A hybrid knowledge and ensemble classification approach for prediction of venous thromboembolism

Clinical narratives such as progress summaries, lab reports, surgical reports, and other narrative texts contain key biomarkers about a patient's health. Evidence-based preventive medicine needs accurate semantic and sentiment analysis to extract and classify medical features as the input to appropriate machine learning classifiers. However, the traditional approach of using single classifiers is limited by the need for dimensionality reduction techniques, statistical feature correlation, a faster learning rate, and the lack of consideration of the semantic relations among features. Hence, extracting semantic and sentiment-based features from clinical text and combining multiple classifiers to create an ensemble intelligent system overcomes many limitations and provides a more robust prediction outcome. The selection of an appropriate approach and its interparameter dependency becomes key for the success of the ensemble method. This paper proposes a hybrid knowledge and ensemble learning framework for prediction of venous thromboembolism (VTE) diagnosis consisting of the following components: a VTE ontology, semantic extraction and sentiment assessment of risk factor framework, and an ensemble classifier. Therefore, a component-based analysis approach was adopted for evaluation using a data set of 250 clinical narratives where knowledge and ensemble achieved the following results with and without semantic extraction and sentiment assessment of risk factor, respectively: a precision of 81.8% and 62.9%, a recall of 81.8% and 57.6%, an F measure of 81.8% and 53.8%, and a receiving operating characteristic of 80.1% and 58.5% in identifying cases of VTE.     

Design of delayed reconfigurable manufacturing system based on part family grouping and machine selection

To improve the convertibility of reconfigurable manufacturing system (RMS), the concept of delayed reconfigurable manufacturing system (D-RMS) was proposed. RMS and D-RMS are both constructed around part family. However, D-RMS may suffer from ultra-long system problem with unacceptable idle machines using generic RMS part families. Besides, considering the complex basic system structure of D-RMS, machine selection of D-RMS should be addressed, including dedicated machine, flexible machine, and reconfigurable machine. Therefore, a system design method for D-RMS based on part family grouping and machine selection is proposed. Firstly, a part family grouping method is proposed for D-RMS that groups the parts with more former common operations into the same part family. The concept of longest relative position common operation subsequence (LPCS) is proposed. The similarity coefficient among the parts is calculated based on LPCS. The reciprocal value of the operation position of LPCS is adopted as the characteristic value. The average linkage clustering (ALC) algorithm is used to cluster the parts. Secondly, a machine selection method is proposed to complete the system design of D-RMS, including machine selection rules and the dividing point decision model. Finally, a case study is given to implement and verify the proposed system design method for D-RMS. The results show that the proposed system design method is effective, which can group parts with more former common operations into the same part family and select appropriate machine types.     

Deployment of a cloud pipeline for real-time visual inspection using fast streaming high-definition images

We investigate the challenges of building an end-to-end cloud pipeline for real-time intelligent visual inspection system for use in automotive manufacturing. Current methods of visual detection in automotive assembly are highly labor intensive, and thus prone to errors. An automated process is sought that can operate within the real-time constraints of the assembly line and can reduce errors. Components of the cloud pipeline include capture of a large set of high-definition images from a camera setup at the assembly location, transfer and storage of the images as needed, execution of object detection, and notification to a human operator when a fault is detected. The end-to-end execution must complete within a fixed time frame before the next car arrives in the assembly line. In this article, we report the design, development, and experimental evaluation of the tradeoffs of performance, accuracy, and scalability for a cloud system.     

A review on ultrasonic spot welding of copper alloys

As a solid state joining process, ultrasonic spot welding has been proven to be a promising technique for joining copper alloys. However, challenges still remain in employing ultrasonic spot welding to join copper alloys. This article comprehensively reviews the current state of ultrasonic spot welding of copper alloys with a number of critical issues including materials flow, plastic deformation, temperature distribution, vibration, relative motion, vertical displacement, interface friction coefficient, online monitoring technique, coupled with the macrostructure and microstructure, the mechanical properties and electrical conductivity. In addition, the future trends in this field are provided.     

