Report from the Wellcome Trust/EBA “Perspectives in Clinical Proteomics” retreat--a strategy to implement next-generation proteomic analyses to the clinic for patient benefit: pathway to translation

Proteomics has long been thought to hold the promise of producing results of clinical utility which will influence patient treatment and outcomes. A recent Wellcome Trust/EBI meeting and retreat--“Perspectives in Clinical Proteomics”--brought together experts from a broad range of stakeholder groups with an interest in ensuring proteomics achieves this aim. This viewpoint presents views derived from these forums, proposing a pathway for the development of next-generation proteomic analyses in the clinical setting from selection of candidates through to their validation and ultimate demonstration of utility through health technology assessments. Although not meant to be all encompassing, important elements for proteomics researchers to consider are presented.     

A Multi‐Autonomous Underwater Vehicle System for Autonomous Tracking of Marine Life

This paper presents a multi‐autonomous underwater vehicle system capable of cooperatively and autonomously tracking and following marine targets (i.e., fish) tagged with an acoustic transmitter. The AUVs have been equipped with stereo‐hydrophones that receive signals broadcasted by the acoustic transmitter tags to enable real‐time calculation of bearing‐to‐tag and distance‐to‐tag measurements. These measurements are shared between AUVs via acoustic modem and fused within each AUV's particle filter for estimating the target's position. The AUVs use a leader/follower multi‐AUV control system to enable the AUVs to drive toward the estimated target state by following collision‐free paths. Once within the local area of the target, the AUVs circumnavigate the target state until it moves to another area. The system builds on previous work by incorporating a new SmartTag package that can be attached to an individual's dorsal fin. The SmartTag houses a full inertial measurement unit (INU), video logger, acoustic transmitter, and timed release mechanism. After real‐time AUV tracking experiments, the SmartTag is recovered. Logged IMU data are fused with logged AUV‐obtained acoustic tag measurements within a particle filter to improve state estimation accuracy. This improvement is validated through a series of multi‐AUV shark and boat tracking experiments conducted at Santa Catalina Island, California. When compared with previous work that did not use the SmartTag package, results demonstrated a decrease in mean position estimation error of 25–75%, tag orientation estimation errors dropped from 80° to 30° , the sensitivity of mean position error with respect to distance to the tag was less by a factor of 50, and the sensitivity of mean position error with respect to acoustic signal reception frequency to the tag was 25 times less. These statistics demonstrate a large improvement in the system's robustness when the SmartTag package is used.     

A comparison of the perceptual benefits of linear perspective and physically-based illumination for display of dense 3D streamtubes

Large datasets typically contain coarse features comprised of finer sub-features. Even if the shapes of the small structures are evident in a 3D display, the aggregate shapes they suggest may not be easily inferred. From previous studies in shape perception, the evidence has not been clear whether physically-based illumination confers any advantage over local illumination for understanding scenes that arise in visualization of large data sets that contain features at two distinct scales. In this paper we show that physically-based illumination can improve the perception for some static scenes of complex 3D geometry from flow fields. We perform human-subjects experiments to quantify the effect of physically-based illumination on participant performance for two tasks: selecting the closer of two streamtubes from a field of tubes, and identifying the shape of the domain of a flow field over different densities of tubes. We find that physically-based illumination influences participant performance as strongly as perspective projection, suggesting that physically-based illumination is indeed a strong cue to the layout of complex scenes. We also find that increasing the density of tubes for the shape identification task improved participant performance under physically-based illumination but not under the traditional hardware-accelerated illumination model.     

Improved Positioning Accuracy of the PA10-6CE Robot with Geometric and Flexibility Calibration

Accurate determination of robot geometric and flexibility parameters permits significant reduction of systematic errors and improved end-effector positioning accuracy. We apply a 30-parameter flexible geometric model to the Mitsubishi PA10-6CE robot and reduce mean/peak positional errors from 1.80/2.45 mm to 0.33/0.71 mm while loaded at 44 N.     

Anticipating the content and circumstances of skill transfer: unrealistic expectations of driver training and graduated licensing?

There is substantial evidence that driving skills improve during driver training, but the long-term safety benefit of such formal training remains unproven. Restricting the exposure of newly licensed drivers to more hazardous driving circumstances, as in graduated driver licensing (GDL) regimes, demonstrably reduces crash risk, but drivers remain at risk after the restrictions are eased. GDL and most other licensing regimes advocate increased basic training and practice, but thereafter require neither advanced training nor systematic increase in exposure to risk. This assumes that basic skills acquired during formal training will transfer positively to new and more demanding traffic circumstances. This paper reviews the theoretical basis for these assumptions and offers a way of systematically identifying the extent of transfer desired. It is concluded that there is little theoretical or empirical foundation for the supposition that what is learned during or after training will have a safety benefit in later driving.     

