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Objective . Mixing/dissociation of sleep stages in narcolepsy adds to the difficulty in automatic sleep staging. Moreover, automatic analytical studies for narcolepsy and multiple sleep latency test (MSLT) have only done automatic sleep staging without leveraging the sleep stage profile for further patient identification. This study aims to establish an automatic narcolepsy detection method for MSLT. Approach. We construct a two-phase model on MSLT recordings, where ambiguous sleep staging and sleep transition dynamics make joint efforts to address this issue. In phase 1, we extract representative features from electroencephalogram (EEG) and electrooculogram (EOG) signals. Then, the features are input to an EasyEnsemble classifier for automatic sleep staging. In phase 2, we investigate sleep transition dynamics, including sleep stage transitions and sleep stages, and output likelihood of narcolepsy by virtue of principal component analysis (PCA) and a logistic regression classifier. To demonstrate the proposed framework in clinical application, we conduct experiments on 24 participants from the Children's Hospital of Fudan University, considering ten patients with narcolepsy and fourteen patients with MSLT negative. Main results. Applying the two-phase leave-one-subject-out testing scheme, the model reaches an accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity of 87.5%, 80.0%, and 92.9% for narcolepsy detection. Influenced by disease pathology, accuracy of automatic sleep staging in narcolepsy appears to decrease compared to that in the non-narcoleptic population. Significance. This method can automatically and efficiently distinguish patients with narcolepsy based on MSLT. It probes into the amalgamation of automatic sleep staging and sleep transition dynamics for narcolepsy detection, which would assist clinic and neuroelectrophysiology specialists in visual interpretation and diagnosis., (© 2022 IOP Publishing Ltd.)

Highlights: [•] Transcranial magnetic stimulation induced silent period (cSP) is commonly analysed manually. [•] A new automated routine for cSP analysis was compared with manually analysed cSPs. [•] Data from a large-population of healthy subjects were reanalysed by two of the authors. [•] Inter-examiner effect in cSP analysis was found quite large. [•] Automated routine was found valid and at least as reliable as the manual analysis. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Petri net unfoldings are a useful tool to tackle state-space explosion in verification and related tasks. Moreover, their structure allows to access directly the relations of causal precedence, concurrency, and conflict between events. Here, we explore the data structure further, to determine the following relation: event is said to reveal event iff the occurrence of implies that inevitably occurs, too, be it before, after, or concurrently with . Knowledge of reveals facilitates in particular the analysis of partially observable systems, in the context of diagnosis, testing, or verification; it can also be used to generate more concise representations of behaviors via abstractions. The reveals relation was previously introduced in the context of fault diagnosis, where it was shown that the reveals relation was decidable: for a given pair in the unfolding of a safe Petri net , a finite prefix of is sufficient to decide whether or not reveals . In this paper, we first considerably improve the bound on and show that the new bounds are optimal for the method presented. We then show that there exists an efficient algorithm for computing the relation on a given prefix. We have implemented the algorithm and report on experiments. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This article reports the application of on-line dynamic chemical fractionation using a stirred-flow chamber for fast characterization of ash-forming metals, namely, K, Ca, Na and Mg, and Al as well in woody biomass residues (bark and twigs) and laboratory ashed bark. The chemical fractionation procedure is harnessed to discriminate with minimal operational maintenance those target species associated to the water-soluble, the exchangeable and the acid-soluble fractions as a result of their varying occurrence in the biofuels by resorting subsequently to chemicals of increasing leachability. The final goal is to assist in the evaluation of actual pools of ash-forming elements in industrial boilers. The proposed technique is able to handle up to 1.0g of woody biofuels and provide, as opposed to conventional fuel characterization, relevant insight into the amount of leachable elements under worst case scenarios, and real-time quantification of potentially reactive species beside insight into the leaching kinetics of target elements. Screening results can be obtained in less than 3h instead of more than one week in the batchwise counterpart methods. For elucidation of metal–biomass/ash associations and investigation of the actual selectivity of extractants, a novel approach has been undertaken by resorting to dynamic fractionation assays in combination with scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (SEM–EDX) and X-ray diffraction (RXD) assays. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

