Use Of Package Research Articles

Enhancing accuracy of drape simulation. Part II: Optimized drape simulation using industry-specific software

Three-dimensional virtual representations of fabrics are done based on mass-spring modeling, which represents cloth as a mesh of particles connected by springs. The spring constant values input to the model correspond to the mechanical properties of the modeled fabric. For apparel, these representations have been incorporated into commercial software packages for use in design and development of garments. However, fabric mechanical property values as derived using industry test methods cannot be input directly into the commercial software to produce simulations that accurately represent a specific fabric. A systematic way of selecting input parameters to a particle model was developed by comparing the drape of circular fabric samples whose mechanical properties were measured by the Kawabata evaluation system to simulations produced by the particle model using methods developed in Part I of this paper. Also, a relationship was developed between measured fabric mechanical properties and simulation input parameters and then tested on simulations of apparel samples.

POSITRON EMISSION TOMOGRAPHY AND RADIATION THERAPY COMPUTERIZED TREATMENT PLANNING SYSTEMS

Imaging devices aid clinicians in disease staging and treatment planning procedures for cancer patients. In this technical report, the basic physics of positron emission tomography (PET) are briefly discussed. The integration of PET images into radiation therapy computerized treatment planning systems (TPS) for PET and computed tomography (CT) image fusion via portable storage media and Web-based PET image manipulation software is described. The PET images were obtained from a mobile dual PET/CT scanner (Discovery ST, GE Medical Systems) located two miles away from our radiation therapy center, and were fused with CT images from an independent stand-alone CT scanner (Siemens Somatom Emotion). Quality assurance for treatment planning PET images as well as radiation safety issues related to PET are also briefly discussed.

Digital Image Forensics

The article discusses the field of digital image forensics, which involves the detection of photographic fraud, which has become increasingly problematic given the widespread availability of digital image manipulation software. Simple tests such as looking for incompatible shadows are discussed, as are more advanced mathematical methods involving the encoding algorithms used in the compression of images. INSETS: IN A DIFFERENT LIGHT;EYES AND POSITION;TELLTALE TWINKLES;SEND IN THE CLONES

Quality Assurance of Radiation Therapy Planning Systems: Current Status and Remaining Challenges

Computerized radiation therapy planning systems (RTPSs) are pivotal for treatment planning. The acceptance, commissioning, and quality control of RTPSs are uniquely complex and are described in the American Association of Physicists in Medicine Task Group Report 53 (1998) and International Atomic Energy Agency Technical Report Series No. 430 (2004). The International Atomic Energy Agency also developed a document and data package for use by vendors and purchasers to aid with acceptance testing of RTPSs. This document is based on International Electrotechnical Commission standard 62083 (2000) and describes both "type" tests to be performed in the factory and "site" tests to be performed in the clinic. The American Association of Physicists Task Group Report 67 described benchmark tests for the validation of dose calculation algorithms. Test data are being produced with the backing of the U.S. National Cancer Institute. However, significant challenges remain. Technology keeps evolving rapidly, thus requiring new quality assurance (QA) procedures. Intensity-modulated radiation therapy with its use of inverse optimization has added a new dimension to QA, because the results are not intuitively obvious. New technologies such as real-time ultrasound guidance for brachytherapy, TomoTherapy, and Cyberknife, require their own specialized RTPSs with unique QA requirements. On-line imaging allows for the generation of dose reconstructions using image warping techniques to determine the daily dose delivered to the patient. With increasing computer speeds, real-time reoptimization of treatment plans will become a reality. Gating technologies will require four-dimensional dose calculations to determine the actual dose delivered to tissue voxels. With these rapidly changing technologies, it is essential that a strong QA culture is invoked in every institution implementing these procedures and that new protocols are developed as a part of the clinical implementation process.

LibSBML: an API Library for SBML

LibSBML is an application programming interface library for reading, writing, manipulating and validating content expressed in the Systems Biology Markup Language (SBML) format. It is written in ISO C and C++, provides language bindings for Common Lisp, Java, Python, Perl, MATLAB and Octave, and includes many features that facilitate adoption and use of both SBML and the library. Developers can embed libSBML in their applications, saving themselves the work of implementing their own SBML parsing, manipulation and validation software. LibSBML 3 was released in August 2007. Source code, binaries and documentation are freely available under LGPL open-source terms from http://sbml.org/software/libsbml.

