Paper based electronics platform

KAUST Repository

Nassar, Joanna Mohammad; Sevilla, Galo Andres Torres; Hussain, Muhammad Mustafa

2017-01-01

A flexible and non-functionalized low cost paper-based electronic system platform fabricated from common paper, such as paper based sensors, and methods of producing paper based sensors, and methods of sensing using the paper based sensors

Reverse engineering of the robot base platform

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anwar A Rahman; Azizul Rahman A Aziz; Mohd Arif Hamzah; Muhd Nor Atan; Fadil Ismail; Rosli Darmawan

2009-01-01

The robot base platform used to place the robotic arm version 2 was imported through a local company. The robot base platform is used as a reference for reverse egineering development for a smaller size robot. The paper will discuss the reverse engineering design process and parameters involved in the development of the robot base platform. (Author)

Enhancing student motivation using LectureTools: A cloud-based teaching and learning platform

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

P. H. Patrio Chiu

2015-06-01

Full Text Available A cloud-based teaching and learning platform, LectureTools, was piloted at City University of Hong Kong in the 2012-13 academic year. LectureTools is an online platform that provides a suite of cloud-based teaching and learning applications. It combines the functions of interactive presentation, real-time student response system, student inquiry and online note-taking synchronised with the presentation slides, into one cloud-based platform. A comprehensive study investigated the effectiveness of the platform for enhancing student motivation among graduate (n=158 and undergraduate (n=96 students. Both groups of students reported enhanced motivation when using LectureTools. The scores on all six learning motivation scales of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire, a psychometric instrument based on the cognitive view of motivation, increased when students engaged with the tool in class. Those who used the tool scored significantly higher on intrinsic goal orientation than those who did not use the tool. The students’ quantitative feedback showed that they found the tool useful and that it improved their motivation. Qualitative feedback from the instructors indicated that the tool was useful for engaging passive students. They reported that the most useful function was the interactive online questions with real-time results, while the in-class student inquiry function was difficult to use in practice.

Understanding Platform-Based Digital Currencies

OpenAIRE

Ben Fung; Hanna Halaburda

2014-01-01

Given technological advances and the widespread use of the Internet, various digital currencies have emerged. In most cases, Internet platforms such as Facebook and Amazon restrict the functionality of their digital currencies to enhance the business model and maximize their profits. While platform-based digital currencies could increase the efficiency of retail payments, they could also raise some important policy issues if they were to become widely used outside of the platform. Thus, it is...

Design for game based learning platforms

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, Birgitte Holm; Meyer, Bente

2010-01-01

This paper focuses on the challenges related to the design of game based learning platforms for formal learning contexts that are inspired by the pupil's leisure time related use of web 2.0. The paper is based on the project Serious Games on a Global Market Place (2007-2011) founded by the Danish...... of web 2.0 and integrates theories of learning, didactics, games, play, communication, multimodality and different pedagogical approaches. In relation to the introduced model the teacher role is discussed.......This paper focuses on the challenges related to the design of game based learning platforms for formal learning contexts that are inspired by the pupil's leisure time related use of web 2.0. The paper is based on the project Serious Games on a Global Market Place (2007-2011) founded by the Danish...... Council for Strategic Research, in which an online game-based platform for English as a foreign language in primary school is studied. The paper presents a model for designing for game based learning platforms. This design is based on cultural and ethnographic based research on children's leisure time use...

Finding Biomass Degrading Enzymes Through an Activity-Correlated Quantitative Proteomics Platform (ACPP)

Science.gov (United States)

Ma, Hongyan; Delafield, Daniel G.; Wang, Zhe; You, Jianlan; Wu, Si

2017-04-01

The microbial secretome, known as a pool of biomass (i.e., plant-based materials) degrading enzymes, can be utilized to discover industrial enzyme candidates for biofuel production. Proteomics approaches have been applied to discover novel enzyme candidates through comparing protein expression profiles with enzyme activity of the whole secretome under different growth conditions. However, the activity measurement of each enzyme candidate is needed for confident "active" enzyme assignments, which remains to be elucidated. To address this challenge, we have developed an Activity-Correlated Quantitative Proteomics Platform (ACPP) that systematically correlates protein-level enzymatic activity patterns and protein elution profiles using a label-free quantitative proteomics approach. The ACPP optimized a high performance anion exchange separation for efficiently fractionating complex protein samples while preserving enzymatic activities. The detected enzymatic activity patterns in sequential fractions using microplate-based assays were cross-correlated with protein elution profiles using a customized pattern-matching algorithm with a correlation R-score. The ACPP has been successfully applied to the identification of two types of "active" biomass-degrading enzymes (i.e., starch hydrolysis enzymes and cellulose hydrolysis enzymes) from Aspergillus niger secretome in a multiplexed fashion. By determining protein elution profiles of 156 proteins in A. niger secretome, we confidently identified the 1,4-α-glucosidase as the major "active" starch hydrolysis enzyme (R = 0.96) and the endoglucanase as the major "active" cellulose hydrolysis enzyme (R = 0.97). The results demonstrated that the ACPP facilitated the discovery of bioactive enzymes from complex protein samples in a high-throughput, multiplexing, and untargeted fashion.

Polymer-based platform for microfluidic systems

Science.gov (United States)

Benett, William [Livermore, CA; Krulevitch, Peter [Pleasanton, CA; Maghribi, Mariam [Livermore, CA; Hamilton, Julie [Tracy, CA; Rose, Klint [Boston, MA; Wang, Amy W [Oakland, CA

2009-10-13

A method of forming a polymer-based microfluidic system platform using network building blocks selected from a set of interconnectable network building blocks, such as wire, pins, blocks, and interconnects. The selected building blocks are interconnectably assembled and fixedly positioned in precise positions in a mold cavity of a mold frame to construct a three-dimensional model construction of a microfluidic flow path network preferably having meso-scale dimensions. A hardenable liquid, such as poly (dimethylsiloxane) is then introduced into the mold cavity and hardened to form a platform structure as well as to mold the microfluidic flow path network having channels, reservoirs and ports. Pre-fabricated elbows, T's and other joints are used to interconnect various building block elements together. After hardening the liquid the building blocks are removed from the platform structure to make available the channels, cavities and ports within the platform structure. Microdevices may be embedded within the cast polymer-based platform, or bonded to the platform structure subsequent to molding, to create an integrated microfluidic system. In this manner, the new microfluidic platform is versatile and capable of quickly generating prototype systems, and could easily be adapted to a manufacturing setting.

NiftyPET: a High-throughput Software Platform for High Quantitative Accuracy and Precision PET Imaging and Analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Markiewicz, Pawel J; Ehrhardt, Matthias J; Erlandsson, Kjell; Noonan, Philip J; Barnes, Anna; Schott, Jonathan M; Atkinson, David; Arridge, Simon R; Hutton, Brian F; Ourselin, Sebastien

2018-01-01

We present a standalone, scalable and high-throughput software platform for PET image reconstruction and analysis. We focus on high fidelity modelling of the acquisition processes to provide high accuracy and precision quantitative imaging, especially for large axial field of view scanners. All the core routines are implemented using parallel computing available from within the Python package NiftyPET, enabling easy access, manipulation and visualisation of data at any processing stage. The pipeline of the platform starts from MR and raw PET input data and is divided into the following processing stages: (1) list-mode data processing; (2) accurate attenuation coefficient map generation; (3) detector normalisation; (4) exact forward and back projection between sinogram and image space; (5) estimation of reduced-variance random events; (6) high accuracy fully 3D estimation of scatter events; (7) voxel-based partial volume correction; (8) region- and voxel-level image analysis. We demonstrate the advantages of this platform using an amyloid brain scan where all the processing is executed from a single and uniform computational environment in Python. The high accuracy acquisition modelling is achieved through span-1 (no axial compression) ray tracing for true, random and scatter events. Furthermore, the platform offers uncertainty estimation of any image derived statistic to facilitate robust tracking of subtle physiological changes in longitudinal studies. The platform also supports the development of new reconstruction and analysis algorithms through restricting the axial field of view to any set of rings covering a region of interest and thus performing fully 3D reconstruction and corrections using real data significantly faster. All the software is available as open source with the accompanying wiki-page and test data.

MATtrack: A MATLAB-Based Quantitative Image Analysis Platform for Investigating Real-Time Photo-Converted Fluorescent Signals in Live Cells.

Science.gov (United States)

Courtney, Jane; Woods, Elena; Scholz, Dimitri; Hall, William W; Gautier, Virginie W

2015-01-01

We introduce here MATtrack, an open source MATLAB-based computational platform developed to process multi-Tiff files produced by a photo-conversion time lapse protocol for live cell fluorescent microscopy. MATtrack automatically performs a series of steps required for image processing, including extraction and import of numerical values from Multi-Tiff files, red/green image classification using gating parameters, noise filtering, background extraction, contrast stretching and temporal smoothing. MATtrack also integrates a series of algorithms for quantitative image analysis enabling the construction of mean and standard deviation images, clustering and classification of subcellular regions and injection point approximation. In addition, MATtrack features a simple user interface, which enables monitoring of Fluorescent Signal Intensity in multiple Regions of Interest, over time. The latter encapsulates a region growing method to automatically delineate the contours of Regions of Interest selected by the user, and performs background and regional Average Fluorescence Tracking, and automatic plotting. Finally, MATtrack computes convenient visualization and exploration tools including a migration map, which provides an overview of the protein intracellular trajectories and accumulation areas. In conclusion, MATtrack is an open source MATLAB-based software package tailored to facilitate the analysis and visualization of large data files derived from real-time live cell fluorescent microscopy using photoconvertible proteins. It is flexible, user friendly, compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux, and a wide range of data acquisition software. MATtrack is freely available for download at eleceng.dit.ie/courtney/MATtrack.zip.

Inter-laboratory evaluation of instrument platforms and experimental workflows for quantitative accuracy and reproducibility assessment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andrew J. Percy

2015-09-01

Full Text Available The reproducibility of plasma protein quantitation between laboratories and between instrument types was examined in a large-scale international study involving 16 laboratories and 19 LC–MS/MS platforms, using two kits designed to evaluate instrument performance and one kit designed to evaluate the entire bottom-up workflow. There was little effect of instrument type on the quality of the results, demonstrating the robustness of LC/MRM-MS with isotopically labeled standards. Technician skill was a factor, as errors in sample preparation and sub-optimal LC–MS performance were evident. This highlights the importance of proper training and routine quality control before quantitation is done on patient samples.

An Open-Source Based ITS Platform

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Ove; Krogh, Benjamin Bjerre; Torp, Kristian

2013-01-01

In this paper, a complete platform used to compute travel times from GPS data is described. Two approaches to computing travel time are proposed one based on points and one based on trips. Overall both approaches give reasonable results compared to existing manual estimated travel times. However......, the trip-based approach requires more GPS data and of a higher quality than the point-based approach. The platform has been completely implemented using open-source software. The main conclusion is that large quantity of GPS data can be managed, with a limited budget and that GPS data is a good source...... for estimating travel times, if enough data is available....

Handheld Microneedle-Based Electrolyte Sensing Platform.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Miller, Philip R. [Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Rivas, Rhiana [Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Johnson, David [Aquila Technologies Group, Inc., Albuquerque, NM (United States); Edwards, Thayne L. [Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Koskelo, Markku [Aquila Technologies Group, Inc., Albuquerque, NM (United States); Shawa, Luay [Aquila Technologies Group, Inc., Albuquerque, NM (United States); Brener, Igal [Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Chavez, Victor H. [Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Polsky, Ronen [Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

2015-11-01

Sandia National Laboratories will provide technical assistance, within time and budget, to Requester on testing and analyzing a microneedle-based electrolyte sensing platform. Hollow microneedles will be fabricated at Sandia and integrated with a fluidic chip using plastic laminate prototyping technology available at Sandia. In connection with commercial ion selective electrodes the sensing platform will be tested for detection of electrolytes (sodium and/or potassium) within physiological relevant concent ration ranges.

An integrated sample pretreatment platform for quantitative N-glycoproteome analysis with combination of on-line glycopeptide enrichment, deglycosylation and dimethyl labeling

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Weng, Yejing; Qu, Yanyan; Jiang, Hao; Wu, Qi [National Chromatographic Research and Analysis Center, Key Laboratory of Separation Science for Analytical Chemistry, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian 116023 (China); University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100039 (China); Zhang, Lihua, E-mail: lihuazhang@dicp.ac.cn [National Chromatographic Research and Analysis Center, Key Laboratory of Separation Science for Analytical Chemistry, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian 116023 (China); Yuan, Huiming [National Chromatographic Research and Analysis Center, Key Laboratory of Separation Science for Analytical Chemistry, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian 116023 (China); Zhou, Yuan [National Chromatographic Research and Analysis Center, Key Laboratory of Separation Science for Analytical Chemistry, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian 116023 (China); University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100039 (China); Zhang, Xiaodan; Zhang, Yukui [National Chromatographic Research and Analysis Center, Key Laboratory of Separation Science for Analytical Chemistry, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian 116023 (China)

2014-06-23

Highlights: • An integrated platform for quantitative N-glycoproteome analysis was established. • On-line enrichment, deglycosylation and labeling could be achieved within 160 min. • A N{sub 2}-assisted interface was applied to improve the compatibility of the platform. • The platform exhibited improved quantification accuracy, precision and throughput. - Abstract: Relative quantification of N-glycoproteomes shows great promise for the discovery of candidate biomarkers and therapeutic targets. The traditional protocol for quantitative analysis of glycoproteomes is usually off-line performed, and suffers from long sample preparation time, and the risk of sample loss or contamination due to manual manipulation. In this study, a novel integrated sample preparation platform for quantitative N-glycoproteome analysis was established, with combination of online N-glycopeptide capture by a HILIC column, sample buffer exchange by a N{sub 2}-assisted HILIC–RPLC interface, deglycosylation by a hydrophilic PNGase F immobilized enzymatic reactor (hIMER) and solid dimethyl labeling on a C18 precolumn. To evaluate the performance of such a platform, two equal aliquots of immunoglobulin G (IgG) digests were sequentially pretreated, followed by MALDI-TOF MS analysis. The signal intensity ratio of heavy/light (H/L) labeled deglycosylated peptides with the equal aliquots was 1.00 (RSD = 6.2%, n = 3), much better than those obtained by the offline protocol, with H/L ratio as 0.76 (RSD = 11.6%, n = 3). Additionally, the total on-line sample preparation time was greatly shortened to 160 min, much faster than that of offline approach (24 h). Furthermore, such an integrated pretreatment platform was successfully applied to analyze the two kinds of hepatocarcinoma ascites syngeneic cell lines with high (Hca-F) and low (Hca-P) lymph node metastasis rates. For H/L labeled Hca-P lysates with the equal aliquots, 99.6% of log 2 ratios (H/L) of quantified glycopeptides ranged from −1

Java-based mobile agent platforms for wireless sensor networks

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Aiello, F.; Carbone, A.; Fortino, G.; Galzarano, S.; Ganzha, M.; Paprzycki, M.

2010-01-01

This paper proposes an overview and comparison of mobile agent platforms for the development of wireless sensor network applications. In particular, the architecture, programming model and basic performance of two Java-based agent platforms, Mobile Agent Platform for Sun SPOT (MAPS) and Agent

Application of targeted quantitative proteomics analysis in human cerebrospinal fluid using a liquid chromatography matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometer (LC MALDI TOF/TOF) platform.

Science.gov (United States)

Pan, Sheng; Rush, John; Peskind, Elaine R; Galasko, Douglas; Chung, Kathryn; Quinn, Joseph; Jankovic, Joseph; Leverenz, James B; Zabetian, Cyrus; Pan, Catherine; Wang, Yan; Oh, Jung Hun; Gao, Jean; Zhang, Jianpeng; Montine, Thomas; Zhang, Jing

2008-02-01

Targeted quantitative proteomics by mass spectrometry aims to selectively detect one or a panel of peptides/proteins in a complex sample and is particularly appealing for novel biomarker verification/validation because it does not require specific antibodies. Here, we demonstrated the application of targeted quantitative proteomics in searching, identifying, and quantifying selected peptides in human cerebrospinal spinal fluid (CSF) using a matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometer (MALDI TOF/TOF)-based platform. The approach involved two major components: the use of isotopic-labeled synthetic peptides as references for targeted identification and quantification and a highly selective mass spectrometric analysis based on the unique characteristics of the MALDI instrument. The platform provides high confidence for targeted peptide detection in a complex system and can potentially be developed into a high-throughput system. Using the liquid chromatography (LC) MALDI TOF/TOF platform and the complementary identification strategy, we were able to selectively identify and quantify a panel of targeted peptides in the whole proteome of CSF without prior depletion of abundant proteins. The effectiveness and robustness of the approach associated with different sample complexity, sample preparation strategies, as well as mass spectrometric quantification were evaluated. Other issues related to chromatography separation and the feasibility for high-throughput analysis were also discussed. Finally, we applied targeted quantitative proteomics to analyze a subset of previously identified candidate markers in CSF samples of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) at different stages and Alzheimer's disease (AD) along with normal controls.

Recent Progress in Optical Biosensors Based on Smartphone Platforms

Science.gov (United States)

Geng, Zhaoxin; Zhang, Xiong; Fan, Zhiyuan; Lv, Xiaoqing; Su, Yue; Chen, Hongda

2017-01-01

With a rapid improvement of smartphone hardware and software, especially complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) cameras, many optical biosensors based on smartphone platforms have been presented, which have pushed the development of the point-of-care testing (POCT). Imaging-based and spectrometry-based detection techniques have been widely explored via different approaches. Combined with the smartphone, imaging-based and spectrometry-based methods are currently used to investigate a wide range of molecular properties in chemical and biological science for biosensing and diagnostics. Imaging techniques based on smartphone-based microscopes are utilized to capture microscale analysts, while spectrometry-based techniques are used to probe reactions or changes of molecules. Here, we critically review the most recent progress in imaging-based and spectrometry-based smartphone-integrated platforms that have been developed for chemical experiments and biological diagnosis. We focus on the analytical performance and the complexity for implementation of the platforms. PMID:29068375

Recent Progress in Optical Biosensors Based on Smartphone Platforms.

Science.gov (United States)

Geng, Zhaoxin; Zhang, Xiong; Fan, Zhiyuan; Lv, Xiaoqing; Su, Yue; Chen, Hongda

2017-10-25

With a rapid improvement of smartphone hardware and software, especially complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) cameras, many optical biosensors based on smartphone platforms have been presented, which have pushed the development of the point-of-care testing (POCT). Imaging-based and spectrometry-based detection techniques have been widely explored via different approaches. Combined with the smartphone, imaging-based and spectrometry-based methods are currently used to investigate a wide range of molecular properties in chemical and biological science for biosensing and diagnostics. Imaging techniques based on smartphone-based microscopes are utilized to capture microscale analysts, while spectrometry-based techniques are used to probe reactions or changes of molecules. Here, we critically review the most recent progress in imaging-based and spectrometry-based smartphone-integrated platforms that have been developed for chemical experiments and biological diagnosis. We focus on the analytical performance and the complexity for implementation of the platforms.

UAV Flight Control Based on RTX System Simulation Platform

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiaojun Duan

2014-03-01

Full Text Available This paper proposes RTX and Matlab UAV flight control system simulation platform based on the advantages and disadvantages of Windows and real-time system RTX. In the simulation platform, we set the RTW toolbox configuration and modify grt_main.c in order to make simulation platform endowed with online parameter adjustment, fault injection. Meanwhile, we develop the interface of the system simulation platform by CVI, thus it makes effective and has good prospects in application. In order to improve the real-time performance of simulation system, the current computer of real-time simulation mostly use real-time operating system to solve simulation model, as well as dual- framework containing in Host and target machine. The system is complex, high cost, and generally used for the control and half of practical system simulation. For the control system designers, they expect to design control law at a computer with Windows-based environment and conduct real-time simulation. This paper proposes simulation platform for UAV flight control system based on RTX and Matlab for this demand.

A QFD-based optimization method for a scalable product platform

Science.gov (United States)

Luo, Xinggang; Tang, Jiafu; Kwong, C. K.

2010-02-01

In order to incorporate the customer into the early phase of the product development cycle and to better satisfy customers' requirements, this article adopts quality function deployment (QFD) for optimal design of a scalable product platform. A five-step QFD-based method is proposed to determine the optimal values for platform engineering characteristics (ECs) and non-platform ECs of the products within a product family. First of all, the houses of quality (HoQs) for all product variants are developed and a QFD-based optimization approach is used to determine the optimal ECs for each product variant. Sensitivity analysis is performed for each EC with respect to overall customer satisfaction (OCS). Based on the obtained sensitivity indices of ECs, a mathematical model is established to simultaneously optimize the values of the platform and the non-platform ECs. Finally, by comparing and analysing the optimal solutions with different number of platform ECs, the ECs with which the worst OCS loss can be avoided are selected as platform ECs. An illustrative example is used to demonstrate the feasibility of this method. A comparison between the proposed method and a two-step approach is conducted on the example. The comparison shows that, as a kind of single-stage approach, the proposed method yields better average degree of customer satisfaction due to the simultaneous optimization of platform and non-platform ECs.

An improved UPLC-MS/MS platform for quantitative analysis of glycerophosphoinositol in mammalian cells.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Laura Grauso

Full Text Available The glycerophosphoinositols constitute a class of biologically active lipid-derived mediators whose intracellular levels are modulated during physiological and pathological cell processes. Comprehensive assessment of the role of these compounds expands beyond the cellular biology of lipids and includes rapid and unambiguous measurement in cells and tissues. Here we describe a sensitive and simple liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS method for quantitative analysis of the most abundant among these phosphoinositide derivatives in mammalian cells, the glycerophosphoinositol (GroPIns. The method has been developed in mouse Raw 264.7 macrophages with limits of quantitation at 3 ng/ml. Validation on the same cell line showed excellent response in terms of linear dynamic range (from 3 to 3,000 ng/ml, intra-day and inter-day precision (coefficient of variation ≤ 7.10% and accuracy (between 98.1 and 109.0% in the range 10-320 ng/ml. As proof of concept, a simplified analytical platform based on this method and external calibration was also tested on four stimulated and unstimulated cell lines, including Raw 264.7 macrophages, Jurkat T-cells, A375MM melanoma cells and rat basophilic leukemia RBL-2H3 cells. The results indicate a wide variation in GroPIns levels among different cell lines and stimulation conditions, although the measurements were always in line with the literature. No significant matrix effects were observed thus indicating that the here proposed method can be of general use for similar determinations in cells of different origin.

Recent Progress in Optical Biosensors Based on Smartphone Platforms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhaoxin Geng

2017-10-01

Full Text Available With a rapid improvement of smartphone hardware and software, especially complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS cameras, many optical biosensors based on smartphone platforms have been presented, which have pushed the development of the point-of-care testing (POCT. Imaging-based and spectrometry-based detection techniques have been widely explored via different approaches. Combined with the smartphone, imaging-based and spectrometry-based methods are currently used to investigate a wide range of molecular properties in chemical and biological science for biosensing and diagnostics. Imaging techniques based on smartphone-based microscopes are utilized to capture microscale analysts, while spectrometry-based techniques are used to probe reactions or changes of molecules. Here, we critically review the most recent progress in imaging-based and spectrometry-based smartphone-integrated platforms that have been developed for chemical experiments and biological diagnosis. We focus on the analytical performance and the complexity for implementation of the platforms.

Lab-on-capillary: a rapid, simple and quantitative genetic analysis platform integrating nucleic acid extraction, amplification and detection.

Science.gov (United States)

Fu, Yu; Zhou, Xiaoming; Xing, Da

2017-12-05

In this work, we describe for the first time a genetic diagnosis platform employing a polydiallyldimethylammonium chloride (PDDA)-modified capillary and a liquid-based thermalization system for rapid, simple and quantitative DNA analysis with minimal user interaction. Positively charged PDDA is modified on the inner surface of the silicon dioxide capillary by using an electrostatic self-assembly approach that allows the negatively charged DNA to be separated from the lysate in less than 20 seconds. The capillary loaded with the PCR mix is incorporated in the thermalization system, which can achieve on-site real-time PCR. This system is based on the circulation of pre-heated liquids in the chamber, allowing for high-speed thermalization of the capillary and fast amplification. Multiple targets can be simultaneously analysed with multiplex spatial melting. Starting with live Escherichia coli (E. coli) cells in milk, as a realistic sample, the current method can achieve DNA extraction, amplification, and detection within 40 min.

Adaptive control of a Stewart platform-based manipulator

Science.gov (United States)

Nguyen, Charles C.; Antrazi, Sami S.; Zhou, Zhen-Lei; Campbell, Charles E., Jr.

1993-01-01

A joint-space adaptive control scheme for controlling noncompliant motion of a Stewart platform-based manipulator (SPBM) was implemented in the Hardware Real-Time Emulator at Goddard Space Flight Center. The six-degrees of freedom SPBM uses two platforms and six linear actuators driven by dc motors. The adaptive control scheme is based on proportional-derivative controllers whose gains are adjusted by an adaptation law based on model reference adaptive control and Liapunov direct method. It is concluded that the adaptive control scheme provides superior tracking capability as compared to fixed-gain controllers.

Remote sensing image segmentation based on Hadoop cloud platform

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Jie; Zhu, Lingling; Cao, Fubin

2018-01-01

To solve the problem that the remote sensing image segmentation speed is slow and the real-time performance is poor, this paper studies the method of remote sensing image segmentation based on Hadoop platform. On the basis of analyzing the structural characteristics of Hadoop cloud platform and its component MapReduce programming, this paper proposes a method of image segmentation based on the combination of OpenCV and Hadoop cloud platform. Firstly, the MapReduce image processing model of Hadoop cloud platform is designed, the input and output of image are customized and the segmentation method of the data file is rewritten. Then the Mean Shift image segmentation algorithm is implemented. Finally, this paper makes a segmentation experiment on remote sensing image, and uses MATLAB to realize the Mean Shift image segmentation algorithm to compare the same image segmentation experiment. The experimental results show that under the premise of ensuring good effect, the segmentation rate of remote sensing image segmentation based on Hadoop cloud Platform has been greatly improved compared with the single MATLAB image segmentation, and there is a great improvement in the effectiveness of image segmentation.

Cloud Based Applications and Platforms (Presentation)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Brodt-Giles, D.

2014-05-15

Presentation to the Cloud Computing East 2014 Conference, where we are highlighting our cloud computing strategy, describing the platforms on the cloud (including Smartgrid.gov), and defining our process for implementing cloud based applications.

Cross-Platform Mobile Application Development: A Pattern-Based Approach

Science.gov (United States)

2012-03-01

TYPE AND DATES COVERED Master’s Thesis 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE Cross-Platform Mobile Application Development: A Pattern-Based Approach 5. FUNDING...for public release; distribution is unlimited CROSS-PLATFORM MOBILE APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT: A PATTERN-BASED APPROACH Christian G. Acord...occurring design problems. We then discuss common approaches to mobile development, including common aspects of mobile application development, including

Two low-cost digital camera-based platforms for quantitative creatinine analysis in urine.

Science.gov (United States)

Debus, Bruno; Kirsanov, Dmitry; Yaroshenko, Irina; Sidorova, Alla; Piven, Alena; Legin, Andrey

2015-10-01

In clinical analysis creatinine is a routine biomarker for the assessment of renal and muscular dysfunctions. Although several techniques have been proposed for a fast and accurate quantification of creatinine in human serum or urine, most of them require expensive or complex apparatus, advanced sample preparation or skilled operators. To circumvent these issues, we propose two home-made platforms based on a CD Spectroscope (CDS) and Computer Screen Photo-assisted Technique (CSPT) for the rapid assessment of creatinine level in human urine. Both systems display a linear range (r(2) = 0.9967 and 0.9972, respectively) from 160 μmol L(-1) to 1.6 mmol L(-1) for standard creatinine solutions (n = 15) with respective detection limits of 89 μmol L(-1) and 111 μmol L(-1). Good repeatability was observed for intra-day (1.7-2.9%) and inter-day (3.6-6.5%) measurements evaluated on three consecutive days. The performance of CDS and CSPT was also validated in real human urine samples (n = 26) using capillary electrophoresis data as reference. Corresponding Partial Least-Squares (PLS) regression models provided for mean relative errors below 10% in creatinine quantification. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Understanding competencies in platform-based product development: Antecedents and outcomes

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Chai, K.H.; Wang, Q; Song, Michael; Halman, Johannes I.M.; Brombacher, A.C.; Brombacher, A.C.

2012-01-01

While previous studies have shed light on the benefits and antecedents of platform-based product development, there is still much to be learned on the subject, particularly through an empirical approach. Based on the literature, this study proposes the concept of product platform competency and

Understanding competencies in platform-based product development : antecedents and outcomes

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Chai, K.H.; Wang, Q.; Song, M.; Halman, J.I.M.; Brombacher, A.C.

2012-01-01

While previous studies have shed light on the benefits and antecedents of platform-based product development, there is still much to be learned on the subject, particularly through an empirical approach. Based on the literature, this study proposes the concept of product platform competency and

Proximity-Based Asynchronous Messaging Platform for Location-Based Internet of Things Service

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hyeong gon Jo

2016-07-01

Full Text Available The Internet of Things (IoT opens up tremendous opportunities to provide location-based applications. However, despite the services around a user being physically adjacent, common IoT platforms use a centralized structure, like a cloud-computing architecture, which transfers large amounts of data to a central server. This raises problems, such as traffic concentration, long service latency, and high communication cost. In this paper, we propose a physical distance-based asynchronous messaging platform that specializes in processing personalized data and location-based messages. The proposed system disperses traffic using a location-based message-delivery protocol, and has high stability.

Smartphone based visual and quantitative assays on upconversional paper sensor.

Science.gov (United States)

Mei, Qingsong; Jing, Huarong; Li, You; Yisibashaer, Wuerzha; Chen, Jian; Nan Li, Bing; Zhang, Yong

2016-01-15

The integration of smartphone with paper sensors recently has been gain increasing attentions because of the achievement of quantitative and rapid analysis. However, smartphone based upconversional paper sensors have been restricted by the lack of effective methods to acquire luminescence signals on test paper. Herein, by the virtue of 3D printing technology, we exploited an auxiliary reusable device, which orderly assembled a 980nm mini-laser, optical filter and mini-cavity together, for digitally imaging the luminescence variations on test paper and quantitative analyzing pesticide thiram by smartphone. In detail, copper ions decorated NaYF4:Yb/Tm upconversion nanoparticles were fixed onto filter paper to form test paper, and the blue luminescence on it would be quenched after additions of thiram through luminescence resonance energy transfer mechanism. These variations could be monitored by the smartphone camera, and then the blue channel intensities of obtained colored images were calculated to quantify amounts of thiram through a self-written Android program installed on the smartphone, offering a reliable and accurate detection limit of 0.1μM for the system. This work provides an initial demonstration of integrating upconversion nanosensors with smartphone digital imaging for point-of-care analysis on a paper-based platform. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Market implementation of the MVA platform for pre-pandemic and pandemic influenza vaccines: A quantitative key opinion leader analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Ramezanpour, Bahar; Pronker, Esther S; Kreijtz, Joost H C M; Osterhaus, Albert D M E; Claassen, E

2015-08-20

A quantitative method is presented to rank strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) of modified vaccinia virus Ankara (MVA) as a platform for pre-pandemic and pandemic influenza vaccines. Analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was applied to achieve pairwise comparisons among SWOT factors in order to prioritize them. Key opinion leaders (KOLs) in the influenza vaccine field were interviewed to collect a unique dataset to evaluate the market potential of this platform. The purpose of this study, to evaluate commercial potential of the MVA platform for the development of novel generation pandemic influenza vaccines, is accomplished by using a SWOT and AHP combined analytic method. Application of the SWOT-AHP model indicates that its strengths are considered more important by KOLs than its weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Particularly, the inherent immunogenicity capability of MVA without the requirement of an adjuvant is the most important factor to increase commercial attractiveness of this platform. Concerns regarding vector vaccines and anti-vector immunity are considered its most important weakness, which might lower public health value of this platform. Furthermore, evaluation of the results of this study emphasizes equally important role that threats and opportunities of this platform play. This study further highlights unmet needs in the influenza vaccine market, which could be addressed by the implementation of the MVA platform. Broad use of MVA in clinical trials shows great promise for this vector as vaccine platform for pre-pandemic and pandemic influenza and threats by other respiratory viruses. Moreover, from the results of the clinical trials seem that MVA is particularly attractive for development of vaccines against pathogens for which no, or only insufficiently effective vaccines, are available. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Reliability Assessment of Cloud Computing Platform Based on Semiquantitative Information and Evidential Reasoning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hang Wei

2016-01-01

Full Text Available A reliability assessment method based on evidential reasoning (ER rule and semiquantitative information is proposed in this paper, where a new reliability assessment architecture including four aspects with both quantitative data and qualitative knowledge is established. The assessment architecture is more objective in describing complex dynamic cloud computing environment than that in traditional method. In addition, the ER rule which has good performance for multiple attribute decision making problem is employed to integrate different types of the attributes in assessment architecture, which can obtain more accurate assessment results. The assessment results of the case study in an actual cloud computing platform verify the effectiveness and the advantage of the proposed method.

GOLIAH: A Gaming Platform for Home-Based Intervention in Autism - Principles and Design.

Science.gov (United States)

Bono, Valentina; Narzisi, Antonio; Jouen, Anne-Lise; Tilmont, Elodie; Hommel, Stephane; Jamal, Wasifa; Xavier, Jean; Billeci, Lucia; Maharatna, Koushik; Wald, Mike; Chetouani, Mohamed; Cohen, David; Muratori, Filippo

2016-01-01

Children with Autism need intensive intervention and this is challenging in terms of manpower, costs, and time. Advances in Information Communication Technology and computer gaming may help in this respect by creating a nomadically deployable closed-loop intervention system involving the child and active participation of parents and therapists. An automated serious gaming platform enabling intensive intervention in nomadic settings has been developed by mapping two pivotal skills in autism spectrum disorder: Imitation and Joint Attention (JA). Eleven games - seven Imitations and four JA - were derived from the Early Start Denver Model. The games involved application of visual and audio stimuli with multiple difficulty levels and a wide variety of tasks and actions pertaining to the Imitation and JA. The platform runs on mobile devices and allows the therapist to (1) characterize the child's initial difficulties/strengths, ensuring tailored and adapted intervention by choosing appropriate games and (2) investigate and track the temporal evolution of the child's progress through a set of automatically extracted quantitative performance metrics. The platform allows the therapist to change the game or its difficulty levels during the intervention depending on the child's progress. Performance of the platform was assessed in a 3-month open trial with 10 children with autism (Trial ID: NCT02560415, Clinicaltrials.gov). The children and the parents participated in 80% of the sessions both at home (77.5%) and at the hospital (90%). All children went through all the games but, given the diversity of the games and the heterogeneity of children profiles and abilities, for a given game the number of sessions dedicated to the game varied and could be tailored through automatic scoring. Parents (N = 10) highlighted enhancement in the child's concentration, flexibility, and self-esteem in 78, 89, and 44% of the cases, respectively, and 56% observed an enhanced parents

Communicating climate change adaptation information using web-based platforms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

E. Karali

2017-07-01

Full Text Available To facilitate progress in climate change adaptation policy and practice, it is important not only to ensure the production of accurate, comprehensive and relevant information, but also the easy, timely and affordable access to it. This can contribute to better-informed decisions and improve the design and implementation of adaptation policies and other relevant initiatives. Web-based platforms can play an important role in communicating and distributing data, information and knowledge that become constantly available, reaching out to a large group of potential users. Indeed in the last decade there has been an extensive increase in the number of platforms developed for this purpose in many fields including climate change adaptation. This short paper concentrates on the web-based adaptation platforms developed in Europe. It provides an overview of the recently emerged landscape, examines the basic characteristics of a set of platforms that operate at national, transnational and European level, and discusses some of the key challenges related to their development, maintenance and overall management. Findings presented in this short paper are discussed in greater detailed in the Technical Report of the European Environment Agency Overview of climate change adaptation platforms in Europe.

Communicating climate change adaptation information using web-based platforms

Science.gov (United States)

Karali, Eleni; Mattern, Kati

2017-07-01

To facilitate progress in climate change adaptation policy and practice, it is important not only to ensure the production of accurate, comprehensive and relevant information, but also the easy, timely and affordable access to it. This can contribute to better-informed decisions and improve the design and implementation of adaptation policies and other relevant initiatives. Web-based platforms can play an important role in communicating and distributing data, information and knowledge that become constantly available, reaching out to a large group of potential users. Indeed in the last decade there has been an extensive increase in the number of platforms developed for this purpose in many fields including climate change adaptation. This short paper concentrates on the web-based adaptation platforms developed in Europe. It provides an overview of the recently emerged landscape, examines the basic characteristics of a set of platforms that operate at national, transnational and European level, and discusses some of the key challenges related to their development, maintenance and overall management. Findings presented in this short paper are discussed in greater detailed in the Technical Report of the European Environment Agency Overview of climate change adaptation platforms in Europe.

Cdk1 activity acts as a quantitative platform for coordinating cell cycle progression with periodic transcription

Science.gov (United States)

Banyai, Gabor; Baïdi, Feriel; Coudreuse, Damien; Szilagyi, Zsolt

2016-01-01

Cell proliferation is regulated by cyclin-dependent kinases (Cdks) and requires the periodic expression of particular gene clusters in different cell cycle phases. However, the interplay between the networks that generate these transcriptional oscillations and the core cell cycle machinery remains largely unexplored. In this work, we use a synthetic regulable Cdk1 module to demonstrate that periodic expression is governed by quantitative changes in Cdk1 activity, with different clusters directly responding to specific activity levels. We further establish that cell cycle events neither participate in nor interfere with the Cdk1-driven transcriptional program, provided that cells are exposed to the appropriate Cdk1 activities. These findings contrast with current models that propose self-sustained and Cdk1-independent transcriptional oscillations. Our work therefore supports a model in which Cdk1 activity serves as a quantitative platform for coordinating cell cycle transitions with the expression of critical genes to bring about proper cell cycle progression. PMID:27045731

Software-Based Wireless Power Transfer Platform for Various Power Control Experiments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sun-Han Hwang

2015-07-01

Full Text Available In this paper, we present the design and evaluation of a software-based wireless power transfer platform that enables the development of a prototype involving various open- and closed-loop power control functions. Our platform is based on a loosely coupled planar wireless power transfer circuit that uses a class-E power amplifier. In conjunction with this circuit, we implement flexible control functions using a National Instruments Data Acquisition (NI DAQ board and algorithms in the MATLAB/Simulink. To verify the effectiveness of our platform, we conduct two types of power-control experiments: a no-load or metal detection using open-loop power control, and an output voltage regulation for different receiver positions using closed-loop power control. The use of the MATLAB/Simulink software as a part of the planar wireless power transfer platform for power control experiments is shown to serve as a useful and inexpensive alternative to conventional hardware-based platforms.

Parallel application of plasma equilibrium fitting based on inhomogeneous platforms

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liao Min; Zhang Jinhua; Chen Liaoyuan; Li Yongge; Pan Wei; Pan Li

2008-01-01

An online analysis and online display platform EFIT, which is based on the equilibrium-fitting mode, is inducted in this paper. This application can realize large data transportation between inhomogeneous platforms by designing a communication mechanism using sockets. It spends approximately one minute to complete the equilibrium fitting reconstruction by using a finite state machine to describe the management node and several node computers of cluster system to fulfill the parallel computation, this satisfies the online display during the discharge interval. An effective communication model between inhomogeneous platforms is provided, which could transport the computing results from Linux platform to Windows platform for online analysis and display. (authors)

An overview on development and application of an experimental platform for quantitative cardiac imaging research in rabbit models of myocardial infarction.

Science.gov (United States)

Feng, Yuanbo; Bogaert, Jan; Oyen, Raymond; Ni, Yicheng

2014-10-01

To exploit the advantages of using rabbits for cardiac imaging research and to tackle the technical obstacles, efforts have been made under the framework of a doctoral research program. In this overview article, by cross-referencing the current literature, we summarize how we have developed a preclinical cardiac research platform based on modified models of reperfused myocardial infarction (MI) in rabbits; how the in vivo manifestations of cardiac imaging could be closely matched with those ex vivo macro- and microscopic findings; how these imaging outcomes could be quantitatively analyzed, validated and demonstrated; and how we could apply this cardiac imaging platform to provide possible solutions to certain lingering diagnostic and therapeutic problems in experimental cardiology. In particular, tissue components in acute cardiac ischemia have been stratified and characterized, post-infarct lipomatous metaplasia (LM) as a common but hardly illuminated clinical pathology has been identified in rabbit models, and a necrosis avid tracer as well as an anti-ischemic drug have been successfully assessed for their potential utilities in clinical cardiology. These outcomes may interest the researchers in the related fields and help strengthen translational research in cardiovascular diseases.

EduCTX: A blockchain-based higher education credit platform

OpenAIRE

Turkanović, Muhamed; Hölbl, Marko; Košič, Kristjan; Heričko, Marjan; Kamišalić, Aida

2017-01-01

Blockchain technology enables the creation of a decentralized environment where transactions and data are not under the control of any third party organization. Any transaction ever completed is recorded in a public ledger in a verifiable and permanent way. Based on blockchain technology, we propose a global higher education credit platform, named EduCTX. This platform is based on the concept of the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS). It constitutes a globally trusted, de...

Gesture therapy: an upper limb virtual reality-based motor rehabilitation platform.

Science.gov (United States)

Sucar, Luis Enrique; Orihuela-Espina, Felipe; Velazquez, Roger Luis; Reinkensmeyer, David J; Leder, Ronald; Hernández-Franco, Jorge

2014-05-01

Virtual reality platforms capable of assisting rehabilitation must provide support for rehabilitation principles: promote repetition, task oriented training, appropriate feedback, and a motivating environment. As such, development of these platforms is a complex process which has not yet reached maturity. This paper presents our efforts to contribute to this field, presenting Gesture Therapy, a virtual reality-based platform for rehabilitation of the upper limb. We describe the system architecture and main features of the platform and provide preliminary evidence of the feasibility of the platform in its current status.

Study on concept of web-based reactor piping design data platform

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang Yu; Zhou Yu; Dong Jianling; Meng Yang

2005-01-01

For solving the piping design problems such as design data deficiency, designer communication inconvenience and design project inconsistence, Reactor Piping Design Database Platform, which is the main part of the Integrated Nuclear Project Research Platform, is proposed by analyzing the nuclear piping designs in detail. The functions and system structures of the platform are described in the paper for the sake of the realization of the Reactor Piping Design Database Platform. The platform is constituted by web-based management interface, AutoPlant selected as CAD software, and relation database management system (DBMS). (authors)

Dataflow-based multi-ASIP platform approach for digital control applications

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Frijns, R.M.W.; Kamp, A.L.J.; Stuijk, S.; Voeten, J.P.M.; Bontekoe, M.; Gemei, K.J.A.; Corporaal, H.

2013-01-01

To provide a good balance between the performance and flexibility of future digital control platforms, we propose an FPGA-based heterogeneous multiprocessor approach, in which the platform is composed of processing elements from a set of parameterizable heterogeneous Application-Specific

An FPGA-based rapid prototyping platform for wavelet coprocessors

Science.gov (United States)

Vera, Alonzo; Meyer-Baese, Uwe; Pattichis, Marios

2007-04-01

MatLab/Simulink-based design flows are being used by DSP designers to improve time-to-market of FPGA implementations. 1 Commonly, digital signal processing cores are integrated in an embedded system as coprocessors. Existing CAD tools do not fully address the integration of a DSP coprocessor into an embedded system design. This integration might prove to be time consuming and error prone. It also requires that the DSP designer has an excellent knowledge of embedded systems and computer architecture details. We present a prototyping platform and design flow that allows rapid integration of embedded systems with a wavelet coprocessor. The platform comprises of software and hardware modules that allow a DSP designer a painless integration of a coprocessor with a PowerPC-based embedded system. The platform has a wide range of applications, from industrial to educational environments.

GOLIAH: A gaming platform for home based intervention in Autism - Principles and Design

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Valentina eBono

2016-04-01

Full Text Available Meeting the required intensive intervention hour for treating children with autism is challenging in terms of trained manpower needed and costs. Advances in Information Communication Technology and computer gaming may help in this respect by creating a nomadically deployable closed loop intervention system involving the child and active participation of parents and therapists.An automated serious gaming platform enabling intensive intervention in nomadic settings has been developed by mapping two pivotal skills in autism spectrum disorder: Imitation and Joint Attention (JA. Eleven games – seven Imitation and four JA – were derived from the Early Start Denver Model. The games involved application of visual and audio stimuli with multiple difficulty levels and a wide variety of tasks and actions pertaining to the Imitation and JA. The platform runs on mobile devices and allows the therapist to (1 characterize the child’s initial difficulties/strengths, ensuring tailored and adapted intervention by choosing appropriate games and (2 investigate and track the temporal evolution of the child’s progress through a set of automatically extracted quantitative performance metrics. The platform allows the therapist to change the game or its difficulty levels during the intervention depending on the child’s progress. Performance of the platform was assessed in a 3-month open trial with 10 children with autism. The children and the parents participated in 80% of the sessions both at home (77.5% and at hospital (90%. All children went through all games but, given the diversity of the games and the heterogeneity of children profiles and abilities, for a given game the number of sessions dedicated to the game varied and could be tailored through automatic scoring. Parents (N = 10 highlighted enhancement in the child’s concentration, flexibility and self-esteem in 78%, 89% and 44% of the cases respectively and 56% observed an enhanced parents

Low Cost ZigBee Protocol Based Laboratory Platforms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alvaro Romero-Acero

2013-11-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a low cost wireless communication platform, based on the ZigBee protocol. It is designed with the purpose to strengthen the use of information technology in the classroom. Guides laboratory practices are focused on developing undergraduate engineering students to the area of telecommunications. The platform structure is composed of: Labs custom designed, web tools embedded wireless communication system for data acquisition in real time, and the Human Machine Interface (HMI, which records analog data and digital. 

The development and application of a quantitative peptide microarray platform to SH2 domain specificity space

Science.gov (United States)

Engelmann, Brett Warren

The Src homology 2 (SH2) domains evolved alongside protein tyrosine kinases (PTKs) and phosphatases (PTPs) in metazoans to recognize the phosphotyrosine (pY) post-translational modification. The human genome encodes 121 SH2 domains within 111 SH2 domain containing proteins that represent the primary mechanism for cellular signal transduction immediately downstream of PTKs. Despite pY recognition contributing to roughly half of the binding energy, SH2 domains possess substantial binding specificity, or affinity discrimination between phosphopeptide ligands. This specificity is largely imparted by amino acids (AAs) adjacent to the pY, typically from positions +1 to +4 C-terminal to the pY. Much experimental effort has been undertaken to construct preferred binding motifs for many SH2 domains. However, due to limitations in previous experimental methodologies these motifs do not account for the interplay between AAs. It was therefore not known how AAs within the context of individual peptides function to impart SH2 domain specificity. In this work we identified the critical role context plays in defining SH2 domain specificity for physiological ligands. We also constructed a high quality interactome using 50 SH2 domains and 192 physiological ligands. We next developed a quantitative high-throughput (Q-HTP) peptide microarray platform to assess the affinities four SH2 domains have for 124 physiological ligands. We demonstrated the superior characteristics of our platform relative to preceding approaches and validated our results using established biophysical techniques, literature corroboration, and predictive algorithms. The quantitative information provided by the arrays was leveraged to investigate SH2 domain binding distributions and identify points of binding overlap. Our microarray derived affinity estimates were integrated to produce quantitative interaction motifs capable of predicting interactions. Furthermore, our microarrays proved capable of resolving

Kinematics of an in-parallel actuated manipulator based on the Stewart platform mechanism

Science.gov (United States)

Williams, Robert L., II

1992-01-01

This paper presents kinematic equations and solutions for an in-parallel actuated robotic mechanism based on Stewart's platform. These equations are required for inverse position and resolved rate (inverse velocity) platform control. NASA LaRC has a Vehicle Emulator System (VES) platform designed by MIT which is based on Stewart's platform. The inverse position solution is straight-forward and computationally inexpensive. Given the desired position and orientation of the moving platform with respect to the base, the lengths of the prismatic leg actuators are calculated. The forward position solution is more complicated and theoretically has 16 solutions. The position and orientation of the moving platform with respect to the base is calculated given the leg actuator lengths. Two methods are pursued in this paper to solve this problem. The resolved rate (inverse velocity) solution is derived. Given the desired Cartesian velocity of the end-effector, the required leg actuator rates are calculated. The Newton-Raphson Jacobian matrix resulting from the second forward position kinematics solution is a modified inverse Jacobian matrix. Examples and simulations are given for the VES.

Prototype development of a web-based participative decision support platform in risk management

Science.gov (United States)

Aye, Zar Chi; Olyazadeh, Roya; Jaboyedoff, Michel; Derron, Marc-Henri

2014-05-01

This paper discusses the proposed background architecture and prototype development of an internet-based decision support system (DSS) in the field of natural hazards and risk management using open-source geospatial software and web technologies. It is based on a three-tier, client-server architecture with the support of boundless (opengeo) framework and its client side SDK application environment using customized gxp components and data utility classes. The main purpose of the system is to integrate the workflow of risk management systematically with the diverse involvement of stakeholders from different organizations dealing with natural hazards and risk for evaluation of management measures through the active online participation approach. It aims to develop an adaptive user friendly, web-based environment that allows the users to set up risk management strategies based on actual context and data by integrating web-GIS and DSS functionality associated with process flow and other visualization tools. Web-GIS interface has been integrated within the DSS to deliver maps and provide certain geo-processing capabilities on the web, which can be easily accessible and shared by different organizations located in case study sites of the project. This platform could be envisaged not only as a common web-based platform for the centralized sharing of data such as hazard maps, elements at risk maps and additional information but also to ensure an integrated platform of risk management where the users could upload data, analyze risk and identify possible alternative scenarios for risk reduction especially for floods and landslides, either quantitatively or qualitatively depending on the risk information provided by the stakeholders in case study regions. The level of involvement, access to and interaction with the provided functionality of the system varies depending on the roles and responsibilities of the stakeholders, for example, only the experts (planners, geological

Paper based electronics platform

KAUST Repository

Nassar, Joanna Mohammad

2017-07-20

A flexible and non-functionalized low cost paper-based electronic system platform fabricated from common paper, such as paper based sensors, and methods of producing paper based sensors, and methods of sensing using the paper based sensors are provided. A method of producing a paper based sensor can include the steps of: a) providing a conventional paper product to serve as a substrate for the sensor or as an active material for the sensor or both, the paper product not further treated or functionalized; and b) applying a sensing element to the paper substrate, the sensing element selected from the group consisting of a conductive material, the conductive material providing contacts and interconnects, sensitive material film that exhibits sensitivity to pH levels, a compressible and/or porous material disposed between a pair of opposed conductive elements, or a combination of two of more said sensing elements. The method of sensing can further include measuring, using the sensing element, a change in resistance, a change in voltage, a change in current, a change in capacitance, or a combination of any two or more thereof.

Study on the E-commerce platform based on the agent

Science.gov (United States)

Fu, Ruixue; Qin, Lishuan; Gao, Yinmin

2011-10-01

To solve problem of dynamic integration in e-commerce, the Multi-Agent architecture of electronic commerce platform system based on Agent and Ontology has been introduced, which includes three major types of agent, Ontology and rule collection. In this architecture, service agent and rule are used to realize the business process reengineering, the reuse of software component, and agility of the electronic commerce platform. To illustrate the architecture, a simulation work has been done and the results imply that the architecture provides a very efficient method to design and implement the flexible, distributed, open and intelligent electronic commerce platform system to solve problem of dynamic integration in ecommerce. The objective of this paper is to illustrate the architecture of electronic commerce platform system, and the approach how Agent and Ontology support the electronic commerce platform system.

HuMOVE: a low-invasive wearable monitoring platform in sexual medicine.

Science.gov (United States)

Ciuti, Gastone; Nardi, Matteo; Valdastri, Pietro; Menciassi, Arianna; Basile Fasolo, Ciro; Dario, Paolo

2014-10-01

To investigate an accelerometer-based wearable system, named Human Movement (HuMOVE) platform, designed to enable quantitative and continuous measurement of sexual performance with minimal invasiveness and inconvenience for users. Design, implementation, and development of HuMOVE, a wearable platform equipped with an accelerometer sensor for monitoring inertial parameters for sexual performance assessment and diagnosis, were performed. The system enables quantitative measurement of movement parameters during sexual intercourse, meeting the requirements of wearability, data storage, sampling rate, and interfacing methods, which are fundamental for human sexual intercourse performance analysis. HuMOVE was validated through characterization using a controlled experimental test bench and evaluated in a human model during simulated sexual intercourse conditions. HuMOVE demonstrated to be a robust and quantitative monitoring platform and a reliable candidate for sexual performance evaluation and diagnosis. Characterization analysis on the controlled experimental test bench demonstrated an accurate correlation between the HuMOVE system and data from a reference displacement sensor. Experimental tests in the human model during simulated intercourse conditions confirmed the accuracy of the sexual performance evaluation platform and the effectiveness of the selected and derived parameters. The obtained outcomes also established the project expectations in terms of usability and comfort, evidenced by the questionnaires that highlighted the low invasiveness and acceptance of the device. To the best of our knowledge, HuMOVE platform is the first device for human sexual performance analysis compatible with sexual intercourse; the system has the potential to be a helpful tool for physicians to accurately classify sexual disorders, such as premature or delayed ejaculation. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product Platform Performance

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Munk, Lone

The aim of this research is to improve understanding of platform-based product development by studying platform performance in relation to internal effects in companies. Platform-based product development makes it possible to deliver product variety and at the same time reduce the needed resources...... engaging in platform-based product development. Similarly platform assessment criteria lack empirical verification regarding relevance and sufficiency. The thesis focuses on • the process of identifying and estimating internal effects, • verification of performance of product platforms, (i...... experienced representatives from the different life systems phase systems of the platform products. The effects are estimated and modeled within different scenarios, taking into account financial and real option aspects. The model illustrates and supports estimation and quantification of internal platform...