An artificial neural network (ANN) is a powerful tool in data processing and pattern recognition that mimics a biological neural network. A new approach of isochronal test analysis based on ANNs is presented. The results from ANNs are in good agreement with the results from empirically achieved deliverability curve and pre-required characteristics of Horner and drawdown plots. It is shown that application of ANN in isochronal tests provides a novel approach to speed up calculations and escape tedious and time consuming plots. Also details presented can be used to automate other types of well test. Therefore ANN can perform as a robust tool in well test analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background We analyzed ventricular repolarization variability in genotyped long QT syndrome (LQTS) patients and in healthy volunteers (HV). Method The deltaT50, that is, the temporal variability of ventricular repolarization at 50% of the T-wave downslope, was analyzed every 15th minute on 175 and 390 Holter electrocardiogram (ECG) recordings from HV and genotyped LQTS patients, respectively. The average deltaT50 and QTcF were calculated in each subject. Results DeltaT50 was 2.26 ± 0.71 ms (mean ± SD) in the HV and 5.74 ± 2.30 ms in the LQTS population (P < 0.0001). The sensitivity and specificity of QTcF (cutoff value 450 ms) to discriminate between the LQTS patients and the HV were 51.5% and 98.9%, and for deltaT50 (cutoff value 3 ms) 93.9% and 88.6%, respectively. The combination of both variables improved the diagnosis of the LQTS patients even further. Subgroups of LQTS patients at higher risk of cardiac events (with LQTS3, JLN, QTc > 500 ms or symptoms) had higher deltaT50 than subgroups at lower risk (with LQTS1, QTc < 450 ms or without symptoms). The variation in deltaT50 between day and night was concordant with the risk of symptoms; patients with LQTS1 had higher deltaT50 in the daytime and patients with LQTS3 had higher deltaT50 during the night. Conclusion DeltaT50 more accurately distinguished between LQTS patients and HV than QTcF and was higher in LQTS patients with a higher risk of cardiac events. DeltaT50 can be used together with QTcF to improve the diagnosis in patients with the LQTS phenotype and tentatively also be of value for risk assessment in such patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: For several decades, conventional histological staining and immunohistochemistry (IHC) have been the main tools to visualize and understand tissue morphology and structure. IHC visualizes the spatial distribution of individual protein species directly in tissue. However, a specific antibody is required for each protein, and multiplexing capabilities are extremely limited, rarely visualizing more than two proteins simultaneously. With the recent emergence of matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization imaging mass spectrometry (MALDI-imaging), it is becoming possible to study more complex proteomic patterns directly in tissue. However, the analysis and interpretation of large and complex MALDI-imaging data requires advanced computational methods. In this paper, we show how the recently introduced method of spatial segmentation can be applied to analysis and interpretation of a larynx carcinoma section and compare the spatial segmentation with the histological annotation of the same tissue section. Methods: Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization imaging is a label-free spatially resolved analytical technique, which allows detection and visualization of hundreds of proteins at once. Spatial segmentation of the MALDI-imaging data by clustering of spectra by their similarity was performed, automatically generating spatial a segmentation map of the tissue section, where regions of similar proteomic patterns were highlighted. The tissue was stained with the hematoxylin and eosin (H&E), histopathologically analyzed and annotated. The segmentation map was interpreted after its overlay with the H&E microscopy image. Results: The automatically generated segmentation map exhibits high correspondence to the detailed histological annotation of the larynx carcinoma tissue section. By superimposing, the segmentation map based on the proteomic profiles with H&E-stained microscopic images, we demonstrate precise localization of complex and histopathologically relevant tissue features in an automated way. Conclusions: The combination of MALDI-imaging and automatic spatial segmentation is a useful approach in analyzing carcinoma tissue and provides a deeper insight into the functional proteomic organization of the respective tissue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The haematological parameters (RBC, Hb, PCV, WBC, TC, MCV, MCH, and MCHC) in farmed gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata) were measured using an automatic method. We then compared the outcomes using the traditional manual method. After blood collection (T0), all samples were immediately analyzed using both the manual and automatic methods. The samples were successively divided into five different aliquots and stored at +4°C to evaluate the effect of the storage time on haematological parameters, measured with the automatic method, at 6, 24, 48, 72, and 96 h after collection. Paired t-tests were applied between the values obtained at T0 with the manual and automatic methods and no statistical difference was observed. One-way repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that parameters measured with the automatic system were significantly affected by the storage time (p < 0.0001). These results provide an innovative automatic method for the determination of haematological parameters in sea bream and suggest that the haematological profile can be accurately assessed within 6 h from blood collection. