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Advances in paediatric care mean that more children with complex medical problems (heart disease, neurodevelopmental problems and so on) are surviving their early years. This has important implications for the design and delivery of healthcare given their extensive multidisciplinary requirements and susceptibility to poor outcomes when not optimally managed. Importantly, their medical needs must also be understood and addressed within the context of the child and family's life circumstances. There is growing recognition that many other factors contribute to a child's complex health needs (CHNs), for example, family problems, fragmentation of health and care provision, psychological difficulties or social issues.To facilitate proactive care for these patients, we must develop accurate ways to identify them. Whole Systems Integrated Care-an online platform that integrates routinely collected data from primary and secondary care-offers an example of how to do this. An algorithm applied to this data identifies children with CHNs from the entire patient population. When tested in a large inner-city GP practice, this analysis shows good concordance with clinical opinion and identifies complex children in the population to a much higher proportion than expected. Ongoing refinement of these data-driven processes will allow accurate quantification and identification of need in local populations, thus aiding the development of tailored services., Competing Interests: Competing interests: REK is an associate editor for BMJ Leader., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2021. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

Competing Interests: Disclosure The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Background: Compensations are commonly observed in patients with stroke when they engage in reaching without supervision; these behaviors may be detrimental to long-term functional improvement. Automatic detection and reduction of compensation cab help patients perform tasks correctly and promote better upper extremity recovery., Objective: Our first objective is to verify the feasibility of detecting compensation online using machine learning methods and pressure distribution data. Second objective was to investigate whether compensations of stroke survivors can be reduced by audiovisual or force feedback. The third objective was to compare the effectiveness of audiovisual and force feedback in reducing compensation., Methods: Eight patients with stroke performed reaching tasks while pressure distribution data were recorded. Both the offline and online recognition accuracy were investigated to assess the feasibility of applying a support vector machine (SVM) based compensation detection system. During reduction of compensation, audiovisual feedback was delivered using virtual reality technology, and force feedback was delivered through a rehabilitation robot., Results: Good classification performance was obtained in online compensation recognition, with an average F1-score of over 0.95. Based on accurate online detection, real-time feedback significantly decreased compensations of patients with stroke in comparison with no-feedback condition (p < 0.001). Meanwhile, the difference between audiovisual and force feedback was also significant (p < 0.001) and force feedback was more effective in reducing compensation in patients with stroke., Conclusions: Accurate online recognition validated the feasibility of monitoring compensations using machine learning algorithms and pressure distribution data. Reliable online detection also paved the way for reducing compensations by providing feedback to patients with stroke. Our findings suggested that real-time feedback could be an effective approach to reducing compensatory patterns and force feedback demonstrated a more enviable potential compared with audiovisual feedback.

The maintenance of item bank is essential for continuously implementing adaptive tests. Calibration of new items online provides an opportunity to efficiently replenish items for the operational item bank. In this study, a new optimal design for online calibration (referred to as D-c) is proposed by incorporating the idea of original D-optimal design into the reformed D-optimal design proposed by van der Linden and Ren (Psychometrika 80:263-288, 2015) (denoted as D-VR design). To deal with the dependence of design criteria on the unknown item parameters of new items, Bayesian versions of the locally optimal designs (e.g., D-c and D-VR) are put forward by adding prior information to the new items. In the simulation implementation of the locally optimal designs, five calibration sample sizes were used to obtain different levels of estimation precision for the initial item parameters, and two approaches were used to obtain the prior distributions in Bayesian optimal designs. Results showed that the D-c design performed well and retired smaller number of new items than the D-VR design at almost all levels of examinee sample size; the Bayesian version of D-c using the prior obtained from the operational items worked better than that using the default priors in BILOG-MG and PARSCALE; and Bayesian optimal designs generally outperformed locally optimal designs when the initial item parameters of the new items were poorly estimated.

