The Evaluation of a Personalised Health Information System for Patients with Cancer

In this paper we describe the evaluation of a personalised information system for patients with cancer. Our system dynamically generates hypertext pages that explain treatments, diseases, measurements etc related to the patient's condition, using information in the patient's medical record as the basis for the tailoring. We describe results of a controlled trial comparing this system with a nonpersonalised one. The results of the trial slow significant results concerning the patients' preferences for personalised information. We discuss the implications of our evaluation and results for the development and evaluation of future personalised systems, and adaptive hypertext systems in particular.     

A probabilistic approach to pronunciation by analogy

The relationship between written and spoken words is convoluted in languages with a deep orthography such as English and therefore it is difficult to devise explicit rules for generating the pronunciations for unseen words. Pronunciation by analogy (PbA) is a data-driven method of constructing pronunciations for novel words from concatenated segments of known words and their pronunciations. PbA performs relatively well with English and outperforms several other proposed methods. However, the method inherently generates several candidate pronunciations and its performance depends critically on a good scoring function to choose the best one of them.Previous PbA algorithms have used several different scoring heuristics such as the product of the frequencies of the component pronunciations of the segments, or the number of different segmentations that yield the same pronunciation, and different combinations of these methods, to evaluate the candidate pronunciations. In this article, we instead propose to use a probabilistically justified scoring rule. We show that this principled approach alone yields better accuracy than any previously published PbA algorithm. Furthermore, combined with certain ad hoc modifications motivated by earlier algorithms, the performance can in some cases be further increased.     

Modelling lidar-derived boreal forest canopy cover with SPOT 4 HRVIR data

Forest canopy cover (C) is needed in forest area monitoring and for many ecological models. Airborne scanning lidar sensors can produce fairly accurate C estimates even without field training data. However, optical satellite images are more cost-efficient for large area inventories. Our objective was to use airborne lidar data to obtain accurate estimates of C for a set of sample plots in a boreal forest and to generalize C for a large area using a satellite image. The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and reduced simple ratio (RSR) were calculated from the satellite image and used as predictors in the regressions. RSR, which combines information from the red, near-infrared, and shortwave infrared bands, provided the best performance in terms of absolute root mean square error (RMSE) (7.3%) in the training data. NDVI produced a markedly larger RMSE (10.0%). However, in an independent validation data set, RMSE increased (13.0–17.1%) because the systematic sample of validation plots contained more variation than the training plots. Our results are better than those reported earlier, which is probably explained by more consistent C estimates derived from the lidar. Our approach provides an efficient method for creating C maps for large areas.     

An inexact interior-point method for system analysis

In this article, a primal-dual interior-point algorithm for semidefinite programming that can be used for analysing e.g. polytopic linear differential inclusions is tailored in order to be more computationally efficient. The key to the speedup is to allow for inexact search directions in the interior-point algorithm. These are obtained by aborting an iterative solver for computing the search directions prior to convergence. A convergence proof for the algorithm is given. Two different preconditioners for the iterative solver are proposed. The speedup is in many cases more than an order of magnitude. Moreover, the proposed algorithm can be used to analyse much larger problems as compared to what is possible with off-the-shelf interior-point solvers.     

Nanoliter Scale Parallel Liquid–Liquid Extraction for High-Throughput Purification on a Droplet Microarray

In the current drug discovery process, the synthesis of compound libraries is separated from biological screenings both conceptually and technologically. One of the reasons is that parallel on-chip high-throughput purification of synthesized compounds is still a major challenge. Here, on-chip miniaturized high-throughput liquid–liquid extraction in volumes down to 150 nL with efficiency comparable to or better than large-scale extraction utilizing separation funnels is demonstrated. The method is based on automated and programmable merging of arrays of aqueous nanoliter droplets with organic droplets. Multi-step extraction performed simultaneously or with changing conditions as well as handling of femtomoles of compounds are demonstrated. In addition, the extraction efficiency is analyzed with a fast optical readout as well as matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-mass spectrometry on-chip detection. The new massively parallel and miniaturized purification method adds another important tool to the chemBIOS concept combining chemical combinatorial synthesis with biological screenings on the same miniaturized droplet microarray platform, which will be essential to accelerate drug discovery.     

Microstructure, creep properties, and failure mechanism of SnAgCu solder joints

The effect of microstructure on the creep properties and the failure mechanism of SnAgCu solder joints was studied. Single overlap shear specimens made of FR-4 printed circuit boards (PCBs) with organic solderability preservative (OSP), NiAu, and immersion Sn surface finish were reflow-soldered with hypoeutectic, eutectic, and hypereutectic SnAgCu solder paste. Creep tests of the solder joints were performed at 85°C and 105°C under constant load. The effect of microstructure on the creep behavior of the joints was studied by examining the fracture surfaces and cross-sectional samples of the tested joints. Results show that the intermetallic compound at the interface between the PCB and solder affects the fracture behavior of SnAgCu solder joints, thus creating a significant difference in the creep properties of solder joints on different surface finishes. Composition of SnAgCu solder was also found to affect the creep properties of the joints.     