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: Scientific study of dreams requires the most objective methods to reliably analyze dream content. In this context, artificial intelligence should prove useful for an automatic and non subjective scoring technique. Past research has utilized word search and emotional affiliation methods, to model and automatically match human judges’ scoring of dream report’s negative emotional tone. The current study added word associations to improve the model’s accuracy. Word associations were established using words’ frequency of co-occurrence with their defining words as found in a dictionary and an encyclopedia. It was hypothesized that this addition would facilitate the machine learning model and improve its predictability beyond those of previous models. With a sample of 458 dreams, this model demonstrated an improvement in accuracy from 59% to 63% (kappa=.485) on the negative emotional tone scale, and for the first time reached an accuracy of 77% (kappa=.520) on the positive scale. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In many domains where images are produced and acquired, the field of view of cameras can be subject to oscillations and movements, which can induce errors in the interpretation of the frame contents and can even jeopardize the analysis of the videos. The problem is particularly severe in applications such as nuclear fusion, in which, typically, no stable and reliable reference points exist within the camera fields of view to register the frames. A nonadditive form of entropy Sq, which is more sensitive to long-range correlations than the Shannon entropy, has been applied to the problem of automatically detecting such camera movements in the videos of a JET wide-angle infrared camera. A systematic analysis of the results, covering more than 110 000 frames, has been undertaken, and the results obtained, reaching a total success rate of almost 97%, are more than satisfactory. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses a proposed method of identifying deep sleep and awake with computational analysis of sleep electroencephalogram (EEG) traces from the central brain regions. Topics covered include the methods used in developing the proposed method, details relating to the resulting sleep parameters and recordings used in the proposed method, and the computational EEG measures examined in the proposed method. It also discusses the automated sleep EEG analysis methods.

The surface damage evolution under stress is often analysed by images of long-distance microscopes. Usually hundreds of images are obtained during the fatigue process. To analyse this huge number of images automatically, a new image tool is presented. This new image tool is included in free statistic software so that a statistical analysis of the damage evolution is easily possible. In particular several specific damage parameters can be calculated during the fatigue process. Some of these specific damage parameters are compared statistically here with simple damage parameters using images of two specimens under different stress levels at different time points of the fatigue process. It is shown that the specific damage parameters discriminate between the two different damage evolutions in an earlier stage than the simple parameters. They are also less influenced by different brightness and scales of the images and show other desirable properties of a damage parameter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A rapid, high throughput and sensitive method was presented for automated determination of cationic surfactants in environmental water samples. The method was based on an automated analysis platform that was composed of on-line polymer monolith microextraction (PMME) and high performance liquid chromatography–mass spectrum (HPLC–MS) with an autosampler. A poly(methacrylic acid-co-ethylene dimethacrylate) (MAA-co-EDMA) monolith was selected as the sorbent for purification and enrichment of cationic surfactants in environmental water samples while a new mixed-mode chromatographic column packed with octyl and sulfonic acid co-bonded silica (OSS) was employed for separation and quantitative determination of cationic surfactants in water samples. By integrating sample preparation, chromatographic separation and MS detection into one automated platform, it makes the whole analysis procedure simple, accurate, and time and labor-saving. Several parameters affecting the extraction performance were investigated. Under the optimized conditions, the proposed method was applied to the analysis of seven cationic surfactants in environmental water samples. Good linearities were obtained for all cationic surfactants with R 2 larger than 0.9895. The limits of detection were found to be in the range of 15–24ng/L. The method recoveries of the cationic surfactants spiked in water samples were from 80.5% to 115.1%, with relative standard deviations less than 12.4%. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Aims Automatic detection of the QRS complex on electrocardiogram (ECG) is used on cardiac ultrasound scanners to separate ultrasound image series into cardiac cycles for playback and storage. On small hand-held scanners it is unpractical to connect ECG cables. We therefore aim to do automatic cardiac cycle separation using apical B-mode ultrasound images. Methods and results Cardiac cycle length is estimated by cyclicity analysis of B-mode intensities. To determine a cycle start estimate near QRS, a deformable model is fitted to the left ventricle in real-time. The model is used to initialize and constrain a speckle tracker positioned near the mitral annulus. In the displacement curve generated by the speckle tracker, a time point near maximum distance from the probe is detected as a cardiac cycle start estimate. Validation against ECG was done on 233 recordings from normal subjects and 46 recordings from subjects with coronary pathology. Several test cases were run for each recording to emulate B-mode series starting at all time points in the cardiac cycle. Totally, 11 886 test cases were run. Cycle length estimation was feasible in 98% of normal subject cases and 91% of pathology cases. Median difference in cycle length by ECG was 0 and -3 ms, respectively. Cycle start estimation was feasible in 90% of normal subject cases and 77% of pathology cases. Median difference to cycle start by ECG was 62 and 76 ms, respectively. Conclusion Apical B-mode series can automatically be separated into cardiac cycles without using ECG. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) is generally diagnosed with ambulatory recordings. Although reliability of automated analysis has been investigated, suitability of one single analysis software for use with different devices is unclear. Here, validity of automatic analysis of recordings with two ambulatory devices and reliability of automatic analysis in detection of mixed and central apnoeas are investigated through 100 and 167 recordings with Venla and Embletta™ devices, respectively. Recordings were analysed automatically with Somnologica™ 3.2 and compared to manual analysis. Significant differences were seen between devices in classification of the severity of OSA when automatic analysis was applied. 65.4% and 11.4% of patients with mild obstructive sleep apnoea received false negative diagnosis with Venla and Embletta™, respectively. Further, as automatic analysis was seen to have major difficulty in detection and classification of central and mixed apnoeas, manual analysis is suggested when these forms of disease are suspected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The objective of this study was to develop a method of muscle structure measurement based on the automatic analysis of muscle fibers, proximal fascias, and distal aponeurosis movements as revealed by a time-series of ultrasound images. This method was designed to detect changes in the length of muscle fiber movements, and its validity was demonstrated in a time-series of muscle movement, slow ankle dorsiflexion (10°/s), by comparison to manual measurement. The results showed that, when this method was used, the changes in the length of the muscle fiber under slow muscle movement were smaller than those in manual operations by novice individuals. However, with the proposed method, it was possible to obtain a sufficient degree of validity and reliability for the changes in the length of the muscle fiber length compared with those in manual operations, since the correlation coefficients exceeded 0.8 which was tested by the linear regression. The proposed method suggests that automation reduces the errors caused by manual operations and makes the processing of data possible in an acceptable amount of time. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

All-night EEG recordings from 12 male apnea patients and 12 age-matched healthy control subjects were studied in the present work. The spectral mean frequency was used to provide computational sleep depth curves from two frontopolar and two central EEG channels. Our previously presented computational parameters quantifying the properties of the sleep depth curves were improved. The resulting light sleep percentage (LS%) values were higher in apnea patients than in control subjects in the right central brain position ( P = 0.028), in concordance to our previous work. Moreover, apnea patients showed higher LS% values in the right frontopolar position ( P = 0.008). Also, apnea patients showed a smaller anteroposterior sleep depth difference than control subjects on the right hemisphere ( P = 0.002). These are interesting new findings, achieved by the present methodology. Thus, the developed computational parameters were able to quantify, at least to some degree, the disruption of