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Creating an accurate prediction of the completion timeline of a software development project is complicated and error prone. Developers will gain a natural intuition as to how long a task should take then. However, this prediction can end up being wrong in many cases due to many factors. This paper will attempt to determine a formula which allows a more accurate prediction to be created. Creating an accurate prediction of the completion timeline of a software development project is complicated and error prone. Developers will gain a natural intuition as to how long a task should take then. However, this prediction can end up being wrong in many cases due to many factors. This paper will attempt to determine a formula which allows a more accurate prediction to be created.

Background Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common clinically significant cardiac rhythm disorder. There is considerable interest in screening for AF, as it is a leading cause of stroke, and oral anticoagulants (OACs) have been shown to significantly reduce the risk of stroke in patients with AF. Improved screening for AF with subsequent treatment may help improve long-term outcomes, but the optimal patient population and screening intensity are unknown. Objectives In this study, we prospectively evaluated the use of the CHA 2 DS 2 -VASc score for the prediction of new-onset AF using insertable cardiac monitors (ICMs) and examined whether this screening led to the initiation of OAC therapy. Methods We enrolled 245 subjects with no history of AF and CHA 2 DS 2 -VASc score ≥2 to be screened for AF with an ICM. The ICMs were programmed to record AF episodes ≥6 minutes in duration. Subjects were followed for 18 months with monthly remote interrogations and all events adjudicated by cardiologists. In subjects diagnosed with AF, medical records were reviewed to determine subsequent care. Results During a mean follow-up of 451 ± 185 days, the incidence of AF was 22.4% (95% confidence interval 17.2%–27.7%) with a mean time to detection of 141.3 ± 139.5 days. Among subjects newly diagnosed with AF, 76.4% were prescribed anticoagulation with either a novel OAC (n = 38) or warfarin (n = 4). Conclusion In this large prospective cohort of subjects with CHA 2 DS 2 -VASc scores ≥2, 22.4% were newly diagnosed with AF and the majority of these subjects were given OACs, suggesting a potential role of ICMs in AF screening.

After piles are driven into the soil, significant variations of pile resistance typically occur with time. When a pile’s axial resistance increases with time after installation, the increased amount of axial resistance is referred to as set-up. Incorporating the amount of increased axial resistance into the overall design of driven pile foundation systems of structures can potentially reduce sizes of elements, ultimately reducing cost. For over 25 years, the Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT) has been collecting pile installation and restrike data during the impact of a pile-driving hammer with Pile Driving Analyzers (PDA) to estimate the axial resistance of driven piles at the end of the initial driving (EOID) process as well as at various time periods after EOID. ALDOT is interested in organizing and evaluating the dynamic testing data to aid in more-efficient and cost-effective pile foundation designs. This research examines time-dependent changes in total, shaft, and toe resistances for 27 axially loaded driven test piles (concrete and H-piles) in Alabama soils using dynamic testing. Researchers filtered through this PDA data, and further analyzed the usable PDA data with an automatic signal matching program (iCAP) to improve the resistance estimates. This data is being utilized to estimate trends of set-up in various locations throughout the state. An ArcMap of Alabama was created using geographic information system (GIS) software to display and explore information, data, and results for each pile testing site. This paper provides a summary of the process to analyze pile load tests, organize the data in a GIS system, and then utilize the information to produce trends and draw conclusions on improving the overall testing and design procedures for the state of Alabama.

Presents a procedure for the automated segmentation of multispectral Landsat TM images of farmland in Western Australia into field units. The segmentation procedure, named the canonically-guided region growing (CGRG) procedure, assumes that each field contains only one ground cover type and that the width of the minimum field of interest is known. The CGRG procedure segments images using a seeded region growing algorithm, but is novel in the method used to generate the internal field markers used as "seeds." These internal field markers are obtained from a multiband, local canonical eigenvalue image. Before the local transformation is applied, the original image is morphologically filtered to estimate both between-field variation and within-field variation in the image. Local computation of the canonical variate transform, using a moving window sized to fit just inside the smallest field of interest, ensures that the between- and within-field spatial variations in each image band are accommodated. The eigenvalues of the local transform are then used to discriminate between an area completely inside a field or at a field boundary. The results obtained using CGRG and the methods of Lee (1997) and Tilton (1998) were numerically compared to "ideal" segmentations of a set of sample satellite images. The comparison indicates that the results of the CGRG are usually more accurate in terms of field boundary position and degree of over-segmentation and under-segmentation, than either of the other procedures.