A temperature dependent simple spice based modeling platform for power IGBT modules

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Sfakianakis, G.; Nawaz, M.; Chimento, F.

2014-01-01

This paper deals with the development of a PSpice based temperature dependent modelling platform for the evaluation of silicon based IGBT power modules. The developed device modelling platform is intended to be used for the design and assessment of converter valves/cells for potential high power

Constructing regional advantage: platform policies based on related variety and differentiated knowledge bases.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Asheim, B.T.; Boschma, R.A.; Cooke, P.

2011-01-01

Constructing regional advantage: platform policies based on related variety and differentiated knowledge bases, Regional Studies. This paper presents a regional innovation policy model based on the idea of constructing regional advantage. This policy model brings together concepts like related

The Study of Multifunction External Fixator Based on Stewart Platform

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Guo Yue

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The article develops the model of bone deformities, making 6-DOF Parallel Mechanism have widely applied to correction of deformities. The platform’s positional direct solution is the posture of the motion platform. Malformation can be measured by X-ray, based on the space coordinate transformation can find the final posture of the motion platform. Regarding the reverse solution to platform kinematics the paper gives a quick arithmetic program, six actuators to realize motion requirements. For the computer-assisted fracture reduction, we produced an application interface.

Quantitative mass spectrometry: an overview

Science.gov (United States)

Urban, Pawel L.

2016-10-01

Mass spectrometry (MS) is a mainstream chemical analysis technique in the twenty-first century. It has contributed to numerous discoveries in chemistry, physics and biochemistry. Hundreds of research laboratories scattered all over the world use MS every day to investigate fundamental phenomena on the molecular level. MS is also widely used by industry-especially in drug discovery, quality control and food safety protocols. In some cases, mass spectrometers are indispensable and irreplaceable by any other metrological tools. The uniqueness of MS is due to the fact that it enables direct identification of molecules based on the mass-to-charge ratios as well as fragmentation patterns. Thus, for several decades now, MS has been used in qualitative chemical analysis. To address the pressing need for quantitative molecular measurements, a number of laboratories focused on technological and methodological improvements that could render MS a fully quantitative metrological platform. In this theme issue, the experts working for some of those laboratories share their knowledge and enthusiasm about quantitative MS. I hope this theme issue will benefit readers, and foster fundamental and applied research based on quantitative MS measurements. This article is part of the themed issue 'Quantitative mass spectrometry'.

Low consumption single-use microvalve for microfluidic PCB-based platforms

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Flores, G; Aracil, C; Perdigones, F; Quero, J M

2014-01-01

In this paper, a single-use and unidirectional microvalve with low consumption of energy for PCB-based microfluidic platforms is reported. Its activation is easy because it works as a fuse. The fabrication process of the device is based on PCB technology and a typical SU-8 process, using the PCB as a substrate and SU-8 for the microfluidic channels and chambers. The microvalve is intended to be used to impulse small volumes of fluids and it has been designed to be highly integrable in PCB-based microfluidic platforms. The proposed device has been fabricated, integrated and tested in a general purpose microfluidic circuit, resulting in a low activation time, of about 100 μs, and a low consumption of energy, with a maximum of 27 mJ. These results show a significant improvement because the energy consumption is about 84% lower and the time response is about four orders of magnitude shorter if compared with similar microvalves for impulsion of fluids on PCB-based platforms. (paper)

A web-based online collaboration platform for formulating engineering design projects

Science.gov (United States)

Varikuti, Sainath

Effective communication and collaboration among students, faculty and industrial sponsors play a vital role while formulating and solving engineering design projects. With the advent in the web technology, online platforms and systems have been proposed to facilitate interactions and collaboration among different stakeholders in the context of senior design projects. However, there are noticeable gaps in the literature with respect to understanding the effects of online collaboration platforms for formulating engineering design projects. Most of the existing literature is focused on exploring the utility of online platforms on activities after the problem is defined and teams are formed. Also, there is a lack of mechanisms and tools to guide the project formation phase in senior design projects, which makes it challenging for students and faculty to collaboratively develop and refine project ideas and to establish appropriate teams. In this thesis a web-based online collaboration platform is designed and implemented to share, discuss and obtain feedback on project ideas and to facilitate collaboration among students and faculty prior to the start of the semester. The goal of this thesis is to understand the impact of an online collaboration platform for formulating engineering design projects, and how a web-based online collaboration platform affects the amount of interactions among stakeholders during the early phases of design process. A survey measuring the amount of interactions among students and faculty is administered. Initial findings show a marked improvement in the students' ability to share project ideas and form teams with other students and faculty. Students found the online platform simple to use. The suggestions for improving the tool generally included features that were not necessarily design specific, indicating that the underlying concept of this collaborative platform provides a strong basis and can be extended for future online platforms

Development and evaluation of a high-throughput, low-cost genotyping platform based on oligonucleotide microarrays in rice

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Liu Bin

2008-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background We report the development of a microarray platform for rapid and cost-effective genetic mapping, and its evaluation using rice as a model. In contrast to methods employing whole-genome tiling microarrays for genotyping, our method is based on low-cost spotted microarray production, focusing only on known polymorphic features. Results We have produced a genotyping microarray for rice, comprising 880 single feature polymorphism (SFP elements derived from insertions/deletions identified by aligning genomic sequences of the japonica cultivar Nipponbare and the indica cultivar 93-11. The SFPs were experimentally verified by hybridization with labeled genomic DNA prepared from the two cultivars. Using the genotyping microarrays, we found high levels of polymorphism across diverse rice accessions, and were able to classify all five subpopulations of rice with high bootstrap support. The microarrays were used for mapping of a gene conferring resistance to Magnaporthe grisea, the causative organism of rice blast disease, by quantitative genotyping of samples from a recombinant inbred line population pooled by phenotype. Conclusion We anticipate this microarray-based genotyping platform, based on its low cost-per-sample, to be particularly useful in applications requiring whole-genome molecular marker coverage across large numbers of individuals.

Analysis of offshore platforms lifting with fixed pile structure type (fixed platform) based on ASD89

Science.gov (United States)

Sugianto, Agus; Indriani, Andi Marini

2017-11-01

Platform construction GTS (Gathering Testing Sattelite) is offshore construction platform with fix pile structure type/fixed platform functioning to support the mining of petroleum exploitation. After construction fabrication process platform was moved to barges, then shipped to the installation site. Moving process is generally done by pull or push based on construction design determined when planning. But at the time of lifting equipment/cranes available in the work area then the moving process can be done by lifting so that moving activity can be implemented more quickly of work. This analysis moving process of GTS platform in a different way that is generally done to GTS platform types by lifting using problem is construction reinforcement required, so the construction can be moved by lifting with analyzing and checking structure working stress that occurs due to construction moving process by lifting AISC code standard and analysis using the SAP2000 structure analysis program. The analysis result showed that existing condition cannot be moved by lifting because stress ratio is above maximum allowable value that is 0.950 (AISC-ASD89). Overstress occurs on the member 295 and 324 with stress ratio value 0.97 and 0.95 so that it is required structural reinforcement. Box plate aplication at both members so that it produces stress ratio values 0.78 at the member 295 and stress ratio of 0.77 at the member 324. These results indicate that the construction have qualified structural reinforcement for being moved by lifting.

High repeatability from 3D experimental platform for quantitative analysis of cellular branch pattern formations.

Science.gov (United States)

Hagiwara, Masaya; Nobata, Rina; Kawahara, Tomohiro

2018-04-24

Three-dimensional (3D) cell and tissue cultures more closely mimic biological environments than two-dimensional (2D) cultures and are therefore highly desirable in culture experiments. However, 3D cultures often fail to yield repeatable experimental results because of variation in the initial culture conditions, such as cell density and distribution in the extracellular matrix, and therefore reducing such variation is a paramount concern. Here, we present a 3D culture platform that demonstrates highly repeatable experimental results, obtained by controlling the initial cell cluster shape in the gel cube culture device. A micro-mould with the desired shape was fabricated by photolithography or machining, creating a 3D pocket in the extracellular matrix contained in the device. Highly concentrated human bronchial epithelial cells were then injected in the pocket so that the cell cluster shape matched the fabricated mould shape. Subsequently, the cubic device supplied multi-directional scanning, enabling high-resolution capture of the whole tissue structure with only a low-magnification lens. The proposed device significantly improved the repeatability of the developed branch pattern, and multi-directional scanning enabled quantitative analysis of the developed branch pattern formations. A mathematical simulation was also conducted to reveal the mechanisms of branch pattern formation. The proposed platform offers the potential to accelerate any research field that conducts 3D culture experiments, including tissue regeneration and drug development.

GOLIAH: A Gaming Platform for Home-Based Intervention in Autism – Principles and Design

Science.gov (United States)

Bono, Valentina; Narzisi, Antonio; Jouen, Anne-Lise; Tilmont, Elodie; Hommel, Stephane; Jamal, Wasifa; Xavier, Jean; Billeci, Lucia; Maharatna, Koushik; Wald, Mike; Chetouani, Mohamed; Cohen, David; Muratori, Filippo

2016-01-01

Children with Autism need intensive intervention and this is challenging in terms of manpower, costs, and time. Advances in Information Communication Technology and computer gaming may help in this respect by creating a nomadically deployable closed-loop intervention system involving the child and active participation of parents and therapists. An automated serious gaming platform enabling intensive intervention in nomadic settings has been developed by mapping two pivotal skills in autism spectrum disorder: Imitation and Joint Attention (JA). Eleven games – seven Imitations and four JA – were derived from the Early Start Denver Model. The games involved application of visual and audio stimuli with multiple difficulty levels and a wide variety of tasks and actions pertaining to the Imitation and JA. The platform runs on mobile devices and allows the therapist to (1) characterize the child’s initial difficulties/strengths, ensuring tailored and adapted intervention by choosing appropriate games and (2) investigate and track the temporal evolution of the child’s progress through a set of automatically extracted quantitative performance metrics. The platform allows the therapist to change the game or its difficulty levels during the intervention depending on the child’s progress. Performance of the platform was assessed in a 3-month open trial with 10 children with autism (Trial ID: NCT02560415, Clinicaltrials.gov). The children and the parents participated in 80% of the sessions both at home (77.5%) and at the hospital (90%). All children went through all the games but, given the diversity of the games and the heterogeneity of children profiles and abilities, for a given game the number of sessions dedicated to the game varied and could be tailored through automatic scoring. Parents (N = 10) highlighted enhancement in the child’s concentration, flexibility, and self-esteem in 78, 89, and 44% of the cases, respectively, and 56% observed an enhanced

[Dental education for college students based on WeChat public platform].

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Chuan-Jun; Sun, Tan

2016-06-01

The authors proposed a model for dental education based on WeChat public platform. In this model, teachers send various kinds of digital teaching information such as PPT，word and video to the WeChat public platform and students share the information for preview before class and differentiate the key-point knowledge from those information for in-depth learning in class. Teachers also send reference materials for expansive learning after class. Questionaire through the WeChat public platform is used to evaluate teaching effect of teachers and improvement may be taken based on the feedback questionnaire. A discussion and interaction based on WeCchat between students and teacher can be aroused on a specific topic to reach a proper solution. With technique development of mobile terminal, mobile class will come true in near future.

Grid-based platform for training in Earth Observation

Science.gov (United States)

Petcu, Dana; Zaharie, Daniela; Panica, Silviu; Frincu, Marc; Neagul, Marian; Gorgan, Dorian; Stefanut, Teodor

2010-05-01

GiSHEO platform [1] providing on-demand services for training and high education in Earth Observation is developed, in the frame of an ESA funded project through its PECS programme, to respond to the needs of powerful education resources in remote sensing field. It intends to be a Grid-based platform of which potential for experimentation and extensibility are the key benefits compared with a desktop software solution. Near-real time applications requiring simultaneous multiple short-time-response data-intensive tasks, as in the case of a short time training event, are the ones that are proved to be ideal for this platform. The platform is based on Globus Toolkit 4 facilities for security and process management, and on the clusters of four academic institutions involved in the project. The authorization uses a VOMS service. The main public services are the followings: the EO processing services (represented through special WSRF-type services); the workflow service exposing a particular workflow engine; the data indexing and discovery service for accessing the data management mechanisms; the processing services, a collection allowing easy access to the processing platform. The WSRF-type services for basic satellite image processing are reusing free image processing tools, OpenCV and GDAL. New algorithms and workflows were develop to tackle with challenging problems like detecting the underground remains of old fortifications, walls or houses. More details can be found in [2]. Composed services can be specified through workflows and are easy to be deployed. The workflow engine, OSyRIS (Orchestration System using a Rule based Inference Solution), is based on DROOLS, and a new rule-based workflow language, SILK (SImple Language for worKflow), has been built. Workflow creation in SILK can be done with or without a visual designing tools. The basics of SILK are the tasks and relations (rules) between them. It is similar with the SCUFL language, but not relying on XML in

A software radio platform based on ARM and FPGA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yang Xin.

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The rapid rise in computational performance offered by computer systems has greatly increased the number of practical software radio applications. A scheme presented in this paper is a software radio platform based on ARM and FPGA. FPGA works as the coprocessor together with the ARM, which serves as the core processor. ARM is used for digital signal processing and real-time data transmission, and FPGA is used for synchronous timing control and serial-parallel conversion. A SPI driver for real-time data transmission between ARM and FPGA under ARM-Linux system is provided. By adopting modular design, the software radio platform is capable of implementing wireless communication functions and satisfies the requirements of real-time signal processing platform for high security and broad applicability.

Multimodal Microchannel and Nanowell-Based Microfluidic Platforms for Bioimaging

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Geng, Tao; Smallwood, Chuck R.; Zhu, Ying; Bredeweg, Erin L.; Baker, Scott E.; Evans, James E.; Kelly, Ryan T.

2017-03-30

Modern live-cell imaging approaches permit real-time visualization of biological processes. However, limitations for unicellular organism trapping, culturing and long-term imaging can preclude complete understanding of how such microorganisms respond to perturbations in their local environment or linking single-cell variability to whole population dynamics. We have developed microfluidic platforms to overcome prior technical bottlenecks to allow both chemostat and compartmentalized cellular growth conditions using the same device. Additionally, a nanowell-based platform enables a high throughput approach to scale up compartmentalized imaging optimized within the microfluidic device. These channel and nanowell platforms are complementary, and both provide fine control over the local environment as well as the ability to add/replace media components at any experimental time point.

Platform for Quantitative Evaluation of Spatial Intratumoral Heterogeneity in Multiplexed Fluorescence Images.

Science.gov (United States)

Spagnolo, Daniel M; Al-Kofahi, Yousef; Zhu, Peihong; Lezon, Timothy R; Gough, Albert; Stern, Andrew M; Lee, Adrian V; Ginty, Fiona; Sarachan, Brion; Taylor, D Lansing; Chennubhotla, S Chakra

2017-11-01

We introduce THRIVE (Tumor Heterogeneity Research Interactive Visualization Environment), an open-source tool developed to assist cancer researchers in interactive hypothesis testing. The focus of this tool is to quantify spatial intratumoral heterogeneity (ITH), and the interactions between different cell phenotypes and noncellular constituents. Specifically, we foresee applications in phenotyping cells within tumor microenvironments, recognizing tumor boundaries, identifying degrees of immune infiltration and epithelial/stromal separation, and identification of heterotypic signaling networks underlying microdomains. The THRIVE platform provides an integrated workflow for analyzing whole-slide immunofluorescence images and tissue microarrays, including algorithms for segmentation, quantification, and heterogeneity analysis. THRIVE promotes flexible deployment, a maintainable code base using open-source libraries, and an extensible framework for customizing algorithms with ease. THRIVE was designed with highly multiplexed immunofluorescence images in mind, and, by providing a platform to efficiently analyze high-dimensional immunofluorescence signals, we hope to advance these data toward mainstream adoption in cancer research. Cancer Res; 77(21); e71-74. ©2017 AACR . ©2017 American Association for Cancer Research.

Feasibility of a simple microsieve-based immunoassay platform

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zweitzig, D.R.; Tibbe, Arjan G.J.; Nguyen, A.T.; van Rijn, C.J.M.; Kopnitsky, M.J.; Cichonski, K.; Terstappen, Leonardus Wendelinus Mathias Marie

2016-01-01

The intrinsic properties of silicon microsieves, such as an optically flat surface, high overall porosity, and low flow resistance have led to an increasing number of biotechnology applications. In this report, the feasibility of creating a microsieve-based immunoassay platform was explored.

Feasibility of a simple microsieve-based immunoassay platform

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zweitzig, Daniel R.; Tibbe, Arjan G.; Nguyen, Ai T.; Rijn, van Cees J.M.; Kopnitsky, Mark J.; Cichonski, Kathleen; Terstappen, Leon W.M.M.

2016-01-01

The intrinsic properties of silicon microsieves, such as an optically flat surface, high overall porosity, and low flow resistance have led to an increasing number of biotechnology applications. In this report, the feasibility of creating a microsieve-based immunoassay platform was explored.

Implementation of a Multiplex and Quantitative Proteomics Platform for Assessing Protein Lysates Using DNA-Barcoded Antibodies.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Jinho; Geiss, Gary K; Demirkan, Gokhan; Vellano, Christopher P; Filanoski, Brian; Lu, Yiling; Ju, Zhenlin; Yu, Shuangxing; Guo, Huifang; Bogatzki, Lisa Y; Carter, Warren; Meredith, Rhonda K; Krishnamurthy, Savitri; Ding, Zhiyong; Beechem, Joseph M; Mills, Gordon B

2018-06-01

Molecular analysis of tumors forms the basis for personalized cancer medicine and increasingly guides patient selection for targeted therapy. Future opportunities for personalized medicine are highlighted by the measurement of protein expression levels via immunohistochemistry, protein arrays, and other approaches; however, sample type, sample quantity, batch effects, and "time to result" are limiting factors for clinical application. Here, we present a development pipeline for a novel multiplexed DNA-labeled antibody platform which digitally quantifies protein expression from lysate samples. We implemented a rigorous validation process for each antibody and show that the platform is amenable to multiple protocols covering nitrocellulose and plate-based methods. Results are highly reproducible across technical and biological replicates, and there are no observed "batch effects" which are common for most multiplex molecular assays. Tests from basal and perturbed cancer cell lines indicate that this platform is comparable to orthogonal proteomic assays such as Reverse-Phase Protein Array, and applicable to measuring the pharmacodynamic effects of clinically-relevant cancer therapeutics. Furthermore, we demonstrate the potential clinical utility of the platform with protein profiling from breast cancer patient samples to identify molecular subtypes. Together, these findings highlight the potential of this platform for enhancing our understanding of cancer biology in a clinical translation setting. © 2018 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.

Chromogenic platform based on recombinant Drosophila melanogaster acetylcholinesterase for visible unidirectional assay of organophosphate and carbamate insecticide residues

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Han Zheng [Institute for Agri-food Standards and Testing Technology, Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences, 1018 Jinqi Road, Shanghai 201403 (China); Chi Chensen [School of Life Science and Biotechnology, Bor Luh Food Safety Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 Dongchuan Road, Shanghai 200240 (China); Bai Bing; Liu Gang; Rao Qinxiong [Institute for Agri-food Standards and Testing Technology, Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences, 1018 Jinqi Road, Shanghai 201403 (China); Peng Shaojie [Institute of Shanghai Food and Drug Supervision, 615 Liuzhou Road, Shanghai 200233 (China); Liu Hong [Shanghai Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 1380 Zhongshan West Road, Shanghai 200336 (China); Zhao Zhihui [Institute for Agri-food Standards and Testing Technology, Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences, 1018 Jinqi Road, Shanghai 201403 (China); Zhang Dabing [School of Life Science and Biotechnology, Bor Luh Food Safety Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 Dongchuan Road, Shanghai 200240 (China); Wu Aibo, E-mail: wuaibo@saas.sh.cn [Institute for Agri-food Standards and Testing Technology, Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences, 1018 Jinqi Road, Shanghai 201403 (China)

2012-03-30

Highlight: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer A visible chromogenic platform for rapid analysis of OP and CM insecticide residues was developed. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer The assay has the capabilities of both qualitative measurement and quantitative analysis. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer The sensitivity, capabilities of resisting interferences and storage stability were desirable. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Matrix effects were acceptable and detection performance was satisfactory in real application. - Abstract: In this study we propose a chromogenic platform for rapid analysis of organophosphate (OP) and carbamate (CM) insecticide residues, based on recombinant Drosophila melanogaster acetylcholinesterase (R-DmAChE) as enzyme and indoxyl acetate as substrate. The visible chromogenic strip had the advantages identical to those of commonly used lateral flow assays (LFAs) with utmost simplicity in sample loading and result observation. After optimization, depending on the color intensity (CI) values, the well-established assay has the capabilities of both qualitative measurement via naked eyes and quantitative analysis by colorimetric reader with the desirable IC{sub 50} values against the tested six insecticides (0.06 {mu}g mL{sup -1} of carbofuran, 0.28 {mu}g mL{sup -1} of methomyl, 0.03 {mu}g mL{sup -1} of dichlorvos, 31.6 {mu}g mL{sup -1} of methamidophos, 2.0 {mu}g mL{sup -1} of monocrotophos, 6.3 {mu}g mL{sup -1} of omethoate). Acceptable matrix effects and satisfactory detection performance were confirmed by in-parallel LC-MS/MS analysis in different vegetable varieties at various spiked levels of 10{sup -3} to 10{sup 1} {mu}g g{sup -1}. Overall, the testified suitability and applicability of this novel platform meet the requirements for practical use in food safety management and environmental monitoring, especially in the developing world.

Chromogenic platform based on recombinant Drosophila melanogaster acetylcholinesterase for visible unidirectional assay of organophosphate and carbamate insecticide residues

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Han Zheng; Chi Chensen; Bai Bing; Liu Gang; Rao Qinxiong; Peng Shaojie; Liu Hong; Zhao Zhihui; Zhang Dabing; Wu Aibo

2012-01-01

Highlight: ► A visible chromogenic platform for rapid analysis of OP and CM insecticide residues was developed. ► The assay has the capabilities of both qualitative measurement and quantitative analysis. ► The sensitivity, capabilities of resisting interferences and storage stability were desirable. ► Matrix effects were acceptable and detection performance was satisfactory in real application. - Abstract: In this study we propose a chromogenic platform for rapid analysis of organophosphate (OP) and carbamate (CM) insecticide residues, based on recombinant Drosophila melanogaster acetylcholinesterase (R-DmAChE) as enzyme and indoxyl acetate as substrate. The visible chromogenic strip had the advantages identical to those of commonly used lateral flow assays (LFAs) with utmost simplicity in sample loading and result observation. After optimization, depending on the color intensity (CI) values, the well-established assay has the capabilities of both qualitative measurement via naked eyes and quantitative analysis by colorimetric reader with the desirable IC 50 values against the tested six insecticides (0.06 μg mL −1 of carbofuran, 0.28 μg mL −1 of methomyl, 0.03 μg mL −1 of dichlorvos, 31.6 μg mL −1 of methamidophos, 2.0 μg mL −1 of monocrotophos, 6.3 μg mL −1 of omethoate). Acceptable matrix effects and satisfactory detection performance were confirmed by in-parallel LC–MS/MS analysis in different vegetable varieties at various spiked levels of 10 −3 to 10 1 μg g −1 . Overall, the testified suitability and applicability of this novel platform meet the requirements for practical use in food safety management and environmental monitoring, especially in the developing world.

Free web-based modelling platform for managed aquifer recharge (MAR) applications

Science.gov (United States)

Stefan, Catalin; Junghanns, Ralf; Glaß, Jana; Sallwey, Jana; Fatkhutdinov, Aybulat; Fichtner, Thomas; Barquero, Felix; Moreno, Miguel; Bonilla, José; Kwoyiga, Lydia

2017-04-01

Managed aquifer recharge represents a valuable instrument for sustainable water resources management. The concept implies purposeful infiltration of surface water into underground for later recovery or environmental benefits. Over decades, MAR schemes were successfully installed worldwide for a variety of reasons: to maximize the natural storage capacity of aquifers, physical aquifer management, water quality management, and ecological benefits. The INOWAS-DSS platform provides a collection of free web-based tools for planning, management and optimization of main components of MAR schemes. The tools are grouped into 13 specific applications that cover most relevant challenges encountered at MAR sites, both from quantitative and qualitative perspectives. The applications include among others the optimization of MAR site location, the assessment of saltwater intrusion, the restoration of groundwater levels in overexploited aquifers, the maximization of natural storage capacity of aquifers, the improvement of water quality, the design and operational optimization of MAR schemes, clogging development and risk assessment. The platform contains a collection of about 35 web-based tools of various degrees of complexity, which are either included in application specific workflows or used as standalone modelling instruments. Among them are simple tools derived from data mining and empirical equations, analytical groundwater related equations, as well as complex numerical flow and transport models (MODFLOW, MT3DMS and SEAWAT). Up to now, the simulation core of the INOWAS-DSS, which is based on the finite differences groundwater flow model MODFLOW, is implemented and runs on the web. A scenario analyser helps to easily set up and evaluate new management options as well as future development such as land use and climate change and compare them to previous scenarios. Additionally simple tools such as analytical equations to assess saltwater intrusion are already running online

Exploration and implementation of ontology-based cultural relic knowledge map integration platform

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Weiqiang; Dong, Yiqiang

2018-05-01

To help designers to better carry out creative design and improve the ability of searching traditional cultural relic information, the ontology-based knowledge map construction method was explored and an integrated platform for cultural relic knowledge map was developed. First of all, the construction method of the ontology of cultural relics was put forward, and the construction of the knowledge map of cultural relics was completed based on the constructed cultural relic otology. Then, a personalized semantic retrieval framework for creative design was proposed. Finally, the integrated platform of the knowledge map of cultural relics was designed and realized. The platform was divided into two parts. One was the foreground display system, which was used for designers to search and browse cultural relics. The other was the background management system, which was for cultural experts to manage cultural relics' knowledge. The research results showed that the platform designed could improve the retrieval ability of cultural relic information. To sum up, the platform can provide a good support for the designer's creative design.

POKEHEAD: An Open Source Interactive Headphone Based HCI Platform

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Højlund, Marie; Trento, Stefano; Goudarzi, Visda

2012-01-01

This paper introduces a novel interactive, human-computer interface and remote social communication system based on an augmented, hi-fidelity audio headphone platform. Specifically, this system- named Pokehead, currently utilizes the DUL embedded open-source accelerometer platform to gather 3-axis......, open source implementation. Our rapid prototype proved to be robust enough to work in performance for demonstration purposes and serves as a working proof of concept. In this paper we provide a technical description of our prototype, illustrate the context and motivation behind the project, and offer...

Quantitative photoacoustic integrating sphere (QPAIS platform for absorption coefficient and Grüneisen parameter measurements: Demonstration with human blood

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yolanda Villanueva-Palero

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Quantitative photoacoustic imaging in biomedicine relies on accurate measurements of relevant material properties of target absorbers. Here, we present a method for simultaneous measurements of the absorption coefficient and Grüneisen parameter of small volume of liquid scattering and absorbing media using a coupled-integrating sphere system which we refer to as quantitative photoacoustic integrating sphere (QPAIS platform. The derived equations do not require absolute magnitudes of optical energy and pressure values, only calibration of the setup using aqueous ink dilutions is necessary. As a demonstration, measurements with blood samples from various human donors are done at room and body temperatures using an incubator. Measured absorption coefficient values are consistent with known oxygen saturation dependence of blood absorption at 750 nm, whereas measured Grüneisen parameter values indicate variability among five different donors. An increasing Grüneisen parameter value with both hematocrit and temperature is observed. These observations are consistent with those reported in literature.

An Automated High Throughput Proteolysis and Desalting Platform for Quantitative Proteomic Analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Albert-Baskar Arul

2013-06-01

Full Text Available Proteomics for biomarker validation needs high throughput instrumentation to analyze huge set of clinical samples for quantitative and reproducible analysis at a minimum time without manual experimental errors. Sample preparation, a vital step in proteomics plays a major role in identification and quantification of proteins from biological samples. Tryptic digestion a major check point in sample preparation for mass spectrometry based proteomics needs to be more accurate with rapid processing time. The present study focuses on establishing a high throughput automated online system for proteolytic digestion and desalting of proteins from biological samples quantitatively and qualitatively in a reproducible manner. The present study compares online protein digestion and desalting of BSA with conventional off-line (in-solution method and validated for real time sample for reproducibility. Proteins were identified using SEQUEST data base search engine and the data were quantified using IDEALQ software. The present study shows that the online system capable of handling high throughput samples in 96 well formats carries out protein digestion and peptide desalting efficiently in a reproducible and quantitative manner. Label free quantification showed clear increase of peptide quantities with increase in concentration with much linearity compared to off line method. Hence we would like to suggest that inclusion of this online system in proteomic pipeline will be effective in quantification of proteins in comparative proteomics were the quantification is really very crucial.

An Anomaly Detection Algorithm of Cloud Platform Based on Self-Organizing Maps

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jun Liu

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Virtual machines (VM on a Cloud platform can be influenced by a variety of factors which can lead to decreased performance and downtime, affecting the reliability of the Cloud platform. Traditional anomaly detection algorithms and strategies for Cloud platforms have some flaws in their accuracy of detection, detection speed, and adaptability. In this paper, a dynamic and adaptive anomaly detection algorithm based on Self-Organizing Maps (SOM for virtual machines is proposed. A unified modeling method based on SOM to detect the machine performance within the detection region is presented, which avoids the cost of modeling a single virtual machine and enhances the detection speed and reliability of large-scale virtual machines in Cloud platform. The important parameters that affect the modeling speed are optimized in the SOM process to significantly improve the accuracy of the SOM modeling and therefore the anomaly detection accuracy of the virtual machine.

Transaction-based building controls framework, Volume 2: Platform descriptive model and requirements

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Akyol, Bora A. [Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Haack, Jereme N. [Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Carpenter, Brandon J. [Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Katipamula, Srinivas [Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Lutes, Robert G. [Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Hernandez, George [Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)

2015-07-31

Transaction-based Building Controls (TBC) offer a control systems platform that provides an agent execution environment that meets the growing requirements for security, resource utilization, and reliability. This report outlines the requirements for a platform to meet these needs and describes an illustrative/exemplary implementation.

Simultaneous and quantitative monitoring of co-cultured Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus with antibiotics on a diffusometric platform

Science.gov (United States)

Chung, Chih-Yao; Wang, Jhih-Cheng; Chuang, Han-Sheng

2017-04-01

Successful treatments against bacterial infections depend on antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST). However, conventional AST requires more than 24 h to obtain an outcome, thereby contributing to high patient mortality. An antibiotic therapy based on experiences is therefore necessary for saving lives and escalating the emergence of multidrug-resistant pathogens. Accordingly, a fast and effective drug screen is necessary for the appropriate administration of antibiotics. The mixed pathogenic nature of infectious diseases emphasizes the need to develop an assay system for polymicrobial infections. On this basis, we present a novel technique for simultaneous and quantitative monitoring of co-cultured microorganisms by coupling optical diffusometry with bead-based immunoassays. This simple integration simultaneously achieves a rapid AST analysis for two pathogens. Triple color particles were simultaneously recorded and subsequently analyzed by functionalizing different fluorescent color particles with dissimilar pathogen-specific antibodies. Results suggested that the effect of the antibiotic, gentamicin, on co-cultured Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus was effectively distinguished by the proposed technique. This study revealed a multiplexed and time-saving (within 2 h) platform with a small sample volume (~0.5 μL) and a low initial bacterial count (50 CFU per droplet, ~105 CFU/mL) for continuously monitoring the growth of co-cultured microorganisms. This technique provides insights into timely therapies against polymicrobial diseases in the near future.

Design challenges in nanoparticle-based platforms: Implications for targeted drug delivery systems

Science.gov (United States)

Mullen, Douglas Gurnett

Characterization and control of heterogeneous distributions of nanoparticle-ligand components are major design challenges for nanoparticle-based platforms. This dissertation begins with an examination of poly(amidoamine) (PAMAM) dendrimer-based targeted delivery platform. A folic acid targeted modular platform was developed to target human epithelial cancer cells. Although active targeting was observed in vitro, active targeting was not found in vivo using a mouse tumor model. A major flaw of this platform design was that it did not provide for characterization or control of the component distribution. Motivated by the problems experienced with the modular design, the actual composition of nanoparticle-ligand distributions were examined using a model dendrimer-ligand system. High Pressure Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) resolved the distribution of components in samples with mean ligand/dendrimer ratios ranging from 0.4 to 13. A peak fitting analysis enabled the quantification of the component distribution. Quantified distributions were found to be significantly more heterogeneous than commonly expected and standard analytical parameters, namely the mean ligand/nanoparticle ratio, failed to adequately represent the component heterogeneity. The distribution of components was also found to be sensitive to particle modifications that preceded the ligand conjugation. With the knowledge gained from this detailed distribution analysis, a new platform design was developed to provide a system with dramatically improved control over the number of components and with improved batch reproducibility. Using semi-preparative HPLC, individual dendrimer-ligand components were isolated. The isolated dendrimer with precise numbers of ligands were characterized by NMR and analytical HPLC. In total, nine different dendrimer-ligand components were obtained with degrees of purity ≥80%. This system has the potential to serve as a platform to which a precise number of functional molecules

+Cloud: An Agent-Based Cloud Computing Platform

OpenAIRE

González, Roberto; Hernández de la Iglesia, Daniel; de la Prieta Pintado, Fernando; Gil González, Ana Belén

2017-01-01

Cloud computing is revolutionizing the services provided through the Internet, and is continually adapting itself in order to maintain the quality of its services. This study presents the platform +Cloud, which proposes a cloud environment for storing information and files by following the cloud paradigm. This study also presents Warehouse 3.0, a cloud-based application that has been developed to validate the services provided by +Cloud.

Design and development of college managerment platform of application for visiting abroad based on primeton software platform

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

CUI Yueping

2016-02-01

Full Text Available In the traditional mode,colleges use paper application form to apply for visiting abroad.This process is very complicated and takes a long time.What′s more,the audit results is not timely feedback,existing data cannot be shared,and the data are not easy to be calculated,etc.To solve the above problems,this paper introduces workflow engine,based on the Primeton Business Process Suite,the College Management Platform of application for visiting abroad is developed which can solve the operation and monitoring issues of application and review processes.Meanwhile,several elements in designing flow chart is stated combining with the platform,which include:branch,polymerization,participants,work items.After development and on-line use,it is proved that the platform can reduce labor costs,improve software quality,enhance the user experience,and effectively improve the efficiency of various departments.

Portable GMR Handheld Platform for the Detection of Influenza A Virus.

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Kai; Klein, Todd; Krishna, Venkatramana D; Su, Diqing; Perez, Andres M; Wang, Jian-Ping

2017-11-22

Influenza A virus (IAV) is a common respiratory pathogen infecting many hosts including humans, pigs (swine influenza virus or SIV), and birds (avian influenza virus or AIV). Monitoring swine and avian influenza viruses in the wild, farms, and live poultry markets is of great significance for human and veterinary public health. A portable, sensitive, and quantitative immunoassay device will be of high demand especially in the rural and resource-limited areas. We report herein our Z-Lab point-of-care (POC) device for sensitive and specific detection of swine influenza viruses with minimum sample handling and laboratory skill requirements. In the present study, a portable and quantitative immunoassay platform based on giant magnetoresistive (GMR) technology is used for the detection of IAV nucleoprotein (NP) and purified H3N2v. Z-Lab displays quantitative results in less than 10 min with sensitivities down to 15 ng/mL and 125 TCID 50 /mL for IAV nucleoprotein and purified H3N2v, respectively. This platform allows lab-testing to be performed outdoors and opens up the applications of immunoassays in nonclinical settings.

Semantic Web-Based Services for Supporting Voluntary Collaboration among Researchers Using an Information Dissemination Platform

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hanmin Jung

2007-05-01

Full Text Available Information dissemination platforms for supporting voluntary collaboration among researchers should assure that controllable and verified information is being disseminated. However, previous related studies on this field narrowed their research scopes into information type and information specification. This paper focuses on the verification and the tracing of information using an information dissemination platform and other Semantic Web-based services. Services on our platform include information dissemination services to support reliable information exchange among researchers and knowledge service to provide unrevealed information. The latter is also divided into the two: knowledgization using ontology and inference using a Semantic Web-based inference engine. This paper discusses how this platform supports instant knowledge addition and inference. We demonstrate our approach by constructing an ontology for national R&D reference information using 37,656 RDF triples from about 2,300 KISTI (Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information outcomes. Three knowledge services including 'Communities of Practice', 'Researcher Tracing,' and 'Research Map' were implemented on our platform using a Jena framework. Our study shows that information dissemination platforms will make a meaningful contribution to the possibility of realizing a practical Semantic Web-based information dissemination platform.

Stargate-based Acoustic Sensor Platform

OpenAIRE

Hanbiao Wang; Kung Yao; Deborah Estrin

2004-01-01

To facilitate the study of the wireless sensor network for demanding acoustic monitoring of long distance sources, we recently have also started working on the development of a new generation of wireless acoustic sensor network platform using the Stargate nodes. The 400 MHz PXA-255 XScale processor and the 64 MB SDRAM provide the Stargate platform a decent processing capability. The VX Pocket 440 sound card with four external microphones are attached to each Stargate node through the PCMCIA s...

a Web-Based Interactive Platform for Co-Clustering Spatio-Temporal Data

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, X.; Poorthuis, A.; Zurita-Milla, R.; Kraak, M.-J.

2017-09-01

Since current studies on clustering analysis mainly focus on exploring spatial or temporal patterns separately, a co-clustering algorithm is utilized in this study to enable the concurrent analysis of spatio-temporal patterns. To allow users to adopt and adapt the algorithm for their own analysis, it is integrated within the server side of an interactive web-based platform. The client side of the platform, running within any modern browser, is a graphical user interface (GUI) with multiple linked visualizations that facilitates the understanding, exploration and interpretation of the raw dataset and co-clustering results. Users can also upload their own datasets and adjust clustering parameters within the platform. To illustrate the use of this platform, an annual temperature dataset from 28 weather stations over 20 years in the Netherlands is used. After the dataset is loaded, it is visualized in a set of linked visualizations: a geographical map, a timeline and a heatmap. This aids the user in understanding the nature of their dataset and the appropriate selection of co-clustering parameters. Once the dataset is processed by the co-clustering algorithm, the results are visualized in the small multiples, a heatmap and a timeline to provide various views for better understanding and also further interpretation. Since the visualization and analysis are integrated in a seamless platform, the user can explore different sets of co-clustering parameters and instantly view the results in order to do iterative, exploratory data analysis. As such, this interactive web-based platform allows users to analyze spatio-temporal data using the co-clustering method and also helps the understanding of the results using multiple linked visualizations.

Design and control of multifunctional sorting and training platform based on PLC control

Science.gov (United States)

Wan, Hongqiang; Ge, Shuai; Han, Peiying; Li, Fancong; Zhang, Simiao

2018-05-01

Electromechanical integration, as a multi-disciplinary subject, has been paid much attention by universities and is widely used in the automation production of enterprises. Aiming at the problem of the lack of control among enterprises and the lack of training among colleges and universities, this paper presents a design of multifunctional sorting training platform based on PLC control. Firstly, the structure of the platform is determined and three-dimensional modeling is done. Then design the platform's aerodynamic control and electrical control. Finally, realize the platform sorting function through PLC programming and configuration software development. The training platform can be used to design the practical training experiment, which has a strong advance and pertinence in the electromechanical integration teaching. At the same time, the platform makes full use of modular thinking to make the sorting modules more flexible. Compared with the traditional training platform, its teaching effect is more significant.

Embedded-Based Graphics Processing Unit Cluster Platform for Multiple Sequence Alignments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jyh-Da Wei

2017-08-01

Full Text Available High-end graphics processing units (GPUs, such as NVIDIA Tesla/Fermi/Kepler series cards with thousands of cores per chip, are widely applied to high-performance computing fields in a decade. These desktop GPU cards should be installed in personal computers/servers with desktop CPUs, and the cost and power consumption of constructing a GPU cluster platform are very high. In recent years, NVIDIA releases an embedded board, called Jetson Tegra K1 (TK1, which contains 4 ARM Cortex-A15 CPUs and 192 Compute Unified Device Architecture cores (belong to Kepler GPUs. Jetson Tegra K1 has several advantages, such as the low cost, low power consumption, and high applicability, and it has been applied into several specific applications. In our previous work, a bioinformatics platform with a single TK1 (STK platform was constructed, and this previous work is also used to prove that the Web and mobile services can be implemented in the STK platform with a good cost-performance ratio by comparing a STK platform with the desktop CPU and GPU. In this work, an embedded-based GPU cluster platform will be constructed with multiple TK1s (MTK platform. Complex system installation and setup are necessary procedures at first. Then, 2 job assignment modes are designed for the MTK platform to provide services for users. Finally, ClustalW v2.0.11 and ClustalWtk will be ported to the MTK platform. The experimental results showed that the speedup ratios achieved 5.5 and 4.8 times for ClustalW v2.0.11 and ClustalWtk, respectively, by comparing 6 TK1s with a single TK1. The MTK platform is proven to be useful for multiple sequence alignments.

Embedded-Based Graphics Processing Unit Cluster Platform for Multiple Sequence Alignments.

Science.gov (United States)

Wei, Jyh-Da; Cheng, Hui-Jun; Lin, Chun-Yuan; Ye, Jin; Yeh, Kuan-Yu

2017-01-01

High-end graphics processing units (GPUs), such as NVIDIA Tesla/Fermi/Kepler series cards with thousands of cores per chip, are widely applied to high-performance computing fields in a decade. These desktop GPU cards should be installed in personal computers/servers with desktop CPUs, and the cost and power consumption of constructing a GPU cluster platform are very high. In recent years, NVIDIA releases an embedded board, called Jetson Tegra K1 (TK1), which contains 4 ARM Cortex-A15 CPUs and 192 Compute Unified Device Architecture cores (belong to Kepler GPUs). Jetson Tegra K1 has several advantages, such as the low cost, low power consumption, and high applicability, and it has been applied into several specific applications. In our previous work, a bioinformatics platform with a single TK1 (STK platform) was constructed, and this previous work is also used to prove that the Web and mobile services can be implemented in the STK platform with a good cost-performance ratio by comparing a STK platform with the desktop CPU and GPU. In this work, an embedded-based GPU cluster platform will be constructed with multiple TK1s (MTK platform). Complex system installation and setup are necessary procedures at first. Then, 2 job assignment modes are designed for the MTK platform to provide services for users. Finally, ClustalW v2.0.11 and ClustalWtk will be ported to the MTK platform. The experimental results showed that the speedup ratios achieved 5.5 and 4.8 times for ClustalW v2.0.11 and ClustalWtk, respectively, by comparing 6 TK1s with a single TK1. The MTK platform is proven to be useful for multiple sequence alignments.

A software platform for continuum modeling of ion channels based on unstructured mesh

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tu, B; Bai, S Y; Xie, Y; Zhang, L B; Lu, B Z; Chen, M X

2014-01-01

Most traditional continuum molecular modeling adopted finite difference or finite volume methods which were based on a structured mesh (grid). Unstructured meshes were only occasionally used, but an increased number of applications emerge in molecular simulations. To facilitate the continuum modeling of biomolecular systems based on unstructured meshes, we are developing a software platform with tools which are particularly beneficial to those approaches. This work describes the software system specifically for the simulation of a typical, complex molecular procedure: ion transport through a three-dimensional channel system that consists of a protein and a membrane. The platform contains three parts: a meshing tool chain for ion channel systems, a parallel finite element solver for the Poisson–Nernst–Planck equations describing the electrodiffusion process of ion transport, and a visualization program for continuum molecular modeling. The meshing tool chain in the platform, which consists of a set of mesh generation tools, is able to generate high-quality surface and volume meshes for ion channel systems. The parallel finite element solver in our platform is based on the parallel adaptive finite element package PHG which wass developed by one of the authors [1]. As a featured component of the platform, a new visualization program, VCMM, has specifically been developed for continuum molecular modeling with an emphasis on providing useful facilities for unstructured mesh-based methods and for their output analysis and visualization. VCMM provides a graphic user interface and consists of three modules: a molecular module, a meshing module and a numerical module. A demonstration of the platform is provided with a study of two real proteins, the connexin 26 and hemolysin ion channels. (paper)

Microfluidic-Based Multi-Organ Platforms for Drug Discovery

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ahmad Rezaei Kolahchi

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Development of predictive multi-organ models before implementing costly clinical trials is central for screening the toxicity, efficacy, and side effects of new therapeutic agents. Despite significant efforts that have been recently made to develop biomimetic in vitro tissue models, the clinical application of such platforms is still far from reality. Recent advances in physiologically-based pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic (PBPK-PD modeling, micro- and nanotechnology, and in silico modeling have enabled single- and multi-organ platforms for investigation of new chemical agents and tissue-tissue interactions. This review provides an overview of the principles of designing microfluidic-based organ-on-chip models for drug testing and highlights current state-of-the-art in developing predictive multi-organ models for studying the cross-talk of interconnected organs. We further discuss the challenges associated with establishing a predictive body-on-chip (BOC model such as the scaling, cell types, the common medium, and principles of the study design for characterizing the interaction of drugs with multiple targets.

Performance evaluation of 2D image registration algorithms with the numeric image registration and comparison platform

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gerganov, G.; Kuvandjiev, V.; Dimitrova, I.; Mitev, K.; Kawrakow, I.

2012-01-01

The objective of this work is to present the capabilities of the NUMERICS web platform for evaluation of the performance of image registration algorithms. The NUMERICS platform is a web accessible tool which provides access to dedicated numerical algorithms for registration and comparison of medical images (http://numerics.phys.uni-sofia.bg). The platform allows comparison of noisy medical images by means of different types of image comparison algorithms, which are based on statistical tests for outliers. The platform also allows 2D image registration with different techniques like Elastic Thin-Plate Spline registration, registration based on rigid transformations, affine transformations, as well as non-rigid image registration based on Mobius transformations. In this work we demonstrate how the platform can be used as a tool for evaluation of the quality of the image registration process. We demonstrate performance evaluation of a deformable image registration technique based on Mobius transformations. The transformations are applied with appropriate cost functions like: Mutual information, Correlation coefficient, Sum of Squared Differences. The accent is on the results provided by the platform to the user and their interpretation in the context of the performance evaluation of 2D image registration. The NUMERICS image registration and image comparison platform provides detailed statistical information about submitted image registration jobs and can be used to perform quantitative evaluation of the performance of different image registration techniques. (authors)

A cloud computing based platform for sleep behavior and chronic diseases collaborative research.

Science.gov (United States)

Kuo, Mu-Hsing; Borycki, Elizabeth; Kushniruk, Andre; Huang, Yueh-Min; Hung, Shu-Hui

2014-01-01

The objective of this study is to propose a Cloud Computing based platform for sleep behavior and chronic disease collaborative research. The platform consists of two main components: (1) a sensing bed sheet with textile sensors to automatically record patient's sleep behaviors and vital signs, and (2) a service-oriented cloud computing architecture (SOCCA) that provides a data repository and allows for sharing and analysis of collected data. Also, we describe our systematic approach to implementing the SOCCA. We believe that the new cloud-based platform can provide nurse and other health professional researchers located in differing geographic locations with a cost effective, flexible, secure and privacy-preserved research environment.

Comparison of reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction methods and platforms for single cell gene expression analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Fox, Bridget C; Devonshire, Alison S; Baradez, Marc-Olivier; Marshall, Damian; Foy, Carole A

2012-08-15

Single cell gene expression analysis can provide insights into development and disease progression by profiling individual cellular responses as opposed to reporting the global average of a population. Reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) is the "gold standard" for the quantification of gene expression levels; however, the technical performance of kits and platforms aimed at single cell analysis has not been fully defined in terms of sensitivity and assay comparability. We compared three kits using purification columns (PicoPure) or direct lysis (CellsDirect and Cells-to-CT) combined with a one- or two-step RT-qPCR approach using dilutions of cells and RNA standards to the single cell level. Single cell-level messenger RNA (mRNA) analysis was possible using all three methods, although the precision, linearity, and effect of lysis buffer and cell background differed depending on the approach used. The impact of using a microfluidic qPCR platform versus a standard instrument was investigated for potential variability introduced by preamplification of template or scaling down of the qPCR to nanoliter volumes using laser-dissected single cell samples. The two approaches were found to be comparable. These studies show that accurate gene expression analysis is achievable at the single cell level and highlight the importance of well-validated experimental procedures for low-level mRNA analysis. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Cloud Based Earth Observation Data Exploitation Platforms

Science.gov (United States)

Romeo, A.; Pinto, S.; Loekken, S.; Marin, A.

2017-12-01

In the last few years data produced daily by several private and public Earth Observation (EO) satellites reached the order of tens of Terabytes, representing for scientists and commercial application developers both a big opportunity for their exploitation and a challenge for their management. New IT technologies, such as Big Data and cloud computing, enable the creation of web-accessible data exploitation platforms, which offer to scientists and application developers the means to access and use EO data in a quick and cost effective way. RHEA Group is particularly active in this sector, supporting the European Space Agency (ESA) in the Exploitation Platforms (EP) initiative, developing technology to build multi cloud platforms for the processing and analysis of Earth Observation data, and collaborating with larger European initiatives such as the European Plate Observing System (EPOS) and the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC). An EP is a virtual workspace, providing a user community with access to (i) large volume of data, (ii) algorithm development and integration environment, (iii) processing software and services (e.g. toolboxes, visualization routines), (iv) computing resources, (v) collaboration tools (e.g. forums, wiki, etc.). When an EP is dedicated to a specific Theme, it becomes a Thematic Exploitation Platform (TEP). Currently, ESA has seven TEPs in a pre-operational phase dedicated to geo-hazards monitoring and prevention, costal zones, forestry areas, hydrology, polar regions, urban areas and food security. On the technology development side, solutions like the multi cloud EO data processing platform provides the technology to integrate ICT resources and EO data from different vendors in a single platform. In particular it offers (i) Multi-cloud data discovery, (ii) Multi-cloud data management and access and (iii) Multi-cloud application deployment. This platform has been demonstrated with the EGI Federated Cloud, Innovation Platform Testbed Poland

MDWeb and MDMoby: an integrated web-based platform for molecular dynamics simulations.

Science.gov (United States)

Hospital, Adam; Andrio, Pau; Fenollosa, Carles; Cicin-Sain, Damjan; Orozco, Modesto; Gelpí, Josep Lluís

2012-05-01

MDWeb and MDMoby constitute a web-based platform to help access to molecular dynamics (MD) in the standard and high-throughput regime. The platform provides tools to prepare systems from PDB structures mimicking the procedures followed by human experts. It provides inputs and can send simulations for three of the most popular MD packages (Amber, NAMD and Gromacs). Tools for analysis of trajectories, either provided by the user or retrieved from our MoDEL database (http://mmb.pcb.ub.es/MoDEL) are also incorporated. The platform has two ways of access, a set of web-services based on the BioMoby framework (MDMoby), programmatically accessible and a web portal (MDWeb). http://mmb.irbbarcelona.org/MDWeb; additional information and methodology details can be found at the web site ( http://mmb.irbbarcelona.org/MDWeb/help.php)

Quantitative Security Risk Assessment of Android Permissions and Applications

OpenAIRE

Wang , Yang; Zheng , Jun; Sun , Chen; Mukkamala , Srinivas

2013-01-01

Part 6: Mobile Computing; International audience; The booming of the Android platform in recent years has attracted the attention of malware developers. However, the permissions-based model used in Android system to prevent the spread of malware, has shown to be ineffective. In this paper, we propose DroidRisk, a framework for quantitative security risk assessment of both Android permissions and applications (apps) based on permission request patterns from benign apps and malware, which aims ...

Address-event-based platform for bioinspired spiking systems

Science.gov (United States)

Jiménez-Fernández, A.; Luján, C. D.; Linares-Barranco, A.; Gómez-Rodríguez, F.; Rivas, M.; Jiménez, G.; Civit, A.