sleep process caused by the recurrent apneic events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A user-friendly, Windows-based Graphic User Interface (GUI) program that automates the generation of the aerodynamic performance tables for comprehensive helicopter load analysis codes was developed. With this program, computational grids are automatically created for the given airfoil surface coordinates, and users can verify the grids immediately. In addition, the program’s post-processing feature can enable the real-time inspection of the interim results of the computation. The aerodynamic performance tables can be generated by performing automated aerodynamic analysis of the airfoil in various angles of attack and Mach numbers by using validated CFD code. The Mixed-Language technique was employed to combine the FORTRAN-based CFD codes to the C++-based GUI program without needing any transformation between these two languages. The MS Access was used to construct the data base of the aerodynamic tables. The real-time inputs of the analysis results of the ODBC Access data base make it easy to retrieve the aerodynamic tables. Of the entire range of the angle of attack (−180° to 180°), the CFD analysis is only performed in the significant angles depending on the Mach number. The aerodynamic data for the other angles were obtained by using an interpolation method; therefore, the tables could be generated quickly. Various aerodynamic information such as drag divergence Mach number and stall angle can be extracted from the computed results stored in the database. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fingerprinting is a technique for generating a representation-independent functional signature for a game playing agent. Fingerprints can be used to compare agents across representations in an automatic fashion. The theory of fingerprints is developed for software agents that play the iterated prisoner's dilemma. Examples of the technique for computing fingerprints are given. This paper summarizes past results and introduces the following new results. Fingerprints of prisoner's dilemma strategies that are represented as finite-state machines must be rational functions. An example of a strategy that does not have a finite-state representation and which does not have a rational fingerprint function is given: the majority strategy. It is shown that the AllD- and AllG-based fingerprints can be derived from the tit-for-tat fingerprint by a simple substitution. Fingerprints for four new probe strategies are introduced, generalizing previous work in which tit-for-tat is the sole probe strategy. A trial comparison is made of evolved prisoner's dilemma strategies across three representations: finite-state machines, feedforward neural nets, and lookup tables. Fingerprinting demonstrates that all three representations sample the strategy space in a radically different manner, even though the neural net's and lookup table's parameters are alternate encodings of the same strategy space. This space of strategies is also a subset of those encoded by the finite-state representation. Shortcomings of the fingerprint technique are outlined, with illustrative examples, and possible paths to overcome these shortcomings are given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: HYPERGAM, a new MS-Windows version of HPGe γ-ray spectrum analysis code HYPERMET, is being developed. Graphic user interface is provided and the control parameters of analysis are minimized. The semi-automatic algorithm for γ-ray peak analysis is adopted from the original HYPERMET routines whose performance is well known. The details of fitting result are graphically displayed so the analyst can determine reliability. Simpler methods for peak analysis and system non-linearity calibration are newly added. The present code is widely applicable to γ-ray spectroscopy including neutron activation analysis, but it is specifically designed to become a tool for automatic spectrum–isotopic analysis in environmental radiation monitoring. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Cryptographic protocols can be divided into (1) protocols where the protocol steps are simple from a computational point of view and can thus be modeled by simple means, for instance, by single rewrite rules—we call these protocols non-looping—and (2) protocols, such as group protocols, where the protocol steps are complex and typically involve an iterative or recursive computation—we call them recursive. While much is known on the decidability of security for non-looping protocols, only little is known for recursive protocols. In this paper, we prove decidability of security (with respect to the standard Dolev–Yao intruder) for a core class of recursive protocols and undecidability for several extensions. The key ingredient of our protocol model is specifically designed tree transducers which work over infinite signatures and have the ability to generate new constants (which allow us to mimic key generation). The decidability result is based on an automata-theoretic construction which involves a new notion of regularity, designed to work well with the infinite signatures we use. