Wavelet-based event detection in implantable cardiac rhythm management devices

This paper presents a novel event detector for implantable devices. The algorithm is based on a signal model which describes an event as a linear combination of basis functions. The linear combination involves two fundamental electrogram waveforms represented at different time scales. An efficient, low-complexity detector is developed using the dyadic wavelet transform with integer filter coefficients, and a generalized likelihood ratio test. The results show that reliable detection is obtained at an intermediate signal-to-noise ratio (SNR = 25 dB) for various common noise sources. In terms of probabilities of missed events and false alarms, an over-all performance of 0.7% and 0.1%, respectively, was achieved on electrograms corrupted by the different noise types at an intermediate SNR.     

Effect of dietary crude protein concentration on milk production and nitrogen utilization in lactating dairy cows

Forty lactating Holstein cows, including 10 with ruminal cannulas, were blocked by days in milk into 8 groups and then randomly assigned to 1 of 8 incomplete 5 × 5 Latin squares to assess the effects of 5 levels of dietary crude protein (CP) on milk production and N use. Diets contained 25% alfalfa silage, 25% corn silage, and 50% concentrate, on a dry matter (DM) basis. Rolled high-moisture shelled corn was replaced with solvent-extracted soybean meal to increase CP from 13.5 to 15.0, 16.5, 17.9, and 19.4% of DM. Each of the 4 experimental periods lasted 28 d, with 14 d for adaptation and 14 d for data collection. Spot sampling of ruminal digesta, blood, urine, and feces was conducted on d 21 of each period. Intake of DM was not affected by diet but milk fat content as well as ruminal acetate, NH₃, and branched-chain volatile fatty acids, urinary allantoin, and blood and milk urea all increased linearly with increasing CP. Milk and protein yield showed trends for quadratic responses to dietary CP and were, respectively, 38.3 and 1.18 kg/d at 16.5% CP. As a proportion of N intake, urinary N excretion increased from 23.8 to 36.2%, whereas N secreted in milk decreased from 36.5 to 25.4%, as dietary protein increased from 13.5 to 19.4%. Under the conditions of this study, yield of milk and protein were not increased by feeding more than 16.5% CP. The linear increase in urinary N excretion resulted from a sharp decline in N efficiency as dietary CP content increased.     

The Construction-Integration framework: a means to diminish bias in LSA-based call routing

Semantic technology is commonly used for two purposes in the field of IVR (Interactive Voice Response). The first is to correct the output of voice recognition devices based on coherence with a context. The second is to perform what is referred to as “call routing”, requiring technology that categorizes utterances and returns a list of the most credible routes. Our paper focuses on the latter, aiming to use the Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA henceforth) computational model (Deerwester et al. in J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci. 41:391–407, 1990) together with the Construction-Integration model (C-I henceforth), a psycholinguistically motivated algorithm (Kintsch in Int. J. Psychol. 33(6):411–420, 1998), to interpret, manage and successfully route user requests in an efficient and reliable manner. By efficient we mean that training is unnecessary when the destination model is altered, and exhaustive labeling of all utterances is not required, concentrating instead only on some sample destinations. By reliable we mean that the construction-integration algorithm attenuates the risks from intra-destination variability and word saliency. Technical and theoretical aspects are discussed. In addition, some destination assignment methods are tested and debated.     

Microwave Signal Generation and Transmission Based on Optical Frequency Multiplication With a Polarization Interferometer

A novel scheme is proposed and experimentally demonstrated for the generation of microwaves, based on the optical frequency multiplication principle employing a polarization interferometer. Generation of 120-Mb/s 64-quadrature-amplitude-modulation microwave signals at 40 and 24 GHz and its transmission over 25 km of single-mode fiber and 4.4 km of multimode fiber, respectively, are successfully demonstrated. The scheme is robust against laser phase noise, presents tolerance against dispersion impairments in transmission, and shows high-performance stability.     

