Comparing Computing Platforms for Deep Learning on a Humanoid Robot

The goal of this study is to test two different computing platforms with respect to their suitability for running deep networks as part of a humanoid robot software system. One of the platforms is the CPU-centered Intel NUC7i7BNH and the other is a NVIDIA Jetson TX2 system that puts more emphasis on GPU processing. The experiments addressed a number of benchmarking tasks including pedestrian detection using deep neural networks. Some of the results were unexpected but demonstrate that platforms exhibit both advantages and disadvantages when taking computational performance and electrical power requirements of such a system into account.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figure

The clinical longevity of cantilever resin-bonded bridges

published_or_final_versio

Treatment outcome of rhabdomyosarcoma in Hong Kong Chinese children

Objectives: To review the treatment outcome of rhabdomyosarcoma in Hong Kong Chinese children. Design: Retrospective review. Setting: University teaching hospital, Hong Kong. Patients: Consecutive cases of rhabdomyosarcoma diagnosed and treated by the Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine of Queen Mary Hospital between 1989 and 2005. Each patient was staged and treated according to the Intergroup Rhabdomyosarcoma Study guidelines. Main outcome measures: Overall and event-free survival rates, and toxicity data. Results: Of 19 patients (8 males and 11 females), 14 (74%) were younger than 10 years old. The median age at diagnosis was 6 (range, 0.5-17) years. Primary sites of rhabdomyosarcoma included: the head and neck (n=8; 6 classified as cranial parameningeal), genitourinary (3), extremity (3), pelvis (3), and trunk (2). Thirteen (68%) had embryonal and six (32%) had alveolar histology. Two, 2, 9, and 6 were classified as belonging to Intergroup Rhabdomyosarcoma Study groups 1, 2, 3, and 4, respectively. Respective 5-year overall and event-free survival rates of the entire cohort were 49% (95% confidence interval, 26-73%) and 32% (10-55%), with a median follow-up of 3.4 (range, 0.2-16.7) years. In non-metastatic cases (Intergroup Rhabdomyosarcoma Study groups 1-3), the 5-year overall survival rate was 66% (95% confidence interval, 39-93%) and in metastatic cases (group 4) it was 17% (0-46%). The 5-year overall survival rate for patients aged less than 10 years was 60% (95% confidence interval, 33-87%) compared to 20% (0-55%) in those aged 10 years and over. Significant treatment-related toxicities including myelosuppression, infections, peripheral neuropathy, and second cancers were encountered. Conclusions: Treatment outcome of rhabdomyosarcoma in this cohort of Chinese children was less favourable than that reported in international studies. Whilst the main reason could have been related to the high proportion of metastatic cases, also non-metastatic cases faired worse. Improved outcomes may be achieved by advances in multidisciplinary (paediatric oncology, pathology, radiotherapy, and surgery) management and supportive care.published_or_final_versio

Uncovering the hidden costs of offshoring: The interplay of complexity, organizational design, and experience

This study investigates estimation errors due to hidden costs—the costs of implementation that are neglected in strategic decision-making processes—in the context of services offshoring. Based on data from the Offshoring Research Network, we find that decision makers are more likely to make cost-estimation errors given increasing configuration and task complexity in captive offshoring and offshore outsourcing, respectively. Moreover, we show that experience and a strong orientation toward organizational design in the offshoring strategy reduce the cost-estimation errors that follow from complexity. Our findings contribute to research on the effectiveness of sourcing and global strategies by stressing the importance of organizational design and experience in dealing with increasing complexity

Approximate probabilistic verification of hybrid systems

Hybrid systems whose mode dynamics are governed by non-linear ordinary differential equations (ODEs) are often a natural model for biological processes. However such models are difficult to analyze. To address this, we develop a probabilistic analysis method by approximating the mode transitions as stochastic events. We assume that the probability of making a mode transition is proportional to the measure of the set of pairs of time points and value states at which the mode transition is enabled. To ensure a sound mathematical basis, we impose a natural continuity property on the non-linear ODEs. We also assume that the states of the system are observed at discrete time points but that the mode transitions may take place at any time between two successive discrete time points. This leads to a discrete time Markov chain as a probabilistic approximation of the hybrid system. We then show that for BLTL (bounded linear time temporal logic) specifications the hybrid system meets a specification iff its Markov chain approximation meets the same specification with probability $1$. Based on this, we formulate a sequential hypothesis testing procedure for verifying -approximately- that the Markov chain meets a BLTL specification with high probability. Our case studies on cardiac cell dynamics and the circadian rhythm indicate that our scheme can be applied in a number of realistic settings

Defining the phenotypes of sickle cell disease.