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The standard screening test for the recognition of autoimmune diseases is the proof of autoantibodies in serum of patients by indirect immunofluorescence (IIF) based on HEp-2 cells. Manual evaluation of this test is very subjective, slow, and there are no objective parameters as guidelines available. Interlaboratory tests showed occasionally large deviations in the test evaluation resulting in a high variance of results. The aim of this project is fast, objective, safe, and economical automatic analysis of HEp-2 IIF patterns. Images of IIF patterns were completely and automatically captured using an inverse motorized fluorescence microscope. Thereby, device-specific parameters were controlled automatically, too. For fast analysis of IIF patterns new algorithms of image processing were developed. Artifacts were recognized and excluded from analysis by the developed software. Analysis of more than 80,000 images clearly demonstrated full automatization and fast processing of IIF patterns. Additionally serum-specific fluorescence could be easily distinguished from background. Even very weak but positive patterns can be recognized and used for diagnosis. A detailed separation into different basic patterns is possible. Objective, fast, and disease-related economical analysis of HEp-2 immunofluorescence patterns is feasible. The implemented software algorithms allowed a mathematical way of describing IIF patterns and can therefore be a useful tool for the needed standardization process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discourse cohesion is presumably an important facilitator of comprehension when individuals read texts and hold conversations. This study investigated components of cohesion and language in different types of discourse about Newtonian physics: A textbook, textoids written by experimental psychologists, naturalistic tutorial dialoguebetween expert human tutors and college students, andAutoTutor tutorial dialogue between a computer tutor and students (AutoTutor is an animated pedagogical agent that helps students learn about physics by holding conversations in natural language). We analyzed the four types of discourse with Coh-Metrix, a software tool that measures discourse on different components of cohesion, language, and readability. The cohesion indices included co-reference, syntactic and semantic similarity, causal cohesion, incidence of cohesion signals (e.g., connectives, logical operators), and many other measures. Cohesion data were quite similar for the two forms of discourse in expository monologue (textbooks and textoids) and for the two types of tutorial dialogue (i.e., students interacting with human tutors and AutoTutor), but very different between the discourse of expository monologue and tutorial dialogue. Coh-Metrix was also able to detect subtle differences in the language and discourse of AutoTutor versus human tutoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Avian Influenza is a very hot field. In this rapid analysis we show how patents can be used to rapidly determine the trends of R&D in this field as well as some differences between different groups of countries, academic institutions and companies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Oesophageal pH–impedance monitoring allows detection of acid and non-acid gastro-oesophageal reflux (GOR) events. Visual analysis of impedance recording requires expertise. Our aim was to evaluate the efficacy of an automated analysis for GOR assessment. Seventy-three patients with suspected GORD underwent 24-h oesophageal pH–impedance monitoring. Recordings analysis was performed visually (V) and automatically using Autoscan function (AS) of Bioview® software. A symptom index (SI) ≥50% was considered for a significant association between symptoms and reflux events. AS analysis detected more reflux events, especially non-acid, liquid, pure gas and proximal events. Detection of oesophageal acid exposure and acid reflux events was similar with both analyses. Agreement between V and AS analysis was good (Kendall's coefficient W > 0.750, P < 0.01) for all parameters. During pH–impedance studies, 65 patients reported symptoms. As compared to visual analysis, the sensitivity and specificity of a positive SI determined by AS were respectively 85.7% and 80% for all reflux events, 100% and 98% for acid reflux and 33% and 87.5% for non-acid reflux. Despite good agreement with visual analysis, automatic analysis overestimates the number of non-acid reflux events. Visual analysis remains the gold standard to detect an association between symptoms and non-acid reflux events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The extraction of coupling constant values from NMR spectra is an important step in assigning the configuration of organic molecules. A method for the automatic multiplet analysis in weakly coupled spin systems is described here. It relies on a multi-step procedure that forms the AUJ (AUtomatic J) algorithm. Tolerance to low-magnitude second-order effects is achieved by an efficient multiplet centering and symmetrization step. Time-domain signal analysis through a linear model produces a raw evaluation of coupling constants and their associated multiplicities. The