Enhanced user performance in an image gallery application with a mobile autostereoscopic touch display

In this study, we explored how stereoscopic depth affects performance and user experience in a mobile device with an autostereoscopic touch display. Participants conducted a visual search task with an image gallery application on three layouts with different depth ranges. The task completion times were recorded, and the participants were asked to rate their experiences. The results revealed that the image search times were facilitated by a mild depth effect and that too great a depth slowed search times and decreased user-experience ratings.     

Design Methodology for Offloading Software Executions to FPGA

Field programmable gate array (FPGA) is a flexible solution for offloading part of the computations from a processor. In particular, it can be used to accelerate an execution of a computationally heavy part of the software application, e.g., in DSP, where small kernels are repeated often. Since an application code for a processor is a software, a design methodology is needed to convert the code into a hardware implementation, applicable to the FPGA. In this paper, we propose a design method, which uses the Transport Triggered Architecture (TTA) processor template and the TTA-based Co-design Environment toolset to automate the design process. With software as a starting point, we generate a RTL implementation of an application-specific TTA processor together with the hardware/software interfaces required to offload computations from the system main processor. To exemplify how the integration of the customized TTA with a new platform could look like, we describe a process of developing required interfaces from a scratch. Finally, we present how to take advantage of the scalability of the TTA processor to target platform and application-specific requirements.     

Replication of sub‐micron features using amorphous thermoplastics

A comprehensive experimental study was carried out to replicate sub‐micron features using the injection molding technique. For the experiments, five different plastic materials were selected according to their flow properties. The materials were polycarbonate (PC), styrene‐butadiene block copolymer (SBS), impact modified poly(methyl methacrylate), methyl methacrylate‐acrylonitrile‐butadiene‐styrene polymer (MABS), and cyclic olefin copolymer (COC). Nanofeatures down to 200‐nm line width and with aspect ratios (aspect ratio = depth/width) of 1:1 could be replicated. In all selected materials, the greatest differences between the materials emerged when the aspect ratio increased to 2:1. The most favorable results were obtained with the use of high flow polycarbonate as the molding material. The best replication results were achieved when melt and mold temperatures were higher than normal values.     

IgE, IgA, and IgG responses to common yeasts in atopic patients

To assess the incidence of HIV infection and risk factors associated with HIV seroconversion among patients attending clinics for sexually transmitted diseases (STD), medical record reviews were conducted in 12 clinics in 7 U.S. cities. The records of all patients who initially tested negative for HIV from 1991 through 1996 and who received at least one additional HIV test during the study period were reviewed. In each of 7 cities, 5 to 112 patients seroconverted. Of the 286 seroconverters identified in total, 53% (152 of 286) were heterosexual men and 28% (81 of 286) were women. HIV incidence rates among men who have sex with men (MSM) ranged by city from 0.81 to 7.0 new infections/100 person-years. Rates among heterosexual men and women ranged from 0.018 to 1.2 infections/100 person-years. Multivariate analyses showed that drug use was associated with HIV seroconversion only among heterosexuals. Most new HIV infections in these clinics are being transmitted heterosexually and are associated with drug use. Nevertheless, MSM, particularly young MSM, are at greatest risk for HIV in this population: 1 of 47 seroconvert/year. The effective use of targeted prevention efforts depends upon the continued ability to monitor the incidence of HIV infection.     

Noncholesterol Sterols as Surrogate Markers in Patients with Severe Alcoholic Hepatitis