Visualizing the Behavior of Dislocations—Seeing is Believing

AbstractThe spatial resolution of the transmission electron microscope makes it an ideal environment in which to continuously track the real-time response of a system to an external stimulus and to discover and quantify the rate-limiting fundamental microscopic processes and mechanisms governing the macroscopic properties. Advances in instrumentation, stage design, recording media, computational power, and image manipulation software are providing new opportunities for not only observing the microscopic mechanisms but also measuring concurrently the macroscopic response. In this article, the capability of this technique as applied to mechanical properties of materials is highlighted.

Health Monitoring for Electronic Package Using a Simple Moire Interferometry

Like a diagnosis of human body, it is important to monitor conditions of electronic packages in use. Even if electronic packages are sound in the beginning, thermal cycles during operations can produce fatigue cracks that lead to the system failure eventually. If we know the crack length in the package in real-time, a fatal damage can be prevented before the system failure. Currently, there are no simple methods for real-time monitoring of electronic packages in use. In this research, we propose a non-destructive monitoring method that detects the crack length in electronic packages. The electronic package in use is heated continuously by itself. When the crack at a weak site of the electronic package occurs, thermal deformation on the chip side is changed. Therefore, we can measure these micro deformations by using Moire interferometry and find out the crack length. The proposed monitoring method is applied to ACF type package specimens. Experimental results show that the crack length of the electronic package affects the thermal deformation of the chip. If we have data of thermal strain by a specific crack length, we can monitor the crack length in real-time. Since the failure of a super-computer or network-server system affect the tremendous damage, we must know the health conditions of electronic packages in real-time. This research focuses the health monitoring of the electronic package of these system.

The Cleveland Clinic PediPump: Virtual Fitting Studies in Children Using Three-Dimensional Reconstructions of Cardiac Computed Tomography Scans

The fitting of implantable ventricular assist devices (VADs) is a particular challenge for pediatric patients and patients with small body surface area. The purpose of this study was to determine optimal placement of the PediPump, a pediatric VAD currently under development at the Cleveland Clinic, using virtual three-dimensional (3D) on-screen models. Digital models were created from computed tomographic datasets of pediatric hearts using commercially available 3D image processing software. Pixels representing the myocardium, great vessels, sternum, and rib cage were selected and rendered as on-screen models (n = 13) from pediatric patients with or without congenital heart disease (median age 42 months; range 2 days to 13 years 11 months). Using 3D model manipulation software, virtual models of the PediPump (70 x 10 mm) were combined on-screen with the anatomic models. A variety of virtual fitting options were created, which allowed easy detection of device interference with surrounding tissues. Generation of 3D on-screen models of cardiac structures in relation to PediPump placement has provided useful preliminary fitting information, which is being used to guide further development of this device.

Benefit Estimates for Landscape Improvements: Sequential Bayesian Design and Respondents' Rationality in a Choice Experiment

<i>A multi-attribute, stated-preference approach is used to value low and high impact actions on four major landscape components addressed by the Rural Environment Protection Scheme in Ireland. Several methodological issues are addressed: the use of prior beliefs on the relative magnitudes of parameters, standardized description of different levels of landscape improvements via image manipulation software, adoption of efficiency-increasing sequential experimental design, and sensitivity of benefit estimates to inclusion of responses from ‘‘irrational’’ respondents. Results suggest that Bayesian design updating delivers significant efficiency gains without loss in respondent efficiency, and estimates are upward-biased when irrational respondents are included.</i> (JEL Q24, Q51)

The Cleveland Clinic PediPump: Anatomic Modeling and Virtual Fitting Studies in a Lamb Model