Valerius Cordus synthesized diethyl ether in 1540 and shortly thereafter Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim (Paracelsus) noted that it could diminish pain. Priestley synthesized nitrous oxide in 1774, and in 1800, Davy found that it decreased pain and suggested its use for surgery. In the 1820s, Hickman advanced the notion of anesthesia, but Davy quashed Hickman’s idea. Von Liebig synthesized chloroform in 1831. The recreational use of diethyl ether and nitrous oxide and a desire to eliminate the pain of surgery, initially led to unsuccessful (nitrous oxide) demonstrations or unreported use in patients undergoing surgery. Long’s experience with ether in 1842 is as famous as his failure to publicize the discovery. Anesthesia was born on 16 Oct 1846 (Ether Day) with Morton’s public demonstration of ether anesthesia. Simpson’s 1847 discovery of the anesthetic effects of chloroform followed. Nitrous oxide (restored to favor in the 1860s) and ether combined with oxygen provided anesthesia for a century, with modest competition in the 1930s to 1950s from divinyl ether, cyclopropane and trichloroethylene.

In this paper we give an overview of both classical and more modern morphological techniques. We will demonstrate their utility through a range of practical examples. After discussing the fundamental morphological ideas, we show how the classic morphological opening and closing filters lead to measures of size via granulometries, and we will discuss briefly their implementation. We also present an overview of morphological segmentation techniques, and the use of connected openings and thinnings will be demonstrated. This then leads us into the more recent set-theoretic notions of graph based approaches to image analysis.

This paper formalizes the notion of nonflat gray-level connected filters and proposes efficient algorithms for their implementation in a supplementary web page. The component tree is proposed as an efficient and accessible data structure used to implement these filters. The primary nonflat component filter advocated in this paper is based on the concept of an attribute signature. The attribute signature captures both attribute and linking information between components in a gray-level image and can be a powerful means of discriminating desired image features. One of the key benefits of the approach is that the image features to be filtered undergo the maximum amount of filtering that is possible without altering the rest of the image at all. As a consequence, an image segmentation can be obtained simply by finding those pixels within the image that have been changed by the filter. We present an application of nonflat component filters to the segmentation of wood micrographs.

Fixation disparities (FD) were measured as a function of forced vergence using binocular scleral search coils and simultaneously with nonius lines. The slope of the objective FD curve was significantly greater than the subjective FD curve for three of five subjects. This indicates an alteration in retinal correspondence of up to one degree, that shifts Panum's area to avoid the diplopia normally present with large disparities. This process allows for fusion in the presence of large objective fixation disparities which would normally cause diplopia. The shift in correspondence enhances the range of forced vergence, since the larger objective FDs serve as more effective stimuli to fusional vergence. The remaining subjects who lacked this effect had "flat" FD curves indicative of high vergence adaptation.

Adaptation to the simple visual displacement of prisms was compared to that for refractive lenses, which have a varied prismatic effect. Subjects were made myopic using contact lenses, then corrected using spectacle lenses. The effect on the perceived direction of a randomly located target was assessed from pointing behavior. Prism adaptation showed a negative directional aftereffect but lacked intermanual transfer. Lens adaptation lacked a negative aftereffect but exhibited intermanual transfer. The results suggest that lens adaptation involves a recalibration of extraretinal eye movement information and multiple sets of lens adaptation can be retained for short periods.

Purpose Previous studies have measured objective fixation disparity using a monocular occlusion method, by which the monocular components of misalignment are revealed by measuring the shift in the position of the fixating eye after occlusion of the other eye. Methods We assessed the use of the monocular occlusion method by comparing it to direct measurements of binocular vergence. Results The direct method required precise calibration, but was found to be reliable. Several problems were discovered with the monocular occlusion method: (1) when using a central fusion stimulus, fixation was difficult to control accurately enough to measure the small monocular shifts in eye position expected at lower vergence demands; (2) with a peripheral fusion target, objective fixation disparity could not be measured directly; and (3) upon occlusion, a variable saccade occurred in the fixating eye. Conclusion Objective measurement of fixation disparity with the direct method is quicker and more reliable than with the monocular occlusion method.

