movements, interactions, and deaths without the need for manual proofreading. Automated analysis of recordings from 12 different experiments demonstrated automated nanowell delineation accuracy >99%, automated cell segmentation accuracy >95%, and automated cell tracking accuracy of 90%, with default parameters, despite variations in illumination, staining, imaging noise, cell morphology, and cell clustering. An example analysis revealed that NK cells efficiently discriminate between live and dead targets by altering the duration of conjugation. The data also demonstrated that cytotoxic cells display higher motility than non-killers, both before and during contact. broysam@central.uh.edu or nvaradar@central.uh.edu Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Demands on digital automation; Anforderungen an die Digitale Automation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bieler, P.

1995-12-31

In chapter 12 of the anthology about building control the demands on digital automation are presented. The following aspects are discussed: variety of the companies` philosophies, demands of the customer/investor, demands of the use of buildings/rooms, the user, point of view of manufacturer of technical plants. (BWI) [Deutsch] Kapitel 12 des Sammelbandes ueber Building Control stellt die Anforderungen an die Digitale Automation vor. In diesem Zusammenhang wird auf folgende Themenbereiche eingegangen: Spektrum der Firmenphilosophien, Forderungen der Auftraggeber/Investoren, der Gebaeude-/Raumnutzung, der Betreiber sowie Sicht der Ersteller betriebstechnischer Anlagen. (BWI)

Disassembly automation automated systems with cognitive abilities

CERN Document Server

Vongbunyong, Supachai

2015-01-01

This book presents a number of aspects to be considered in the development of disassembly automation, including the mechanical system, vision system and intelligent planner. The implementation of cognitive robotics increases the flexibility and degree of autonomy of the disassembly system. Disassembly, as a step in the treatment of end-of-life products, can allow the recovery of embodied value left within disposed products, as well as the appropriate separation of potentially-hazardous components. In the end-of-life treatment industry, disassembly has largely been limited to manual labor, which is expensive in developed countries. Automation is one possible solution for economic feasibility. The target audience primarily comprises researchers and experts in the field, but the book may also be beneficial for graduate students.

Automations influence on nuclear power plants: a look at three accidents and how automation played a role.

Science.gov (United States)

Schmitt, Kara

2012-01-01

Nuclear power is one of the ways that we can design an efficient sustainable future. Automation is the primary system used to assist operators in the task of monitoring and controlling nuclear power plants (NPP). Automation performs tasks such as assessing the status of the plant's operations as well as making real time life critical situational specific decisions. While the advantages and disadvantages of automation are well studied in variety of domains, accidents remind us that there is still vulnerability to unknown variables. This paper will look at the effects of automation within three NPP accidents and incidents and will consider why automation failed in preventing these accidents from occurring. It will also review the accidents at the Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima Daiichi NPP's in order to determine where better use of automation could have resulted in a more desirable outcome.

Automated System Marketplace 1994.

Science.gov (United States)

Griffiths, Jose-Marie; Kertis, Kimberly

1994-01-01

Reports results of the 1994 Automated System Marketplace survey based on responses from 60 vendors. Highlights include changes in the library automation marketplace; estimated library systems revenues; minicomputer and microcomputer-based systems; marketplace trends; global markets and mergers; research needs; new purchase processes; and profiles…

Automation in Warehouse Development

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hamberg, R.; Verriet, J.

2012-01-01

The warehouses of the future will come in a variety of forms, but with a few common ingredients. Firstly, human operational handling of items in warehouses is increasingly being replaced by automated item handling. Extended warehouse automation counteracts the scarcity of human operators and

Operational proof of automation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jaerschky, R.; Reifenhaeuser, R.; Schlicht, K.

1976-01-01

Automation of the power plant process may imply quite a number of problems. The automation of dynamic operations requires complicated programmes often interfering in several branched areas. This reduces clarity for the operating and maintenance staff, whilst increasing the possibilities of errors. The synthesis and the organization of standardized equipment have proved very successful. The possibilities offered by this kind of automation for improving the operation of power plants will only sufficiently and correctly be turned to profit, however, if the application of these technics of equipment is further improved and if its volume is tallied with a definite etc. (orig.) [de

Chef infrastructure automation cookbook

CERN Document Server

Marschall, Matthias

2013-01-01

Chef Infrastructure Automation Cookbook contains practical recipes on everything you will need to automate your infrastructure using Chef. The book is packed with illustrated code examples to automate your server and cloud infrastructure.The book first shows you the simplest way to achieve a certain task. Then it explains every step in detail, so that you can build your knowledge about how things work. Eventually, the book shows you additional things to consider for each approach. That way, you can learn step-by-step and build profound knowledge on how to go about your configuration management

Operational proof of automation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jaerschky, R.; Schlicht, K.

1977-01-01

Automation of the power plant process may imply quite a number of problems. The automation of dynamic operations requires complicated programmes often interfering in several branched areas. This reduces clarity for the operating and maintenance staff, whilst increasing the possibilities of errors. The synthesis and the organization of standardized equipment have proved very successful. The possibilities offered by this kind of automation for improving the operation of power plants will only sufficiently and correctly be turned to profit, however, if the application of these equipment techniques is further improved and if it stands in a certain ratio with a definite efficiency. (orig.) [de

Development and evaluation of an automated reflectance microscope system for the petrographic characterization of bituminous coals

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hoover, D. S.; Davis, A.

1980-10-01

The development of automated coal petrographic techniques will lessen the demands on skilled personnel to do routine work. This project is concerned with the development and successful testing of an instrument which will meet these needs. The fundamental differences in reflectance of the three primary maceral groups should enable their differentiation in an automated-reflectance frequency histogram (reflectogram). Consequently, reflected light photometry was chosen as the method for automating coal petrographic analysis. Three generations of an automated system (called Rapid Scan Versions I, II and III) were developed and evaluated for petrographic analysis. Their basic design was that of a reflected-light microscope photometer with an automatic stage, interfaced with a minicomputer. The hardware elements used in the Rapid Scan Version I limited the system's flexibility and presented problems with signal digitization and measurement precision. Rapid Scan Version II was designed to incorporate a new microscope photometer and computer system. A digital stepping stage was incorporated into the Rapid Scan Version III system. The precision of reflectance determination of this system was found to be +- 0.02 percent reflectance. The limiting factor in quantitative interpretation of Rapid Scan reflectograms is the resolution of reflectance populations of the individual maceral groups. Statistical testing indicated that reflectograms were highly reproducible, and a new computer program, PETAN, was written to interpret the curves for vitrinite reflectance parameters ad petrographic.

Towards automated crystallographic structure refinement with phenix.refine

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Afonine, Pavel V., E-mail: pafonine@lbl.gov; Grosse-Kunstleve, Ralf W.; Echols, Nathaniel; Headd, Jeffrey J.; Moriarty, Nigel W. [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, One Cyclotron Road, MS64R0121, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States); Mustyakimov, Marat; Terwilliger, Thomas C. [Los Alamos National Laboratory, M888, Los Alamos, NM 87545 (United States); Urzhumtsev, Alexandre [CNRS–INSERM–UdS, 1 Rue Laurent Fries, BP 10142, 67404 Illkirch (France); Université Henri Poincaré, Nancy 1, BP 239, 54506 Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy (France); Zwart, Peter H. [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, One Cyclotron Road, MS64R0121, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States); Adams, Paul D. [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, One Cyclotron Road, MS64R0121, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States); University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States)

2012-04-01

phenix.refine is a program within the PHENIX package that supports crystallographic structure refinement against experimental data with a wide range of upper resolution limits using a large repertoire of model parameterizations. This paper presents an overview of the major phenix.refine features, with extensive literature references for readers interested in more detailed discussions of the methods. phenix.refine is a program within the PHENIX package that supports crystallographic structure refinement against experimental data with a wide range of upper resolution limits using a large repertoire of model parameterizations. It has several automation features and is also highly flexible. Several hundred parameters enable extensive customizations for complex use cases. Multiple user-defined refinement strategies can be applied to specific parts of the model in a single refinement run. An intuitive graphical user interface is available to guide novice users and to assist advanced users in managing refinement projects. X-ray or neutron diffraction data can be used separately or jointly in refinement. phenix.refine is tightly integrated into the PHENIX suite, where it serves as a critical component in automated model building, final structure refinement, structure validation and deposition to the wwPDB. This paper presents an overview of the major phenix.refine features, with extensive literature references for readers interested in more detailed discussions of the methods.

Automated Image Analysis of Offshore Infrastructure Marine Biofouling

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kate Gormley

2018-01-01

Full Text Available In the UK, some of the oldest oil and gas installations have been in the water for over 40 years and have considerable colonisation by marine organisms, which may lead to both industry challenges and/or potential biodiversity benefits (e.g., artificial reefs. The project objective was to test the use of an automated image analysis software (CoralNet on images of marine biofouling from offshore platforms on the UK continental shelf, with the aim of (i training the software to identify the main marine biofouling organisms on UK platforms; (ii testing the software performance on 3 platforms under 3 different analysis criteria (methods A–C; (iii calculating the percentage cover of marine biofouling organisms and (iv providing recommendations to industry. Following software training with 857 images, and testing of three platforms, results showed that diversity of the three platforms ranged from low (in the central North Sea to moderate (in the northern North Sea. The two central North Sea platforms were dominated by the plumose anemone Metridium dianthus; and the northern North Sea platform showed less obvious species domination. Three different analysis criteria were created, where the method of selection of points, number of points assessed and confidence level thresholds (CT varied: (method A random selection of 20 points with CT 80%, (method B stratified random of 50 points with CT of 90% and (method C a grid approach of 100 points with CT of 90%. Performed across the three platforms, the results showed that there were no significant differences across the majority of species and comparison pairs. No significant difference (across all species was noted between confirmed annotations methods (A, B and C. It was considered that the software performed well for the classification of the main fouling species in the North Sea. Overall, the study showed that the use of automated image analysis software may enable a more efficient and consistent

Future Computer, Communication, Control and Automation

CERN Document Server

2011 International Conference on Computer, Communication, Control and Automation

2012-01-01

The volume includes a set of selected papers extended and revised from the 2011 International Conference on Computer, Communication, Control and Automation (3CA 2011). 2011 International Conference on Computer, Communication, Control and Automation (3CA 2011) has been held in Zhuhai, China, November 19-20, 2011. This volume topics covered include wireless communications, advances in wireless video, wireless sensors networking, security in wireless networks, network measurement and management, hybrid and discrete-event systems, internet analytics and automation, robotic system and applications, reconfigurable automation systems, machine vision in automation. We hope that researchers, graduate students and other interested readers benefit scientifically from the proceedings and also find it stimulating in the process.