Background: Online physician rating Web sites are used by over half of consumers to select doctors. No studies have examined physician rating Web sites for colon and rectal surgeons., Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the accuracy and rating patterns of colon and rectal surgeons on the largest physician rating Web site., Design: Physician characteristics and ratings were collected from a randomly selected sample of 500 from 3043 Healthgrades "colon and rectal surgery specialists." Board certifications were verified with the American Board of Surgery and American Board of Colon and Rectal Surgery Web sites., Settings: Data acquisition was completed on July 18, 2018., Patients: Patients were not directly studied., Main Outcome Measures: The primary outcome was to assess the accuracy of Healthgrades in reporting American Board of Surgery and American Board of Colon and Rectal Surgery certification. The secondary outcome was to identify factors associated with high star ratings., Results: A total of 48 (9.6%) of the 500 sampled were incorrectly identified as practicing US surgeons and excluded from subsequent analysis. Healthgrades showed 80.1% agreement with verified board certifications for American Board of Surgery and 85.4% for American Board of Colon and Rectal Surgery. The mean star rating was 4.2 of 5.0 (SD = 0.9), and 77 (21.6%) had 5-star ratings. In a multivariable logistic model (p < 0.001), 5-star rating was associated with 1 to 9 years (OR = 2.76; p = 0.04) or >40 years in practice (OR = 3.35; p = 0.04) and fewer reviews (OR = 0.88; p < 0.001). There were no significant associations with surgeon sex, age, geographic region, or board certification., Limitations: Data were limited to a single physician rating Web site., Conclusions: In the modern age of healthcare consumerism, physician rating Web sites should be used with caution given inaccuracies. More accurate online resources are needed to inform patient decisions in the selection of specialized colon and rectal surgical care. See Video Abstract at http://links.lww.com/DCR/B91. PRECISIÓN DE DATOS Y PREDICTORES DE ALTAS CALIFICACIONES DE CIRUJANOS DE COLON Y RECTO EN UN SITIO WEB DE CALIFICACIÓN MÉDICA EN LÍNEA: Más de la mitad de los consumidores utilizan los sitios web de calificación de médicos en línea para seleccionar médicos. Ningún estudio ha examinado los sitios web de calificación de médicos para cirujanos de colon y recto.Evaluar la precisión y los patrones de calificación de los cirujanos de colon y recto en el sitio web más grande de calificación de médicos.Las características y calificaciones de los médicos se obtuvieron de una muestra seleccionada al azar de 500 de 3,043 "especialistas en cirugía de colon y recto" de Healthgrades. Las certificaciones del Consejo se verificaron en los sitios web del Consejo Americano de Cirugía y del Consejo Americano de Cirugía de Colon y Recto.La adquisición de datos se completó el 18 de julio de 2018.Los pacientes no fueron estudiados directamente.El resultado primario fue evaluar la precisión de Healthgrades al informar la certificación por el Consejo Americano de Cirugía y por el Consejo Americano de Cirugía de Colon y Recto. El resultado secundario fue identificar factores asociados con altas calificaciones en estrellas.Un total de 48 (9.6%) de la muestra de 500 fueron identificados incorrectamente como cirujanos practicantes de EE. UU. y excluidos del análisis subsecuente. Healthgrades mostró un 80.1% de concordancia con las certificaciones verificadas del Consejo Americano de Cirugía y el 85.4% con el Consejo Americano de Cirugía de Colon y Recto. La calificación promedio de estrellas fue 4.2 / 5 (SD 0.9), y 77 (21.6%) tuvieron calificaciones de 5 estrellas. En un modelo logístico multivariable (p <0.001), la calificación de 5 estrellas se asoció con 1-9 años (OR 2.76, p = 0.04) o más de 40 años en la práctica (OR 3.35, p = 0.04) y menos evaluaciones (OR 0.88, p <0.001). No hubo asociaciones significativas con el género, edad, región geográfica o certificación por los Consejos del cirujano.Los datos se limitaron a un solo sitio web de calificación de médicos.En la era moderna del consumismo en atención médica, los sitios web de calificación de los médicos deben usarse con precaución debido a imprecisiones. Se necesitan recursos en línea más precisos para que las decisiones de los pacientes sean informadas en la selección de atención quirúrgica especializada de colon y recto. Consulte Video Resumen en http://links.lww.com/DCR/B91. (Traducción-Dr. Jorge Silva-Velazco).