The accuracy of directional localization with refractive lenses was determined by open-loop pointing for four myopic habitual contact lens wearers. The target was a single point of light at random locations (dark), or was embedded in a horizontal array of lights (light). In the dark, the regression slope of indicated vs actual target position was significantly less for spectacles than for contact lenses, as predicted from the prismatic effects of the spectacles. In the light, slopes for spectacles and contacts were not significantly different. These results suggest that spectacle wearers do not utilize eye position information in making direction judgments in the light. Copyright © 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.

In this paper we establish an attribute-based approach to openings and closings and provide an efficient algorithm for their implementation on gray-scale images. Attribute openings are similar to openings by reconstruction since they are connected component transformations. However, attribute openings are more general because they can describe generalized shape features and openings that have no shape-bias. This work is then extended to gray-scale granuolmetries and to include gray-scale thinnings, which are nonincreasing filters. The use of nonincreasing gray-scale thinnings is seen as an important generalization because it allows the use of nonincreasing shape descriptors such as compactness and eccentricity to be applied to filter gray-scale images. Applications are then given to illustrate the performance of the filters proposed.

Van Herk (1992) has shown that the erosion/dilation operator with a linear structuring element of an arbitrary length can be implemented in only three min/max operations per pixel. In this paper, the algorithm is generalized to erosions and dilations along discrete lines at arbitrary angles. We also address the padding problem; so that the operation can be performed in place without copying the pixels to and from an intermediate buffer. Applications to image filtering and to radial decompositions of discs are presented.

The US Department of Defense (DoD) has utilized commercially-built military systems designed with Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) hardware and software in an attempt to cut costs. Supporting and maintaining these commercial systems need to have a different approach than the existing maintenance concepts for the proprietary military systems. In this paper we will look at a streamlined process on DoD C-17 Automated Test Equipment (CATE) using a commercial approach to support and maintain them. Test equipment obsolescence is a serious problem in DoD ATE systems today, especially with a commercial system. The CATE is a commercial system integrated with COTS software and hardware. In its brief lifetime of approximately 10 years the CATE in particular averages an obsolescence of two and a half COTS hardware or Tester Replaceable Units (TRUs) every three years. The lifespan support on the CATE COTS software averages just less than two years. As the TRUs and software become obsolete and unsupportable a streamlined process is necessary and critical in finding and qualifying alternate TRUs and software. This streamlined process needs to reduce the total life-cycle costs of maintenance support while maintaining the current availability of the deployed fleet of CATEs and the continued seamlessly uninterrupted support of the Test Program Sets (TPSs) that run on them.

A prospective, randomized, double-blinded study was performed to determine whether dilute epinephrine saline irrigation (1 mg/l) delivered by gravity flow would significantly reduce the need for tourniquet use during routine arthroscopic surgery. One hundred five patients requiring straightforward arthroscopic knee surgery were randomly assigned to either an epinephrine group that received dilute epinephrine irrigation by gravity flow or to a placebo group that received normal saline irrigation by gravity flow. The need for tourniquet use and the tourniquet time, total operative time, and volume of irrigation fluid used were documented and compared between the two groups. A tourniquet was required 50% less often in the epinephrine group than in the placebo group. This difference was found to be statistically significant using the Student's t-test (P< 0.008, α ≤ 0.05). If a tourniquet was required, the presence of dilute epinephrine in the irrigation fluid did not affect the overall tourniquet time or the ratio of tourniquet time to total operative time. We believe this study proved that dilute epinephrine irrigation is effective in decreasing the need for tourniquet use during routine arthroscopic knee surgery.