Implantation of ventricular assist devices (VADs) is challenging in small patients with limited space in the chest. We created three-dimensional models of lambs to facilitate fitting of the PediPump, a pediatric VAD currently under development. Serial computed tomography (CT) scans were acquired at multiple time points (n = 8) for three lambs. Digital models were created using these CT datasets and three-dimensional image processing software (Mimics, Materialise). Pixels representing the heart and chest wall were rendered as three-dimensional models. Using three-dimensional model manipulation software (Magics RP, Materialise), on-screen models of extravascular and intravascular VADs were placed in right, left and biventricular support configurations to determine optimal placement. A cannulation strategy was established and in some cases three-dimensional models of the inflow and outflow grafts were created. After the final CT study, an open-chest fitting study was performed using rapid prototype models of the pediatric VAD and cannulas. The pump location and orientation predictions from the virtual fitting studies matched those determined at the time of the open-chest fitting studies. Using three-dimensional modeling, we have established a fitting protocol that facilitates animal implantations; the same modeling techniques may be useful for device fitting in humans.

Increasing Influenza Immunization for Long‐Term Care Facility Staff Using Quality Improvement

To improve staff immunization rates for influenza in long-term care facilities (LTCFs). A quality improvement project. LTCFs ranging in size from 50 to 2,000 beds. Staff members at facilities. Change in staff influenza immunization rate. Of the 13 nursing homes involved, 11 improved their staff influenza immunization rates; nine improved more than 10%, and six improved to a rate greater than 55%, a level that corresponds to substantial protection against outbreaks. Staff education was essential but insufficient. Direct encouragement and dramatic informative endeavors helped, as did financial incentives, competitions, and requiring unambiguously worded consents for refusals. Paying staff members $150 each achieved improvement rapidly. Quality improvement increased staff immunization rates at LTCFs, which reduces the risk of an influenza outbreak. Based on the insights learned about effective changes, the project developed a change package for use by other LTCFs.

Internet-delivered assessment and manipulation of anxiety-linked attentional bias: Validation of a free-access attentional probe software package

It recently has been established within the laboratory that the attentional probe methodology not only can sensitively assess the threat attentional bias associated with anxiety vulnerability, but also can be configured to yield training tasks capable of modifying emotional vulnerability by manipulating such attentional selectivity. In order to appraise and exploit the potential practical applications of such procedures, it is desirable that clinical investigators without specialist equipment should become able to deliver such tasks within field settings. The present research program involved development of a fully customizable attentional probe software package, that delivers assessment and training versions of the probe task across the Internet. Two experimental studies served to validate the assessment and training efficacy of resulting probe task variants, completed remotely by GAD sufferers and nonclinical populations using their own computers. We advise fellow researchers how to freely download this software package for use within their own investigations.

Hearth and Hotmail

Hearth and Hotmail

Comparison of algorithms for conical intersection optimisation using semiempirical methods

We present a comparison of three previously published algorithms for optimising the minimum energy crossing point between two Born–Oppenheimer electronic states. The algorithms are implemented in a development version of the MNDO electronic structure package for use with semiempirical configuration interaction methods. The penalty function method requires only the energies and gradients of the states involved, whereas the gradient projection and Lagrange–Newton methods also require the calculation of non-adiabatic coupling terms. The performance of the algorithms is measured against a set of well-known small molecule conical intersections. The Lagrange–Newton method is found to be the most efficient, with the projected gradient method also competitive. The penalty function method can only be recommended for situations where non-adiabatic coupling terms cannot be calculated.

Dr Vicente Vérez Bencomo, Director, Center for the Study of Synthetic Antigens, University of Havana

Dr Vicente Vérez Bencomo is a world-renowned scientist who led the team that discovered and developed the Cuban Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) vaccine using a synthetic antigen - the first of its kind in the world. Educated in Cuba, Russia, and France, Dr Vérez has received numerous awards for his groundbreaking work, including the World Intellectual Property Organization's Gold Medal (2005), and the Cuban National Chemistry Award (2006). The Cuban Hib vaccine is undergoing evaluation by the World Health Organization for vaccination packages for use in the developing world. Dr Vérez has published widely in international scientific journals of impact and is the Cuban representative to the International Carbohydrates Organization and Senior Member of the Cuban Academy of Sciences. He is currently Director of the Center for the Study of Synthetic Antigens, under the aegis of the University of Havana's Chemistry Department. He sat down with MEDICC Review to talk about the global burden of Haemophilus influenzae type b, what motivates him as a scientist, how synthetic antigens might be applied to other vaccines, and what he is currently working on.