Introduction matters: Manipulating trust in automation and reliance in automated driving.

Science.gov (United States)

Körber, Moritz; Baseler, Eva; Bengler, Klaus

2018-01-01

Trust in automation is a key determinant for the adoption of automated systems and their appropriate use. Therefore, it constitutes an essential research area for the introduction of automated vehicles to road traffic. In this study, we investigated the influence of trust promoting (Trust promoted group) and trust lowering (Trust lowered group) introductory information on reported trust, reliance behavior and take-over performance. Forty participants encountered three situations in a 17-min highway drive in a conditionally automated vehicle (SAE Level 3). Situation 1 and Situation 3 were non-critical situations where a take-over was optional. Situation 2 represented a critical situation where a take-over was necessary to avoid a collision. A non-driving-related task (NDRT) was presented between the situations to record the allocation of visual attention. Participants reporting a higher trust level spent less time looking at the road or instrument cluster and more time looking at the NDRT. The manipulation of introductory information resulted in medium differences in reported trust and influenced participants' reliance behavior. Participants of the Trust promoted group looked less at the road or instrument cluster and more at the NDRT. The odds of participants of the Trust promoted group to overrule the automated driving system in the non-critical situations were 3.65 times (Situation 1) to 5 times (Situation 3) higher. In Situation 2, the Trust promoted group's mean take-over time was extended by 1154 ms and the mean minimum time-to-collision was 933 ms shorter. Six participants from the Trust promoted group compared to no participant of the Trust lowered group collided with the obstacle. The results demonstrate that the individual trust level influences how much drivers monitor the environment while performing an NDRT. Introductory information influences this trust level, reliance on an automated driving system, and if a critical take-over situation can be

Homogeneous immunosubtraction integrated with sample preparation is enabled by a microfluidic format

Science.gov (United States)

Apori, Akwasi A.; Herr, Amy E.

2011-01-01

Immunosubtraction is a powerful and resource-intensive laboratory medicine assay that reports both protein mobility and binding specificity. To expedite and automate this electrophoretic assay, we report on advances to the electrophoretic immunosubtraction assay by introducing a homogeneous, not heterogeneous, format with integrated sample preparation. To accomplish homogeneous immunosubtraction, a step-decrease in separation matrix pore-size at the head of a polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) separation channel enables ‘subtraction’ of target analyte when capture antibody is present (as the large immune-complex is excluded from PAGE), but no subtraction when capture antibody is absent. Inclusion of sample preparation functionality via small pore size polyacrylamide membranes is also key to automated operation (i.e., sample enrichment, fluorescence sample labeling, and mixing of sample with free capture antibody). Homogenous sample preparation and assay operation allows on-the-fly, integrated subtraction of one to multiple protein targets and reuse of each device. Optimization of the assay is detailed which allowed for ~95% subtraction of target with 20% non-specific extraction of large species at the optimal antibody-antigen ratio, providing conditions needed for selective target identification. We demonstrate the assay on putative markers of injury and inflammation in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), an emerging area of diagnostics research, by rapidly reporting protein mobility and binding specificity within the sample matrix. We simultaneously detect S100B and C-reactive protein, suspected biomarkers for traumatic brain injury (TBI), in ~2 min. Lastly, we demonstrate S100B detection (65 nM) in raw human CSF with a lower limit of detection of ~3.25 nM, within the clinically relevant concentration range for detecting TBI in CSF. Beyond the novel CSF assay introduced here, a fully automated immunosubtraction assay would impact a spectrum of routine but labor

AutoDrug: fully automated macromolecular crystallography workflows for fragment-based drug discovery

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tsai, Yingssu; McPhillips, Scott E.; González, Ana; McPhillips, Timothy M.; Zinn, Daniel; Cohen, Aina E.; Feese, Michael D.; Bushnell, David; Tiefenbrunn, Theresa; Stout, C. David; Ludaescher, Bertram; Hedman, Britt; Hodgson, Keith O.; Soltis, S. Michael

2013-01-01

New software has been developed for automating the experimental and data-processing stages of fragment-based drug discovery at a macromolecular crystallography beamline. A new workflow-automation framework orchestrates beamline-control and data-analysis software while organizing results from multiple samples. AutoDrug is software based upon the scientific workflow paradigm that integrates the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource macromolecular crystallography beamlines and third-party processing software to automate the crystallography steps of the fragment-based drug-discovery process. AutoDrug screens a cassette of fragment-soaked crystals, selects crystals for data collection based on screening results and user-specified criteria and determines optimal data-collection strategies. It then collects and processes diffraction data, performs molecular replacement using provided models and detects electron density that is likely to arise from bound fragments. All processes are fully automated, i.e. are performed without user interaction or supervision. Samples can be screened in groups corresponding to particular proteins, crystal forms and/or soaking conditions. A single AutoDrug run is only limited by the capacity of the sample-storage dewar at the beamline: currently 288 samples. AutoDrug was developed in conjunction with RestFlow, a new scientific workflow-automation framework. RestFlow simplifies the design of AutoDrug by managing the flow of data and the organization of results and by orchestrating the execution of computational pipeline steps. It also simplifies the execution and interaction of third-party programs and the beamline-control system. Modeling AutoDrug as a scientific workflow enables multiple variants that meet the requirements of different user groups to be developed and supported. A workflow tailored to mimic the crystallography stages comprising the drug-discovery pipeline of CoCrystal Discovery Inc. has been deployed and successfully

Web-enabled work permit system for fast breeder test reactor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Madurai Meenachi, N.; Vinolia, K.; Ramanathan, V.

2003-01-01

The objective of this project is to computerize and web-enable the Work Permit System for the Fast Breeder Test Reactor (FBTR) at IGCAR, Kalpakkam. The existing Work Permit System at FBTR was studied in detail. Since all the formalities were paper-based, the risk of human error in scrutinizing all permits before reactor start-up was high. Compilation of reports (daily, monthly, yearly etc.) was tedious. The work permit system was therefore automated in order to enable the operation group manage the maintenance work carried out in the plant systematically with entries. The entire project was classified into five permit modules -maintenance, transfer, return, cancellation and reissue. Each module takes care of the entry and maintenance of data in their respective fields in their respective tables. The user is also provided with an option to take a hard copy of the report of his/her choice. A client/server based system was designed to web-enable the entire project. The server program was designed using VB 6.0 as the front-end and MS Access database as the back end to store the data. The client software was developed using Active Server Pages and published using personal web server in the Intranet. A number of administrative tools have been incorporated in the software to ensure access security and integrity of the database. An online help feature with search facilities was added to the software. The work permit system software is now already being used at FBTR and has been deemed to be an invaluable aid in empowering the availability of the reactor and determining the performance history of the equipment. (author)

Automating the Small Library.

Science.gov (United States)

Skapura, Robert

1987-01-01

Discusses the use of microcomputers for automating school libraries, both for entire systems and for specific library tasks. Highlights include available library management software, newsletters that evaluate software, constructing an evaluation matrix, steps to consider in library automation, and a brief discussion of computerized card catalogs.…

GUI test automation for Qt application

OpenAIRE

Wang, Lei

2015-01-01

GUI test automation is a popular and interesting subject in the testing industry. Many companies plan to start test automation projects in order to implement efficient, less expensive software testing. However, there are challenges for the testing team who lack experience performing GUI tests automation. Many GUI test automation projects have ended in failure due to mistakes made during the early stages of the project. The major work of this thesis is to find a solution to the challenges of e...

Automation synthesis modules review

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boschi, S.; Lodi, F.; Malizia, C.; Cicoria, G.; Marengo, M.

2013-01-01

The introduction of 68 Ga labelled tracers has changed the diagnostic approach to neuroendocrine tumours and the availability of a reliable, long-lived 68 Ge/ 68 Ga generator has been at the bases of the development of 68 Ga radiopharmacy. The huge increase in clinical demand, the impact of regulatory issues and a careful radioprotection of the operators have boosted for extensive automation of the production process. The development of automated systems for 68 Ga radiochemistry, different engineering and software strategies and post-processing of the eluate were discussed along with impact of automation with regulations. - Highlights: ► Generators availability and robust chemistry boosted for the huge diffusion of 68Ga radiopharmaceuticals. ► Different technological approaches for 68Ga radiopharmaceuticals will be discussed. ► Generator eluate post processing and evolution to cassette based systems were the major issues in automation. ► Impact of regulations on the technological development will be also considered

76 FR 69755 - National Customs Automation Program Test Concerning Automated Commercial Environment (ACE...

Science.gov (United States)

2011-11-09

... DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY U.S. Customs and Border Protection National Customs Automation... announces U.S. Customs and Border Protection's (CBP's) plan to conduct a National Customs Automation Program... conveyance transporting the cargo to the United States. This data will fulfill merchandise entry requirements...

I trust it, but I don't know why: effects of implicit attitudes toward automation on trust in an automated system.

Science.gov (United States)

Merritt, Stephanie M; Heimbaugh, Heather; LaChapell, Jennifer; Lee, Deborah

2013-06-01

This study is the first to examine the influence of implicit attitudes toward automation on users' trust in automation. Past empirical work has examined explicit (conscious) influences on user level of trust in automation but has not yet measured implicit influences. We examine concurrent effects of explicit propensity to trust machines and implicit attitudes toward automation on trust in an automated system. We examine differential impacts of each under varying automation performance conditions (clearly good, ambiguous, clearly poor). Participants completed both a self-report measure of propensity to trust and an Implicit Association Test measuring implicit attitude toward automation, then performed an X-ray screening task. Automation performance was manipulated within-subjects by varying the number and obviousness of errors. Explicit propensity to trust and implicit attitude toward automation did not significantly correlate. When the automation's performance was ambiguous, implicit attitude significantly affected automation trust, and its relationship with propensity to trust was additive: Increments in either were related to increases in trust. When errors were obvious, a significant interaction between the implicit and explicit measures was found, with those high in both having higher trust. Implicit attitudes have important implications for automation trust. Users may not be able to accurately report why they experience a given level of trust. To understand why users trust or fail to trust automation, measurements of implicit and explicit predictors may be necessary. Furthermore, implicit attitude toward automation might be used as a lever to effectively calibrate trust.