Severe alcoholic hepatitis (AH) is a life‐threatening condition lacking good serologic markers to tailor treatment and predict recovery. We examined the cholesterol metabolism in severe AH to explore prognostic markers and evaluate the profile of cholesterol precursors, cholestanol and phytosterols, in this context. We assessed serum cholesterol, cholesterol precursors, cholestanol, phytosterols, and biochemical markers in 24 patients with severe AH treated with prednisolone and randomized to ciprofloxacin in the ratio 1:1. Response to prednisolone was assessed with the Lille model. Evaluations were made between responders and nonresponders to corticosteroid treatment and during follow‐up for 180 days. The findings were compared with those from patients with primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) (n = 156) and healthy individuals (n = 124). Responders to prednisolone had ~56–60% higher (p‐value 0.032–0.044) serum ratios to cholesterol of phytosterols, while the lathosterol/campesterol ratio was ~76% (p = 0.031) lower compared to nonresponders. Stigmasterol/cholesterol predicted response to corticosteroid therapy. Surrogate markers of cholesterol synthesis (lathosterol and desmosterol) inversely reflected those of absorption (cholestanol and phytosterols) in PSC and controls (r‐range ?0.247 to ?0.559, p < 0.01 for all), contrary to AH patients, among whom this reciprocal regulation was partially recovered on day 90 (lathosterol: r‐range ?0.733 to ?0.952, p < 0.05 for all). AH patients had ~26% lower lathosterol/cholesterol, but 1.13–3.87‐fold higher cholestanol/cholesterol and sitosterol/cholesterol compared to control groups (p < 0.05 for all). Median ferritin concentration at baseline was ~37% lower (p = 0.011) among the responders. Cholesterol precursors and phytosterols have a disease‐specific profile in AH. Phytosterols and ferritin may serve as surrogate markers for short‐term response.     

Effects of nutrient supply and soil cadmium concentration on cadmium removal by willow

This investigation studied the effect of an increased biomass production as a result of fertilization and an elevated Cd concentration in the topsoil on concentration and amount of Cd in two clones of Salix (81090 and 78183). The experiment was conducted over a three year period using 200-dm³ lysimeters filled with clay soil. A liquid fertilizer containing all essential macro- and micronutrients in balanced proportions by weight was applied at two rates according to growth. The lower rate corresponded to 0, 20 and 20 kg N ha⁻¹ during years 1, 2 and 3, respectively, while the higher rate was 30, 60 and 60 kg N ha⁻¹ for the same period. The Cd levels in the topsoil were an initial content of 0.3 mg Cd (kg dw soil)⁻¹ and 0.6 mg Cd (kg dw soil)⁻¹ after addition of CdSO₄.

Biomass production increased significantly due to fertilization. In general, this increase in biomass resulted in a higher Cd amount in the stem. However, the magnitude was small and only statistically significant in some cases, mainly because increased biomass also resulted in a lowered Cd concentration due to an effect of biological dilution. Addition of Cd to the topsoil resulted in higher Cd concentrations and total Cd amounts (concentration×biomass) in the Salix plants. In most cases the increase in total stem Cd amount was 40–80% of the increase in soil Cd concentration, although a directly proportional increase was observed occasionally. Clone 81090 had higher concentrations and total amounts of Cd in the stems than clone 78183, while clone 78183 produced more stem biomass. The leaves had the highest Cd concentrations, but the total amounts of Cd were largest in the stems.     

Single-trial dynamical estimation of event-related potentials: a Kalman filter-based approach

A method for single-trial dynamical estimation of event-related potentials (ERPs) is presented. The method is based on recursive Bayesian mean square estimation and the estimators are obtained with a Kalman filtering procedure. We especially focus on the case that previous trials contain prior information of relevance to the trial being analyzed. The potentials are estimated sequentially using the previous estimates as prior information. The performance of the method is evaluated with simulations and with real P300 responses measured using auditory stimuli. Our approach is shown to have excellent capability of estimating dynamic changes form stimulus to stimulus present in the parameters of the ERPs, even in poor signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) conditions.     

Estimation of nonstationary EEG with Kalman smoother approach: an application to event-related synchronization (ERS)

An adaptive spectrum estimation method for nonstationary electroencephalogram by means of time-varying autoregressive moving average modeling is presented. The time-varying parameter estimation problem is solved by Kalman filtering along with a fixed-interval smoothing procedure. Kalman filter is an optimal filter in the mean square sense and it is a generalization of other adaptive filters such as recursive least squares or least mean square. Furthermore, by using the smoother the unavoidable tracking lag of adaptive filters can be avoided. Due to the properties of Kalman filter and benefits of the smoothing the time-frequency resolution of the presented Kalman smoother spectra is extremely high. The presented approach is applied to estimation of event-related synchronization/desynchronization (ERS/ERD) dynamics of occipital alpha rhythm measured from three healthy subjects. With the Kalman smoother approach detailed spectral information can be extracted from single ERS/ERD samples.