The incidence of Lyme borreliosis remains a matter of debate, but it can be estimated using the incidence of erythema migrans (EM), which is pathognomonic of the first phase. The aim of this prospective pilot study was to assess the feasibility of the on-line declaration of EM in rural areas where the incidence of Lyme borreliosis was previously estimated at 85 per 100,000 inhabitants per year. The study was limited to a rural area (Les Combrailles, Auvergne) of approximately 52,800 inhabitants and was preceded by an information campaign for the inhabitants and the healthcare professionals. Patients who sent a photo of the suspected EM by email or MMS message between April 2017 and April 2018 and who accepted to answer a questionnaire were included in the study. Two physicians then evaluated the quality of the photographs and the probability of EM. In parallel, the number of EM seen by physicians and pharmacists in the area over the given period was recorded. Out of the 113 emails and MMS messages received, 73 people were outside of the trial area or period and 9 did not complete the questionnaire. The photos of the remaining 31 people were analysed. The median age was 51.5 years old ([38-58] IQR) and 18 (58%) were women. Seven people (25%) stated that they did not have a smartphone and in 9 cases (29%) the photo was sent by a third party. The quality of the photos was considered very good in 22 (71%) cases, good in 7 (23%) cases, and average in 2 (6%) cases. The probability of EM was determined to be strong or possible in 12 (38%) cases, i.e. an estimated incidence of 22.7 per 100,000 inhabitants. Over the study period, 40 physicians and 20 pharmacists were contacted on a monthly basis. A median of 5 physicians [3;7] and 4 pharmacists [3 ;7] answered each month for a total of 18 and 36 declared EM respectively. The EM (strong probability/possible) collected by on-line declaration and those declared by healthcare professionals were all sent between April and October 2017. The total time spent on the information campaign and collection has been estimated at 265 h (divided between 10 people) for an overall cost of 10,669 Euros. The incidence of EM recorded by on-line self-declaration in our study seems to be lower than in previous studies, the under-reporting was probably linked to the low use of new technologies in the rural areas. Increasing the human resources and finances appears difficult to achieve in practice over a longer time period but the development of an application for the automatic recognition of EM could be one method for a more exhaustive collection in the long term and at lower cost., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.)

To enable further study and assessment of indoor inhalation exposure risk, an online apparatus enabling measurement of semi-volatile compound partitioning on household particulates was developed. An example for use of the apparatus is described using dimethyl phthalate (DMP). The system employs direct measurement by membrane introduction mass spectrometry (MIMS). The MIMS system was calibrated using known gas phase DMP concentrations produced by gravimetrically calibrated permeation devices. The quantity of DMP sorbed by particles is described first using a model particle type, a reverse-phase liquid chromatography packing material, and then with a household dust sample. In addition, the desorption of semi-volatile compounds from a household dust sample was monitored using the apparatus, and characteristic fragment ion signals for phthalate compounds were observed.

Healthcare systems worldwide are confronted with major economic, organizational and logistical challenges. Historic evolution of health care has led to significant healthcare sector fragmentation, resulting in systemic inefficiencies and suboptimal resource exploitation. To attain a sustainable healthcare model, fundamental, system-wide improvements that effectively network, and ensure fulfilment of potential synergies between sectors, and include and facilitate coherent strategic planning and organisation of healthcare infrastructure are needed. Critically, they must be specifically designed to sustainably achieve peak performance within the current policy environment for cost-control, and efficiency and quality improvement for service delivery. We propose creation of a new healthcare cluster, to be embedded in existing healthcare systems. It consists of (i) local 24/7 walk-in virtually autonomous do-it-yourself Digital Medical Centres performing routine diagnosis, monitoring, prevention, treatment and standardized documentation and health outcome assessment/reporting, which are online interfaced with (ii) regional 24/7 eClinician Centres providing on-demand clinical supervision/assistance to Digital Medical Centre patients. Both of these are, in turn, online interfaced with (iii) the National Clinical Informatics Centre, which houses the national patient data centre (cloud) and data analysis units that conduct patient- and population-level, personalized and predictive(-medicine) intervention optimization analyses. The National Clinical Informatics Centre also interfaces with biomedical research and prioritizes and accelerates the translation of new discoveries into clinical practice. The associated Health Policy Innovation and Evaluation Centre rapidly integrates new findings with health policy/regulatory discussions. This new cluster would synergistically link all health system components in a circular format, enable not only access by all arms of the health service to latest patient data, but also automatic algorithm analysis and prediction of clinical development of individual patients, reduce bureaucratic burden on medical professionals by enabling a greater level of focus of their expertise on non-routine medical tasks, lead to automatic translation of aggregate patient data/new knowledge into medical practice, and orient future evolution of health systems towards greater cohesion/integration and hence efficiency. A central plank of the proposed concept is increased emphasis on reduction of disease incidence and severity, to diminish both patient suffering and treatment costs. This will be achieved at the individual and population levels, through (i) significantly improved access to medical services, (ii) stronger focus on primary and secondary prevention and early treatment measures, and disease susceptibility prediction via personalized medicine, involving inter alia genome analysis at birth and periodic analysis of microbiomes and biomarkers, and integration with other patient health and epidemiology parameters, (iii) improved surveillance and (iv) intervention outcome benchmarking. The dMCs will become drivers of innovation and integrative evolution in health systems, of disease reduction and efficiency gains, and thus major contributors to development of sustainability of health care., (© 2017 The Authors. Microbial Biotechnology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd and Society for Applied Microbiology.)

