Terms Of Application Time Research Articles

Transient ischemic attack in the vertebrobasilar vascular territory as a cause of isolated vertigo

Transient ischemic attack (TIA) in the vertebrobasilar vascular territory (VB) causes difficulties in diagnosis when it manifests only with vestibular symptoms. Issues relating to the differential diagnosis of TIA are discussed, awareness of which is necessary for the selection of informative methods of examination and the prescription of effective stroke prevention in patients with an episode of isolated dizziness. The likelihood of TIA as the cause of dizziness is increased by the patients' high cardiovascular risk, the presence of atrial fibrillation, severe instability during an attack, and head and/or neck pain. If a TIA in VB is suspected, it is advisable to perform a minimal instrumental examination, including computed tomography (CT) of the brain and CT angiography or diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and MRI angiography. In case of doubt, additional information can be obtained by a perfusion CT or MRI as well as a post-contrast MRI. When interpreting the results of these methods of examination, their limitations in terms of application time and resolution should be taken into account.

Thailand medical mobile application for patients triage base on criteria based dispatch protocol

BackgroundBefore patients are admitted into the emergency department, it is important to undertake a pre-hospital process, both in terms of treatment performance and a request for resources from an emergency unit. The existing system to triage patients in Thailand is not functioning to its full capacity in either the primary medical system or pre-hospital treatment with shortcomings in the areas of speed, features, and appropriate systems. There is a high possibility of issuing a false Initial Dispatch Code (IDC), which will cause the over or underutilisation of emergency resources, such as rescue teams, community hospitals and emergency medical volunteers.MethodsA usability system design, together with a reliability test, was applied to develop an application to optimise the pre-hospital process, specifically to sort patients, using an IDC to improve the request for emergency resources. The triage mobile application was developed on both iOS and Android operating systems to support patient triage based on Criteria Based Dispatch (CBD). The 25 main symptom categories covered by CBD were used to design and develop the application, and 12 emergency medical staff, including doctors and nurses, were asked to test the system in the aspects of triage protocol correction, triage reliability, usability and user satisfaction.ResultsThe results of testing the proposed triage application were compared with the time used to triage by experienced staff and it was found that, in non-trauma cases, it was faster and more effective to use the application for emergency operations and to correct the IDC code representation.ConclusionsThe triage application will be utilised to support the pre-hospital process and to classify patients’ conditions before they are admitted to the Emergency Department (ED). The application is suitable for users who are not medical emergency staff. Patients with non-trauma symptoms may be a suitable group to use the application in terms of time used to identify IDC for their own symptoms. The use of the application can be beneficial for those who wish to self-identify their symptoms before requesting medical services.

Brokel: Towards enabling multi-level cloud elasticity on publish/subscribe brokers

Internet of Things networks together with the data that flow between networked smart devices are growing at unprecedented rates. Often brokers, or intermediaries nodes, combined with the publish/subscribe communication model represent one of the most used strategies to enable Internet of Things applications. At scalability viewpoint, cloud computing and its main feature named resource elasticity appear as an alternative to solve the use of over-provisioned clusters, which normally present a fixed number of resources. However, we perceive that today the elasticity and Pub/Sub duet presents several limitations, mainly related to application rewrite, single cloud elasticity limited to one level and false-positive resource reorganization actions. Aiming at bypassing the aforesaid problems, this article proposes Brokel, a multi-level elasticity model for Pub/Sub brokers. Users, things, and applications use Brokel as a centralized messaging service broker, but in the back-end the middleware provides better performance and cost (used resources × performance) on message delivery using virtual machine (VM) replication. Our scientific contribution regards the multi-level, orchestrator, and broker, and the addition of a geolocation domain name system service to define the most suitable entry point in the Pub/Sub architecture. Different execution scenarios and metrics were employed to evaluate a Brokel prototype using VMs that encapsulate the functionalities of Mosquitto and RabbitMQ brokers. The obtained results were encouraging in terms of application time, message throughput, and cost (application time × resource usage) when comparing elastic and non-elastic executions.

