Simple Running Research Articles

Person Searching Through an Omnidirectional Camera Using CNN in the Tsukuba Challenge

The Tsukuba Challenge is a competition, in which autonomous mobile robots run on a route set on a public road under a real environment. Their task includes not only simple running but also finding multiple specific persons at the same time. This study proposes a method that would realize person searching. While many person-searching algorithms use a laser sensor and a camera in combination, our method only uses an omnidirectional camera. The search target is detected using a convolutional neural network (CNN) that performs a classification of the search target. Training a CNN requires a great amount of data for which pseudo images created by composition are used. Our method is implemented in an autonomous mobile robot, and its performance has been verified in the Tsukuba Challenge 2017.

Training Effects of Visual Stroboscopic Impairment on Surgical Performance: A Randomized-Controlled Trial

There have been numerous advances to accelerate and improve quality and dexterous proficiency of surgical training to meet the growing US demand of graduating surgeons. The authors aimed to investigate the learning effects of such limited visual input on the surgical proficiency in untrained novice surgeons. A prospective randomized-controlled study was created with 11 participants in the study and 11 in the control group. An inanimate surgical simulation lab of a tertiary academic institution (Houston Methodist Hospital, Houston, Texas). Adult medical students in the experimental group were wearing stroboscopic eyewear while performing the same tasks as students in the control group with normal vision. For 5 weeks, the subjects were scored during 3 standardized surgical tasks from the American College of Surgeons and the Association of Program Directors in Surgery Resident Skills Curriculum: knot tying, simple interrupted sutures, and a running stitch. Pretrial, we employed the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and post-trial, the NASA Task Load Index. The demographic characteristics of our study participants were uniformly distributed between the 2 cohorts: each group had 7 males and 4 females. Average ages were 23.6 and 24.2 years (p = 0.471). The anxiety was low during all 5 sessions and indifferent between both groups. At the end of the study, no changes were observed in the stroboscopic group for the knot-tying task (p = 0.619). However, for the simple interrupted and the running stitch, the students with stroboscopic glasses performed significantly better (p = 0.001 and p = 0.024, respectively). The stroboscopic students also had significantly lower NASA workload scores (p = 0.001). Regular training with stroboscopic glasses that limit visual input has a significant positive effect on the technical skills of novice surgical trainees with regards to more complex tasks such as multiple simple interrupted suturing or running suture. Intermittently impaired vision is beneficial in the early education of students and surgical residents.

Matter–antimatter asymmetry and other cosmological puzzles via running vacuum cosmologies

Current astronomical observations are successfully explained by the present cosmological paradigm based on the concordance model ([Formula: see text]CDM + Inflation). However, such a scenario is composed of a heterogeneous mix of ingredients for describing the different stages of cosmological evolution. Particularly, it does not give a unified explanation connecting the early- and late-time accelerating inflationary regimes which are separated by many aeons. Other challenges to the concordance model include: a singularity at early times or the emergence of the universe from the quantum gravity regime, the “graceful” exit from inflation to the standard radiation phase, as well as, the coincidence and cosmological constant problems. We show here that a simple running vacuum model or a time-dependent vacuum may provide insight on some of the above open questions (including a complete cosmic history), and also can explain the observed matter–antimatter asymmetry just after the initial deflationary period.

