A switching control strategy for improving drug infusion

A switching control strategy for drug infusion in patients undergoing surgery is presented in this article. This strategy is based on a bank of stabilising controllers, aiming to improve the reference tracking performance of the patient response. Theoretical results which ensure overall stability and reference tracking under switching are obtained. These results are illustrated by simulations for the case of neuromuscular blockade control which show that, in this biomedical application, this switching controller yields better performance than a fixed one. The proposed control scheme also presents a good performance in clinical environment.     

测试Java异常处理机制的方法

异常处理机制能增强程序运行的可靠性,提高软件的健壮性.然而,如果异常处理机制使用不当,会带来许多潜在的错误,因而很有必要对程序的异常处理结构进行测试.提出了一种识别被测程序中的所有异常变量"定义-使用"关系的方法,并使用一个异常的定义-捕获度量来计算异常定义-使用链的测试覆盖.最后设计了一种异常分析及测试的原型工具.     

Framework of a machining advisory system with application to face milling processes

A unique advisory system is developed for machining processes. It is unique in using analytical and simulation models for the induction of rules, rules which must otherwise be generated from experiments. These rules are combined with heuristic rules for inferring optimal machining parameters. The utility and accuracy of the process models are illustrated and the architecture of the advisory system is described. Also described are its capability to incorporate other application programs through functions, regardless of the programming language, and to address constraints in decision making. Face milling is described as a specific application.     

A novel intelligent sphygmogram analyzer for health monitoring of cardiovascular system

A novel sphygmogram analyzer (SGA) with embedded medical advisory system is proposed to conquer the drawbacks of the existing commercial systems such as clumsy volume, awkward user-interface, and weak intelligence, etc. Firstly, benefited from the advanced embedded systems and micro-processing chips, the elementary components of SGA can be condensed into a tiny micro-system, which will greatly contribute to the wearable health monitoring devices. Secondly, the proposed SGA is distinguished due to the embedded medical advisory system, which can provide the comparative medical services while adaptive to the source restricted embedded platforms. In this paper, the hemodynamic analysis of sphygmogram is firstly introduced and then, the implementation of SGA, including data acquiring and analyzing unit (DA²U), embedded medical advisory system (e-MAS) boosted for the application of soft computing, and the distributed information exchanging framework, is addressed in detail.     

Hierarchical monitors

A technique is presented for constructing an operating system as a hierarchical set of monitors. The hierarchy reflects and reinforces the system structure, and extends down to the system nucleus itself. The nucleus is in fact treated as a specialized monitor for handling the central processor. The technique has been used to write a small pilot system for a DEC PDP-15, and experience with the system is reported. The mutual exclusion problem for monitor procedures is discussed, and a viable solution suggested.     

Performance of an Adaptive Controller for the Neuromuscular Blockade Based on Inversion of a Wiener Model

An adaptive controller based on a minimally parameterized parsimonious Wiener model for the effect of the muscle relaxant rocuronium in the neuromuscular blockade is presented. The controller structure combines inversion of the recursively identified static nonlinearity of the Wiener model with a positive compartmental control law for the linearized system. The overall strategy exploits the fact that the model has only two parameters, which are estimated by an extended Kalman filter. Due to the fact that the positive control law for total mass conservation of compartmental systems is only proven to be convergent for time‐invariant systems, the identification of the parameter in the linear block of the minimally parameterized parsimonious Wiener model is stopped when the controller is turned on. The controller was implemented in the platform Galeno and tested in simulation and in thirteen real cases of patients under general anesthesia. The good reference tracking results and robustness to noise show the reliability of the proposed strategy.     

Review: An information management system for informal design data

Engineering information management may be divided into formal information management, which involves data modelling, data exchange and transaction handling, and informal information management, which is concerned with the organisation and delivery of design advice and design parameter data. This paper describes a system, called Review, which has been developed for the management of informal design information from multiple sources. The system uses a hybrid hypertext/database approach to provide for the indexing and viewing of information sources using arbitrary attribute sets, and for the establishment of relationships between information entities using both static and dynamic links in a hypertext framework. Information may be accessed both by query and by browsing along relationships in the hypertext network. The paper presents an overview of the system design, and examples of its application to design advisory systems and documentation.     