final result is obtained through numerical optimization of the multiplet parameters. Two examples are presented, one from an experimental spectrum, and the other one, of higher complexity, from a computer-simulated multiplet. To cite this article: É. Prost et al., C. R. Chimie 9 (2006) . [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In the present work, mean frequencies of FFT amplitude spectra from six EEG derivations were used to provide a frontopolar, a central and an occipital sleep depth measure. Parameters quantifying the anteroposterior differences in these three sleep depth measures during the night were also developed. The method was applied to analysis of 30 all-night recordings from 15 healthy control subjects and 15 apnea patients. Control subjects showed larger differences in sleep depth between frontopolar and central positions than the apnea patients. The relatively reduced frontal sleep depth in apnea patients might reflect the disruption of the dynamic sleep process caused by apneas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the ever-increasing capabilities of multifunctional intelligent electronic devices (TEDs), the amount of data available to analyze is overwhelming many utilities, and only significant events are being examined. Automatic analysis tools can provide decision support for engineering. The requirements for these tools are addressed in this article. Automating analysis at the system level, including adding the infrastructure to gather data, allows engineers to address substantive issues instead of performing low-level data gathering and organization tasks well suited to automation. In addition, the analysis of "insignificant" captured anomalies may lead to improved system reliability by providing predictions of upcoming equipment failures. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

While many successful spoken dialog systems have been deployed over telephone networks in recent years, the high cost of developing such applications has led to limited adoption. Despite large research efforts in user-initiative and mixed-initiative systems, most commercial applications follow a system initiative approach because they are simpler to design and are found to work adequately. Yet, even designing such system-initiative spoken dialog systems has proven costly when compared with simpler touchtone systems. To address this issue, we describe in this paper our efforts in building diagnostics tools to let non-experienced speech developers write usable applications without the need for transcribing calls. Our approach consists of two steps. In the first step, we cluster calls based on Question/Answer (QA) states and transitions, analyze the success rates associated with each QA state and transition, and identify the most problematic QA states and transitions based on a criterion we call Arc Cut Gain in Success Rate (ACGSR). In the second step, we cluster calls associated with problematic QA transitions through an approach we term Interactive Clustering (IC). The purpose of this step is to automatically cluster calls that are similar to those already labeled by the developers to maximize productivity. Experiments on an internal auto-attendant application show that our approach can significantly reduce the time and effort needed to identify problems in spoken dialog applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The availability of free patent databases on the Internet, offers the opportunity of opening the door of patent information not only to patent specialists, but also to many other groups, such as researchers, decision makers, potential inventors and students. The goal of this paper is to show how the combination of free patent databases (in this paper esp@cenet®) and dedicated software makes it possible to perform easily and rapidly tests on new ideas, the automatic benchmarking of an enterprise''s activity and the stimulation of innovative thinking. The benchmarking of companies alone, or of clusters of enterprises is exemplified with reference to the concept of high temperature lubricating oil technology. How to improve innovative thinking is shown within the context of an analysis of coconut technology in postgraduate courses of competitive intelligence provided in Indonesia. Both applications emphasize that the role of patent information is expanding as a unique source of technical information because free availability combined with easy patent mapping and analysis allow non-specialists to use this information source in all technical aspects of innovation, research and development, and strategic planning. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

A new method of emulsion chamber analysis by using an image scanner is developed in order to process a large number of X-ray films used in the Tibet hybrid experiment which is carried out to observe primary proton spectrum in the PeV region. The experimental procedure in this method consists of multiple steps of processing the image of the X-ray films, i.e. the detection of cascade showers induced by high-energy γ-rays, the noise reduction, the spatial reconstruction of γ-families and their energy determination. The quality of the results obtained by the new method is compared with that obtained by the current manual method or Monte Carlo simulations. It is shown that sufficiently high quality of the emulsion chamber analysis is realized by the automatic method both in energy and geometrical resolution. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

