Developing a method to plan robotic straight needle insertion using a probability-based assessment of puncture occurrence

Needle-based treatments for cancer require accurate placement of the needle tip into the target tissue. However, it is often difficult to insert a needle accurately because of the cancer displacement caused by organ deformation. Therefore, developing a planning method based on a numerical simulation that analyzes organ deformation is important for accurate needle insertion. However, predicting the puncture conditions, including the force applied to the needle is not trivial owing to marked variations in the experimental data. The purpose of this research is to develop a novel method for predicting a robust path for straight needle insertion with various puncture points. The method is based on the probabilities of the various puncture conditions and evaluates the expected accuracy of needle placement. First, a probability-based puncture condition was established and the expected accuracy of needle placement was defined. We also performed in vitro needle insertion experiments using a porcine liver. Significant variations in puncture force were observed. Accordingly, we established a probability distribution for the tissue stress caused by the puncture. An in vitro experiment was performed to measure needle placement accuracy using the optimized path. Experimental results show that the proposed method achieves a mean accuracy of 1.5?mm.     

Adaptive semi-supervised learning on labeled and unlabeled data with different distributions

Developing methods for designing good classifiers from labeled samples whose distribution is different from that of test samples is an important and challenging research issue in the fields of machine learning and its application. This paper focuses on designing semi-supervised classifiers with a high generalization ability by using unlabeled samples drawn by the same distribution as the test samples and presents a semi-supervised learning method based on a hybrid discriminative and generative model. Although JESS-CM is one of the most successful semi-supervised classifier design frameworks based on a hybrid approach, it has an overfitting problem in the task setting that we consider in this paper. We propose an objective function that utilizes both labeled and unlabeled samples for the discriminative training of hybrid classifiers and then expect the objective function to mitigate the overfitting problem. We show the effect of the objective function by theoretical analysis and empirical evaluation. Our experimental results for text classification using four typical benchmark test collections confirmed that with our task setting in most cases, the proposed method outperformed the JESS-CM framework. We also confirmed experimentally that the proposed method was useful for obtaining better performance when classifying data samples into either known or unknown classes, which were included in given labeled samples or not, respectively.     

Three-dimensional discrete-velocity BGK model for the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations

The lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) has been widely used for the simulations of the incompressible Navier–Stokes (NS) equations. The finite difference Boltzmann method (FDBM) in which the discrete-velocity Boltzmann equation is solved instead of the lattice Boltzmann equation has also been applied as an alternative method for simulating the incompressible flows. The particle velocities of the FDBM can be selected independently from the lattice configuration. In this paper, taking account of this advantage, we present the discrete velocity Boltzmann equation that has a minimum set of the particle velocities with the lattice Bharnagar–Gross–Krook (BGK) model for the three-dimensional incompressible NS equations. To recover incompressible NS equations, tensors of the particle velocities have to be isotropic up to the fifth rank. Thus, we propose to apply the icosahedral vectors that have 13 degrees of freedom to the particle velocity distributions. Validity of the proposed model (D3Q13BGK) is confirmed by numerical simulations of the shear-wave decay problem and the Taylor–Green vortex problem. With respect to numerical accuracy, computational efficiency and numerical stability, we compare the proposed model with the conventional lattice BGK models (D3Q15, D3Q19 and D3Q27) and the multiple-relaxation-time (MRT) model (D3Q13MRT) that has the same degrees of freedom as our proposal. The comparisons show that the compressibility error of the proposed model is approximately double that of the conventional lattice BGK models, but the computational efficiency of the proposed model is superior to that of the others. The linear stability of the proposed model is also superior to that of the lattice BGK models. However, in non-linear simulations, the proposed model tends to be less stable than the others.     

Derandomizing Arthur-Merlin Games and Approximate Counting Implies Exponential-Size Lower Bounds

We show that if Arthur-Merlin protocols can be derandomized, then there is a language computable in deterministic exponential-time with access to an NP oracle that requires circuits of exponential size. More formally, if every promise problem in prAM, the class of promise problems that have Arthur-Merlin protocols, can be computed by a deterministic polynomial-time algorithm with access to an NP oracle, then there is a language in E^NP that requires circuits of size Ω(2 ⁿ /n). The lower bound in the conclusion of our theorem suffices to construct pseudorandom generators with exponential stretch.     