The sickle cell gene is pleiotropic in nature. Although it is a single gene mutation, it has multiple phenotypic expressions that constitute the complications of sickle cell disease. The frequency and severity of these complications vary considerably both latitudinally in patients and longitudinally in the same patient over time. Thus, complications that occur in childhood may disappear, persist or get worse with age. Dactylitis and stroke, for example, occur mostly in childhood, whereas leg ulcers and renal failure typically occur in adults. It is essential that the phenotypic manifestations of sickle cell disease be defined accurately so that communication among providers and researchers facilitates the implementation of appropriate and cost-effective diagnostic and therapeutic modalities. The aim of this review is to define the complications that are specific to sickle cell disease based on available evidence in the literature and the experience of hematologists in this field

Properties of Light Flavour Baryons in Hypercentral quark model

The light flavour baryons are studied within the quark model using the hyper central description of the three-body system. The confinement potential is assumed as hypercentral coulomb plus power potential ($hCPP_\nu$) with power index $\nu$. The masses and magnetic moments of light flavour baryons are computed for different power index, $\nu$ starting from 0.5 to 1.5. The predicted masses and magnetic moments are found to attain a saturated value with respect to variation in $\nu$ beyond the power index $\nu>$ 1.0. Further we computed transition magnetic moments and radiative decay width of light flavour baryons. The results are in good agreement with known experimental as well as other theoretical models.Comment: Accepted in Pramana J. of Physic

Bacterrial Vaginosis

Among the causes of vaginal discharge, bacterial vaginosis (BV) is the commonest in most communities, with variation in the prevalence from one place to another and according to the method used and the group of patients studied. Evidences are available that, the disease is associated with preterm labour, pre mature rupture of the membranes, post-induced abortion pelvic inflammatory disease, post-hysterectomy vaginal cuff cellulitis and plasma cell endometeritis1-4. Moreover in pregnant women bacterial vaginosis may be associated with amniotic fluid infectionand post-partum endometeritis4. In Sudan, the disease was first reported in 2000 by Kafi and his coworkers who found bacterial vaginosis to be the commonest cause of vaginal discharge (17.2%) in a suburban Sudanese community. It's occurrence rate was almost equal to that of trichomonasis and gonorrhea (collectively) 5. Despite these facts to date, bacterial vagionosis is almost neglected as a cause of vaginal discharge, evidenced by lack of practical advices to the laboratory personnel on how to diagnose it. Moreover, no clinical attention is paid to the disease and its possible clinical outcome. The aim of this article is to throw light on this important subject particularly history, epidemiology, clinical features, diagnosis and management. It is hoped that, this will draw the attention of the gynecologists and laboratory personnel to this subject

Application of Dried Blood Spots on Filter Paper for Detection of HIV Antibodies: Effect of Temperature and Duration of Storage

Background: Acquired immunodeficiecy syndrome (AIDS) is now adays a worldwide health problem affecting both the developed and developing countries. It has greater burden on the developing countries because of the increased cost of testing including specimen collection, transport, storage and laboratory examination. Moreover the present technique of collecting blood for diagnosis is associated with increased risk of infection, loss and contamination of specimen. This study aimed at evaluating the use of blood spot dried on filter paper (under different storage conditions) for detection of HIV antibodies in patient\'s serum as an alternative cheap and relatively safe method. Materials and methods: venous blood was collected from 100 known HIV infected patients and 50 healthy volunteers. Filter papesr (Whattman number 1) were soaked with the specimens, air-dried and then divided into 3 groups. Each group is containing a sample from each subject under study. The three groups were subjected to different storage conditions (room temperature, incubator at 37 o C and refrigerator at 4oC). PBS elutes from each group were tested for HIV antibodies using ELISA at regular intervals (48 hrs., 7,15, 30, 45, 60, 75, 90 and 105 days). Results: All the dried blood on filter paper remained positive for HIV antibodies for one month. Thereafter some of the specimens started to progressively show negative results. Specimens stored in the refrigerator were more stable for HIV antibodies than those kept at room temperature and the incubator. Discussion: In this study, the results of testing elutes of dried blood spots on filter paper for HIV antibodies were found to be 100% positive in concordance with those of testing serum samples. HIV antibodies were stable in all specimens for one month under the different storage conditions. Conclusion: dried blood spot on filter paper can remain positive for HIV antibodies for at least one month under different storage conditions. It can therefore be recommended as a cheap, simple and reliable technique for collection of blood for HIV testing under field surviellance as it does not require complex setting and instruments and moreover it eases transportation of specimen. Keywords: immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), storage, heparinized, ELISA.Sudan Journal of Medical Sciences Vol. 3 (2) 2008: pp. 147-15

Spread enhancement for firefly algorithm with application to control mechanism of exoskeleton system

Firefly algorithm (FA) is a swarm intelligence based algorithm for global optimization and has widely been used in solving problems in many areas. The FA is good at exploring the search space and locating the global optimum, but it always gets trapped at local optimum especially in case of high dimensional problems. In order to overcome such drawbacks of FA, this paper proposes a modified variant of FA, referred to as spread enhancement strategy for firefly algorithm (SE-FA), by devising a nonlinear adaptive spread mechanism for the control parameters of the algorithm. The performance of the proposed algorithm is compared with the original FA and one variant of FA on six benchmark functions. Experimental and statistical results of the approach show better solutions in terms of reliability and convergence speed than the original FA especially in the case of high-dimensional problems. The algorithms are further tested with control of dynamic systems. The systems considered comprise assistive exoskeletons mechanism for upper and lower extremities. The performance results are evaluated in comparison to the original firefly and invasive weed algorithms. It is demonstrated that the proposed approaches are superior over the individual algorithms in terms of efficiency, convergence speed and quality of the optimal solution achieved