Robotic sleeve resection for pulmonary disease

BackgroundFew studies have described robotic sleeve resection with pulmonary resection. Here, we report the successful implementation of a completely portal robotic sleeve resection with or without pulmonary resection using a modified suture mode.MethodsIn total, 339 patients underwent curative robotic pulmonary surgery at Ruijin Hospital between May 2015 and September 2017. Three of these patients underwent robotic sleeve resection (right upper lobe, one; left upper lobe, one; and lingular segmental bronchus, one). Five port incisions were utilized, and a simple continuous running suture combined with two interrupted sutures of the membranous and cartilaginous junction portion was preferred for the anastomosis.ResultsThe postoperative course was uneventful for two patients with squamous cell carcinoma. The lingular segmental bronchus patient without pulmonary resection (a salivary gland tumor) underwent short-term atelectasis. The median operation time was 155 (range 132–230) minutes. The median anastomosis time was 25 (range 23–32) minutes. The median length of postoperative hospital stay was 7 (range 6–10) days. There was no mortality or conversion to thoracotomy for any of the patients. All patients were followed for 3–6 months, and there is no tumour recurrence.ConclusionsOur limited experience suggested that robotic sleeve resection for pulmonary disease with or without pulmonary resection may be safe and effective. The anastomosis time can be shortened with more robotic surgery experiences and the modified suture mode.

On the Convergence Time of Dual Subgradient Methods for Strongly Convex Programs

This paper studies the convergence time of dual gradient methods for general (possibly non-differentiable) strongly convex programs. For general convex programs, the convergence time of dual subgradient/gradient methods with simple running averages (running averages started from iteration $0$) is known to be $O(\frac{1}{\epsilon^{2}})$. This paper shows that the convergence time for general strongly convex programs is $O(\frac{1}{\epsilon})$. This paper also considers a variation of the average scheme, called the sliding running averages, and shows that if the dual function of the strongly convex program is locally quadratic (Note that the locally quadratic property is implied by the locally strongly concave property.) then the convergence time of the dual gradient method with sliding running averages is $O(\log(\frac{1}{\epsilon}))$. The convergence time analysis is further verified by numerical experiments.

Sensory-Glove-Based Open Surgery Skill Evaluation

Manual dexterity is one of the most important surgical skills, and yet there are limited instruments to evaluate this ability objectively. In this paper, we propose a system designed to track surgeons’ hand movements during simulated open surgery tasks and to evaluate their manual expertise. Eighteen participants, grouped according to their surgical experience, performed repetitions of two basic surgical tasks, namely single interrupted suture and simple running suture. Subjects’ hand movements were measured with a sensory glove equipped with flex and inertial sensors, tracking flexion/extension of hand joints, and wrist movement. The participants’ level of experience was evaluated discriminating manual performances using linear discriminant analysis, support vector machines, and artificial neural network classifiers. Artificial neural networks showed the best performance, with a median error rate of 0.61% on the classification of single interrupted sutures and of 0.57% on simple running sutures. Strategies to reduce sensory glove complexity and increase its comfort did not affect system performances substantially.

Experiments for Avoidance of Wall-type Obstacles by a Roboat with a Simple Running Model and Its Expansion

Experiments for Avoidance of Wall-type Obstacles by a Roboat with a Simple Running Model and Its Expansion

The impact of different peripheral suture techniques on the biomechanical stability in flexor tendon repair

Flexor tendon repair consists of circumferential peripheral sutures in combination with core sutures to avoid fraying and reduces the exposure of suture material on tendon surface. The peripheral suture adds up to a tenfold increase of the biomechanical stability compared to the core suture alone. The purpose of our study was to determine the most favourable peripheral repair technique for tendon repair. Seventy-two porcine flexor tendons underwent standardized tenotomy and repair using one of the following six methods (n = 12): simple-running (SR), simple-locking (SL), Halsted-mattress (HM), lin-locking (LL), Lembert-mattress (LM), and Silfverskiöld cross-stich (SCS) suture technique. The SL- suture was placed 2mm; the HM, LM, SC, and LL suture were placed 5mm from the tendon gap. The SR suture was placed 1, 2, and 3mm from tendon ends; no additional core suture was applied. For cyclic testing (1000 cycles), elongation was calculated; for load to failure construct stiffness, yield load and maximum load were determined. The mean cyclic elongation for all tested suture techniques was less than 2mm; there was no significant difference between the groups regarding elongation as well as yield load. The HM, LM, SCS, and LL suture techniques presented significantly higher maximum loads compared to the SR- and SL-sutures. The 3mm SR showed significantly higher maximum loads compared to the 2 and 1mm SR. Beside the distance from tendon gap, the type of linkage of the suture material across and beneath the epitendineum is important for biomechanical stability. Simple-running suture is easy to use, even with a slight increase of the distance from tendon gap significantly increases biomechanical strength. For future repairs of flexor tendon injuries, 3mm stitch length is highly recommended for simple peripheral suture, while the Halsted-mattress suture unites the most important qualities: biomechanically strong, most part of suture material placed epitendinous, and not too complicated to perform.