Towards Automated Reasoning on ORM Schemes

Science.gov (United States)

Jarrar, Mustafa

The goal of this article is to formalize Object Role Modeling (ORM) using the {DLR} description logic. This would enable automated reasoning on the formal properties of ORM diagrams, such as detecting constraint contradictions and implications. In addition, the expressive, methodological, and graphical capabilities of ORM make it a good candidate for use as a graphical notation for most description logic languages. In this way, industrial experts who are not IT savvy will still be able to build and view axiomatized theories (such as ontologies, business rules, etc.) without needing to know the logic or reasoning foundations underpinning them. Our formalization in this paper is structured as 29 formalization rules, that map all ORM primitives and constraints into {DLR}, and 2 exceptions of complex cases. To this end, we illustrate the implementation of our formalization as an extension to DogmaModeler, which automatically maps ORM into DIG and uses Racer as a background reasoning engine to reason about ORM diagrams.

Robotics/Automated Systems Technicians.

Science.gov (United States)

Doty, Charles R.

Major resources exist that can be used to develop or upgrade programs in community colleges and technical institutes that educate robotics/automated systems technicians. The first category of resources is Economic, Social, and Education Issues. The Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) report, "Automation and the Workplace," presents analyses of…

Evaluation of an Automated Keywording System.

Science.gov (United States)

Malone, Linda C.; And Others

1990-01-01

Discussion of automated indexing techniques focuses on ways to statistically document improvements in the development of an automated keywording system over time. The system developed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff to automate the storage, categorization, and retrieval of information from military exercises is explained, and performance measures are…

Future Control and Automation : Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Future Control and Automation

CERN Document Server

2012-01-01

This volume Future Control and Automation- Volume 2 includes best papers from 2012 2nd International Conference on Future Control and Automation (ICFCA 2012) held on July 1-2, 2012, Changsha, China. Future control and automation is the use of control systems and information technologies to reduce the need for human work in the production of goods and services. This volume can be divided into six sessions on the basis of the classification of manuscripts considered, which is listed as follows: Mathematical Modeling, Analysis and Computation, Control Engineering, Reliable Networks Design, Vehicular Communications and Networking, Automation and Mechatronics.

Automation for a base station stability testing

OpenAIRE

Punnek, Elvis

2016-01-01

This Batchelor’s thesis was commissioned by Oy LM Ericsson Ab Oulu. The aim of it was to help to investigate and create a test automation solution for the stability testing of the LTE base station. The main objective was to create a test automation for a predefined test set. This test automation solution had to be created for specific environments and equipment. This work included creating the automation for the test cases and putting them to daily test automation jobs. The key factor...

Automated security management

CERN Document Server

Al-Shaer, Ehab; Xie, Geoffrey

2013-01-01

In this contributed volume, leading international researchers explore configuration modeling and checking, vulnerability and risk assessment, configuration analysis, and diagnostics and discovery. The authors equip readers to understand automated security management systems and techniques that increase overall network assurability and usability. These constantly changing networks defend against cyber attacks by integrating hundreds of security devices such as firewalls, IPSec gateways, IDS/IPS, authentication servers, authorization/RBAC servers, and crypto systems. Automated Security Managemen

Automated Physico-Chemical Cell Model Development through Information Theory

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Peter J. Ortoleva

2005-11-29

The objective of this project was to develop predictive models of the chemical responses of microbial cells to variations in their surroundings. The application of these models is optimization of environmental remediation and energy-producing biotechnical processes.The principles on which our project is based are as follows: chemical thermodynamics and kinetics; automation of calibration through information theory; integration of multiplex data (e.g. cDNA microarrays, NMR, proteomics), cell modeling, and bifurcation theory to overcome cellular complexity; and the use of multiplex data and information theory to calibrate and run an incomplete model. In this report we review four papers summarizing key findings and a web-enabled, multiple module workflow we have implemented that consists of a set of interoperable systems biology computational modules.

Normative legal regulating of vehicles with a high degree of automation of control: strategy and tactics for implementation in Russia

Science.gov (United States)

Kisulenko, B. V.; Bocharov, A. V.; Pugachev, V. V.

2018-02-01

The article discusses the risks specific to vehicles with a high level of automation of control, and conditions the limits on the operating conditions of such vehicles. The article determines existing legal barriers to the implementation of autonomous vehicles. The article contains an analysis of foreign practice of regulating in the European Union, Japan and the United States and information about the UNECE activities aimed at enabling operation of vehicles with a high degree of automation control. Basing on the results of the analysis, the authors made proposals for removal of legal barriers. The article also contains proposals for the development of specific requirements for autonomous vehicles associated with their specific features of design.

Adding diverse noncanonical backbones to rosetta: enabling peptidomimetic design.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kevin Drew

Full Text Available Peptidomimetics are classes of molecules that mimic structural and functional attributes of polypeptides. Peptidomimetic oligomers can frequently be synthesized using efficient solid phase synthesis procedures similar to peptide synthesis. Conformationally ordered peptidomimetic oligomers are finding broad applications for molecular recognition and for inhibiting protein-protein interactions. One critical limitation is the limited set of design tools for identifying oligomer sequences that can adopt desired conformations. Here, we present expansions to the ROSETTA platform that enable structure prediction and design of five non-peptidic oligomer scaffolds (noncanonical backbones, oligooxopiperazines, oligo-peptoids, [Formula: see text]-peptides, hydrogen bond surrogate helices and oligosaccharides. This work is complementary to prior additions to model noncanonical protein side chains in ROSETTA. The main purpose of our manuscript is to give a detailed description to current and future developers of how each of these noncanonical backbones was implemented. Furthermore, we provide a general outline for implementation of new backbone types not discussed here. To illustrate the utility of this approach, we describe the first tests of the ROSETTA molecular mechanics energy function in the context of oligooxopiperazines, using quantum mechanical calculations as comparison points, scanning through backbone and side chain torsion angles for a model peptidomimetic. Finally, as an example of a novel design application, we describe the automated design of an oligooxopiperazine that inhibits the p53-MDM2 protein-protein interaction. For the general biological and bioengineering community, several noncanonical backbones have been incorporated into web applications that allow users to freely and rapidly test the presented protocols (http://rosie.rosettacommons.org. This work helps address the peptidomimetic community's need for an automated and expandable

Automation System Products and Research

OpenAIRE

Rintala, Mikko; Sormunen, Jussi; Kuisma, Petri; Rahkala, Matti

2014-01-01

Automation systems are used in most buildings nowadays. In the past they were mainly used in industry to control and monitor critical systems. During the past few decades the automation systems have become more common and are used today from big industrial solutions to homes of private customers. With the growing need for ecologic and cost-efficient management systems, home and building automation systems are becoming a standard way of controlling lighting, ventilation, heating etc. Auto...

Guidelines for Automation Project Execution

OpenAIRE

Takkinen, Heidi

2011-01-01

The purpose of this Master’s thesis was to create instructions for executing an automation project. Sarlin Oy Ab needed directions on how to execute an automation project. Sarlin is starting up a new business area offering total project solutions for customers. Sarlin focuses on small and minor automation projects on domestic markets. The thesis represents issues related to project execution starting from the theory of the project to its kick-off and termination. Site work is one importan...

Organizational changes and automation: Towards a customer-oriented automation: Part 3

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Van Gelder, J.W.

1994-01-01

Automation offers great opportunities in the efforts of energy utilities in the Netherlands to reorganize towards more customer-oriented businesses. However, automation in itself is not enough. First, the organizational structure has to be changed considerably. Various energy utilities have already started on it. The restructuring principle is the same everywhere, but the way it is implemented differs widely. In this article attention is paid to the necessity of realizing an integrated computerized system, which, however, is not feasible at the moment. The second best alternative is to use various computerized systems, capable of two-way data exchange. Two viable approaches are discussed: (1) one operating system on which all automated systems within a company should run, or (2) a selective system linking on the basis of required speed information exchange. Option (2) offers more freedom of selecting the system. 2 figs

The light spot test: Measuring anxiety in mice in an automated home-cage environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Aarts, Emmeke; Maroteaux, Gregoire; Loos, Maarten; Koopmans, Bastijn; Kovačević, Jovana; Smit, August B; Verhage, Matthijs; Sluis, Sophie van der

2015-11-01

Behavioral tests of animals in a controlled experimental setting provide a valuable tool to advance understanding of genotype-phenotype relations, and to study the effects of genetic and environmental manipulations. To optimally benefit from the increasing numbers of genetically engineered mice, reliable high-throughput methods for comprehensive behavioral phenotyping of mice lines have become a necessity. Here, we describe the development and validation of an anxiety test, the light spot test, that allows for unsupervised, automated, high-throughput testing of mice in a home-cage system. This automated behavioral test circumvents bias introduced by pretest handling, and enables recording both baseline behavior and the behavioral test response over a prolonged period of time. We demonstrate that the light spot test induces a behavioral response in C57BL/6J mice. This behavior reverts to baseline when the aversive stimulus is switched off, and is blunted by treatment with the anxiolytic drug Diazepam, demonstrating predictive validity of the assay, and indicating that the observed behavioral response has a significant anxiety component. Also, we investigated the effectiveness of the light spot test as part of sequential testing for different behavioral aspects in the home-cage. Two learning tests, administered prior to the light spot test, affected the light spot test parameters. The light spot test is a novel, automated assay for anxiety-related high-throughput testing of mice in an automated home-cage environment, allowing for both comprehensive behavioral phenotyping of mice, and rapid screening of pharmacological compounds. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Effects of Non-Driving Related Task Modalities on Takeover Performance in Highly Automated Driving.

Science.gov (United States)

Wandtner, Bernhard; Schömig, Nadja; Schmidt, Gerald

2018-04-01

Aim of the study was to evaluate the impact of different non-driving related tasks (NDR tasks) on takeover performance in highly automated driving. During highly automated driving, it is allowed to engage in NDR tasks temporarily. However, drivers must be able to take over control when reaching a system limit. There is evidence that the type of NDR task has an impact on takeover performance, but little is known about the specific task characteristics that account for performance decrements. Thirty participants drove in a simulator using a highly automated driving system. Each participant faced five critical takeover situations. Based on assumptions of Wickens's multiple resource theory, stimulus and response modalities of a prototypical NDR task were systematically manipulated. Additionally, in one experimental group, the task was locked out simultaneously with the takeover request. Task modalities had significant effects on several measures of takeover performance. A visual-manual texting task degraded performance the most, particularly when performed handheld. In contrast, takeover performance with an auditory-vocal task was comparable to a baseline without any task. Task lockout was associated with faster hands-on-wheel times but not altered brake response times. Results showed that NDR task modalities are relevant factors for takeover performance. An NDR task lockout was highly accepted by the drivers and showed moderate benefits for the first takeover reaction. Knowledge about the impact of NDR task characteristics is an enabler for adaptive takeover concepts. In addition, it might help regulators to make decisions on allowed NDR tasks during automated driving.