The database organizations within three different NASA projects have advanced current practices by creating database synergy between the various spacecraft life cycle stakeholders and educating users in the benefits of the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) XML Telemetry and Command Exchange (XTCE) format. The combination of XML for managing program data and CCSDS XTCE for exchange is a robust approach that will meet all user requirements using Standards and Non proprietary tools. COTS tools for XTCEKML are very wide and varied. To combine together various low cost and free tools can be more expensive in the long run than choosing a more expensive COTS tool that meets all the needs. This was especially important when deploying in 32 remote sites with no need for licenses. A common mission XTCEKML format between dissimilar systems is possible and is not difficult. Command XMLKTCE is more complex than telemetry and the use of XTCEKML metadata to describe pages and scripts is needed due to the proprietary nature of most current ground systems. Other mission and science products such as spacecraft loads, science image catalogs, and mission operation procedures can all be described with XML as well to increase there flexibility as systems evolve and change. Figure 10 is an example of a spacecraft table load. The word is out and the XTCE community is growing, The f ~ sXt TCE user group was held in October and in addition to ESAESOC, SC02000, and CNES identified several systems based on XTCE. The second XTCE user group is scheduled for March 10, 2008 with LDMC and others joining. As the experience with XTCE grows and the user community receives the promised benefits of using XTCE and XML the interest is growing fast.

Horizontal fusional limits and lateral phorias were measured subjectively on five normal subjects after adaptation to increments of base-in and base-out prism. Both the phoria and the fusional limits were found to change by approximately the amount of the adapting prism. The fusional amplitudes (the difference between the phoria and the fusional limits) were relatively unaffected by vergence adaptation except at the largest values of adapting prism. These results are in agreement with current models of disparity vergence eye movement control which suggest that there are independent fast and slow fusional vergence mechanisms, each with its own saturation limit.

he James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a large aperture infrared space telescope with a five-year mission, ten-year design goal. It is currently planned to be launched in 2013from Kourou, French Guiana aboard an Ariane 5 launch vehicle. JWST is designated to succeed the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) as part of the NASA Great Observatories program. JWST will continue the HST tradition of advancing breakthroughs in our understanding of the origins of the earliest stars, galaxies, and the very elements that are the foundations of life. JWST, with development and operations phases that may each exceed ten years, requires nontraditional means of defining the development, and integration and test (I&T) environments and operational ground system. Rather than selecting a command and telemetry system and building the other ground system components around it. JWST has elected to develop requirements for the desired operational architecture and then select the products necessary to build the development and I&T

Electricity distribution companies in many countries are required to maintain a regulated clearance space around all powerlines for bushfire mitigation and safety purposes. Vegetation encroachment of high voltage electricity line clearance space is a major problem for electricity distribution utilities. If not properly controlled, vegetation encroachment can lead to bushfire and public safety risks as well as degrading electricity supply reliability. In this paper we describe a prototype airborne system for the automated measurement of the distance of vegetation from powerlines using stereo vision from a stream of stereo images. A fundamental problem with the images from the prototype system is that the powerlines are usually difficult to see, although the power poles are visible. The proposed strategy has been to recover the vegetation surface using stereo vision techniques, identify successive power poles, model the powerlines between successive poles as a catenary, and measure the distance between the vegetation surface and the modelled line. Some suggestions about how to improve the system are also made.

This paper describes a moving target indication and tracking system developed for acquiring and tracking targets in video from moving sensors, in particular airborne urban surveillance video. The paradigm of the moving sensor, which is a typical scenario in defence applications (e.g. UAV surveillance video), poses some unique problems as compared to the stationary sensor. Our solution draws on a number of algorithms from the vision and tracking communities and combines them as a novel solution to the problem. Moreover, given a suitable cluster of conventional hardware, the system allows a near real-time solution to MTI.

The Analysts' Detection Support System is a flexible processing engine developed to assist the imagery analyst to detect targets in all-source surveillance imagery. It provides the means of structuring a hierarchy of algorithms which, when applied to the data, makes progressively refined decisions on the locations of targets. In particular, we present infrastructure developments which facilitate effective processing of streaming video data, together with an outline of some of the algorithms that have been incorporated to support urban surveillance from airborne and ground-based platforms. These focus on the detection of moving objects and encompass video registration, background modelling and the detection of anomalies.