The removal of total nitrogen in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) is often unsatisfactory for a variety of reasons. One possible measure to improve nitrogen removal is the addition of external carbon. However, the amount of carbon addition is directly related to WWTP operation costs, highlighting the importance of accurately determining the amount of external carbon required. The objective of this study was to obtain a low nitrate concentration in the anoxic zone of WWTPs efficiently and economically by optimizing the external carbon source dosage. Experiments were conducted using a pilot-scale pre-denitrification reactor at a Nanjing WWTP in China. External carbon source addition based on online monitoring of influent wastewater quality and a developed nitrification-denitrification numerical model was investigated. Results showed that carbon addition was reduced by 47.7% and aeration costs were reduced by 8.0% compared with those using a fixed-dose addition mode in the pilot reactor. The obtained technology was applied to the full-scale Jiangxinzhou WWTP in Nanjing with promising results.

Learning in multilayer neural networks (MNNs) relies on continuous updating of large matrices of synaptic weights by local rules. Such locality can be exploited for massive parallelism when implementing MNNs in hardware. However, these update rules require a multiply and accumulate operation for each synaptic weight, which is challenging to implement compactly using CMOS. In this paper, a method for performing these update operations simultaneously (incremental outer products) using memristor-based arrays is proposed. The method is based on the fact that, approximately, given a voltage pulse, the conductivity of a memristor will increment proportionally to the pulse duration multiplied by the pulse magnitude if the increment is sufficiently small. The proposed method uses a synaptic circuit composed of a small number of components per synapse: one memristor and two CMOS transistors. This circuit is expected to consume between 2% and 8% of the area and static power of previous CMOS-only hardware alternatives. Such a circuit can compactly implement hardware MNNs trainable by scalable algorithms based on online gradient descent (e.g., backpropagation). The utility and robustness of the proposed memristor-based circuit are demonstrated on standard supervised learning tasks.

The aim of this study is a further characterization of the electrical conductivity (EC) signal of goat milk, acquired on-line by EC sensors, to identify new indexes representative of the EC variations that can be observed during milking, when considering not healthy (NH) glands. Two foremilk gland samples from 42 Saanen goats, were collected for three consecutive weeks and for three different lactation stages (LS: 0-60 Days In Milking (DIM); 61-120 DIM; 121-180 DIM), for a total amount of 1512 samples. Bacteriological analyses and somatic cells counts (SCC) were used to define the health status of the glands. With negative bacteriological analyses and SCC < 1,000,000 cells/mL, glands were classified as healthy. When bacteriological analyses were positive or showed a SCC > 1,000,000 cells/mL, glands were classified as NH. For each milk EC signal, acquired on-line and for each gland considered, the Fourier frequency spectrum of the signal was calculated and three representative frequency peaks were identified. To evaluate data acquired a MIXED procedure was used considering the HS, LS and LS × HS as explanatory variables in the statistical model.Results showed that the studied frequency peaks had a significant relationship with the gland's health status. Results also explained how the milk EC signals' pattern change in case of NH glands. In fact, it is characterized by slower fluctuations (due to the lower frequencies of the peaks) and by an irregular trend (due to the higher amplitudes of all the main frequency peaks). Therefore, these frequency peaks could be used as new indexes to improve the performances of algorithms based on multivariate models which evaluate the health status of dairy goats through the use of gland milk EC sensors.