You're a What? Automation Technician

Science.gov (United States)

Mullins, John

2010-01-01

Many people think of automation as laborsaving technology, but it sure keeps Jim Duffell busy. Defined simply, automation is a technique for making a device run or a process occur with minimal direct human intervention. But the functions and technologies involved in automated manufacturing are complex. Nearly all functions, from orders coming in…

Does Automated Feedback Improve Writing Quality?

Science.gov (United States)

Wilson, Joshua; Olinghouse, Natalie G.; Andrada, Gilbert N.

2014-01-01

The current study examines data from students in grades 4-8 who participated in a statewide computer-based benchmark writing assessment that featured automated essay scoring and automated feedback. We examined whether the use of automated feedback was associated with gains in writing quality across revisions to an essay, and with transfer effects…

System reliability, performance and trust in adaptable automation.

Science.gov (United States)

Chavaillaz, Alain; Wastell, David; Sauer, Jürgen

2016-01-01

The present study examined the effects of reduced system reliability on operator performance and automation management in an adaptable automation environment. 39 operators were randomly assigned to one of three experimental groups: low (60%), medium (80%), and high (100%) reliability of automation support. The support system provided five incremental levels of automation which operators could freely select according to their needs. After 3 h of training on a simulated process control task (AutoCAMS) in which the automation worked infallibly, operator performance and automation management were measured during a 2.5-h testing session. Trust and workload were also assessed through questionnaires. Results showed that although reduced system reliability resulted in lower levels of trust towards automation, there were no corresponding differences in the operators' reliance on automation. While operators showed overall a noteworthy ability to cope with automation failure, there were, however, decrements in diagnostic speed and prospective memory with lower reliability. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Automated estimation of defects in magnetographic defectoscopy. 1. Automated magnetographic flow detectors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mikhajlov, S.P.; Vaulin, S.L.; Shcherbinin, V.E.; Shur, M.L.

1993-01-01

Consideration is given to specific features and possible functions of equipment for automated estimation of stretched continuity defects for samples with plane surface in magnetographic defectoscopy are discussed. Two models of automated magnetographic flow detectors, those with built-in microcomputer and in the form computer attachment, are described. Directions of further researches and development are discussed. 35 refs., 6 figs

A time-series method for automated measurement of changes in mitotic and interphase duration from time-lapse movies.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Frederic D Sigoillot

Full Text Available Automated time-lapse microscopy can visualize proliferation of large numbers of individual cells, enabling accurate measurement of the frequency of cell division and the duration of interphase and mitosis. However, extraction of quantitative information by manual inspection of time-lapse movies is too time-consuming to be useful for analysis of large experiments.Here we present an automated time-series approach that can measure changes in the duration of mitosis and interphase in individual cells expressing fluorescent histone 2B. The approach requires analysis of only 2 features, nuclear area and average intensity. Compared to supervised learning approaches, this method reduces processing time and does not require generation of training data sets. We demonstrate that this method is as sensitive as manual analysis in identifying small changes in interphase or mitotic duration induced by drug or siRNA treatment.This approach should facilitate automated analysis of high-throughput time-lapse data sets to identify small molecules or gene products that influence timing of cell division.

Electrically evoked compound action potentials artefact rejection by independent component analysis: procedure automation.

Science.gov (United States)

Akhoun, Idrick; McKay, Colette; El-Deredy, Wael

2015-01-15

Independent-components-analysis (ICA) successfully separated electrically-evoked compound action potentials (ECAPs) from the stimulation artefact and noise (ECAP-ICA, Akhoun et al., 2013). This paper shows how to automate the ECAP-ICA artefact cancellation process. Raw-ECAPs without artefact rejection were consecutively recorded for each stimulation condition from at least 8 intra-cochlear electrodes. Firstly, amplifier-saturated recordings were discarded, and the data from different stimulus conditions (different current-levels) were concatenated temporally. The key aspect of the automation procedure was the sequential deductive source categorisation after ICA was applied with a restriction to 4 sources. The stereotypical aspect of the 4 sources enables their automatic classification as two artefact components, a noise and the sought ECAP based on theoretical and empirical considerations. The automatic procedure was tested using 8 cochlear implant (CI) users and one to four stimulus electrodes. The artefact and noise sources were successively identified and discarded, leaving the ECAP as the remaining source. The automated ECAP-ICA procedure successfully extracted the correct ECAPs compared to standard clinical forward masking paradigm in 22 out of 26 cases. ECAP-ICA does not require extracting the ECAP from a combination of distinct buffers as it is the case with regular methods. It is an alternative that does not have the possible bias of traditional artefact rejections such as alternate-polarity or forward-masking paradigms. The ECAP-ICA procedure bears clinical relevance, for example as the artefact rejection sub-module of automated ECAP-threshold detection techniques, which are common features of CI clinical fitting software. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier B.V.

ATOM - an OMERO add-on for automated import of image data

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lipp Peter

2011-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Modern microscope platforms are able to generate multiple gigabytes of image data in a single experimental session. In a routine research laboratory workflow, these data are initially stored on the local acquisition computer from which files need to be transferred to the experimenter's (remote image repository (e.g., DVDs, portable hard discs or server-based storage because of limited local data storage. Although manual solutions for this migration, such as OMERO - a client-server software for visualising and managing large amounts of image data - exist, this import process may be a time-consuming and tedious task. Findings We have developed ATOM, a Java-based and thus platform-independent add-on for OMERO enabling automated transfer of image data from a wide variety of acquisition software packages into OMERO. ATOM provides a graphical user interface and allows pre-organisation of experimental data for the transfer. Conclusions ATOM is a convenient extension of the OMERO software system. An automated interface to OMERO will be a useful tool for scientists working with file formats supported by the Bio-Formats file format library, a platform-independent library for reading the most common file formats of microscope images.

Order Division Automated System.

Science.gov (United States)

Kniemeyer, Justin M.; And Others

This publication was prepared by the Order Division Automation Project staff to fulfill the Library of Congress' requirement to document all automation efforts. The report was originally intended for internal use only and not for distribution outside the Library. It is now felt that the library community at-large may have an interest in the…

Automated Verification of Spatial Resolution in Remotely Sensed Imagery

Science.gov (United States)

Davis, Bruce; Ryan, Robert; Holekamp, Kara; Vaughn, Ronald

2011-01-01

Image spatial resolution characteristics can vary widely among sources. In the case of aerial-based imaging systems, the image spatial resolution characteristics can even vary between acquisitions. In these systems, aircraft altitude, speed, and sensor look angle all affect image spatial resolution. Image spatial resolution needs to be verified with estimators that include the ground sample distance (GSD), the modulation transfer function (MTF), and the relative edge response (RER), all of which are key components of image quality, along with signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and dynamic range. Knowledge of spatial resolution parameters is important to determine if features of interest are distinguishable in imagery or associated products, and to develop image restoration algorithms. An automated Spatial Resolution Verification Tool (SRVT) was developed to rapidly determine the spatial resolution characteristics of remotely sensed aerial and satellite imagery. Most current methods for assessing spatial resolution characteristics of imagery rely on pre-deployed engineered targets and are performed only at selected times within preselected scenes. The SRVT addresses these insufficiencies by finding uniform, high-contrast edges from urban scenes and then using these edges to determine standard estimators of spatial resolution, such as the MTF and the RER. The SRVT was developed using the MATLAB programming language and environment. This automated software algorithm assesses every image in an acquired data set, using edges found within each image, and in many cases eliminating the need for dedicated edge targets. The SRVT automatically identifies high-contrast, uniform edges and calculates the MTF and RER of each image, and when possible, within sections of an image, so that the variation of spatial resolution characteristics across the image can be analyzed. The automated algorithm is capable of quickly verifying the spatial resolution quality of all images within a data

Automation of Knowledge Work in Medicine and Health care: Future and Challenges

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Farzan Majidfar

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Increment of computing speed, machine learning and human interface, have extended capabilities of artificial intelligence applications to an important stage. It is predicted that use of artificial intelligence (AI to automate knowledge-based occupations (occupations such as medicine, engineering and law may have an global enormous economic impact in the near future.Applications based on artificial intelligence are able to improve health and quality of life for millions in the coming years. Although clinical applications of computer science are slow moving to real-world labs, but there are promising signs that the pace of innovation will improve. In the near future AI based applications by automating knowledge-based work in the field of diagnosis and treatment, nursing and health care, robotic surgery and development of new drugs, will have a transformative effect on the health sector. Therefore many artificial intelligence systems should work closely with health providers and patients to gain their trust. The progress of how smart machines naturally will interact with healthcare professionals, patients and patients' families is very important, yet challenging.In this article, we review the future of  automation of knowledge enabled by AI work in medicine and healthcare in  seven categories including big medical data mining, computer Aided Diagnosis, online consultations, evidence based medicine, health assistance, precision medicine and drug creation. Also challenges of this issue including cultural, organizational, legal and social barriers are described.

Myths in test automation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jazmine Francis

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Myths in automation of software testing is an issue of discussion that echoes about the areas of service in validation of software industry. Probably, the first though that appears in knowledgeable reader would be Why this old topic again? What's New to discuss the matter? But, for the first time everyone agrees that undoubtedly automation testing today is not today what it used to be ten or fifteen years ago, because it has evolved in scope and magnitude. What began as a simple linear scripts for web applications today has a complex architecture and a hybrid framework to facilitate the implementation of testing applications developed with various platforms and technologies. Undoubtedly automation has advanced, but so did the myths associated with it. The change in perspective and knowledge of people on automation has altered the terrain. This article reflects the points of views and experience of the author in what has to do with the transformation of the original myths in new versions, and how they are derived; also provides his thoughts on the new generation of myths.