Social Science Training for Engineers—Experiences from the USA

ABSTRACT

This paper puts the accent on field measurements of the terms of the hydrological cycle, i.e., precipitation, evapotranspiration, run-off and infiltration, in order to evaluate the available water storage in surface reservoirs, in soils, in aquifers for short and long term planning.

Methodological and technological improvements illustrate in this paper not only the difficulties in obtaining reliable field hydrological data but also the fact that the behavioural knowledge of each term of the hydrological cycle is compulsory in order to determine the limits of the socio-economic development which depends upon the quantity of water resources available and in order to prevent eventual irreversible degradation of the environment.

No universal model exists because a model depends not only on the meteorological, hydrological andgeological conditions of the area under study but also on the planner's objectives concerning urban, industrial, navigational, agricultural and/or recreational activities. The studies of water resources are, therefore, in a permanent stage of pre-management. This is due to the fact that they have to be constantly adapted to new management conditions.

This becomes more and more imperative since water resources studies have been, and still are, undertaken too often in order to solve specific and isolated problems arising from short-sighted and/or short term planning and management.     

The usability of digestate in organic farming

As organic farming prohibits the use of synthetic fertilisers, animal slurries and manures must be used. Digestate offers an alternative to these and this study reports on three experiments conducted to determine its usability in terms of: (1) the effect on earthworm populations, (2) its fertilising effects on Italian Ryegrass and wild Creeping Thistle, and (3) the suppression effects digestate has on weed emergence. The results for digestate application to field plots were intermediate between slurry and no treatment for earthworm attraction and wild thistle suppression. In glasshouse trials it led to increased ryegrass growth compared with undigested slurry. Analysis showed that the digestate had improved nitrogen availability, leading to increased plant growth, but a reduced organic matter content compared with the slurry, leading to a positive though less beneficial impact on the earthworms. Digestate therefore provides a suitable fertiliser for organic farming. This suitability could be improved by drying or separation to increase the OM content making its properties closer to those of slurry whilst still retaining the higher content of plant available nitrogen.     

Satisfying quality requirements in the design of a partition‐based,distributed stock trading system

Although quality requirements (QRs) have become a major drive in today's software development, there have been very few real‐world examples in the literature that demonstrate how to meet these requirements. This paper presents such an example. Specifically, the paper describes the design of a partition‐based distributed stock trading service system that satisfies a set of QRs related to resource utilization, performance, scalability and availability. The paper evaluates this design through detailed experiments and discusses some design alternatives and the lessons learned. Central to this design are a static load distribution strategy and a dynamic load balancing strategy. The first strategy is to achieve an initial balanced workload on the system's server cluster during the system initialization time, whereas the second strategy is to maintain this balanced workload throughout the system execution time. Together, these two strategies work in unison to ensure that the server resources are efficiently utilized; the user requests are processed with the required speed; the application is partitioned with sufficient room to scale; and the system is highly available. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

手持设备设计的发展趋势

随着移动终端系统功能的持续增加,全球范围内的无线标准/接入技术不断面世,手持设备设计人员正面对着全新的需求。与手机设计中体积、功能不断下降的需求相比,他们现在面对的更大挑战是,用户希望在终端系统内纳入更多无线标准,从而达到永远适用,以及具有高成本效益和高连接性的     

The Effectiveness of Early Head Start for 3-Year-Old Children and Their Parents: Lessons for Policy and Programs.

Early Head Start, a federal program begun in 1995 for low-income pregnant women and families with infants and toddlers, was evaluated through a randomized trial of 3,001 families in 17 programs. Interviews with primary caregivers, child assessments, and observations of parent-child interactions were completed when children were 3 years old. Caregivers were diverse in race-ethnicity, language, and other characteristics. Regression-adjusted impact analyses showed that 3-year-old program children performed better than did control children in cognitive and language development, displayed higher emotional engagement of the parent and sustained attention with play objects, and were lower in aggressive behavior. Compared with controls, Early Head Start parents were more emotionally supportive, provided more language and learning stimulation, read to their children more, and spanked less. The strongest and most numerous impacts were for programs that offered a mix of home-visiting and center-based services and that fully implemented the performance standards early. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)