2007-05-01

Address Event Representation (AER) is an emergent neuromorphic interchip communication protocol that allows a real-time virtual massive connectivity between huge number neurons, located on different chips. By exploiting high speed digital communication circuits (with nano-seconds timings), synaptic neural connections can be time multiplexed, while neural activity signals (with mili-seconds timings) are sampled at low frequencies. Also, neurons generate "events" according to their activity levels. More active neurons generate more events per unit time, and access the interchip communication channel more frequently, while neurons with low activity consume less communication bandwidth. When building multi-chip muti-layered AER systems, it is absolutely necessary to have a computer interface that allows (a) reading AER interchip traffic into the computer and visualizing it on the screen, and (b) converting conventional frame-based video stream in the computer into AER and injecting it at some point of the AER structure. This is necessary for test and debugging of complex AER systems. In the other hand, the use of a commercial personal computer implies to depend on software tools and operating systems that can make the system slower and un-robust. This paper addresses the problem of communicating several AER based chips to compose a powerful processing system. The problem was discussed in the Neuromorphic Engineering Workshop of 2006. The platform is based basically on an embedded computer, a powerful FPGA and serial links, to make the system faster and be stand alone (independent from a PC). A new platform is presented that allow to connect up to eight AER based chips to a Spartan 3 4000 FPGA. The FPGA is responsible of the network communication based in Address-Event and, at the same time, to map and transform the address space of the traffic to implement a pre-processing. A MMU microprocessor (Intel XScale 400MHz Gumstix Connex computer) is also connected to the FPGA

Graphite paper-based bipolar electrode electrochemiluminescence sensing platform.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Xin; Ding, Shou-Nian

2017-08-15

In this work, aiming at the construction of a disposable, wireless, low-cost and sensitive system for bioassay, we report a closed bipolar electrode electrochemiluminescence (BPE-ECL) sensing platform based on graphite paper as BPE for the first time. Graphite paper is qualified as BPE due to its unique properties such as excellent electrical conductivity, uniform composition and ease of use. This simple BPE-ECL device was applied to the quantitative analysis of oxidant (H 2 O 2 ) and biomarker (CEA) respectively, according to the principle of BPE sensing-charge balance. For the H 2 O 2 analysis, Pt NPs were electrodeposited onto the cathode through a bipolar electrodeposition approach to promote the sensing performance. As a result, this BPE-ECL device exhibited a wide linear range of 0.001-15mM with a low detection limit of 0.5µM (S/N=3) for H 2 O 2 determination. For the determination of CEA, chitosan-multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CS-MWCNTs) were employed to supply a hydrophilic interface for immobilizing primary antibody (Ab 1 ); and Au@Pt nanostructures were conjugated with secondary antibody (Ab 2 ) as catalysts for H 2 O 2 reduction. Under the optimal conditions, the BPE-ECL immunodevice showed a wide linear range of 0.01-60ngmL -1 with a detection limit of 5.0pgmL -1 for CEA. Furthermore, it also displayed satisfactory selectivity, excellent stability and good reproducibility. The developed method opened a new avenue to clinical bioassay. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Optical sensor array platform based on polymer electronic devices

Science.gov (United States)

Koetse, Marc M.; Rensing, Peter A.; Sharpe, Ruben B. A.; van Heck, Gert T.; Allard, Bart A. M.; Meulendijks, Nicole N. M. M.; Kruijt, Peter G. M.; Tijdink, Marcel W. W. J.; De Zwart, René M.; Houben, René J.; Enting, Erik; van Veen, Sjaak J. J. F.; Schoo, Herman F. M.

2007-10-01

Monitoring of personal wellbeing and optimizing human performance are areas where sensors have only begun to be used. One of the reasons for this is the specific demands that these application areas put on the underlying technology and system properties. In many cases these sensors will be integrated in clothing, be worn on the skin, or may even be placed inside the body. This implies that flexibility and wearability of the systems is essential for their success. Devices based on polymer semiconductors allow for these demands since they can be fabricated with thin film technology. The use of thin film device technology allows for the fabrication of very thin sensors (e.g. integrated in food product packaging), flexible or bendable sensors in wearables, large area/distributed sensors, and intrinsically low-cost applications in disposable products. With thin film device technology a high level of integration can be achieved with parts that analyze signals, process and store data, and interact over a network. Integration of all these functions will inherently lead to better cost/performance ratios, especially if printing and other standard polymer technology such as high precision moulding is applied for the fabrication. In this paper we present an optical transmission sensor array based on polymer semiconductor devices made by thin film technology. The organic devices, light emitting diodes, photodiodes and selective medium chip, are integrated with classic electronic components. Together they form a versatile sensor platform that allows for the quantitative measurement of 100 channels and communicates wireless with a computer. The emphasis is given to the sensor principle, the design, fabrication technology and integration of the thin film devices.

Droplet-based Biosensing for Lab-on-a-Chip, Open Microfluidics Platforms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Piyush Dak

2016-04-01

Full Text Available Low cost, portable sensors can transform health care by bringing easily available diagnostic devices to low and middle income population, particularly in developing countries. Sample preparation, analyte handling and labeling are primary cost concerns for traditional lab-based diagnostic systems. Lab-on-a-chip (LoC platforms based on droplet-based microfluidics promise to integrate and automate these complex and expensive laboratory procedures onto a single chip; the cost will be further reduced if label-free biosensors could be integrated onto the LoC platforms. Here, we review some recent developments of label-free, droplet-based biosensors, compatible with “open” digital microfluidic systems. These low-cost droplet-based biosensors overcome some of the fundamental limitations of the classical sensors, enabling timely diagnosis. We identify the key challenges that must be addressed to make these sensors commercially viable and summarize a number of promising research directions.

Development of a cloud-based Bioinformatics Training Platform.

Science.gov (United States)

Revote, Jerico; Watson-Haigh, Nathan S; Quenette, Steve; Bethwaite, Blair; McGrath, Annette; Shang, Catherine A

2017-05-01

The Bioinformatics Training Platform (BTP) has been developed to provide access to the computational infrastructure required to deliver sophisticated hands-on bioinformatics training courses. The BTP is a cloud-based solution that is in active use for delivering next-generation sequencing training to Australian researchers at geographically dispersed locations. The BTP was built to provide an easy, accessible, consistent and cost-effective approach to delivering workshops at host universities and organizations with a high demand for bioinformatics training but lacking the dedicated bioinformatics training suites required. To support broad uptake of the BTP, the platform has been made compatible with multiple cloud infrastructures. The BTP is an open-source and open-access resource. To date, 20 training workshops have been delivered to over 700 trainees at over 10 venues across Australia using the BTP. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press.

The Impact of Situation-Based Learning to Students’ Quantitative Literacy

Science.gov (United States)

Latifah, T.; Cahya, E.; Suhendra

2017-09-01

Nowadays, the usage of quantities can be seen almost everywhere. There has been an increase of quantitative thinking, such as quantitative reasoning and quantitative literacy, within the context of daily life. However, many people today are still not fully equipped with the knowledge of quantitative thinking. There are still a lot of individuals not having enough quantitative skills to perform well within today’s society. Based on this issue, the research aims to improve students’ quantitative literacy in junior high school. The qualitative analysis of written student work and video observations during the experiment reveal that the impact of situation-based learning affects students’ quantitative literacy.

Design and Promotion Strategy of Marketing Platform of Aquatic Auction based on Internet

Science.gov (United States)

Peng, Jianliang

For the online trade and promotion of aquatic products and related materials through the network between supply and demand, the design content and effective promotional strategies of aquatic auctions online marketing platform is proposed in this paper. Design elements involve the location of customer service, the basic function of the platform including the purchase of general orders, online auctions, information dissemination, and recommendation of fine products, human services, and payment preferences. Based on network and mobile e-commerce transaction support, the auction platform makes the transaction of aquatic products well in advance. The results are important practical value for the design and application of online marketing platform of aquatic auction.

A methodology toward manufacturing grid-based virtual enterprise operation platform

Science.gov (United States)

Tan, Wenan; Xu, Yicheng; Xu, Wei; Xu, Lida; Zhao, Xianhua; Wang, Li; Fu, Liuliu

2010-08-01

Virtual enterprises (VEs) have become one of main types of organisations in the manufacturing sector through which the consortium companies organise their manufacturing activities. To be competitive, a VE relies on the complementary core competences among members through resource sharing and agile manufacturing capacity. Manufacturing grid (M-Grid) is a platform in which the production resources can be shared. In this article, an M-Grid-based VE operation platform (MGVEOP) is presented as it enables the sharing of production resources among geographically distributed enterprises. The performance management system of the MGVEOP is based on the balanced scorecard and has the capacity of self-learning. The study shows that a MGVEOP can make a semi-automated process possible for a VE, and the proposed MGVEOP is efficient and agile.

A versatile electrophoresis-based self-test platform.

Science.gov (United States)

Staal, Steven; Ungerer, Mathijn; Floris, Arjan; Ten Brinke, Hans-Willem; Helmhout, Roy; Tellegen, Marian; Janssen, Kjeld; Karstens, Erik; van Arragon, Charlotte; Lenk, Stefan; Staijen, Erik; Bartholomew, Jody; Krabbe, Hans; Movig, Kris; Dubský, Pavel; van den Berg, Albert; Eijkel, Jan

2015-03-01

This paper reports on recent research creating a family of electrophoresis-based point of care devices for the determination of a wide range of ionic analytes in various sample matrices. These devices are based on a first version for the point-of-care measurement of Li(+), reported in 2010 by Floris et al. (Lab Chip 2010, 10, 1799-1806). With respect to this device, significant improvements in accuracy, precision, detection limit, and reliability have been obtained especially by the use of multiple injections of one sample on a single chip and integrated data analysis. Internal and external validation by clinical laboratories for the determination of analytes in real patients by a self-test is reported. For Li(+) in blood better precision than the standard clinical determination for Li(+) was achieved. For Na(+) in human urine the method was found to be within the clinical acceptability limits. In a veterinary application, Ca(2+) and Mg(2+) were determined in bovine blood by means of the same chip, but using a different platform. Finally, promising preliminary results are reported with the Medimate platform for the determination of creatinine in whole blood and quantification of both cations and anions through replicate measurements on the same sample with the same chip. © 2014 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Remotely Delivered Exercise-Based Cardiac Rehabilitation: Design and Content Development of a Novel mHealth Platform.

Science.gov (United States)

Rawstorn, Jonathan C; Gant, Nicholas; Meads, Andrew; Warren, Ian; Maddison, Ralph

2016-06-24

Participation in traditional center-based cardiac rehabilitation exercise programs (exCR) is limited by accessibility barriers. Mobile health (mHealth) technologies can overcome these barriers while preserving critical attributes of center-based exCR monitoring and coaching, but these opportunities have not yet been capitalized on. We aimed to design and develop an evidence- and theory-based mHealth platform for remote delivery of exCR to any geographical location. An iterative process was used to design and develop an evidence- and theory-based mHealth platform (REMOTE-CR) that provides real-time remote exercise monitoring and coaching, behavior change education, and social support. The REMOTE-CR platform comprises a commercially available smartphone and wearable sensor, custom smartphone and Web-based applications (apps), and a custom middleware. The platform allows exCR specialists to monitor patients' exercise and provide individualized coaching in real-time, from almost any location, and provide behavior change education and social support. Intervention content incorporates Social Cognitive Theory, Self-determination Theory, and a taxonomy of behavior change techniques. Exercise components are based on guidelines for clinical exercise prescription. The REMOTE-CR platform extends the capabilities of previous telehealth exCR platforms and narrows the gap between existing center- and home-based exCR services. REMOTE-CR can complement center-based exCR by providing an alternative option for patients whose needs are not being met. Remotely monitored exCR may be more cost-effective than establishing additional center-based programs. The effectiveness and acceptability of REMOTE-CR are now being evaluated in a noninferiority randomized controlled trial.

Mounted Smartphones as Measurement and Control Platforms for Motor-Based Laboratory Test-Beds

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jared A. Frank

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Laboratory education in science and engineering often entails the use of test-beds equipped with costly peripherals for sensing, acquisition, storage, processing, and control of physical behavior. However, costly peripherals are no longer necessary to obtain precise measurements and achieve stable feedback control of test-beds. With smartphones performing diverse sensing and processing tasks, this study examines the feasibility of mounting smartphones directly to test-beds to exploit their embedded hardware and software in the measurement and control of the test-beds. This approach is a first step towards replacing laboratory-grade peripherals with more compact and affordable smartphone-based platforms, whose interactive user interfaces can engender wider participation and engagement from learners. Demonstrative cases are presented in which the sensing, computation, control, and user interaction with three motor-based test-beds are handled by a mounted smartphone. Results of experiments and simulations are used to validate the feasibility of mounted smartphones as measurement and feedback control platforms for motor-based laboratory test-beds, report the measurement precision and closed-loop performance achieved with such platforms, and address challenges in the development of platforms to maintain system stability.

Mounted Smartphones as Measurement and Control Platforms for Motor-Based Laboratory Test-Beds.

Science.gov (United States)

Frank, Jared A; Brill, Anthony; Kapila, Vikram

2016-08-20

Laboratory education in science and engineering often entails the use of test-beds equipped with costly peripherals for sensing, acquisition, storage, processing, and control of physical behavior. However, costly peripherals are no longer necessary to obtain precise measurements and achieve stable feedback control of test-beds. With smartphones performing diverse sensing and processing tasks, this study examines the feasibility of mounting smartphones directly to test-beds to exploit their embedded hardware and software in the measurement and control of the test-beds. This approach is a first step towards replacing laboratory-grade peripherals with more compact and affordable smartphone-based platforms, whose interactive user interfaces can engender wider participation and engagement from learners. Demonstrative cases are presented in which the sensing, computation, control, and user interaction with three motor-based test-beds are handled by a mounted smartphone. Results of experiments and simulations are used to validate the feasibility of mounted smartphones as measurement and feedback control platforms for motor-based laboratory test-beds, report the measurement precision and closed-loop performance achieved with such platforms, and address challenges in the development of platforms to maintain system stability.

Wireless Sensor Network-Based Service Provisioning by a Brokering Platform.

Science.gov (United States)

Guijarro, Luis; Pla, Vicent; Vidal, Jose R; Naldi, Maurizio; Mahmoodi, Toktam

2017-05-12

This paper proposes a business model for providing services based on the Internet of Things through a platform that intermediates between human users and Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). The platform seeks to maximize its profit through posting both the price charged to each user and the price paid to each WSN. A complete analysis of the profit maximization problem is performed in this paper. We show that the service provider maximizes its profit by incentivizing all users and all Wireless Sensor Infrastructure Providers (WSIPs) to join the platform. This is true not only when the number of users is high, but also when it is moderate, provided that the costs that the users bear do not trespass a cost ceiling. This cost ceiling depends on the number of WSIPs, on the value of the intrinsic value of the service and on the externality that the WSIP has on the user utility.

Servo Platform Circuit Design of Pendulous Gyroscope Based on DSP

Science.gov (United States)

Tan, Lilong; Wang, Pengcheng; Zhong, Qiyuan; Zhang, Cui; Liu, Yunfei

2018-03-01

In order to solve the problem when a certain type of pendulous gyroscope in the initial installation deviation more than 40 degrees, that the servo platform can not be up to the speed of the gyroscope in the rough north seeking phase. This paper takes the digital signal processor TMS320F28027 as the core, uses incremental digital PID algorithm, carries out the circuit design of the servo platform. Firstly, the hardware circuit is divided into three parts: DSP minimum system, motor driving circuit and signal processing circuit, then the mathematical model of incremental digital PID algorithm is established, based on the model, writes the PID control program in CCS3.3, finally, the servo motor tracking control experiment is carried out, it shows that the design can significantly improve the tracking ability of the servo platform, and the design has good engineering practice.

Research on acceleration method of reactor physics based on FPGA platforms

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li, C.; Yu, G.; Wang, K.

2013-01-01

The physical designs of the new concept reactors which have complex structure, various materials and neutronic energy spectrum, have greatly improved the requirements to the calculation methods and the corresponding computing hardware. Along with the widely used parallel algorithm, heterogeneous platforms architecture has been introduced into numerical computations in reactor physics. Because of the natural parallel characteristics, the CPU-FPGA architecture is often used to accelerate numerical computation. This paper studies the application and features of this kind of heterogeneous platforms used in numerical calculation of reactor physics through practical examples. After the designed neutron diffusion module based on CPU-FPGA architecture achieves a 11.2 speed up factor, it is proved to be feasible to apply this kind of heterogeneous platform into reactor physics. (authors)

A middleware-based platform for the integration of bioinformatic services

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Guzmán Llambías

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Performing Bioinformatic´s experiments involve an intensive access to distributed services and information resources through Internet. Although existing tools facilitate the implementation of workflow-oriented applications, they lack of capabilities to integrate services beyond low-scale applications, particularly integrating services with heterogeneous interaction patterns and in a larger scale. This is particularly required to enable a large-scale distributed processing of biological data generated by massive sequencing technologies. On the other hand, such integration mechanisms are provided by middleware products like Enterprise Service Buses (ESB, which enable to integrate distributed systems following a Service Oriented Architecture. This paper proposes an integration platform, based on enterprise middleware, to integrate Bioinformatics services. It presents a multi-level reference architecture and focuses on ESB-based mechanisms to provide asynchronous communications, event-based interactions and data transformation capabilities. The paper presents a formal specification of the platform using the Event-B model.

The Study of Pallet Pooling Information Platform Based on Cloud Computing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jia-bin Li

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Effective implementation of pallet pooling system needs a strong information platform to support. Through the analysis of existing pallet pooling information platform (PPIP, the paper pointed out that the existing studies of PPIP are mainly based on traditional IT infrastructures and technologies which have software, hardware, resource utilization, and process restrictions. Because of the advantages of cloud computing technology like strong computing power, high flexibility, and low cost which meet the requirements of the PPIP well, this paper gave a PPIP architecture of two parts based on cloud computing: the users client and the cloud services. The cloud services include three layers, which are IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS. The method of how to deploy PPIP based on cloud computing is proposed finally.

A Kinect-Based Physiotherapy and Assessment Platform for Parkinson's Disease Patients

OpenAIRE

Pachoulakis, Ioannis; Xilourgos, Nikolaos; Papadopoulos, Nikolaos; Analyti, Anastasia

2016-01-01

We report on a Kinect-based, augmented reality, real-time physiotherapy platform tailored to Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients. The platform employs a Kinect sensor to extract real-time 3D skeletal data (joint information) from a patient facing the sensor (at 30 frames per second). In addition, a small collection of exercises practiced in traditional physiotherapy for PD patients has been implemented in the Unity 3D game engine. Each exercise employs linear or circular movement patterns and p...

An Integrated Web-Based 3d Modeling and Visualization Platform to Support Sustainable Cities

Science.gov (United States)

Amirebrahimi, S.; Rajabifard, A.

2012-07-01

Sustainable Development is found as the key solution to preserve the sustainability of cities in oppose to ongoing population growth and its negative impacts. This is complex and requires a holistic and multidisciplinary decision making. Variety of stakeholders with different backgrounds also needs to be considered and involved. Numerous web-based modeling and visualization tools have been designed and developed to support this process. There have been some success stories; however, majority failed to bring a comprehensive platform to support different aspects of sustainable development. In this work, in the context of SDI and Land Administration, CSDILA Platform - a 3D visualization and modeling platform -was proposed which can be used to model and visualize different dimensions to facilitate the achievement of sustainability, in particular, in urban context. The methodology involved the design of a generic framework for development of an analytical and visualization tool over the web. CSDILA Platform was then implemented via number of technologies based on the guidelines provided by the framework. The platform has a modular structure and uses Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA). It is capable of managing spatial objects in a 4D data store and can flexibly incorporate a variety of developed models using the platform's API. Development scenarios can be modeled and tested using the analysis and modeling component in the platform and the results are visualized in seamless 3D environment. The platform was further tested using number of scenarios and showed promising results and potentials to serve a wider need. In this paper, the design process of the generic framework, the implementation of CSDILA Platform and technologies used, and also findings and future research directions will be presented and discussed.

A Javascript GIS Platform Based on Invocable Geospatial Web Services

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Konstantinos Evangelidis

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Semantic Web technologies are being increasingly adopted by the geospatial community during last decade through the utilization of open standards for expressing and serving geospatial data. This was also dramatically assisted by the ever-increasing access and usage of geographic mapping and location-based services via smart devices in people’s daily activities. In this paper, we explore the developmental framework of a pure JavaScript client-side GIS platform exclusively based on invocable geospatial Web services. We also extend JavaScript utilization on the server side by deploying a node server acting as a bridge between open source WPS libraries and popular geoprocessing engines. The vehicle for such an exploration is a cross platform Web browser capable of interpreting JavaScript commands to achieve interaction with geospatial providers. The tool is a generic Web interface providing capabilities of acquiring spatial datasets, composing layouts and applying geospatial processes. In an ideal form the end-user will have to identify those services, which satisfy a geo-related need and put them in the appropriate row. The final output may act as a potential collector of freely available geospatial web services. Its server-side components may exploit geospatial processing suppliers composing that way a light-weight fully transparent open Web GIS platform.

Design of a Physiology-Sensitive VR-Based Social Communication Platform for Children With Autism.

Science.gov (United States)

Kuriakose, Selvia; Lahiri, Uttama

2017-08-01

Individuals with autism are often characterized by impairments in communication, reciprocal social interaction and explicit expression of their affective states. In conventional techniques, a therapist adjusts the intervention paradigm by monitoring the affective state e.g., anxiety of these individuals for effective floor-time-therapy. Conventional techniques, though powerful, are observation-based and face resource limitations. Technology-assisted systems can provide a quantitative, individualized rehabilitation platform. Presently-available systems are designed primarily to chain learning via aspects of one's performance alone restricting individualization. Specifically, these systems are not sensitive to one's anxiety. Our presented work seeks to bridge this gap by developing a novel VR-based interactive system with Anxiety-Sensitive adaptive technology. Specifically, such a system is capable of objectively identifying and quantifying one's anxiety level from real-time biomarkers, along with performance metrics. In turn it can adaptively respond in an individualized manner to foster improved social communication skills. In our present research, we have used Virtual Reality (VR) to design a proof-of-concept application that exposes participants to social tasks of varying challenges. Results of a preliminary usability study indicate the potential of our VR-based Anxiety-Sensitive system to foster improved task performance, thereby serving as a potent complementary tool in the hands of therapist.

Microfluidic Platform for Enzyme-Linked and Magnetic Particle-Based Immunoassay

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dorota G. Pijanowska

2013-06-01

Full Text Available This article presents design and testing of a microfluidic platform for immunoassay. The method is based on sandwiched ELISA, whereby the primary antibody is immobilized on nitrocelluose and, subsequently, magnetic beads are used as a label to detect the analyte. The chip takes approximately 2 h and 15 min to complete the assay. A Hall Effect sensor using 0.35-μm BioMEMS TSMC technology (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Bio-Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems was fabricated to sense the magnetic field from the beads. Furthermore, florescence detection and absorbance measurements from the chip demonstrate successful immunoassay on the chip. In addition, investigation also covers the Hall Effect simulations, mechanical modeling of the bead–protein complex, testing of the microfluidic platform with magnetic beads averaging 10 nm, and measurements with an inductor-based system.

Study on key technologies of vehicle networking system platform for electric automobiles based on micro-service

Science.gov (United States)

Ye, Fei

2018-04-01

With the rapid increase of electric automobiles and charging piles, the elastic expansion and online rapid upgrade were required for the vehicle networking system platform (system platform for short). At present, it is difficult to meet the operation needs due to the traditional huge rock architecture used by the system platform. This paper studied the system platform technology architecture based on "cloud platform +micro-service" to obtain a new generation of vehicle networking system platform with the combination of elastic expansion and application, thus significantly improving the service operation ability of system.

Quantitation of magnetic resonance spectroscopy signals: the jMRUI software package

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stefan, D; Andrasescu, A; Cesare, F Di; Popa, E; Lazariev, A; Graveron-Demilly, D; Vescovo, E; Williams, S; Strbak, O; Starcuk, Z; Cabanas, M; Van Ormondt, D

2009-01-01

The software package jMRUI with Java-based graphical user interface enables user-friendly time-domain analysis of magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) and spectroscopic imaging (MRSI) and HRMAS-NMR signals. Version 3.x has been distributed in more than 1200 groups or hospitals worldwide. The new version 4.x is a plug-in platform enabling the users to add their own algorithms. Moreover, it offers new functionalities compared to versions 3.x. The quantum-mechanical simulator based on NMR-SCOPE, the quantitation algorithm QUEST and the main MRSI functionalities are described. Quantitation results of signals obtained in vivo from a mouse and a human brain are given

Continuous Platform Development

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Ole Fiil

low risks and investments but also with relatively fuzzy results. When looking for new platform projects, it is important to make sure that the company and market is ready for the introduction of platforms, and to make sure that people from marketing and sales, product development, and downstream......, but continuous product family evolution challenges this strategy. The concept of continuous platform development is based on the fact that platform development should not be a one-time experience but rather an ongoing process of developing new platforms and updating existing ones, so that product family...

Analytical investigations of the earthquake resistance of the support base of an oil-gas platform

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Glagovskii, V. B.; Kassirova, N. A.; Turchina, O. A.; Finagenov, O. M.; Tsirukhin, N. A. [JSC ' VNIIG im. B. E. Vedeneeva' (Russian Federation)

2012-01-15

In designing stationary oil-gas recovery platforms on the continental shelf, the need arises to compute the estimated strength of their support base during seismic events. This paper is devoted to this estimation. The paper examines a structure consisting of the superstructure of an oil-gas platform and its gravity-type base. It is possible to install earthquake-insulating supports between them. Calculations performed for the design earthquake indicated that the design of the gravity base can resist a seismic effect without special additional measures. During the maximum design earthquake, moreover, significant stresses may develop in the zone of base where the columns are connected to the upper slab of the caisson. In that case, the earthquake insulation considered for the top of the platform becomes critical.

Analytical investigations of the earthquake resistance of the support base of an oil-gas platform

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Glagovskii, V. B.; Kassirova, N. A.; Turchina, O. A.; Finagenov, O. M.; Tsirukhin, N. A.

2012-01-01

In designing stationary oil-gas recovery platforms on the continental shelf, the need arises to compute the estimated strength of their support base during seismic events. This paper is devoted to this estimation. The paper examines a structure consisting of the superstructure of an oil-gas platform and its gravity-type base. It is possible to install earthquake-insulating supports between them. Calculations performed for the design earthquake indicated that the design of the gravity base can resist a seismic effect without special additional measures. During the maximum design earthquake, moreover, significant stresses may develop in the zone of base where the columns are connected to the upper slab of the caisson. In that case, the earthquake insulation considered for the top of the platform becomes critical.

Research on website construction based on website group platform of Chengdu sport institution

Science.gov (United States)

Hu, Zunyu

2018-04-01

This paper describes the necessity of website construction based on the website group of Chengdu sport institute, and discusses the technical features of the website group, Based on the website group platform architecture, the key technologies such as Web Service, AJAX, RSS and other key technologies are used to realize the construction of the website. Based on the website group platform architecture of the site, it effectively solves the information isolated island between the sites, and realizes the information sharing and resource integration. It is also more convenient that site and other sites have composed of site group integrated operation and maintenance.

Imaging enabled platforms for development of therapeutics

Science.gov (United States)

Celli, Jonathan; Rizvi, Imran; Blanden, Adam R.; Evans, Conor L.; Abu-Yousif, Adnan O.; Spring, Bryan Q.; Muzikansky, Alona; Pogue, Brian W.; Finkelstein, Dianne M.; Hasan, Tayyaba

2011-03-01

Advances in imaging and spectroscopic technologies have enabled the optimization of many therapeutic modalities in cancer and noncancer pathologies either by earlier disease detection or by allowing therapy monitoring. Amongst the therapeutic options benefiting from developments in imaging technologies, photodynamic therapy (PDT) is exceptional. PDT is a photochemistry-based therapeutic approach where a light-sensitive molecule (photosensitizer) is activated with light of appropriate energy (wavelength) to produce reactive molecular species such as free radicals and singlet oxygen. These molecular entities then react with biological targets such as DNA, membranes and other cellular components to impair their function and lead to eventual cell and tissue death. Development of PDT-based imaging also provides a platform for rapid screening of new therapeutics in novel in vitro models prior to expensive and labor-intensive animal studies. In this study we demonstrate how an imaging platform can be used for strategizing a novel combination treatment strategy for multifocal ovarian cancer. Using an in vitro 3D model for micrometastatic ovarian cancer in conjunction with quantitative imaging we examine dose and scheduling strategies for PDT in combination with carboplatin, a chemotherapeutic agent presently in clinical use for management of this deadly form of cancer.

Audio-based detection and evaluation of eating behavior using the smartwatch platform.

Science.gov (United States)

Kalantarian, Haik; Sarrafzadeh, Majid

2015-10-01

In recent years, smartwatches have emerged as a viable platform for a variety of medical and health-related applications. In addition to the benefits of a stable hardware platform, these devices have a significant advantage over other wrist-worn devices, in that user acceptance of watches is higher than other custom hardware solutions. In this paper, we describe signal-processing techniques for identification of chews and swallows using a smartwatch device׳s built-in microphone. Moreover, we conduct a survey to evaluate the potential of the smartwatch as a platform for monitoring nutrition. The focus of this paper is to analyze the overall applicability of a smartwatch-based system for food-intake monitoring. Evaluation results confirm the efficacy of our technique; classification was performed between apple and potato chip bites, water swallows, talking, and ambient noise, with an F-measure of 94.5% based on 250 collected samples. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

InP-based photonic integrated circuit platform on SiC wafer.

Science.gov (United States)

Takenaka, Mitsuru; Takagi, Shinichi

2017-11-27

We have numerically investigated the properties of an InP-on-SiC wafer as a photonic integrated circuit (PIC) platform. By bonding a thin InP-based semiconductor on a SiC wafer, SiC can be used as waveguide cladding, a heat sink, and a support substrate simultaneously. Since the refractive index of SiC is sufficiently low, PICs can be fabricated using InP-based strip and rib waveguides with a minimum bend radius of approximately 7 μm. High-thermal-conductivity SiC underneath an InP-based waveguide core markedly improves heat dissipation, resulting in superior thermal properties of active devices such as laser diodes. The InP-on-SiC wafer has significantly smaller thermal stress than InP-on-SiO 2 /Si wafer, which prevents the thermal degradation of InP-based devices during high-temperature processes. Thus, InP on SiC provides an ideal platform for high-performance PICs.

Smartphone-based quantitative measurements on holographic sensors.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gita Khalili Moghaddam

Full Text Available The research reported herein integrates a generic holographic sensor platform and a smartphone-based colour quantification algorithm in order to standardise and improve the determination of the concentration of analytes of interest. The utility of this approach has been exemplified by analysing the replay colour of the captured image of a holographic pH sensor in near real-time. Personalised image encryption followed by a wavelet-based image compression method were applied to secure the image transfer across a bandwidth-limited network to the cloud. The decrypted and decompressed image was processed through four principal steps: Recognition of the hologram in the image with a complex background using a template-based approach, conversion of device-dependent RGB values to device-independent CIEXYZ values using a polynomial model of the camera and computation of the CIEL*a*b* values, use of the colour coordinates of the captured image to segment the image, select the appropriate colour descriptors and, ultimately, locate the region of interest (ROI, i.e. the hologram in this case, and finally, application of a machine learning-based algorithm to correlate the colour coordinates of the ROI to the analyte concentration. Integrating holographic sensors and the colour image processing algorithm potentially offers a cost-effective platform for the remote monitoring of analytes in real time in readily accessible body fluids by minimally trained individuals.

Smartphone-based quantitative measurements on holographic sensors.

Science.gov (United States)

Khalili Moghaddam, Gita; Lowe, Christopher Robin

2017-01-01

The research reported herein integrates a generic holographic sensor platform and a smartphone-based colour quantification algorithm in order to standardise and improve the determination of the concentration of analytes of interest. The utility of this approach has been exemplified by analysing the replay colour of the captured image of a holographic pH sensor in near real-time. Personalised image encryption followed by a wavelet-based image compression method were applied to secure the image transfer across a bandwidth-limited network to the cloud. The decrypted and decompressed image was processed through four principal steps: Recognition of the hologram in the image with a complex background using a template-based approach, conversion of device-dependent RGB values to device-independent CIEXYZ values using a polynomial model of the camera and computation of the CIEL*a*b* values, use of the colour coordinates of the captured image to segment the image, select the appropriate colour descriptors and, ultimately, locate the region of interest (ROI), i.e. the hologram in this case, and finally, application of a machine learning-based algorithm to correlate the colour coordinates of the ROI to the analyte concentration. Integrating holographic sensors and the colour image processing algorithm potentially offers a cost-effective platform for the remote monitoring of analytes in real time in readily accessible body fluids by minimally trained individuals.

Implementation of Wireless Communications Systems on FPGA-Based Platforms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Voros NS

2007-01-01

Full Text Available Wireless communications are a very popular application domain. The efficient implementation of their components (access points and mobile terminals/network interface cards in terms of hardware cost and design time is of great importance. This paper describes the design and implementation of the HIPERLAN/2 WLAN system on a platform including general purpose microprocessors and FPGAs. Detailed implementation results (performance, code size, and FPGA resources utilization are presented. The main goal of the design case presented is to provide insight into the design aspects of a complex system based on FPGAs. The results prove that an implementation based on microprocessors and FPGAs is adequate for the access point part of the system where the expected volumes are rather small. At the same time, such an implementation serves as a prototyping of an integrated implementation (System-on-Chip, which is necessary for the mobile terminals of a HIPERLAN/2 system. Finally, firmware upgrades were developed allowing the implementation of an outdoor wireless communication system on the same platform.

Design of software platform based on linux operating system for γ-spectrometry instrument

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hong Tianqi; Zhou Chen; Zhang Yongjin

2008-01-01

This paper described the design of γ-spectrometry instrument software platform based on s3c2410a processor with arm920t core, emphases are focused on analyzing the integrated application of embedded linux operating system, yaffs file system and qt/embedded GUI development library. It presented a new software platform in portable instrument for γ measurement. (authors)

Imaging based agglutination measurement of magnetic micro-particles on a lab-on-a-disk platform

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wantiya, P.; Burger, Robert; Alstrøm, Tommy Sonne

2014-01-01

In this work we present a magnetic micro beads based agglutination assay on a centrifugal microfluidic platform. An imaging based method is used to quantify bead agglutination and measure the concentration of antibodies or C-reactive protein in solution.......In this work we present a magnetic micro beads based agglutination assay on a centrifugal microfluidic platform. An imaging based method is used to quantify bead agglutination and measure the concentration of antibodies or C-reactive protein in solution....

PRINCIPLES OF MODERN UNIVERSITY "ACADEMIC CLOUD" FORMATION BASED ON OPEN SOFTWARE PLATFORM

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Olena H. Hlazunova

2014-09-01

Full Text Available In the article approaches to the use of cloud technology in teaching of higher education students are analyzed. The essence of the concept of "academic cloud" and its structural elements are justified. The model of academic clouds of the modern university, which operates on the basis of open software platforms, are proposed. Examples of functional software and platforms, that provide the needs of students in e-learning resources, are given. The models of deployment Cloud-oriented environment in higher education: private cloud, infrastructure as a service and platform as a service, are analyzed. The comparison of the cost of deployment "academic cloud" based on its own infrastructure of the institution and lease infrastructure vendor are substantiated.

A Big-Data-based platform of workers' behavior: Observations from the field.

Science.gov (United States)

Guo, S Y; Ding, L Y; Luo, H B; Jiang, X Y

2016-08-01

Behavior-Based Safety (BBS) has been used in construction to observe, analyze and modify workers' behavior. However, studies have identified that BBS has several limitations, which have hindered its effective implementation. To mitigate the negative impact of BBS, this paper uses a case study approach to develop a Big-Data-based platform to classify, collect and store data about workers' unsafe behavior that is derived from a metro construction project. In developing the platform, three processes were undertaken: (1) a behavioral risk knowledge base was established; (2) images reflecting workers' unsafe behavior were collected from intelligent video surveillance and mobile application; and (3) images with semantic information were stored via a Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS). The platform was implemented during the construction of the metro-system and it is demonstrated that it can effectively analyze semantic information contained in images, automatically extract workers' unsafe behavior and quickly retrieve on HDFS as well. The research presented in this paper can enable construction organizations with the ability to visualize unsafe acts in real-time and further identify patterns of behavior that can jeopardize safety outcomes. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Prototype of a Web-based Participative Decision Support Platform in Natural Hazards and Risk Management

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zar Chi Aye

2015-07-01

Full Text Available This paper presents the current state and development of a prototype web-GIS (Geographic Information System decision support platform intended for application in natural hazards and risk management, mainly for floods and landslides. This web platform uses open-source geospatial software and technologies, particularly the Boundless (formerly OpenGeo framework and its client side software development kit (SDK. The main purpose of the platform is to assist the experts and stakeholders in the decision-making process for evaluation and selection of different risk management strategies through an interactive participation approach, integrating web-GIS interface with decision support tool based on a compromise programming approach. The access rights and functionality of the platform are varied depending on the roles and responsibilities of stakeholders in managing the risk. The application of the prototype platform is demonstrated based on an example case study site: Malborghetto Valbruna municipality of North-Eastern Italy where flash floods and landslides are frequent with major events having occurred in 2003. The preliminary feedback collected from the stakeholders in the region is discussed to understand the perspectives of stakeholders on the proposed prototype platform.

Artistic and Engineering Design of Platform-Based Production Systems: A Study of Swedish Architectural Practice

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gustav Jansson

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Research on platform-based production systems for house-building has focused on production and manufacturing issues. The aim of this research is to explore how the architectural design process contributes to the industrialised house-building industry from the perspective of creative design work. It also aims to describe how constraints affect architectural design work in the engineer-to-order context, when using platform-based production systems. Architects with experience in using platform-based building systems with different degrees of constraints were interviewed regarding creative aspects of the design work. The interviews, together with documents relating to platform constraints, were then analysed from the perspective of artistic and engineering design theories. The results show the benefits and issues of using platform constraints, both with prefabrication of volumetric modules, as well as prefabricated slab and wall elements. The study highlights a major research gap by describing how architectural work, from both the creative artistic and engineering design perspectives, is affected by constraints in the building platform: (1 the architectural design work goes through a series of divergent and convergent processes where the divergent processes are explorative and the convergent processes are solution-oriented; and (2, there is a trade-off between creativity and efficiency in the design work. Open parameters for layout design are key to architectural creativity, while predefinition supports efficiency. The results also provide an understanding of the potential for creativity in artistic and engineering work tasks through different phases in design, and how they are related to constraints in the platform. The main limitation of the research is the number of interviewed architects who had different background experiences of working with different types of platform constraints. More studies are needed to confirm the observations and to

Wireless implantable electronic platform for chronic fluorescent-based biosensors.

Science.gov (United States)

Valdastri, Pietro; Susilo, Ekawahyu; Förster, Thilo; Strohhöfer, Christof; Menciassi, Arianna; Dario, Paolo

2011-06-01

The development of a long-term wireless implantable biosensor based on fluorescence intensity measurement poses a number of technical challenges, ranging from biocompatibility to sensor stability over time. One of these challenges is the design of a power efficient and miniaturized electronics, enabling the biosensor to move from bench testing to long term validation, up to its final application in human beings. In this spirit, we present a wireless programmable electronic platform for implantable chronic monitoring of fluorescent-based autonomous biosensors. This system is able to achieve extremely low power operation with bidirectional telemetry, based on the IEEE802.15.4-2003 protocol, thus enabling over three-year battery lifetime and wireless networking of multiple sensors. During the performance of single fluorescent-based sensor measurements, the circuit drives a laser diode, for sensor excitation, and acquires the amplified signals from four different photodetectors. In vitro functionality was preliminarily tested for both glucose and calcium monitoring, simply by changing the analyte-binding protein of the biosensor. Electronics performance was assessed in terms of timing, power consumption, tissue exposure to electromagnetic fields, and in vivo wireless connectivity. The final goal of the presented platform is to be integrated in a complete system for blood glucose level monitoring that may be implanted for at least one year under the skin of diabetic patients. Results reported in this paper may be applied to a wide variety of biosensors based on fluorescence intensity measurement.

Surface Plasmon Resonance Biosensor Based on Smart Phone Platforms.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Yun; Liu, Qiang; Chen, Shimeng; Cheng, Fang; Wang, Hanqi; Peng, Wei

2015-08-10

We demonstrate a fiber optic surface plasmon resonance (SPR) biosensor based on smart phone platforms. The light-weight optical components and sensing element are connected by optical fibers on a phone case. This SPR adaptor can be conveniently installed or removed from smart phones. The measurement, control and reference channels are illuminated by the light entering the lead-in fibers from the phone's LED flash, while the light from the end faces of the lead-out fibers is detected by the phone's camera. The SPR-sensing element is fabricated by a light-guiding silica capillary that is stripped off its cladding and coated with 50-nm gold film. Utilizing a smart application to extract the light intensity information from the camera images, the light intensities of each channel are recorded every 0.5 s with refractive index (RI) changes. The performance of the smart phone-based SPR platform for accurate and repeatable measurements was evaluated by detecting different concentrations of antibody binding to a functionalized sensing element, and the experiment results were validated through contrast experiments with a commercial SPR instrument. This cost-effective and portable SPR biosensor based on smart phones has many applications, such as medicine, health and environmental monitoring.

A web-based platform for virtual screening.

Science.gov (United States)

Watson, Paul; Verdonk, Marcel; Hartshorn, Michael J

2003-09-01

A fully integrated, web-based, virtual screening platform has been developed to allow rapid virtual screening of large numbers of compounds. ORACLE is used to store information at all stages of the process. The system includes a large database of historical compounds from high throughput screenings (HTS) chemical suppliers, ATLAS, containing over 3.1 million unique compounds with their associated physiochemical properties (ClogP, MW, etc.). The database can be screened using a web-based interface to produce compound subsets for virtual screening or virtual library (VL) enumeration. In order to carry out the latter task within ORACLE a reaction data cartridge has been developed. Virtual libraries can be enumerated rapidly using the web-based interface to the cartridge. The compound subsets can be seamlessly submitted for virtual screening experiments, and the results can be viewed via another web-based interface allowing ad hoc querying of the virtual screening data stored in ORACLE.

Mounted Smartphones as Measurement and Control Platforms for Motor-Based Laboratory Test-Beds †

Science.gov (United States)

Frank, Jared A.; Brill, Anthony; Kapila, Vikram

2016-01-01

Laboratory education in science and engineering often entails the use of test-beds equipped with costly peripherals for sensing, acquisition, storage, processing, and control of physical behavior. However, costly peripherals are no longer necessary to obtain precise measurements and achieve stable feedback control of test-beds. With smartphones performing diverse sensing and processing tasks, this study examines the feasibility of mounting smartphones directly to test-beds to exploit their embedded hardware and software in the measurement and control of the test-beds. This approach is a first step towards replacing laboratory-grade peripherals with more compact and affordable smartphone-based platforms, whose interactive user interfaces can engender wider participation and engagement from learners. Demonstrative cases are presented in which the sensing, computation, control, and user interaction with three motor-based test-beds are handled by a mounted smartphone. Results of experiments and simulations are used to validate the feasibility of mounted smartphones as measurement and feedback control platforms for motor-based laboratory test-beds, report the measurement precision and closed-loop performance achieved with such platforms, and address challenges in the development of platforms to maintain system stability. PMID:27556464

Third-party Reverse logistics platform and method Based on Bilateral Resource Integration

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zheng Hong Zhen

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Dispersion of reverse logistics resources makes it difficult to create relationships between demanders and providers, thereby the personalized demand for the construction of enterprise reverse logistics cannot be satisfied and the service quality cannot be guaranteed. Aiming at these problems, this paper presents a platform and method of enterprise reverse logistics based on bilateral resource integration (RLBRI. The method creates a third-party reverse logistics platform to accumulate a mass of reverse logistics demanders and providers together. And the platform integrates bilateral resources and acts as an intermediary to establish relationships between two sides. Through the platform, a complete and high-quality business chain for enterprise reverse logistics will be built efficiently. Finally put forward an effective strategy of non-defective reverse logistics depends on the integrity checking service provided by third-party logistics. By using this strategy it can short the distance of non-defective reverse transportation. Computational tests validate the strategy.

EBprot: Statistical analysis of labeling-based quantitative proteomics data.

Science.gov (United States)

Koh, Hiromi W L; Swa, Hannah L F; Fermin, Damian; Ler, Siok Ghee; Gunaratne, Jayantha; Choi, Hyungwon

2015-08-01

Labeling-based proteomics is a powerful method for detection of differentially expressed proteins (DEPs). The current data analysis platform typically relies on protein-level ratios, which is obtained by summarizing peptide-level ratios for each protein. In shotgun proteomics, however, some proteins are quantified with more peptides than others, and this reproducibility information is not incorporated into the differential expression (DE) analysis. Here, we propose a novel probabilistic framework EBprot that directly models the peptide-protein hierarchy and rewards the proteins with reproducible evidence of DE over multiple peptides. To evaluate its performance with known DE states, we conducted a simulation study to show that the peptide-level analysis of EBprot provides better receiver-operating characteristic and more accurate estimation of the false discovery rates than the methods based on protein-level ratios. We also demonstrate superior classification performance of peptide-level EBprot analysis in a spike-in dataset. To illustrate the wide applicability of EBprot in different experimental designs, we applied EBprot to a dataset for lung cancer subtype analysis with biological replicates and another dataset for time course phosphoproteome analysis of EGF-stimulated HeLa cells with multiplexed labeling. Through these examples, we show that the peptide-level analysis of EBprot is a robust alternative to the existing statistical methods for the DE analysis of labeling-based quantitative datasets. The software suite is freely available on the Sourceforge website http://ebprot.sourceforge.net/. All MS data have been deposited in the ProteomeXchange with identifier PXD001426 (http://proteomecentral.proteomexchange.org/dataset/PXD001426/). © 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Activities Based on Wiki Platform for Engineering Higher Education: Students' Point of View

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Gláucia Nolasco de Almeida Mello

2017-08-01

Full Text Available The fast evolution of Information and Communication Technology (ICT introduced a new generation of learners that have been adopted mobile devices and Web 2.0 technologies to get information and communicate. The Web 2.0-based tools, such as blogs, wikis, Facebook, Instagram, etc, offer huge possibilities for collaboration. In this way, the main purpose of this research was plan an activity on wiki platform for Reinforced Concrete discipline in Civil Engineering course and answer the questions: (1 How should collaboration be effectively measured on wiki platform? (2 What is the students' point of view about using wiki platform for a collaboration activity? Wikispaces Classroom platform was chosen for the project because it is a free social writing platform, suitable for collaborative learning. Furthermore it works on modern browsers, tablets, and smart phone. A total of 167 students of Civil Engineering course were monitored on Wikispaces® platform. All students’ actions were analyzed and classified as low, medium or high level of collaboration. At the end of the project 111 students answered a questionnaire and 10 students participated of an informal interview where they expressed their opinion about the platform, the activities and the relationship with online peers. A descriptive statistical analysis of the data collected from the platform and the questionnaires answered by the students was performed. The results indicated that wiki platform is an important way to develop innovative activities and tasks for the purpose of to improve skills of engineering students such as: writing communication, organization, collaboration and critical thinking.

Design of embedded hardware platform in intelligent γ-spectrometry instrument based on ARM9

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hong Tianqi; Fang Fang

2008-01-01

This paper described the design of embedded hardware platform based on ARM9 S3C2410A, emphases are focused on analyzing the methods of design the circuits of memory, LCD and keyboard ports. It presented a new solution of hardware platform in intelligent portable instrument for γ measurement. (authors)

Design and Implementation of English Reading Examination System Based on WEB Platform

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Lan Guo

2017-12-01

Full Text Available For the self-assessment and practice-based improvement of students' English reading level, this paper designed an English reading test system based on the WEB platform, which will enrich the methods for students to improve their reading ability and will advance the informatization level of English tests. The system adopts the browser / server architecture with the back-end database SQL Server as the database management system and C # and ASP.NET as the programming language to meet multiple needs of English reading examinations and achieve the informatization management of English reading examinations. The design and implementation of the English reading examination system based on the WEB platform will not only improve the efficiency of the examination management, but also drive students to actively learn English reading, with certain application value.

AGENT-BASED NEGOTIATION PLATFORM IN COLLABORATIVE NETWORKED ENVIRONMENT

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Adina-Georgeta CREȚAN

2014-05-01

Full Text Available This paper proposes an agent-based platform to model and support parallel and concurrent negotiations among organizations acting in the same industrial market. The underlying complexity is to model the dynamic environment where multi-attribute and multi-participant negotiations are racing over a set of heterogeneous resources. The metaphor Interaction Abstract Machines (IAMs is used to model the parallelism and the non-deterministic aspects of the negotiation processes that occur in Collaborative Networked Environment.

Autonomic Semantic-Based Context-Aware Platform for Mobile Applications in Pervasive Environments

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Adel Alti

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Currently, the field of smart-* (home, city, health, tourism, etc. is naturally heterogeneous and multimedia oriented. In such a domain, there is an increasing usage of heterogeneous mobile devices, as well as captors transmitting data (IoT. They are highly connected and can be used for many different services, such as to monitor, to analyze and to display information to users. In this context, data management and adaptation in real time are becoming a challenging task. More precisely, at one time, it is necessary to handle in a dynamic, intelligent and transparent framework various data provided by multiple devices with several modalities. This paper presents a Kali-Smart platform, which is an autonomic semantic-based context-aware platform. It is based on semantic web technologies and a middleware providing autonomy and reasoning facilities. Moreover, Kali-Smart is generic and, as a consequence, offers to users a flexible infrastructure where they can easily control various interaction modalities of their own situations. An experimental study has been made to evaluate the performance and feasibility of the proposed platform.

IoTFLiP: IoT-based flipped learning platform for medical education

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Maqbool Ali

2017-08-01

Full Text Available Case-Based Learning (CBL has become an effective pedagogy for student-centered learning in medical education, which is founded on persistent patient cases. Flippped learning and Internet of Things (IoTs concepts have gained significant attention in recent years. Using these concepts in conjunction with CBL can improve learning ability by providing real evolutionary medical cases. It also enables students to build confidence in their decision making, and efficiently enhances teamwork in the learing environment. We propose an IoT-based Flip Learning Platform, called IoTFLiP, where an IoT infrastructure is exploited to support flipped case-based learning in a cloud environment with state of the art security and privacy measures for personalized medical data. It also provides support for application delivery in private, public, and hybrid approaches. The proposed platform is an extension of our Interactive Case-Based Flipped Learning Tool (ICBFLT, which has been developed based on current CBL practices. ICBFLT formulates summaries of CBL cases through synergy between students' and medical expert knowledge. The low cost and reduced size of sensor device, support of IoTs, and recent flipped learning advancements can enhance medical students' academic and practical experiences. In order to demonstrate a working scenario for the proposed IoTFLiP platform, real-time data from IoTs gadgets is collected to generate a real-world case for a medical student using ICBFLT.

An Advanced Control Technique for Floating Offshore Wind Turbines Based on More Compact Barge Platforms

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Joannes Olondriz

2018-05-01

Full Text Available Hydrodynamic Floating Offshore Wind Turbine (FOWT platform specifications are typically dominated by seaworthiness and maximum operating platform-pitch angle-related requirements. However, such specifications directly impact the challenge posed by an FOWT in terms of control design. The conventional FOWT systems are typically based on large, heavy floating platforms, which are less likely to suffer from the negative damping effect caused by the excessive coupling between blade-pitch control and platform-pitch motion. An advanced control technique is presented here to increase system stability for barge type platforms. Such a technique mitigates platform-pitch motions and improves the generator speed regulation, while maintaining blade-pitch activity and reducing blade and tower loads. The NREL’s 5MW + ITI Energy barge reference model is taken as a basis for this work. Furthermore, the capabilities of the proposed controller for performing with a more compact and less hydrodynamically stable barge platform is analysed, with encouraging results.

Graphene-based platforms for cancer therapeutics

Science.gov (United States)

Patel, Sunny C; Lee, Stephen; Lalwani, Gaurav; Suhrland, Cassandra; Chowdhury, Sayan Mullick; Sitharaman, Balaji

2016-01-01

Graphene is a multifunctional carbon nanomaterial and could be utilized to develop platform technologies for cancer therapies. Its surface can be covalently and noncovalently functionalized with anticancer drugs and functional groups that target cancer cells and tissue to improve treatment efficacies. Furthermore, its physicochemical properties can be harnessed to facilitate stimulus responsive therapeutics and drug delivery. This review article summarizes the recent literature specifically focused on development of graphene technologies to treat cancer. We will focus on advances at the interface of graphene based drug/gene delivery, photothermal/photodynamic therapy and combinations of these techniques. We also discuss the current understanding in cytocompatibility and biocompatibility issues related to graphene formulations and their implications pertinent to clinical cancer management. PMID:26769305

Microcantilever-based platforms as biosensing tools.

Science.gov (United States)

Alvarez, Mar; Lechuga, Laura M

2010-05-01

The fast and progressive growth of the biotechnology and pharmaceutical fields forces the development of new and powerful sensing techniques for process optimization and detection of biomolecules at very low concentrations. During the last years, the simplest MEMS structures, i.e. microcantilevers, have become an emerging and promising technology for biosensing applications, due to their small size, fast response, high sensitivity and their compatible integration into "lab-on-a-chip" devices. This article provides an overview of some of the most interesting bio-detections carried out during the last 2-3 years with the microcantilever-based platforms, which highlight the continuous expansion of this kind of sensor in the medical diagnosis field, reaching limits of detection at the single molecule level.

Omnidirectional holonomic platforms

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pin, F.G.; Killough, S.M.

1994-01-01

This paper presents the concepts for a new family of wheeled platforms which feature full omnidirectionality with simultaneous and independently controlled rotational and translational motion capabilities. The authors first present the orthogonal-wheels concept and the two major wheel assemblies on which these platforms are based. They then describe how a combination of these assemblies with appropriate control can be used to generate an omnidirectional capability for mobile robot platforms. The design and control of two prototype platforms are then presented and their respective characteristics with respect to rotational and translational motion control are discussed

Camera-based ratiometric fluorescence transduction of nucleic acid hybridization with reagentless signal amplification on a paper-based platform using immobilized quantum dots as donors.