This study is the first to employ the on-line WIBS-4 (Wideband Integrated Bioaerosol Sensor) technique for the monitoring of bioaerosol emissions and non-fluorescing "dust" released from a composting/green waste site. The purpose of the research was to provide a "proof of principle" for using WIBS to monitor such a location continually over days and nights in order to construct comparative "bioaerosol site profiles". The real-time data obtained was then used to assess variations of the bioaerosol counts as a function of size, "shape", site location, working activity levels, time of day, relative humidity, wind speeds and wind directions. Three short campaigns were undertaken, one classified as a "light" workload period, another as a "heavy" workload period and finally a weekend when the site was closed. One main bioaerosol size regime was found to predominate: 0.5-3μm with morphologies ranging from elongated to ellipsoidal/spherical. The real-time number-concentration data provides a long-term "video" record of the site and were consistent with the Andersen sampling protocol performed that provides only a single "snapshot" for bioaerosol release. The number-concentration of fluorescent particles as a proportion of total particle counts amounted, on average, to ∼1% for the "light" workday period, ∼7% for the "heavy" workday period and ∼18% for the weekend. The bioaerosol release profiles at the weekend were considerably different from those monitored during the working weekdays., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Most adolescents do not achieve the recommended levels of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), placing them at increased risk for a diverse array of chronic diseases in adulthood. There is a great need for scalable and effective interventions that can increase MVPA in adolescents. Here we report the results of a measurement validation study and a preliminary proof-of-concept experiment testing the impact of Zamzee, an accelerometer-linked online intervention system that combines proximal performance feedback and incentive motivation features to promote MVPA. In a calibration study that parametrically varied levels of physical activity in 31 12-14 year-old children, the Zamzee activity meter was shown to provide a valid measure of MVPA (sensitivity in detecting MVPA = 85.9%, specificity = 97.5%, and r = .94 correspondence with the benchmark RT3 accelerometer system; all p < .0001). In a subsequent randomized controlled multi-site experiment involving 182 middle school-aged children assessed for MVPA over 6 wks, intent-to-treat analyses found that those who received access to the Zamzee intervention had average MVPA levels 54% greater than those of a passive control group (p < 0.0001) and 68% greater than those of an active control group that received access to a commercially available active videogame (p < .0001). Zamzee's effects on MVPA did not diminish significantly over the course of the 6-wk study period, and were statistically significant in both females and males, and in normal- vs. high-BMI subgroups. These results provide promising initial indications that combining the Zamzee activity meter with online proximal performance feedback and incentive motivation features can positively impact MVPA levels in adolescents.

Propantheline bromide (PB) is a hydrolysable anti-cholinergic drug. A novel strategy for the online monitoring of PB degradation kinetics catalysed by hydroxyl ions is presented. This is achieved by the incorporation of an on-site PB-selective electrode constructed using as an ionophore. This sensor was used to track the hydrolysis of PB by continuous measurement of the decrease in the produced emf over time. The use of this new technique provides real-time observation and yields a continuous profile of the hydrolysis behaviour of PB under various pH conditions as well as the temperature dependency of each reaction. Moreover, a great advantage of this proposed on-line system is its higher accuracy for rate constant estimation relative to other off-line methods. This kinetic data analysis permitted the determination of the hydrolysis activation energy and prediction of the drug shelf life. The estimated activation energy from Arrhenius plot was 20.77 kcal mol(-1)., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Social networking has surpassed e-mail and instant messaging as the dominant form of online communication (Meeker, Devitt, & Wu, 2010). Currently, all large social networks are proprietary, making it difficult to impossible for researchers to make changes to such networks for the purpose of study design and access to user-generated data from the networks. To address this issue, the authors have developed and present Social Lab, an Internet-based free and open-source social network software system available from http://www.sociallab.es . Having full availability of navigation and communication data in Social Lab allows researchers to investigate behavior in social media on an individual and group level. Automated artificial users ("bots") are available to the researcher to simulate and stimulate social networking situations. These bots respond dynamically to situations as they unfold. The bots can easily be configured with scripts and can be used to experimentally manipulate social networking situations in Social Lab. Examples for setting up, configuring, and using Social Lab as a tool for research in social media are provided.

This article describes the development and delivery of an online module at the University of Nottingham on the literature review process. In particular, it discusses how academic librarians collaborated with researcher developers at the Graduate School at the University to deliver a highly successful online learning experience for students. The article provides an overview of the course, a discussion on the experiences of both the tutors and participants involved, concentrating specifically on those in Medicine and Health Sciences. Details about future international collaborations and development of the course are also provided., (© 2014 The authors. Health Information and Libraries Journal © 2014 Health Libraries Journal.)

