Automatic moment segmentation and peak detection analysis of heart sound pattern via short-time modified Hilbert transform

This paper proposes a novel automatic method for the moment segmentation and peak detection analysis of heart sound (HS) pattern, with special attention to the characteristics of the envelopes of HS and considering the properties of the Hilbert transform (HT). The moment segmentation and peak location are accomplished in two steps. First, by applying the Viola integral waveform method in the time domain, the envelope (E_T) of the HS signal is obtained with an emphasis on the first heart sound (S1) and the second heart sound (S2). Then, based on the characteristics of the E_T and the properties of the HT of the convex and concave functions, a novel method, the short-time modified Hilbert transform (STMHT), is proposed to automatically locate the moment segmentation and peak points for the HS by the zero crossing points of the STMHT. A fast algorithm for calculating the STMHT of E_T can be expressed by multiplying the E_T by an equivalent window (W_E). According to the range of heart beats and based on the numerical experiments and the important parameters of the STMHT, a moving window width of N = 1 s is validated for locating the moment segmentation and peak points for HS. The proposed moment segmentation and peak location procedure method is validated by sounds from Michigan HS database and sounds from clinical heart diseases, such as a ventricular septal defect (VSD), an aortic septal defect (ASD), Tetralogy of Fallot (TOF), rheumatic heart disease (RHD), and so on. As a result, for the sounds where S2 can be separated from S1, the average accuracies achieved for the peak of S1 (AP₁), the peak of S2 (AP₂), the moment segmentation points from S1 to S2 (AT₁₂) and the cardiac cycle (ACC) are 98.53%, 98.31% and 98.36% and 97.37%, respectively. For the sounds where S1 cannot be separated from S2, the average accuracies achieved for the peak of S1 and S2 (AP₁₂) and the cardiac cycle ACC are 100% and 96.69%.     

Security-aware intermediate data placement strategy in scientific cloud workflows

Massive computation power and storage capacity of cloud computing systems allow scientists to deploy data-intensive applications without the infrastructure investment, where large application datasets can be stored in the cloud. Based on the pay-as-you-go model, data placement strategies have been developed to cost-effectively store large volumes of generated datasets in the scientific cloud workflows. As promising as it is, this paradigm also introduces many new challenges for data security when the users outsource sensitive data for sharing on the cloud servers, which are not within the same trusted domain as the data owners. This challenge is further complicated by the security constraints on the potential sensitive data for the scientific workflows in the cloud. To effectively address this problem, we propose a security-aware intermediate data placement strategy. First, we build a security overhead model to reasonably measure the security overheads incurred by the sensitive data. Second, we develop a data placement strategy to dynamically place the intermediate data for the scientific workflows. Finally, our experimental results show that our strategy can effectively improve the intermediate data security while ensuring the data transfer time during the execution of scientific workflows.     

VOID FRACTION PROFILES IN PLANE-POISEUILLE FLOW OF VISCOELASTIC FOAMS

This investigation focuses on slow, isothermal, two-phase flow of gas bubble suspensions in Separan solutions, prepared with the help of a sodium borohydride blowing agent at room temperature. The total residence time in these experiments is much smaller than characteristic times for growth or rise of bubbles. The variation of bubble volume fraction across a narrow gap between two planes, is recorded at two locations along the flow direction. This is done with a Cesium gamma-radiation source focused on a region of area.012 cm² in the flow plane, and a Sodium iodide detector across the channel yielding a resolution of.01 over the range of void fractions investigated from.02 to.08. This measurement allows us to identify conditions under which the two-phase flow may be described by a two fluid model with a uniform bubbly core and a bubble free wall layer. With this two phase flow structure, a relative viscosity equation for the suspension is used to compute an apparent viscosity. Such calculations indicate that the observed reduction in apparent viscosity for the two phase flow may be attributed to a bubbly core which is more shear thinning than the medium. The additional shear thinning factor for the suspension is related to the elasticity of the medium.     

A Quantitative Analysis of Current Practices in Optical Flow Estimation and the Principles Behind Them

The accuracy of optical flow estimation algorithms has been improving steadily as evidenced by results on the Middlebury optical flow benchmark. The typical formulation, however, has changed little since the work of Horn and Schunck. We attempt to uncover what has made recent advances possible through a thorough analysis of how the objective function, the optimization method, and modern implementation practices influence accuracy. We discover that “classical” flow formulations perform surprisingly well when combined with modern optimization and implementation techniques. One key implementation detail is the median filtering of intermediate flow fields during optimization. While this improves the robustness of classical methods it actually leads to higher energy solutions, meaning that these methods are not optimizing the original objective function. To understand the principles behind this phenomenon, we derive a new objective function that formalizes the median filtering heuristic. This objective function includes a non-local smoothness term that robustly integrates flow estimates over large spatial neighborhoods. By modifying this new term to include information about flow and image boundaries we develop a method that can better preserve motion details. To take advantage of the trend towards video in wide-screen format, we further introduce an asymmetric pyramid downsampling scheme that enables the estimation of longer range horizontal motions. The methods are evaluated on the Middlebury, MPI Sintel, and KITTI datasets using the same parameter settings.     

Stabilizing bit-rates in networked control systems with decentralized event-triggered communication

In a decentralized event-triggered networked control system (NCS), an agent samples and transmits its local state information to the controller when some local event occurs. Such event-triggered NCSs were expected to be more efficient than traditional periodically sampled system in terms of communication channel usage. This paper studies the stability of decentralized event-triggered NCS in the presence of quantization and delays. We point out some potential issues in decentralized event-triggered design and propose an alternative decentralized event with a linear-affine threshold, which avoids infinitely fast data transmission. Conditions on quantizer and communication channel are derived, which, when satisfied, can guarantee stability of the resulting NCS. Based on these conditions, finite stabilizing bit-rates are provided.     