Towards Enabling Live Thresholding as Utility to Manage Elastic Master-Slave Applications in the Cloud

The elasticity feature of cloud computing has been proved as pertinent for parallel applications, since users do not need to take care about the best choice for the number of processes/resources beforehand. To accomplish this, the most common approaches use threshold-based reactive elasticity or time-consuming proactive elasticity. However, both present at least one problem related to: the need of a previous user experience, lack on handling load peaks, completion of parameters or design for a specific infrastructure and workload setting. In this regard, we developed a hybrid elasticity service for Master-Slave parallel applications named Helpar (Hybrid Elasticity Model for Parallel Applications). As parameterless model, Helpar presents a closed control loop elasticity architecture that adapts at runtime the values of lower and upper thresholds. Thus, we intend to provide a practical and effortless realization of the cloud elasticity and parallel computing duet, so delivering this capability as a plug-and-play utility to end users. Besides presenting Helpar, our purpose is to provide a comparison between Helpar and our previous work on reactive elasticity called AutoElastic. We will explore different metrics, including applications’ time, energy consumption and cost, as well as distinct types of workloads when executing a scientific HPC application. The results present the Helpar’s lightweight feature, besides highlighting its performance competitiveness in terms of application time and cost (performance × energy) metrics. In other words, the hand-tuning of thresholds in AutoElastic often is responsible for the best results, but this procedure may be time-consuming besides optimized for a particular set of application and infrastructure.

A lightweight plug-and-play elasticity service for self-organizing resource provisioning on parallel applications

Today cloud elasticity can bring benefits to parallel applications, besides the traditional targets including Web and critical-business demands. This consists in adapting the number of resources and processes at runtime, so users do not need to worry about the best choice for them beforehand. To accomplish this, the most common approaches use threshold-based reactive elasticity or time-consuming proactive elasticity. However, both present at least one problem related to the need of a previous user experience, lack on handling load peaks, completion of parameters or design for a specific infrastructure and workload setting. In this context, we developed a hybrid elasticity service for master–slave parallel applications named Helpar. The proposal presents a closed control loop elasticity architecture that adapts at runtime the values of lower and upper thresholds. The main scientific contribution is the proposition of the Live Thresholding (LT) technique for controlling elasticity. LT is based on the TCP congestion algorithm and automatically manages the value of the elasticity bounds to enhance better reactiveness on resource provisioning. The idea is to provide a lightweight plug-and-play service at the PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service) level of a cloud, in which users are completely unaware of the elasticity feature, only needing to compile their applications with Helpar prototype. For evaluation, we used a numerical integration application and OpenNebula to compare the Helpar execution against two scenarios: a set of static thresholds and a non-elastic application. The results present the lightweight feature of Helpar, besides highlighting its performance competitiveness in terms of application time (performance) and cost (performance × energy) metrics.

Efficacy of foramsulfuron + thiencarbazone-methyl towards different development stages of weed species in sugar beet cultivation

The currently available weed control system in sugar beet cultivation has low flexibility due to the necessity of applications at the cotyledon stage of the weeds. The aim of the present study was to evaluate a new herbicide providing more flexibility in terms of application time. In 2013 and 2014, efficacy of an ALS-inhibiting herbicide (foramsulfuron + thiencarbazone-methyl) was evaluated in six field trials in Germany. Sugar beet varieties not sensitive to ALS-inhibiting herbicides are currently in the breeding process. The herbicide was tested on five weed species in different development stages (later than cotyledon stage). In the trials, only weeds but no sugar beet were sown. The herbicide was applied with three dosages at five development stages of the weeds. Efficacy towards Brassica napusL. and Galium aparineL. was nearly 100%. Efficacy towards Chenopodium albumL., Matricaria chamomillaL. and Polygonum convolvulusL. was reduced due to unfavorable weather conditions and with decreasing dosages and increasing development stages. Efficacy was lowest in case of Chenopodium album being close to 95% at BBCH 14 and 16 with 0.50L/ha and 1.00L/ha, respectively. It was thus concluded that the herbicide can be applied later than at cotyledon stage. This implies more flexibility of application timing than current herbicides. To develop a comprehensive evaluation of the weed control system, further studies regarding selectivity, duration of efficacy and resistance risks are necessary.