Myths in test automation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jazmine Francis

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Myths in automation of software testing is an issue of discussion that echoes about the areas of service in validation of software industry. Probably, the first though that appears in knowledgeable reader would be Why this old topic again? What's New to discuss the matter? But, for the first time everyone agrees that undoubtedly automation testing today is not today what it used to be ten or fifteen years ago, because it has evolved in scope and magnitude. What began as a simple linear scripts for web applications today has a complex architecture and a hybrid framework to facilitate the implementation of testing applications developed with various platforms and technologies. Undoubtedly automation has advanced, but so did the myths associated with it. The change in perspective and knowledge of people on automation has altered the terrain. This article reflects the points of views and experience of the author in what has to do with the transformation of the original myths in new versions, and how they are derived; also provides his thoughts on the new generation of myths.

Proof-of-concept automation of propellant processing

Science.gov (United States)

Ramohalli, Kumar; Schallhorn, P. A.

1989-01-01

For space-based propellant production, automation of the process is needed. Currently, all phases of terrestrial production have some form of human interaction. A mixer was acquired to help perform the tasks of automation. A heating system to be used with the mixer was designed, built, and installed. Tests performed on the heating system verify design criteria. An IBM PS/2 personal computer was acquired for the future automation work. It is hoped that some the mixing process itself will be automated. This is a concept demonstration task; proving that propellant production can be automated reliably.

Repeatability of an automated Landolt C test, compared with the early treatment of diabetic retinopathy study (ETDRS) chart testing.

Science.gov (United States)

Ruamviboonsuk, Paisan; Tiensuwan, Montip; Kunawut, Catleya; Masayaanon, Patcharapim

2003-10-01

To evaluate the repeatability of visual acuity scores from the automated test and compare them with the Early Treatment of Diabetic Retinopathy Study (ETDRS) chart. Instrument validation study based on a model of repeatability study in two observations. SMETHODS: a prospective, clinic-based, comparative study. A total of 206 participants without ocular diseases and refractive errors in their right eyes were randomly enrolled in the automated group in which 107 participants performed the automated test and the ETDRS group in which 99 participants read the ETDRS chart. All participants were tested with only their right eyes without corrections at 4 meters and came back to have the same tests 1 week later. The automated test used the Landolt rings as optotypes and was conducted by a low-ended personal computer with a 15-inch monitor and a wireless keyboard. The "letter" score calculated by counting every correct response to optotypes, and the "threshold curve" score interpreted from the optotype size at the midpoint of a visual acuity threshold curve. The 95% confidence interval of test-retest of visual acuity scores from the automated test are comparable to the ETDRS chart (.143 compared with.125 for letter scores,.145 compared with.122 for threshold curve scores). The score repeatabilities, calculated from the standard deviations of test-retest, from the automated test are also comparable to the ETDRS chart (.201 compared with.177 for letter scores,.206 compared with.172 for threshold curve scores). All comparisons demonstrated no statistical difference (P >.05). The automated testing system in this study enables practical measuring visual acuity by the Landolt rings. The system's repeatability, which is comparable to the ETDRS chart, supports its role as an alternative tool for measuring outcome in new clinical research. Its ability to practically generate visual acuity threshold curves may also be useful in future clinical research studies.

Automated Test-Form Generation

Science.gov (United States)

van der Linden, Wim J.; Diao, Qi

2011-01-01

In automated test assembly (ATA), the methodology of mixed-integer programming is used to select test items from an item bank to meet the specifications for a desired test form and optimize its measurement accuracy. The same methodology can be used to automate the formatting of the set of selected items into the actual test form. Three different…

Context-Aware user interfaces in automation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Olsen, Mikkel Holm

2007-01-01

Automation is deployed in a great range of different domains such as the chemical industry, the production of consumer goods, the production of energy (both in terms of power plants and in the petrochemical industry), transportation and several others. Through several decades the complexity...... of automation systems and the level of automation have been rising. This has caused problems regarding the operator's ability to comprehend the overall situation and state of the automation system, in particular in abnormal situations. The amount of data available to the operator results in information overload....... Since context-aware applications have been developed in other research areas it seems natural to analyze the findings of this research and examine how this can be applied to the domain of automation systems. By evaluating existing architectures for the development of context-aware applications we find...

Automated transit planning, operation, and applications

CERN Document Server

Liu, Rongfang

2016-01-01

This book analyzes the successful implementations of automated transit in various international locations, such as Paris, Toronto, London, and Kuala Lumpur, and investigates the apparent lack of automated transit applications in the urban environment in the United States. The book begins with a brief definition of automated transit and its historical development. After a thorough description of the technical specifications, the author highlights a few applications from each sub-group of the automated transit spectrum. International case studies display various technologies and their applications, and identify vital factors that affect each system and performance evaluations of existing applications. The book then discusses the planning and operation of automated transit applications at both macro and micro levels. Finally, the book covers a number of less successful concepts, as well as the lessons learned, allow ng readers to gain a comprehensive understanding of the topic.

Participation through Automation: Fully Automated Critical PeakPricing in Commercial Buildings

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Piette, Mary Ann; Watson, David S.; Motegi, Naoya; Kiliccote,Sila; Linkugel, Eric

2006-06-20

California electric utilities have been exploring the use of dynamic critical peak prices (CPP) and other demand response programs to help reduce peaks in customer electric loads. CPP is a tariff design to promote demand response. Levels of automation in DR can be defined as follows: Manual Demand Response involves a potentially labor-intensive approach such as manually turning off or changing comfort set points at each equipment switch or controller. Semi-Automated Demand Response involves a pre-programmed demand response strategy initiated by a person via centralized control system. Fully Automated Demand Response does not involve human intervention, but is initiated at a home, building, or facility through receipt of an external communications signal. The receipt of the external signal initiates pre-programmed demand response strategies. They refer to this as Auto-DR. This paper describes the development, testing, and results from automated CPP (Auto-CPP) as part of a utility project in California. The paper presents the project description and test methodology. This is followed by a discussion of Auto-DR strategies used in the field test buildings. They present a sample Auto-CPP load shape case study, and a selection of the Auto-CPP response data from September 29, 2005. If all twelve sites reached their maximum saving simultaneously, a total of approximately 2 MW of DR is available from these twelve sites that represent about two million ft{sup 2}. The average DR was about half that value, at about 1 MW. These savings translate to about 0.5 to 1.0 W/ft{sup 2} of demand reduction. They are continuing field demonstrations and economic evaluations to pursue increasing penetrations of automated DR that has demonstrated ability to provide a valuable DR resource for California.

Managing laboratory automation

OpenAIRE

Saboe, Thomas J.

1995-01-01

This paper discusses the process of managing automated systems through their life cycles within the quality-control (QC) laboratory environment. The focus is on the process of directing and managing the evolving automation of a laboratory; system examples are given. The author shows how both task and data systems have evolved, and how they interrelate. A BIG picture, or continuum view, is presented and some of the reasons for success or failure of the various examples cited are explored. Fina...

Quantifying biodiversity using digital cameras and automated image analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Roadknight, C. M.; Rose, R. J.; Barber, M. L.; Price, M. C.; Marshall, I. W.

2009-04-01

enabling automatic deletion of images generated by erroneous triggering (e.g. cloud movements). This is the first step to a hierarchical image processing framework, where situation subclasses such as birds or climatic conditions can be fed into more appropriate automated or semi-automated data mining software.

LIBRARY AUTOMATION IN NIGERAN UNIVERSITIES

African Journals Online (AJOL)

facilitate services and access to information in libraries is widely acceptable. ... Moreover, Ugah (2001) reports that the automation process at the. Abubakar ... blueprint in 1987 and a turn-key system of automation was suggested for the library.

Linking Automated Data Analysis and Visualization with Applications in Developmental Biology and High-Energy Physics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ruebel, Oliver [Technical Univ. of Darmstadt (Germany)

2009-11-20

Knowledge discovery from large and complex collections of today's scientific datasets is a challenging task. With the ability to measure and simulate more processes at increasingly finer spatial and temporal scales, the increasing number of data dimensions and data objects is presenting tremendous challenges for data analysis and effective data exploration methods and tools. Researchers are overwhelmed with data and standard tools are often insufficient to enable effective data analysis and knowledge discovery. The main objective of this thesis is to provide important new capabilities to accelerate scientific knowledge discovery form large, complex, and multivariate scientific data. The research covered in this thesis addresses these scientific challenges using a combination of scientific visualization, information visualization, automated data analysis, and other enabling technologies, such as efficient data management. The effectiveness of the proposed analysis methods is demonstrated via applications in two distinct scientific research fields, namely developmental biology and high-energy physics.Advances in microscopy, image analysis, and embryo registration enable for the first time measurement of gene expression at cellular resolution for entire organisms. Analysis of high-dimensional spatial gene expression datasets is a challenging task. By integrating data clustering and visualization, analysis of complex, time-varying, spatial gene expression patterns and their formation becomes possible. The analysis framework MATLAB and the visualization have been integrated, making advanced analysis tools accessible to biologist and enabling bioinformatic researchers to directly integrate their analysis with the visualization. Laser wakefield particle accelerators (LWFAs) promise to be a new compact source of high-energy particles and radiation, with wide applications ranging from medicine to physics. To gain insight into the complex physical processes of particle

Linking Automated Data Analysis and Visualization with Applications in Developmental Biology and High-Energy Physics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ruebel, Oliver

2009-01-01

Knowledge discovery from large and complex collections of today's scientific datasets is a challenging task. With the ability to measure and simulate more processes at increasingly finer spatial and temporal scales, the increasing number of data dimensions and data objects is presenting tremendous challenges for data analysis and effective data exploration methods and tools. Researchers are overwhelmed with data and standard tools are often insufficient to enable effective data analysis and knowledge discovery. The main objective of this thesis is to provide important new capabilities to accelerate scientific knowledge discovery form large, complex, and multivariate scientific data. The research covered in this thesis addresses these scientific challenges using a combination of scientific visualization, information visualization, automated data analysis, and other enabling technologies, such as efficient data management. The effectiveness of the proposed analysis methods is demonstrated via applications in two distinct scientific research fields, namely developmental biology and high-energy physics.Advances in microscopy, image analysis, and embryo registration enable for the first time measurement of gene expression at cellular resolution for entire organisms. Analysis of high-dimensional spatial gene expression datasets is a challenging task. By integrating data clustering and visualization, analysis of complex, time-varying, spatial gene expression patterns and their formation becomes possible. The analysis framework MATLAB and the visualization have been integrated, making advanced analysis tools accessible to biologist and enabling bioinformatic researchers to directly integrate their analysis with the visualization. Laser wakefield particle accelerators (LWFAs) promise to be a new compact source of high-energy particles and radiation, with wide applications ranging from medicine to physics. To gain insight into the complex physical processes of particle

Development and integration of block operations for data invariant automation of digital preprocessing and analysis of biological and biomedical Raman spectra.