Catalytic properties of aluminated sepiolite in ethanol conversion

The aluminated sepiolite, obtained by alkaline treatment with KAlO₂, as well as the silver-exchanged aluminated sepiolite were tested in ethanol conversion. The reactions were performed at 280°C and with 50 Torr of ethanol in He. After the alumination through KA1O₂, ethanol dehydrogenation and ethanol dehydration resulted from the Lewis acidity. The dispersion of silver led to a bifunctional catalytic system and the overall catalytic activity and the selectivity towards the acetaldehyde production increased. As a result of the Prins reaction, a significant yield in butadiene was observed.     

On the membrane phospholipids and their acyl group profiles of adrenal gland

The phospholipid composition and their acyl group profiles from subcellular fractions of guinea pig adrenal gland and the same fractions from the cortex and medulla of the bovine gland were compared. The phospholipids of guinea pig adrenal were enriched in diacyl-glycerophosphocholines (GPC) which comprised over 50% of the total phospholipids, but the proportions of ethanolamine and choline plasmalogens, sphingomyelin and diacyl-glycerophosphoserine (GPS) were lower in guinea pig adrenals as compared to the bovine adrenals. In the bovine adrenal, sphingomyelin and diacyl-GPS were enriched in the medulla, whereas diacyl-glycerophosphoinositol (GPI) were enriched in the cortex. Although lysolecithin was present (up to 4.5%) in the bovine adrenal, only trace amounts of this lipid were detected in the guinea pig adrenal. Characteristic acyl group profiles were found associated with each type of the phosphoglycerides in adrenal membranes. However, acyl group profiles of the phosphoglycerides were not greatly different either between the bovine and guinea pig adrenal or with respect to the type of subcellular membranes isolated. Diacyl-GPC were enriched in 16∶0 and 18∶1, but also contained considerable amounts of 18∶0, 18∶2 and 20∶4. Diacyl-GPE were enriched in 18∶0, 18∶1 and 20∶4, while diacyl-GPI, diacyl-GPS, as well as alkenylacyl-GPE, were enriched in 20∶4. The lysolecithin from bovine adrenal membranes contained mainly 16∶0, 18∶0 and 18∶1 with only trace amounts of the polyunsaturated fatty acids. Other polyunsaturated fatty acids, such as 22∶4 and 22∶6, are apparently not prominent in the phosphoglycerides from either the bovine or the guinea pig adrenal gland.     

密度泛函方法的ZSM-5分子筛上苯与乙烯烷基化反应机理研究

采用密度泛函(DFT)方法对于ZSM-5分子筛上苯与乙烯的烷基化反应机理进行研究。选取了包含酸性质子的8T原子簇模型代表ZSM-5分子筛的部分结构。采用B3LYP/6-31G(d)水平从生成能与反应活化能角度对于烷基化反应发生时可能存在的2种联合机理和一种分步机理进行了计算与比较。结果表明,联合反应机理中乙烯的质子化和C-C键的形成同时发生,而分步机理开始于乙醇盐中间体的生成,随后与苯反应生成反应产物。分步机理中乙醇盐中间体生成步骤的活化能(124.55 kJ/mol)低于联合机理的反应活化能(168.98 kJ/mol和156.06 kJ/mol),而烷基化步骤的活化能(209.35 kJ/mol)高于联合机理的反应活化能,由此可以推断ZSM-5分子筛上苯与乙烯的烷基化反应时2种机理同时发生,存在竞争关系。     

采用变压精馏回收共沸剂的正丙醇-水共沸精馏模拟研究

本文研究了一种分离正丙醇-水的新型共沸精馏工艺,通过变压精馏的方法对夹带剂乙酸乙酯进行回收。本研究采用Aspen—Plus软件中的RADFRAC精馏模块,以NRTL活度系数方程和Hayden-O'connell逸度方程为热力学模型对本工艺流程进行模拟,讨论了塔板数、进料位置、进料量、回流比和进料温度等参数对产物精馏和共沸剂回收的分离效果的影响,优化得出最佳工艺参数。结果表明,当精馏塔的塔板数为40块,进料位置为34板,回流比为8,夹带剂与进料比为0.9:常压回收塔的塔板数为20块,进料位置为4板,回流比为0.1,减压回收塔和常压回收塔的压力分别设定为0.2 aim和1 atm时,产物正丙醇的纯度为99.22 mol%,回收的共沸剂纯度达到99.87 mo1%,本文对正丙醇的工业生产具有一定指导意义。     

Preparation,characterization, and adsorption properties for metal ions of a novel chelating resin containing sulfoxide and diethylene glycol

A novel chelating resin containing sulfoxide and diethylene glycol, poly{4‐vinylbenzyl‐[2‐2‐(hydroxyethyl)ethoxyl]sulfoxide} (PVESO) was synthesized using chloromethylated polystyrene (PS‐Cl) as material. Its structure was characterized by elemental analysis, infrared spectra, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The adsorption capacities of the resin for Hg²⁺, Ag⁺, Cu²⁺, Zn²⁺, and Pb²⁺ at various pH values were determined. The maximum adsorption capacities for Hg²⁺ and Ag⁺ were 1.56 and 0.75 mmol g^?1 respectively. The resin had high selectivity for Hg²⁺ and Ag⁺ over the pH range 1.0–7.0. The adsorption capacities for Hg²⁺ and Ag⁺ under competitive condition were also determined by batch experiment method. In addition, the adsorption kinetics of the resin towards Hg²⁺ at different temperatures was also investigated. The results showed that the adsorption rate was governed by film diffusion at 20°C and 25°C, by particle diffusion at 30°C and 35°C. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 102: 6054–6059, 2006