Notchplasty, resection of bone from the roof and lateral side of the inter-condylar notch, is frequently performed during anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction to avoid abrasion or deflection of the ACL graft by the femur (graft impingement). Graft impingement can develop months after the initial reconstruction despite adequate notchplasty. Such impingement has recently been attributed to fibrocartilage overgrowth of the notchplasty site. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the MR appearance of the notchplasty site immediately after surgery and 6 months later and to investigate whether cartilage overgrowth of the notchplasty site can be detected with MR imaging.Thirty-three patients who underwent bone-tendon-bone autograft ACL reconstruction had MR scans of the intercondylar notch 6 months after surgery. Twenty-five of these patients also had MR scans in the immediate postoperative period. The appearance of the notchplasty site and evidence for cartilage overgrowth of the notchplasty site were evaluated. Arthroscopic correlation was available for six patients.On MR images, the margins of the notchplasty site were identified in all patients. Contour of the notchplasty site along the lateral notch wall was frequently concave toward the notch, a finding not commonly seen in an unoperated notch. Six months later, the shape of the notchplasty site had not changed, but evidence for recortication of the notchplasty site (seen as a layer of signal void 0.5-1.5 mm in thickness over the previously exposed cancellous bone) was seen in 94% of the patients. Additionally, a second layer of signal void, 1-5 mm in thickness with signal intensity identical to that of hyaline cartilage, was seen overlying the notchplasty site in 64% of patients. Arthroscopic correlation available in six patients suggested that this second layer represented fibrocartilage overgrowth of the notchplasty site.Characteristic changes of the intercondylar notch after notchplasty can be seen on MR images. This preliminary study also suggests that a thin layer of cortical bone forms over the notchplasty site in most patients within 6 months of surgery. Perhaps more significantly, overgrowth of the notchplasty site by fibrocartilage may also be detected in some patients. Further experience is needed to determine whether MR imaging is a useful method for identifying cartilage overgrowth after notchplasty.

Corporate philanthropy is increasingly emerging as an issue that demands a response from corporate Australia. The recent Asian Tsunami has heightened shareholder interest in the philanthropic actions of Australian corporate boards. There are many issues of interest in the area of corporate philanthropy but the influence of individual senior executives on individual corporations' decision-making process is of interest to those making the decisions whether to donate and those who are seeking the support of corporate Australia. This study seeks to review the prior literature and develop a theoretical decision-making model that includes senior executives' personally held values as an essential component. In particular, it attempts to present a model that demonstrates the implicit role that personally held values play when a corporation makes philanthropic decisions.

Objective. —To test the hypothesis that a reduction of 1000 ppm or more of lead in soil accessible to children would result in a decrease of at least 0.14 μmol/L (3 μg/dL) in blood lead levels. Setting. —Urban neighborhoods with a high incidence of childhood lead poisoning and high soil lead levels. Design. —Randomized controlled trial of the effects of lead-contaminated soil abatement on blood lead levels of children followed up for approximately 1 year after the intervention. Patients. —A total of 152 children less than 4 years of age with venous blood lead levels of 0.34 to 1.16 μmol/L (7 to 24 μg/dL). Children were largely poor and had a mean age at baseline of 32 months, a mean blood lead level of 0.60 μmol/L (12.5 μg/dL), and a median surface soil lead level of 2075 ppm. Interventions. —Children were randomized to one of three groups: the study group, whose homes received soil and interior dust abatement and loose paint removal; comparison group A, whose homes received interior dust abatement and loose paint removal; and comparison group B, whose homes received only interior loose paint removal. Main Outcome Measures. —Change in children's blood lead levels from preabatement levels to levels approximately 6 and 11 months after abatement. Results. —The mean decline in blood lead level between preabatement and 11 months after abatement was 0.12 μmol/L (2.44 μg/dL) in the study group (P=.001), 0.04 μmol/L (0.91 μg/dL) in group A (P=.04), and 0.02 μmol/L (0.52 μg/mL) in group B (P=.31). The mean blood lead level of the study group declined 0.07 μmol/L (1.53 μg/dL) more than that of group A (95% confidence interval [CI], -0.14 to -0.01 μmol/L [-2.87 to -0.19 μg/dL]) and 0.09 μmol/L (1.92 μg/dL) more than group B (95% CI, -0.16 to -0.03 μmol/L [-3.28 to -0.56 μg/dL]). When adjusted for preabatement lead level, the 11-month mean blood lead level was 0.06 μmol/L (1.28 μg/dL) lower in the study group as compared with group A (P=.02) and 0.07 μmol/L (1.49 μg/dL) lower than in group B (P=.01 ). The magnitude of the decline independently associated with soil abatement ranged from 0.04 to 0.08 μmol/L (0.8 to 1.6 μg/dL) when the impact of potential confounders, such as water, dust, and paint lead levels, children's mouthing behaviors, and other characteristics, was controlled for. Conclusions. —These results demonstrate that lead-contaminated soil contributes to the lead burden of urban children and that abatement of lead-contaminated soil around homes results in a modest decline in blood lead levels. The magnitude of reduction in blood lead level observed, however, suggests that lead-contaminated soil abatement is not likely to be a useful clinical intervention for the majority of urban children in the United States with low-level lead exposure. (JAMA. 1993;269:1647-1654)