Wound complications after chemo-port placement in children: Does closure technique matter?

PurposeWound dehiscence after chemo-port placement is a rare but potentially significant complication. We hypothesize that by using a simple running skin closure technique during chemo-port placement the rate of wound dehiscence and overall wound complications can be significantly decreased. MethodsIRB approval was obtained and patients <18years that received a tunneled central line with port from June 2012 to April 2016 were analyzed. Data collected on patients included patient demographics, skin closure type, and wound complications within 30days. Chi-square was performed to examine the univariate association with skin closure technique and wound dehiscence. Logistic regression was performed to examine the multivariable association between skin closure type and wound dehiscence and to compute odds ratios. ResultsThere were 259 ports placed in this cohort: 125 used simple running skin closure technique, and 134 used the subcuticular skin closure. Patients were found to not have any difference in rate of dehiscence or overall wound complications based on gender, age, location of port, or use of steroids or chemotherapy within 1week of port placement. When compared, only 1 case (0.80%) in the simple running group vs 10 cases (7.46%) in the subcuticular group experienced a wound dehiscence [unadjusted OR=14.07 (1.69, 116.99) p=0.0144]. When comparing overall wound complications the simple running group had 3 (2.4%) versus 12 (8.96%) in the subcuticular group [unadjusted OR=4.78 (1.27, 17.94) p=0.0203]. When adjusting for port-number both dehiscence and overall wound complications remained statistically significant. ConclusionWe conclude that the simple running skin closure for chemo-port placement in children has superior outcomes in regards to prevention of dehiscence and overall wound related complications when compared to the subcuticular technique.

Modeling dynamics of small populations in a simple phenotypic evolutionary algorithm. A space of population states approach

The paper presents a theoretical analysis of a simple phenotypic evolutionary algorithm running with the fitness proportional selection and the Gaussian mutation. The space of population states approach is applied to analyze dynamics of small populations evolving in an unconstrained one-dimensional search space. The approach facilitates a study of a global behavior of evolving populations from a macroscopic point of view. Expected trajectories of population states are regarded in landscapes of various types of fitness functions: unimodal and multimodal, symmetrical and asymmetrical. Phenomena of rapid unification of initially diversified populations and diversification of initially homogeneous populations followed by a movement of a cluster-like population towards the neighborhood of an optimum, observed previously for two-element populations, were confirmed. Studies of a dynamical system generated by the expected states revealed period-doubling bifurcations and chaotic behavior of the system which appear for particular values of a mutation strength parameter and specific fitness functions. A time to convergence to the steady state, as an essential indicator of optimization properties of the process, was also analyzed.

Laparoscopic Repair of Diaphragmatic Perforation with Colonic Herniation Following Hepatic Radiofrequency Ablation: A Case Report

Background: Diaphragmatic hernia is a rare complication after hepatic radiofrequency ablation (RFA). We herein present a case of a patient who underwent laparoscopic repair of diaphragmatic perforation with colonic herniation occurring 12 months after hepatic RFA. Case presentation: An 80-year-old man underwent RFA under computed tomography guidance using a cool-tip radiofrequency probe with a short trans-thoracic root for hepatocellular carcinoma in segment VIII. Twelve months later, he developed a large amount of right pleural effusion and a right diaphragmatic hernia containing the colon and mesentery. After drainage of the right pleural effusion, the patient underwent laparoscopic repair of the diaphragmatic perforation with colonic herniation. Severe adhesion was noted between nearly the entire herniated colon and lung; however, we were able to remove the herniated colon from the thoracic cavity safely. Bowel resection was not required. Finally, simple running sutures of the diaphragmatic defect using 2-0 Vicryl were laid down. There were no postoperative complications, and the patient was discharged nine days after surgery. Conclusions: Diaphragmatic hernia is rare but should be recognized as a late complication following hepatic RFA. Surgical repair of a diaphragmatic hernia, including minimally invasive surgery using the laparoscopic approach, especially for patients with cirrhosis, should be considered in order to avoid acute intestinal obstruction or perforation.

