Design and Testing of a Robotic System for mr Image-guided Interventions

The effective integration of robotics together with magnetic resonance (mr) technology is expected to facilitate the real-time guidance of various diagnostic and therapeutic interventions. Specially designed robotic manipulators are required for this purpose, the development of which is a challenging task given the strong magnetic fields and the space limitations that characterize the mr scanning environment. A prototype mr-compatible manipulator is presented, designed to operate inside cylindrical mr scanners. It was developed for the study of minimally invasive diagnostic and therapeutic interventions in the abdominal and thoracic area with real-time mr image guidance. Initial tests were performed inside a high-field clinical mr scanner and included mr-compatibility tests and phantom studies on image-guided targeting.     

A study on the yield stress of perlite-filled high-density polyethylenes

Four different types of high-density polyethylenes were blended with expanded perlite at different compositions. -aminopropyltriethoxysilane was applied to perlite (2 wt%) from ether and water solutions to enhance the interfacial adhesion between the polymer and the filler. It was shown that silane treatment advances the yield stress with improving dispersion and increasing the interfacial adhesion of the filler with the polymer matrix. The experimental results were then checked with the expression of Turcsanyiet al.'s.     

Equilibrium distributions of key components of spearmint oil in sub/supercritical carbon dioxide

Effects of temperature (at 35, 45 or 55°C) and pressure (10–110 atm) on the relative distribution coefficients of the twelve key components of spearmint oil (essential oil ofMentha cardiaca; Scotch spearmint) at equilibrium in dense CO₂ were investigated under conditions ranging from subcritical to supercritical regions. Effects of vapor pressure, molecular weight and polarity of the key components on their equilibrium distributions in sub/supercritical CO₂ are discussed. At 35°C, all key components of spearmint oil are equally soluble in dense CO₂ within the 12–102 atm pressure region. At 45 and 55°C, the key components are equally soluble for pressures greater than about 60 atm. However, around either 45°C/27 atm or 55°C/35 atm conditions, the relative distribution coefficients of all monoterpene hydrocarbons and of isomenthone (an oxygenated monoterpene) exhibit maxima, which are due to significantly higher vapor pressures of these components and significantly lower solvating power of the dense-gas solvent at these particular temperatures and pressures. Vapor-pressure effects, coupled with the decrease in solvating power, dominate the effects of polarity and molecular mass of the key components. Deterpenation of spearmint oil with dense CO₂ is possible around either 45°C/27 atm or 55°C/35 atm, where the monoterpene hydrocarbons tend to concentrate in the CO₂-rich phase.     

Evaluation of an adaptive and intelligent educational hypermedia for enhanced individual learning of mathematics: A qualitative study

The purpose of this study is to design a personalized adaptive and intelligent web based tutoring system based on learning style and expert system named UZWEBMAT and to evaluate its effects on 10th grade students’ learning of the unit of probability. In the study, initially, learning objects were prepared in three different ways in relation to three sub-learning areas of Visual–Auditory–Kinesthetic (VAK) learning style for each subject of the probability unit. These were appropriate for secondary school mathematics curricula. Then, they were transferred into the digital environment. Each student’s dominant learning style determines the content to which s/he will be directed since s/he is directed to the content that is appropriate for his/her learning style. The course to be followed by the students within UZWEBMAT and their browsing around the pages are decided by expert system integrated into the system. This expert system sets the situations in which s/he will get solution supports and the course s/he will follow in accordance with the performance of the student. Hereby, each student may follow a different course, and the solution supports s/he will get may also differ highlighting the individual learning. The sample of the study consists of 81 10th grade students and 3 mathematics teachers from two high schools in Trabzon, Turkey. Qualitative data were obtained both from the teachers and students participating in the study in order to answer the research questions about the implementation and evaluation of UZWEBMAT for mathematics teaching in a high school classroom. Obtained data were analyzed using qualitative data analysis methods. According to the results of the present study, positive opinions of students and teachers such as taking into account the individual learning differences and deriving mathematical relations and formulas through exploration became prominent. In addition, there were also other positive opinions of students and teachers such as providing permanent learning and introducing learning responsibility to the students. In this sense, it was concluded that UZWEBMAT is a beneficial instrument for both students and teachers.     

Calculations of the Elastic Scattering Properties of Ultra-cold Francium Isotopes

The calculations of the elastic scattering properties of ultra-cold francium isotopes are reported in detail. A parametric model potential for the triplet molecular states of the Fr₂ is represented, and the scattering lengths a_t and the effective range r_e are calculated using WKB and Numerov methods for Fr--Fr in the triplet state. The convergence of these scattering properties depending on a K⁰ parameter and core radius is also investigated using two methods: Quantum Defect Theory and analytical formula of Symskoviski.     