링 조명에 의한 BGA 볼의 3차원 형상 인식

Shape recognition of solder ball bumps in a BGA (Ball Grid Array) is an important issue in flip chip bonding technology. In particular, the semiconductor industry has required faster and more accurate inspection of micron-size solder bumps in flip chip bonding as the density of balls has increased dramatically. The difficulty of this issue comes from specular reflection on the metal ball. Shape recognition of a metal ball is a very realproblem for computer vision systems. Specular reflection of the metal ball appears, disappears, or changes its image abruptly due to tiny movementson behalf of the viewer. This paper presents a practical shape recognition method for three dimensional (3-D) inspection of a BGA using a 5-step ring illumination device. When the ring light illuminates the balls, distinctive specularity images of the balls, which are referred to as "iso-slope contours" in this paper, are shown. By using a mathematical reflectance model, we can drive the 3-D shape information of the ball in aquantitative manner. The experimental results show the usefulness of the method for industrial application in terms of time and accuracy.

Argon beam coagulation versus fibrin sealant for hemostasis following liver resection: a randomized study in a porcine model.

Bleeding from the raw liver surface represents a significant surgical complication after elective liver resection or hepatic trauma. The application of argon beam coagulation (ABC) has been proposed to improve hemostasis, but is associated with significant necrosis of the liver parenchyma. Topical hemostatic agents, i.e. fibrin sealant (FS), have also been recommended, yet the optimal management is under debate. This study compares the efficacy and safety of both methods following liver resection in an animal model. Twenty pigs underwent liver resection, and were then randomized into ABC or FS group for treatment of raw liver surfaces. Intraoperative and postoperative parameters were studied. Animals were sacrificed at day 12, and extent of necrosis was assessed using a scoring system and morphometry. Intraoperative parameters did not show any significant difference between two groups except for shorter time of application in the FS group. Postoperatively, animals in the FS group showed significantly higher hemoglobin levels (p=0.0001). Histologically, FS showed a smaller depth of necrosis than ABC (p=0.022). The use of FS is superior to ABC for management of the raw liver surface after liver resection, in terms of application time, postoperative bleeding and the extent of liver tissue necrosis.

Relation between handling characteristics and application time of four photo-polymerized resin composites.

To investigate the relation between handling characteristics and application time of four composite materials with subjectively different viscosities. Eight experienced faculty members placed one Class II and one Class IV restoration in a random sequence into pre-prepared plastic teeth mounted on a typodont model, each using 4 types of composites (Herculite Précis (M1), Kerr; Tertic N-Ceram (M2), Ivoclar Vivadent; Filtek Z350 (M3), 3M-ESPE; Charisma Opal (M4), HareausKulzer), resulting in a total of 64 restorations. The application process was filmed with a high definition video camera. Two evaluators watched the recordings in a random sequence as well, timed the composite application and wrote down their observations, which were dichotimised into positive and negative ones. Application times were analysed with a two-way Kruskal Wallis test (time x dentist) and the observation data were analysed with a chi-square test (P < 0.05). Materials did not differ in their application time (P > 0.05). The mean application time was 12 ¼ minutes for the Class II and 9 ¾ minutes for Class IV restorations. However, there were statistically significant differences between the dentists in terms of application time. The observation data showed no significant difference between Class II and Class IV restorations but there were significant material differences (P < 0.05). M2 yielded 6% negative observations, while the other materials were between 35% and 38%. There was no association between the handling characteristics of the tested composite resins and the speed of application. However, one of the tested materials (M2) showed significantly less problems in the application process.

Time and Cost–Optimized Decision Support Model for Fast-Track Projects

The fast-track method is one of the most recognized methodologies for reducing construction project schedules. However, due to the lack of definitive research to date pertaining to the effects of fast-track application in terms of time and cost, it has been difficult for project owners to determine its correct application. This paper presents the time and cost optimized decision support (TACTICS) model, and it was developed based on the fast-track methodology and genetic algorithms (GAs). TACTICS was applied to two case studies, and the results indicated that the fast-track method could be expected to deliver more efficient projects compared with using the traditional method. In particular, (1) the average reduction in project duration by applying the fast-track method was 40.48% (Case I) and 18.59% (Case II) compared with using the traditional method, and (2) the average project costs were reduced by as much as 0.39% (Case I) and 4.48% (Case II). Consequently, TACTICS could be expected to help in making a decision regarding the fast-track application and further contribute to the project scheduling expertise in the construction engineering and management body of knowledge.

Expressing Irrigation Efficiency in Terms of Application Time, Intake and Water Advance Constants

Expressing Irrigation Efficiency in Terms of Application Time, Intake and Water Advance Constants