Tonle Sap Lake: Current status and important research directions for environmental management

Tonle Sap Lake (TSL) in Cambodia is the largest freshwater body in South‐East Asia and one of the most productive ecosystems in the world. The lake and its ecosystems are widely under threat, however, due to anthropogenic activities occurring inside and outside its basin (e.g., water infrastructure development; land use change), being poorly understood in most aspects. This study provides an updated review of the state of knowledge of the TSL ecosystem, as well as important research directions for sustainable lake environmental management of Tonle Sap Lake by focusing on four major topics, including climate change and hydrology, sediment dynamics, nutrient dynamics and primary and secondary production. The findings of this study suggest anthropogenic activities in the TSL basin, as well as the Mekong, in combination together with climate changes, are key contributing factors in the degradation of the TSL ecosystem. Insufficient accurate data, however, precludes quantitative assessment of such impacts, making it difficult to quantitatively assess and accurately understand the ecosystem process in the lake ecosystem. More efforts are recommended in regard to environmental monitoring in all sub‐basins around TSL, assessing seasonal changes in nutrient and sediment inputs corresponding to water level and flow changes, assessing cumulative impacts of water infrastructure and climate change on the ecosystem dynamics, and elucidation of ecosystem processes within the lake's internal system.     

Effectiveness of carbon microcoils as a reinforcing material for a polymer matrix

Spring-shaped carbon microcoils (CMCs) were embedded in epoxy resins to form CMC/epoxy resin composites. The mechanical properties of the composites were examined and compared with those of conventional straight carbon fiber (CF) /epoxy resin composites. CMCs were found to be more effective than CFs as a reinforcing material for the epoxy resin having a low Young’s modulus (0.54 MPa). SEM images of the fractured cross-sections of the composite revealed that CMCs were not pulled out from the resin matrix but fractured with the matrix. This could be ascribed to the unique conformations of CMCs.     

A Prolog-based natural language front-end system

A Prolog-based natural language front-end system is described with the following major issues of discussion: Domain independence of the syntax analyser was achieved by the ‘generate-and-test’ notion and the domain independent semantic representation; Determiners were treated as higher order predicates; A technique called ‘syntactic feature’ was employed to write a readable parser in Prolog.     

Synthesis and properties of polyethylene and polypropylene containing hydroxylated cyclic units in the main chain

Polyethylene and isotactic polypropylene containing hydroxylated cyclic units were synthesized by copolymerization of ethylene or propylene and cyclodiolefins, dicyclopentadiene (DCPD), 5-vinyl-2-norbornene (VNB), 5-ethylidene-2-norbornene (ENB), with zirconocene catalysts and subsequent hydroboration reaction of residual unsaturated group. The resulting hydroxylated copolymers showed higher glass transition temperature (T_g) than the original and hydrogenated copolymers. Relationship between the cyclodiolefin content and ΔT_g (ΔT_g=difference of T_g between hydroxylated copolymer and hydrogenated copolymer) was given by a straight line independent of the structure of the comonomers. Improvement in shape memory effect was observed in the hydroxylated ethylene-VNB copolymer.     

Melt spinning of poly(L‐lactic acid) and its biodegradability

The melt spinning and melt drawing of poly(L ‐lactic acid) (PLLA) were carried out with a melt‐spinning machine, and the mechanical properties, structure, and biodegradability of PLLA fiber were investigated. PLLA fiber with a tensile strength of 0.81 GPa was successfully obtained through two steps of drawing at a draw ratio of 18 in hot water. This fiber had enough tensile strength for common engineering use. The fiber could be degraded under controlled composting conditions at 70°C for 1 week. In scanning electron microscopy observations of the fiber, a regular pattern of cracks running along the vertical direction to the fiber axis was clearly observed. This suggested that the PLLA fiber built up a highly ordered structure arranged along the direction of the fiber axis. After the fiber was left to lie in the ground for 1 year, however, the surface of the fiber was still smooth, and the tensile strength did not decrease much. This PLLA fiber could not be hydrolyzed after 1 month of steeping in a buffer solution at 37°C, but it was rapidly hydrolyzed at more than 60°C. It was suggested that the degradation (hydrolysis) rate of PLLA depended on the glass‐transition temperature. Upon hydrolysis at 80°C for 48 h, a regular crack along the vertical direction to the fiber axis was found that was very similar to that observed in degradation under composting conditions. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 97: 2118–2124, 2005     

A robust method for soft IP handover

Multimedia streaming over wireless networks - often called mobile multimedia streaming lets users access music, movie, and news services at any time, regardless of location. Given that multimedia streaming is a key goal of third-generation and future wireless networks, vendors will soon deploy streaming clients in advanced mobile terminals. Current mobile terminals, however, fail to adequately support mobile multimedia communication because wireless networks have high packet-loss rates. To eliminate packet loss during handover, we use a packet path diversity scheme and an end-to-end bicasting mechanism that enables soft IP handover. To offset wireless errors, we use a forward error correction (FEC) scheme and embed it in the bicasting mechanism. Our bicasting method encodes the data stream and then splits it, providing more effective diversity than general bicasting, which sends the same data down both paths.' To support our method, we propose the mobile multimedia streaming protocol (MMSP), a new transport-layer protocol that supports multihoming and bicasting in combination with FEC.