Development of separation technology for the removal of radium-223 from targeted thorium conjugate formulations. Part II: purification of targeted thorium conjugates on cation exchange columns

Tumor targeting pharmaceuticals will play a crucial role in future pharma pipelines. The targeted thorium conjugate (TTC) therapeutic platform could provide real benefit to patients, whereby targeting moieties like monoclonal antibodies are radiolabelled with the alpha-emitting radionuclide thorium-227 (²²⁷Th, t_1/2?=?18.7?days). A potential problem could be the accumulation of the long-lived daughter nuclide radium-223 (²²³Ra, t_1/2?=?11.4?days) in the drug product during manufacturing and distribution. Therefore, the level of ²²³Ra must be standardized before administration to the patient. The focus in this study has been the removal of ²²³Ra, as the other progenies will have a very limited stay in the formulation. In this study, the purification of TTCs labeled with decayed ²²⁷Th has been explored. Columns packed with a strong cation exchange resin have been used to sequester ²²³Ra. The separation of TTC from ²²³Ra has been evaluated as influenced by both formulation and process parameters with a design of experiments (DOE) study; including citrate or acetate buffer, pH, buffer concentration, presence or absence of pABA?+?EDTA, resin amount and sodium chloride concentration. The aim was to achieve a separation with high sorption of ²²³Ra and accompanying low TTC sorption. The results were analyzed by multivariate analysis. Four regression models of TTC and ²²³Ra sorption from citrate and acetate buffered formulations were developed. The predictive accuracy of sorption in the four statistical models was given by standard deviations and confidence intervals. The TTC sorption in citrate and acetate buffered formulations was affected by the identical variables and the variation in TTC sorption was comparable for the two models. However, the DOE variables had a significantly stronger impact on the ²²³Ra sorption in citrate buffered formulations than the ²²³Ra sorption in acetate buffer. An optimal separation with a TTC sorption below 25% and ²²³Ra sorption above 90% can be achieved in both citrate and acetate buffered formulations. Stability studies of radiochemical purity (RCP) indicated that the measured ²²⁷Th values may be partly due to free ²²⁷Th and not TTC, but the results indicate that TTC stability may be controlled by optimizing formulation parameters. Hence, the sorption data and the regression models presented must be reviewed and further explored with regard to what is known about the stability of the TTC in the different buffered formulations.     

An ontology for videogame interoperability

During the last 20 years, video games have become very popular and widely adopted in our society. However, despite the growth on video game industry, there is a lack of interoperability that allow developers to interchange their information freely and to form stronger partnerships. In this paper we present the Video Game Ontology (VGO), a model for enabling interoperability among video games and enhancing data analysis of gameplay information. We describe the creation process of the ontology, the ontology conceptualization and its evaluation. In addition, we demonstrate the applicability of the Video Game Ontology in action with three example games that take advantage of the created ontology. Also, we demonstrate the use of the VGO in enabling interoperability among the example games.     

Variable Length Instruction Compression on Transport Triggered Architectures

The memories used for embedded microprocessor devices consume a large portion of the system’s power. The power dissipation of the instruction memory can be reduced by using code compression methods, which may require the use of variable length instruction formats in the processor. The power-efficient design of variable length instruction fetch and decode is challenging for static multiple-issue processors, which aim for low power consumption on embedded platforms. The memory-side power savings using compression are easily lost on inefficient fetch unit design. We propose an implementation for instruction template-based compression and two instruction fetch alternatives for variable length instruction encoding on transport triggered architecture, a static multiple-issue exposed data path architecture. With applications from the CHStone benchmark suite, the compression approach reaches an average compression ratio of 44% at best. We show that the variable length fetch designs reduce the number of memory accesses and often allow the use of a smaller memory component. The proposed compression scheme reduced the energy consumption of synthesized benchmark processors by 15% and area by 33% on average.     

Parallax correction via disparity estimation in a multi-aperture camera

In this paper, an image fusion algorithm is proposed for a multi-aperture camera. Such camera is a feasible alternative to traditional Bayer filter camera in terms of image quality, camera size and camera features. The camera consists of several camera units, each having dedicated optics and color filter. The main challenge of a multi-aperture camera arises from the fact that each camera unit has a slightly different viewpoint. Our image fusion algorithm corrects the parallax error between the sub-images using a disparity map, which is estimated from the single-spectral images. We improve the disparity estimation by combining matching costs over multiple views using trifocal tensors. Images are matched using two alternative matching costs, mutual information and Census transform. We also compare two different disparity estimation methods, graph cuts and semi-global matching. The results show that the overall quality of the fused images is near the reference images.