Java异常处理机制应用研究

异常处理机制是Java程序设计中的一个重要方面,正确使用异常处理的策略和方法,能够确保Java程序结构的清晰性、易读性和健壮性。分析了Java异常的体系结构,阐述了异常分类与处理机制,提出了异常处理的一般原则和一种异常处理框架,并结合实际应用对该框架进行了详细描述。     

Real-world effectiveness of Ergonomic methods

The way ahead with the practical development and application of Ergonomic methods is through a better anticipation and appreciation of changes to system effectiveness and human work that will be incurred through the introduction of new technologies to the workplace. These improvements will involve an improved awareness by the system of the working context and environment. The argued future is with improvements in the handling and use of knowledge by systems. The development of suitable Ergonomics methods, or the careful adaptation of existing methods, should accompany any technological revolution. Moreover, future methods are needed that are specifically developed to be applicable to the real time study of work considering both work context and the amalgamation of results from the use of many diverse methods throughout the design and development life cycle of a system. Part of this process will be a necessary complementation of both quantitative and qualitative methods and guidelines. Another focus should be on creating improved Ergonomics participation within multidisciplinary system design and development environments throughout the system's life cycle. Only through this avenue can Ergonomics show a consistent and valued contribution to quality design and its development. In parallel to such a contribution will be an acceptance by other engineering disciplines, managers, and customers that such an application of Ergonomics is cost effective.     

Repositioning of a rigid body with a flexible sheet and its application to an automated rehabilitation bed

A new method for repositioning a rigid body with a flexible sheet is developed and is applied to a rehabilitation bed for turning and transferring a bedridden patient to alleviate bedsores and other ailments. The patient position and orientation are fully controlled by manipulating a flexible bed sheet under no-slip conditions. The use of a flexible sheet and the untethered nature of manipulation make the repositioning method particularly well suited to handling the human body. First, the basic design concept of the rehabilitation bed for automated patient repositioning is presented. The kinematic and static behaviors of body-sheet interactions are analyzed, and conditions for no-slip, quasi-static repositioning are obtained. In order to prevent injury to the patient's fragile skin, it must be ensured that the patient does not slip on the sheet during repositioning. A prototype bed with a pair of servoed arms for manipulating the bed sheet is developed, and the no-slip conditions and the repositioning method are experimentally verified. A closed-loop control based on the measurement of a patient's position and orientation is implemented and tested. Note to Practitioners-This work was motivated by the problems faced by bedridden patients as well as caregivers in the healthcare industry. The labor-intensive repositioning and transfer of bedridden patients are performed with a robotic system supervised by a single caregiver. Our repositioning scheme uses the bed sheet for rolling and moving the patient and closely mimics the current practice prevalent in nursing homes and hospitals. Our approach will be a natural alternative to manual repositioning and transfer and will be acceptable for most caregivers and patients. Initial prototyping and experiments have been completed in consultation with a professional caregiver.     

A new approach to modeling human response errors in synthetic flight simulation domain

This paper presents the preliminary results of modeling human response errors using a control theoretic approach. The human pilot is modeled as a supervisor of a highly automated system. The synthesis uses the theory of optimal control pilot modeling to integrate the pilot observation errors and the error due to the simulation experiment. The model is conceptualized with generality thereby allowing the flexibility to test a variety of flight handling quality (FHQ) variables. Methods for solving the human response errors (HRE) model are presented.     

Essex — An intelligent advisor for expert system shell selection

This paper described an advisory system for selecting expert system software. Some background into the problems that an organization might face in the selection of expert system software will first be presented. After this, the methodology and architecture of the system will be reviewed. Finally, an example consultation session will be conducted. The purpose of this paper is to show how knowledge-based systems and database management systems can be linked to form a uniform information processing environment.     

Event-based architecture for diagnosis in control advisory systems

Artificial intelligence research on diagnostic systems is focused mainly on static problems in which the object of interest is assumed to be in a stable condition that will remain stable until the diagnostic agent has completed its deliberation. Control systems, on the other hand, cannot afford the luxury of ‘suspended time’; faults must be detected, isolated and reconfiguration implemented within one computation cycle to prevent departure from stable control envelopes.A new class of system is emerging from recent programs directed toward vehicle operator aids for fighter aircraft, submarines and helicopters. These systems are neither static off-line aids nor real-time controllers; instead they are control advisory systems which span the time scales of both regimes. These systems interface with controllers to interpret the error codes and to conduct tests and implement reconfigurations. On the other hand, these systems also interact with the vehicle operator to prioritize their activity consistent with the operator's goals and to recommend diagnostic/emergency procedures.Pilot's Associate (PA), a complex system of software and cockpit displays currently being developed to aid Air Force fighter pilots, is used to exemplify a control advisor and to display the requirements for real-time equipment diagnosis in such a system. It is shown that the required functionality challenges the capabilities of current diagnostic algorithms.The PA diagnostic architecture is presented. This architecture is centred around the concept of a diagnostic event which begins when abnormal data are detected, and which is treated as an interruptable computational process which may exist in conjunction with other event processes in multiple fault situations.The architecture solves a number of problems such as interruptability, and integrating the different time-scales of the pilot and the local system controllers, and the architecture provides a means for fusing statistical fault detection methods such as Kalman filters with artificial intelligence techniques such as model-based reasoning and classification. The result is an approach which exploits the strengths of each technique and provides a mechanism for automated reasoning using both quantitative and qualitative information.     