Science.gov (United States)

Schulze, H Georg; Turner, Robin F B

2015-06-01

High-throughput information extraction from large numbers of Raman spectra is becoming an increasingly taxing problem due to the proliferation of new applications enabled using advances in instrumentation. Fortunately, in many of these applications, the entire process can be automated, yielding reproducibly good results with significant time and cost savings. Information extraction consists of two stages, preprocessing and analysis. We focus here on the preprocessing stage, which typically involves several steps, such as calibration, background subtraction, baseline flattening, artifact removal, smoothing, and so on, before the resulting spectra can be further analyzed. Because the results of some of these steps can affect the performance of subsequent ones, attention must be given to the sequencing of steps, the compatibility of these sequences, and the propensity of each step to generate spectral distortions. We outline here important considerations to effect full automation of Raman spectral preprocessing: what is considered full automation; putative general principles to effect full automation; the proper sequencing of processing and analysis steps; conflicts and circularities arising from sequencing; and the need for, and approaches to, preprocessing quality control. These considerations are discussed and illustrated with biological and biomedical examples reflecting both successful and faulty preprocessing.

Automated 741 document preparation: Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Automated Safeguards Information System (OASIS)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Austin, H.C.; Gray, L.M.

1982-01-01

OASIS has been providing for Oak Ridge National Laboratory's total safeguards needs since being place on line in April 1980. The system supports near real-time nuclear materials safeguards and accountability control. The original design of OASIS called for an automated facsimile of a 741 document to be prepared as a functional by-product of updating the inventory. An attempt was made to utilize, intact, DOE-Albuquerque's automated 741 system to generate the facsimile; however, the five page document produced proved too cumbersome. Albuquerque's programs were modified to print an original 741 document utilizing standard DOE/NRC 741 forms. It is felt that the best features of both the automated and manually generated 741 documents have been incorporated. Automation of the source data for 741 shipping documents produces greater efficiency while reducing possible errors. Through utilization of the standard DOE/NRC form, continuity within the NMMSS system is maintained, thus minimizing the confusion and redundancy associated with facsimiles. OASIS now fulfills the original concept of near real-time accountability by furnishing a viable 741 document as a function of updating the inventory

Individual differences in the calibration of trust in automation.

Science.gov (United States)

Pop, Vlad L; Shrewsbury, Alex; Durso, Francis T

2015-06-01

The objective was to determine whether operators with an expectancy that automation is trustworthy are better at calibrating their trust to changes in the capabilities of automation, and if so, why. Studies suggest that individual differences in automation expectancy may be able to account for why changes in the capabilities of automation lead to a substantial change in trust for some, yet only a small change for others. In a baggage screening task, 225 participants searched for weapons in 200 X-ray images of luggage. Participants were assisted by an automated decision aid exhibiting different levels of reliability. Measures of expectancy that automation is trustworthy were used in conjunction with subjective measures of trust and perceived reliability to identify individual differences in trust calibration. Operators with high expectancy that automation is trustworthy were more sensitive to changes (both increases and decreases) in automation reliability. This difference was eliminated by manipulating the causal attribution of automation errors. Attributing the cause of automation errors to factors external to the automation fosters an understanding of tasks and situations in which automation differs in reliability and may lead to more appropriate trust. The development of interventions can lead to calibrated trust in automation. © 2014, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.

PINE-SPARKY.2 for automated NMR-based protein structure research.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Woonghee; Markley, John L

2018-05-01

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, along with X-ray crystallography and cryoelectron microscopy, is one of the three major tools that enable the determination of atomic-level structural models of biological macromolecules. Of these, NMR has the unique ability to follow important processes in solution, including conformational changes, internal dynamics and protein-ligand interactions. As a means for facilitating the handling and analysis of spectra involved in these types of NMR studies, we have developed PINE-SPARKY.2, a software package that integrates and automates discrete tasks that previously required interaction with separate software packages. The graphical user interface of PINE-SPARKY.2 simplifies chemical shift assignment and verification, automated detection of secondary structural elements, predictions of flexibility and hydrophobic cores, and calculation of three-dimensional structural models. PINE-SPARKY.2 is available in the latest version of NMRFAM-SPARKY from the National Magnetic Resonance Facility at Madison (http://pine.nmrfam.wisc.edu/download_packages.html), the NMRbox Project (https://nmrbox.org) and to subscribers to the SBGrid (https://sbgrid.org). For a detailed description of the program, see http://www.nmrfam.wisc.edu/pine-sparky2.htm. whlee@nmrfam.wisc.edu or markley@nmrfam.wisc.edu. Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Automation of Taxiing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jaroslav Bursík

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The article focuses on the possibility of automation of taxiing, which is the part of a flight, which, under adverse weather conditions, greatly reduces the operational usability of an airport, and is the only part of a flight that has not been affected by automation, yet. Taxiing is currently handled manually by the pilot, who controls the airplane based on information from visual perception. The article primarily deals with possible ways of obtaining navigational information, and its automatic transfer to the controls. Analyzed wand assessed were currently available technologies such as computer vision, Light Detection and Ranging and Global Navigation Satellite System, which are useful for navigation and their general implementation into an airplane was designed. Obstacles to the implementation were identified, too. The result is a proposed combination of systems along with their installation into airplane’s systems so that it is possible to use the automated taxiing.

Programmable automation systems in PSA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pulkkinen, U.

1997-06-01

The Finnish safety authority (STUK) requires plant specific PSAs, and quantitative safety goals are set on different levels. The reliability analysis is more problematic when critical safety functions are realized by applying programmable automation systems. Conventional modeling techniques do not necessarily apply to the analysis of these systems, and the quantification seems to be impossible. However, it is important to analyze contribution of programmable automation systems to the plant safety and PSA is the only method with system analytical view over the safety. This report discusses the applicability of PSA methodology (fault tree analyses, failure modes and effects analyses) in the analysis of programmable automation systems. The problem of how to decompose programmable automation systems for reliability modeling purposes is discussed. In addition to the qualitative analysis and structural reliability modeling issues, the possibility to evaluate failure probabilities of programmable automation systems is considered. One solution to the quantification issue is the use of expert judgements, and the principles to apply expert judgements is discussed in the paper. A framework to apply expert judgements is outlined. Further, the impacts of subjective estimates on the interpretation of PSA results are discussed. (orig.) (13 refs.)

How to assess sustainability in automated manufacturing

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dijkman, Teunis Johannes; Rödger, Jan-Markus; Bey, Niki

2015-01-01

The aim of this paper is to describe how sustainability in automation can be assessed. The assessment method is illustrated using a case study of a robot. Three aspects of sustainability assessment in automation are identified. Firstly, we consider automation as part of a larger system...... that fulfills the market demand for a given functionality. Secondly, three aspects of sustainability have to be assessed: environment, economy, and society. Thirdly, automation is part of a system with many levels, with different actors on each level, resulting in meeting the market demand. In this system......, (sustainability) specifications move top-down, which helps avoiding sub-optimization and problem shifting. From these three aspects, sustainable automation is defined as automation that contributes to products that fulfill a market demand in a more sustainable way. The case study presents the carbon footprints...

Automation of coal mining equipment

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yamada, Ryuji

1986-12-25

Major machines used in the working face include the shearer and the self-advancing frame. The shearer has been changed from the radio-controlled model to the microcomputer operated machine, while automating various functions. In addition, a system for comprehensively examining operating conditions and natural conditions in the working face for further automation. The selfadvancing frame has been modified from the sequence controlled model to the microcomputer aided electrohydraulic control system. In order to proceed further with automation and introduce robotics, detectors, control units and valves must be made smaller in higher reliability. The system will be controlled above the ground in the future, provided that the machines in the working face are remote controlled at the gate while transmitting relevant data above the ground from this system. Thus, automated working face will be realized. (2 figs, 1 photo)

Controls and automation in the SPIRAL project

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bothner, U.; Boulot, A.; Maherault, J.; Martial, L.

1999-01-01

The control and automation team of the R and D of Accelerator-Exotic Beam Department has had in the framework of SPIRAL collaboration the following tasks: 1. automation of the resonator high frequency equipment of the CIME cyclotron; 2. automation of the vacuum equipment, i.e. the low energy line (TBE), the CIME cyclotron, the low energy line (BE); 3. automation of load safety for power supply; 4. for each of these tasks a circuitry file based on the SCHEMA software has been worked out. The programs required in the automation of load safety for power supply (STEP5, PROTOOL, DESIGNER 4.1) were developed and implemented for PC

Automated controlled-potential coulometric determination of uranium

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Knight, C.H.; Clegg, D.E.; Wright, K.D.; Cassidy, R.M.

1982-06-01

A controlled-potential coulometer has been automated in our laboratory for routine determination of uranium in solution. The CRNL-designed automated system controls degassing, prereduction, and reduction of the sample. The final result is displayed on a digital coulometer readout. Manual and automated modes of operation are compared to show the precision and accuracy of the automated system. Results are also shown for the coulometric titration of typical uranium-aluminum alloy samples

Office automation: a look beyond word processing

OpenAIRE

DuBois, Milan Ephriam, Jr.

1983-01-01

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited Word processing was the first of various forms of office automation technologies to gain widespread acceptance and usability in the business world. For many, it remains the only form of office automation technology. Office automation, however, is not just word processing, although it does include the function of facilitating and manipulating text. In reality, office automation is not one innovation, or one office system, or one tech...

The Employment-Impact of Automation in Canada

OpenAIRE

McLean, Colin Alexander

2015-01-01

Standard neoclassical models of labour demand predict that automation does not produce long-term increases in unemployment. Supporting evidence in Canada between 1970 and 2008 is explained by the reallocation of labour from industries with high levels of automation such as Manufacturing to industries with low levels of automation such as Retail and Wholesale Trade, and Business Services. Recent evidence indicates however that on-going technological advances are now driving labour automation i...