Science.gov (United States)

Noor, M Omair; Krull, Ulrich J

2014-10-21

Paper-based diagnostic assays are gaining increasing popularity for their potential application in resource-limited settings and for point-of-care screening. Achievement of high sensitivity with precision and accuracy can be challenging when using paper substrates. Herein, we implement the red-green-blue color palette of a digital camera for quantitative ratiometric transduction of nucleic acid hybridization on a paper-based platform using immobilized quantum dots (QDs) as donors in fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET). A nonenzymatic and reagentless means of signal enhancement for QD-FRET assays on paper substrates is based on the use of dry paper substrates for data acquisition. This approach offered at least a 10-fold higher assay sensitivity and at least a 10-fold lower limit of detection (LOD) as compared to hydrated paper substrates. The surface of paper was modified with imidazole groups to assemble a transduction interface that consisted of immobilized QD-probe oligonucleotide conjugates. Green-emitting QDs (gQDs) served as donors with Cy3 as an acceptor. A hybridization event that brought the Cy3 acceptor dye in close proximity to the surface of immobilized gQDs was responsible for a FRET-sensitized emission from the acceptor dye, which served as an analytical signal. A hand-held UV lamp was used as an excitation source and ratiometric analysis using an iPad camera was possible by a relative intensity analysis of the red (Cy3 photoluminescence (PL)) and green (gQD PL) color channels of the digital camera. For digital imaging using an iPad camera, the LOD of the assay in a sandwich format was 450 fmol with a dynamic range spanning 2 orders of magnitude, while an epifluorescence microscope detection platform offered a LOD of 30 fmol and a dynamic range spanning 3 orders of magnitude. The selectivity of the hybridization assay was demonstrated by detection of a single nucleotide polymorphism at a contrast ratio of 60:1. This work provides an

MySQL databases as part of the Online Business, using a platform based on Linux

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ion-Sorin STROE

2011-09-01

Full Text Available The Internet is a business development environment that has major advantages over traditional environment. From a financial standpoint, the initial investment is much reduced and, as yield, the chances of success are considerably higher. Developing an online business also depends on the manager’s ability to use the best solutions, sustainable on a long term. The current trend is to decrease the costs for the technical platform by adopting open-source license products. Such platform is based on a Linux operating system and a database system based on MySQL product. This article aims to answer two basic questions: “A platform based on Linux and MySQL can handle the demands of an online business?” and “Adopting such a solution has the effect of increasing profitability?”

The business impact of an integrated continuous biomanufacturing platform for recombinant protein production.

Science.gov (United States)

Walther, Jason; Godawat, Rahul; Hwang, Chris; Abe, Yuki; Sinclair, Andrew; Konstantinov, Konstantin

2015-11-10

The biotechnology industry primarily uses batch technologies to manufacture recombinant proteins. The natural evolution of other industries has shown that transitioning from batch to continuous processing can yield significant benefits. A quantitative understanding of these benefits is critical to guide the implementation of continuous processing. In this manuscript, we use process economic modeling and Monte Carlo simulations to evaluate an integrated continuous biomanufacturing (ICB) platform and conduct risk-based valuation to generate a probabilistic range of net-present values (NPVs). For a specific ten-year product portfolio, the ICB platform reduces average cost by 55% compared to conventional batch processing, considering both capital and operating expenses. The model predicts that these savings can further increase by an additional 25% in situations with higher-than-expected product demand showing the upward potential of the ICB platform. The ICB platform achieves these savings and corresponding flexibility mainly due to process intensification in both upstream and downstream unit operations. This study demonstrates the promise of continuous bioprocessing while also establishing a novel framework to quantify financial benefits of other platform process technologies. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Application of instrument platform based embedded Linux system on intelligent scaler

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang Jikun; Yang Run'an; Xia Minjian; Yang Zhijun; Li Lianfang; Yang Binhua

2011-01-01

It designs a instrument platform based on embedded Linux system and peripheral circuit, by designing Linux device driver and application program based on QT Embedded, various functions of the intelligent scaler are realized. The system architecture is very reasonable, so the stability and the expansibility and the integration level are increased, the development cycle is shorten greatly. (authors)

Using a digital marketing platform for the promotion of an internet based health encyclopedia in saudi arabia.

Science.gov (United States)

Al Ateeq, Asma; Al Moamary, Eman; Daghestani, Tahani; Al Muallem, Yahya; Al Dogether, Majed; Alsughayr, Abdulrahman; Altuwaijri, Majid; Househ, Mowafa

2015-01-01

The objective of this paper is to investigate the experiences of using a digital marketing platform to promote the use of an internet based health encyclopedia in Saudi Arabia. Key informant interviews, meeting documentation, and Google Analytics were the data collection sources used in the study. Findings show that using a digital marketing platform led to a significant increase in the number of visitors to the health encyclopedia. The results demonstrate that digital marketing platforms are effective tools to be used for promoting internet based health education interventions. Future work will examine long-term educational impacts and costs in using digital marketing platforms to promote online healthcare sites in Saudi Arabia.

Research of MOOC Platform Based “Internet +”

OpenAIRE

Wang Guang Xing; Chen Yan

2016-01-01

This paper is devoted to examining the construction of MOOC platform based “Internet +”. It firstly introduced the “Internet+” model, the “Internet + education” influence and the significance of education. Then, it analyzed the existing problems in the development of the current MOOC, and put forward the model of “Internet + MOOC” through the method of software engineering. It explored the advantage of “Internet + MOOC” mode and promoting the function to the education teaching. This paper put...

Deep Classifiers-Based License Plate Detection, Localization and Recognition on GPU-Powered Mobile Platform

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Syed Tahir Hussain Rizvi

2017-10-01

Full Text Available The realization of a deep neural architecture on a mobile platform is challenging, but can open up a number of possibilities for visual analysis applications. A neural network can be realized on a mobile platform by exploiting the computational power of the embedded GPU and simplifying the flow of a neural architecture trained on the desktop workstation or a GPU server. This paper presents an embedded platform-based Italian license plate detection and recognition system using deep neural classifiers. In this work, trained parameters of a highly precise automatic license plate recognition (ALPR system are imported and used to replicate the same neural classifiers on a Nvidia Shield K1 tablet. A CUDA-based framework is used to realize these neural networks. The flow of the trained architecture is simplified to perform the license plate recognition in real-time. Results show that the tasks of plate and character detection and localization can be performed in real-time on a mobile platform by simplifying the flow of the trained architecture. However, the accuracy of the simplified architecture would be decreased accordingly.

Quadcopter Attitude and Thrust Simulation Based on Simulink Platform

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Endrowednes Kuantama

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Orientation of quadcopter axes relative to reference line direction of motion will result in attitude and every movement is controlled regulated by each rotor’s thrust. Mathematical equation based on Euler formula and 3D simulation using Matlab/Simulink software platform are used to model quadcopter movement. Change of attitude, position and thrust of each rotor can be seen through this simulation movement.

Performance testing of the finance platform based on LoadRunner

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CHEN Mengyun

2016-08-01

Full Text Available In this paper,a performance testing scheme is designed to test the software interface of the financial management platform based on LoadRunner,and the scheme has been used for the performance testing of the interactive interface of the financial management platform of Shanghai Zuo Hao Network Technology Co.Ltd.The result shows that the performance characteristics of the system interface are different under different scenarios,and TPS and CPU usage performance characteristics are in an optimal status when the number of concurrent users is 40,while CPU becomes the bottleneck which is need to be addressed by system when the number of concurrent users is 50.At last,the effectiveness of the scheme has been proved.

Development of an optoelectronic holographic platform for otolaryngology applications

Science.gov (United States)

Harrington, Ellery; Dobrev, Ivo; Bapat, Nikhil; Flores, Jorge Mauricio; Furlong, Cosme; Rosowski, John; Cheng, Jeffery Tao; Scarpino, Chris; Ravicz, Michael

2010-08-01

In this paper, we present advances on our development of an optoelectronic holographic computing platform with the ability to quantitatively measure full-field-of-view nanometer-scale movements of the tympanic membrane (TM). These measurements can facilitate otologists' ability to study and diagnose hearing disorders in humans. The holographic platform consists of a laser delivery system and an otoscope. The control software, called LaserView, is written in Visual C++ and handles communication and synchronization between hardware components. It provides a user-friendly interface to allow viewing of holographic images with several tools to automate holography-related tasks and facilitate hardware communication. The software uses a series of concurrent threads to acquire images, control the hardware, and display quantitative holographic data at video rates and in two modes of operation: optoelectronic holography and lensless digital holography. The holographic platform has been used to perform experiments on several live and post-mortem specimens, and is to be deployed in a medical research environment with future developments leading to its eventual clinical use.

A IF Signal Precessing System Design Based on Software Radio Platform

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Zhao Jing

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Software radio is a definition of a design thought about how to implement flexible functions by using fixed hardware platform. Any platform based on this is characterized to be universal, standardized, modular, open and highly flexible. Due to some realistic reasons, a software radio platform is hard to be realized. So, most signal processing is operated after mixing. According to software radio requirements, a “FPGA+ADC+DAC” structure is designed. Compared with former processors, this module has broad application prospects with the small size, low power, configurable and programmable feathers. It has multifunction, such as generating IF signals, performing digital down conversion and realizing the synchronous demodulation and the other functions. This module also provides the extended host interface to communicate with upper computers. According to the practical test, take MSK signal for example, if the bit rate is 1Mb/s, bit error rate is lower than 10-6.

Platform based design of EAP transducers in Danfoss PolyPower A/S

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sarban, Rahimullah; Guðlaugsson, Tómas Vignir

2013-01-01

satisfying a variety of different market segments. Platform based approach has the primary benefit of being cost efficient and short lead time to market when new products emerges. Products development based on EAP technology is challenging both technologically as well as from production and processing point...

A DVE Time Management Simulation and Verification Platform Based on Causality Consistency Middleware

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Hangjun; Zhang, Wei; Peng, Yuxing; Li, Sikun

During the course of designing a time management algorithm for DVEs, the researchers always become inefficiency for the distraction from the realization of the trivial and fundamental details of simulation and verification. Therefore, a platform having realized theses details is desirable. However, this has not been achieved in any published work to our knowledge. In this paper, we are the first to design and realize a DVE time management simulation and verification platform providing exactly the same interfaces as those defined by the HLA Interface Specification. Moreover, our platform is based on a new designed causality consistency middleware and might offer the comparison of three kinds of time management services: CO, RO and TSO. The experimental results show that the implementation of the platform only costs small overhead, and that the efficient performance of it is highly effective for the researchers to merely focus on the improvement of designing algorithms.

2nd International Congress on Actuarial Science and Quantitative Finance

CERN Document Server

Garrido, José; Jeanblanc, Monique

2017-01-01

Developed from the Second International Congress on Actuarial Science and Quantitative Finance, this volume showcases the latest progress in all theoretical and empirical aspects of actuarial science and quantitative finance. Held at the Universidad de Cartagena in Cartegena, Colombia in June 2016, the conference emphasized relations between industry and academia and provided a platform for practitioners to discuss problems arising from the financial and insurance industries in the Andean and Caribbean regions. Based on invited lectures as well as carefully selected papers, these proceedings address topics such as statistical techniques in finance and actuarial science, portfolio management, risk theory, derivative valuation and economics of insurance.

Quantitative learning strategies based on word networks

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Yue-Tian-Yi; Jia, Zi-Yang; Tang, Yong; Xiong, Jason Jie; Zhang, Yi-Cheng

2018-02-01

Learning English requires a considerable effort, but the way that vocabulary is introduced in textbooks is not optimized for learning efficiency. With the increasing population of English learners, learning process optimization will have significant impact and improvement towards English learning and teaching. The recent developments of big data analysis and complex network science provide additional opportunities to design and further investigate the strategies in English learning. In this paper, quantitative English learning strategies based on word network and word usage information are proposed. The strategies integrate the words frequency with topological structural information. By analyzing the influence of connected learned words, the learning weights for the unlearned words and dynamically updating of the network are studied and analyzed. The results suggest that quantitative strategies significantly improve learning efficiency while maintaining effectiveness. Especially, the optimized-weight-first strategy and segmented strategies outperform other strategies. The results provide opportunities for researchers and practitioners to reconsider the way of English teaching and designing vocabularies quantitatively by balancing the efficiency and learning costs based on the word network.

Identification of platform levels

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mortensen, Niels Henrik

2005-01-01

reduction, ability to launch a wider product portfolio without increasing resources and reduction of complexity within the whole company. To support the multiple product development process, platform based product development has in many companies such as Philips, VW, Ford etc. proven to be a very effective...... product development in one step and therefore the objective of this paper is to identify levels of platform based product development. The structure of this paper is as follows. First the applied terminology for platforms will be briefly explained and then characteristics between single and multi product...... development will be examined. Based on the identification of the above characteristics five platform levels are described. The research presented in this paper is a result of MSc, Ph.D projects at the Technical University of Denmark and consultancy projects within the organisation of Institute of Product...

A cross-platform solution for light field based 3D telemedicine.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Gengkun; Xiang, Wei; Pickering, Mark

2016-03-01

Current telehealth services are dominated by conventional 2D video conferencing systems, which are limited in their capabilities in providing a satisfactory communication experience due to the lack of realism. The "immersiveness" provided by 3D technologies has the potential to promote telehealth services to a wider range of applications. However, conventional stereoscopic 3D technologies are deficient in many aspects, including low resolution and the requirement for complicated multi-camera setup and calibration, and special glasses. The advent of light field (LF) photography enables us to record light rays in a single shot and provide glasses-free 3D display with continuous motion parallax in a wide viewing zone, which is ideally suited for 3D telehealth applications. As far as our literature review suggests, there have been no reports of 3D telemedicine systems using LF technology. In this paper, we propose a cross-platform solution for a LF-based 3D telemedicine system. Firstly, a novel system architecture based on LF technology is established, which is able to capture the LF of a patient, and provide an immersive 3D display at the doctor site. For 3D modeling, we further propose an algorithm which is able to convert the captured LF to a 3D model with a high level of detail. For the software implementation on different platforms (i.e., desktop, web-based and mobile phone platforms), a cross-platform solution is proposed. Demo applications have been developed for 2D/3D video conferencing, 3D model display and edit, blood pressure and heart rate monitoring, and patient data viewing functions. The demo software can be extended to multi-discipline telehealth applications, such as tele-dentistry, tele-wound and tele-psychiatry. The proposed 3D telemedicine solution has the potential to revolutionize next-generation telemedicine technologies by providing a high quality immersive tele-consultation experience. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

A microcontroller platform for the rapid prototyping of functional electrical stimulation-based gait neuroprostheses.

Science.gov (United States)

Luzio de Melo, Paulo; da Silva, Miguel Tavares; Martins, Jorge; Newman, Dava

2015-05-01

Functional electrical stimulation (FES) has been used over the last decades as a method to rehabilitate lost motor functions of individuals with spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis, and post-stroke hemiparesis. Within this field, researchers in need of developing FES-based control solutions for specific disabilities often have to choose between either the acquisition and integration of high-performance industry-level systems, which are rather expensive and hardly portable, or develop custom-made portable solutions, which despite their lower cost, usually require expert-level electronic skills. Here, a flexible low-cost microcontroller-based platform for rapid prototyping of FES neuroprostheses is presented, designed for reduced execution complexity, development time, and production cost. For this reason, the Arduino open-source microcontroller platform was used, together with off-the-shelf components whenever possible. The developed system enables the rapid deployment of portable FES-based gait neuroprostheses, being flexible enough to allow simple open-loop strategies but also more complex closed-loop solutions. The system is based on a modular architecture that allows the development of optimized solutions depending on the desired FES applications, even though the design and testing of the platform were focused toward drop foot correction. The flexibility of the system was demonstrated using two algorithms targeting drop foot condition within different experimental setups. Successful bench testing of the device in healthy subjects demonstrated these neuroprosthesis platform capabilities to correct drop foot. Copyright © 2015 International Center for Artificial Organs and Transplantation and Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Digital-Control-Based Approximation of Optimal Wave Disturbances Attenuation for Nonlinear Offshore Platforms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiao-Fang Zhong

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The irregular wave disturbance attenuation problem for jacket-type offshore platforms involving the nonlinear characteristics is studied. The main contribution is that a digital-control-based approximation of optimal wave disturbances attenuation controller (AOWDAC is proposed based on iteration control theory, which consists of a feedback item of offshore state, a feedforward item of wave force and a nonlinear compensated component with iterative sequences. More specifically, by discussing the discrete model of nonlinear offshore platform subject to wave forces generated from the Joint North Sea Wave Project (JONSWAP wave spectrum and linearized wave theory, the original wave disturbances attenuation problem is formulated as the nonlinear two-point-boundary-value (TPBV problem. By introducing two vector sequences of system states and nonlinear compensated item, the solution of introduced nonlinear TPBV problem is obtained. Then, a numerical algorithm is designed to realize the feasibility of AOWDAC based on the deviation of performance index between the adjacent iteration processes. Finally, applied the proposed AOWDAC to a jacket-type offshore platform in Bohai Bay, the vibration amplitudes of the displacement and the velocity, and the required energy consumption can be reduced significantly.

Exploring probabilistic tools for the development of a platform for Quantitative Risk Assessment (QRA) of hydro-meteorological hazards in Europe

Science.gov (United States)

Zumpano, V.; Hussin, H. Y.; Breinl, K.

2012-04-01

Mass-movements and floods are hydro-meteorological hazards that can have catastrophic effects on communities living in mountainous areas prone to these disastrous events. Environmental, climate and socio-economic changes are expected to affect the tempo-spatial patterns of hydro-meteorological hazards and associated risks in Europe. These changes and their effects on the occurrence of future hazards need to be analyzed and modeled using probabilistic hazard and risk assessment methods in order to assist stakeholders in disaster management strategies and policy making. Quantitative Risk Assessment (QRA) using probabilistic methods can further calculate damage and losses to multi-hazards and determine the uncertainties related to all the probabilistic components of the hazard and the vulnerability of the elements at risk. Therefore, in order to develop an effective platform that can quantitatively calculate the risk of mass-movements and floods in several European test sites, an extensive inventory and analysis has been carried out of the available tools and software related to the probabilistic risk assessment of single and multi-hazards. The tools have been reviewed based on whether they are open source and freely available, their required input data, the availability and type of hazard and vulnerability modules, transparency of methods used, their validation and calibration techniques, the inclusion of uncertainties and their state of the art. The analysis also specially focused on the applicability of the tools to European study areas. The findings showed that assumptions and simplifications are made when assessing and quantifying the hazards. The interaction between multiple hazards, like cascading effects are not assessed in most tools and some consider the hazard and vulnerability as qualitative components, rather than quantitative ones. This analysis of hazard and risk assessment tools and software will give future developers and experts a better overview of

RFID-based Electronic Identity Security Cloud Platform in Cyberspace

OpenAIRE

Bing Chen; Chengxiang Tan; Bo Jin; Xiang Zou; Yuebo Dai

2012-01-01

With the moving development of networks, especially Internet of Things, electronic identity administration in cyberspace is becoming more and more important. And personal identity management in cyberspace associated with individuals in reality has been one significant and urgent task for the further development of information construction in China. So this paper presents a RFID-based electronic identity security cloud platform in cyberspace to implement an efficient security management of cyb...

Humidifying system design of PEMFC test platform based on the mixture of dry and wet air

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tiancai Ma

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Based on the present humidifying system of PEMFC test platform, a novel design based on dry and wet air mixture is proposed. Key parameters are calculated, and test platform is built. Three experiments are implemented to test the performance of proposed design. Results show that the new design can meet the requirements, and realize the quick response and accurate control.

Adaptive Backstepping Controller Design for Leveling Control of an Underwater Platform Based on Joint Space

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhi-Lin Zeng

2014-01-01

Full Text Available This paper focuses on high precision leveling control of an underwater heavy load platform, which is viewed as an underwater parallel robot on the basis of its work pattern. The kinematic of platform with deformation is analyzed and the dynamics model of joint space is established. An adaptive backstepping controller according to Lyapunov's function is proposed for leveling control of platform based on joint space. Furthermore, the “lowest point fixed angle error” leveling scheme called “chase” is chosen for leveling control of platform. The digital simulation and practical experiment of single joint space actuator are carried out, and the results show high precision servo control of joint space. On the basis of this, the platform leveling control simulation relies on the hardware-in-loop system. The results indicate that the proposed controller can effectively restrain the influence from system parameter uncertainties and external disturbance to realize high precision leveling control of the underwater platform.

EURESCOM Services Platform

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nieuwenhuis, Lambertus Johannes Maria; van Halteren, Aart

1999-01-01

This paper presents the results of the EURESCOM Project 715. In February 1999, a large team of researchers from six European public network operators completed a two year period of cooperative experiments on a TINA-based environment, called the EURESCOM Services Platform (ESP). This platform

Experiment Based Teaching of Solar Cell Operation and Characterization Using the SolarLab Platform

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Spataru, Sergiu; Sera, Dezso; Kerekes, Tamas

2014-01-01

interfaces for exploring different solar cell principles and topics. The exercises presented in the current paper have been adapted from the original exercises developed for the SolarLab platform and are currently included in the Photovoltaic Power Systems courses (MSc and PhD level) taught at the Department...... which is a laboratory teaching tool developed at Transylvania University of Brasov. Using this platform, solar cells can be characterized under various illumination, temperature and angle of light incidence. Additionally, the SolarLab platform includes guided exercises and intuitive graphical user......Experiment based teaching methods are a great way to get students involved and interested in almost any topic. This paper presents such a hands-on approach for teaching solar cell operation principles along with characterization and modelling methods. This is achieved with the SolarLab platform...

Portable smartphone based quantitative phase microscope

Science.gov (United States)

Meng, Xin; Tian, Xiaolin; Yu, Wei; Kong, Yan; Jiang, Zhilong; Liu, Fei; Xue, Liang; Liu, Cheng; Wang, Shouyu

2018-01-01

To realize portable device with high contrast imaging capability, we designed a quantitative phase microscope using transport of intensity equation method based on a smartphone. The whole system employs an objective and an eyepiece as imaging system and a cost-effective LED as illumination source. A 3-D printed cradle is used to align these components. Images of different focal planes are captured by manual focusing, followed by calculation of sample phase via a self-developed Android application. To validate its accuracy, we first tested the device by measuring a random phase plate with known phases, and then red blood cell smear, Pap smear, broad bean epidermis sections and monocot root were also measured to show its performance. Owing to its advantages as accuracy, high-contrast, cost-effective and portability, the portable smartphone based quantitative phase microscope is a promising tool which can be future adopted in remote healthcare and medical diagnosis.

Design of batch audio/video conversion platform based on JavaEE

Science.gov (United States)

Cui, Yansong; Jiang, Lianpin

2018-03-01

With the rapid development of digital publishing industry, the direction of audio / video publishing shows the diversity of coding standards for audio and video files, massive data and other significant features. Faced with massive and diverse data, how to quickly and efficiently convert to a unified code format has brought great difficulties to the digital publishing organization. In view of this demand and present situation in this paper, basing on the development architecture of Sptring+SpringMVC+Mybatis, and combined with the open source FFMPEG format conversion tool, a distributed online audio and video format conversion platform with a B/S structure is proposed. Based on the Java language, the key technologies and strategies designed in the design of platform architecture are analyzed emphatically in this paper, designing and developing a efficient audio and video format conversion system, which is composed of “Front display system”, "core scheduling server " and " conversion server ". The test results show that, compared with the ordinary audio and video conversion scheme, the use of batch audio and video format conversion platform can effectively improve the conversion efficiency of audio and video files, and reduce the complexity of the work. Practice has proved that the key technology discussed in this paper can be applied in the field of large batch file processing, and has certain practical application value.

Platforms.

Science.gov (United States)

Josko, Deborah

2014-01-01

The advent of DNA sequencing technologies and the various applications that can be performed will have a dramatic effect on medicine and healthcare in the near future. There are several DNA sequencing platforms available on the market for research and clinical use. Based on the medical laboratory scientist or researcher's needs and taking into consideration laboratory space and budget, one can chose which platform will be beneficial to their institution and their patient population. Although some of the instrument costs seem high, diagnosing a patient quickly and accurately will save hospitals money with fewer hospital stays and targeted treatment based on an individual's genetic make-up. By determining the type of disease an individual has, based on the mutations present or having the ability to prescribe the appropriate antimicrobials based on the knowledge of the organism's resistance patterns, the clinician will be better able to treat and diagnose a patient which ultimately will improve patient outcomes and prognosis.

Technoeconomic analysis of biofuels: A wiki-based platform for lignocellulosic biorefineries

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Klein-Marcuschamer, Daniel; Oleskowicz-Popiel, Piotr; Simmons, Blake A.

2010-01-01

We present a process model for a lignocellulosic ethanol biorefinery that is open to the biofuels academic community. Beyond providing a series of static results, the wiki-based platform provides a dynamic and transparent tool for analyzing, exploring, and communicating the impact of process adva...

Advances in fragment-based drug discovery platforms.

Science.gov (United States)

Orita, Masaya; Warizaya, Masaichi; Amano, Yasushi; Ohno, Kazuki; Niimi, Tatsuya

2009-11-01

Fragment-based drug discovery (FBDD) has been established as a powerful alternative and complement to traditional high-throughput screening techniques for identifying drug leads. At present, this technique is widely used among academic groups as well as small biotech and large pharmaceutical companies. In recent years, > 10 new compounds developed with FBDD have entered clinical development, and more and more attention in the drug discovery field is being focused on this technique. Under the FBDD approach, a fragment library of relatively small compounds (molecular mass = 100 - 300 Da) is screened by various methods and the identified fragment hits which normally weakly bind to the target are used as starting points to generate more potent drug leads. Because FBDD is still a relatively new drug discovery technology, further developments and optimizations in screening platforms and fragment exploitation can be expected. This review summarizes recent advances in FBDD platforms and discusses the factors important for the successful application of this technique. Under the FBDD approach, both identifying the starting fragment hit to be developed and generating the drug lead from that starting fragment hit are important. Integration of various techniques, such as computational technology, X-ray crystallography, NMR, surface plasmon resonance, isothermal titration calorimetry, mass spectrometry and high-concentration screening, must be applied in a situation-appropriate manner.

Flexible Sensory Platform Based on Oxide-based Neuromorphic Transistors.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Ning; Zhu, Li Qiang; Feng, Ping; Wan, Chang Jin; Liu, Yang Hui; Shi, Yi; Wan, Qing

2015-12-11

Inspired by the dendritic integration and spiking operation of a biological neuron, flexible oxide-based neuromorphic transistors with multiple input gates are fabricated on flexible plastic substrates for pH sensor applications. When such device is operated in a quasi-static dual-gate synergic sensing mode, it shows a high pH sensitivity of ~105 mV/pH. Our results also demonstrate that single-spike dynamic mode can remarkably improve pH sensitivity and reduce response/recover time and power consumption. Moreover, we find that an appropriate negative bias applied on the sensing gate electrode can further enhance the pH sensitivity and reduce the power consumption. Our flexible neuromorphic transistors provide a new-concept sensory platform for biochemical detection with high sensitivity, rapid response and ultralow power consumption.

Flexible Sensory Platform Based on Oxide-based Neuromorphic Transistors

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Ning; Zhu, Li Qiang; Feng, Ping; Wan, Chang Jin; Liu, Yang Hui; Shi, Yi; Wan, Qing

2015-01-01

Inspired by the dendritic integration and spiking operation of a biological neuron, flexible oxide-based neuromorphic transistors with multiple input gates are fabricated on flexible plastic substrates for pH sensor applications. When such device is operated in a quasi-static dual-gate synergic sensing mode, it shows a high pH sensitivity of ~105 mV/pH. Our results also demonstrate that single-spike dynamic mode can remarkably improve pH sensitivity and reduce response/recover time and power consumption. Moreover, we find that an appropriate negative bias applied on the sensing gate electrode can further enhance the pH sensitivity and reduce the power consumption. Our flexible neuromorphic transistors provide a new-concept sensory platform for biochemical detection with high sensitivity, rapid response and ultralow power consumption. PMID:26656113

Magnetoresistive biosensors for quantitative proteomics

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Xiahan; Huang, Chih-Cheng; Hall, Drew A.

2017-08-01

Quantitative proteomics, as a developing method for study of proteins and identification of diseases, reveals more comprehensive and accurate information of an organism than traditional genomics. A variety of platforms, such as mass spectrometry, optical sensors, electrochemical sensors, magnetic sensors, etc., have been developed for detecting proteins quantitatively. The sandwich immunoassay is widely used as a labeled detection method due to its high specificity and flexibility allowing multiple different types of labels. While optical sensors use enzyme and fluorophore labels to detect proteins with high sensitivity, they often suffer from high background signal and challenges in miniaturization. Magnetic biosensors, including nuclear magnetic resonance sensors, oscillator-based sensors, Hall-effect sensors, and magnetoresistive sensors, use the specific binding events between magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) and target proteins to measure the analyte concentration. Compared with other biosensing techniques, magnetic sensors take advantage of the intrinsic lack of magnetic signatures in biological samples to achieve high sensitivity and high specificity, and are compatible with semiconductor-based fabrication process to have low-cost and small-size for point-of-care (POC) applications. Although still in the development stage, magnetic biosensing is a promising technique for in-home testing and portable disease monitoring.

Utilizing platforms in industrialized construction

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bonev, Martin; Wörösch, Michael; Hvam, Lars

2015-01-01

platform strategies, this researchhighlights key aspects of adapting platform-based developed theory to industrialised construction.Building projects use different layers of product, process and logistics platforms to form the right cost– value ratio for the target market application, while modelling...

Essential Means for Urban Computing: Specification of Web-Based Computing Platforms for Urban Planning, a Hitchhiker’s Guide

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pirouz Nourian

2018-03-01

Full Text Available This article provides an overview of the specifications of web-based computing platforms for urban data analytics and computational urban planning practice. There are currently a variety of tools and platforms that can be used in urban computing practices, including scientific computing languages, interactive web languages, data sharing platforms and still many desktop computing environments, e.g., GIS software applications. We have reviewed a list of technologies considering their potential and applicability in urban planning and urban data analytics. This review is not only based on the technical factors such as capabilities of the programming languages but also the ease of developing and sharing complex data processing workflows. The arena of web-based computing platforms is currently under rapid development and is too volatile to be predictable; therefore, in this article we focus on the specification of the requirements and potentials from an urban planning point of view rather than speculating about the fate of computing platforms or programming languages. The article presents a list of promising computing technologies, a technical specification of the essential data models and operators for geo-spatial data processing, and mathematical models for an ideal urban computing platform.

Development of a Univariate Membrane-Based Mid-Infrared Method for Protein Quantitation and Total Lipid Content Analysis of Biological Samples

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ivona Strug

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Biological samples present a range of complexities from homogeneous purified protein to multicomponent mixtures. Accurate qualification of such samples is paramount to downstream applications. We describe the development of an MIR spectroscopy-based analytical method offering simultaneous protein quantitation (0.25–5 mg/mL and analysis of total lipid or detergent species, as well as the identification of other biomolecules present in biological samples. The method utilizes a hydrophilic PTFE membrane engineered for presentation of aqueous samples in a dried format compatible with fast infrared analysis. Unlike classical quantification techniques, the reported method is amino acid sequence independent and thus applicable to complex samples of unknown composition. By comparison to existing platforms, this MIR-based method enables direct quantification using minimal sample volume (2 µL; it is well-suited where repeat access and limited sample size are critical parameters. Further, accurate results can be derived without specialized training or knowledge of IR spectroscopy. Overall, the simplified application and analysis system provides a more cost-effective alternative to high-throughput IR systems for research laboratories with minimal throughput demands. In summary, the MIR-based system provides a viable alternative to current protein quantitation methods; it also uniquely offers simultaneous qualification of other components, notably lipids and detergents.

THE PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF A UAV BASED MOBILE MAPPING SYSTEM PLATFORM

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. L. Tsai

2013-08-01

Full Text Available To facilitate applications such as environment detection or disaster monitoring, the development of rapid low cost systems for collecting near real-time spatial information is very critical. Rapid spatial information collection has become an emerging trend for remote sensing and mapping applications. This study develops a Direct Georeferencing (DG based fixed-wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV photogrammetric platform where an Inertial Navigation System (INS/Global Positioning System (GPS integrated Positioning and Orientation System (POS system is implemented to provide the DG capability of the platform. The performance verification indicates that the proposed platform can capture aerial images successfully. A flight test is performed to verify the positioning accuracy in DG mode without using Ground Control Points (GCP. The preliminary results illustrate that horizontal DG positioning accuracies in the x and y axes are around 5 m with 300 m flight height. The positioning accuracy in the z axis is less than 10 m. Such accuracy is good for near real-time disaster relief. The DG ready function of proposed platform guarantees mapping and positioning capability even in GCP free environments, which is very important for rapid urgent response for disaster relief. Generally speaking, the data processing time for the DG module, including POS solution generalization, interpolation, Exterior Orientation Parameters (EOP generation, and feature point measurements, is less than one hour.

The Performance Analysis of a Uav Based Mobile Mapping System Platform

Science.gov (United States)

Tsai, M. L.; Chiang, K. W.; Lo, C. F.; Ch, C. H.

2013-08-01

To facilitate applications such as environment detection or disaster monitoring, the development of rapid low cost systems for collecting near real-time spatial information is very critical. Rapid spatial information collection has become an emerging trend for remote sensing and mapping applications. This study develops a Direct Georeferencing (DG) based fixed-wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) photogrammetric platform where an Inertial Navigation System (INS)/Global Positioning System (GPS) integrated Positioning and Orientation System (POS) system is implemented to provide the DG capability of the platform. The performance verification indicates that the proposed platform can capture aerial images successfully. A flight test is performed to verify the positioning accuracy in DG mode without using Ground Control Points (GCP). The preliminary results illustrate that horizontal DG positioning accuracies in the x and y axes are around 5 m with 300 m flight height. The positioning accuracy in the z axis is less than 10 m. Such accuracy is good for near real-time disaster relief. The DG ready function of proposed platform guarantees mapping and positioning capability even in GCP free environments, which is very important for rapid urgent response for disaster relief. Generally speaking, the data processing time for the DG module, including POS solution generalization, interpolation, Exterior Orientation Parameters (EOP) generation, and feature point measurements, is less than one hour.

CLOUD BASED WEB 3D GIS TAIWAN PLATFORM

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

W.-F. Tsai

2012-09-01

Full Text Available This article presents the status of the web 3D GIS platform, which has been developed in the National Applied Research Laboratories. The purpose is to develop a global earth observation 3D GIS platform for applications to disaster monitoring and assessment in Taiwan. For quick response to preliminary and detailed assessment after a natural disaster occurs, the web 3D GIS platform is useful to access, transfer, integrate, display and analyze the multi-scale huge data following the international OGC standard. The framework of cloud service for data warehousing management and efficiency enhancement using VMWare is illustrated in this article.

Versatile electrophoresis-based self-test platform.

Science.gov (United States)

Guijt, Rosanne M

2015-03-01

Lab on a Chip technology offers the possibility to extract chemical information from a complex sample in a simple, automated way without the need for a laboratory setting. In the health care sector, this chemical information could be used as a diagnostic tool for example to inform dosing. In this issue, the research underpinning a family of electrophoresis-based point-of-care devices for self-testing of ionic analytes in various sample matrices is described [Electrophoresis 2015, 36, 712-721.]. Hardware, software, and methodological chances made to improve the overall analytical performance in terms of accuracy, precision, detection limit, and reliability are discussed. In addition to the main focus of lithium monitoring, new applications including the use of the platform for veterinary purposes, sodium, and for creatinine measurements are included. © 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Implementing EW Receivers Based on Large Point Reconfigured FFT on FPGA Platforms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

He Chen

2011-12-01

Full Text Available This paper presents design and implementation of digital receiver based on large point fast Fourier transform (FFT suitable for electronic warfare (EW applications. When implementing the FFT algorithm on field-programmable gate array (FPGA platforms, the primary goal is to maximize throughput and minimize area. This algorithm adopts two-dimension, parallel and pipeline stream mode and implements the reconfiguration of FFT's points. Moreover, a double-sequence-separation FFT algorithm has been implemented in order to achieve faster real time processing in broadband digital receivers. The performance of the hardware implementation on the FPGA platforms of broadband digital receivers has been analyzed in depth. It reaches the requirement of high-speed digital signal processing, and reveals the designing this kind of digital signal processing systems on FPGA platforms. Keywords: digital receivers, field programmable gate array (FPGA, fast Fourier transform (FFT, large point reconfigured, signal processing system.

Peer-to-Peer Service Sharing Platforms

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersson, Magnus; Hjalmarsson, Anders; Avital, Michel

2013-01-01

The sharing economy has been growing continuously in the last decade thanks to the proliferation of internet-based platforms that allow people to disintermediate the traditional commercial channels and to share excess resources and trade with one another effectively at a reasonably low transaction...... cost. Whereas early peer-to-peer platforms were designed to enable file sharing and goods trading, we recently witness the emergence of a new breed of peer-to-peer platforms that are designed for ordinary service sharing. Ordinary services entail intangible provisions and are defined as an economic...... activity that generates immaterial benefits and does not result in ownership of material goods. Based on a structured analysis of 41 internet-based rideshare platforms, we explore and layout the unique characteristics of peer-to-peer service sharing platforms based on three distinct temporal patterns...

UNiquant, a Program for Quantitative Proteomics Analysis Using Stable Isotope Labeling

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Huang, Xin; Tolmachev, Aleksey V.; Shen, Yulei; Liu, Miao; Huang, Lin; Zhang, Zhixin; Anderson, Gordon A.; Smith, Richard D.; Chan, Wing C.; Hinrichs, Steven; Fu, Kai; Ding, Shi-Jian

2011-03-04

We present UNiquant, a new software program for analyzing stable isotope labeling (SIL) based quantitative proteomics data. UNiquant surpassed the performance of two other platforms, MaxQuant and Mascot Distiller, using complex proteome mixtures having either known or unknown heavy/light ratios. UNiquant is compatible with a broad spectrum of search engines and SIL methods, providing outstanding peptide pair identification and accurate measurement of the relative peptide/protein abundance.

Climate News Across Media Platforms

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Eskjær, Mikkel Fugl

2015-01-01

In a changing media landscape marked by technological, institutional and cultural convergence, comparative and cross-media content analysis represents a valuable analytical tool in mapping the diverse channels of climate change communication. This paper presents a comparative study of climate...... quantitative and qualitative content analysis the paper documents and explores the extent and character of climate change news across different media platforms. The study aims at contributing to the on-going assessment of how news media are addressing climate change at a time when old and new media...... change news on five different media platforms: newspapers, television, radio, web-news and mobile news. It investigates the themes and actors represented in public climate change communication as well as the diverse possibilities of participating in public debates and information sharing. By combining...

A CLOUD-BASED PLATFORM SUPPORTING GEOSPATIAL COLLABORATION FOR GIS EDUCATION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

X. Cheng

2015-05-01

Full Text Available GIS-related education needs support of geo-data and geospatial software. Although there are large amount of geographic information resources distributed on the web, the discovery, process and integration of these resources are still unsolved. Researchers and teachers always searched geo-data by common search engines but results were not satisfied. They also spent much money and energy on purchase and maintenance of various kinds of geospatial software. Aimed at these problems, a cloud-based geospatial collaboration platform called GeoSquare was designed and implemented. The platform serves as a geoportal encouraging geospatial data, information, and knowledge sharing through highly interactive and expressive graphic interfaces. Researchers and teachers can solve their problems effectively in this one-stop solution. Functions, specific design and implementation details are presented in this paper. Site of GeoSquare is: http://geosquare.tianditu.com/

a Cloud-Based Platform Supporting Geospatial Collaboration for GIS Education

Science.gov (United States)

Cheng, X.; Gui, Z.; Hu, K.; Gao, S.; Shen, P.; Wu, H.

2015-05-01

GIS-related education needs support of geo-data and geospatial software. Although there are large amount of geographic information resources distributed on the web, the discovery, process and integration of these resources are still unsolved. Researchers and teachers always searched geo-data by common search engines but results were not satisfied. They also spent much money and energy on purchase and maintenance of various kinds of geospatial software. Aimed at these problems, a cloud-based geospatial collaboration platform called GeoSquare was designed and implemented. The platform serves as a geoportal encouraging geospatial data, information, and knowledge sharing through highly interactive and expressive graphic interfaces. Researchers and teachers can solve their problems effectively in this one-stop solution. Functions, specific design and implementation details are presented in this paper. Site of GeoSquare is: http://geosquare.tianditu.com/

SU-D-BRD-02: A Web-Based Image Processing and Plan Evaluation Platform (WIPPEP) for Future Cloud-Based Radiotherapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chai, X; Liu, L; Xing, L

2014-01-01

Purpose: Visualization and processing of medical images and radiation treatment plan evaluation have traditionally been constrained to local workstations with limited computation power and ability of data sharing and software update. We present a web-based image processing and planning evaluation platform (WIPPEP) for radiotherapy applications with high efficiency, ubiquitous web access, and real-time data sharing. Methods: This software platform consists of three parts: web server, image server and computation server. Each independent server communicates with each other through HTTP requests. The web server is the key component that provides visualizations and user interface through front-end web browsers and relay information to the backend to process user requests. The image server serves as a PACS system. The computation server performs the actual image processing and dose calculation. The web server backend is developed using Java Servlets and the frontend is developed using HTML5, Javascript, and jQuery. The image server is based on open source DCME4CHEE PACS system. The computation server can be written in any programming language as long as it can send/receive HTTP requests. Our computation server was implemented in Delphi, Python and PHP, which can process data directly or via a C++ program DLL. Results: This software platform is running on a 32-core CPU server virtually hosting the web server, image server, and computation servers separately. Users can visit our internal website with Chrome browser, select a specific patient, visualize image and RT structures belonging to this patient and perform image segmentation running Delphi computation server and Monte Carlo dose calculation on Python or PHP computation server. Conclusion: We have developed a webbased image processing and plan evaluation platform prototype for radiotherapy. This system has clearly demonstrated the feasibility of performing image processing and plan evaluation platform through a web

SU-D-BRD-02: A Web-Based Image Processing and Plan Evaluation Platform (WIPPEP) for Future Cloud-Based Radiotherapy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chai, X; Liu, L; Xing, L [Stanford UniversitySchool of Medicine, Stanford, CA (United States)

2014-06-01

Purpose: Visualization and processing of medical images and radiation treatment plan evaluation have traditionally been constrained to local workstations with limited computation power and ability of data sharing and software update. We present a web-based image processing and planning evaluation platform (WIPPEP) for radiotherapy applications with high efficiency, ubiquitous web access, and real-time data sharing. Methods: This software platform consists of three parts: web server, image server and computation server. Each independent server communicates with each other through HTTP requests. The web server is the key component that provides visualizations and user interface through front-end web browsers and relay information to the backend to process user requests. The image server serves as a PACS system. The computation server performs the actual image processing and dose calculation. The web server backend is developed using Java Servlets and the frontend is developed using HTML5, Javascript, and jQuery. The image server is based on open source DCME4CHEE PACS system. The computation server can be written in any programming language as long as it can send/receive HTTP requests. Our computation server was implemented in Delphi, Python and PHP, which can process data directly or via a C++ program DLL. Results: This software platform is running on a 32-core CPU server virtually hosting the web server, image server, and computation servers separately. Users can visit our internal website with Chrome browser, select a specific patient, visualize image and RT structures belonging to this patient and perform image segmentation running Delphi computation server and Monte Carlo dose calculation on Python or PHP computation server. Conclusion: We have developed a webbased image processing and plan evaluation platform prototype for radiotherapy. This system has clearly demonstrated the feasibility of performing image processing and plan evaluation platform through a web

Blu-Ray-based micromechanical characterization platform for biopolymer degradation assessment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Casci Ceccacci, Andrea; Chen, Ching-Hsiu; Hwu, En-Te

2017-01-01

Degradable biopolymers are used as carrier materials in drug delivery devices. A complete understanding of their degradation behaviour is thus crucial in the design of new delivery systems. Here we combine a reliable method, based on spray coated micromechanical resonators and a disposable...... microfluidic chip, to characterize biopolymer degradation under the action of enzymes in controlled flow condition. The sensing platform is based on the mechanics and optics from a Blu-Ray player, which automatically localize individual sensors within the array, and sequentially measure and record...

MSQuant, an Open Source Platform for Mass Spectrometry-Based Quantitative Proteomics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mortensen, Peter; Gouw, Joost W; Olsen, Jesper V

2010-01-01

Mass spectrometry-based proteomics critically depends on algorithms for data interpretation. A current bottleneck in the rapid advance of proteomics technology is the closed nature and slow development cycle of vendor-supplied software solutions. We have created an open source software environment...

Product Platform Modeling

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pedersen, Rasmus

for customisation of products. In many companies these changes in the business environment have created a controversy between the need for a wide variety of products offered to the marketplace and a desire to reduce variation within the company in order to increase efficiency. Many companies use the concept...... other. These groups can be varied and combined to form different product variants without increasing the internal variety in the company. Based on the Theory of Domains, the concept of encapsulation in the organ domain is introduced, and organs are formulated as platform elements. Included......This PhD thesis has the title Product Platform Modelling. The thesis is about product platforms and visual product platform modelling. Product platforms have gained an increasing attention in industry and academia in the past decade. The reasons are many, yet the increasing globalisation...

Design and implementation of a general and automatic test platform base on NI PXI system

Science.gov (United States)

Shi, Long

2018-05-01

Aiming at some difficulties of test equipment such as the short product life, poor generality and high development cost, a general and automatic test platform base on NI PXI system is designed in this paper, which is able to meet most test requirements of circuit boards. The test platform is devided into 5 layers, every layer is introduced in detail except for the "Equipment Under Test" layer. An output board of a track-side equipment, which is an important part of high speed train control system, is taken as an example to make the functional circuit test by the test platform. The results show that the test platform is easy to realize add-on functions development, automatic test, wide compatibility and strong generality.

Study on Photon Transport Problem Based on the Platform of Molecular Optical Simulation Environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kuan Peng

2010-01-01

Full Text Available As an important molecular imaging modality, optical imaging has attracted increasing attention in the recent years. Since the physical experiment is usually complicated and expensive, research methods based on simulation platforms have obtained extensive attention. We developed a simulation platform named Molecular Optical Simulation Environment (MOSE to simulate photon transport in both biological tissues and free space for optical imaging based on noncontact measurement. In this platform, Monte Carlo (MC method and the hybrid radiosity-radiance theorem are used to simulate photon transport in biological tissues and free space, respectively, so both contact and noncontact measurement modes of optical imaging can be simulated properly. In addition, a parallelization strategy for MC method is employed to improve the computational efficiency. In this paper, we study the photon transport problems in both biological tissues and free space using MOSE. The results are compared with Tracepro, simplified spherical harmonics method (SPn, and physical measurement to verify the performance of our study method on both accuracy and efficiency.

Study on photon transport problem based on the platform of molecular optical simulation environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Peng, Kuan; Gao, Xinbo; Liang, Jimin; Qu, Xiaochao; Ren, Nunu; Chen, Xueli; Ma, Bin; Tian, Jie

2010-01-01

As an important molecular imaging modality, optical imaging has attracted increasing attention in the recent years. Since the physical experiment is usually complicated and expensive, research methods based on simulation platforms have obtained extensive attention. We developed a simulation platform named Molecular Optical Simulation Environment (MOSE) to simulate photon transport in both biological tissues and free space for optical imaging based on noncontact measurement. In this platform, Monte Carlo (MC) method and the hybrid radiosity-radiance theorem are used to simulate photon transport in biological tissues and free space, respectively, so both contact and noncontact measurement modes of optical imaging can be simulated properly. In addition, a parallelization strategy for MC method is employed to improve the computational efficiency. In this paper, we study the photon transport problems in both biological tissues and free space using MOSE. The results are compared with Tracepro, simplified spherical harmonics method (SP(n)), and physical measurement to verify the performance of our study method on both accuracy and efficiency.

Active vibration isolation platform on base of magnetorheological elastomers

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mikhailov, Valery P., E-mail: mikhailov@bmstu.ru; Bazinenkov, Alexey M.

2017-06-01

The article describes the active vibration isolation platform on base of magnetorheological (MR) elastomers. An active damper based on the MR elastomers can be used as an actuator of micro- or nanopositioning for a vibroinsulated object. The MR elastomers give such advantages for active control of vibration as large range of displacements (up to 1 mm), more efficient absorption of the vibration energy, possibility of active control of amplitude-frequency characteristics and positioning with millisecond response speed and nanometer running accuracy. The article presents the results of experimental studies of the most important active damper parameters. Those are starting current, transient time for stepping, transmission coefficient of the vibration displacement amplitude.

A Platform-Based Methodology for System-Level Mixed-Signal Design

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alberto Sangiovanni-Vincentelli

2010-01-01

Full Text Available The complexity of today's embedded electronic systems as well as their demanding performance and reliability requirements are such that their design can no longer be tackled with ad hoc techniques while still meeting tight time to-market constraints. In this paper, we present a system level design approach for electronic circuits, utilizing the platform-based design (PBD paradigm as the natural framework for mixed-domain design formalization. In PBD, a meet-in-the-middle approach allows systematic exploration of the design space through a series of top-down mapping of system constraints onto component feasibility models in a platform library, which is based on bottom-up characterizations. In this framework, new designs can be assembled from the precharacterized library components, giving the highest priority to design reuse, correct assembly, and efficient design flow from specifications to implementation. We apply concepts from design centering to enforce robustness to modeling errors as well as process, voltage, and temperature variations, which are currently plaguing embedded system design in deep-submicron technologies. The effectiveness of our methodology is finally shown on the design of a pipeline A/D converter and two receiver front-ends for UMTS and UWB communications.

Mobile Platforms and Development Environments

CERN Document Server

Helal, Sumi; Li, Wengdong

2012-01-01

Mobile platform development has lately become a technological war zone with extremely dynamic and fluid movement, especially in the smart phone and tablet market space. This Synthesis lecture is a guide to the latest developments of the key mobile platforms that are shaping the mobile platform industry. The book covers the three currently dominant native platforms -- iOS, Android and Windows Phone -- along with the device-agnostic HTML5 mobile web platform. The lecture also covers location-based services (LBS) which can be considered as a platform in its own right. The lecture utilizes a sampl

Nanodroplet processing platform for deep and quantitative proteome profiling of 10-100 mammalian cells.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhu, Ying; Piehowski, Paul D; Zhao, Rui; Chen, Jing; Shen, Yufeng; Moore, Ronald J; Shukla, Anil K; Petyuk, Vladislav A; Campbell-Thompson, Martha; Mathews, Clayton E; Smith, Richard D; Qian, Wei-Jun; Kelly, Ryan T

2018-02-28

Nanoscale or single-cell technologies are critical for biomedical applications. However, current mass spectrometry (MS)-based proteomic approaches require samples comprising a minimum of thousands of cells to provide in-depth profiling. Here, we report the development of a nanoPOTS (nanodroplet processing in one pot for trace samples) platform for small cell population proteomics analysis. NanoPOTS enhances the efficiency and recovery of sample processing by downscaling processing volumes to 3000 proteins are consistently identified from as few as 10 cells. Furthermore, we demonstrate quantification of ~2400 proteins from single human pancreatic islet thin sections from type 1 diabetic and control donors, illustrating the application of nanoPOTS for spatially resolved proteome measurements from clinical tissues.

OLED-based biosensing platform with ZnO nanoparticles for enzyme immobilization

Science.gov (United States)

Cai, Yuankun; Shinar, Ruth; Shinar, Joseph

2009-08-01

Organic light-emitting diode (OLED)-based sensing platforms are attractive for photoluminescence (PL)-based monitoring of a variety of analytes. Among the promising OLED attributes for sensing applications is the thin and flexible size and design of the OLED pixel array that is used for PL excitation. To generate a compact, fielddeployable sensor, other major sensor components, such as the sensing probe and the photodetector, in addition to the thin excitation source, should be compact. To this end, the OLED-based sensing platform was tested with composite thin biosensing films, where oxidase enzymes were immobilized on ZnO nanoparticles, rather than dissolved in solution, to generate a more compact device. The analytes tested, glucose, cholesterol, and lactate, were monitored by following their oxidation reactions in the presence of oxygen and their respective oxidase enzymes. During such reactions, oxygen is consumed and its residual concentration, which is determined by the initial concentration of the above-mentioned analytes, is monitored. The sensors utilized the oxygen-sensitive dye Pt octaethylporphyrin, embedded in polystyrene. The enzymes were sandwiched between two thin ZnO layers, an approach that was found to improve the stability of the sensing probes.

Quantitative materials analysis of micro devices using absorption-based thickness measurements

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sim, L M; Wog, B S; Spowage, A C

2006-01-01

Preliminary work in designing an X-ray inspection machine with the capability of providing quantitative thickness analysis based on absorption measurements has been demonstrated. This study attempts to use the gray levels data to investigate the nature and thickness of occluded features and materials within devices. The investigation focused on metallic materials essential to semiconductor and MEMS technologies such as tin, aluminium, copper, silver, iron and zinc. The materials were arranged to simulate different feature thicknesses and sample geometries. The X-ray parameters were varied in-order to modify the X-ray energy spectrum with the aim of optimising the measurement conditions for each sample. The capability of the method to resolve differences in thicknesses was found to be highly dependent on the material. The thickness resolution with aluminium was the poorest due to its low radiographic density. The thickness resolutions achievable for silver and tin were significantly better and of the order of 0.015 mm and 0.025 mm respectively. From the linear relationship between the X-ray attenuation and sample thickness established, the energy dependent linear attenuation coefficient for each material was determined for a series of specific energy spectra. A decrease in the linear attenuation coefficient was observed as the applied voltage and thickness of the material increased. The results provide a platform for the development of a novel absorption-based thickness measurement system that can be optimised for a range of industrial applications

A self-calibrating led-based solar test platform

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Krebs, Frederik C; Sylvester-Hvid, Kristian O.; Jørgensen, Mikkel

2011-01-01

A compact platform for testing solar cells is presented. The light source comprises a multi-wavelength high-power LED (light emitting diode) array allowing the homogenous illumination of small laboratory solar cell devices (substrate size 50 × 25 mm) within the 390–940 nm wavelength range......, it is possible to perform all the commonly employed measurements on the solar cell at very high speed without moving the sample. In particular, the LED-based illumination system provides an alternative to light-biased incident photon-to-current efficiency measurement to be performed which we demonstrate. Both...

A novel multiplex bead-based platform highlights the diversity of extracellular vesicles.