Novel polymer composites based on a mixture of preformed nanosilica‐filled poly(methyl methacrylate) particles and a diepoxy/diamine thermoset system

In this work, a new material based on an epoxy thermoset modified with a thermoplastic filled with silica nanoparticles was investigated. When thermoplastic particles are filled with nanoparticles with unique properties such as high efficiency for absorbing ultraviolet light, electric or magnetic shielding, high electrical conductivity, and high dielectric constants, more than an enhancement of the mechanical properties is expected to be achieved for modified epoxy‐based thermosets. Particles of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) filled with silica nanoparticles were used to modify a thermoset based on a full reaction between diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A and 3‐(aminomethyl)benzylamine. When the preformed thermoplastic particles were mixed with the reactive constituents of the epoxy system under certain curing conditions in which total miscibility was avoided, uniform particle dispersions could be obtained. The relationships between the composition, morphology (nanoscale and microscale), glass‐transition temperature, mechanical properties, and fracture toughness were considered. Four main results were obtained for consideration of the potential of silica‐filled PMMA as an important modifier of brittle epoxy thermoset systems: (1) a good dispersion of the silica nanoparticles in the PMMA domains, (2) a good dispersion of the silica‐filled PMMA microparticles in the epoxy matrix, (3) the possibility of partial dissolution of the PMMA‐rich domains into the epoxy system, and (4) a slight increase in properties such as the hardness, indentation modulus, and fracture toughness. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2009     

A comprehensive approach for computation and implementation of efficient electricity transmission network charges

This paper presents a comprehensive design of electricity transmission charges that are meant to recover regulated network costs. In addition, these charges must be able to meet a set of inter-related objectives. Most importantly, they should encourage potential network users to internalize transmission costs in their location decisions, while interfering as least as possible with the short-term behaviour of the agents in the power system, since this should be left to regulatory instruments in the operation time range. The paper also addresses all those implementation issues that are essential for the sound design of a system of transmission network charges: stability and predictability of the charges; fair and efficient split between generation and demand charges; temporary measures to account for the low loading of most new lines; number and definition of the scenarios to be employed for the calculation and format of the final charges to be adopted: capacity, energy or per customer charges. The application of the proposed method is illustrated with a realistic numerical example that is based on a single scenario of the 2006 winter peak in the Spanish power system.     

All-optical label and payload separator for a time-serial RZ-IM/IM scheme

We demonstrate an all-optical label and payload separator based on nonlinear optical signal processing with a semiconductor optical amplifier. The separator handles return-to-zero intensity modulated packets with high bandwidth efficiency utilization.     

Inverted-F antennas with wideband match performance

Novel inverted-F antennas, double-wire (DW-IFA) and double-strip (DS-IFA) were developed for f₀ = 2.45 GHz, and a 0.8λ ₀ in size square ground plate. The antennas are distinctive for their wideband match performance, 12% (numerical) for DW-IFA and 18% (numerical)/17% (experimental) for DS-IFA, and radiation characteristics suitable for the mobile environment scenario     

Automatic detection of ST-T complex changes on the ECG using filtered RMS difference series: application to ambulatory ischemia monitoring

A new detector is presented which finds changes in the repolarization phase (ST-T complex) of the cardiac cycle. It operates by applying a detection algorithm to the filtered root mean square (rms) series of differences between the beat segment (ST segment or ST-T complex) and an average pattern segment. The detector has been validated using the European ST-T database, which contains ST-T complex episodes manually annotated by cardiologists, resulting in sensitivity/positive predictivity of 85/86%, and 85/76%, for ST segment deviations and ST-T complex changes, respectively. The proposed detector has a performance similar to those which have a more complicated structure. The detector has the advantage of finding both ST segment deviations and entire ST-T complex changes thereby providing a wider characterization of the potential ischemic events. A post-processing stage, based on a cross-correlation analysis for the episodes in the rms series, is presented. With this stage subclinical events with repetitive pattern were found in around 20% of the recordings and improved the performance to 90/85%, and 89/76%, for ST segment and ST-T complex changes, respectively.