POU-Oriented Unit Testing of IEC 61131-3 Control Software

Software testing is an important part of project development. Depending on system type and size, it is performed variously. Unit testing is one of the available approaches that is used to ensure that behavior of small software parts is consistent with requirements. It allows to improve software quality and decrease overall costs. Despite the fact that such an approach is commonly judged as a vital concept, it is not usual in control software. In this paper, the comprehensive approach to test the IEC 61131-3 software using unit tests is presented. It supports to create tests in two ways—either in textual and graphical IEC 61131-3 languages or in the CPTest+ dedicated test definition language. The latter is equipped with many advanced features, such as test fixtures and inclusions, parameterized and analog signal extensions, mock objects, as well as a few kinds of suites. The overall solution runs on the developer and testing station; hence, it does not have significant impact on performance of the control program and tests are more reliable and repeatable. To explain the concept, the simple running example is presented in this paper. The described solution has been introduced in the CPDev engineering environment for programming controllers.

Planar lower envelope of monotone polygonal chains

A simple linear search algorithm running in O(n+mk) time is proposed for constructing the lower envelope of k vertices from m monotone polygonal chains in 2D with n vertices in total. This can be applied to output-sensitive construction of lower envelopes for n arbitrary line segments in optimal O(nlog⁡k) time, where k is the output size. Compared to existing output-sensitive algorithms for lower envelopes, this is simpler to implement, does not require complex data structures, and is a constant factor faster.

GASS: genome structural annotation for Eukaryotes based on species similarity.

BackgroundWith the development of high-throughput sequencing techniques, more and more genomes were sequenced and assembled. However, annotating a genome’s structure rapidly and expressly remains challenging. Current eukaryotic genome annotations require various, abundant supporting data, such as: species-specific and cross-species protein sequences, ESTs, cDNA and RNA-Seq data. Collecting those data and merging their analytical results to achieve a consistent complete annotation is a complex, time and cost consuming task.ResultsIn our study, we proposed a fast and easy-to-use computational tool: GASS (Genome Annotation based on Species Similarity). It annotates a eukaryotic genome based on only the annotations from another similar species. With aligning the exons’ sequences of an annotated similar species to the un-annotated genome, GASS detects the optimal transcript annotations with a shortest-path model. In our study, GASS was used to achieve the rhesus annotations based on the human annotations. The produced annotations were evaluated by comparing them to the two existing rhesus annotation databases (RefSeq and Ensembl) directly and being aligned with three RNA-Seq data of rhesus. The experiment results showed that more than 65% RefSeq exons and splicing junctions were exactly found by GASS. GASS’s sensitivity was higher than RefSeq’s, and was close to Ensembl’s. GASS had higher specificities than Ensembl at gene, transcript, exon and splicing junction levels. We also found the mis-assemblies of rheMac3 genome, which led to the 2 bp shifts in annotating position on exons’ boundary and then the incomplete splicing canonical sites in Refseq annotations. These detections were further supported by various data sources.ConclusionsGASS quickly produces structural genome annotations in sufficient abundance and accuracy. With simple and rapid running of GASS, small labs can create quick views of genome annotations for an un-annotated species, without the necessity to create, collect, analyze and synthesize extra various data sources, or wait several months for the annotations from professional organizations. GASS can be applied to many study occasions, such as the analysis of RNA-Seq datasets from the unannotated species whose genome drafts are available but the annotations are not.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12864-015-1353-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Recruitment of the prefrontal cortex and cerebellum in Parkinsonian rats following skilled aerobic exercise

