Computer processing of artifact and arrhythmias in heart rate variability analysis.

Analysis of heart rate variability (HRV) with Holter monitoring is often difficult due to excessive artifacts and arrhythmias. While short sudden surges are treated successfully by most methods, slow heart rate (HR) variations, nocturnal trapezoidally-shaped HR increases and special types of arrhythmias which are similar to normal HRV fluctuations may distort further time domain and spectral analysis. This paper examines the advantages and disadvantages of different methods for preprocessing of HR data. We have developed the following approach to the analysis of HRV. (1) A combination method based on the absolute difference between HR values and both the last normal HR value and an updated mean is used for removal of artifacts and arrhythmias. This method can detect both sudden surges in HR values as well as longer periods of noise combined with slow normal variations. An additional stage of wild point removal is then optionally applied. (2) Certain special problems such as large T-waves, bigeminal rhythm, slow HR variations and nocturnal trapezoidally-shaped HR increases are also identified. Although none of the algorithms can be applied successfully to all cases, the final computer analysis for preprocessing described in the present study has proved to be superior to the simplified methods which are usually used and provides more suitable data for HRV analysis.     

A typed functional extension of logic programming

A logic language is suitable for specification if it is equipped with features for data abstraction and modularization. In this paper, an effective mechanism to incorporate function and type into logic programming is presented as the means to embed data abstraction mechanism into logic programming. This incorporation is essentially based on Horn clause logic with equality and a polymorphic type system that is an extension of Mycroft and O’Keefe’s system. This paper also presents an implementation based on Warren Abstract Machine (WAM) and shows the performance, along with a comparison with WAM.     

Adaptive nonlinear cancellation for high-speed fiber-optic systems

The authors propose techniques for adaptive nonlinear cancellation of intersymbol interference (ISI) in the electrical signal at the receiver in Gb/s lightwave systems and describe several demonstrations of these techniques. Techniques for adjustable nonlinear cancellations are discussed and demonstrations of these techniques using commercially available integrated circuits (ICs) at data rates as high as 1.7 Gb/s are described. Techniques for automatic adjustment are discussed, and a demonstration of adaptive nonlinear cancellation at 450 Mb/s is described. The authors discuss how these techniques can be integrated onto the detector IC for operations at 2.5 Gb/s and higher data rates. These techniques allow a single IC detector with adaptive nonlinear cancellation to be used in long-haul and undersea lightwave systems to optimize the detector threshold and compensate for the ISI     

Expert system “assistent” for bayes' intellectual measurements of probability characteristics

Translated from Izmeritel'naya Tekhnika, No. 8, pp. 11–14, August, 1992.     

New possibilities of chemical beneficiation of synnirites

Institute of Geology Siberian Branch, Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Novosibirsk. Translated from Fiziko-Tekhnicheskie Problemy Razrabotki Poleznykh Iskopaemykh, No. 1, pp. 106–109, January-February, 1992.     

Equalization of a hard-limited slowly-fading multipath signal usinga phase equalizer with time-reversal structure

Describes a low-complexity equalization technique for improving the reliability of portable radio links in the presence of multipath time delay spread. A technique that operates on hard-limited received signals, with only the phase information available, is presented. Suboptimum receivers based on a maximum likelihood estimation criterion are discussed, including a sequence estimator and a decision feedback phase detector. A low-complexity adaptive phase equalizer structure using decision-directed phase tracking is proposed. The equalizer does not require the multiplication operations required in most conventional equalization algorithms. The author also proposes a receiver that includes a time-reversal structure and a joint estimator for optimum timing recovery and equalizer training. The time-reversal structure plays a crucial role in maximizing the compensation capability of the phase equalizer. The combined use of phase equalization and diversity reception is also considered     

A comparison of strategies for reducing interval overconfidence in group judgments.

The present experiments examined several strategies designed to reduce interval overconfidence in group judgments. Results consistently indicated that 3–4 person nominal groups (whose members made independent judgments and later combined the highest and lowest of these estimates into a single confidence interval) were better calibrated than individual judges and interactive groups. This pattern held even when participants were directly instructed to expand their interval estimates, or when interactive groups appointed a devil's advocate or explicitly considered reasons why their interval estimates might be too narrow. Interactive groups did not perform substantially better than individuals, although participants frequently had the impression that group judgments were far superior to individual judgments. This misperception resembles the "illusion of group effectivity" found in brainstorming research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gradient interpenetrating polymer networks

The methods of synthesis and properties of gradient interpenetrating polymer networks (IPN) are discussed based on literature and authors' own experimental data. Gradient IPN can be treated as a sequence of an infinite number of layers of IPNs, whose composition and properties vary gradually from the surface to the core of specimens. These are analysed the most important properties of gradient IPNs: temperature transitions, thermodynamic and physico-mechanical characteristics and the main direction of practical application of gradient IPN-based materials.     

A novel technique for fabrication of metallic structures on polyimide by selective electroless copper plating using ion implantation

The successful use of palladium ion implantation into polyimide to seed an electroless plated film of copper on the polyimide surface is reported. Polyimide (Hitachi PIX 3400) was implanted with palladium ions to doses of 1.5 × 10¹⁵ − 1.2 × 10¹⁷ ions cm⁻² using a MEVVA ion implanter. The implanted ions acted as sites for nucleation of copper film. A copper film was then deposited on implanted polyimide using a commercial electroless plating solution. The ion energy was kept low enough to facilitate a low critical ‘seed’ threshold dose that was measured to be 3.6× 10¹⁶ Pd ions cm⁻². Test patterns were made using polyimide to study the adaptability of this technique to form thick structures. Plated films were studied with optical microscopy, Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry (RBS) and Profilometry. The adhesion of films was qualitatively assessed by a ‘scotch tape test’. The film growth (thickness) was observed to be linear with plating time. A higher implantation dose led to greater plating rates. The adhesion was found to improve with increasing dose.     

Correlation between synthesis conditions, coherently diffracting domain size and cubic phase stabilization in barium titanate

The Constant Rate Thermal Analysis method has been used under different experimental conditions to obtain barium titanate powder of very small grain size. Both a crystallographic and a dielectric study ham been carried out on samples sintered at different temperatures. It is deduced that the formation of small coherently diffracting domains is improved by the generation of oxygen vacancies and the cubic phase stabilization depends on the coherently diffracting domain size rather than on the particle size.