There is evidence to suggest that fusional vergence acts as a two-stage process consisting of fusion-initiating and fusion-sustaining components. The interrelationship of these components was examined by comparing the amplitude of disparity-induced vergence over the operating range of sustained fusional vergence. The results showed that as sustained convergence increased, disparity-induced divergence increased and disparity-induced convergence remained essentially constant. These results are interpreted as indicating independence between the components and that the obtained increase in disparity-induced divergence resulted from an influence of accommodation on uncrossed retinal disparities.

The spatial characteristics of the changes in retinal correspondence produced by forced convergence were studied. The vertical extent of lateral shifts in binocular correspondence were quantified by comparing the convergence of the eyes measured with binocular search coils to the convergence of the eyes as determined using nonius lines having vertical separations (gaps) between the nonius lines of 0.5-4.8 degrees. Lateral shifts in binocular correspondence only occurred for nonius gaps < 3-4 degrees. The effects of horizontal retinal eccentricity on lateral shifts in correspondence were determined by measuring the nonius horopter of the subject under forced convergence, using 11 nonius line eccentricities between 4.5 degrees left and right. The nonius horopter was shifted toward the fusion target maximally near the fixation point. There was no shift beyond 3 degrees of eccentricity. We conclude that the nonius horopter is 'dimpled' vertically and horizontally, facilitating local fusion by shifting the line horopter and the region of single binocular vision toward the point of regard over a region of 3 degrees around the fixation point.

A prospective multicenter trial was performed to evaluate the use of external shockwave lithotripsy (ESL) and adjuvant medical therapy for the treatment of gallstones. A Medstone STS lithotripter was used together with ursodiol. Two hundred twenty-three patients were treated under general anesthesia (75%) or with intravenous analgesia (25%). Initial treatments were on an inpatient basis, but as centers gained experience, outpatient treatments became more common. Stone fragmentation and clearance were greatest in patients with solitary gallstones less than 2 cm in diameter. In this group of patients, stone fragmentation occurred in 97% of patients, and the cumulative stone-free rates at three and six months were 54% and 90%, respectively. These results indicate that fragmentation of gallstones can be achieved by a dry shock-wave lithotripter and that stone clearance is induced more rapidly by external shock-wave lithotripsy and adjuvant ursodiol therapy than by ursodiol therapy alone.

The consumers' co-operative movement became established in Edinburgh in 1859, and within a few years a number of retail societies were formed. Most were quickly bankrupt, but those which survived gradually opened a number of branches and expanded their operations beyond the grocery trade into other food lines, and also to clothing and footwear sales. The societies' members mainly came from the skilled artisans, and the evolving store location pattern reflects the residential pattern of the 'labour aristocracy', though by 19oo lower-middle-class families also belonged to the local societies. However, an important influence upon store locations was the organizational structure of a co-operative society, especially with its policy-making in the hands of the membership as a whole; their decisions were not always motivated by strictly commercial considerations, particularly in view of the broader social ideals of the co-operative movement.