Exercise modality and complexity play a key role in determining neurorehabilitative outcome in Parkinson's disease (PD). Exercise training (ET) that incorporates both motor skill training and aerobic exercise has been proposed to synergistically improve cognitive and automatic components of motor control in PD patients. Here we introduced such a skilled aerobic ET paradigm in a rat model of dopaminergic deafferentation. Rats with bilateral, intra-striatal 6-hydroxydopamine lesions were exposed to forced ET for 4weeks, either on a simple running wheel (non-skilled aerobic exercise, NSAE) or on a complex wheel with irregularly spaced rungs (skilled aerobic exercise, SAE). Cerebral perfusion was mapped during horizontal treadmill walking or at rest using [14C]-iodoantipyrine 1week after the completion of ET. Regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) was quantified by autoradiography and analyzed in 3-dimensionally reconstructed brains by statistical parametric mapping. SAE compared to NSAE resulted in equal or greater recovery in motor deficits, as well as greater increases in rCBF during walking in the prelimbic area of the prefrontal cortex, broad areas of the somatosensory cortex, and the cerebellum. NSAE compared to SAE animals showed greater activation in the dorsal caudate–putamen and dorsal hippocampus. Seed correlation analysis revealed enhanced functional connectivity in SAE compared to NSAE animals between the prelimbic cortex and motor areas, as well as altered functional connectivity between midline cerebellum and sensorimotor regions. Our study provides the first evidence for functional brain reorganization following skilled aerobic exercise in Parkinsonian rats, and suggests that SAE compared to NSAE results in enhancement of prefrontal cortex- and cerebellum-mediated control of motor function.

Timing Verification of Fault-Tolerant Chips for Safety-Critical Applications in Harsh Environments

Critical real-time embedded systems (CRTES), which are deployed in cars, planes, and satellites, among other domains, feature increasingly complex safety-related, performance-demanding functionality. Realistically, such functionality can be provided by means of advanced (high-performance) hardware and software. This will inevitably shift CRTES from using simple control software running on in-order, single-core processors with no caches to complex multisensor and multiactuator software running on aggressive processors implemented in nanoscale technology deploying several computing cores and a cache hierarchy. However, the use of aggressive technologies and architectures challenges time predictability and reliability, which are mandatory features in CRTES. The authors present a processor design that reconciles all three goals--namely, predictability, reliability, and high performance. Their design obtains trustworthy and tight worst-case execution time (WCET) estimates for safety-critical applications running on high-performance hardware facing hard and soft errors by means of a smart use of timing-analysis techniques in combination with minor hardware modifications.

Velocity Control of a Bounding Quadruped via Energy Control and Vestibular Reflexes

In this paper a bio-inspired approach of velocity control for a quadruped robot running with a bounding gait on compliant legs is set up. The dynamic properties of a sagittal plane model of the robot are investigated. By analyzing the stable fixed points based on Poincare map, we find that the energy change of the system is the main source for forward velocity adjustment. Based on the analysis of the dynamics model of the robot, a new simple linear running controller is proposed using the energy control idea, which requires minimal task level feedback and only controls both the leg torque and ending impact angle. On the other hand, the functions of mammalian vestibular reflexes are discussed, and a reflex map between forward velocity and the pitch movement is built through statistical regression analysis. Finally, a velocity controller based on energy control and vestibular reflexes is built, which has the same structure as the mammalian nervous mechanism for body posture control. The new controller allows the robot to run autonomously without any other auxiliary equipment and exhibits good speed adjustment capability. A series simulations and experiments were set to show the good movement agility, and the feasibility and validity of the robot system.