Complex Automated Negotiations Theories, Models, and Software Competitions

CERN Document Server

Zhang, Minjie; Robu, Valentin; Matsuo, Tokuro

2013-01-01

Complex Automated Negotiations are a widely studied, emerging area in the field of Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems. In general, automated negotiations can be complex, since there are a lot of factors that characterize such negotiations. For this book, we solicited papers on all aspects of such complex automated negotiations, which are studied in the field of Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems. This book includes two parts, which are Part I: Agent-based Complex Automated Negotiations and Part II: Automated Negotiation Agents Competition. Each chapter in Part I is an extended version of ACAN 2011 papers after peer reviews by three PC members. Part II includes ANAC 2011 (The Second Automated Negotiating Agents Competition), in which automated agents who have different negotiation strategies and implemented by different developers are automatically negotiate in the several negotiation domains. ANAC is an international competition in which automated negotiation strategies, submitted by a number of...

Methods for Automated and Continuous Commissioning of Building Systems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Larry Luskay; Michael Brambley; Srinivas Katipamula

2003-04-30

Avoidance of poorly installed HVAC systems is best accomplished at the close of construction by having a building and its systems put ''through their paces'' with a well conducted commissioning process. This research project focused on developing key components to enable the development of tools that will automatically detect and correct equipment operating problems, thus providing continuous and automatic commissioning of the HVAC systems throughout the life of a facility. A study of pervasive operating problems reveled the following would most benefit from an automated and continuous commissioning process: (1) faulty economizer operation; (2) malfunctioning sensors; (3) malfunctioning valves and dampers, and (4) access to project design data. Methodologies for detecting system operation faults in these areas were developed and validated in ''bare-bones'' forms within standard software such as spreadsheets, databases, statistical or mathematical packages. Demonstrations included flow diagrams and simplified mock-up applications. Techniques to manage data were demonstrated by illustrating how test forms could be populated with original design information and the recommended sequence of operation for equipment systems. Proposed tools would use measured data, design data, and equipment operating parameters to diagnosis system problems. Steps for future research are suggested to help more toward practical application of automated commissioning and its high potential to improve equipment availability, increase occupant comfort, and extend the life of system equipment.

Automated Methods of Corrosion Measurements

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Jens Enevold Thaulov

1997-01-01

. Mechanical control, recording, and data processing must therefore be automated to a high level of precision and reliability. These general techniques and the apparatus involved have been described extensively. The automated methods of such high-resolution microscopy coordinated with computerized...

Automated service quality and its behavioural consequences in CRM Environment: A structural equation modeling and causal loop diagramming approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Arup Kumar Baksi

2012-08-01

Full Text Available Information technology induced communications (ICTs have revolutionized the operational aspects of service sector and have triggered a perceptual shift in service quality as rapid dis-intermediation has changed the access-mode of services on part of the consumers. ICT-enabled services further stimulated the perception of automated service quality with renewed dimensions and there subsequent significance to influence the behavioural outcomes of the consumers. Customer Relationship Management (CRM has emerged as an offshoot to technological breakthrough as it ensured service-encapsulation by integrating people, process and technology. This paper attempts to explore the relationship between automated service quality and its behavioural consequences in a relatively novel business-philosophy – CRM. The study has been conducted on the largest public sector bank of India - State bank of India (SBI at Kolkata which has successfully completed its decade-long operational automation in the year 2008. The study used structural equation modeling (SEM to justify the proposed model construct and causal loop diagramming (CLD to depict the negative and positive linkages between the variables.

Human-centered automation: Development of a philosophy

Science.gov (United States)

Graeber, Curtis; Billings, Charles E.

1990-01-01

Information on human-centered automation philosophy is given in outline/viewgraph form. It is asserted that automation of aircraft control will continue in the future, but that automation should supplement, not supplant the human management and control function in civil air transport.

A system-level approach to automation research

Science.gov (United States)

Harrison, F. W.; Orlando, N. E.

1984-01-01

Automation is the application of self-regulating mechanical and electronic devices to processes that can be accomplished with the human organs of perception, decision, and actuation. The successful application of automation to a system process should reduce man/system interaction and the perceived complexity of the system, or should increase affordability, productivity, quality control, and safety. The expense, time constraints, and risk factors associated with extravehicular activities have led the Automation Technology Branch (ATB), as part of the NASA Automation Research and Technology Program, to investigate the use of robots and teleoperators as automation aids in the context of space operations. The ATB program addresses three major areas: (1) basic research in autonomous operations, (2) human factors research on man-machine interfaces with remote systems, and (3) the integration and analysis of automated systems. This paper reviews the current ATB research in the area of robotics and teleoperators.

International Conference Automation : Challenges in Automation, Robotics and Measurement Techniques

CERN Document Server

Zieliński, Cezary; Kaliczyńska, Małgorzata

2016-01-01

This book presents the set of papers accepted for presentation at the International Conference Automation, held in Warsaw, 2-4 March of 2016. It presents the research results presented by top experts in the fields of industrial automation, control, robotics and measurement techniques. Each chapter presents a thorough analysis of a specific technical problem which is usually followed by numerical analysis, simulation, and description of results of implementation of the solution of a real world problem. The presented theoretical results, practical solutions and guidelines will be valuable for both researchers working in the area of engineering sciences and for practitioners solving industrial problems. .

Comparison of Automated Graphical User Interface Testing Tools

OpenAIRE

Gaber, Domen

2018-01-01

The thesis presents the analysis of modern tools for automated testing of various web based user interfaces. The purpose of the work is to compare specific test automation solutions and point out the most suitable test automation tool amongst them. One of the main goals of test automation is to gain faster execution when compared to manual testing and overall cost deduction. There are multiple test automation solutions available on the market, which differ in complexity of use, type of o...

Wireless Android Based Home Automation System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Muhammad Tanveer Riaz

2017-01-01

Full Text Available This manuscript presents a prototype and design implementation of an advance home automation system that uses Wi-Fi technology as a network infrastructure connecting its parts. The proposed system consists of two main components; the first part is the server, which presents system core that manages and controls user’s home. Users and system administrator can locally (Local Area Network or remotely (internet manage and control the system. Second part is the hardware interface module, which provides appropriate interface to sensors and actuator of home automation system. Unlike most of the available home automation system in the market, the proposed system is scalable that one server can manage many hardware interface modules as long as it exists within network coverage. System supports a wide range of home automation devices like appliances, power management components, and security components. The proposed system is better in terms of the flexibility and scalability than the commercially available home automation systems

Automated processing of endoscopic surgical instruments.

Science.gov (United States)

Roth, K; Sieber, J P; Schrimm, H; Heeg, P; Buess, G

1994-10-01

This paper deals with the requirements for automated processing of endoscopic surgical instruments. After a brief analysis of the current problems, solutions are discussed. Test-procedures have been developed to validate the automated processing, so that the cleaning results are guaranteed and reproducable. Also a device for testing and cleaning was designed together with Netzsch Newamatic and PCI, called TC-MIC, to automate processing and reduce manual work.

Tool-driven Design and Automated Parameterization for Real-time Generic Drivetrain Models

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Schwarz Christina

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Real-time dynamic drivetrain modeling approaches have a great potential for development cost reduction in the automotive industry. Even though real-time drivetrain models are available, these solutions are specific to single transmission topologies. In this paper an environment for parameterization of a solution is proposed based on a generic method applicable to all types of gear transmission topologies. This enables tool-guided modeling by non- experts in the fields of mechanic engineering and control theory leading to reduced development and testing efforts. The approach is demonstrated for an exemplary automatic transmission using the environment for automated parameterization. Finally, the parameterization is validated via vehicle measurement data.

Highway Electrification And Automation

OpenAIRE

Shladover, Steven E.

1992-01-01

This report addresses how the California Department of Transportation and the California PATH Program have made efforts to evaluate the feasibility and applicability of highway electrification and automation technologies. In addition to describing how the work was conducted, the report also describes the findings on highway electrification and highway automation, with experimental results, design study results, and a region-wide application impacts study for Los Angeles.

Automated Status Notification System

Science.gov (United States)

2005-01-01

NASA Lewis Research Center's Automated Status Notification System (ASNS) was born out of need. To prevent "hacker attacks," Lewis' telephone system needed to monitor communications activities 24 hr a day, 7 days a week. With decreasing staff resources, this continuous monitoring had to be automated. By utilizing existing communications hardware, a UNIX workstation, and NAWK (a pattern scanning and processing language), we implemented a continuous monitoring system.

Automation in airport security X-ray screening of cabin baggage: Examining benefits and possible implementations of automated explosives detection.

Science.gov (United States)

Hättenschwiler, Nicole; Sterchi, Yanik; Mendes, Marcia; Schwaninger, Adrian

2018-10-01

Bomb attacks on civil aviation make detecting improvised explosive devices and explosive material in passenger baggage a major concern. In the last few years, explosive detection systems for cabin baggage screening (EDSCB) have become available. Although used by a number of airports, most countries have not yet implemented these systems on a wide scale. We investigated the benefits of EDSCB with two different levels of automation currently being discussed by regulators and airport operators: automation as a diagnostic aid with an on-screen alarm resolution by the airport security officer (screener) or EDSCB with an automated decision by the machine. The two experiments reported here tested and compared both scenarios and a condition without automation as baseline. Participants were screeners at two international airports who differed in both years of work experience and familiarity with automation aids. Results showed that experienced screeners were good at detecting improvised explosive devices even without EDSCB. EDSCB increased only their detection of bare explosives. In contrast, screeners with less experience (tenure automated decision provided better human-machine detection performance than on-screen alarm resolution and no automation. This came at the cost of slightly higher false alarm rates on the human-machine system level, which would still be acceptable from an operational point of view. Results indicate that a wide-scale implementation of EDSCB would increase the detection of explosives in passenger bags and automated decision instead of automation as diagnostic aid with on screen alarm resolution should be considered. Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

21 CFR 864.5600 - Automated hematocrit instrument.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 21 Food and Drugs 8 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Automated hematocrit instrument. 864.5600 Section 864.5600 Food and Drugs FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES (CONTINUED) MEDICAL DEVICES HEMATOLOGY AND PATHOLOGY DEVICES Automated and Semi-Automated Hematology Devices...

21 CFR 862.2900 - Automated urinalysis system.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 21 Food and Drugs 8 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Automated urinalysis system. 862.2900 Section 862....2900 Automated urinalysis system. (a) Identification. An automated urinalysis system is a device... that duplicate manual urinalysis systems. This device is used in conjunction with certain materials to...

Resins production: batch plant automation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Banti, M.; Mauri, G.