Science.gov (United States)

Koliha, Nina; Wiencek, Yvonne; Heider, Ute; Jüngst, Christian; Kladt, Nikolay; Krauthäuser, Susanne; Johnston, Ian C D; Bosio, Andreas; Schauss, Astrid; Wild, Stefan

2016-01-01

The surface protein composition of extracellular vesicles (EVs) is related to the originating cell and may play a role in vesicle function. Knowledge of the protein content of individual EVs is still limited because of the technical challenges to analyse small vesicles. Here, we introduce a novel multiplex bead-based platform to investigate up to 39 different surface markers in one sample. The combination of capture antibody beads with fluorescently labelled detection antibodies allows the analysis of EVs that carry surface markers recognized by both antibodies. This new method enables an easy screening of surface markers on populations of EVs. By combining different capture and detection antibodies, additional information on relative expression levels and potential vesicle subpopulations is gained. We also established a protocol to visualize individual EVs by stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy. Thereby, markers on single EVs can be detected by fluorophore-conjugated antibodies. We used the multiplex platform and STED microscopy to show for the first time that NK cell-derived EVs and platelet-derived EVs are devoid of CD9 or CD81, respectively, and that EVs isolated from activated B cells comprise different EV subpopulations. We speculate that, according to our STED data, tetraspanins might not be homogenously distributed but may mostly appear as clusters on EV subpopulations. Finally, we demonstrate that EV mixtures can be separated by magnetic beads and analysed subsequently with the multiplex platform. Both the multiplex bead-based platform and STED microscopy revealed subpopulations of EVs that have been indistinguishable by most analysis tools used so far. We expect that an in-depth view on EV heterogeneity will contribute to our understanding of different EVs and functions.

RFID-Based Multidisciplinary Educational Platform to Improve the Engineering and Technology Curriculums

Science.gov (United States)

Yelamarthi, Kumar

2012-01-01

Multidisciplinary projects involving electrical engineering (EE), mechanical engineering (ME), and computer engineering (CE) students are both exciting and difficult to conceptualize. Answering this challenge, this paper presents a multidisciplinary educational platform on radio frequency identification-based assistive devices. The combination of…

Can subtle changes in gene expression be consistently detected with different microarray platforms?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kuiper Rowan

2008-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The comparability of gene expression data generated with different microarray platforms is still a matter of concern. Here we address the performance and the overlap in the detection of differentially expressed genes for five different microarray platforms in a challenging biological context where differences in gene expression are few and subtle. Results Gene expression profiles in the hippocampus of five wild-type and five transgenic δC-doublecortin-like kinase mice were evaluated with five microarray platforms: Applied Biosystems, Affymetrix, Agilent, Illumina, LGTC home-spotted arrays. Using a fixed false discovery rate of 10% we detected surprising differences between the number of differentially expressed genes per platform. Four genes were selected by ABI, 130 by Affymetrix, 3,051 by Agilent, 54 by Illumina, and 13 by LGTC. Two genes were found significantly differentially expressed by all platforms and the four genes identified by the ABI platform were found by at least three other platforms. Quantitative RT-PCR analysis confirmed 20 out of 28 of the genes detected by two or more platforms and 8 out of 15 of the genes detected by Agilent only. We observed improved correlations between platforms when ranking the genes based on the significance level than with a fixed statistical cut-off. We demonstrate significant overlap in the affected gene sets identified by the different platforms, although biological processes were represented by only partially overlapping sets of genes. Aberrances in GABA-ergic signalling in the transgenic mice were consistently found by all platforms. Conclusion The different microarray platforms give partially complementary views on biological processes affected. Our data indicate that when analyzing samples with only subtle differences in gene expression the use of two different platforms might be more attractive than increasing the number of replicates. Commercial two-color platforms seem to

A Web-Based Visualization and Animation Platform for Digital Logic Design

Science.gov (United States)

Shoufan, Abdulhadi; Lu, Zheng; Huss, Sorin A.

2015-01-01

This paper presents a web-based education platform for the visualization and animation of the digital logic design process. This includes the design of combinatorial circuits using logic gates, multiplexers, decoders, and look-up-tables as well as the design of finite state machines. Various configurations of finite state machines can be selected…

Development of a rule-based diagnostic platform on an object-oriented expert system shell

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang, Wenlin; Yang, Ming; Seong, Poong Hyun

2016-01-01

Highlights: • Multilevel Flow Model represents system knowledge as a domain map in expert system. • Rule-based fault diagnostic expert system can identify root cause via a causal chain. • Rule-based fault diagnostic expert system can be used for fault simulation training. - Abstract: This paper presents the development and implementation of a real-time rule-based diagnostic platform. The knowledge is acquired from domain experts and textbooks and the design of the fault diagnosis expert system was performed in the following ways: (i) establishing of corresponding classes and instances to build the domain map, (ii) creating of generic fault models based on events, and (iii) building of diagnostic reasoning based on rules. Knowledge representation is a complicated issue of expert systems. One highlight of this paper is that the Multilevel Flow Model has been used to represent the knowledge, which composes the domain map within the expert system as well as providing a concise description of the system. The developed platform is illustrated using the pressure safety system of a pressurized water reactor as an example of the simulation test bed; the platform is developed using the commercial and industrially validated software G2. The emulation test was conducted and it has been proven that the fault diagnosis expert system can identify the faults correctly and in a timely way; this system can be used as a simulation-based training tool to assist operators to make better decisions.

Development and application of knowledge-based subject group integration platforms:A case study of Shanghai Institute of Ceramics,CAS

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Yu; LIU; Jian; FU; Huijun; ZHENG; Hao; CHEN; Zhiping; YANG

2014-01-01

Purpose:According to the different requirements of research group users,we established the knowledge-based subject group integration platforms of Shanghai Institute of Ceramics,the Chinese Academy of Sciences(abbreviated as SIC CAS hereinafter),which were designed and constructed to better meet the needs of CAS research groups for their development,collaboration and communication.Design/methodology/approach:We first identified the requirements of users via preliminary investigation,and then chose CASI1 P,iLibrary and XKE technology,respectively as the building tools compatible with the major demands of users.These steps helped us complete the layout design of SIC CAS integration platforms,as well as its knowledge organization and integration.Findings:According to the need of users,we applied three types of platform construction technologies to five SIC integration platforms,and formulated standard norms for the further construction process,which could provide useful reference for a sustainable development for the extensive construction in CAS institutes.Research limitations:In order to make the SIC integration platforms more intelligent and have more functions,we need to enlarge the scale of the Platforms and upgrade the building tools for the platform construction.Practical implications:The nature of SIC sub-project integration platforms is to construct a content-sensitive environment which can embed knowledge services and knowledge applications seamlessly into scientific activities,so the Platform is expected to be a useful tool to help researchers better understand the recent development of the research field and form collaborations with their peers.Originality/value:SIC integration platforms are the only pilot construction that used 3different platform technologies in the first batch of knowledge-based subject group integration platforms of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.The construction is user-centered throughout the whole process,namely,from the technology

Evolvable Smartphone-Based Platforms for Point-Of-Care In-Vitro Diagnostics Applications

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Patou, François; Al Atraktchi, Fatima Al-Zahraa; Kjærgaard, Claus

2016-01-01

recently that system evolvability, defined as the design characteristic that facilitates more manageable transitions between system generations via the modification of an inherited design, can help remedy these limitations. In this paper, we discuss how platform-based design can constitute a formal entry...

All-polymer photonic sensing platform based on whispering-gallery mode microgoblet lasers

OpenAIRE

Wienhold, T.; Kraemmer, S.; Wondimu, S.F.; Siegle, T.; Bog, U.; Weinzierl, U.; Schmidt, S.; Becker, H.; Kalt, H.; Mappes, T.; Koeber, S.; Koos, C.

2015-01-01

We present an all-polymer photonic sensing platform based on whispering-gallery mode microgoblet lasers integrated into a microfluidic chip. The chip is entirely made from polymers, enabling the use of the devices as low-cost disposables. The microgoblet cavities feature quality factors exceeding 105 and are fabricated from poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) using spin-coating, mask-based optical lithography, wet chemical etching, and thermal reflow. In contrast to silica-based microtoroid reso...

Remote monitoring of radioactive sources based on i.MX27 platform

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li Defeng; Wang Renbo; Lin Gangyong; Ding Yufei

2012-01-01

It based on the ASIC solutions, has chosen Freescale's i.MX27 development system as a platform for designing video capture and transmission system. The article uses the latest H.264 video compression standard and complete the entire system of hardware and software design, which is successfully applied to remote monitoring of radioactive sources. (authors)

An Efficient Power Estimation Methodology for Complex RISC Processor-based Platforms

OpenAIRE

Rethinagiri , Santhosh Kumar; Ben Atitallah , Rabie; Dekeyser , Jean-Luc; Niar , Smail; Senn , Eric

2012-01-01

International audience; In this contribution, we propose an efficient power estima- tion methodology for complex RISC processor-based plat- forms. In this methodology, the Functional Level Power Analysis (FLPA) is used to set up generic power models for the different parts of the system. Then, a simulation framework based on virtual platform is developed to evalu- ate accurately the activities used in the related power mod- els. The combination of the two parts above leads to a het- erogeneou...

Quantitation without Calibration: Response Profile as an Indicator of Target Amount.

Science.gov (United States)

Debnath, Mrittika; Farace, Jessica M; Johnson, Kristopher D; Nesterova, Irina V

2018-06-21

Quantitative assessment of biomarkers is essential in numerous contexts from decision-making in clinical situations to food quality monitoring to interpretation of life-science research findings. However, appropriate quantitation techniques are not as widely addressed as detection methods. One of the major challenges in biomarker's quantitation is the need to have a calibration for correlating a measured signal to a target amount. The step complicates the methodologies and makes them less sustainable. In this work we address the issue via a new strategy: relying on position of response profile rather than on an absolute signal value for assessment of a target's amount. In order to enable the capability we develop a target-probe binding mechanism based on a negative cooperativity effect. A proof-of-concept example demonstrates that the model is suitable for quantitative analysis of nucleic acids over a wide concentration range. The general principles of the platform will be applicable toward a variety of biomarkers such as nucleic acids, proteins, peptides, and others.

Template-based education toolkit for mobile platforms

Science.gov (United States)

Golagani, Santosh Chandana; Esfahanian, Moosa; Akopian, David

2012-02-01

Nowadays mobile phones are the most widely used portable devices which evolve very fast adding new features and improving user experiences. The latest generation of hand-held devices called smartphones is equipped with superior memory, cameras and rich multimedia features, empowering people to use their mobile phones not only as a communication tool but also for entertainment purposes. With many young students showing interest in learning mobile application development one should introduce novel learning methods which may adapt to fast technology changes and introduce students to application development. Mobile phones become a common device, and engineering community incorporates phones in various solutions. Overcoming the limitations of conventional undergraduate electrical engineering (EE) education this paper explores the concept of template-based based education in mobile phone programming. The concept is based on developing small exercise templates which students can manipulate and revise for quick hands-on introduction to the application development and integration. Android platform is used as a popular open source environment for application development. The exercises relate to image processing topics typically studied by many students. The goal is to enable conventional course enhancements by incorporating in them short hands-on learning modules.

Evaluation of secure capability-based access control in the M2M local cloud platform

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Anggorojati, Bayu; Prasad, Neeli R.; Prasad, Ramjee

2016-01-01

delegation. Recently, the capability based access control has been considered as method to manage access in the Internet of Things (IoT) or M2M domain. In this paper, the implementation and evaluation of a proposed secure capability based access control in the M2M local cloud platform is presented......Managing access to and protecting resources is one of the important aspect in managing security, especially in a distributed computing system such as Machine-to-Machine (M2M). One such platform known as the M2M local cloud platform, referring to BETaaS architecture [1], which conceptually consists...... of multiple distributed M2M gateways, creating new challenges in the access control. Some existing access control systems lack in scalability and flexibility to manage access from users or entity that belong to different authorization domains, or fails to provide fine grained and flexible access right...

Fast and automated DNA assays on a compact disc (CD)-based microfluidic platform

Science.gov (United States)

Jia, Guangyao

Nucleic acid-based molecular diagnostics offers enormous potential for the rapid and accurate diagnosis of infectious diseases. However, most of the existing commercial tests are time-consuming and technically complicated, and are thus incompatible with the need for rapid identification of infectious agents. We have successfully developed a CD-based microfluidic platform for fast and automated DNA array hybridization and a low cost, disposable plastic microfluidic platform for polymerase chain reaction (PCR). These platforms have proved to be a promising approach to meet the requirements in terms of detection speed and operational convenience in diagnosis of infectious diseases. In the CD-based microfluidic platform for DNA hybridization, convection is introduced to the system to enhance mass transport so as to accelerate the hybridization rate since DNA hybridization is a diffusion limited reaction. Centrifugal force is utilized for sample propulsion and surface force is used for liquid gating. Standard microscope glass slides are used as the substrates for capture probes owing to their compatibility with commercially available instrumentation (e.g. laser scanners) for detection. Microfabricated polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) structures are used to accomplish the fluidic functions required by the protocols for DNA hybridization. The assembly of the PDMS structure and the glass slide forms a flow-through hybridization unit that can be accommodated onto the CD platform for reagent manipulation. The above scheme has been validated with oligonucleotides as the targets using commercially available enzyme-labeled fluorescence (ELF 97) for detection of the hybridization events, and tested with amplicons of genomic staphylococcus DNA labeled with Cy dye. In both experiments, significantly higher fluorescence intensities were observed in the flow-through hybridization unit compared to the passive assays. The CD fluidic scheme was also adapted to the immobilization of

Human cell-based micro electrode array platform for studying neurotoxicity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Laura eYlä-Outinen

2010-09-01

Full Text Available At present, most of the neurotoxicological analyses are based on in vitro and in vivo models utilizing animal cells or animal models. In addition, the used in vitro models are mostly based on molecular biological end-point analyses. Thus, for neurotoxicological screening, human cell-based analysis platforms in which the functional neuronal networks responses for various neurotoxicants can be also detected real-time are highly needed. Microelectrode array (MEA is a method which enables the measurement of functional activity of neuronal cell networks in vitro for long periods of time. Here, we utilize MEA to study the neurotoxicity of methyl mercury chloride (MeHgCl, concentrations 0.5-500 nM to human embryonic stem cell (hESC-derived neuronal cell networks exhibiting spontaneous electrical activity. The neuronal cell cultures were matured on MEAs into networks expressing spontaneous spike train-like activity before exposing the cells to MeHgCl for 72 hours. MEA measurements were performed acutely and 24, 48, and 72 hours after the onset of the exposure. Finally, exposed cells were analyzed with traditional molecular biological methods for cell proliferation, cell survival, and gene and protein expression. Our results show that 500 nM MeHgCl decreases the electrical signaling and alters the pharmacologic response of hESC-derived neuronal networks in delayed manner whereas effects can not be detected with qRT-PCR, immunostainings, or proliferation measurements. Thus, we conclude that human cell-based MEA-platform is a sensitive online method for neurotoxicological screening.

LBS Mobile Learning System Based on Android Platform

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhang Ya-Li

2017-01-01

Full Text Available In the era of mobile internet, PC-end internet services can no long satisfy people’s demands, needs for App and services on mobile phones are more urgent than ever. With increasing social competition, the concept of lifelong learning becomes more and more popular and accepted, making full use of spare time to learn at any time and any place meets updating knowledge desires of modern people, Location Based System (LBS mobile learning system based on Android platform was created under such background. In this Paper, characteristics of mobile location technology and intelligent terminal were introduced and analyzed, mobile learning system which will fulfill personalized needs of mobile learners was designed and developed on basis of location information, mobile learning can be greatly promoted and new research ideas can be expanded for mobile learning.

Hybrid causal methodology and software platform for probabilistic risk assessment and safety monitoring of socio-technical systems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Groth, Katrina, E-mail: kgroth@umd.ed [Center for Risk and Reliability, 0151 Glenn L. Martin Hall, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 (United States); Wang Chengdong; Mosleh, Ali [Center for Risk and Reliability, 0151 Glenn L. Martin Hall, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 (United States)

2010-12-15

This paper introduces an integrated framework and software platform for probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) and safety monitoring of complex socio-technical systems. An overview of the three-layer hybrid causal logic (HCL) modeling approach and corresponding algorithms, implemented in the Trilith software platform, are provided. The HCL approach enhances typical PRA methods by quantitatively including the influence of soft causal factors introduced by human and organizational aspects of a system. The framework allows different modeling techniques to be used for different aspects of the socio-technical system. The HCL approach combines the power of traditional event sequence diagram (ESD)event tree (ET) and fault tree (FT) techniques for modeling deterministic causal paths, with the flexibility of Bayesian belief networks for modeling non-deterministic cause-effect relationships among system elements (suitable for modeling human and organizational influences). Trilith enables analysts to construct HCL models and perform quantitative risk assessment and management of complex systems. The risk management capabilities included are HCL-based risk importance measures, hazard identification and ranking, precursor analysis, safety indicator monitoring, and root cause analysis. This paper describes the capabilities of the Trilith platform and power of the HCL algorithm by use of example risk models for a type of aviation accident (aircraft taking off from the wrong runway).

Hybrid causal methodology and software platform for probabilistic risk assessment and safety monitoring of socio-technical systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Groth, Katrina; Wang Chengdong; Mosleh, Ali

2010-01-01

This paper introduces an integrated framework and software platform for probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) and safety monitoring of complex socio-technical systems. An overview of the three-layer hybrid causal logic (HCL) modeling approach and corresponding algorithms, implemented in the Trilith software platform, are provided. The HCL approach enhances typical PRA methods by quantitatively including the influence of soft causal factors introduced by human and organizational aspects of a system. The framework allows different modeling techniques to be used for different aspects of the socio-technical system. The HCL approach combines the power of traditional event sequence diagram (ESD)event tree (ET) and fault tree (FT) techniques for modeling deterministic causal paths, with the flexibility of Bayesian belief networks for modeling non-deterministic cause-effect relationships among system elements (suitable for modeling human and organizational influences). Trilith enables analysts to construct HCL models and perform quantitative risk assessment and management of complex systems. The risk management capabilities included are HCL-based risk importance measures, hazard identification and ranking, precursor analysis, safety indicator monitoring, and root cause analysis. This paper describes the capabilities of the Trilith platform and power of the HCL algorithm by use of example risk models for a type of aviation accident (aircraft taking off from the wrong runway).

Facial Expression Recognition Based on TensorFlow Platform

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xia Xiao-Ling

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Facial expression recognition have a wide range of applications in human-machine interaction, pattern recognition, image understanding, machine vision and other fields. Recent years, it has gradually become a hot research. However, different people have different ways of expressing their emotions, and under the influence of brightness, background and other factors, there are some difficulties in facial expression recognition. In this paper, based on the Inception-v3 model of TensorFlow platform, we use the transfer learning techniques to retrain facial expression dataset (The Extended Cohn-Kanade dataset, which can keep the accuracy of recognition and greatly reduce the training time.

Study on Photon Transport Problem Based on the Platform of Molecular Optical Simulation Environment

Science.gov (United States)

Peng, Kuan; Gao, Xinbo; Liang, Jimin; Qu, Xiaochao; Ren, Nunu; Chen, Xueli; Ma, Bin; Tian, Jie

2010-01-01

As an important molecular imaging modality, optical imaging has attracted increasing attention in the recent years. Since the physical experiment is usually complicated and expensive, research methods based on simulation platforms have obtained extensive attention. We developed a simulation platform named Molecular Optical Simulation Environment (MOSE) to simulate photon transport in both biological tissues and free space for optical imaging based on noncontact measurement. In this platform, Monte Carlo (MC) method and the hybrid radiosity-radiance theorem are used to simulate photon transport in biological tissues and free space, respectively, so both contact and noncontact measurement modes of optical imaging can be simulated properly. In addition, a parallelization strategy for MC method is employed to improve the computational efficiency. In this paper, we study the photon transport problems in both biological tissues and free space using MOSE. The results are compared with Tracepro, simplified spherical harmonics method (S P n), and physical measurement to verify the performance of our study method on both accuracy and efficiency. PMID:20445737

Virtual Distances Methodology as Verification Technique for AACMMs with a Capacitive Sensor Based Indexed Metrology Platform.

Science.gov (United States)

Acero, Raquel; Santolaria, Jorge; Brau, Agustin; Pueo, Marcos

2016-11-18

This paper presents a new verification procedure for articulated arm coordinate measuring machines (AACMMs) together with a capacitive sensor-based indexed metrology platform (IMP) based on the generation of virtual reference distances. The novelty of this procedure lays on the possibility of creating virtual points, virtual gauges and virtual distances through the indexed metrology platform's mathematical model taking as a reference the measurements of a ball bar gauge located in a fixed position of the instrument's working volume. The measurements are carried out with the AACMM assembled on the IMP from the six rotating positions of the platform. In this way, an unlimited number and types of reference distances could be created without the need of using a physical gauge, therefore optimizing the testing time, the number of gauge positions and the space needed in the calibration and verification procedures. Four evaluation methods are presented to assess the volumetric performance of the AACMM. The results obtained proved the suitability of the virtual distances methodology as an alternative procedure for verification of AACMMs using the indexed metrology platform.

In-Space Internet-Based Communications for Space Science Platforms Using Commercial Satellite Networks

Science.gov (United States)

Kerczewski, Robert J.; Bhasin, Kul B.; Fabian, Theodore P.; Griner, James H.; Kachmar, Brian A.; Richard, Alan M.

1999-01-01

The continuing technological advances in satellite communications and global networking have resulted in commercial systems that now can potentially provide capabilities for communications with space-based science platforms. This reduces the need for expensive government owned communications infrastructures to support space science missions while simultaneously making available better service to the end users. An interactive, high data rate Internet type connection through commercial space communications networks would enable authorized researchers anywhere to control space-based experiments in near real time and obtain experimental results immediately. A space based communications network architecture consisting of satellite constellations connecting orbiting space science platforms to ground users can be developed to provide this service. The unresolved technical issues presented by this scenario are the subject of research at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. Assessment of network architectures, identification of required new or improved technologies, and investigation of data communications protocols are being performed through testbed and satellite experiments and laboratory simulations.

A Security Monitoring Method Based on Autonomic Computing for the Cloud Platform

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jingjie Zhang

2018-01-01

Full Text Available With the continuous development of cloud computing, cloud security has become one of the most important issues in cloud computing. For example, data stored in the cloud platform may be attacked, and its security is difficult to be guaranteed. Therefore, we must attach weight to the issue of how to protect the data stored in the cloud. To protect data, data monitoring is a necessary process. Based on autonomic computing, we develop a cloud data monitoring system on the cloud platform, monitoring whether the data is abnormal in the cycle and analyzing the security of the data according to the monitored results. In this paper, the feasibility of the scheme can be verified through simulation. The results show that the proposed method can adapt to the dynamic change of cloud platform load, and it can also accurately evaluate the degree of abnormal data. Meanwhile, by adjusting monitoring frequency automatically, it improves the accuracy and timeliness of monitoring. Furthermore, it can reduce the monitoring cost of the system in normal operation process.

Development of a new CBR-based platform for human contamination emergency situations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Farah, J.; Henriet, J.; Broggio, D.; Laurent, R.; Fontaine, E.; Chebel-Morello, B.; Sauget, M.; Salomon, M.; Makovicka, L.; Franck, D.

2011-01-01

In the case of a radiological emergency situation, involving accidental human exposure, it is necessary to establish as soon as possible a dosimetry evaluation. In most cases, this evaluation is based on numerical representations and models of the victims. Unfortunately, personalised and realistic human representations are often unavailable for the exposed subjects. Hence, existing models like the 'Reference Man' representative of the average male individual are used. However, the accuracy of the treatment depends on the similarity of the phantom to the victim. The EquiVox platform (Research of Equivalent Voxel phantom) developed in this work uses the case-based reasoning principles to retrieve, from a set of existing phantoms, the most adapted one to represent the victim. This paper introduces the EquiVox platform and gives the example of in vivo lung monitoring optimisation to prove its efficiency in choosing the right model. It also presents the artificial neural network tools being developed to adapt the model to the victim. (authors)

Quality control of next-generation sequencing library through an integrative digital microfluidic platform.

Science.gov (United States)

Thaitrong, Numrin; Kim, Hanyoup; Renzi, Ronald F; Bartsch, Michael S; Meagher, Robert J; Patel, Kamlesh D

2012-12-01

We have developed an automated quality control (QC) platform for next-generation sequencing (NGS) library characterization by integrating a droplet-based digital microfluidic (DMF) system with a capillary-based reagent delivery unit and a quantitative CE module. Using an in-plane capillary-DMF interface, a prepared sample droplet was actuated into position between the ground electrode and the inlet of the separation capillary to complete the circuit for an electrokinetic injection. Using a DNA ladder as an internal standard, the CE module with a compact LIF detector was capable of detecting dsDNA in the range of 5-100 pg/μL, suitable for the amount of DNA required by the Illumina Genome Analyzer sequencing platform. This DMF-CE platform consumes tenfold less sample volume than the current Agilent BioAnalyzer QC technique, preserving precious sample while providing necessary sensitivity and accuracy for optimal sequencing performance. The ability of this microfluidic system to validate NGS library preparation was demonstrated by examining the effects of limited-cycle PCR amplification on the size distribution and the yield of Illumina-compatible libraries, demonstrating that as few as ten cycles of PCR bias the size distribution of the library toward undesirable larger fragments. © 2012 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Launching a virtual decision lab: development and field-testing of a web-based patient decision support research platform.

Science.gov (United States)

Hoffman, Aubri S; Llewellyn-Thomas, Hilary A; Tosteson, Anna N A; O'Connor, Annette M; Volk, Robert J; Tomek, Ivan M; Andrews, Steven B; Bartels, Stephen J

2014-12-12

Over 100 trials show that patient decision aids effectively improve patients' information comprehension and values-based decision making. However, gaps remain in our understanding of several fundamental and applied questions, particularly related to the design of interactive, personalized decision aids. This paper describes an interdisciplinary development process for, and early field testing of, a web-based patient decision support research platform, or virtual decision lab, to address these questions. An interdisciplinary stakeholder panel designed the web-based research platform with three components: a) an introduction to shared decision making, b) a web-based patient decision aid, and c) interactive data collection items. Iterative focus groups provided feedback on paper drafts and online prototypes. A field test assessed a) feasibility for using the research platform, in terms of recruitment, usage, and acceptability; and b) feasibility of using the web-based decision aid component, compared to performance of a videobooklet decision aid in clinical care. This interdisciplinary, theory-based, patient-centered design approach produced a prototype for field-testing in six months. Participants (n = 126) reported that: the decision aid component was easy to use (98%), information was clear (90%), the length was appropriate (100%), it was appropriately detailed (90%), and it held their interest (97%). They spent a mean of 36 minutes using the decision aid and 100% preferred using their home/library computer. Participants scored a mean of 75% correct on the Decision Quality, Knowledge Subscale, and 74 out of 100 on the Preparation for Decision Making Scale. Completing the web-based decision aid reduced mean Decisional Conflict scores from 31.1 to 19.5 (p development of a web-based patient decision support research platform that was feasible for use in research studies in terms of recruitment, acceptability, and usage. Within this platform, the web-based

Single-Cell-Based Platform for Copy Number Variation Profiling through Digital Counting of Amplified Genomic DNA Fragments.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Chunmei; Yu, Zhilong; Fu, Yusi; Pang, Yuhong; Huang, Yanyi

2017-04-26

We develop a novel single-cell-based platform through digital counting of amplified genomic DNA fragments, named multifraction amplification (mfA), to detect the copy number variations (CNVs) in a single cell. Amplification is required to acquire genomic information from a single cell, while introducing unavoidable bias. Unlike prevalent methods that directly infer CNV profiles from the pattern of sequencing depth, our mfA platform denatures and separates the DNA molecules from a single cell into multiple fractions of a reaction mix before amplification. By examining the sequencing result of each fraction for a specific fragment and applying a segment-merge maximum likelihood algorithm to the calculation of copy number, we digitize the sequencing-depth-based CNV identification and thus provide a method that is less sensitive to the amplification bias. In this paper, we demonstrate a mfA platform through multiple displacement amplification (MDA) chemistry. When performing the mfA platform, the noise of MDA is reduced; therefore, the resolution of single-cell CNV identification can be improved to 100 kb. We can also determine the genomic region free of allelic drop-out with mfA platform, which is impossible for conventional single-cell amplification methods.

Design and Research on Platform to Enhance College Students’ Art Appreciation Capability Based on Modern Information Technology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shen Xifei

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Nowadays, with the rapid development of modern information technology, the college students could not preferably choose and learn to enhance their own art appreciation capability. Therefore, the colleges and universities have a more urgent desire to organize, develop and provide a good platform to enhance the college students’ art appreciation capability based on modern information technology. This paper describes how to enhance the art appreciation capability in detail, and designs and analyzes the platform to enhance college students’ art appreciation capability based on modern information technology---the “Music Corner” and the “Dance Corner”, indicating that the exchange platform built with modern information technology can promotes the college students’ art appreciation capability. Finally, through the analysis of statistical results of the questionnaire, college students are fonder of art appreciation after the establishment of platform, more inclined to the comprehensive learning of art, more brave to express their own sense of art, and fonder of artistic creation.

[Reconstituting evaluation methods based on both qualitative and quantitative paradigms].

Science.gov (United States)

Miyata, Hiroaki; Okubo, Suguru; Yoshie, Satoru; Kai, Ichiro

2011-01-01

Debate about the relationship between quantitative and qualitative paradigms is often muddled and confusing and the clutter of terms and arguments has resulted in the concepts becoming obscure and unrecognizable. In this study we conducted content analysis regarding evaluation methods of qualitative healthcare research. We extracted descriptions on four types of evaluation paradigm (validity/credibility, reliability/credibility, objectivity/confirmability, and generalizability/transferability), and classified them into subcategories. In quantitative research, there has been many evaluation methods based on qualitative paradigms, and vice versa. Thus, it might not be useful to consider evaluation methods of qualitative paradigm are isolated from those of quantitative methods. Choosing practical evaluation methods based on the situation and prior conditions of each study is an important approach for researchers.

Development of a Web-Based Visualization Platform for Climate Research Using Google Earth

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Xiaojuan; Shen, Suhung; Leptoukh, Gregory G.; Wang, Panxing; Di, Liping; Lu, Mingyue

2011-01-01

Recently, it has become easier to access climate data from satellites, ground measurements, and models from various data centers, However, searching. accessing, and prc(essing heterogeneous data from different sources are very tim -consuming tasks. There is lack of a comprehensive visual platform to acquire distributed and heterogeneous scientific data and to render processed images from a single accessing point for climate studies. This paper. documents the design and implementation of a Web-based visual, interoperable, and scalable platform that is able to access climatological fields from models, satellites, and ground stations from a number of data sources using Google Earth (GE) as a common graphical interface. The development is based on the TCP/IP protocol and various data sharing open sources, such as OPeNDAP, GDS, Web Processing Service (WPS), and Web Mapping Service (WMS). The visualization capability of integrating various measurements into cE extends dramatically the awareness and visibility of scientific results. Using embedded geographic information in the GE, the designed system improves our understanding of the relationships of different elements in a four dimensional domain. The system enables easy and convenient synergistic research on a virtual platform for professionals and the general public, gr$tly advancing global data sharing and scientific research collaboration.

High-throughput detection of ethanol-producing cyanobacteria in a microdroplet platform.

Science.gov (United States)

Abalde-Cela, Sara; Gould, Anna; Liu, Xin; Kazamia, Elena; Smith, Alison G; Abell, Chris

2015-05-06

Ethanol production by microorganisms is an important renewable energy source. Most processes involve fermentation of sugars from plant feedstock, but there is increasing interest in direct ethanol production by photosynthetic organisms. To facilitate this, a high-throughput screening technique for the detection of ethanol is required. Here, a method for the quantitative detection of ethanol in a microdroplet-based platform is described that can be used for screening cyanobacterial strains to identify those with the highest ethanol productivity levels. The detection of ethanol by enzymatic assay was optimized both in bulk and in microdroplets. In parallel, the encapsulation of engineered ethanol-producing cyanobacteria in microdroplets and their growth dynamics in microdroplet reservoirs were demonstrated. The combination of modular microdroplet operations including droplet generation for cyanobacteria encapsulation, droplet re-injection and pico-injection, and laser-induced fluorescence, were used to create this new platform to screen genetically engineered strains of cyanobacteria with different levels of ethanol production.

Evolvable Smartphone-Based Platforms for Point-of-Care In-Vitro Diagnostics Applications

Science.gov (United States)

Patou, François; AlZahra’a Alatraktchi, Fatima; Kjægaard, Claus; Dimaki, Maria; Madsen, Jan; Svendsen, Winnie E.

2016-01-01

The association of smart mobile devices and lab-on-chip technologies offers unprecedented opportunities for the emergence of direct-to-consumer in vitro medical diagnostics applications. Despite their clear transformative potential, obstacles remain to the large-scale disruption and long-lasting success of these systems in the consumer market. For instance, the increasing level of complexity of instrumented lab-on-chip devices, coupled to the sporadic nature of point-of-care testing, threatens the viability of a business model mainly relying on disposable/consumable lab-on-chips. We argued recently that system evolvability, defined as the design characteristic that facilitates more manageable transitions between system generations via the modification of an inherited design, can help remedy these limitations. In this paper, we discuss how platform-based design can constitute a formal entry point to the design and implementation of evolvable smart device/lab-on-chip systems. We present both a hardware/software design framework and the implementation details of a platform prototype enabling at this stage the interfacing of several lab-on-chip variants relying on current- or impedance-based biosensors. Our findings suggest that several change-enabling mechanisms implemented in the higher abstraction software layers of the system can promote evolvability, together with the design of change-absorbing hardware/software interfaces. Our platform architecture is based on a mobile software application programming interface coupled to a modular hardware accessory. It allows the specification of lab-on-chip operation and post-analytic functions at the mobile software layer. We demonstrate its potential by operating a simple lab-on-chip to carry out the detection of dopamine using various electroanalytical methods. PMID:27598208

Evolvable Smartphone-Based Platforms for Point-of-Care In-Vitro Diagnostics Applications.

Science.gov (United States)

Patou, François; AlZahra'a Alatraktchi, Fatima; Kjægaard, Claus; Dimaki, Maria; Madsen, Jan; Svendsen, Winnie E

2016-09-03

The association of smart mobile devices and lab-on-chip technologies offers unprecedented opportunities for the emergence of direct-to-consumer in vitro medical diagnostics applications. Despite their clear transformative potential, obstacles remain to the large-scale disruption and long-lasting success of these systems in the consumer market. For instance, the increasing level of complexity of instrumented lab-on-chip devices, coupled to the sporadic nature of point-of-care testing, threatens the viability of a business model mainly relying on disposable/consumable lab-on-chips. We argued recently that system evolvability, defined as the design characteristic that facilitates more manageable transitions between system generations via the modification of an inherited design, can help remedy these limitations. In this paper, we discuss how platform-based design can constitute a formal entry point to the design and implementation of evolvable smart device/lab-on-chip systems. We present both a hardware/software design framework and the implementation details of a platform prototype enabling at this stage the interfacing of several lab-on-chip variants relying on current- or impedance-based biosensors. Our findings suggest that several change-enabling mechanisms implemented in the higher abstraction software layers of the system can promote evolvability, together with the design of change-absorbing hardware/software interfaces. Our platform architecture is based on a mobile software application programming interface coupled to a modular hardware accessory. It allows the specification of lab-on-chip operation and post-analytic functions at the mobile software layer. We demonstrate its potential by operating a simple lab-on-chip to carry out the detection of dopamine using various electroanalytical methods.

Evolvable Smartphone-Based Platforms for Point-of-Care In-Vitro Diagnostics Applications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

François Patou

2016-09-01

Full Text Available The association of smart mobile devices and lab-on-chip technologies offers unprecedented opportunities for the emergence of direct-to-consumer in vitro medical diagnostics applications. Despite their clear transformative potential, obstacles remain to the large-scale disruption and long-lasting success of these systems in the consumer market. For instance, the increasing level of complexity of instrumented lab-on-chip devices, coupled to the sporadic nature of point-of-care testing, threatens the viability of a business model mainly relying on disposable/consumable lab-on-chips. We argued recently that system evolvability, defined as the design characteristic that facilitates more manageable transitions between system generations via the modification of an inherited design, can help remedy these limitations. In this paper, we discuss how platform-based design can constitute a formal entry point to the design and implementation of evolvable smart device/lab-on-chip systems. We present both a hardware/software design framework and the implementation details of a platform prototype enabling at this stage the interfacing of several lab-on-chip variants relying on current- or impedance-based biosensors. Our findings suggest that several change-enabling mechanisms implemented in the higher abstraction software layers of the system can promote evolvability, together with the design of change-absorbing hardware/software interfaces. Our platform architecture is based on a mobile software application programming interface coupled to a modular hardware accessory. It allows the specification of lab-on-chip operation and post-analytic functions at the mobile software layer. We demonstrate its potential by operating a simple lab-on-chip to carry out the detection of dopamine using various electroanalytical methods.

Phonon-based scalable platform for chip-scale quantum computing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Charles M. Reinke

2016-12-01

Full Text Available We present a scalable phonon-based quantum computer on a phononic crystal platform. Practical schemes involve selective placement of a single acceptor atom in the peak of the strain field in a high-Q phononic crystal cavity that enables coupling of the phonon modes to the energy levels of the atom. We show theoretical optimization of the cavity design and coupling waveguide, along with estimated performance figures of the coupled system. A qubit can be created by entangling a phonon at the resonance frequency of the cavity with the atom states. Qubits based on this half-sound, half-matter quasi-particle, called a phoniton, may outcompete other quantum architectures in terms of combined emission rate, coherence lifetime, and fabrication demands.

Techniques and evaluation from a cross-platform imaging comparison of quantitative ultrasound parameters in an in vivo rodent fibroadenoma model.

Science.gov (United States)

Wirtzfeld, Lauren A; Nam, Kibo; Labyed, Yassin; Ghoshal, Goutam; Haak, Alexander; Sen-Gupta, Ellora; He, Zhi; Hirtz, Nathaniel R; Miller, Rita J; Sarwate, Sandhya; Simpson, Douglas G; Zagzebski, James A; Bigelow, Timothy A; Oelze, Michael; Hall, Timothy J; O'Brien, William D

2013-07-01

This contribution demonstrates that quantitative ultrasound (QUS) capabilities are platform independent, using an in vivo model. Frequency-dependent attenuation estimates, backscatter coefficient, and effective scatterer diameter estimates are shown to be comparable across four different ultrasound imaging systems with varied processing techniques. The backscatter coefficient (BSC) is a fundamental material property from which several QUS parameters are estimated; therefore, consistent BSC estimates among different systems must be demonstrated. This study is an intercomparison of BSC estimates acquired by three research groups (UIUC, UW, ISU) from four in vivo spontaneous rat mammary fibroadenomas using three clinical array systems and a single-element laboratory scanner system. Because of their highly variable backscatter properties, fibroadenomas provided an extreme test case for BSC analysis, and the comparison is across systems for each tumor, not across the highly heterogeneous tumors. RF echo data spanning the 1 to 12 MHz frequency range were acquired in three dimensions from all animals using each system. Each research group processed their RF data independently, and the resulting attenuation, BSC, and effective scatterer diameter (ESD) estimates were compared. The attenuation estimates across all systems showed the same trends and consistently fit the power-law dependence on frequency. BSCs varied among the multiple slices of data acquired by each transducer, with variations between transducers being of a similar magnitude as those from slice to slice. Variation between BSC estimates was assessed via functional signal-to-noise ratios derived from backscatter data. These functional signal-to-noise ratios indicated that BSC versus frequency variations between systems ranged from negligible compared with the noise level to roughly twice the noise level. The corresponding functional analysis of variance (fANOVA) indicated statistically significant differences

A CT-based method for fully quantitative TI SPECT

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Willowson, Kathy; Bailey, Dale; Baldock, Clive

2009-01-01

Full text: Objectives: To develop and validate a method for quantitative 2 0 l TI SPECT data based on corrections derived from X-ray CT data, and to apply the method in the clinic for quantitative determination of recurrence of brain tumours. Method: A previously developed method for achieving quantitative SPECT with 9 9 m Tc based on corrections derived from xray CT data was extended to apply to 2 0 l Tl. Experimental validation was performed on a cylindrical phantom by comparing known injected activity and measured concentration to quantitative calculations. Further evaluation was performed on a RSI Striatal Brain Phantom containing three 'lesions' with activity to background ratios of 1: 1, 1.5: I and 2: I. The method was subsequently applied to a series of scans from patients with suspected recurrence of brain tumours (principally glioma) to determine an SUV-like measure (Standardised Uptake Value). Results: The total activity and concentration in the phantom were calculated to within 3% and I % of the true values, respectively. The calculated values for the concentration of activity in the background and corresponding lesions of the brain phantom (in increasing ratios) were found to be within 2%,10%,1% and 2%, respectively, of the true concentrations. Patient studies showed that an initial SUV greater than 1.5 corresponded to a 56% mortality rate in the first 12 months, as opposed to a 14% mortality rate for those with a SUV less than 1.5. Conclusion: The quantitative technique produces accurate results for the radionuclide 2 0 l Tl. Initial investigation in clinical brain SPECT suggests correlation between quantitative uptake and survival.

On the Supply Chain Management Supported by E-Commerce Service Platform for Agreement based Circulation of Fruits and Vegetables

Science.gov (United States)

Bao, Liwei; Huang, Yuchi; Ma, Zengjun; Zhang, Jie; Lv, Qingchu

According to analysis of the supply chain process of agricultural products, the IT application requirements of the market entities participating in the agreement based circulation of fruits and vegetables have been discussed. The strategy of supply chain management basing on E-commerce service platform for fruits and vegetables has been proposed in this paper. The architecture and function composing of the service platform have been designed and implemented. The platform is constructed on a set of application service modules User can choose some of the application service modules and define them according to the business process. The application service modules chosen and defined by user are integrated as an application service package and applied as management information system of business process. With the E-commerce service platform, the supply chain management for agreement based circulation of agricultural products of vegetables and fruits can be implemented.

Vulnerability assessment of a space based weapon platform electronic system exposed to a thermonuclear weapon detonation

Science.gov (United States)

Perez, C. L.; Johnson, J. O.

Rapidly changing world events, the increased number of nations with inter-continental ballistic missile capability, and the proliferation of nuclear weapon technology will increase the number of nuclear threats facing the world today. Monitoring these nation's activities and providing an early warning and/or intercept system via reconnaissance and surveillance satellites and space based weapon platforms is a viable deterrent against a surprise nuclear attack. However, the deployment of satellite and weapon platform assets in space will subject the sensitive electronic equipment to a variety of natural and man-made radiation environments. These include Van Allen Belt protons and electrons; galactic and solar flare protons; and neutrons, gamma rays, and x-rays from intentionally detonated fission and fusion weapons. In this paper, the MASH vl.0 code system is used to estimate the dose to the critical electronics components of an idealized space based weapon platform from neutron and gamma-ray radiation emitted from a thermonuclear weapon detonation in space. Fluence and dose assessments were performed for the platform fully loaded, and in several stages representing limited engagement scenarios. The results indicate vulnerabilities to the Command, Control, and Communication bay instruments from radiation damage for a nuclear weapon detonation for certain source/platform orientations. The distance at which damage occurs will depend on the weapon yield (n,(gamma)/kiloton) and size (kilotons).

Integrated Spintronic Platforms for Biomolecular Recognition Detection

Science.gov (United States)

Martins, V. C.; Cardoso, F. A.; Loureiro, J.; Mercier, M.; Germano, J.; Cardoso, S.; Ferreira, R.; Fonseca, L. P.; Sousa, L.; Piedade, M. S.; Freitas, P. P.

2008-06-01

This paper covers recent developments in magnetoresistive based biochip platforms fabricated at INESC-MN, and their application to the detection and quantification of pathogenic waterborn microorganisms in water samples for human consumption. Such platforms are intended to give response to the increasing concern related to microbial contaminated water sources. The presented results concern the development of biological active DNA chips and protein chips and the demonstration of the detection capability of the present platforms. Two platforms are described, one including spintronic sensors only (spin-valve based or magnetic tunnel junction based), and the other, a fully scalable platform where each probe site consists of a MTJ in series with a thin film diode (TFD). Two microfluidic systems are described, for cell separation and concentration, and finally, the read out and control integrated electronics are described, allowing the realization of bioassays with a portable point of care unit. The present platforms already allow the detection of complementary biomolecular target recognition with 1 pM concentration.

Essential Means for Urban Computing: Specification of Web-Based Computing Platforms for Urban Planning, a Hitchhiker’s Guide

OpenAIRE

Pirouz Nourian; Carlos Martinez-Ortiz; Ken Arroyo Ohori

2018-01-01

This article provides an overview of the specifications of web-based computing platforms for urban data analytics and computational urban planning practice. There are currently a variety of tools and platforms that can be used in urban computing practices, including scientific computing languages, interactive web languages, data sharing platforms and still many desktop computing environments, e.g., GIS software applications. We have reviewed a list of technologies considering their potential ...

Cross-Platform Android/iOS-Based Smart Switch Control Middleware in a Digital Home

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Guo Jie

2015-01-01

Full Text Available With technological and economic development, people’s lives have been improved substantially, especially their home environments. One of the key aspects of these improvements is home intellectualization, whose core is the smart home control system. Furthermore, as smart phones have become increasingly popular, we can use them to control the home system through Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GSM. This means that control with phones is more convenient and fast and now becomes the primary terminal controller in the smart home. In this paper, we propose middleware for developing a cross-platform Android/iOS-based solution for smart switch control software, focus on the Wi-Fi based communication protocols between the cellphone and the smart switch, achieved a plugin-based smart switch function, defined and implemented the JavaScript interface, and then implemented the cross-platform Android/iOS-based smart switch control software; also the scenarios are illustrated. Finally, tests were performed after the completed realization of the smart switch control system.

Creation Greenhouse Environment Map Using Localization of Edge of Cultivation Platforms Based on Stereo Vision

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A Nasiri

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Introduction Stereo vision means the capability of extracting the depth based on analysis of two images taken from different angles of one scene. The result of stereo vision is a collection of three-dimensional points which describes the details of scene proportional to the resolution of the obtained images. Vehicle automatic steering and crop growth monitoring are two important operations in agricultural precision. The essential aspects of an automated steering are position and orientation of the agricultural equipment in relation to crop row, detection of obstacles and design of path planning between the crop rows. The developed map can provide this information in the real time. Machine vision has the capabilities to perform these tasks in order to execute some operations such as cultivation, spraying and harvesting. In greenhouse environment, it is possible to develop a map and perform an automatic control by detecting and localizing the cultivation platforms as the main moving obstacle. The current work was performed to meet a method based on the stereo vision for detecting and localizing platforms, and then, providing a two-dimensional map for cultivation platforms in the greenhouse environment. Materials and Methods In this research, two webcams, made by Microsoft Corporation with the resolution of 960×544, are connected to the computer via USB2 in order to produce a stereo parallel camera. Due to the structure of cultivation platforms, the number of points in the point cloud will be decreased by extracting the only upper and lower edges of the platform. The proposed method in this work aims at extracting the edges based on depth discontinuous features in the region of platform edge. By getting the disparity image of the platform edges from the rectified stereo images and translating its data to 3D-space, the point cloud model of the environments is constructed. Then by projecting the points to XZ plane and putting local maps together

Surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy platform based on graphene with one-year stability

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tite, Teddy [Univ Lyon, UJM-Saint-Etienne, CNRS, Laboratoire Hubert Curien UMR 5516, 18 rue Professeur Benoit Lauras, F-42000 Saint-Etienne (France); Barnier, Vincent [Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines, CNRS, Laboratoire Georges Friedel UMR 5307, 158 cours Fauriel, F-42023 Saint-Etienne (France); Donnet, Christophe, E-mail: Christophe.Donnet@univ-st-etienne.fr [Univ Lyon, UJM-Saint-Etienne, CNRS, Laboratoire Hubert Curien UMR 5516, 18 rue Professeur Benoit Lauras, F-42000 Saint-Etienne (France); Loir, Anne–Sophie; Reynaud, Stéphanie; Michalon, Jean–Yves; Vocanson, Francis; Garrelie, Florence [Univ Lyon, UJM-Saint-Etienne, CNRS, Laboratoire Hubert Curien UMR 5516, 18 rue Professeur Benoit Lauras, F-42000 Saint-Etienne (France)

2016-04-01

We report the synthesis, characterization and use of a robust surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy platform with a stable detection for up to one year of Rhodamine R6G at a concentration of 10{sup −6} M. The detection of aminothiophenol and methyl parathion, as active molecules of commercial insecticides, is further demonstrated at concentrations down to 10{sup −5}–10{sup −6} M. This platform is based on large scale textured few-layer (fl) graphene obtained without any need of graphene transfer. The synthesis route is based on diamond-like carbon films grown by pulsed laser deposition, deposited onto silicon substrates covered by a Ni layer prior to diamond-like carbon deposition. The formation of fl-graphene film, confirmed by Raman spectroscopy and mapping, is obtained by thermal annealing inducing the diffusion of Ni atoms and the concomitant formation of nickel silicide compounds, as identified by Raman and Auger electron spectroscopies. The textured fl-graphene films were decorated with gold nanoparticles to optimize the efficiency of the SERS device to detect organic molecules at low concentrations. - Highlights: • Synthesis of graphene film from amorphous carbon by pulsed laser deposition with nickel catalyst • Large scale textured graphene with nanoscale roughness obtained through nickel silicide formation • Films used for surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy detection of organophosphate compounds • Stability of the SERS platforms over up to one year.

Interactive Computer-Assisted Instruction in Acid-Base Physiology for Mobile Computer Platforms

Science.gov (United States)

Longmuir, Kenneth J.

2014-01-01

In this project, the traditional lecture hall presentation of acid-base physiology in the first-year medical school curriculum was replaced by interactive, computer-assisted instruction designed primarily for the iPad and other mobile computer platforms. Three learning modules were developed, each with ~20 screens of information, on the subjects…

A novel multi-walled carbon nanotube-based antibody conjugate for quantitative and semi-quantitative lateral flow assays.

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Wenjuan; Hu, Xiaolong; Liu, Jia; Zhang, Yurong; Lu, Jianzhong; Zeng, Libo

2017-10-01

In this study, the multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were applied in lateral flow strips (LFS) for semi-quantitative and quantitative assays. Firstly, the solubility of MWCNTs was improved using various surfactants to enhance their biocompatibility for practical application. The dispersed MWCNTs were conjugated with the methamphetamine (MET) antibody in a non-covalent manner and then manufactured into the LFS for the quantitative detection of MET. The MWCNTs-based lateral flow assay (MWCNTs-LFA) exhibited an excellent linear relationship between the values of test line and MET when its concentration ranges from 62.5 to 1500 ng/mL. The sensitivity of the LFS was evaluated by conjugating MWCNTs with HCG antibody and the MWCNTs conjugated method is 10 times more sensitive than the one conjugated with classical colloidal gold nanoparticles. Taken together, our data demonstrate that MWCNTs-LFA is a more sensitive and reliable assay for semi-quantitative and quantitative detection which can be used in forensic analysis.

Planetary Balloon-Based Science Platform Evaluation and Program Implementation

Science.gov (United States)

Dankanich, John W.; Kremic, Tibor; Hibbitts, Karl; Young, Eliot F.; Landis, Rob

2016-01-01

This report describes a study evaluating the potential for a balloon-based optical telescope as a planetary science asset to achieve decadal class science. The study considered potential science achievable and science traceability relative to the most recent planetary science decadal survey, potential platform features, and demonstration flights in the evaluation process. Science Potential and Benefits: This study confirms the cost the-benefit value for planetary science purposes. Forty-four (44) important questions of the decadal survey are at least partially addressable through balloon based capabilities. Planetary science through balloon observations can provide significant science through observations in the 300 nm to 5 m range and at longer wavelengths as well. Additionally, balloon missions have demonstrated the ability to progress from concept to observation to publication much faster than a space mission increasing the speed of science return. Planetary science from a balloon-borne platform is a relatively low-cost approach to new science measurements. This is particularly relevant within a cost-constrained planetary science budget. Repeated flights further reduce the cost of the per unit science data. Such flights offer observing time at a very competitive cost. Another advantage for planetary scientists is that a dedicated asset could provide significant new viewing opportunities not possible from the ground and allow unprecedented access to observations that cannot be realized with the time allocation pressures faced by current observing assets. In addition, flight systems that have a relatively short life cycle and where hardware is generally recovered, are excellent opportunities to train early career scientists, engineers, and project managers. The fact that balloon-borne payloads, unlike space missions, are generally recovered offers an excellent tool to test and mature instruments and other space craft systems. Desired Gondola Features: Potential

Preparing for a Product Platform

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fiil-Nielsen, Ole; Munk, Lone; Mortensen, Niels Henrik

2005-01-01

on commonalities and similarities in the product family, and variance should be based on customer demands. To relate these terms and to improve the basis on which decisions are made, we need a way of visualizing the hierarchy of the product family as well as the commonality and variance. This visualization method...... of the platform or ensuring that the platform can meet future demands will be very useful in the preparation process of a platform synthesis as well as in the updating or reengineering of an existing product development platform.......Experience in the industry as well as recent related scientific publications show the benefits of product development platforms. Companies use platforms to develop not a single but multiple products (i.e. a product family) simultaneously. When these product development projects are coordinated...

A wireless computational platform for distributed computing based traffic monitoring involving mixed Eulerian-Lagrangian sensing

KAUST Repository

Jiang, Jiming

2013-06-01

This paper presents a new wireless platform designed for an integrated traffic monitoring system based on combined Lagrangian (mobile) and Eulerian (fixed) sensing. The sensor platform is built around a 32-bit ARM Cortex M4 micro-controller and a 2.4GHz 802.15.4 ISM compliant radio module, and can be interfaced with fixed traffic sensors, or receive data from vehicle transponders. The platform is specially designed and optimized to be integrated in a solar-powered wireless sensor network in which traffic flow maps are computed by the nodes directly using distributed computing. A MPPT circuitry is proposed to increase the power output of the attached solar panel. A self-recovering unit is designed to increase reliability and allow periodic hard resets, an essential requirement for sensor networks. A radio monitoring circuitry is proposed to monitor incoming and outgoing transmissions, simplifying software debug. An ongoing implementation is briefly discussed, and compared with existing platforms used in wireless sensor networks. © 2013 IEEE.