A fully automatic method to quantify sleep depth during the night was developed in the present work. The method was tested using 20 all-night recordings from 10 healthy control subjects and 10 sleep apnea patients. The results showed statistically significant differences in sleep depth between control subjects and sleep apnea patients. The overall sleep was lighter in apnea patients than in healthy control subjects, most likely indicating a disturbed sleep caused by apneas. The automatic parameters presented provide a method to quantify the light sleep and could in the future possibly be used in clinical sleep studies and follow-up of treatment. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

A fully automatic method to analyse electro-encephalogram (EEG) sleep spindle frequency evolution during the night was developed and tested. Twenty all-night recordings were studied from ten healthy control subjects and ten sleep apnoea patients. A total of 22868 spindles were detected. The overall mean spindle frequency was significantly higher in the control subjects than in the apnoea patients (12.5Hz against 11.7Hz, respectively; p<0.004). The proposed method further identified the sleep depth cycles, and the mean spindle frequency was automatically determined inside each sleep depth cycle. In control subjects, the mean spindle frequency increased from 12.0Hz in the first sleep depth cycle to 12.6Hz in the fifth cycle. No such increase was observed in the sleep apnoea patients. This difference in the spindle frequency evolution was statistically significant (p< 0.004). The advantage of the method is that no EEG amplitude thresholds are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The automatic sleep analysis aims at providing an accurate description of sleep process. We found that there exist so far poorly known sleep depth oscillations constantly. Quantitative analysis of these oscillations was done in this work via a mean frequency measure and FFT. Overall charasteristics of these oscillations were studied, focusing on the waves with period times of 50–150 s. These sleep depth oscillations have a relatively large amplitude and they should be considered in future sleep analysis systems. The results of this study give directions to automated sleep analysis regarding optimal estimation of sleep depth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An experiment was conducted to test the automatic analysis of briefly presented alcohol stimuli in alcohol-dependent individuals. Alcoholics and controls were exposed to four different conditions: two brief (30 ms) and two long (130 ms) exposure conditions, each containing alcoholic and non-alcoholic pictures. Heart rate (HR) interbeat intervals were recorded and phasic cardiac responses assessed. Alcoholics had a stronger initial HR deceleration after exposure to masked alcohol slides compared with masked control slides, indicating a preattentive analysis of alcohol stimuli. This initial HR deceleration in the masked condition suggests an automatic attentional focusing to degraded alcohol cues. No such attentional effect was found when the pictures were presented unmasked and were clearly perceived. The implication of these results for the understanding of relapse in addictive behavior is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and purpose B-mode measurement of the carotid intima-media (IM) thickness (T) based on manual tracing (MT) procedures are dependent on the subjectivity of the reader and the existing automatic tracing procedures often fail to detect the IM boundaries accurately. The purpose of this study was to compare the tracing results of the IM boundaries of the carotid wall with a new automatic identification (AI) procedure, based on an active contour model, and computer-assisted manual tracing (MT). Methods The detection of the IM boundaries was performed with both procedures in 126 ultrasound images [63 each of the common carotid artery (CCA) and carotid bulb] along the far wall of the distal CCA and the carotid bulb. Intra- and inter-reader variability for mean and maximum IMT with AI and MT and accuracy of identification of both IM boundaries were evaluated. Results Using MT the intra- and inter-reader variability amounted to 0·01–0·03 and 0·03–0·07 mm, respectively. The variability was slightly higher in the carotid bulb than in the CCA. Using AI the variability was almost eliminated. Mean and maximum IMT were measured systematically lower by AI compared with MT in all regions by 0·01 mm. The accuracy of identification was similar for both IM boundaries, but lower in the carotid bulb region than in the CCA. Conclusions The new AI procedure identifies both IM boundaries in the region of the far wall of the CCA and carotid bulb with high precision, and eliminates most of the intra- and inter-reader variability of the IMT measurement using MT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]