On the improvement of a numerical method for solving high‐order non‐linear ordinary differential equations

AbstractThere have been many approaches to solve ordinary differential equations numerically. Even though many numerical methods can provide very good approximate solutions they need considerable calculation effort, often through iterations. The advance of symbolic manipulation packages such as Maple gives the opportunity for new approaches to this type of problems. This paper will discuss an improvement to one of these new approaches enabled by the availability of these packages, to obtain a numerical solution of an initial‐value problem governed by a high‐order non‐linear ordinary differential equation. The method we propose here is based on Zhu and Phan's earlier paper (Commun. Numer. Meth. Engng. 2003; 19:601–614) but we shall show an improved order of accuracy for the case of the highest‐order derivative being of an even order. In any case it provides the ability to further increase the order of accuracy under certain conditions of differentiability. Like Zhu and Phan's (Commun. Numer. Meth. Engng. 2003; 19:601–614) original method, an important feature of the new method is that no iterations are needed except in the preparatory phase for some cases. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.

Investigation and Comparison of Postweld-Shift Compensation Technique in TO-Can- and Butterfly-Type Laser-Welded Laser Module Packages

The postweld-shift (PWS) compensation techniques employing a laser displacement meter (LDM) in the transistor outline (TO)-Can-type laser-welded laser module package and a high-magnification camera with image capturing system (HMCICS) in the butterfly-type laser-welded laser module packages are quantitatively investigated and compared. The results show that the fiber alignment shifts due to the PWS can be aligned back closer to their original optimum position after applying the proposed compensation techniques, and hence the coupling powers loss due to the PWS could be regained significantly. Comparing with the measured coupling power and the PWS, the results show that the PWS are in the ranges of 0.2-1.6 mum and 2.1-4.2 mum for the TO-Can- and the butterfly-type laser packages, respectively. The reason for having a larger PWS in the butterfly laser package is that the fiber ferrule is not solidly constrained in the vertical direction. In this paper, a coupled thermal-elasto-plasticity model of a finite-element method (FEM) analysis is employed to evaluate the PWS in the TO-Can- and the butterfly-type laser module packages. The simulated results are in good agreement with the measured results and these show that the PWS in the butterfly-type laser packages are larger than those in the TO-Can packages. A combination of the experimental and numerical results has provided a practical design guideline for fabricating reliable and high-yield laser-welded TO-Can- and butterfly-type laser module packages for use in lightwave communication systems

Elimination of Enhanced Low-Dose-Rate Sensitivity in Linear Bipolar Devices Using Silicon-Carbide Passivation

The type of final chip passivation layer used to fabricate linear bipolar circuits can have a major impact on the total dose hardness of some circuits. It is demonstrated that National Semiconductor Corporation linear bipolar devices fabricated with only an amorphous silicon carbide passivation layer do not exhibit enhanced low-dose-rate sensitivity (ELDRS), while devices from the same production lot fabricated with other types of passivation layers are ELDRS sensitive. SiC passivation possesses mechanical, electrical and chemical properties that make it compatible with linear device fabrication processes. These properties of SiC passivation layers, combined with the excellent radiation response of devices passivated with SiC, make SiC passivation layers a very attractive choice for devices packaged in either ceramic or plastic-encapsulated packages for use in space environments

TopoICE-R: 3D visualization modeling the topology of DNA recombination

TopoICE-R is a three-dimensional visualization and manipulation software for solving 2-string tangle equations and can be used to model the topology of DNA bound by proteins such as recombinases and topoisomerases. This software, manual and example files are available at www.knotplot.com/download for Linux, Windows and Mac.

Educational Modules in Tissue Engineering Based on the “How People Learn” Framework

This paper describes an educational package for use in tertiary level tissue engineering education. Current learning science principles and theory were employed in the design process of these educational tools. Each module started with a challenge statement designed to motivate students and consisted of laboratory exercises centered on the “How People Learn” framework. The preliminary assessment of these modules supports their potential value in teaching tissue engineering laboratory exercises.