Essential Means for Urban Computing : Specification of Web-Based Computing Platforms for Urban Planning, a Hitchhiker’s Guide

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nourian, P.; Martinez-Ortiz, Carlos; Arroyo Ohori, G.A.K.

2018-01-01

This article provides an overview of the specifications of web-based computing platforms for urban data analytics and computational urban planning practice. There are currently a variety of tools and platforms that can be used in urban computing practices, including scientific computing languages,

Multi-function microfluidic platform for sensor integration.

Science.gov (United States)

Fernandes, Ana C; Semenova, Daria; Panjan, Peter; Sesay, Adama M; Gernaey, Krist V; Krühne, Ulrich

2018-03-06

The limited availability of metabolite-specific sensors for continuous sampling and monitoring is one of the main bottlenecks contributing to failures in bioprocess development. Furthermore, only a limited number of approaches exist to connect currently available measurement systems with high throughput reactor units. This is especially relevant in the biocatalyst screening and characterization stage of process development. In this work, a strategy for sensor integration in microfluidic platforms is demonstrated, to address the need for rapid, cost-effective and high-throughput screening in bioprocesses. This platform is compatible with different sensor formats by enabling their replacement and was built in order to be highly flexible and thus suitable for a wide range of applications. Moreover, this re-usable platform can easily be connected to analytical equipment, such as HPLC, laboratory scale reactors or other microfluidic chips through the use of standardized fittings. In addition, the developed platform includes a two-sensor system interspersed with a mixing channel, which allows the detection of samples that might be outside the first sensor's range of detection, through dilution of the sample solution up to 10 times. In order to highlight the features of the proposed platform, inline monitoring of glucose levels is presented and discussed. Glucose was chosen due to its importance in biotechnology as a relevant substrate. The platform demonstrated continuous measurement of substrate solutions for up to 12 h. Furthermore, the influence of the fluid velocity on substrate diffusion was observed, indicating the need for in-flow calibration to achieve a good quantitative output. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Parallel Task Processing on a Multicore Platform in a PC-based Control System for Parallel Kinematics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Harald Michalik

2009-02-01

Full Text Available Multicore platforms are such that have one physical processor chip with multiple cores interconnected via a chip level bus. Because they deliver a greater computing power through concurrency, offer greater system density multicore platforms provide best qualifications to address the performance bottleneck encountered in PC-based control systems for parallel kinematic robots with heavy CPU-load. Heavy load control tasks are generated by new control approaches that include features like singularity prediction, structure control algorithms, vision data integration and similar tasks. In this paper we introduce the parallel task scheduling extension of a communication architecture specially tailored for the development of PC-based control of parallel kinematics. The Sche-duling is specially designed for the processing on a multicore platform. It breaks down the serial task processing of the robot control cycle and extends it with parallel task processing paths in order to enhance the overall control performance.

Experience using EPICS on PC platforms

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hill, J.O.; Kasemire, K.U.

1997-03-01

The Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System (EPICS) has been widely adopted in the accelerator community. Although EPICS is available on many platforms, the majority of implementations have used UNIX workstations as clients, and VME- or VXI-based processors for distributed input output controllers. Recently, a significant portion of EPICS has been ported to personal computer (PC) hardware platforms running Microsoft's operating systems, and also Wind River System's real time vxWorks operating system. This development should significantly reduce the cost of deploying EPICS systems, and the prospect of using EPICS together with the many high quality commercial components available for PC platforms is also encouraging. A hybrid system using both PC and traditional platforms is currently being implemented at LANL for LEDA, the low energy demonstration accelerator under construction as part of the Accelerator Production of Tritium (APT) project. To illustrate these developments the authors compare their recent experience deploying a PC-based EPICS system with experience deploying similar systems based on traditional (UNIX-hosted) EPICS hardware and software platforms

YersiniaBase: a genomic resource and analysis platform for comparative analysis of Yersinia.

Science.gov (United States)

Tan, Shi Yang; Dutta, Avirup; Jakubovics, Nicholas S; Ang, Mia Yang; Siow, Cheuk Chuen; Mutha, Naresh Vr; Heydari, Hamed; Wee, Wei Yee; Wong, Guat Jah; Choo, Siew Woh

2015-01-16

Yersinia is a Gram-negative bacteria that includes serious pathogens such as the Yersinia pestis, which causes plague, Yersinia pseudotuberculosis, Yersinia enterocolitica. The remaining species are generally considered non-pathogenic to humans, although there is evidence that at least some of these species can cause occasional infections using distinct mechanisms from the more pathogenic species. With the advances in sequencing technologies, many genomes of Yersinia have been sequenced. However, there is currently no specialized platform to hold the rapidly-growing Yersinia genomic data and to provide analysis tools particularly for comparative analyses, which are required to provide improved insights into their biology, evolution and pathogenicity. To facilitate the ongoing and future research of Yersinia, especially those generally considered non-pathogenic species, a well-defined repository and analysis platform is needed to hold the Yersinia genomic data and analysis tools for the Yersinia research community. Hence, we have developed the YersiniaBase, a robust and user-friendly Yersinia resource and analysis platform for the analysis of Yersinia genomic data. YersiniaBase has a total of twelve species and 232 genome sequences, of which the majority are Yersinia pestis. In order to smooth the process of searching genomic data in a large database, we implemented an Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX)-based real-time searching system in YersiniaBase. Besides incorporating existing tools, which include JavaScript-based genome browser (JBrowse) and Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST), YersiniaBase also has in-house developed tools: (1) Pairwise Genome Comparison tool (PGC) for comparing two user-selected genomes; (2) Pathogenomics Profiling Tool (PathoProT) for comparative pathogenomics analysis of Yersinia genomes; (3) YersiniaTree for constructing phylogenetic tree of Yersinia. We ran analyses based on the tools and genomic data in YersiniaBase and the

Footprints of Fascination: Digital Traces of Public Engagement with Particle Physics on CERN's Social Media Platforms

Science.gov (United States)

Baram-Tsabari, Ayelet

2016-01-01

Although the scientific community increasingly recognizes that its communication with the public may shape civic engagement with science, few studies have characterized how this communication occurs online. Social media plays a growing role in this engagement, yet it is not known if or how different platforms support different types of engagement. This study sets out to explore how users engage with science communication items on different platforms of social media, and what are the characteristics of the items that tend to attract large numbers of user interactions. Here, user interactions with almost identical items on five of CERN's social media platforms were quantitatively compared over an eight-week period, including likes, comments, shares, click-throughs, and time spent on CERN's site. The most popular items were qualitatively analyzed for content features. Findings indicate that as audience size of a social media platform grows, the total rate of engagement with content tends to grow as well. However, per user, engagement tends to decline with audience size. Across all platforms, similar topics tend to consistently receive high engagement. In particular, awe-inspiring imagery tends to frequently attract high engagement across platforms, independent of newsworthiness. To our knowledge, this study provides the first cross-platform characterization of public engagement with science on social media. Findings, although focused on particle physics, have a multidisciplinary nature; they may serve to benchmark social media analytics for assessing science communication activities in various domains. Evidence-based suggestions for practitioners are also offered. PMID:27232498

Footprints of Fascination: Digital Traces of Public Engagement with Particle Physics on CERN's Social Media Platforms.

Science.gov (United States)

Kahle, Kate; Sharon, Aviv J; Baram-Tsabari, Ayelet

2016-01-01

Although the scientific community increasingly recognizes that its communication with the public may shape civic engagement with science, few studies have characterized how this communication occurs online. Social media plays a growing role in this engagement, yet it is not known if or how different platforms support different types of engagement. This study sets out to explore how users engage with science communication items on different platforms of social media, and what are the characteristics of the items that tend to attract large numbers of user interactions. Here, user interactions with almost identical items on five of CERN's social media platforms were quantitatively compared over an eight-week period, including likes, comments, shares, click-throughs, and time spent on CERN's site. The most popular items were qualitatively analyzed for content features. Findings indicate that as audience size of a social media platform grows, the total rate of engagement with content tends to grow as well. However, per user, engagement tends to decline with audience size. Across all platforms, similar topics tend to consistently receive high engagement. In particular, awe-inspiring imagery tends to frequently attract high engagement across platforms, independent of newsworthiness. To our knowledge, this study provides the first cross-platform characterization of public engagement with science on social media. Findings, although focused on particle physics, have a multidisciplinary nature; they may serve to benchmark social media analytics for assessing science communication activities in various domains. Evidence-based suggestions for practitioners are also offered.

Effectiveness of an impairment-based individualized rehabilitation program using an iPad-based software platform.

Science.gov (United States)

Des Roches, Carrie A; Balachandran, Isabel; Ascenso, Elsa M; Tripodis, Yorghos; Kiran, Swathi

2014-01-01

The delivery of tablet-based rehabilitation for individuals with post-stroke aphasia is relatively new, therefore, this study examined the effectiveness of an iPad-based therapy to demonstrate improvement in specific therapy tasks and how the tasks affect overall language and cognitive skills. Fifty-one individuals with aphasia due to a stroke or traumatic brain injury (TBI) were recruited to use an iPad-based software platform, Constant Therapy, for a 10 week therapy program. Participants were split into an experimental (N = 42) and control (N = 9) group. Both experimental and control participants received a 1 h clinic session with a clinician once a week, the experimental participants additionally practiced the therapy at home. Participants did not differ in the duration of the therapy and both groups of participants showed improvement over time in the tasks used for the therapy. However, experimental participants used the application more often and showed greater changes in accuracy and latency on the tasks than the control participants; experimental participants' severity level at baseline as measured by standardized tests of language and cognitive skills were a factor in improvement on the tasks. Subgroups of task co-improvement appear to occur between different language tasks, between different cognitive tasks, and across both domains. Finally, experimental participants showed more significant and positive changes due to therapy in their standardized tests than control participants. These results provide preliminary evidence for the usefulness of a tablet-based platform to deliver tailored language and cognitive therapy to individuals with aphasia.

Effectiveness of an impairment-based individualized rehabilitation program using an iPad-based software platform

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carrie Alice Des Roches

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The delivery of tablet-based rehabilitation for individuals with post-stroke aphasia is relatively new, therefore, this study examined the effectiveness of an iPad-based therapy to demonstrate improvement in specific therapy tasks and how the tasks affect overall language and cognitive skills. Fifty-one individuals with aphasia due to a stroke or traumatic brain injury were recruited to use an iPad-based software platform, Constant Therapy, for a 10 week therapy program. Participants were split into an experimental (N=42 and control (N=9 group. Both experimental and control participants received a one hour clinic session with a clinician once a week, the experimental participants additionally practiced the therapy at home. Participants did not differ in the duration of the therapy and both groups of participants showed improvement over time in the tasks used for the therapy. However, experimental participants used the application more often and showed greater changes in accuracy and latency on the tasks than the control participants; experimental participants’ severity level at baseline as measured by standardized tests of language and cognitive skills were a factor in improvement on the tasks. Subgroups of task co-improvement appear to occur between different language tasks, between different cognitive tasks, and across both domains. Finally, experimental participants showed more significant and positive changes due to therapy in their standardized tests than control participants. These results provide preliminary evidence for the usefulness of a tablet-based platform to deliver tailored language and cognitive therapy to individuals with aphasia.

MamMoeT : An intelligent agent-based communication support platform for multimodal transport

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Dullaert, Wout; Neutens, Tijs; Vanden Berghe, Greet; Vermeulen, Tijs; Vernimmen, Bert; Witlox, Frank

In this paper, an intelligent agent-based communication support platform for multimodal transport is developed. The rationale for doing so is found in the potential of such a system to increase cost efficiency, service and safety for different transport-related actors. Although, at present several

Whole-body isometric force/torque measurements for functional assessment in neuro-rehabilitation: platform design, development and verification

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cavallo Giuseppe

2009-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background One of the main scientific and technological challenges of rehabilitation bioengineering is the development of innovative methodologies, based on the use of appropriate technological devices, for an objective assessment of patients undergoing a rehabilitation treatment. Such tools should be as fast and cheap to use as clinical scales, which are currently the daily instruments most widely used in the routine clinical practice. Methods A human-centered approach was used in the design and development of a mechanical structure equipped with eight force/torque sensors that record quantitative data during the initiation of a predefined set of Activities of Daily Living (ADL tasks, in isometric conditions. Results Preliminary results validated the appropriateness, acceptability and functionality of the proposed platform, that has become now a tool used for clinical research in three clinical centres. Conclusion This paper presented the design and development of an innovative platform for whole-body force and torque measurements on human subjects. The platform has been designed to perform accurate quantitative measurements in isometric conditions with the specific aim to address the needs for functional assessment tests of patients undergoing a rehabilitation treatment as a consequence of a stroke. The versatility of the system also enlightens several other interesting possible areas of application for therapy in neurorehabilitation, for research in basic neuroscience, and more.

A versatile electrowetting-based digital microfluidic platform for quantitative homogeneous and heterogeneous bio-assays

Science.gov (United States)

Vergauwe, Nicolas; Witters, Daan; Ceyssens, Frederik; Vermeir, Steven; Verbruggen, Bert; Puers, Robert; Lammertyn, Jeroen

2011-05-01

Electrowetting-on-dielectric (EWOD) lab-on-a-chip systems have already proven their potential within a broad range of bio-assays. Nevertheless, research on the analytical performance of those systems is limited, yet crucial for a further breakthrough in the diagnostic field. Therefore, this paper presents the intrinsic possibilities of an EWOD lab-on-a-chip as a versatile platform for homogeneous and heterogeneous bio-assays with high analytical performance. Both droplet dispensing and splitting cause variations in droplet size, thereby directly influencing the assay's performance. The extent to which they influence the performance is assessed by a theoretical sensitivity analysis, which allows the definition of a basic framework for the reduction of droplet size variability. Taking advantage of the optimized droplet manipulations, both homogeneous and heterogeneous bio-assays are implemented in the EWOD lab-on-a-chip to demonstrate the analytical capabilities and versatility of the device. A fully on-chip enzymatic assay is realized with high analytical performance. It demonstrates the promising capabilities of an EWOD lab-on-a-chip in food-related and medical applications, such as nutritional and blood analyses. Further, a magnetic bio-assay for IgE detection using superparamagnetic nanoparticles is presented whereby the nanoparticles are used as solid carriers during the bio-assay. Crucial elements are the precise manipulation of the superparamagnetic nanoparticles with respect to dispensing and separation. Although the principle of using nano-carriers is demonstrated for protein detection, it can be easily extended to a broader range of bio-related applications like DNA sensing. In heterogeneous bio-assays the chip surface is actively involved during the execution of the bio-assay. Through immobilization of specific biological compounds like DNA, proteins and cells a reactive chip surface is realized, which enhances the bio-assay performance. To demonstrate

A Cloud-Based Internet of Things Platform for Ambient Assisted Living

Science.gov (United States)

Cubo, Javier; Nieto, Adrián; Pimentel, Ernesto

2014-01-01

A common feature of ambient intelligence is that many objects are inter-connected and act in unison, which is also a challenge in the Internet of Things. There has been a shift in research towards integrating both concepts, considering the Internet of Things as representing the future of computing and communications. However, the efficient combination and management of heterogeneous things or devices in the ambient intelligence domain is still a tedious task, and it presents crucial challenges. Therefore, to appropriately manage the inter-connection of diverse devices in these systems requires: (1) specifying and efficiently implementing the devices (e.g., as services); (2) handling and verifying their heterogeneity and composition; and (3) standardizing and managing their data, so as to tackle large numbers of systems together, avoiding standalone applications on local servers. To overcome these challenges, this paper proposes a platform to manage the integration and behavior-aware orchestration of heterogeneous devices as services, stored and accessed via the cloud, with the following contributions: (i) we describe a lightweight model to specify the behavior of devices, to determine the order of the sequence of exchanged messages during the composition of devices; (ii) we define a common architecture using a service-oriented standard environment, to integrate heterogeneous devices by means of their interfaces, via a gateway, and to orchestrate them according to their behavior; (iii) we design a framework based on cloud computing technology, connecting the gateway in charge of acquiring the data from the devices with a cloud platform, to remotely access and monitor the data at run-time and react to emergency situations; and (iv) we implement and generate a novel cloud-based IoT platform of behavior-aware devices as services for ambient intelligence systems, validating the whole approach in real scenarios related to a specific ambient assisted living application

A cloud-based Internet of Things platform for ambient assisted living.

Science.gov (United States)

Cubo, Javier; Nieto, Adrián; Pimentel, Ernesto

2014-08-04

A common feature of ambient intelligence is that many objects are inter-connected and act in unison, which is also a challenge in the Internet of Things. There has been a shift in research towards integrating both concepts, considering the Internet of Things as representing the future of computing and communications. However, the efficient combination and management of heterogeneous things or devices in the ambient intelligence domain is still a tedious task, and it presents crucial challenges. Therefore, to appropriately manage the inter-connection of diverse devices in these systems requires: (1) specifying and efficiently implementing the devices (e.g., as services); (2) handling and verifying their heterogeneity and composition; and (3) standardizing and managing their data, so as to tackle large numbers of systems together, avoiding standalone applications on local servers. To overcome these challenges, this paper proposes a platform to manage the integration and behavior-aware orchestration of heterogeneous devices as services, stored and accessed via the cloud, with the following contributions: (i) we describe a lightweight model to specify the behavior of devices, to determine the order of the sequence of exchanged messages during the composition of devices; (ii) we define a common architecture using a service-oriented standard environment, to integrate heterogeneous devices by means of their interfaces, via a gateway, and to orchestrate them according to their behavior; (iii) we design a framework based on cloud computing technology, connecting the gateway in charge of acquiring the data from the devices with a cloud platform, to remotely access and monitor the data at run-time and react to emergency situations; and (iv) we implement and generate a novel cloud-based IoT platform of behavior-aware devices as services for ambient intelligence systems, validating the whole approach in real scenarios related to a specific ambient assisted living application.

Paper-based electrochemical sensing platform with integral battery and electrochromic read-out.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Hong; Crooks, Richard M

2012-03-06

We report a battery-powered, microelectrochemical sensing platform that reports its output using an electrochromic display. The platform is fabricated based on paper fluidics and uses a Prussian blue spot electrodeposited on an indium-doped tin oxide thin film as the electrochromic indicator. The integrated metal/air battery powers both the electrochemical sensor and the electrochromic read-out, which are in electrical contact via a paper reservoir. The sample activates the battery and the presence of analyte in the sample initiates the color change of the Prussian blue spot. The entire system is assembled on the lab bench, without the need for cleanroom facilities. The applicability of the device to point-of-care sensing is demonstrated by qualitative detection of 0.1 mM glucose and H(2)O(2) in artificial urine samples.

eTRIKS platform: Conception and operation of a highly scalable cloud-based platform for translational research and applications development.

Science.gov (United States)

Bussery, Justin; Denis, Leslie-Alexandre; Guillon, Benjamin; Liu, Pengfeï; Marchetti, Gino; Rahal, Ghita

2018-04-01

We describe the genesis, design and evolution of a computing platform designed and built to improve the success rate of biomedical translational research. The eTRIKS project platform was developed with the aim of building a platform that can securely host heterogeneous types of data and provide an optimal environment to run tranSMART analytical applications. Many types of data can now be hosted, including multi-OMICS data, preclinical laboratory data and clinical information, including longitudinal data sets. During the last two years, the platform has matured into a robust translational research knowledge management system that is able to host other data mining applications and support the development of new analytical tools. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A practice scaffolding interactive platform

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bundsgaard, Jeppe

2009-01-01

A Practice Scaffolding Interactive Platform (PracSIP) is a social learning platform which supports students in collaborative project based learning by simulating a professional practice. A PracSIP puts the core tools of the simulated practice at the students' disposal, it organizes collaboration...

MEMS-based platforms for mechanical manipulation and characterization of cells

Science.gov (United States)

Pan, Peng; Wang, Wenhui; Ru, Changhai; Sun, Yu; Liu, Xinyu

2017-12-01

Mechanical manipulation and characterization of single cells are important experimental techniques in biological and medical research. Because of the microscale sizes and highly fragile structures of cells, conventional cell manipulation and characterization techniques are not accurate and/or efficient enough or even cannot meet the more and more demanding needs in different types of cell-based studies. To this end, novel microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)-based technologies have been developed to improve the accuracy, efficiency, and consistency of various cell manipulation and characterization tasks, and enable new types of cell research. This article summarizes existing MEMS-based platforms developed for cell mechanical manipulation and characterization, highlights their specific design considerations making them suitable for their designated tasks, and discuss their advantages and limitations. In closing, an outlook into future trends is also provided.

gLibrary/DRI: A grid-based platform to host multiple repositories for digital content

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Calanducci, A.; Gonzalez Martin, J. M.; Ramos Pollan, R.; Rubio del Solar, M.; Tcaci, S.

2007-01-01

In this work we present the gLibrary/DRI (Digital Repositories Infrastructure) platform. gLibrary/DRI extends gLibrary, a system with a easy-to-use web front-end designed to save and organize multimedia assets on Grid-based storage resources. The main goal of the extended platform is to reduce the cost in terms of time and effort that a repository provider spends to get its repository deployed. This is achieved by providing a common infrastructure and a set of mechanisms (APIs and specifications) that the repository providers use to define the data model, the access to the content (by navigation trees and filters) and the storage model. DRI offers a generic way to provide all this functionality; nevertheless the providers can add specific behaviours to the default functions for their repositories. The architecture is Grid based (VO system, data federation and distribution, computing power, etc). A working example based on a mammograms repository is also presented. (Author)

Platform development: implications for portfolio management

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hsuan, Juliana; Hansen, Poul H. Kyvsgård

2007-01-01

" The challenge of implementing industrial platforms in practice can be described as a configuration problem caused by a considerable number of variables, which often have contradictory influences on the total performance of the firm. Consequently, the specific platform decisions become extremely...... complex, possibly increasing the strategic risks for the firm. This paper reports preliminary findings on platform management process at LEGO, a Danish toy company. Specifically, we report the process of applying games combined with simulations and workshops in the platform development. We also propose...... a framework, based on the portfolio management thinking to evaluate the degree of modularity embedded in a given platform and to which extent it is aligned with other platforms."...

ZIVIS: A City Computing Platform Based on Volunteer Computing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Antoli, B.; Castejon, F.; Giner, A.; Losilla, G.; Reynolds, J. M.; Rivero, A.; Sangiao, S.; Serrano, F.; Tarancon, A.; Valles, R.; Velasco, J. L.

2007-01-01

Abstract Volunteer computing has come up as a new form of distributed computing. Unlike other computing paradigms like Grids, which use to be based on complex architectures, volunteer computing has demonstrated a great ability to integrate dispersed, heterogeneous computing resources with ease. This article presents ZIVIS, a project which aims to deploy a city-wide computing platform in Zaragoza (Spain). ZIVIS is based on BOINC (Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing), a popular open source framework to deploy volunteer and desktop grid computing systems. A scientific code which simulates the trajectories of particles moving inside a stellarator fusion device, has been chosen as the pilot application of the project. In this paper we describe the approach followed to port the code to the BOINC framework as well as some novel techniques, based on standard Grid protocols, we have used to access the output data present in the BOINC server from a remote visualizer. (Author)

Multimodality Imaging with Silica-Based Targeted Nanoparticle Platforms

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lewis, Jason S.

2012-01-01

Objectives: To synthesize and characterize a C-Dot silica-based nanoparticle containing 'clickable' groups for the subsequent attachment of targeting moieties (e.g., peptides) and multiple contrast agents (e.g., radionuclides with high specific activity) (1,2). These new constructs will be tested in suitable tumor models in vitro and in vivo to ensure maintenance of target-specificity and high specific activity. Methods: Cy5 dye molecules are cross-linked to a silica precursor which is reacted to form a dye-rich core particle. This core is then encapsulated in a layer of pure silica to create the core-shell C-Dot (Figure 1) (2). A 'click' chemistry approach has been used to functionalize the silica shell with radionuclides conferring high contrast and specific activity (e.g. 64Cu and 89Zr) and peptides for tumor targeting (e.g. cRGD and octreotate) (3). Based on the selective Diels-Alder reaction between tetrazine and norbornene, the reaction is bioorthogonal, highyielding, rapid, and water-compatible. This radiolabeling approach has already been employed successfully with both short peptides (e.g. octreotate) and antibodies (e.g. trastuzumab) as model systems for the ultimate labeling of the nanoparticles (1). Results: PEGylated C-Dots with a Cy5 core and labeled with tetrazine have been synthesized (d = 55 nm, zeta potential = -3 mV) reliably and reproducibly and have been shown to be stable under physiological conditions for up to 1 month. Characterization of the nanoparticles revealed that the immobilized Cy5 dye within the C-Dots exhibited fluorescence intensities over twice that of the fluorophore alone. The nanoparticles were successfully radiolabeled with Cu-64. Efforts toward the conjugation of targeting peptides (e.g. cRGD) are underway. In vitro stability, specificity, and uptake studies as well as in vivo imaging and biodistribution investigations will be presented. Conclusions: C-Dot silica-based nanoparticles offer a robust, versatile, and multi

A Reward-Based Behavioral Platform to Measure Neural Activity during Head-Fixed Behavior

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andrew H. Micallef

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Understanding the neural computations that contribute to behavior requires recording from neurons while an animal is behaving. This is not an easy task as most subcellular recording techniques require absolute head stability. The Go/No-Go sensory task is a powerful decision-driven task that enables an animal to report a binary decision during head-fixation. Here we discuss how to set up an Ardunio and Python based platform system to control a Go/No-Go sensory behavior paradigm. Using an Arduino micro-controller and Python-based custom written program, a reward can be delivered to the animal depending on the decision reported. We discuss the various components required to build the behavioral apparatus that can control and report such a sensory stimulus paradigm. This system enables the end user to control the behavioral testing in real-time and therefore it provides a strong custom-made platform for probing the neural basis of behavior.

Demand Heterogeneity and the Adoption of Platform Complements

NARCIS (Netherlands)

G.J. Rietveld (Joost); J.P. Eggers

2016-01-01

textabstractThis paper offers a demand-based theory of how platform maturity affects the adoption of platform complements. We argue that differences between early and late adopters of the platform include willingness to pay for the platform-and-complement bundle, risk preferences, preference for

The Osseus platform: a prototype for advanced web-based distributed simulation

Science.gov (United States)

Franceschini, Derrick; Riecken, Mark

2016-05-01

Recent technological advances in web-based distributed computing and database technology have made possible a deeper and more transparent integration of some modeling and simulation applications. Despite these advances towards true integration of capabilities, disparate systems, architectures, and protocols will remain in the inventory for some time to come. These disparities present interoperability challenges for distributed modeling and simulation whether the application is training, experimentation, or analysis. Traditional approaches call for building gateways to bridge between disparate protocols and retaining interoperability specialists. Challenges in reconciling data models also persist. These challenges and their traditional mitigation approaches directly contribute to higher costs, schedule delays, and frustration for the end users. Osseus is a prototype software platform originally funded as a research project by the Defense Modeling & Simulation Coordination Office (DMSCO) to examine interoperability alternatives using modern, web-based technology and taking inspiration from the commercial sector. Osseus provides tools and services for nonexpert users to connect simulations, targeting the time and skillset needed to successfully connect disparate systems. The Osseus platform presents a web services interface to allow simulation applications to exchange data using modern techniques efficiently over Local or Wide Area Networks. Further, it provides Service Oriented Architecture capabilities such that finer granularity components such as individual models can contribute to simulation with minimal effort.

Design Thinking and Cloud Manufacturing: A Study of Cloud Model Sharing Platform Based on Separated Data Log

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhe Wei

2013-01-01

Full Text Available To solve the product data consistency problem which is caused by the portable system that cannot conduct real-time update of product data in mobile environment under the mass customization production mode, a new product data optimistic replication method based on log is presented. This paper focuses on the design thinking provider, probing into a manufacturing resource design thinking cloud platform based on manufacturing resource-locating technologies, and also discuss several application scenarios of cloud locating technologies in the manufacturing environment. The actual demand of manufacturing creates a new mode which is service-oriented and has high efficiency and low consumption. Finally, they are different from the crowd-sourcing application model of Local-Motors. The sharing platform operator is responsible for a master plan for the platform, proposing a open interface standard and establishing a service operation mode.

Quantitative SIMS Imaging of Agar-Based Microbial Communities.

Science.gov (United States)

Dunham, Sage J B; Ellis, Joseph F; Baig, Nameera F; Morales-Soto, Nydia; Cao, Tianyuan; Shrout, Joshua D; Bohn, Paul W; Sweedler, Jonathan V

2018-05-01

After several decades of widespread use for mapping elemental ions and small molecular fragments in surface science, secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) has emerged as a powerful analytical tool for molecular imaging in biology. Biomolecular SIMS imaging has primarily been used as a qualitative technique; although the distribution of a single analyte can be accurately determined, it is difficult to map the absolute quantity of a compound or even to compare the relative abundance of one molecular species to that of another. We describe a method for quantitative SIMS imaging of small molecules in agar-based microbial communities. The microbes are cultivated on a thin film of agar, dried under nitrogen, and imaged directly with SIMS. By use of optical microscopy, we show that the area of the agar is reduced by 26 ± 2% (standard deviation) during dehydration, but the overall biofilm morphology and analyte distribution are largely retained. We detail a quantitative imaging methodology, in which the ion intensity of each analyte is (1) normalized to an external quadratic regression curve, (2) corrected for isomeric interference, and (3) filtered for sample-specific noise and lower and upper limits of quantitation. The end result is a two-dimensional surface density image for each analyte. The sample preparation and quantitation methods are validated by quantitatively imaging four alkyl-quinolone and alkyl-quinoline N-oxide signaling molecules (including Pseudomonas quinolone signal) in Pseudomonas aeruginosa colony biofilms. We show that the relative surface densities of the target biomolecules are substantially different from values inferred through direct intensity comparison and that the developed methodologies can be used to quantitatively compare as many ions as there are available standards.

Smart Web-Based Platform to Support Physical Rehabilitation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yves Rybarczyk

2018-04-01

Full Text Available The enhancement of ubiquitous and pervasive computing brings new perspectives in medical rehabilitation. In that sense, the present study proposes a smart, web-based platform to promote the reeducation of patients after hip replacement surgery. This project focuses on two fundamental aspects in the development of a suitable tele-rehabilitation application, which are: (i being based on an affordable technology, and (ii providing the patients with a real-time assessment of the correctness of their movements. A probabilistic approach based on the development and training of ten Hidden Markov Models (HMMs is used to discriminate in real time the main faults in the execution of the therapeutic exercises. Two experiments are designed to evaluate the precision of the algorithm for classifying movements performed in the laboratory and clinical settings, respectively. A comparative analysis of the data shows that the models are as reliable as the physiotherapists to discriminate and identify the motion errors. The results are discussed in terms of the required setup for a successful application in the field and further implementations to improve the accuracy and usability of the system.

Establishment of Dimethyl Labeling-based Quantitative Acetylproteomics in Arabidopsis.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Shichang; Yu, Fengchao; Yang, Zhu; Wang, Tingliang; Xiong, Hairong; Chang, Caren; Yu, Weichuan; Li, Ning

2018-05-01

Protein acetylation, one of many types of post-translational modifications (PTMs), is involved in a variety of biological and cellular processes. In the present study, we applied both C sCl d ensity g radient (CDG) centrifugation-based protein fractionation and a dimethyl-labeling-based 4C quantitative PTM proteomics workflow in the study of dynamic acetylproteomic changes in Arabidopsis. This workflow integrates the dimethyl c hemical labeling with c hromatography-based acetylpeptide separation and enrichment followed by mass spectrometry (MS) analysis, the extracted ion chromatogram (XIC) quantitation-based c omputational analysis of mass spectrometry data to measure dynamic changes of acetylpeptide level using an in-house software program, named S table isotope-based Qua ntitation- D imethyl labeling (SQUA-D), and finally the c onfirmation of ethylene hormone-regulated acetylation using immunoblot analysis. Eventually, using this proteomic approach, 7456 unambiguous acetylation sites were found from 2638 different acetylproteins, and 5250 acetylation sites, including 5233 sites on lysine side chain and 17 sites on protein N termini, were identified repetitively. Out of these repetitively discovered acetylation sites, 4228 sites on lysine side chain ( i.e. 80.5%) are novel. These acetylproteins are exemplified by the histone superfamily, ribosomal and heat shock proteins, and proteins related to stress/stimulus responses and energy metabolism. The novel acetylproteins enriched by the CDG centrifugation fractionation contain many cellular trafficking proteins, membrane-bound receptors, and receptor-like kinases, which are mostly involved in brassinosteroid, light, gravity, and development signaling. In addition, we identified 12 highly conserved acetylation site motifs within histones, P-glycoproteins, actin depolymerizing factors, ATPases, transcription factors, and receptor-like kinases. Using SQUA-D software, we have quantified 33 ethylene hormone-enhanced and

The Design and Development of Test Platform for Wheat Precision Seeding Based on Image Processing Techniques

OpenAIRE

Li , Qing; Lin , Haibo; Xiu , Yu-Feng; Wang , Ruixue; Yi , Chuijie

2009-01-01

International audience; The test platform of wheat precision seeding based on image processing techniques is designed to develop the wheat precision seed metering device with high efficiency and precision. Using image processing techniques, this platform gathers images of seeds (wheat) on the conveyer belt which are falling from seed metering device. Then these data are processed and analyzed to calculate the qualified rate, reseeding rate and leakage sowing rate, etc. This paper introduces t...

[Willingness to accept an Internet-based mobility platform in different age cohorts. Empiric results of the project S-Mobil 100].

Science.gov (United States)

Beil, J; Cihlar, V; Kruse, A

2015-02-01

The aim of the project S-Mobil 100 is to develop and implement a prototype of an internet-based, generation-appropriate mobility platform in the model region Siegen-Wittgenstein. In the context of an empirical preliminary study, use of technology, experience with technology, general attitudes towards technology, general technology commitment, and the willingness to accept the mobility platform were investigated in different age cohorts. The investigation was carried out using a written survey based on a standardized questionnaire. The sample of 358 persons aged 40-90 years was divided in four age cohorts (40-54, 55-64, 65-74, and 75 + years). Our results show a high willingness to accept the mobility platform in the overall sample. Age, residence, income, and general technology commitment were significant predictors for the judgment of the platform. Although there were group differences in accepting the mobility platform, the older cohorts are also open-minded towards this new technology.

Localizing wushu players on a platform based on a video recording

Science.gov (United States)

Peczek, Piotr M.; Zabołotny, Wojciech M.

2017-08-01

This article describes the development of a method to localize an athlete during sports performance on a platform, based on a static video recording. Considered sport for this method is wushu - martial art. However, any other discipline can be applied. There are specified requirements, and 2 algorithms of image processing are described. The next part presents an experiment that was held based on recordings from the Pan American Wushu Championship. Based on those recordings the steps of the algorithm are shown. Results are evaluated manually. The last part of the article concludes if the algorithm is applicable and what improvements have to be implemented to use it during sports competitions as well as for offline analysis.

InP-based generic foundry platform for photonic integrated circuits

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Augustin, L.M.; Lemos Alvares Dos Santos, R.M.; den Haan, E.; Kleijn, S.E.F.; Thijs, P.J.A.; Latkowski, S.; Zhao, D.; Yao, W.; Bolk, J.; Ambrosius, H.P.M.M.; Mingaleev, S.; Richter, A.; Bakker, A.; Korthorst, T.

2017-01-01

The standardization of photonic integration processes for InP has led to versatile and easily accessible generic integration platforms. The generic integration platforms enable the realization of a broad range of applications and lead to a dramatic cost reduction in the development costs of photonic

A multi-platform flow device for microbial (co- cultivation and microscopic analysis.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Matthijn C Hesselman

Full Text Available Novel microbial cultivation platforms are of increasing interest to researchers in academia and industry. The development of materials with specialized chemical and geometric properties has opened up new possibilities in the study of previously unculturable microorganisms and has facilitated the design of elegant, high-throughput experimental set-ups. Within the context of the international Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM competition, we set out to design, manufacture, and implement a flow device that can accommodate multiple growth platforms, that is, a silicon nitride based microsieve and a porous aluminium oxide based microdish. It provides control over (co-culturing conditions similar to a chemostat, while allowing organisms to be observed microscopically. The device was designed to be affordable, reusable, and above all, versatile. To test its functionality and general utility, we performed multiple experiments with Escherichia coli cells harboring synthetic gene circuits and were able to quantitatively study emerging expression dynamics in real-time via fluorescence microscopy. Furthermore, we demonstrated that the device provides a unique environment for the cultivation of nematodes, suggesting that the device could also prove useful in microscopy studies of multicellular microorganisms.

Optimization and analysis of a quantitative real-time PCR-based technique to determine microRNA expression in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded samples

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Reis Patricia P

2010-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background MicroRNAs (miRs are non-coding RNA molecules involved in post-transcriptional regulation, with diverse functions in tissue development, differentiation, cell proliferation and apoptosis. miRs may be less prone to degradation during formalin fixation, facilitating miR expression studies in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE tissue. Results Our study demonstrates that the TaqMan Human MicroRNA Array v1.0 (Early Access platform is suitable for miR expression analysis in FFPE tissue with a high reproducibility (correlation coefficients of 0.95 between duplicates, p 35, we show that reproducibility between technical replicates, equivalent dilutions, and FFPE vs. frozen samples is best in the high abundance stratum. We also demonstrate that the miR expression profiles of FFPE samples are comparable to those of fresh-frozen samples, with a correlation of up to 0.87 (p Conclusion Our study thus demonstrates the utility, reproducibility, and optimization steps needed in miR expression studies using FFPE samples on a high-throughput quantitative PCR-based miR platform, opening up a realm of research possibilities for retrospective studies.

AI based HealthCare Platform for Real Time, Predictive and Prescriptive Analytics using Reactive Programming

Science.gov (United States)

Kaur, Jagreet; Singh Mann, Kulwinder, Dr.

2018-01-01

AI in Healthcare needed to bring real, actionable insights and Individualized insights in real time for patients and Doctors to support treatment decisions., We need a Patient Centred Platform for integrating EHR Data, Patient Data, Prescriptions, Monitoring, Clinical research and Data. This paper proposes a generic architecture for enabling AI based healthcare analytics Platform by using open sources Technologies Apache beam, Apache Flink Apache Spark, Apache NiFi, Kafka, Tachyon, Gluster FS, NoSQL- Elasticsearch, Cassandra. This paper will show the importance of applying AI based predictive and prescriptive analytics techniques in Health sector. The system will be able to extract useful knowledge that helps in decision making and medical monitoring in real-time through an intelligent process analysis and big data processing.

Cloud-Based Software Platform for Smart Meter Data Management

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Liu, Xiufeng; Nielsen, Per Sieverts

of the so-called big data possible. This can improve energy management, e.g., help utility companies to forecast energy loads and improve services, and help households to manage energy usage and save money. As this regard, the proposed paper focuses on building an innovative software platform for smart...... their knowledge; scalable data analytics platform for data mining over big data sets for energy demand forecasting and consumption discovering; data as the service for other applications using smart meter data; and a portal for visualizing data analytics results. The design will incorporate hybrid clouds......, including Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS), which are suitable for on-demand provisioning, massive scaling, and manageability. Besides, the design will impose extensibility, eciency, and high availability on the system. The paper will evaluate the system comprehensively...

Process systems engineering studies for catalytic production of bio-based platform molecules from lignocellulosic biomass

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Han, Jeehoon

2017-01-01

Highlights: • A process-systems engineering study for production of bio-based platform molecules to is presented. • Experimentally verified catalysis studies for biomass conversion are investigated. • New separations for effective recovery of bio-based platform molecules are developed. • Separations are integrated with catalytic biomass conversions. • Proposed process can compete economically with the current production approaches. - Abstract: This work presents a process-system engineering study of an integrated catalytic conversion strategy to produce bio-based platform molecules (levulinic acid (LA), furfural (FF), and propyl guaiacol (PG)) from hemicellulose (C_5), cellulose (C_6), and lignin fractions of lignocellulosic biomass. A commercial-scale process based on the strategy produces high numerical carbon yields (overall yields: 35.2%; C_6-to-LA: 20.4%, C_5-to-FF: 69.2%, and Lignin-to-PG: 13.3%) from a dilute concentration of solute (1.3–30.0 wt.% solids), but a high recovery of these molecules requires an efficient separation system with low energy requirement. A heat exchanger network significantly reduced the total energy requirements of the process. An economic analysis showed that the minimum selling price of LA as the highest value-added product (42.3 × 10"3 t of LA/y using 700 × 10"3 dry t/y of corn stover) is US$1707/t despite using negative economic parameters, and that this system can be cost-competitive with current production approaches.

A Quantitative Systems Pharmacology Platform to Investigate the Impact of Alirocumab and Cholesterol-Lowering Therapies on Lipid Profiles and Plaque Characteristics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jeffrey E Ming

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Reduction in low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C is associated with decreased risk for cardiovascular disease. Alirocumab, an antibody to proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9, significantly reduces LDL-C. Here, we report development of a quantitative systems pharmacology (QSP model integrating peripheral and liver cholesterol metabolism, as well as PCSK9 function, to examine the mechanisms of action of alirocumab and other lipid-lowering therapies, including statins. The model predicts changes in LDL-C and other lipids that are consistent with effects observed in clinical trials of single or combined treatments of alirocumab and other treatments. An exploratory model to examine the effects of lipid levels on plaque dynamics was also developed. The QSP platform, on further development and qualification, may support dose optimization and clinical trial design for PCSK9 inhibitors and lipid-modulating drugs. It may also improve our understanding of factors affecting therapeutic responses in different phenotypes of dyslipidemia and cardiovascular disease.

A High-Throughput Antibody-Based Microarray Typing Platform

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ashan Perera

2013-05-01

Full Text Available Many rapid methods have been developed for screening foods for the presence of pathogenic microorganisms. Rapid methods that have the additional ability to identify microorganisms via multiplexed immunological recognition have the potential for classification or typing of microbial contaminants thus facilitating epidemiological investigations that aim to identify outbreaks and trace back the contamination to its source. This manuscript introduces a novel, high throughput typing platform that employs microarrayed multiwell plate substrates and laser-induced fluorescence of the nucleic acid intercalating dye/stain SYBR Gold for detection of antibody-captured bacteria. The aim of this study was to use this platform for comparison of different sets of antibodies raised against the same pathogens as well as demonstrate its potential effectiveness for serotyping. To that end, two sets of antibodies raised against each of the “Big Six” non-O157 Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC as well as E. coli O157:H7 were array-printed into microtiter plates, and serial dilutions of the bacteria were added and subsequently detected. Though antibody specificity was not sufficient for the development of an STEC serotyping method, the STEC antibody sets performed reasonably well exhibiting that specificity increased at lower capture antibody concentrations or, conversely, at lower bacterial target concentrations. The favorable results indicated that with sufficiently selective and ideally concentrated sets of biorecognition elements (e.g., antibodies or aptamers, this high-throughput platform can be used to rapidly type microbial isolates derived from food samples within ca. 80 min of total assay time. It can also potentially be used to detect the pathogens from food enrichments and at least serve as a platform for testing antibodies.

Smart home-based health platform for behavioral monitoring and alteration of diabetes patients.

Science.gov (United States)

Helal, Abdelsalam; Cook, Diane J; Schmalz, Mark

2009-01-01

Researchers and medical practitioners have long sought the ability to continuously and automatically monitor patients beyond the confines of a doctor's office. We describe a smart home monitoring and analysis platform that facilitates the automatic gathering of rich databases of behavioral information in a manner that is transparent to the patient. Collected information will be automatically or manually analyzed and reported to the caregivers and may be interpreted for behavioral modification in the patient. Our health platform consists of five technology layers. The architecture is designed to be flexible, extensible, and transparent, to support plug-and-play operation of new devices and components, and to provide remote monitoring and programming opportunities. The smart home-based health platform technologies have been tested in two physical smart environments. Data that are collected in these implemented physical layers are processed and analyzed by our activity recognition and chewing classification algorithms. All of these components have yielded accurate analyses for subjects in the smart environment test beds. This work represents an important first step in the field of smart environment-based health monitoring and assistance. The architecture can be used to monitor the activity, diet, and exercise compliance of diabetes patients and evaluate the effects of alternative medicine and behavior regimens. We believe these technologies are essential for providing accessible, low-cost health assistance in an individual's own home and for providing the best possible quality of life for individuals with diabetes. © Diabetes Technology Society

The Design of Individual Knowledge Sharing Platform Based on Blog for Online Information Literacy Education

Science.gov (United States)

Qun, Zeng; Xiaocheng, Zhong

Knowledge sharing means that an individual, team and organization share the knowledge with other members of the organization in the course of activities through the various ways. This paper analyzes the obstacle factors in knowledge sharing based on the technical point, and chooses the Blog technology to build a platform for improving knowledge sharing between individuals. The construction of the platform is an important foundation for information literacy education, and it also can be used to achieve online information literacy education. Finally, it gives a detailed analysis of its functions, advantages and disadvantages.

A framework for the quantitative assessment of performance-based system resilience

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tran, Huy T.; Balchanos, Michael; Domerçant, Jean Charles; Mavris, Dimitri N.

2017-01-01

Increasing system complexity and threat uncertainty require the consideration of resilience in the design and analysis of engineered systems. While the resilience engineering community has begun to converge on a definition and set of characteristics for resilience, methods for quantifying the concept are still limited in their applicability to system designers. This paper proposes a framework for assessing resilience that focuses on the ability of a system to absorb disruptions, recover from them, and adapt over time. The framework extends current approaches by explicitly considering temporal aspects of system responses to disruptions, volatility in system performance data, and the possibility of multiple disruption events. Notional system performance data is generated using the logistic function, providing an experimental platform for a parametric comparison of the proposed resilience metric with an integration-based metric. An information exchange network model is used to demonstrate the applicability of the framework towards system design tradeoff studies using stochastic simulations. The presented framework is domain-agnostic and flexible, such that it can be applied to a variety of systems and adjusted to focus on specific aspects of resilience. - Highlights: • We propose a quantitative framework and metrics for assessing system resilience. • Metrics focus on absorption, recovery, and adaptation to disruptions. • The framework accepts volatile data and is easily automated for simulation studies. • The framework is applied to a model of adaptive information exchange networks. • Results show benefits of network adaptation against random and targeted threats.

Fluorescence-based Western blotting for quantitation of protein biomarkers in clinical samples.

Science.gov (United States)

Zellner, Maria; Babeluk, Rita; Diestinger, Michael; Pirchegger, Petra; Skeledzic, Senada; Oehler, Rudolf

2008-09-01

Since most high throughput techniques used in biomarker discovery are very time and cost intensive, highly specific and quantitative analytical alternative application methods are needed for the routine analysis. Conventional Western blotting allows detection of specific proteins to the level of single isotypes while its quantitative accuracy is rather limited. We report a novel and improved quantitative Western blotting method. The use of fluorescently labelled secondary antibodies strongly extends the dynamic range of the quantitation and improves the correlation with the protein amount (r=0.997). By an additional fluorescent staining of all proteins immediately after their transfer to the blot membrane, it is possible to visualise simultaneously the antibody binding and the total protein profile. This allows for an accurate correction for protein load. Applying this normalisation it could be demonstrated that fluorescence-based Western blotting is able to reproduce a quantitative analysis of two specific proteins in blood platelet samples from 44 subjects with different diseases as initially conducted by 2D-DIGE. These results show that the proposed fluorescence-based Western blotting is an adequate application technique for biomarker quantitation and suggest possibilities of employment that go far beyond.

Hybrid Microfluidic Platform for Multifactorial Analysis Based on Electrical Impedance, Refractometry, Optical Absorption and Fluorescence

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fábio M. Pereira

2016-10-01

Full Text Available This paper describes the development of a novel microfluidic platform for multifactorial analysis integrating four label-free detection methods: electrical impedance, refractometry, optical absorption and fluorescence. We present the rationale for the design and the details of the microfabrication of this multifactorial hybrid microfluidic chip. The structure of the platform consists of a three-dimensionally patterned polydimethylsiloxane top part attached to a bottom SU-8 epoxy-based negative photoresist part, where microelectrodes and optical fibers are incorporated to enable impedance and optical analysis. As a proof of concept, the chip functions have been tested and explored, enabling a diversity of applications: (i impedance-based identification of the size of micro beads, as well as counting and distinguishing of erythrocytes by their volume or membrane properties; (ii simultaneous determination of the refractive index and optical absorption properties of solutions; and (iii fluorescence-based bead counting.

A Platform for Mobile Service Provisioning Based on SOA-Integration

Science.gov (United States)

Decker, Michael; Bulander, Rebecca

A middleware platform designed for the provisioning of data services for mobile computers using wireless data communication (e.g. smartphones or PDAs) has to offer a variety of different features. Some of these features have to be provided by external parties, e.g. billing or content syndication. The integration of all these features while considering mobile-specific challenges is a demanding task. In the article at hand we thus describe a middleware platform for mobile services which follows the idea of a so called Enterprise Service Bus (ESB). We explain the concept of ESB and argue why an ESB is an appropriate fundament for a platform for mobile service provisioning.

Single-Cell Based Quantitative Assay of Chromosome Transmission Fidelity.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhu, Jin; Heinecke, Dominic; Mulla, Wahid A; Bradford, William D; Rubinstein, Boris; Box, Andrew; Haug, Jeffrey S; Li, Rong

2015-03-30

Errors in mitosis are a primary cause of chromosome instability (CIN), generating aneuploid progeny cells. Whereas a variety of factors can influence CIN, under most conditions mitotic errors are rare events that have been difficult to measure accurately. Here we report a green fluorescent protein-based quantitative chromosome transmission fidelity (qCTF) assay in budding yeast that allows sensitive and quantitative detection of CIN and can be easily adapted to high-throughput analysis. Using the qCTF assay, we performed genome-wide quantitative profiling of genes that affect CIN in a dosage-dependent manner and identified genes that elevate CIN when either increased (icCIN) or decreased in copy number (dcCIN). Unexpectedly, qCTF screening also revealed genes whose change in copy number quantitatively suppress CIN, suggesting that the basal error rate of the wild-type genome is not minimized, but rather, may have evolved toward an optimal level that balances both stability and low-level karyotype variation for evolutionary adaptation. Copyright © 2015 Zhu et al.

From WSN towards WoT: Open API Scheme Based on oneM2M Platforms

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Jaeho; Choi, Sung-Chan; Ahn, Il-Yeup; Sung, Nak-Myoung; Yun, Jaeseok

2016-01-01

Conventional computing systems have been able to be integrated into daily objects and connected to each other due to advances in computing and network technologies, such as wireless sensor networks (WSNs), forming a global network infrastructure, called the Internet of Things (IoT). To support the interconnection and interoperability between heterogeneous IoT systems, the availability of standardized, open application programming interfaces (APIs) is one of the key features of common software platforms for IoT devices, gateways, and servers. In this paper, we present a standardized way of extending previously-existing WSNs towards IoT systems, building the world of the Web of Things (WoT). Based on the oneM2M software platforms developed in the previous project, we introduce a well-designed open API scheme and device-specific thing adaptation software (TAS) enabling WSN elements, such as a wireless sensor node, to be accessed in a standardized way on a global scale. Three pilot services are implemented (i.e., a WiFi-enabled smart flowerpot, voice-based control for ZigBee-connected home appliances, and WiFi-connected AR.Drone control) to demonstrate the practical usability of the open API scheme and TAS modules. Full details on the method of integrating WSN elements into three example systems are described at the programming code level, which is expected to help future researchers in integrating their WSN systems in IoT platforms, such as oneM2M. We hope that the flexibly-deployable, easily-reusable common open API scheme and TAS-based integration method working with the oneM2M platforms will help the conventional WSNs in diverse industries evolve into the emerging WoT solutions. PMID:27782058

From WSN towards WoT: Open API Scheme Based on oneM2M Platforms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jaeho Kim

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Conventional computing systems have been able to be integrated into daily objects and connected to each other due to advances in computing and network technologies, such as wireless sensor networks (WSNs, forming a global network infrastructure, called the Internet of Things (IoT. To support the interconnection and interoperability between heterogeneous IoT systems, the availability of standardized, open application programming interfaces (APIs is one of the key features of common software platforms for IoT devices, gateways, and servers. In this paper, we present a standardized way of extending previously-existing WSNs towards IoT systems, building the world of the Web of Things (WoT. Based on the oneM2M software platforms developed in the previous project, we introduce a well-designed open API scheme and device-specific thing adaptation software (TAS enabling WSN elements, such as a wireless sensor node, to be accessed in a standardized way on a global scale. Three pilot services are implemented (i.e., a WiFi-enabled smart flowerpot, voice-based control for ZigBee-connected home appliances, and WiFi-connected AR.Drone control to demonstrate the practical usability of the open API scheme and TAS modules. Full details on the method of integrating WSN elements into three example systems are described at the programming code level, which is expected to help future researchers in integrating their WSN systems in IoT platforms, such as oneM2M. We hope that the flexibly-deployable, easily-reusable common open API scheme and TAS-based integration method working with the oneM2M platforms will help the conventional WSNs in diverse industries evolve into the emerging WoT solutions.

From WSN towards WoT: Open API Scheme Based on oneM2M Platforms.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Jaeho; Choi, Sung-Chan; Ahn, Il-Yeup; Sung, Nak-Myoung; Yun, Jaeseok

2016-10-06

Conventional computing systems have been able to be integrated into daily objects and connected to each other due to advances in computing and network technologies, such as wireless sensor networks (WSNs), forming a global network infrastructure, called the Internet of Things (IoT). To support the interconnection and interoperability between heterogeneous IoT systems, the availability of standardized, open application programming interfaces (APIs) is one of the key features of common software platforms for IoT devices, gateways, and servers. In this paper, we present a standardized way of extending previously-existing WSNs towards IoT systems, building the world of the Web of Things (WoT). Based on the oneM2M software platforms developed in the previous project, we introduce a well-designed open API scheme and device-specific thing adaptation software (TAS) enabling WSN elements, such as a wireless sensor node, to be accessed in a standardized way on a global scale. Three pilot services are implemented (i.e., a WiFi-enabled smart flowerpot, voice-based control for ZigBee-connected home appliances, and WiFi-connected AR.Drone control) to demonstrate the practical usability of the open API scheme and TAS modules. Full details on the method of integrating WSN elements into three example systems are described at the programming code level, which is expected to help future researchers in integrating their WSN systems in IoT platforms, such as oneM2M. We hope that the flexibly-deployable, easily-reusable common open API scheme and TAS-based integration method working with the oneM2M platforms will help the conventional WSNs in diverse industries evolve into the emerging WoT solutions.