Barrier and mechanical properties of methylcellulose–whey protein films

Water vapour permeability (WVP) and mechanical properties were assessed in edible films prepared from methylcellulose (MC) and MC–whey protein isolate (WPI) or MC–whey protein concentrate (WPC). Glycerol (Gly) was used as the plasticizer. Two MC–WP films were formulated. For Group I films, the mass ratio of WP : Gly was constant, whereas for Group II films the mass ratio of polymer (MC + WP) : Gly was constant. The WVP of MC–Gly film decreased with increasing MC concentration, while the tensile strength (TS) and percent elongation (E) increased. The WVP of Group I and Group II films decreased erratically and TS increased when the MC concentration was increased. Group I films had higher TS values than Group II films at the same MC : WP ratios. E of both groups increased with increasing MC concentration (p < 0.05), excluding the films with the highest MC : WP ratio tested (0.8) in Group I films. Group I films had lower E values than Group II films at the same MC : WP ratios. MC effectively governed WVP, TS and E of the WP films. Generally, MC–WP films of this work showed lower WVP than that of MC‐ and WP‐based edible films in the literature. This can potentially make MC–WP films a suitable film material for moisture‐sensitive food products. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Application of InP Neural Network to ECG BeatClassification

This paper presents an application of a hybrid neural network structure to the classification of the electrocardiogram (ECG) beats. Three different feature extraction methods are comparatively examined: discrete cosine transform, wavelet transform and a direct method. Classification performances, training times and the numbers of nodes of Kohonen network, Restricted Coulomb Energy (RCE) network and the hybrid neural network are presented. To increase the classification performance and to decrease the number of nodes, the hybrid neural network is trained by Genetic Algorithms (GAs). Ten types of ECG beats obtained from the MIT-BIH database and from a real-time ECG measurement system are classified with a success of 98% by using the hybrid neural network structure and discrete cosine transform together.     

On periodic resource scheduling for continuous-media databases

The Enhanced Pay-Per-View (EPPV) model for providing continuous-media services associates with each continuous-media clip a display frequency that depends on the clip's popularity. The aim is to increase the number of clients that can be serviced concurrently beyond the capacity limitations of available resources, while guaranteeing a constraint on the response time. This is achieved by sharing periodic continuous-media streams among multiple clients. The EPPV model offers a number of advantages over other data-sharing schemes (e.g., batching), which make it more attractive to large-scale service providers. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive study of the resource-scheduling problems associated with supporting EPPV for continuous-media clips with (possibly) different display rates, frequencies, and lengths. Our main objective is to maximize the amount of disk bandwidth that is effectively scheduled under the given data layout and storage constraints. Our formulation gives rise to -hard combinatorial optimization problems that fall within the realm of hard real-time scheduling theory. Given the intractability of the problems, we propose novel heuristic solutions with polynomial-time complexity. We also present preliminary experimental results for the average case behavior of the proposed scheduling schemes and examine how they compare to each other under different workloads. A major contribution of our work is the introduction of a robust scheduling framework that, we believe, can provide solutions for a variety of realistic EPPV resource-scheduling scenarios, as well as any scheduling problem involving regular, periodic use of a shared resource. Based on this framework, we propose various interesting research directions for extending the results presented in this paper. Received June 9, 1998 / Accepted October 13, 1998     

The Popov criterion and the inverse Nyquist method†

Kosonbrock's inverse Nyquist array (I.N.A.) theory for linear multivariable control Bystema with constant feedback elements is extended, to include systems lip to m nonlinear feedback elements, where the system has m inputs and m outputs. This extension is achieved by considering the Popov criterion for the most general case and through two further theorems. It shows that, as in the ease of Rosenbrock's I.N.A. theory, when certain auxiliary conditions are met with the help of suitable controllers, the design of multivariable controllers containing many non-linear feedbacks, can be based on the m frequency response loci corresponding to the diagonal entries of the open-loop inverse transfer function matrix. This leads to a simple design technique identical to the I.N.A. design method, suitable for use with a computer-aided design facility which permits a designer to use his intuitive understanding of transfer functions based on classical theory. The I.N.A. theory has been extended by Rosenbrock to cover systems having non-linear, time-varying feedback elements very recently.     

Particle-based simulation of the interaction between fluid and knitwear

We present a particle-based method to simulate and visualize the interaction of knitwear with fluids. The knitwear is modeled using spring-mass systems and the fluid is modeled using the smoothed particle hydrodynamics method. Two-way coupling is achieved by considering surface tension, capillary, and interparticle forces between the fluid and knitwear. The simulation of fluid and knitwear particles is performed on the graphics processing unit. Photorealistic rendering of knitwear and fluid is achieved by using a hardware-accelerated rasterization-based rendering technique. Our method is able to simulate and visualize the macro- and microstructure of free-form knitwear and reflective and refractive characteristics of the fluid surface.