An automated patient monitoring using discrete‐time wireless sensor networks

In recent years, Internet of Things (IoT) devices are used for remote health monitoring. For remotely monitoring a patient, only the health information at different time points are not sufficient; predicted values of biomarkers (for some future time points) are also important. In this article, we propose a powerful statistical model for an efficient dynamic patient monitoring using wireless sensor nodes through Bayesian Learning (BL). We consider the setting where a set of correlated biomarkers are measured from a patient through wireless sensors, but the sensors only report the ordinal outcomes (say, good, fair, high, or very high) to the sink based on some prefixed thresholds. The challenge is to use the ordinal outcomes for monitoring and predicting the health status of the patient under consideration. We propose a linear mixed model where interbiomarker correlations and intrabiomarker dependence are modeled simultaneously. The estimated and the predicted values of the biomarkers are transferred over the internet so that health care providers and the family members of the patient can remotely monitor the patient. Extensive simulation studies are performed to assess practical usefulness of our proposed joint model, and the performance of the proposed joint model is compared to that of some other traditional models used in the literature.     

On the performance of improved quadrature spatial modulation

Quadrature spatial modulation (QSM) utilizes the in‐phase and quadrature spatial dimensions to transmit the real and imaginary parts of a single signal symbol, respectively. The improved QSM (IQSM) transmits two signal symbols per channel use through a combination of two antennas for each of the real and imaginary parts. The main contributions of this study can be summarized as follows. First, we derive an upper bound for the error performance of the IQSM. We then design constellation sets that minimize the error performance of the IQSM for several system configurations. Second, we propose a double QSM (DQSM) that transmits the real and imaginary parts of two signal symbols through any available transmit antennas. Finally, we propose a parallel IQSM (PIQSM) that splits the antenna set into equal subsets and performs IQSM within each subset using the same two signal symbols. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed constellations significantly outperform conventional constellations. Additionally, DQSM and PIQSM provide a performance similar to that of IQSM while requiring a smaller number of transmit antennas and outperform IQSM with the same number of transmit antennas.     

浅析智能网联汽车感知系统电磁兼容性

本文将就智能网联汽车感知系统中的电子兼容技术进行深入的分析和探究。     

Integrated circuit and system design for renewable energy inverters

This study proposes that a novel integrated circuit (IC) and system design for renewable energy inverters can harvest renewable energy to power direct current (DC) and alternating current (AC) loads. In addition, an intelligent synthesis and management tool is developed to design the proposed system and to judge the system’s operational maintenance decisions. Finally, a renewable energy inverter’s information is posted to an online system. Users can obtain the proposed system’s information at any time and place. The accurate and superior performance of the proposed IC and system is confirmed by computer simulations and experimental results.     

How Cells Communicate with Each Other in the Tumor Microenvironment: Suggestions to Design Novel Therapeutic Strategies in Cancer Disease

Connexin- and pannexin (Panx)-formed hemichannels (HCs) and gap junctions (GJs) operate an interaction with the extracellular matrix and GJ intercellular communication (GJIC), and on account of this they are involved in cancer onset and progression towards invasiveness and metastatization. When we deal with cancer, it is not correct to omit the immune system, as well as neglecting its role in resisting or succumbing to formation and progression of incipient neoplasia until the formation of micrometastasis, nevertheless what really occurs in the tumor microenvironment (TME), which are the main players and which are the tumor or body allies, is still unclear. The goal of this article is to discuss how the pivotal players act, which can enhance or contrast cancer progression during two important process: “Activating Invasion and Metastasis” and the “Avoiding Immune Destruction”, with a particular emphasis on the interplay among GJIC, Panx-HCs, and the purinergic system in the TME without disregarding the inflammasome and cytokines thereof derived. In particular, the complex and contrasting roles of Panx1/P2X7R signalosome in tumor facilitation and/or inhibition is discussed in regard to the early/late phases of the carcinogenesis. Finally, considering this complex interplay in the TME between cancer cells, stromal cells, immune cells, and focusing on their means of communication, we should be capable of revealing harmful messages that help the cancer growth and transform them in body allies, thus designing novel therapeutic strategies to fight cancer in a personalized manner.