Nonlinear speech analysis algorithms mapped to a standard metric achieve clinically useful quantification of average Parkinson's disease symptom severity

The standard reference clinical score quantifying average Parkinson''s disease (PD) symptom severity is the Unified Parkinson''s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS). At present, UPDRS is determined by the subjective clinical evaluation of the patient''s ability to adequately cope with a range of tasks. In this study, we extend recent findings that UPDRS can be objectively assessed to clinically useful accuracy using simple, self-administered speech tests, without requiring the patient''s physical presence in the clinic. We apply a wide range of known speech signal processing algorithms to a large database (approx. 6000 recordings from 42 PD patients, recruited to a six-month, multi-centre trial) and propose a number of novel, nonlinear signal processing algorithms which reveal pathological characteristics in PD more accurately than existing approaches. Robust feature selection algorithms select the optimal subset of these algorithms, which is fed into non-parametric regression and classification algorithms, mapping the signal processing algorithm outputs to UPDRS. We demonstrate rapid, accurate replication of the UPDRS assessment with clinically useful accuracy (about 2 UPDRS points difference from the clinicians'' estimates, p < 0.001). This study supports the viability of frequent, remote, cost-effective, objective, accurate UPDRS telemonitoring based on self-administered speech tests. This technology could facilitate large-scale clinical trials into novel PD treatments.     

Improved Bounds for Finger Search on a RAM

We present a new finger search tree with O(loglogd) expected search time in the Random Access Machine (RAM) model of computation for a large class of input distributions. The parameter d represents the number of elements (distance) between the search element and an element pointed to by a finger, in a finger search tree that stores n elements. Our data structure improves upon a previous result by Andersson and Mattsson that exhibits expected O(loglogn) search time by incorporating the distance d into the search time complexity, and thus removing the dependence on n. We are also able to show that the search time is O(loglogd+?(n)) with high probability, where ?(n) is any slowly growing function of n. For the need of the analysis we model the updates by a “balls and bins” combinatorial game that is interesting in its own right as it involves insertions and deletions of balls according to an unknown distribution.     

Access stratum resource management for reliable u-healthcare service in LTE networks

With the rapid growth of elderly population, ubiquitous healthcare (u-healthcare) service combined with advanced wireless networking technology is gaining popularity. The advance in medical sensor technology has boasted up the u-healthcare market potential. However, the global connectivity with a sufficient level of reliability is still an issue to study for its prototype development. In our previous study (Lee et al. In: Proc BodyNets 2010, Lee et al. in J Commun Netw 13(2):160–166, 2011), the energy efficient packet-level scheduling was studied but the scheduling and management topics in the access stratum, which is the beginning part of end-to-end connection for ubiquitous healthcare service, are still open. In this paper, we study an efficient and adaptive method that can provide u-healthcare user devices with an increased level of access privilege so that the healthcare related user data, which is sometimes delay-critical, can be more favorable admitted to the access stratum. We develop a mathematical formulation for the access control in access stratum domain over the existing 3.9-th generation cellular communication standard, called long term evolution (LTE) and devise an efficient and exact algorithm to solve it. The proposed method has simplicity in implementation and efficiency in operation. In addition, it can improve key performance measures, such as call blocking and call dropping performance.     

Optimal location of a general position and orientation end-effector's path relative to manipulator's base,considering velocity performance

The objective of the present paper is to introduce an offline algorithm searching for the optimal or suboptimal placement of a robot's base during workcell design, so that its end-effector can perform a position and orientation path following task of a given 3D curved path and orientation, maximizing the manipulator's velocity performance. The global index employed for this velocity performance optimization is the approximation of the minimum manipulator velocity ratio (AMMVR).     

Hydrogen production via sulfur-based thermochemical cycles: Part 3: Durability and post-characterization of silicon carbide honeycomb substrates coated with metal oxide-based candidate catalysts for the sulfuric acid decomposition step

This work is a follow-up of previous efforts reported on the synthesis of various single and mixed oxide materials and their evaluation as catalysts for the sulfuric acid dissociation reaction for the production of SO₂ and O₂. The current work concerns the comparative assessment of Fe₂O₃, CuO, Cu–Fe, Fe–Cr, Cu–Al and Cu–Fe–Al mixed oxides coated as catalysts on silicon carbide monolithic honeycomb structures, with respect to sulfuric acid decomposition reaction conditions for 100 h at 850 °C and ambient pressure, as well as their ex-situ characterization after such operation. The exposure conditions are representative to a potential future real application. The exposure time, although of relatively short-term, is adequate to extract safe conclusions on the stability and therefore to a large extent also on the suitability of the candidate oxide-based catalysts. All catalytic systems tested exhibited high SO₃ conversions reaching or exceeding 70%, for space velocities in the range of 5–35 h⁻¹. For some of the samples, the relatively high initial activity decreased by about 5–10 percentage points in the course of the 100 h testing, reaching stable mean values. It was concluded that Fe₂O₃, CuO and Fe–Cr mixed oxide retained their chemical and structural stability after exposure to reaction conditions, while the other three mixed oxides studied suffered from significant phase decomposition phenomena. Based on the fact that the initial catalytic activity of the Fe–Cr mixed oxide, as identified in a previous comparative study among several materials, was found higher than the ones of Fe₂O₃ and CuO and relatively close to the one of the highly active but costly Pt/Al₂O₃ catalyst, the particular mixed oxide is considered a promising catalyst for the SO₃ dissociation reaction.     

Effect of water,albumen and fat on the quality of gluten‐free bread containing amaranth

The aim of the research was the development of an alternative formula for gluten‐free bread (GFB) containing amaranth flour. GFBs were prepared using a 2³ factorial screening experimental design. The amount of water, albumen and fat varied in order to evaluate their impact on the textural, structural and sensory characteristics of the final product. Water amount had the greatest influence on bread characteristics. For a 33% water content increase (from 0.6 to 0.8 g g^?1 of flour) the firmness of the crumb decreased to 20% of the initial value. Also, for the same water content increase, the average pore size became 2.5‐fold greater. Albumen addition (from 0 to 0.04 g g^?1 of flour) influenced mainly crumb viscoelasticity (20% increase). Variations in fat amount did not significantly influence any of the response variables investigated. However, the combined addition of fat and albumen resulted in breads that received the best rankings in overall acceptance in sensory evaluation.     

Objective and subjective evaluation of power plants and their non-radioactive emissions using the analytic hierarchy process

Non-nuclear power plant emissions are of great concern to the public and to scientists alike. As energy demand tends to rise rapidly, especially in the developing countries, the negative effects to human health and to the environment from gaseous emissions together with hazardous particulate matter released by power plants can no longer be ignored.