Dialogue Cell Resource Model and Basic Dialogue Cells

A model for the handling of resources used in interactive programs, with emphasis on the input device part, is developed. Its connection to the I/O pair model and its usage in the dialogue cell system is described.
The definition and properties of basic dialogue cells are given. A method for constructing a basic cell library is presented. A number of results from the application of the resource model on a basic cell library is shown.     

Building a user model implicitly from a cooperative advisory dialog

This paper reviews existing methods for building user models to support adaptive, interactive systems, identifies sigificant problems with these approaches, and describes a new method for implicitly acquiring user models from an ongoing user-system dialog. Existing explicit user model acquisition methods, such as user edited models or model building dialogs put additional burden on the user and introduce artificial model acquisition dialogs. Hand coding stereotypes, another explicit acquisition method, is a tedious and error-prone process. On the other hand, implicit acquisition techniques such as computing presuppositions or entailments either draw too few inferences to be generally useful, or too many to be trusted.In contrast, this paper describes GUMAC, a General User Model Acquisition Component that uses heuristic rules to make default inferences about users' beliefs from their interaction with an advisory expert system. These rules are based on features of human action and conversation that constrain people's behavior and establish expectations about their knowledge. The application of these rules is illustrated with two examples of extended dialogs between users and an investment advisory system. During the course of these conversations, GUMAC is able to acquire an extensive model of the users' beliefs about the aspects of the domain considered in the dialog. These models, in turn, provide the sort of information needed by an explanation generator to tailor explanations the advisory system gives to its users.     

针对JavaWeb应用中错误异常处理方法的运用

基于多层架构的JavaWeb,由于采用分层的思想,在降低软件耦合性的同时,有效地增强了其内聚性,但在另一程度上却使得整个软件开发工作显得复杂,并容易出现运行错误。事实上,就目前的JavaWeb来说,其在运行出错时,都基本上是采用硬编码的方式加以应对,但却不可避免地增加了编码的难度,因此,进行相应的错误和异常处理架构模型的构建,显得尤为重要。本文将紧紧围绕着JavaWeb应用中错误异常处理方法这一中心主题,通过对其架构、处理原则、异常处理策略与实现进行分析和说明。     

Anaesthesia record system on handheld computers--pilot experience and uses for quality control and clinical guidelines

This paper describes a mobile information system to collect patient information for anesthesia quality control. In this system, a mobile database program was designed for use on handheld computers (Pocket PC). This program is used to collect patient data at the bedside on the handhelds, with a daily synchronization of the data between the anaesthesiologists' handhelds with the anaesthesia database. All collected data are later used for quality control analysis. Furthermore, clinical guidelines will be included on these same handhelds. During the pilot phase, data from a sample set of about 300 patients were incorporated. The processes and interfaces of the system are presented in the paper. The current mobile database system has been designed to replace the original paper-based data collection system. The individual anaesthesiologist's handheld synchronizes patient data daily with anaesthesia database center. This information database is analyzed and used not only to give feedback to the individual doctor or center, but also to review the use of the guidelines provided and the results of their utilization.     

Micro actuators on the basis of thin SMA foils

Three innovative micro actuator concepts on the basis of the differential SMA principle are presented in this paper: a high adaptive multi-actuator system, which is driven by numerous identical single actuators connected in parallel and in series, a micro gripper for handling and assembling of complex hybrid micro systems and a micro actuator system in medical tools for the percutaneous resection of aortic valves. The SMA material is used in the form of 50 μm thin NiTi foils because of their well-defined properties and high strength. In order to integrate them into micro systems, different manufacturing methods have been applied and improved at the Institute for Microtechnology. Laser cutting and wet chemical etching are used for example to microstructure the actuator elements. Different methods for electrical and mechanical connections of the actuators are employed like soldering by the use of an additional gold layer. A batch fabrication process of SMA actuators is realized by embedding NiTi foil elements into SU-8 structures. To optimize the design of SMA actuator elements according to its application different simulation procedures are used.     

Estimated anthropometry for male commercial pilots in Europe and an approach to its use in seat design

This research provides an estimate of the anthropometry of the male commercial pilot population in Europe and details a new method for applying these data in multivariate design problems: the cockpit seat. For the safety and vigilance, the pilot must fit the seat. Although the anthropometric variability of pilot can be readily quantified, the magnitude of variability and the associated physical requirements are large in this complex posture. The research presented here demonstrates an approach that allows the designer to explore combinations of advices for the seat adjustments that will fit a chosen population (for example 90% of all the pilots). The data were generated after the evaluation of relevant data synthesis methods. To explore the huge design space, genetic algorithm are used on a 4 variables application case and the results are presented through a parallel graph. The results of the study is a tool taking in input the target of population (ex 95%) giving in results family of combinations of percentage of population on each parameters to see who in the population database will fit the pilot seat.Relevance to industry: The domain of transportation, in which pilots or driver can stay a long time sitting in their vehicle is very challenging in finding an adaptable seat for every driver to be adjust.