1996-01-01

Companies that look for automation in their plants without external resources, have at their disposal flexible, custom and easy to use DCS, open towards PLC. In this article it is explained why Hoechts has followed this way of new plants for resins production automation

Small cities face greater impact from automation

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Lijun; Cebrian, Manuel; Rahwan, Iyad

2018-01-01

The city has proved to be the most successful form of human agglomeration and provides wide employment opportunities for its dwellers. As advances in robotics and artificial intelligence revive concerns about the impact of automation on jobs, a question looms: how will automation affect employment in cities? Here, we provide a comparative picture of the impact of automation across US urban areas. Small cities will undertake greater adjustments, such as worker displacement and job content substitutions. We demonstrate that large cities exhibit increased occupational and skill specialization due to increased abundance of managerial and technical professions. These occupations are not easily automatable, and, thus, reduce the potential impact of automation in large cities. Our results pass several robustness checks including potential errors in the estimation of occupational automation and subsampling of occupations. Our study provides the first empirical law connecting two societal forces: urban agglomeration and automation's impact on employment. PMID:29436514

Small cities face greater impact from automation.

Science.gov (United States)

Frank, Morgan R; Sun, Lijun; Cebrian, Manuel; Youn, Hyejin; Rahwan, Iyad

2018-02-01

The city has proved to be the most successful form of human agglomeration and provides wide employment opportunities for its dwellers. As advances in robotics and artificial intelligence revive concerns about the impact of automation on jobs, a question looms: how will automation affect employment in cities? Here, we provide a comparative picture of the impact of automation across US urban areas. Small cities will undertake greater adjustments, such as worker displacement and job content substitutions. We demonstrate that large cities exhibit increased occupational and skill specialization due to increased abundance of managerial and technical professions. These occupations are not easily automatable, and, thus, reduce the potential impact of automation in large cities. Our results pass several robustness checks including potential errors in the estimation of occupational automation and subsampling of occupations. Our study provides the first empirical law connecting two societal forces: urban agglomeration and automation's impact on employment. © 2018 The Authors.

AUTOMATED PROCESS MONITORING: APPLYING PROVEN AUTOMATION TECHNIQUES TO INTERNATIONAL SAFEGUARDS NEEDS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

O'Hara, Matthew J.; Durst, Philip C.; Grate, Jay W.; Devol, Timothy A.; Egorov, Oleg; Clements, John P.

2008-01-01

Identification and quantification of specific alpha- and beta-emitting radionuclides in complex liquid matrices is highly challenging, and is typically accomplished through laborious wet chemical sample preparation and separations followed by analysis using a variety of detection methodologies (e.g., liquid scintillation, gas proportional counting, alpha energy analysis, mass spectrometry). Analytical results may take days or weeks to report. Chains of custody and sample security measures may also complicate or slow the analytical process. When an industrial process-scale plant requires the monitoring of specific radionuclides as an indication of the composition of its feed stream or of plant performance, radiochemical measurements must be fast, accurate, and reliable. Scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have assembled a fully automated prototype Process Monitor instrument capable of a variety of tasks: automated sampling directly from a feed stream, sample digestion/analyte redox adjustment, chemical separations, radiochemical detection and data analysis/reporting. The system is compact, its components are fluidically inter-linked, and analytical results could be immediately transmitted to on- or off-site locations. The development of a rapid radiochemical Process Monitor for 99Tc in Hanford tank waste processing streams, capable of performing several measurements per hour, will be discussed in detail. More recently, the automated platform was modified to perform measurements of 90Sr in Hanford tank waste stimulant. The system exemplifies how automation could be integrated into reprocessing facilities to support international nuclear safeguards needs

21 CFR 864.5620 - Automated hemoglobin system.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 21 Food and Drugs 8 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Automated hemoglobin system. 864.5620 Section 864.5620 Food and Drugs FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES (CONTINUED) MEDICAL DEVICES HEMATOLOGY AND PATHOLOGY DEVICES Automated and Semi-Automated Hematology Devices § 864...

21 CFR 864.5200 - Automated cell counter.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 21 Food and Drugs 8 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Automated cell counter. 864.5200 Section 864.5200 Food and Drugs FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES (CONTINUED) MEDICAL DEVICES HEMATOLOGY AND PATHOLOGY DEVICES Automated and Semi-Automated Hematology Devices § 864...

21 CFR 864.5680 - Automated heparin analyzer.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 21 Food and Drugs 8 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Automated heparin analyzer. 864.5680 Section 864.5680 Food and Drugs FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES (CONTINUED) MEDICAL DEVICES HEMATOLOGY AND PATHOLOGY DEVICES Automated and Semi-Automated Hematology Devices § 864...

21 CFR 864.5850 - Automated slide spinner.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 21 Food and Drugs 8 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Automated slide spinner. 864.5850 Section 864.5850 Food and Drugs FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES (CONTINUED) MEDICAL DEVICES HEMATOLOGY AND PATHOLOGY DEVICES Automated and Semi-Automated Hematology Devices § 864...

Novel insights in agent-based complex automated negotiation

CERN Document Server

Lopez-Carmona, Miguel; Ito, Takayuki; Zhang, Minjie; Bai, Quan; Fujita, Katsuhide

2014-01-01

This book focuses on all aspects of complex automated negotiations, which are studied in the field of autonomous agents and multi-agent systems. This book consists of two parts. I: Agent-Based Complex Automated Negotiations, and II: Automated Negotiation Agents Competition. The chapters in Part I are extended versions of papers presented at the 2012 international workshop on Agent-Based Complex Automated Negotiation (ACAN), after peer reviews by three Program Committee members. Part II examines in detail ANAC 2012 (The Third Automated Negotiating Agents Competition), in which automated agents that have different negotiation strategies and are implemented by different developers are automatically negotiated in the several negotiation domains. ANAC is an international competition in which automated negotiation strategies, submitted by a number of universities and research institutes across the world, are evaluated in tournament style. The purpose of the competition is to steer the research in the area of bilate...

Automated tools and techniques for distributed Grid Software Development of the testbed infrastructure

CERN Document Server

Aguado Sanchez, C

2007-01-01

Grid technology is becoming more and more important as the new paradigm for sharing computational resources across different organizations in a secure way. The great powerfulness of this solution, requires the definition of a generic stack of services and protocols and this is the scope of the different Grid initiatives. As a result of international collaborations for its development, the Open Grid Forum created the Open Grid Services Architecture (OGSA) which aims to define the common set of services that will enable interoperability across the different implementations. This master thesis has been developed in this framework, as part of the two European-funded projects ETICS and OMII-Europe. The main objective is to contribute to the design and maintenance of large distributed development projects with the automated tool that enables to implement Software Engineering techniques oriented to achieve an acceptable level of quality at the release process. Specifically, this thesis develops the testbed concept a...

ERP processes automation in corporate environments

OpenAIRE

Antonoaie Victor; Irimeş Adrian; Chicoş Lucia-Antoneta

2017-01-01

The automation processes are used in organizations to speed up analyses processes and reduce manual labour. Robotic Automation of IT processes implemented in a modern corporate workspace provides an excellent tool for assisting professionals in making decisions, saving resources and serving as a know-how repository. This study presents the newest trends in process automation, its benefits such as security, ease of use, reduction of overall process duration, and provide examples of SAPERP proj...

Powder handling for automated fuel processing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Frederickson, J.R.; Eschenbaum, R.C.; Goldmann, L.H.

1989-01-01

Installation of the Secure Automated Fabrication (SAF) line has been completed. It is located in the Fuel Cycle Plant (FCP) at the Department of Energy's (DOE) Hanford site near Richland, Washington. The SAF line was designed to fabricate advanced reactor fuel pellets and assemble fuel pins by automated, remote operation. This paper describes powder handling equipment and techniques utilized for automated powder processing and powder conditioning systems in this line. 9 figs

Automation Revolutionize the Business Service Industry

OpenAIRE

Marciniak, Róbert

2017-01-01

In the last decades significant disruptive changes began with the extended use of automation. Many jobs are changed or disappeared and others were born totally with the automation. Together with the progress of technology, the automation was primarily spread in the industrial sector, mostly in the production and assembly lines. The growth maycontinue in the future further, researchers expect more than 35 million industrial robots globally by 2018.But it shades the situati...

A Solution Generator Algorithm for Decision Making based Automated Negotiation in the Construction Domain

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Arazi Idrus

2017-12-01

Full Text Available In this paper, we present our work-in-progress of a proposed framework for automated negotiation in the construction domain. The proposed framework enables software agents to conduct negotiations and autonomously make value-based decisions. The framework consists of three main components which are, solution generator algorithm, negotiation algorithm, and conflict resolution algorithm. This paper extends the discussion on the solution generator algorithm that enables software agents to generate solutions and rank them from 1st to nth solution for the negotiation stage of the operation. The solution generator algorithm consists of three steps which are, review solutions, rank solutions, and form ranked solutions. For validation purpose, we present a scenario that utilizes the proposed algorithm to rank solutions. The validation shows that the algorithm is promising, however, it also highlights the conflict between different parties that needs further negotiation action.

Automated diagnostics scoping study. Final report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Quadrel, R.W.; Lash, T.A.

1994-06-01

The objective of the Automated Diagnostics Scoping Study was to investigate the needs for diagnostics in building operation and to examine some of the current technologies in automated diagnostics that can address these needs. The study was conducted in two parts. In the needs analysis, the authors interviewed facility managers and engineers at five building sites. In the technology survey, they collected published information on automated diagnostic technologies in commercial and military applications as well as on technologies currently under research. The following describe key areas that the authors identify for the research, development, and deployment of automated diagnostic technologies: tools and techniques to aid diagnosis during building commissioning, especially those that address issues arising from integrating building systems and diagnosing multiple simultaneous faults; technologies to aid diagnosis for systems and components that are unmonitored or unalarmed; automated capabilities to assist cause-and-effect exploration during diagnosis; inexpensive, reliable sensors, especially those that expand the current range of sensory input; technologies that aid predictive diagnosis through trend analysis; integration of simulation and optimization tools with building automation systems to optimize control strategies and energy performance; integration of diagnostic, control, and preventive maintenance technologies. By relating existing technologies to perceived and actual needs, the authors reached some conclusions about the opportunities for automated diagnostics in building operation. Some of a building operator`s needs can be satisfied by off-the-shelf hardware and software. Other needs are not so easily satisfied, suggesting directions for future research. Their conclusions and suggestions are offered in the final section of this study.

Standardization of skin cleansing in vivo: part I. Development of an Automated Cleansing Device (ACiD).

Science.gov (United States)