Yarrowia lipolytica as an Oleaginous Cell Factory Platform for Production of Fatty Acid-Based Biofuel and Bioproducts

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Abghari, Ali; Chen, Shulin, E-mail: chens@wsu.edu [Bioprocessing and Bioproducts Engineering Laboratory, Department of Biological Systems Engineering, Washington State University, Pullman, WA (United States)

2014-06-19

Today’s biotechnologists seek new biocatalysts to meet the growing demand for the bioproducts. This review critically evaluates the potential use of Y. lipolytica as an oleaginous cell factory platform. This yeast has undergone extensive modifications for converting a wide range of hydrophobic and hydrophilic biomass, including alkane, oil, glycerol, and sugars to fatty acid-based products. This article highlights challenges in the development of this platform and provides an overview of strategies to enhance its potential in the sustainable production of biodiesel, functional dietary lipid compounds, and other value-added oleochemical compounds. Future applications of the recombinant Y. lipolytica platform are also discussed.

Telescope Array Control System Based on Wireless Touch Screen Platform

Science.gov (United States)

Fu, Xia-nan; Huang, Lei; Wei, Jian-yan

2017-10-01

Ground-based Wide Angle Cameras (GMAC) are the ground-based observational facility for the SVOM (Space Variable Object Monitor) astronomical satellite of Sino-French cooperation, and Mini-GWAC is the pathfinder and supplement of GWAC. In the context of the Mini-GWAC telescope array, this paper introduces the design and implementation of a kind of telescope array control system based on the wireless touch screen platform. We describe the development and implementation of the system in detail in terms of control system principle, system hardware structure, software design, experiment, and test etc. The system uses a touch-control PC which is based on the Windows CE system as the upper computer, while the wireless transceiver module and PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) are taken as the system kernel. It has the advantages of low cost, reliable data transmission, and simple operation. And the control system has been applied to the Mini-GWAC successfully.

Design and Development of Fire Gridding Platform Based on Internet of Things

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wei San-Xi

2016-01-01

Full Text Available This article describes the construction background about fire gridding platform, reviews the research and progress in fire Internet of Things and fire gridding. The platform includes perception / execution layer, field control layer, network layer, center platform layer and application layer, which provide a good bonding about site control and remote monitoring. This article supplies a detail design for the main functions of application and task flow of fire hazard investigation. At the same time, a digital management platform was developed.

21 CFR 890.3940 - Wheelchair platform scale.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 21 Food and Drugs 8 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Wheelchair platform scale. 890.3940 Section 890.3940 Food and Drugs FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES (CONTINUED... platform scale. (a) Identification. A wheelchair platform scale is a device with a base designed to...

An open-source automated continuous condition-based maintenance platform for commercial buildings

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Katipamula, Srinivas; Gowri, Krishnan; Hernandez, George

2016-09-09

This paper describes one such reference process that can be deployed to provide continuous automated conditioned-based maintenance management for buildings that have BIM, a building automation system (BAS) and a computerized maintenance management software (CMMS) systems. The process can be deployed using an open source transactional network platform, VOLTTRON™, designed for distributed sensing and controls and supports both energy efficiency and grid services.

Graphene-Plasmonic Hybrid Platform for Label-Free SERS Biomedical Detection

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Pu

Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) has attracted explosive interest for the wealth of vibrational information it provides with minimal invasive effects to target analyte. Nanotechnology, especially in the form of noble metal nanoparticles exhibit unique electromagnetic and chemical characteristics that are explored to realize ultra-sensitive SERS detection in chemical and biological analysis. Graphene, atom-thick carbon monolayer, exhibits superior chemical stability and bio-compatibility. A combination of SERS-active metal nanostructures and graphene will create various synergies in SERS. The main objective of this research was to exploit the applications of the graphene-Au tip hybrid platform in SERS. The hybrid platform consists of a periodic Au nano-pyramid substrate to provide reproducible plasmonic enhancement, and the superimposed monolayer graphene sheet, serving as "built-in" Raman marker. Extensive theoretical and experimental studies were conducted to determine the potentials of the hybrid platform as SERS substrate. Results from both Finite-Domain Time-Domain (FDTD) numerical simulation and Raman scattering of graphene suggested that the hybrid platform boosted a high density of hotspots yielding 1000 times SERS enhancement of graphene bands. Ultra-high sensitivity of the hybrid platform was demonstrated by bio-molecules including dye, protein and neurotransmitters. Dopamine and serotonin can be detected and distinguished at 10-9 M concentration in the presence of human body fluid. Single molecule detection was obtained using a bi-analyte technique. Graphene supported a vibration mode dependent SERS chemical enhancement of ˜10 to the analyte. Quantitative evaluation of hotspots was presented using spatially resolved Raman mapping of graphene SERS enhancement. Graphene plays a crucial role in quantifying SERS hotspots and paves the path for defining SERS EF that could be universally applied to various SERS systems. A reproducible and statistically

Comparison of microarray platforms for measuring differential microRNA expression in paired normal/cancer colon tissues.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maurizio Callari

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Microarray technology applied to microRNA (miRNA profiling is a promising tool in many research fields; nevertheless, independent studies characterizing the same pathology have often reported poorly overlapping results. miRNA analysis methods have only recently been systematically compared but only in few cases using clinical samples. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We investigated the inter-platform reproducibility of four miRNA microarray platforms (Agilent, Exiqon, Illumina, and Miltenyi, comparing nine paired tumor/normal colon tissues. The most concordant and selected discordant miRNAs were further studied by quantitative RT-PCR. Globally, a poor overlap among differentially expressed miRNAs identified by each platform was found. Nevertheless, for eight miRNAs high agreement in differential expression among the four platforms and comparability to qRT-PCR was observed. Furthermore, most of the miRNA sets identified by each platform are coherently enriched in data from the other platforms and the great majority of colon cancer associated miRNA sets derived from the literature were validated in our data, independently from the platform. Computational integration of miRNA and gene expression profiles suggested that anti-correlated predicted target genes of differentially expressed miRNAs are commonly enriched in cancer-related pathways and in genes involved in glycolysis and nutrient transport. CONCLUSIONS: Technical and analytical challenges in measuring miRNAs still remain and further research is required in order to increase consistency between different microarray-based methodologies. However, a better inter-platform agreement was found by looking at miRNA sets instead of single miRNAs and through a miRNAs - gene expression integration approach.

Virtual Distances Methodology as Verification Technique for AACMMs with a Capacitive Sensor Based Indexed Metrology Platform

Science.gov (United States)

Acero, Raquel; Santolaria, Jorge; Brau, Agustin; Pueo, Marcos

2016-01-01

This paper presents a new verification procedure for articulated arm coordinate measuring machines (AACMMs) together with a capacitive sensor-based indexed metrology platform (IMP) based on the generation of virtual reference distances. The novelty of this procedure lays on the possibility of creating virtual points, virtual gauges and virtual distances through the indexed metrology platform’s mathematical model taking as a reference the measurements of a ball bar gauge located in a fixed position of the instrument’s working volume. The measurements are carried out with the AACMM assembled on the IMP from the six rotating positions of the platform. In this way, an unlimited number and types of reference distances could be created without the need of using a physical gauge, therefore optimizing the testing time, the number of gauge positions and the space needed in the calibration and verification procedures. Four evaluation methods are presented to assess the volumetric performance of the AACMM. The results obtained proved the suitability of the virtual distances methodology as an alternative procedure for verification of AACMMs using the indexed metrology platform. PMID:27869722

Integrated vehicle-based safety systems (IVBSS) : light vehicle platform field operational test data analysis plan.

Science.gov (United States)

2009-12-22

This document presents the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institutes plan to : perform analysis of data collected from the light vehicle platform field operational test of the : Integrated Vehicle-Based Safety Systems (IVBSS) progr...

Integrated vehicle-based safety systems (IVBSS) : heavy truck platform field operational test data analysis plan.

Science.gov (United States)

2009-11-23

This document presents the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institutes plan to perform : analysis of data collected from the heavy truck platform field operational test of the Integrated Vehicle- : Based Safety Systems (IVBSS) progra...

SPARQLGraph: a web-based platform for graphically querying biological Semantic Web databases.

Science.gov (United States)

Schweiger, Dominik; Trajanoski, Zlatko; Pabinger, Stephan

2014-08-15

Semantic Web has established itself as a framework for using and sharing data across applications and database boundaries. Here, we present a web-based platform for querying biological Semantic Web databases in a graphical way. SPARQLGraph offers an intuitive drag & drop query builder, which converts the visual graph into a query and executes it on a public endpoint. The tool integrates several publicly available Semantic Web databases, including the databases of the just recently released EBI RDF platform. Furthermore, it provides several predefined template queries for answering biological questions. Users can easily create and save new query graphs, which can also be shared with other researchers. This new graphical way of creating queries for biological Semantic Web databases considerably facilitates usability as it removes the requirement of knowing specific query languages and database structures. The system is freely available at http://sparqlgraph.i-med.ac.at.

A New Size-based Platform for Circulating Tumor Cell Detection in Colorectal Cancer Patients.

Science.gov (United States)

Oh, Bo Young; Kim, Jhingook; Lee, Woo Yong; Kim, Hee Cheol

2017-09-01

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) might play a significant role in cancer progression and metastasis. However, the ability to detect CTCs is limited, especially in cells undergoing epithelial-mesenchymal transition. In this study, we evaluated a new size-based CTC detection platform and its clinical efficacy in colorectal cancer. Blood samples were obtained from 76 patients with colorectal cancer and 20 healthy control subjects for CTC analysis. CTCs were enriched using a high-density microporous chip filter and were detected using a 4-color staining protocol including 4',6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) for nucleated cells, CD45 monoclonal antibody (mAb) as a leukocyte marker, and epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) mAb or cytokeratin (CK) mAb as an epithelial cell marker. CTC positivity was defined as DAPI-positive (DAPI + )/CD45 - /EpCAM + or CK + cells and clinical outcomes of patients were analyzed according to CTC counts. CTCs were detected in 50 patients using this size-based filtration platform. CTC + patients were more frequently identified with a high level of carcinoembryonic antigen and advanced stage cancer (P = .038 and P = .017, respectively). CTC counts for patients with stage IV cancer (12.47 ± 24.00) were significantly higher than those for patients with cancers that were stage I to III (2.84 ± 5.29; P = .005) and healthy control subjects (0.25 ± 0.55; P colorectal cancer patients. Our results suggest that this new size-based platform has potential for determining prognosis and therapeutic response in colorectal cancer patients. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

On the analysis of building a public information platform based on e-Commerce for coal logistics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zeguo Qiu

2013-09-01

Full Text Available Purpose: Putting forward the concept and features of the public information platform for coal logistics based on electronic commerce, as well as the requirements of upper and lower intersections of the coal supply chain. Meanwhile, this paper will also probe into the current condition of statistics management in coal logistics, and then discuss how to build a public information platform based on electronic commerce for coal logistics. Design/methodology/approach: According to the further exploring the concepts and relevant characteristics and the development of coal logistics and supply chain management in China of the current period. Findings/ Practical implications: An advanced public information platform for coal logistics utilizes to best advantage modern information technologies and managerial concepts in the operation of coal logistics, such as e-commerce, e-information, supply chain management, etc. This not only stimulates efficient integration of business flow, information flow, logistics and capital flow of the coal industry, brings about in-depth integration of the logistics resources of the coal industry, but also greatly improves the efficiency of the operation of coal logistics, reduces the cost of coal logistics, and enhances the overall competitiveness of upstream and downstream companies along the coal supply chain. Research limitations/implications: Although the coal logistics public information platform has been applied in some enterprises in China, not yet in a broader range of applications, which need the joint efforts of all parties. Originality/value: Fitted to the e-commerce era, the Public Information Platform for Coal Logistics envisioned in this article is highly feasible and worthy of reference to relevant institutions.

Optofluidic time-stretch quantitative phase microscopy.

Science.gov (United States)

Guo, Baoshan; Lei, Cheng; Wu, Yi; Kobayashi, Hirofumi; Ito, Takuro; Yalikun, Yaxiaer; Lee, Sangwook; Isozaki, Akihiro; Li, Ming; Jiang, Yiyue; Yasumoto, Atsushi; Di Carlo, Dino; Tanaka, Yo; Yatomi, Yutaka; Ozeki, Yasuyuki; Goda, Keisuke

2018-03-01

Innovations in optical microscopy have opened new windows onto scientific research, industrial quality control, and medical practice over the last few decades. One of such innovations is optofluidic time-stretch quantitative phase microscopy - an emerging method for high-throughput quantitative phase imaging that builds on the interference between temporally stretched signal and reference pulses by using dispersive properties of light in both spatial and temporal domains in an interferometric configuration on a microfluidic platform. It achieves the continuous acquisition of both intensity and phase images with a high throughput of more than 10,000 particles or cells per second by overcoming speed limitations that exist in conventional quantitative phase imaging methods. Applications enabled by such capabilities are versatile and include characterization of cancer cells and microalgal cultures. In this paper, we review the principles and applications of optofluidic time-stretch quantitative phase microscopy and discuss its future perspective. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Nucleic Acid-based Detection of Bacterial Pathogens Using Integrated Microfluidic Platform Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carl A. Batt

2009-05-01

Full Text Available The advent of nucleic acid-based pathogen detection methods offers increased sensitivity and specificity over traditional microbiological techniques, driving the development of portable, integrated biosensors. The miniaturization and automation of integrated detection systems presents a significant advantage for rapid, portable field-based testing. In this review, we highlight current developments and directions in nucleic acid-based micro total analysis systems for the detection of bacterial pathogens. Recent progress in the miniaturization of microfluidic processing steps for cell capture, DNA extraction and purification, polymerase chain reaction, and product detection are detailed. Discussions include strategies and challenges for implementation of an integrated portable platform.

Bio-based C-3 Platform Chemical: Biotechnological Production and -Conversion of 3-Hydroxypropionaldehyde

OpenAIRE

Rezaei, Roya

2013-01-01

Demands for efficient, greener, economical and sustainable production of chemicals, materials and energy have led to development of industrial biotechnology as a key technology area to provide such products from bio-based raw materials from agricultural-, forestry- and related industrial residues and by-products. For the bio-based industry, it is essential to develop a number of building blocks or platform chemicals for C2-C6 chemicals and even aromatic chemicals. 3-hydroxypropionaldehyde (3H...

Simulation research about China Experimental Fast Reactor steam turboset based on Flowmaster platform

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yan Hao; Tian Zhaofei

2014-01-01

In the third loop of China Experimental Fast Reactor (CEFR), steam turboset take an important role in converting heat energy into electric energy. However, turbo sets have not been operated on the condition of more than 40%P_0 (P_0 is full power) since they were installed. Thus it is necessary to make an analogue simulation. Based on the real models of turbo sets in CEFR, simulation models were created with the help of Flowmaster platform. By using such simulation models, a steady state result in full power circumstance was got, which is in accordance with design parameters. Meanwhile, a transient state simulation with operating condition ranging from full power to 40%P_0 was accomplished and a result which verifies part of performance and running conditions of turbo sets was got. The result of analogue simulation shows that based on Flowmaster platform, the running condition of simulation models can comply with design requirement, and offer reference values to the actual running. Such simulation models can also offer reference values to other simulation models in the third loop of CEFR. (authors)

Development of an IHE MRRT-compliant open-source web-based reporting platform.

Science.gov (United States)

Pinto Dos Santos, Daniel; Klos, G; Kloeckner, R; Oberle, R; Dueber, C; Mildenberger, P

2017-01-01

To develop a platform that uses structured reporting templates according to the IHE Management of Radiology Report Templates (MRRT) profile, and to implement this platform into clinical routine. The reporting platform uses standard web technologies (HTML / JavaScript and PHP / MySQL) only. Several freely available external libraries were used to simplify the programming. The platform runs on a standard web server, connects with the radiology information system (RIS) and PACS, and is easily accessible via a standard web browser. A prototype platform that allows structured reporting to be easily incorporated into the clinical routine was developed and successfully tested. To date, 797 reports were generated using IHE MRRT-compliant templates (many of them downloaded from the RSNA's radreport.org website). Reports are stored in a MySQL database and are easily accessible for further analyses. Development of an IHE MRRT-compliant platform for structured reporting is feasible using only standard web technologies. All source code will be made available upon request under a free license, and the participation of other institutions in further development is welcome. • A platform for structured reporting using IHE MRRT-compliant templates is presented. • Incorporating structured reporting into clinical routine is feasible. • Full source code will be provided upon request under a free license.

The VISPA Internet Platform for Students

Science.gov (United States)

Asseldonk, D. v.; Erdmann, M.; Fischer, R.; Glaser, C.; Müller, G.; Quast, T.; Rieger, M.; Urban, M.

2016-04-01

The VISPA internet platform enables users to remotely run Python scripts and view resulting plots or inspect their output data. With a standard web browser as the only user requirement on the client-side, the system becomes suitable for blended learning approaches for university physics students. VISPA was used in two consecutive years each by approx. 100 third year physics students at the RWTH Aachen University for their homework assignments. For example, in one exercise students gained a deeper understanding of Einsteins mass-energy relation by analyzing experimental data of electron-positron pairs revealing J / Ψ and Z particles. Because the students were free to choose their working hours, only few users accessed the platform simultaneously. The positive feedback from students and the stability of the platform lead to further development of the concept. This year, students accessed the platform in parallel while they analyzed the data recorded by demonstrated experiments live in the lecture hall. The platform is based on experience in the development of professional analysis tools. It combines core technologies from previous projects: an object-oriented C++ library, a modular data-driven analysis flow, and visual analysis steering. We present the platform and discuss its benefits in the context of teaching based on surveys that are conducted each semester.

A user-friendly LabVIEW software platform for grating based X-ray phase-contrast imaging.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Shenghao; Han, Huajie; Gao, Kun; Wang, Zhili; Zhang, Can; Yang, Meng; Wu, Zhao; Wu, Ziyu

2015-01-01

X-ray phase-contrast imaging can provide greatly improved contrast over conventional absorption-based imaging for weakly absorbing samples, such as biological soft tissues and fibre composites. In this study, we introduced an easy and fast way to develop a user-friendly software platform dedicated to the new grating-based X-ray phase-contrast imaging setup at the National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory of the University of Science and Technology of China. The control of 21 motorized stages, of a piezoelectric stage and of an X-ray tube are achieved with this software, it also covers image acquisition with a flat panel detector for automatic phase stepping scan. Moreover, a data post-processing module for signals retrieval and other custom features are in principle available. With a seamless integration of all the necessary functions in one software package, this platform greatly facilitate users' activities during experimental runs with this grating based X-ray phase contrast imaging setup.

Multimodality Imaging with Silica-Based Targeted Nanoparticle Platforms

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jason S. Lewis

2012-04-09

Objectives: To synthesize and characterize a C-Dot silica-based nanoparticle containing 'clickable' groups for the subsequent attachment of targeting moieties (e.g., peptides) and multiple contrast agents (e.g., radionuclides with high specific activity) [1,2]. These new constructs will be tested in suitable tumor models in vitro and in vivo to ensure maintenance of target-specificity and high specific activity. Methods: Cy5 dye molecules are cross-linked to a silica precursor which is reacted to form a dye-rich core particle. This core is then encapsulated in a layer of pure silica to create the core-shell C-Dot (Figure 1) [2]. A 'click' chemistry approach has been used to functionalize the silica shell with radionuclides conferring high contrast and specific activity (e.g. 64Cu and 89Zr) and peptides for tumor targeting (e.g. cRGD and octreotate) [3]. Based on the selective Diels-Alder reaction between tetrazine and norbornene, the reaction is bioorthogonal, highyielding, rapid, and water-compatible. This radiolabeling approach has already been employed successfully with both short peptides (e.g. octreotate) and antibodies (e.g. trastuzumab) as model systems for the ultimate labeling of the nanoparticles [1]. Results: PEGylated C-Dots with a Cy5 core and labeled with tetrazine have been synthesized (d = 55 nm, zeta potential = -3 mV) reliably and reproducibly and have been shown to be stable under physiological conditions for up to 1 month. Characterization of the nanoparticles revealed that the immobilized Cy5 dye within the C-Dots exhibited fluorescence intensities over twice that of the fluorophore alone. The nanoparticles were successfully radiolabeled with Cu-64. Efforts toward the conjugation of targeting peptides (e.g. cRGD) are underway. In vitro stability, specificity, and uptake studies as well as in vivo imaging and biodistribution investigations will be presented. Conclusions: C-Dot silica-based nanoparticles offer a robust

H-Shaped Multiple Linear Motor Drive Platform Control System Design Based on an Inverse System Method

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Caiyan Qin

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Due to its simple mechanical structure and high motion stability, the H-shaped platform has been increasingly widely used in precision measuring, numerical control machining and semiconductor packaging equipment, etc. The H-shaped platform is normally driven by multiple (three permanent magnet synchronous linear motors. The main challenges for H-shaped platform-control include synchronous control between the two linear motors in the Y direction as well as total positioning error of the platform mover, a combination of position deviation in X and Y directions. To deal with the above challenges, this paper proposes a control strategy based on the inverse system method through state feedback and dynamic decoupling of the thrust force. First, mechanical dynamics equations have been deduced through the analysis of system coupling based on the platform structure. Second, the mathematical model of the linear motors and the relevant coordinate transformation between dq-axis currents and ABC-phase currents are analyzed. Third, after the main concept of inverse system method being explained, the inverse system model of the platform control system has been designed after defining relevant system variables. Inverse system model compensates the original nonlinear coupled system into pseudo-linear decoupled linear system, for which typical linear control methods, like PID, can be adopted to control the system. The simulation model of the control system is built in MATLAB/Simulink and the simulation result shows that the designed control system has both small synchronous deviation and small total trajectory tracking error. Furthermore, the control program has been run on NI controller for both fixed-loop-time and free-loop-time modes, and the test result shows that the average loop computation time needed is rather small, which makes it suitable for real industrial applications. Overall, it proves that the proposed new control strategy can be used in

Nanotechnology-based polymeric bio(muco)adhesive platforms for controlling drug delivery - properties, methodologies and applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Carvalho, Flavia Chiva; Chorilli, Marlus; Gremiao, Maria Palmira Daflon

2014-01-01

Studies using bio(muco)adhesive drug delivery systems have recently gained great interest, which can promote drug targeting and more specific contact of the drug delivery system with the various absorptive membranes of the body. This technological platform associated with nanotechnology offers potential for controlling drug delivery; therefore, they are excellent strategies to increase the bioavailability of drugs. The objective of this work was to study nanotechnology-based polymeric bio(muco)adhesive platforms for controlling drug delivery, highlighting their properties, how the bio(muco)adhesion can be measured and their potential applications for different routes of administration. (author)

Performance evaluations of advanced massively parallel platforms based on gyrokinetic toroidal five-dimensional Eulerian code GT5D

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Idomura, Yasuhiro; Jolliet, Sebastien

2010-01-01

A gyrokinetic toroidal five dimensional Eulerian code GT5D is ported on six advanced massively parallel platforms and comprehensive benchmark tests are performed. A parallelisation technique based on physical properties of the gyrokinetic equation is presented. By extending the parallelisation technique with a hybrid parallel model, the scalability of the code is improved on platforms with multi-core processors. In the benchmark tests, a good salability is confirmed up to several thousands cores on every platforms, and the maximum sustained performance of ∼18.6 Tflops is achieved using 16384 cores of BX900. (author)

Evaluation of E-learning Platforms: a Case Study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cristina POP

2012-01-01

Full Text Available In the recent past, a great number of e-learning platforms have been introduced on the market showing different characteristics and services. These platforms can be evaluated using multiple criteria and methods. This paper proposes a list of selected quality criteria for describing, characterizing and selecting e-learning platform. These criteria were designed based on e-learning standards. I also propose a mathematical model to determine the probability that a student uses an e-learning platform based on the factors (criteria that determine the quality of the platform and the socio-demographic variables of the student. The case study presented is an application of the model and the input data, intermediate calculations and final results were processed using SAS (Statistical Analysis Software.

Development of an IHE MRRT-compliant open-source web-based reporting platform

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pinto dos Santos, Daniel; Klos, G.; Kloeckner, R.; Oberle, R.; Dueber, C.; Mildenberger, P. [University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, Mainz (Germany)

2017-01-15

To develop a platform that uses structured reporting templates according to the IHE Management of Radiology Report Templates (MRRT) profile, and to implement this platform into clinical routine. The reporting platform uses standard web technologies (HTML / JavaScript and PHP / MySQL) only. Several freely available external libraries were used to simplify the programming. The platform runs on a standard web server, connects with the radiology information system (RIS) and PACS, and is easily accessible via a standard web browser. A prototype platform that allows structured reporting to be easily incorporated into the clinical routine was developed and successfully tested. To date, 797 reports were generated using IHE MRRT-compliant templates (many of them downloaded from the RSNA's radreport.org website). Reports are stored in a MySQL database and are easily accessible for further analyses. Development of an IHE MRRT-compliant platform for structured reporting is feasible using only standard web technologies. All source code will be made available upon request under a free license, and the participation of other institutions in further development is welcome. (orig.)

Development of an IHE MRRT-compliant open-source web-based reporting platform

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pinto dos Santos, Daniel; Klos, G.; Kloeckner, R.; Oberle, R.; Dueber, C.; Mildenberger, P.

2017-01-01

To develop a platform that uses structured reporting templates according to the IHE Management of Radiology Report Templates (MRRT) profile, and to implement this platform into clinical routine. The reporting platform uses standard web technologies (HTML / JavaScript and PHP / MySQL) only. Several freely available external libraries were used to simplify the programming. The platform runs on a standard web server, connects with the radiology information system (RIS) and PACS, and is easily accessible via a standard web browser. A prototype platform that allows structured reporting to be easily incorporated into the clinical routine was developed and successfully tested. To date, 797 reports were generated using IHE MRRT-compliant templates (many of them downloaded from the RSNA's radreport.org website). Reports are stored in a MySQL database and are easily accessible for further analyses. Development of an IHE MRRT-compliant platform for structured reporting is feasible using only standard web technologies. All source code will be made available upon request under a free license, and the participation of other institutions in further development is welcome. (orig.)

Lessons Learned from Deploying a Video-Based Web 2.0 Platform in an Executive Education Context

Science.gov (United States)

Maxwell, Katrina; Angehrn, Albert A.

Although IT has been very successful in enabling distributed, collaborative learning and knowledge creation in open-source communities, its promise in other contexts is still an open question. In this paper, we describe the deployment of a video-based Web2.0 platform in an executive education context. The platform, which we developed, makes extensive use of video, profiling, game dynamics, agents and network visualizations in order to capture the attention and involvement of the learning community members. Our goal was to provide executive education participants with an attractive, interactive platform for extending their learning and networking beyond the classroom. This experience has allowed us to identify three main barriers to Web2.0 inter-organizational learning and collaboration in executive education: technological barriers, motivational barriers and the inter-organizational aspect itself.

Research and application of mobile teaching platform

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Ping; Xue, Hongjiao

2017-08-01

The application of mobile technology in university digital campus is ripe. This article mainly introduced the necessity of teaching platform based on mobile Internet in the teaching of higher vocational education, and the key to the construction of the feasibility of mobile learning platform, which is a feasible and effective teaching model under the new situation, worthy of promotion. The design and application of teaching platform based on mobile Internet is the change of educational ideas and working methods, and is the new starting point of Higher Vocational education.

The Definitive Guide to NetBeans Platform

CERN Document Server

Bock, Heiko

2009-01-01

The Definitive Guide to NetBeans(t) Platform is a thorough and definitive introduction to the NetBeans Platform, covering all its major APIs in detail, with relevant code examples used throughout. The original German book on which this title is based was well received. The NetBeans Platform Community has put together this English translation, which author Heiko Bock updated to cover the latest NetBeans Platform 6.5 APIs. With an introduction by known NetBeans Platform experts Jaroslav Tulach, Tim Boudreau, and Geertjan Wielenga, this is the most up-to-date book on this topic at the moment. All

[The Key Technology Study on Cloud Computing Platform for ECG Monitoring Based on Regional Internet of Things].

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Shu; Qiu, Yuyan; Shi, Bo

2016-09-01

This paper explores the methods of building the internet of things of a regional ECG monitoring, focused on the implementation of ECG monitoring center based on cloud computing platform. It analyzes implementation principles of automatic identifi cation in the types of arrhythmia. It also studies the system architecture and key techniques of cloud computing platform, including server load balancing technology, reliable storage of massive smalfi les and the implications of quick search function.

Customer brand engagement on online social media platforms

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Chrysochou, Polymeros; Malciute, Justina

delivers a thorough investigation of the concept and proposes a conceptual model of customer brand engagement on online social media platforms. The study suggests that customer brand relationship related factors will influence the level of customer engagement, which in turn will affect the levels......The aim of this paper is to contribute to the knowledge of a newly emerged concept of customer engagement with brands in the context of online social media platforms. Drawing on the overview of currently available academic literature and the results of a quantitative consumer study, the paper...... of behavioral loyalty and intention to recommend the brand. Hence, this paper is an important contribution to the academic marketing literature in the field of customer engagement, which also provides useful managerial insights for marketing practitioners....

Development of an interactive exploratory web-based modelling platform for informed decision-making and knowledgeable responses to global change

Science.gov (United States)

Holman, I.; Harrison, P.; Cojocaru, G.

2013-12-01

Informed decision-making and knowledgeable responses to global climate change impacts on natural resources and ecosystem services requires access to information resources that are credible, accurate, easy to understand, and appropriate. Too often stakeholders are limited to restricted scientific outputs produced by inaccessible models, generated from a limited number of scenario simulations chosen arbitrarily by researchers. This paper describes the outcomes of the CLIMSAVE project (www.climsave.eu), which has attempted to democratise climate change impacts, adaptation and vulnerability modelling, through developing the public domain interactive exploratory web-based CLIMSAVE Integrated Assessment (IA) Platform. The CLIMSAVE Integrated Assessment (IA) Platform aims to enable a wide range of stakeholders to improve their understanding surrounding impacts, adaptation responses and vulnerability of natural resources and ecosystem services under uncertain futures across Europe. The CLIMSAVE IA Platform contain linked simulation models (of the urban, water, agriculture, forestry, biodiversity and other sectors), IPCC AR4 climate scenarios and CLIMSAVE socio-economic scenarios, enabling users to select their inputs (climate and socioeconomic), rapidly run the models across Europe using their input settings and view their selected Impact (before, or after, adaptation) and Vulnerability (Figure 1) indicators. The CLIMSAVE IA Platform has been designed to promote both cognitive accessibility - the ease of understanding - and practical accessibility - the ease of application. Based upon partner and CLIMSAVE international experts' experience, examination of other participatory model interfaces and potential user requirements, we describe the design concepts and functionality that were identified, incorporated into the prototype CLIMSAVE IA Platform and further refined based on stakeholder feedback. The CLIMSAVE IA Platform is designed to facilitate a two-way iterative process

Metal-Organic Framework Thin Film Coated Optical Fiber Sensors: A Novel Waveguide-Based Chemical Sensing Platform.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Ki-Joong; Lu, Ping; Culp, Jeffrey T; Ohodnicki, Paul R

2018-02-23

Integration of optical fiber with sensitive thin films offers great potential for the realization of novel chemical sensing platforms. In this study, we present a simple design strategy and high performance of nanoporous metal-organic framework (MOF) based optical gas sensors, which enables detection of a wide range of concentrations of small molecules based upon extremely small differences in refractive indices as a function of analyte adsorption within the MOF framework. Thin and compact MOF films can be uniformly formed and tightly bound on the surface of etched optical fiber through a simple solution method which is critical for manufacturability of MOF-based sensor devices. The resulting sensors show high sensitivity/selectivity to CO 2 gas relative to other small gases (H 2 , N 2 , O 2 , and CO) with rapid (optical fiber platform which results in an amplification of inherent optical absorption present within the MOF-based sensing layer with increasing values of effective refractive index associated with adsorption of gases.

Assessments of high-consequence platforms: Issues and applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Digre, K.A.; Craig, M.J.K.

1994-01-01

An API task group has developed a process for the assessment of existing platforms to determine their fitness for purpose. This has been released as a draft supplement to API RP 2A-WSD, 20th edition. Details and the background of this work are described in a companion paper. The assessment of a platform's fitness for purpose involves firstly a definition of the platform's exposure; and secondly, an evaluation of the platform's predicted performance relative to the assessment criteria associated with that exposure. This paper deals with platforms in the high exposure category. That is, platforms whose potential failure consequences, in terms of potential life loss and environmental damage, are significant. The criteria for placement of a platform in a high exposure category are explained, as are the performance criteria demanded of these high exposure platforms. In the companion paper, the metocean assessment process and associated API-developed acceptance criteria are highlighted. This paper addresses primarily ice and seismic loading assessments and associated API-developed criteria, which are based on over thirty years of successful offshore operation and field experience, as well as extrapolation of land-based performance criteria. Three West Coast, USA production platforms are used for illustration

Application of genotyping-by-sequencing on semiconductor sequencing platforms: a comparison of genetic and reference-based marker ordering in barley.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Martin Mascher

Full Text Available The rapid development of next-generation sequencing platforms has enabled the use of sequencing for routine genotyping across a range of genetics studies and breeding applications. Genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS, a low-cost, reduced representation sequencing method, is becoming a common approach for whole-genome marker profiling in many species. With quickly developing sequencing technologies, adapting current GBS methodologies to new platforms will leverage these advancements for future studies. To test new semiconductor sequencing platforms for GBS, we genotyped a barley recombinant inbred line (RIL population. Based on a previous GBS approach, we designed bar code and adapter sets for the Ion Torrent platforms. Four sets of 24-plex libraries were constructed consisting of 94 RILs and the two parents and sequenced on two Ion platforms. In parallel, a 96-plex library of the same RILs was sequenced on the Illumina HiSeq 2000. We applied two different computational pipelines to analyze sequencing data; the reference-independent TASSEL pipeline and a reference-based pipeline using SAMtools. Sequence contigs positioned on the integrated physical and genetic map were used for read mapping and variant calling. We found high agreement in genotype calls between the different platforms and high concordance between genetic and reference-based marker order. There was, however, paucity in the number of SNP that were jointly discovered by the different pipelines indicating a strong effect of alignment and filtering parameters on SNP discovery. We show the utility of the current barley genome assembly as a framework for developing very low-cost genetic maps, facilitating high resolution genetic mapping and negating the need for developing de novo genetic maps for future studies in barley. Through demonstration of GBS on semiconductor sequencing platforms, we conclude that the GBS approach is amenable to a range of platforms and can easily be modified as new

ArControl: An Arduino-Based Comprehensive Behavioral Platform with Real-Time Performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Xinfeng; Li, Haohong

2017-01-01

Studying animal behavior in the lab requires reliable delivering stimulations and monitoring responses. We constructed a comprehensive behavioral platform (ArControl: Arduino Control Platform) that was an affordable, easy-to-use, high-performance solution combined software and hardware components. The hardware component was consisted of an Arduino UNO board and a simple drive circuit. As for software, the ArControl provided a stand-alone and intuitive GUI (graphical user interface) application that did not require users to master scripts. The experiment data were automatically recorded with the built in DAQ (data acquisition) function. The ArControl also allowed the behavioral schedule to be entirely stored in and operated on the Arduino chip. This made the ArControl a genuine, real-time system with high temporal resolution (<1 ms). We tested the ArControl, based on strict performance measurements and two mice behavioral experiments. The results showed that the ArControl was an adaptive and reliable system suitable for behavioral research.

Four-hour quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction-based comprehensive chromosome screening and accumulating evidence of accuracy, safety, predictive value, and clinical efficacy.

Science.gov (United States)

Treff, Nathan R; Scott, Richard T

2013-03-15

Embryonic comprehensive chromosomal euploidy may represent a powerful biomarker to improve the success of IVF. However, there are a number of aneuploidy screening strategies to consider, including different technologic platforms with which to interrogate the embryonic DNA, and different embryonic developmental stages from which DNA can be analyzed. Although there are advantages and disadvantages associated with each strategy, a series of experiments producing evidence of accuracy, safety, clinical predictive value, and clinical efficacy indicate that trophectoderm biopsy and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR)-based comprehensive chromosome screening (CCS) may represent a useful strategy to improve the success of IVF. This Biomarkers in Reproductive Medicine special issue review summarizes the accumulated experience with the development and clinical application of a 4-hour blastocyst qPCR-based CCS technology. Copyright © 2013 American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Wearable Device Control Platform Technology for Network Application Development

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Heejung Kim

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Application development platform is the most important environment in IT industry. There are a variety of platforms. Although the native development enables application to optimize, various languages and software development kits need to be acquired according to the device. The coexistence of smart devices and platforms has rendered the native development approach time and cost consuming. Cross-platform development emerged as a response to these issues. These platforms generate applications for multiple devices based on web languages. Nevertheless, development requires additional implementation based on a native language because of the coverage and functions of supported application programming interfaces (APIs. Wearable devices have recently attracted considerable attention. These devices only support Bluetooth-based interdevice communication, thereby making communication and device control impossible beyond a certain range. We propose Network Application Agent (NetApp-Agent in order to overcome issues. NetApp-Agent based on the Cordova is a wearable device control platform for the development of network applications, controls input/output functions of smartphones and wearable/IoT through the Cordova and Native API, and enables device control and information exchange by external users by offering a self-defined API. We confirmed the efficiency of the proposed platform through experiments and a qualitative assessment of its implementation.

The universal modular platform

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

North, R.B.

1995-01-01

A new and patented design for offshore wellhead platforms has been developed to meet a 'fast track' requirement for increased offshore production, from field locations not yet identified. The new design uses modular construction to allow for radical changes in the water depth of the final location and assembly line efficiency in fabrication. By utilizing high strength steels and structural support from the well conductors the new design accommodates all planned production requirements on a support structure significantly lighter and less expensive than the conventional design it replaces. Twenty two platforms based on the new design were ready for installation within 18 months of the project start. Installation of the new platforms began in 1992 for drilling support and 1993 for production support. The new design has become the Company standard for all future production platforms. Large saving and construction costs have been realized through its light weight, flexibility in both positioning and water depth, and its modular construction

Front-end development and multi-language implementation on Magento Platform

OpenAIRE

Lai, Chenjia

2015-01-01

Magento is a smart platform for E-commerce solutions. Aseanic Trading Oy plans to develop a website based on the Magento platform. The purpose of this project is to develop an E-commerce platform for middle and small companies, to improve product management, and to increase a company’s profit. This project is developed based on the Magento platform. The backend of the Magento platform uses PHP language, while the frontend uses DIV, CSS and jQuery. Also, MySQL is used as the database suppo...

Multilayered photonic integration on SOI platform using waveguide-based bridge structure

Science.gov (United States)

Majumder, Saikat; Chakraborty, Rajib

2018-06-01

A waveguide based structure on silicon on insulator platform is proposed for vertical integration in photonic integrated circuits. The structure consists of two multimode interference couplers connected by a single mode (SM) section which can act as a bridge over any other underlying device. Two more SM sections acts as input and output of the first and second multimode couplers respectively. Potential application of this structure is in multilayered photonic links. It is shown that the efficiency of the structure can be improved by making some design modifications. The entire simulation is done using effective-index based matrix method. The feature size chosen are comparable to waveguides fabricated previously so as to fabricate the proposed structure easily.

Development of a Cloud Computing-Based Pier Type Port Structure Stability Evaluation Platform Using Fiber Bragg Grating Sensors.

Science.gov (United States)

Jo, Byung Wan; Jo, Jun Ho; Khan, Rana Muhammad Asad; Kim, Jung Hoon; Lee, Yun Sung

2018-05-23

Structure Health Monitoring is a topic of great interest in port structures due to the ageing of structures and the limitations of evaluating structures. This paper presents a cloud computing-based stability evaluation platform for a pier type port structure using Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensors in a system consisting of a FBG strain sensor, FBG displacement gauge, FBG angle meter, gateway, and cloud computing-based web server. The sensors were installed on core components of the structure and measurements were taken to evaluate the structures. The measurement values were transmitted to the web server via the gateway to analyze and visualize them. All data were analyzed and visualized in the web server to evaluate the structure based on the safety evaluation index (SEI). The stability evaluation platform for pier type port structures involves the efficient monitoring of the structures which can be carried out easily anytime and anywhere by converging new technologies such as cloud computing and FBG sensors. In addition, the platform has been successfully implemented at “Maryang Harbor” situated in Maryang-Meyon of Korea to test its durability.

National Community Solar Platform

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rupert, Bart [Clean Energy Collective, Louisville, CO (United States)

2016-06-30

This project was created to provide a National Community Solar Platform (NCSP) portal known as Community Solar Hub, that is available to any entity or individual who wants to develop community solar. This has been done by providing a comprehensive portal to make CEC’s solutions, and other proven community solar solutions, externally available for everyone to access – making the process easy through proven platforms to protect subscribers, developers and utilities. The successful completion of this project provides these tools via a web platform and integration APIs, a wide spectrum of community solar projects included in the platform, multiple groups of customers (utilities, EPCs, and advocates) using the platform to develop community solar, and open access to anyone interested in community solar. CEC’s Incubator project includes web-based informational resources, integrated systems for project information and billing systems, and engagement with customers and users by community solar experts. The combined effort externalizes much of Clean Energy Collective’s industry-leading expertise, allowing third parties to develop community solar without duplicating expensive start-up efforts. The availability of this platform creates community solar projects that are cheaper to build and cheaper to participate in, furthering the goals of DOE’s SunShot Initiative. Final SF 425 Final SF 428 Final DOE F 2050.11 Final Report Narrative

An Open Source Software and Web-GIS Based Platform for Airborne SAR Remote Sensing Data Management, Distribution and Sharing

Science.gov (United States)

Changyong, Dou; Huadong, Guo; Chunming, Han; Ming, Liu

2014-03-01

With more and more Earth observation data available to the community, how to manage and sharing these valuable remote sensing datasets is becoming an urgent issue to be solved. The web based Geographical Information Systems (GIS) technology provides a convenient way for the users in different locations to share and make use of the same dataset. In order to efficiently use the airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) remote sensing data acquired in the Airborne Remote Sensing Center of the Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth (RADI), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), a Web-GIS based platform for airborne SAR data management, distribution and sharing was designed and developed. The major features of the system include map based navigation search interface, full resolution imagery shown overlaid the map, and all the software adopted in the platform are Open Source Software (OSS). The functions of the platform include browsing the imagery on the map navigation based interface, ordering and downloading data online, image dataset and user management, etc. At present, the system is under testing in RADI and will come to regular operation soon.

Usability of an internet-based platform (Next.Step for adolescent weight management

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pedro Sousa

2015-02-01

Full Text Available OBJECTIVE: The current study evaluates the usability perception of an e-therapeutic platform (supported by electronic processes and communication, aiming to promote the behavior change and to improve the adolescent health status through increased and interactive contact between the adolescent and the clinical staff. METHODS: This was a correlational study with a sample of 48 adolescents (12-18 years who attended a Pediatric Obesity Clinic between January and August of 2012. Participants were invited to access, during 24 weeks, the e-therapeutic multidisciplinary platform (Next.Step in addition to the standard treatment program. A usability questionnaire was administered and the platform performance and utilization indicators were analyzed. RESULTS: The users' perception of satisfaction, efficiency, and effectiveness regarding the Next.Step platform was clearly positive. However, only 54.17% of the enrolled adolescents accessed the platform, with a mean task-completion rate of 14.55% (SD = 18.853. The higher the number of the platform consulted resources, the greater the tendency to enjoy the platform, to consider it exciting and quick, to consider that the time spent in it was useful, to consider the access to information easy, and to login easier. Post-intervention assessment revealed a significant reduction in anthropometric and behavioral variables, including body mass index z-score, waist circumference percentile, hip circumference, and weekly screen time. CONCLUSION: These results highlight the importance of information and communication technologies in the health information access and the healthcare provision. Despite the limited adherence rate, platform users expressed a positive overall perception of its usability and presented a positive anthropometric and behavioral progress.

TranslatomeDB: a comprehensive database and cloud-based analysis platform for translatome sequencing data.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Wanting; Xiang, Lunping; Zheng, Tingkai; Jin, Jingjie; Zhang, Gong

2018-01-04

Translation is a key regulatory step, linking transcriptome and proteome. Two major methods of translatome investigations are RNC-seq (sequencing of translating mRNA) and Ribo-seq (ribosome profiling). To facilitate the investigation of translation, we built a comprehensive database TranslatomeDB (http://www.translatomedb.net/) which provides collection and integrated analysis of published and user-generated translatome sequencing data. The current version includes 2453 Ribo-seq, 10 RNC-seq and their 1394 corresponding mRNA-seq datasets in 13 species. The database emphasizes the analysis functions in addition to the dataset collections. Differential gene expression (DGE) analysis can be performed between any two datasets of same species and type, both on transcriptome and translatome levels. The translation indices translation ratios, elongation velocity index and translational efficiency can be calculated to quantitatively evaluate translational initiation efficiency and elongation velocity, respectively. All datasets were analyzed using a unified, robust, accurate and experimentally-verifiable pipeline based on the FANSe3 mapping algorithm and edgeR for DGE analyzes. TranslatomeDB also allows users to upload their own datasets and utilize the identical unified pipeline to analyze their data. We believe that our TranslatomeDB is a comprehensive platform and knowledgebase on translatome and proteome research, releasing the biologists from complex searching, analyzing and comparing huge sequencing data without needing local computational power. © The Author(s) 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Nucleic Acids Research.

CLOUD-BASED PLATFORM FOR CREATING AND SHARING WEB MAPS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jean Pierre Gatera

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The rise of cloud computing is one the most important thing happening in information technology today. While many things are moving into the cloud, this trend has also reached the Geographic Information System (GIS world. For the users of GIS technology, the cloud opens new possibilities for sharing web maps, applications and spatial data. The goal of this presentation/demo is to demonstrate ArcGIS Online which is a cloud-based collaborative platform that allows to easily and quickly create interactive web maps that you can share with anyone. With ready-to-use content, apps, and templates you can produce web maps right away. And no matter what you use - desktops, browsers, smartphones, or tablets - you always have access to your content.

General Data Acquisition Platform for Wireless Sensor Network Based on CC2538

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yang Zhi-Jun

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Wireless sensor networks are the hotspots of current research and have very wide application prospects. Its front end is a sensor that can sense and check the external world. This paper takes temperature and humidity as the research object, and builds a wireless sensor network data acquisition platform by combining the Internet of things and the WeChat public platform. The platform uses DHT11 temperature and humidity sensors and CC2538 sensor nodes to obtain the relevant data, through the server and database for data access. The combination with WeChat public platform not only allows us to view the temperature and humidity in the WeChat public, but also allows us to understand the environmental changes of the relevant detection area more conveniently and quickly. The effectiveness of the platform is also demonstrated by the collection of temperature and humidity data.

Snap: an integrated SNP annotation platform

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Li, Shengting; Ma, Lijia; Li, Heng

2007-01-01

Snap (Single Nucleotide Polymorphism Annotation Platform) is a server designed to comprehensively analyze single genes and relationships between genes basing on SNPs in the human genome. The aim of the platform is to facilitate the study of SNP finding and analysis within the framework of medical...

Development of a Modular Robotic Platform

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Claudiu Ioan Cirebea

2014-12-01

Full Text Available In this paper a modular robotic platform is presented, for students and researchers laboratory work based on the Matlab-Simulink and dSpace real time control platform. The goal of this combination is to stimulate and to experiment with real time hardware and software in courses where mobile robotics is adopted as a motivating platform to introduce mechatronics competencies. Its many possibilities for modifications and extensions make experiments very easy. We used, for example, an omnidirectional mobile robot configuration with three Swedish wheels, whose kinematic model was simulated using Simulink. For real-time control, of the robot, the developed model has been implemented using DSpace platform DS1103.

Development of Simulink-Based SiC MOSFET Modeling Platform for Series Connected Devices

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tsolaridis, Georgios; Ilves, Kalle; Reigosa, Paula Diaz

2016-01-01

A new MATLAB/Simulink-based modeling platform has been developed for SiC MOSFET power modules. The modeling platform describes the electrical behavior f a single 1.2 kV/ 350 A SiC MOSFET power module, as well as the series connection of two of them. A fast parameter initialization is followed...... by an optimization process to facilitate the extraction of the model’s parameters in a more automated way relying on a small number of experimental waveforms. Through extensive experimental work, it is shown that the model accurately predicts both static and dynamic performances. The series connection of two Si......C power modules has been investigated through the validation of the static and dynamic conditions. Thanks to the developed model, a better understanding of the challenges introduced by uneven voltage balance sharing among series connected devices is possible....

Embedded Linux platform for data acquisition systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Patel, Jigneshkumar J.; Reddy, Nagaraj; Kumari, Praveena; Rajpal, Rachana; Pujara, Harshad; Jha, R.; Kalappurakkal, Praveen

2014-01-01

Highlights: • The design and the development of data acquisition system on FPGA based reconfigurable hardware platform. • Embedded Linux configuration and compilation for FPGA based systems. • Hardware logic IP core and its Linux device driver development for the external peripheral to interface it with the FPGA based system. - Abstract: This scalable hardware–software system is designed and developed to explore the emerging open standards for data acquisition requirement of Tokamak experiments. To address the future need for a scalable data acquisition and control system for fusion experiments, we have explored the capability of software platform using Open Source Embedded Linux Operating System on a programmable hardware platform such as FPGA. The idea was to identify the platform which can be customizable, flexible and scalable to support the data acquisition system requirements. To do this, we have selected FPGA based reconfigurable and scalable hardware platform to design the system with Embedded Linux based operating system for flexibility in software development and Gigabit Ethernet interface for high speed data transactions. The proposed hardware–software platform using FPGA and Embedded Linux OS offers a single chip solution with processor, peripherals such ADC interface controller, Gigabit Ethernet controller, memory controller amongst other peripherals. The Embedded Linux platform for data acquisition is implemented and tested on a Virtex-5 FXT FPGA ML507 which has PowerPC 440 (PPC440) [2] hard block on FPGA. For this work, we have used the Linux Kernel version 2.6.34 with BSP support for the ML507 platform. It is downloaded from the Xilinx [1] GIT server. Cross-compiler tool chain is created using the Buildroot scripts. The Linux Kernel and Root File System are configured and compiled using the cross-tools to support the hardware platform. The Analog to Digital Converter (ADC) IO module is designed and interfaced with the ML507 through Xilinx

Embedded Linux platform for data acquisition systems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Patel, Jigneshkumar J., E-mail: jjp@ipr.res.in [Institute for Plasma Research, Gandhinagar, Gujarat (India); Reddy, Nagaraj, E-mail: nagaraj.reddy@coreel.com [Sandeepani School of Embedded System Design, Bangalore, Karnataka (India); Kumari, Praveena, E-mail: praveena@ipr.res.in [Institute for Plasma Research, Gandhinagar, Gujarat (India); Rajpal, Rachana, E-mail: rachana@ipr.res.in [Institute for Plasma Research, Gandhinagar, Gujarat (India); Pujara, Harshad, E-mail: pujara@ipr.res.in [Institute for Plasma Research, Gandhinagar, Gujarat (India); Jha, R., E-mail: rjha@ipr.res.in [Institute for Plasma Research, Gandhinagar, Gujarat (India); Kalappurakkal, Praveen, E-mail: praveen.k@coreel.com [Sandeepani School of Embedded System Design, Bangalore, Karnataka (India)

2014-05-15

Highlights: • The design and the development of data acquisition system on FPGA based reconfigurable hardware platform. • Embedded Linux configuration and compilation for FPGA based systems. • Hardware logic IP core and its Linux device driver development for the external peripheral to interface it with the FPGA based system. - Abstract: This scalable hardware–software system is designed and developed to explore the emerging open standards for data acquisition requirement of Tokamak experiments. To address the future need for a scalable data acquisition and control system for fusion experiments, we have explored the capability of software platform using Open Source Embedded Linux Operating System on a programmable hardware platform such as FPGA. The idea was to identify the platform which can be customizable, flexible and scalable to support the data acquisition system requirements. To do this, we have selected FPGA based reconfigurable and scalable hardware platform to design the system with Embedded Linux based operating system for flexibility in software development and Gigabit Ethernet interface for high speed data transactions. The proposed hardware–software platform using FPGA and Embedded Linux OS offers a single chip solution with processor, peripherals such ADC interface controller, Gigabit Ethernet controller, memory controller amongst other peripherals. The Embedded Linux platform for data acquisition is implemented and tested on a Virtex-5 FXT FPGA ML507 which has PowerPC 440 (PPC440) [2] hard block on FPGA. For this work, we have used the Linux Kernel version 2.6.34 with BSP support for the ML507 platform. It is downloaded from the Xilinx [1] GIT server. Cross-compiler tool chain is created using the Buildroot scripts. The Linux Kernel and Root File System are configured and compiled using the cross-tools to support the hardware platform. The Analog to Digital Converter (ADC) IO module is designed and interfaced with the ML507 through Xilinx

A GPU OpenCL based cross-platform Monte Carlo dose calculation engine (goMC)

Science.gov (United States)

Tian, Zhen; Shi, Feng; Folkerts, Michael; Qin, Nan; Jiang, Steve B.; Jia, Xun

2015-09-01

Monte Carlo (MC) simulation has been recognized as the most accurate dose calculation method for radiotherapy. However, the extremely long computation time impedes its clinical application. Recently, a lot of effort has been made to realize fast MC dose calculation on graphic processing units (GPUs). However, most of the GPU-based MC dose engines have been developed under NVidia’s CUDA environment. This limits the code portability to other platforms, hindering the introduction of GPU-based MC simulations to clinical practice. The objective of this paper is to develop a GPU OpenCL based cross-platform MC dose engine named goMC with coupled photon-electron simulation for external photon and electron radiotherapy in the MeV energy range. Compared to our previously developed GPU-based MC code named gDPM (Jia et al 2012 Phys. Med. Biol. 57 7783-97), goMC has two major differences. First, it was developed under the OpenCL environment for high code portability and hence could be run not only on different GPU cards but also on CPU platforms. Second, we adopted the electron transport model used in EGSnrc MC package and PENELOPE’s random hinge method in our new dose engine, instead of the dose planning method employed in gDPM. Dose distributions were calculated for a 15 MeV electron beam and a 6 MV photon beam in a homogenous water phantom, a water-bone-lung-water slab phantom and a half-slab phantom. Satisfactory agreement between the two MC dose engines goMC and gDPM was observed in all cases. The average dose differences in the regions that received a dose higher than 10% of the maximum dose were 0.48-0.53% for the electron beam cases and 0.15-0.17% for the photon beam cases. In terms of efficiency, goMC was ~4-16% slower than gDPM when running on the same NVidia TITAN card for all the cases we tested, due to both the different electron transport models and the different development environments. The code portability of our new dose engine goMC was validated by

A GPU OpenCL based cross-platform Monte Carlo dose calculation engine (goMC).