A simple running model with rolling contact and its role as a template for dynamic locomotion on a hexapod robot

We report on the development of a robot’s dynamic locomotion based on a template which fits the robot’s natural dynamics. The developed template is a low degree-of-freedom planar model for running with rolling contact, which we call rolling spring loaded inverted pendulum (R-SLIP). Originating from a reduced-order model of the RHex-style robot with compliant circular legs, the R-SLIP model also acts as the template for general dynamic running. The model has a torsional spring and a large circular arc as the distributed foot, so during locomotion it rolls on the ground with varied equivalent linear stiffness. This differs from the well-known spring loaded inverted pendulum (SLIP) model with fixed stiffness and ground contact points. Through dimensionless steps-to-fall and return map analysis, within a wide range of parameter spaces, the R-SLIP model is revealed to have self-stable gaits and a larger stability region than that of the SLIP model. The R-SLIP model is then embedded as the reduced-order ‘template’ in a more complex ‘anchor’, the RHex-style robot, via various mapping definitions between the template and the anchor. Experimental validation confirms that by merely deploying the stable running gaits of the R-SLIP model on the empirical robot with simple open-loop control strategy, the robot can easily initiate its dynamic running behaviors with a flight phase and can move with similar body state profiles to those of the model, in all five testing speeds. The robot, embedded with the SLIP model but performing walking locomotion, further confirms the importance of finding an adequate template of the robot for dynamic locomotion.

Flexor tendons repair: Effect of core sutures caliber with increased number of suture strands and peripheral sutures. A sheep model

BackgroundSurgeons have aimed to achieve strong repair so as to begin early active rehabilitation programs for flexor tendon injury. Multi-strand suture techniques were developed to gain improved gap resistance and ultimate force compared with the respective two-strand techniques. In vivo studies indicate that multiple strands may cause ischemia during the intrinsic healing process by decreasing the total cross-sectional area of the injured site, unless the total cross-sectional area of the sutures is not decreased. HypothesisThe hypothesis was to design an in vitro study to understand the biomechanical relationship between suture calibers of core sutures with increased number of suture strands and peripheral suture on final repair strength. Materials and methodsSixty fresh sheep forelimb flexor digitorum profundus tendons were randomly placed into three groups (A, B, and C), each containing 20 specimens, for tendon repair. Two-, four-, and eight-strand suture techniques were respectively used in Groups A, B, and C. A simple running peripheral suture technique was used in Subgroups A2, B2, and C2. For each repaired tendon, the 2-mm gap-formation force, 2-mm gap-formation strength, maximum breaking force and maximum breaking strength were determined. ResultsDifferences in 2-mm gap-formation force and 2-mm gap-formation strength were found between Subgroups A1 and A2, B1 and B2, and C1 and C2. Between Groups A and B, A and C, and B and C, there was no difference as well. ConclusionBoth the number of strands and the ratio between the total suture volume and tendon volume at the repair site are important for ideal repair. If the total cross-sectional area of the sutures is equal in 2-strand, 4-strand, and 8-strand procedure, there is no difference in the strength of the repair. A decrease in caliber size suture requires more passes to achieve the same strength. Instead, it is much better to use peripheral suture techniques to improve the strength of the repair with larger diameter 2-strand core sutures.

Negotiating Multicollinearity with Spike-and-Slab Priors.

In multiple regression under the normal linear model, the presence of multicollinearity is well known to lead to unreliable and unstable maximum likelihood estimates. This can be particularly troublesome for the problem of variable selection where it becomes more difficult to distinguish between subset models. Here we show how adding a spike-and-slab prior mitigates this difficulty by filtering the likelihood surface into a posterior distribution that allocates the relevant likelihood information to each of the subset model modes. For identification of promising high posterior models in this setting, we consider three EM algorithms, the fast closed form EMVS version of Rockova and George (2014) and two new versions designed for variants of the spike-and-slab formulation. For a multimodal posterior under multicollinearity, we compare the regions of convergence of these three algorithms. Deterministic annealing versions of the EMVS algorithm are seen to substantially mitigate this multimodality. A single simple running example is used for illustration throughout.