Science.gov (United States)

Tian, Zhen; Shi, Feng; Folkerts, Michael; Qin, Nan; Jiang, Steve B; Jia, Xun

2015-10-07

Monte Carlo (MC) simulation has been recognized as the most accurate dose calculation method for radiotherapy. However, the extremely long computation time impedes its clinical application. Recently, a lot of effort has been made to realize fast MC dose calculation on graphic processing units (GPUs). However, most of the GPU-based MC dose engines have been developed under NVidia's CUDA environment. This limits the code portability to other platforms, hindering the introduction of GPU-based MC simulations to clinical practice. The objective of this paper is to develop a GPU OpenCL based cross-platform MC dose engine named goMC with coupled photon-electron simulation for external photon and electron radiotherapy in the MeV energy range. Compared to our previously developed GPU-based MC code named gDPM (Jia et al 2012 Phys. Med. Biol. 57 7783-97), goMC has two major differences. First, it was developed under the OpenCL environment for high code portability and hence could be run not only on different GPU cards but also on CPU platforms. Second, we adopted the electron transport model used in EGSnrc MC package and PENELOPE's random hinge method in our new dose engine, instead of the dose planning method employed in gDPM. Dose distributions were calculated for a 15 MeV electron beam and a 6 MV photon beam in a homogenous water phantom, a water-bone-lung-water slab phantom and a half-slab phantom. Satisfactory agreement between the two MC dose engines goMC and gDPM was observed in all cases. The average dose differences in the regions that received a dose higher than 10% of the maximum dose were 0.48-0.53% for the electron beam cases and 0.15-0.17% for the photon beam cases. In terms of efficiency, goMC was ~4-16% slower than gDPM when running on the same NVidia TITAN card for all the cases we tested, due to both the different electron transport models and the different development environments. The code portability of our new dose engine goMC was validated by

A GPU OpenCL based cross-platform Monte Carlo dose calculation engine (goMC)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tian, Zhen; Shi, Feng; Folkerts, Michael; Qin, Nan; Jiang, Steve B; Jia, Xun

2015-01-01

Monte Carlo (MC) simulation has been recognized as the most accurate dose calculation method for radiotherapy. However, the extremely long computation time impedes its clinical application. Recently, a lot of effort has been made to realize fast MC dose calculation on graphic processing units (GPUs). However, most of the GPU-based MC dose engines have been developed under NVidia’s CUDA environment. This limits the code portability to other platforms, hindering the introduction of GPU-based MC simulations to clinical practice. The objective of this paper is to develop a GPU OpenCL based cross-platform MC dose engine named goMC with coupled photon–electron simulation for external photon and electron radiotherapy in the MeV energy range. Compared to our previously developed GPU-based MC code named gDPM (Jia et al 2012 Phys. Med. Biol. 57 7783–97), goMC has two major differences. First, it was developed under the OpenCL environment for high code portability and hence could be run not only on different GPU cards but also on CPU platforms. Second, we adopted the electron transport model used in EGSnrc MC package and PENELOPE’s random hinge method in our new dose engine, instead of the dose planning method employed in gDPM. Dose distributions were calculated for a 15 MeV electron beam and a 6 MV photon beam in a homogenous water phantom, a water-bone-lung-water slab phantom and a half-slab phantom. Satisfactory agreement between the two MC dose engines goMC and gDPM was observed in all cases. The average dose differences in the regions that received a dose higher than 10% of the maximum dose were 0.48–0.53% for the electron beam cases and 0.15–0.17% for the photon beam cases. In terms of efficiency, goMC was ∼4–16% slower than gDPM when running on the same NVidia TITAN card for all the cases we tested, due to both the different electron transport models and the different development environments. The code portability of our new dose engine goMC was

Crop 3D-a LiDAR based platform for 3D high-throughput crop phenotyping.

Science.gov (United States)

Guo, Qinghua; Wu, Fangfang; Pang, Shuxin; Zhao, Xiaoqian; Chen, Linhai; Liu, Jin; Xue, Baolin; Xu, Guangcai; Li, Le; Jing, Haichun; Chu, Chengcai

2018-03-01

With the growing population and the reducing arable land, breeding has been considered as an effective way to solve the food crisis. As an important part in breeding, high-throughput phenotyping can accelerate the breeding process effectively. Light detection and ranging (LiDAR) is an active remote sensing technology that is capable of acquiring three-dimensional (3D) data accurately, and has a great potential in crop phenotyping. Given that crop phenotyping based on LiDAR technology is not common in China, we developed a high-throughput crop phenotyping platform, named Crop 3D, which integrated LiDAR sensor, high-resolution camera, thermal camera and hyperspectral imager. Compared with traditional crop phenotyping techniques, Crop 3D can acquire multi-source phenotypic data in the whole crop growing period and extract plant height, plant width, leaf length, leaf width, leaf area, leaf inclination angle and other parameters for plant biology and genomics analysis. In this paper, we described the designs, functions and testing results of the Crop 3D platform, and briefly discussed the potential applications and future development of the platform in phenotyping. We concluded that platforms integrating LiDAR and traditional remote sensing techniques might be the future trend of crop high-throughput phenotyping.

Quantitative Comparison of Tolerance-Based Feature Transforms

OpenAIRE

Reniers, Dennie; Telea, Alexandru

2006-01-01

Tolerance-based feature transforms (TFTs) assign to each pixel in an image not only the nearest feature pixels on the boundary (origins), but all origins from the minimum distance up to a user-defined tolerance. In this paper, we compare four simple-to-implement methods for computing TFTs for binary images. Of these, two are novel methods and two extend existing distance transform algorithms. We quantitatively and qualitatively compare all algorithms on speed and accuracy of both distance and...

Genetic diagnosis of familial hypercholesterolemia using a DNA-array based platform

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Alonso, Rodrigo; Defesche, Joep C.; Tejedor, Diego; Castillo, Sergio; Stef, Marianne; Mata, Nelva; Gomez-Enterria, Pilar; Martinez-Faedo, Ceferino; Forga, Lluis; Mata, Pedro

2009-01-01

The aim of this study was to validate the Lipochip genetic diagnostic platform by assessing effectiveness, sensitivity, specificity and costs for the identification of patients with familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) in Spain. This platform includes the use of a DNA micro array, the detection of

Diesel supply planning for offshore platforms by a mathematical model based on the vehicle routing problem with replenishment

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Fiorot Astoures, H.; Alvarenga Rosa, R. de; Silva Rosa, A.

2016-07-01

Oil exploration in Brazil is mainly held by offshore platforms which require the supply of several products, including diesel to maintain its engines. One strategy to supply diesel to the platforms is to keep a vessel filled with diesel nearby the exploration basin. An empty boat leaves the port and goes directly to this vessel, then it is loaded with diesel. After that, it makes a trip to supply the platforms and when the boat is empty, it returns to the vessel to be reloaded with more diesel going to another trip. Based on this description, this paper proposes a mathematical model based on the Vehicle Routing Problem with Intermediate Replenishment Facilities (VRPIRF) to solve the problem. The purpose of the model is to plan the routes for the boats to meet the diesel requests of the platform. Given the fact that in the literature, papers about the VRPIRF are scarce and papers about the VRPIRF applied to offshore platforms were not found in the published papers, this paper is important to contribute with the evolution of this class of problem, bringing also a solution for a real application that is very important for the oil and gas business. The mathematical model was tested using the CPLEX 12.6. In order to assess the mathematical model, tests were done with data from the major Brazilian oil and gas company and several strategies were tested. (Author)

MR Imaging-based Semi-quantitative Methods for Knee Osteoarthritis

Science.gov (United States)

JARRAYA, Mohamed; HAYASHI, Daichi; ROEMER, Frank Wolfgang; GUERMAZI, Ali

2016-01-01

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-based semi-quantitative (SQ) methods applied to knee osteoarthritis (OA) have been introduced during the last decade and have fundamentally changed our understanding of knee OA pathology since then. Several epidemiological studies and clinical trials have used MRI-based SQ methods to evaluate different outcome measures. Interest in MRI-based SQ scoring system has led to continuous update and refinement. This article reviews the different SQ approaches for MRI-based whole organ assessment of knee OA and also discuss practical aspects of whole joint assessment. PMID:26632537

Virtual instrumention-based linearity test platform for DCCT of digital power supply at SSRF

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tang Junlong; Li Deming; Shen Tianjian; Liu Hong

2008-01-01

Based on virtual instrumentation, a reliable and effective test platform, performing instrument control, data acquisition and data recording, has been established to evaluate linearity of high performance DCCT (DC current transducer) for digital power supply at Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility (SSRF). The software in LabVIEW language was developed to perform computer communication via serial communication (RS232) and GPIB, providing a friendly user interface to the linearity test platform. This makes it easy to test the linearity and control power on or off and current output of high-precision and high-current DC constant current output power supply. The experimental data, stored in an EXCEL file, can be processed to obtain DCCT linearity, and provide basis to further analyze DCCT performance in the future. (authors)

Microfluidic platform to evaluate migration of cells from patients with DYT1 dystonia

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nery, Flavia C.; da Hora, Cintia C.; Atai, Nadia A.; Kim, Edward Y.; Hettich, Jasmin; Mempel, Thorsten R.; Breakefield, Xandra O.; Irimia, Daniel

2014-01-01

Microfluidic platforms for quantitative evaluation of cell biologic processes allow low cost and time efficient research studies of biological and pathological events, such as monitoring cell migration by real-time imaging. In healthy and disease states, cell migration is crucial in development and

MSD-MAP: A Network-Based Systems Biology Platform for Predicting Disease-Metabolite Links.

Science.gov (United States)

Wathieu, Henri; Issa, Naiem T; Mohandoss, Manisha; Byers, Stephen W; Dakshanamurthy, Sivanesan

2017-01-01

Cancer-associated metabolites result from cell-wide mechanisms of dysregulation. The field of metabolomics has sought to identify these aberrant metabolites as disease biomarkers, clues to understanding disease mechanisms, or even as therapeutic agents. This study was undertaken to reliably predict metabolites associated with colorectal, esophageal, and prostate cancers. Metabolite and disease biological action networks were compared in a computational platform called MSD-MAP (Multi Scale Disease-Metabolite Association Platform). Using differential gene expression analysis with patient-based RNAseq data from The Cancer Genome Atlas, genes up- or down-regulated in cancer compared to normal tissue were identified. Relational databases were used to map biological entities including pathways, functions, and interacting proteins, to those differential disease genes. Similar relational maps were built for metabolites, stemming from known and in silico predicted metabolite-protein associations. The hypergeometric test was used to find statistically significant relationships between disease and metabolite biological signatures at each tier, and metabolites were assessed for multi-scale association with each cancer. Metabolite networks were also directly associated with various other diseases using a disease functional perturbation database. Our platform recapitulated metabolite-disease links that have been empirically verified in the scientific literature, with network-based mapping of jointly-associated biological activity also matching known disease mechanisms. This was true for colorectal, esophageal, and prostate cancers, using metabolite action networks stemming from both predicted and known functional protein associations. By employing systems biology concepts, MSD-MAP reliably predicted known cancermetabolite links, and may serve as a predictive tool to streamline conventional metabolomic profiling methodologies. Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any

A space-based public service platform for terrestrial rescue operations

Science.gov (United States)

Fleisig, R.; Bernstein, J.; Cramblit, D. C.

1977-01-01

The space-based Public Service Platform (PSP) is a multibeam, high-gain communications relay satellite that can provide a variety of functions for a large number of people on earth equipped with extremely small, very low cost transceivers. This paper describes the PSP concept, the rationale used to derive the concept, the criteria for selecting specific communication functions to be performed, and the advantages of performing such functions via satellite. The discussion focuses on the benefits of using a PSP for natural disaster warning; control of attendant rescue/assistance operations; and rescue of people in downed aircraft, aboard sinking ships, lost or injured on land.

Multiplex Quantitative Histologic Analysis of Human Breast Cancer Cell Signaling and Cell Fate

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Lee, William M; Roysam, Badrinath

2008-01-01

.... We are developing a novel platform for immunohistological study of breast cancer specimens that will retrieve multiplex quantitative molecular information about tumor cells at a cytologic level...

NTEGRAL: ICT-platform based Distributed Control in electricity grids with a large share of Distributed Energy Resources and Renewable Energy Sources

OpenAIRE

Peppink , G.; Kamphuis , R.; Kok , K.; Dimeas , A.; Karfopoulos , E.; Hatziargyriou , Nikos D.; Hadjsaid , Nouredine; Caire , Raphaël; Gustavsson , René; Salas , Josep M.; Niesing , Hugo; Van Der Velde , J.; Tena , Llani; Bliek , Frits; Eijgelaar , Marcel

2010-01-01

International audience; The European project INTEGRAL aims to build and demonstrate an industry-quality reference solution for DER aggregation-level control and coordination, based on commonly available ICT components, standards, and platforms. To achieve this, the Integrated ICT-platform based Distributed Control (IIDC) is introduced. The project includes also three field test site installations in the Netherlands, Spain and France, covering normal, critical and emergency grid conditions.

Context-Aware AAL Services through a 3D Sensor-Based Platform

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alessandro Leone

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The main goal of Ambient Assisted Living solutions is to provide assistive technologies and services in smart environments allowing elderly people to have high quality of life. Since 3D sensing technologies are increasingly investigated as monitoring solution able to outperform traditional approaches, in this work a noninvasive monitoring platform based on 3D sensors is presented providing a wide-range solution suitable in several assisted living scenarios. Detector nodes are managed by low-power embedded PCs in order to process 3D streams and extract postural features related to person’s activities. The feature level of details is tuned in accordance with the current context in order to save bandwidth and computational resources. The platform architecture is conceived as a modular system suitable to be integrated into third-party middleware to provide monitoring functionalities in several scenarios. The event detection capabilities were validated by using both synthetic and real datasets collected in controlled and real-home environments. Results show the soundness of the presented solution to adapt to different application requirements, by correctly detecting events related to four relevant AAL services.

Sample normalization methods in quantitative metabolomics.

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Yiman; Li, Liang

2016-01-22

To reveal metabolomic changes caused by a biological event in quantitative metabolomics, it is critical to use an analytical tool that can perform accurate and precise quantification to examine the true concentration differences of individual metabolites found in different samples. A number of steps are involved in metabolomic analysis including pre-analytical work (e.g., sample collection and storage), analytical work (e.g., sample analysis) and data analysis (e.g., feature extraction and quantification). Each one of them can influence the quantitative results significantly and thus should be performed with great care. Among them, the total sample amount or concentration of metabolites can be significantly different from one sample to another. Thus, it is critical to reduce or eliminate the effect of total sample amount variation on quantification of individual metabolites. In this review, we describe the importance of sample normalization in the analytical workflow with a focus on mass spectrometry (MS)-based platforms, discuss a number of methods recently reported in the literature and comment on their applicability in real world metabolomics applications. Sample normalization has been sometimes ignored in metabolomics, partially due to the lack of a convenient means of performing sample normalization. We show that several methods are now available and sample normalization should be performed in quantitative metabolomics where the analyzed samples have significant variations in total sample amounts. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Emerging heterogeneous integrated photonic platforms on silicon

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fathpour Sasan

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Silicon photonics has been established as a mature and promising technology for optoelectronic integrated circuits, mostly based on the silicon-on-insulator (SOI waveguide platform. However, not all optical functionalities can be satisfactorily achieved merely based on silicon, in general, and on the SOI platform, in particular. Long-known shortcomings of silicon-based integrated photonics are optical absorption (in the telecommunication wavelengths and feasibility of electrically-injected lasers (at least at room temperature. More recently, high two-photon and free-carrier absorptions required at high optical intensities for third-order optical nonlinear effects, inherent lack of second-order optical nonlinearity, low extinction ratio of modulators based on the free-carrier plasma effect, and the loss of the buried oxide layer of the SOI waveguides at mid-infrared wavelengths have been recognized as other shortcomings. Accordingly, several novel waveguide platforms have been developing to address these shortcomings of the SOI platform. Most of these emerging platforms are based on heterogeneous integration of other material systems on silicon substrates, and in some cases silicon is integrated on other substrates. Germanium and its binary alloys with silicon, III–V compound semiconductors, silicon nitride, tantalum pentoxide and other high-index dielectric or glass materials, as well as lithium niobate are some of the materials heterogeneously integrated on silicon substrates. The materials are typically integrated by a variety of epitaxial growth, bonding, ion implantation and slicing, etch back, spin-on-glass or other techniques. These wide range of efforts are reviewed here holistically to stress that there is no pure silicon or even group IV photonics per se. Rather, the future of the field of integrated photonics appears to be one of heterogenization, where a variety of different materials and waveguide platforms will be used for

Designing the RiverCare knowledge base and web-collaborative platform to exchange knowledge in river management

Science.gov (United States)

Cortes Arevalo, Juliette; den Haan, Robert-Jan; van der Voort, Mascha; Hulscher, Suzanne

2016-04-01

Effective communication strategies are necessary between different scientific disciplines, practitioners and non-experts for a shared understanding and better implementation of river management measures. In that context, the RiverCare program aims to get a better understanding of riverine measures that are being implemented towards self-sustaining multifunctional rivers in the Netherlands. During the RiverCare program, user committees are organized between the researchers and practitioners to discuss the aim and value of RiverCare outputs, related assumptions and uncertainties behind scientific results. Beyond the RiverCare program end, knowledge about river interventions, integrated effects, management and self-sustaining applications will be available to experts and non-experts by means of River Care communication tools: A web-collaborative platform and a serious gaming environment. As part of the communication project of RiverCare, we are designing the RiverCare web-collaborative platform and the knowledge-base behind that platform. We aim at promoting collaborative efforts and knowledge exchange in river management. However, knowledge exchange does not magically happen. Consultation and discussion of RiverCare outputs as well as elicitation of perspectives and preferences from different actors about the effects of riverine measures has to be facilitated. During the RiverCare research activities, the platform will support the user committees or collaborative sessions that are regularly held with the organizations directly benefiting from our research, at project level or in study areas. The design process of the collaborative platform follows an user centred approach to identify user requirements, co-create a conceptual design and iterative develop and evaluate prototypes of the platform. The envisioned web-collaborative platform opens with an explanation and visualisation of the RiverCare outputs that are available in the knowledge base. Collaborative sessions

StreptoBase: An Oral Streptococcus mitis Group Genomic Resource and Analysis Platform.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wenning Zheng

Full Text Available The oral streptococci are spherical Gram-positive bacteria categorized under the phylum Firmicutes which are among the most common causative agents of bacterial infective endocarditis (IE and are also important agents in septicaemia in neutropenic patients. The Streptococcus mitis group is comprised of 13 species including some of the most common human oral colonizers such as S. mitis, S. oralis, S. sanguinis and S. gordonii as well as species such as S. tigurinus, S. oligofermentans and S. australis that have only recently been classified and are poorly understood at present. We present StreptoBase, which provides a specialized free resource focusing on the genomic analyses of oral species from the mitis group. It currently hosts 104 S. mitis group genomes including 27 novel mitis group strains that we sequenced using the high throughput Illumina HiSeq technology platform, and provides a comprehensive set of genome sequences for analyses, particularly comparative analyses and visualization of both cross-species and cross-strain characteristics of S. mitis group bacteria. StreptoBase incorporates sophisticated in-house designed bioinformatics web tools such as Pairwise Genome Comparison (PGC tool and Pathogenomic Profiling Tool (PathoProT, which facilitate comparative pathogenomics analysis of Streptococcus strains. Examples are provided to demonstrate how StreptoBase can be employed to compare genome structure of different S. mitis group bacteria and putative virulence genes profile across multiple streptococcal strains. In conclusion, StreptoBase offers access to a range of streptococci genomic resources as well as analysis tools and will be an invaluable platform to accelerate research in streptococci. Database URL: http://streptococcus.um.edu.my.

StreptoBase: An Oral Streptococcus mitis Group Genomic Resource and Analysis Platform.

Science.gov (United States)

Zheng, Wenning; Tan, Tze King; Paterson, Ian C; Mutha, Naresh V R; Siow, Cheuk Chuen; Tan, Shi Yang; Old, Lesley A; Jakubovics, Nicholas S; Choo, Siew Woh

2016-01-01

The oral streptococci are spherical Gram-positive bacteria categorized under the phylum Firmicutes which are among the most common causative agents of bacterial infective endocarditis (IE) and are also important agents in septicaemia in neutropenic patients. The Streptococcus mitis group is comprised of 13 species including some of the most common human oral colonizers such as S. mitis, S. oralis, S. sanguinis and S. gordonii as well as species such as S. tigurinus, S. oligofermentans and S. australis that have only recently been classified and are poorly understood at present. We present StreptoBase, which provides a specialized free resource focusing on the genomic analyses of oral species from the mitis group. It currently hosts 104 S. mitis group genomes including 27 novel mitis group strains that we sequenced using the high throughput Illumina HiSeq technology platform, and provides a comprehensive set of genome sequences for analyses, particularly comparative analyses and visualization of both cross-species and cross-strain characteristics of S. mitis group bacteria. StreptoBase incorporates sophisticated in-house designed bioinformatics web tools such as Pairwise Genome Comparison (PGC) tool and Pathogenomic Profiling Tool (PathoProT), which facilitate comparative pathogenomics analysis of Streptococcus strains. Examples are provided to demonstrate how StreptoBase can be employed to compare genome structure of different S. mitis group bacteria and putative virulence genes profile across multiple streptococcal strains. In conclusion, StreptoBase offers access to a range of streptococci genomic resources as well as analysis tools and will be an invaluable platform to accelerate research in streptococci. Database URL: http://streptococcus.um.edu.my.

qualitative and quantitative methods of suicide research in old age

African Journals Online (AJOL)

concludes that an integration of both the qualitative and quantitative research approaches may provide a better platform for unraveling the complex phenomenon of suicide in the elderly. Keywords: Psychological autopsy, Suicidal behaviours, Thematic analysis, Phenomenology the population, or a systematically generated ...

Implementation and application of simulation platform of PET based on GATE

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang Bin; Zhao Shujun; Zhang Shixun; Liu Haojia

2010-01-01

Positron emission tomography (PET) is a tool for obtaining functional image in vivo and GATE is a dedicated software for PET/SPECT simulation based on Mentor Carlo Method. It encapsulates the Geant4 libraries to achieve a modular and provides a number of new characteristics. In practice, a simulation platform of PET has been builded employing GATE based on Ubuntu operating system, including many keys and skills in the process. We have exploited benchmark PET, a testing example in GATE, and implemented PET scanner simulation in the end. Through analyzing the simulation data, the result demonstrate that predictive goal has been reached. The work provides the foundation for investigating PET scanner and optimizing the algorithm of tomograph image reconstruction. (authors)

KubeNow: an On-Demand Cloud-Agnostic Platform for Microservices-Based Research Environments

OpenAIRE

Capuccini, Marco; Larsson, Anders; Carone, Matteo; Novella, Jon Ander; Sadawi, Noureddin; Gao, Jianliang; Toor, Salman; Spjuth, Ola

2018-01-01

Microservices platforms, such as Kubernetes, have received a great deal of attention lately as they offer elastic and resilient orchestration for services implemented as portable, light-weight, software containers. While current solutions for cloud-based Kubernetes deployments are mainly focusing on maintaining long-running infrastructure, aimed to sustain highly-available services, the scientific community is embracing software containers for more demanding data analysis. To this extent, the...

Demand forecasting and information platform in tourism

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Li Yue

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Information asymmetry and the bullwhip effect have been serious problems in the tourism supply chain. Based on platform theory, this paper established a mathematical model to explore the inner mechanism of a platform’s influence on stakeholders’ ability to forecast demand in tourism. Results showed that the variance of stakeholders’ demand predictions with a platform was smaller than the variance without a platform, which meant that a platform would improve predictions of demand for stakeholders. The higher information-processing ability of the platform also had other effects on demand forecasting. Research on the inner logic of the platform’s influence on stakeholders has important theoretical and realistic value. This area is worthy of further study.

A Novel Cloud-Based Platform for Implementation of Oblivious Power Routing for Clusters of Microgrids

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Broojeni, Kianoosh; Amini, M. Hadi; Nejadpak, Arash

2016-01-01

is verified by MATLAB simulation. We also present a comprehensive cloud-based platform for further implementation of the proposed algorithm on the OPAL-RT real-time digital simulation system. The communication paths between the microgrids and the cloud environment can be emulated by OMNeT++....

Quantitative X-ray Map Analyser (Q-XRMA): A new GIS-based statistical approach to Mineral Image Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Ortolano, Gaetano; Visalli, Roberto; Godard, Gaston; Cirrincione, Rosolino

2018-06-01

We present a new ArcGIS®-based tool developed in the Python programming language for calibrating EDS/WDS X-ray element maps, with the aim of acquiring quantitative information of petrological interest. The calibration procedure is based on a multiple linear regression technique that takes into account interdependence among elements and is constrained by the stoichiometry of minerals. The procedure requires an appropriate number of spot analyses for use as internal standards and provides several test indexes for a rapid check of calibration accuracy. The code is based on an earlier image-processing tool designed primarily for classifying minerals in X-ray element maps; the original Python code has now been enhanced to yield calibrated maps of mineral end-members or the chemical parameters of each classified mineral. The semi-automated procedure can be used to extract a dataset that is automatically stored within queryable tables. As a case study, the software was applied to an amphibolite-facies garnet-bearing micaschist. The calibrated images obtained for both anhydrous (i.e., garnet and plagioclase) and hydrous (i.e., biotite) phases show a good fit with corresponding electron microprobe analyses. This new GIS-based tool package can thus find useful application in petrology and materials science research. Moreover, the huge quantity of data extracted opens new opportunities for the development of a thin-section microchemical database that, using a GIS platform, can be linked with other major global geoscience databases.

Citizen Sensors for SHM: Towards a Crowdsourcing Platform

Science.gov (United States)

Ozer, Ekin; Feng, Maria Q.; Feng, Dongming

2015-01-01

This paper presents an innovative structural health monitoring (SHM) platform in terms of how it integrates smartphone sensors, the web, and crowdsourcing. The ubiquity of smartphones has provided an opportunity to create low-cost sensor networks for SHM. Crowdsourcing has given rise to citizen initiatives becoming a vast source of inexpensive, valuable but heterogeneous data. Previously, the authors have investigated the reliability of smartphone accelerometers for vibration-based SHM. This paper takes a step further to integrate mobile sensing and web-based computing for a prospective crowdsourcing-based SHM platform. An iOS application was developed to enable citizens to measure structural vibration and upload the data to a server with smartphones. A web-based platform was developed to collect and process the data automatically and store the processed data, such as modal properties of the structure, for long-term SHM purposes. Finally, the integrated mobile and web-based platforms were tested to collect the low-amplitude ambient vibration data of a bridge structure. Possible sources of uncertainties related to citizens were investigated, including the phone location, coupling conditions, and sampling duration. The field test results showed that the vibration data acquired by smartphones operated by citizens without expertise are useful for identifying structural modal properties with high accuracy. This platform can be further developed into an automated, smart, sustainable, cost-free system for long-term monitoring of structural integrity of spatially distributed urban infrastructure. Citizen Sensors for SHM will be a novel participatory sensing platform in the way that it offers hybrid solutions to transitional crowdsourcing parameters. PMID:26102490

Citizen Sensors for SHM: Towards a Crowdsourcing Platform

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ekin Ozer

2015-06-01

Full Text Available This paper presents an innovative structural health monitoring (SHM platform in terms of how it integrates smartphone sensors, the web, and crowdsourcing. The ubiquity of smartphones has provided an opportunity to create low-cost sensor networks for SHM. Crowdsourcing has given rise to citizen initiatives becoming a vast source of inexpensive, valuable but heterogeneous data. Previously, the authors have investigated the reliability of smartphone accelerometers for vibration-based SHM. This paper takes a step further to integrate mobile sensing and web-based computing for a prospective crowdsourcing-based SHM platform. An iOS application was developed to enable citizens to measure structural vibration and upload the data to a server with smartphones. A web-based platform was developed to collect and process the data automatically and store the processed data, such as modal properties of the structure, for long-term SHM purposes. Finally, the integrated mobile and web-based platforms were tested to collect the low-amplitude ambient vibration data of a bridge structure. Possible sources of uncertainties related to citizens were investigated, including the phone location, coupling conditions, and sampling duration. The field test results showed that the vibration data acquired by smartphones operated by citizens without expertise are useful for identifying structural modal properties with high accuracy. This platform can be further developed into an automated, smart, sustainable, cost-free system for long-term monitoring of structural integrity of spatially distributed urban infrastructure. Citizen Sensors for SHM will be a novel participatory sensing platform in the way that it offers hybrid solutions to transitional crowdsourcing parameters.

Payment Platform

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hjelholt, Morten; Damsgaard, Jan

2012-01-01

thoroughly and substitute current payment standards in the decades to come. This paper portrays how digital payment platforms evolve in socio-technical niches and how various technological platforms aim for institutional attention in their attempt to challenge earlier platforms and standards. The paper...... applies a co-evolutionary multilevel perspective to model the interplay and processes between technology and society wherein digital payment platforms potentially will substitute other payment platforms just like the credit card negated the check. On this basis this paper formulate a multilevel conceptual...

Droplet Microfluidic and Magnetic Particles Platform for Cancer Typing.

Science.gov (United States)

Ferraro, Davide; Champ, Jérôme; Teste, Bruno; Serra, M; Malaquin, Laurent; Descroix, Stéphanie; de Cremoux, Patricia; Viovy, Jean-Louis

2017-01-01

Analyses of nucleic acids are routinely performed in hospital laboratories to detect gene alterations for cancer diagnosis and treatment decision. Among the different possible investigations, mRNA analysis provides information on abnormal levels of genes expression. Standard laboratory methods are still not adapted to the isolation and quantitation of low mRNA amounts and new techniques needs to be developed in particular for rare subsets analysis. By reducing the volume involved, time process, and the contamination risks, droplet microfluidics provide numerous advantages to perform analysis down to the single cell level.We report on a droplet microfluidic platform based on the manipulation of magnetic particles that allows the clinical analysis of tumor tissues. In particular, it allows the extraction of mRNA from the total-RNA sample, Reverse Transcription, and cDNA amplification, all in droplets.

Research on sudden environmental pollution public service platform construction based on WebGIS

Science.gov (United States)

Bi, T. P.; Gao, D. Y.; Zhong, X. Y.

2016-08-01

In order to actualize the social sharing and service of the emergency-response information for sudden pollution accidents, the public can share the risk source information service, dangerous goods control technology service and so on, The SQL Server and ArcSDE software are used to establish a spatial database to restore all kinds of information including risk sources, hazardous chemicals and handling methods in case of accidents. Combined with Chinese atmospheric environmental assessment standards, the SCREEN3 atmospheric dispersion model and one-dimensional liquid diffusion model are established to realize the query of related information and the display of the diffusion effect under B/S structure. Based on the WebGIS technology, C#.Net language is used to develop the sudden environmental pollution public service platform. As a result, the public service platform can make risk assessments and provide the best emergency processing services.

A Set of Free Cross-Platform Authoring Programs for Flexible Web-Based CALL Exercises

Science.gov (United States)

O'Brien, Myles

2012-01-01

The Mango Suite is a set of three freely downloadable cross-platform authoring programs for flexible network-based CALL exercises. They are Adobe Air applications, so they can be used on Windows, Macintosh, or Linux computers, provided the freely-available Adobe Air has been installed on the computer. The exercises which the programs generate are…

An ICT-Based Platform to Monitor Protocols in the Healthcare Environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Rorís, Víctor M Alonso; Gago, Juan M Santos; Sabucedo, Luis Álvarez; Merino, Mateo Ramos; Valero, Javier Sanz

2016-10-01

Procedures from the healthcare domain involve highly critical actions as they may pose a risk for patients' life. Therefore, a large effort is devoted to the standardization in clinical praxis and to the control of quality for these protocols in order to minimize hazards. In this line, this work is compelled to provide an ICT-based support to carry out these controls in a simple and effective manner. Using a methodology based on HACCP and taking advantage of Semantic tools, a holistic platform of services for traceability and control of processes has been designed and implemented. The applied paradigm is based on the use of Control Points as singular points to generate traces using observations and measures relevant for the processes considered. Based on those, it is possible to offer services for advanced querying and knowledge inference. The local deployment just requires regular mobile phones or tablets making this solution cost-effective and easily replicable.

Digital imaging of root traits (DIRT): a high-throughput computing and collaboration platform for field-based root phenomics.

Science.gov (United States)

Das, Abhiram; Schneider, Hannah; Burridge, James; Ascanio, Ana Karine Martinez; Wojciechowski, Tobias; Topp, Christopher N; Lynch, Jonathan P; Weitz, Joshua S; Bucksch, Alexander

2015-01-01

Plant root systems are key drivers of plant function and yield. They are also under-explored targets to meet global food and energy demands. Many new technologies have been developed to characterize crop root system architecture (CRSA). These technologies have the potential to accelerate the progress in understanding the genetic control and environmental response of CRSA. Putting this potential into practice requires new methods and algorithms to analyze CRSA in digital images. Most prior approaches have solely focused on the estimation of root traits from images, yet no integrated platform exists that allows easy and intuitive access to trait extraction and analysis methods from images combined with storage solutions linked to metadata. Automated high-throughput phenotyping methods are increasingly used in laboratory-based efforts to link plant genotype with phenotype, whereas similar field-based studies remain predominantly manual low-throughput. Here, we present an open-source phenomics platform "DIRT", as a means to integrate scalable supercomputing architectures into field experiments and analysis pipelines. DIRT is an online platform that enables researchers to store images of plant roots, measure dicot and monocot root traits under field conditions, and share data and results within collaborative teams and the broader community. The DIRT platform seamlessly connects end-users with large-scale compute "commons" enabling the estimation and analysis of root phenotypes from field experiments of unprecedented size. DIRT is an automated high-throughput computing and collaboration platform for field based crop root phenomics. The platform is accessible at http://www.dirt.iplantcollaborative.org/ and hosted on the iPlant cyber-infrastructure using high-throughput grid computing resources of the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC). DIRT is a high volume central depository and high-throughput RSA trait computation platform for plant scientists working on crop roots

Nanodroplet processing platform for deep and quantitative proteome profiling of 10–100 mammalian cells

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zhu, Ying; Piehowski, Paul D.; Zhao, Rui; Chen, Jing; Shen, Yufeng; Moore, Ronald J.; Shukla, Anil K.; Petyuk, Vladislav A.; Campbell-Thompson, Martha; Mathews, Clayton E.; Smith, Richard D.; Qian, Wei-Jun; Kelly, Ryan T.

2018-02-28

Nanoscale or single cell technologies are critical for biomedical applications. However, current mass spectrometry (MS)-based proteomic approaches require samples comprising a minimum of thousands of cells to provide in-depth profiling. Here, we report the development of a nanoPOTS (Nanodroplet Processing in One pot for Trace Samples) platform as a major advance in overall sensitivity. NanoPOTS dramatically enhances the efficiency and recovery of sample processing by downscaling processing volumes to <200 nL to minimize surface losses. When combined with ultrasensitive LC-MS, nanoPOTS allows identification of ~1500 to ~3,000 proteins from ~10 to ~140 cells, respectively. By incorporating the Match Between Runs algorithm of MaxQuant, >3000 proteins were consistently identified from as few as 10 cells. Furthermore, we demonstrate robust quantification of ~2400 proteins from single human pancreatic islet thin sections from type 1 diabetic and control donors, illustrating the application of nanoPOTS for spatially resolved proteome measurements from clinical tissues.

Metabolic engineering of Escherichia coli: a sustainable industrial platform for bio-based chemical production.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Xianzhong; Zhou, Li; Tian, Kangming; Kumar, Ashwani; Singh, Suren; Prior, Bernard A; Wang, Zhengxiang

2013-12-01

In order to decrease carbon emissions and negative environmental impacts of various pollutants, more bulk and/or fine chemicals are produced by bioprocesses, replacing the traditional energy and fossil based intensive route. The Gram-negative rod-shaped bacterium, Escherichia coli has been studied extensively on a fundamental and applied level and has become a predominant host microorganism for industrial applications. Furthermore, metabolic engineering of E. coli for the enhanced biochemical production has been significantly promoted by the integrated use of recent developments in systems biology, synthetic biology and evolutionary engineering. In this review, we focus on recent efforts devoted to the use of genetically engineered E. coli as a sustainable platform for the production of industrially important biochemicals such as biofuels, organic acids, amino acids, sugar alcohols and biopolymers. In addition, representative secondary metabolites produced by E. coli will be systematically discussed and the successful strategies for strain improvements will be highlighted. Moreover, this review presents guidelines for future developments in the bio-based chemical production using E. coli as an industrial platform. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Moldless PEGDA-Based Optoelectrofluidic Platform for Microparticle Selection

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shih-Mo Yang

2011-01-01

Full Text Available This paper reports on an optoelectrofluidic platform which consists of the organic photoconductive material, titanium oxide phthalocyanine (TiOPc, and the photocrosslinkable polymer, poly (ethylene glycol diacrylate (PEGDA. TiOPc simplifies the fabrication process of the optoelectronic chip due to requiring only a single spin-coating step. PEGDA is applied to embed the moldless PEGDA-based microchannel between the top ITO glass and the bottom TiOPc substrate. A real-time control interface via a touch panel screen is utilized to select the target 15 μm polystyrene particles. When the microparticles flow to an illuminating light bar, which is oblique to the microfluidic flow path, the lateral driving force diverts the microparticles. Two light patterns, the switching oblique light bar and the optoelectronic ladder phenomenon, are designed to demonstrate the features. This work integrating the new material design, TiOPc and PEGDA, and the ability of mobile microparticle manipulation demonstrates the potential of optoelectronic approach.

Simultaneous Determination of the Main Peanut Allergens in Foods Using Disposable Amperometric Magnetic Beads-Based Immunosensing Platforms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Víctor Ruiz-Valdepeñas Montiel

2016-06-01

Full Text Available In this work, a novel magnetic beads (MBs-based immunosensing approach for the rapid and simultaneous determination of the main peanut allergenic proteins (Ara h 1 and Ara h 2 is reported. It involves the use of sandwich-type immunoassays using selective capture and detector antibodies and carboxylic acid-modified magnetic beads (HOOC-MBs. Amperometric detection at −0.20 V was performed using dual screen-printed carbon electrodes (SPdCEs and the H2O2/hydroquinone (HQ system. This methodology exhibits high sensitivity and selectivity for the target proteins providing detection limits of 18.0 and 0.07 ng/mL for Ara h 1 and Ara h 2, respectively, with an assay time of only 2 h. The usefulness of the approach was evaluated by detecting the endogenous content of both allergenic proteins in different food extracts as well as trace amounts of peanut allergen (0.0001% or 1.0 mg/kg in wheat flour spiked samples. The developed platform provides better Low detection limits (LODs in shorter assay times than those claimed for the allergen specific commercial ELISA kits using the same immunoreagents and quantitative information on individual food allergen levels. Moreover, the flexibility of the methodology makes it readily translate to the detection of other food-allergens.

A Proposal to Enhance the Use of Learning Platforms in Higher Education

Science.gov (United States)

Marques, Bertil P.; Villate, Jaime E.; Vaz de Carvalho, Carlos

2015-01-01

The results of several studies conducted to analyze the quantitative and qualitative use of learning technologies in Higher Education in Portugal showed that, in general, these technologies are not used systematically and effectively and e-learning platforms tend to be relegated to repositories of contents rather than as full-fledged tools…

Femtosecond laser fabrication of fiber based optofluidic platform for flow cytometry applications

Science.gov (United States)

Serhatlioglu, Murat; Elbuken, Caglar; Ortac, Bulend; Solmaz, Mehmet E.

2017-02-01

Miniaturized optofluidic platforms play an important role in bio-analysis, detection and diagnostic applications. The advantages of such miniaturized devices are extremely low sample requirement, low cost development and rapid analysis capabilities. Fused silica is advantageous for optofluidic systems due to properties such as being chemically inert, mechanically stable, and optically transparent to a wide spectrum of light. As a three dimensional manufacturing method, femtosecond laser scanning followed by chemical etching shows great potential to fabricate glass based optofluidic chips. In this study, we demonstrate fabrication of all-fiber based, optofluidic flow cytometer in fused silica glass by femtosecond laser machining. 3D particle focusing was achieved through a straightforward planar chip design with two separately fabricated fused silica glass slides thermally bonded together. Bioparticles in a fluid stream encounter with optical interrogation region specifically designed to allocate 405nm single mode fiber laser source and two multi-mode collection fibers for forward scattering (FSC) and side scattering (SSC) signals detection. Detected signal data collected with oscilloscope and post processed with MATLAB script file. We were able to count number of events over 4000events/sec, and achieve size distribution for 5.95μm monodisperse polystyrene beads using FSC and SSC signals. Our platform shows promise for optical and fluidic miniaturization of flow cytometry systems.

Disclosing respiratory co-infections: a broad-range panel assay for avian respiratory pathogens on a nanofluidic PCR platform.

Science.gov (United States)

Croville, Guillaume; Foret, Charlotte; Heuillard, Pauline; Senet, Alexis; Delpont, Mattias; Mouahid, Mohammed; Ducatez, Mariette F; Kichou, Faouzi; Guerin, Jean-Luc

2018-06-01

Respiratory syndromes (RS) are among the most significant pathological conditions in edible birds and are caused by complex coactions of pathogens and environmental factors. In poultry, low pathogenic avian influenza A viruses, metapneumoviruses, infectious bronchitis virus, infectious laryngotracheitis virus, Mycoplasma spp. Escherichia coli and/or Ornithobacterium rhinotracheale in turkeys are considered as key co-infectious agents of RS. Aspergillus sp., Pasteurella multocida, Avibacterium paragallinarum or Chlamydia psittaci may also be involved in respiratory outbreaks. An innovative quantitative PCR method, based on a nanofluidic technology, has the ability to screen up to 96 samples with 96 pathogen-specific PCR primers, at the same time, in one run of real-time quantitative PCR. This platform was used for the screening of avian respiratory pathogens: 15 respiratory agents, including viruses, bacteria and fungi potentially associated with respiratory infections of poultry, were targeted. Primers were designed and validated for SYBR green real-time quantitative PCR and subsequently validated on the Biomark high throughput PCR nanofluidic platform (Fluidigm©, San Francisco, CA, USA). As a clinical assessment, tracheal swabs were sampled from turkeys showing RS and submitted to this panel assay. Beside systematic detection of E. coli, avian metapneumovirus, Mycoplasma gallisepticum and Mycoplasma synoviae were frequently detected, with distinctive co-infection patterns between French and Moroccan flocks. This proof-of-concept study illustrates the potential of such panel assays for unveiling respiratory co-infection profiles in poultry.

A specialized plug-in software module for computer-aided quantitative measurement of medical images.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Q; Zeng, Y J; Huo, P; Hu, J L; Zhang, J H

2003-12-01

This paper presents a specialized system for quantitative measurement of medical images. Using Visual C++, we developed a computer-aided software based on Image-Pro Plus (IPP), a software development platform. When transferred to the hard disk of a computer by an MVPCI-V3A frame grabber, medical images can be automatically processed by our own IPP plug-in for immunohistochemical analysis, cytomorphological measurement and blood vessel segmentation. In 34 clinical studies, the system has shown its high stability, reliability and ease of utility.

Vertically Aligned Carbon Nanofiber based Biosensor Platform for Glucose Sensor

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Al Mamun, Khandaker A.; Tulip, Fahmida S.; MacArthur, Kimberly; McFarlane, Nicole; Islam, Syed K.; Hensley, Dale

2014-03-01

Vertically aligned carbon nanofibers (VACNFs) have recently become an important tool for biosensor design. Carbon nanofibers (CNF) have excellent conductive and structural properties with many irregularities and defect sites in addition to exposed carboxyl groups throughout their surfaces. These properties allow a better immobilization matrix compared to carbon nanotubes and offer better resolution when compared with the FET-based biosensors. VACNFs can be deterministically grown on silicon substrates allowing optimization of the structures for various biosensor applications. Two VACNF electrode architectures have been employed in this study and a comparison of their performances has been made in terms of sensitivity, sensing limitations, dynamic range, and response time. The usage of VACNF platform as a glucose sensor has been verified in this study by selecting an optimum architecture based on the VACNF forest density. Read More: http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S0129156414500062

Geospatial Data Management Platform for Urban Groundwater

Science.gov (United States)

Gaitanaru, D.; Priceputu, A.; Gogu, C. R.

2012-04-01

Due to the large amount of civil work projects and research studies, large quantities of geo-data are produced for the urban environments. These data are usually redundant as well as they are spread in different institutions or private companies. Time consuming operations like data processing and information harmonisation represents the main reason to systematically avoid the re-use of data. The urban groundwater data shows the same complex situation. The underground structures (subway lines, deep foundations, underground parkings, and others), the urban facility networks (sewer systems, water supply networks, heating conduits, etc), the drainage systems, the surface water works and many others modify continuously. As consequence, their influence on groundwater changes systematically. However, these activities provide a large quantity of data, aquifers modelling and then behaviour prediction can be done using monitored quantitative and qualitative parameters. Due to the rapid evolution of technology in the past few years, transferring large amounts of information through internet has now become a feasible solution for sharing geoscience data. Furthermore, standard platform-independent means to do this have been developed (specific mark-up languages like: GML, GeoSciML, WaterML, GWML, CityML). They allow easily large geospatial databases updating and sharing through internet, even between different companies or between research centres that do not necessarily use the same database structures. For Bucharest City (Romania) an integrated platform for groundwater geospatial data management is developed under the framework of a national research project - "Sedimentary media modeling platform for groundwater management in urban areas" (SIMPA) financed by the National Authority for Scientific Research of Romania. The platform architecture is based on three components: a geospatial database, a desktop application (a complex set of hydrogeological and geological analysis

Novel peptide-based platform for the dual presentation of biologically active peptide motifs on biomaterials.

Science.gov (United States)

Mas-Moruno, Carlos; Fraioli, Roberta; Albericio, Fernando; Manero, José María; Gil, F Javier

2014-05-14

Biofunctionalization of metallic materials with cell adhesive molecules derived from the extracellular matrix is a feasible approach to improve cell-material interactions and enhance the biointegration of implant materials (e.g., osseointegration of bone implants). However, classical biomimetic strategies may prove insufficient to elicit complex and multiple biological signals required in the processes of tissue regeneration. Thus, newer strategies are focusing on installing multifunctionality on biomaterials. In this work, we introduce a novel peptide-based divalent platform with the capacity to simultaneously present distinct bioactive peptide motifs in a chemically controlled fashion. As a proof of concept, the integrin-binding sequences RGD and PHSRN were selected and introduced in the platform. The biofunctionalization of titanium with this platform showed a positive trend towards increased numbers of cell attachment, and statistically higher values of spreading and proliferation of osteoblast-like cells compared to control noncoated samples. Moreover, it displayed statistically comparable or improved cell responses compared to samples coated with the single peptides or with an equimolar mixture of the two motifs. Osteoblast-like cells produced higher levels of alkaline phosphatase on surfaces functionalized with the platform than on control titanium; however, these values were not statistically significant. This study demonstrates that these peptidic structures are versatile tools to convey multiple biofunctionality to biomaterials in a chemically defined manner.

MEMS-based dynamic cell-to-cell culture platforms using electrochemical surface modifications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chang, Jiyoung; Lin, Liwei; Yoon, Sang-Hee; Mofrad, Mohammad R K

2011-01-01

MEMS-based biological platforms with the capability of both spatial placements and time releases of living cells for cell-to-cell culture experiments have been designed and demonstrated utilizing electrochemical surface modification effects. The spatial placement is accomplished by electrochemical surface modification of substrate surfaces to be either adhesive or non-adhesive for living cells. The time control is achieved by the electrical activation of the selective indium tin oxide co-culture electrode to allow the migration of living cells onto the electrode to start the cell-to-cell culture studies. Prototype devices have a three-electrode design with an electrode size of 50 × 50 µm 2 and the separation gaps of 2 µm between them. An electrical voltage of −1.5 V has been used to activate the electrodes independently and sequentially to demonstrate the dynamic cell-to-cell culture experiments of NIH 3T3 fibroblast and Madin Darby canine kidney cells. As such, this MEMS platform could be a basic yet versatile tool to characterize transient cell-to-cell interactions

Global and Local Path Planning Study in a ROS-Based Research Platform for Autonomous Vehicles

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pablo Marin-Plaza

2018-01-01

Full Text Available The aim of this work is to integrate and analyze the performance of a path planning method based on Time Elastic Bands (TEB in real research platform based on Ackermann model. Moreover, it will be proved that all modules related to the navigation can coexist and work together to achieve the goal point without any collision. The study is done by analyzing the trajectory generated from global and local planners. The software prototyping tool is Robot Operating System (ROS from Open Source Robotics Foundation and the research platform is the iCab (Intelligent Campus Automobile from University Carlos III. This work has been validated from a test inside the campus where the iCab has performed the navigation between the starting point and the goal point without any collision. During the experiment, we proved the low sensitivity of the TEB method to variations of the vehicle model configuration and constraints.

An Efficient Neural-Network-Based Microseismic Monitoring Platform for Hydraulic Fracture on an Edge Computing Architecture

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiaopu Zhang

2018-06-01

Full Text Available Microseismic monitoring is one of the most critical technologies for hydraulic fracturing in oil and gas production. To detect events in an accurate and efficient way, there are two major challenges. One challenge is how to achieve high accuracy due to a poor signal-to-noise ratio (SNR. The other one is concerned with real-time data transmission. Taking these challenges into consideration, an edge-computing-based platform, namely Edge-to-Center LearnReduce, is presented in this work. The platform consists of a data center with many edge components. At the data center, a neural network model combined with convolutional neural network (CNN and long short-term memory (LSTM is designed and this model is trained by using previously obtained data. Once the model is fully trained, it is sent to edge components for events detection and data reduction. At each edge component, a probabilistic inference is added to the neural network model to improve its accuracy. Finally, the reduced data is delivered to the data center. Based on experiment results, a high detection accuracy (over 96% with less transmitted data (about 90% was achieved by using the proposed approach on a microseismic monitoring system. These results show that the platform can simultaneously improve the accuracy and efficiency of microseismic monitoring.

An Efficient Neural-Network-Based Microseismic Monitoring Platform for Hydraulic Fracture on an Edge Computing Architecture.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Xiaopu; Lin, Jun; Chen, Zubin; Sun, Feng; Zhu, Xi; Fang, Gengfa

2018-06-05

Microseismic monitoring is one of the most critical technologies for hydraulic fracturing in oil and gas production. To detect events in an accurate and efficient way, there are two major challenges. One challenge is how to achieve high accuracy due to a poor signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The other one is concerned with real-time data transmission. Taking these challenges into consideration, an edge-computing-based platform, namely Edge-to-Center LearnReduce, is presented in this work. The platform consists of a data center with many edge components. At the data center, a neural network model combined with convolutional neural network (CNN) and long short-term memory (LSTM) is designed and this model is trained by using previously obtained data. Once the model is fully trained, it is sent to edge components for events detection and data reduction. At each edge component, a probabilistic inference is added to the neural network model to improve its accuracy. Finally, the reduced data is delivered to the data center. Based on experiment results, a high detection accuracy (over 96%) with less transmitted data (about 90%) was achieved by using the proposed approach on a microseismic monitoring system. These results show that the platform can simultaneously improve the accuracy and efficiency of microseismic monitoring.

Ontology-Based Platform for Conceptual Guided Dataset Analysis

KAUST Repository

Rodriguez-Garcia, Miguel Angel

2016-05-31

Nowadays organizations should handle a huge amount of both internal and external data from structured, semi-structured, and unstructured sources. This constitutes a major challenge (and also an opportunity) to current Business Intelligence solutions. The complexity and effort required to analyse such plethora of data implies considerable execution times. Besides, the large number of data analysis methods and techniques impede domain experts (laymen from an IT-assisted analytics perspective) to fully exploit their potential, while technology experts lack the business background to get the proper questions. In this work, we present a semantically-boosted platform for assisting layman users in (i) extracting a relevant subdataset from all the data, and (ii) selecting the data analysis technique(s) best suited for scrutinising that subdataset. The outcome is getting better answers in significantly less time. The platform has been evaluated in the music domain with promising results.