To find potential lead compounds for antigout drug discovery, an automated online, restricted-access material coupled with column-switching liquid chromatography with a diode-array detection (RAM-LC-DAD) system was developed for screening of xanthine oxidase (XO) inhibitors and their affinity rankings in complex mixtures. The system was first evaluated by analyzing a mixture of six compounds with known inhibition of XO. Nonspecific binding to the denatured XO was investigated and used as the control for screening. Subsequently, the newly developed system was applied to screening of a natural product, Oroxylum indicum extract, and four compounds which could specifically interact with XO were found and identified as oroxin B, oroxin A, baicalin, and baicalein. The results were verified by a competitive binding test using the known competitive inhibitor allopurinol and were further validated by an inhibition assay in vitro. The online RAM-LC-DAD system developed was shown to be a simple and effective strategy for the rapid screening of bioactive compounds from a complex mixture.

The paper arguments are on enabling methodologies for the design of a fully parallel, online, interactive tool aiming to support the bioinformatics scientists .In particular, the features of these methodologies, supported by the FastFlow parallel programming framework, are shown on a simulation tool to perform the modeling, the tuning, and the sensitivity analysis of stochastic biological models. A stochastic simulation needs thousands of independent simulation trajectories turning into big data that should be analysed by statistic and data mining tools. In the considered approach the two stages are pipelined in such a way that the simulation stage streams out the partial results of all simulation trajectories to the analysis stage that immediately produces a partial result. The simulation-analysis workflow is validated for performance and effectiveness of the online analysis in capturing biological systems behavior on a multicore platform and representative proof-of-concept biological systems. The exploited methodologies include pattern-based parallel programming and data streaming that provide key features to the software designers such as performance portability and efficient in-memory (big) data management and movement. Two paradigmatic classes of biological systems exhibiting multistable and oscillatory behavior are used as a testbed.

Lab-scale stirred-tank bioreactors (0.2-20 l) are used for fundamental research on animal cells and in process development and troubleshooting for large-scale production. In this chapter, different configurations of bioreactor systems are shortly discussed and setting up these different configurations is described. In addition, online measurement and control of bioreactor parameters is described, with special attention to controller settings (PID) and online measurement of oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production. Finally, methods for determining the oxygen transfer coefficient are described.

Online monitoring humidity in the proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell is an important issue in maintaining proper membrane humidity. The cost and size of existing sensors for monitoring humidity are prohibitive for online measurements. Online prediction of humidity using readily available measured data would be beneficial to water management. In this paper, a novel soft sensor method based on dynamic partial least squares (DPLS) regression is proposed and applied to humidity prediction in PEM fuel cell. In order to obtain data of humidity and test the feasibility of the proposed DPLS-based soft sensor a hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) test system is constructed. The time lag of the DPLS-based soft sensor is selected as 30 by comparing the root-mean-square error in different time lag. The performance of the proposed DPLS-based soft sensor is demonstrated by experimental results.

A fully automated on-line system for monitoring the photocatalytic degradation of herbicides was developed using multisyringe flow injection analysis (MSFIA) coupled to a solid phase extraction (SPE) unit with UV detection. The calibration curves were linear in the concentration range of 100-1000 μg L(-1) for 3,6-dichloro-2-methoxybenzoic acid (dicamba) and 500-3000 μg L(-1) for 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D), while the detection limits were 30 and 135 μg L(-1) for dicamba and 2,4-D, respectively. The monitoring of the photocatalytic degradation (TiO2 anatase/UV 254 nm) of these two herbicides was performed by MSFIA-SPE system using a small sample volume (2 mL) in a fully automated approach. The degradation was assessed in ultrapure and drinking water with initial concentrations of 1000 and 2000 μg L(-1) for dicamba and 2,4-D, respectively. Degradation percentages of approximately 85% were obtained for both herbicides in ultrapure water after 45 min of photocatalytic treatment. A similar degradation efficiency in drinking water was observed for 2,4-D, whereas dicamba exhibited a lower degradation percentage (75%), which could be attributed to the presence of inorganic species in this kind of water., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Detector response is not always equivalent between detectors or instrument types. Factors that impact detector response include molecular structure and detection wavelength. In liquid chromatography (LC), ultraviolet (UV) is often the primary detector; however, without determination of UV response factors for each analyte, chromatographic results are reported on an area percent rather than a weight percent. In extreme cases, response factors can differ by several orders of magnitude for structurally dissimilar compounds, making the uncalibrated data useless for quantitative applications. While impurity reference standards are normally used to calculate UV relative response factors (RRFs), reference standards of reaction mixture components are typically not available during route scouting or in the early stages of process development. Here, we describe an approach to establish RRFs from a single experiment using both online nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and LC. NMR is used as a mass detector from which a UV response factor can be determined to correct the high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) data. Online reaction monitoring using simultaneous NMR and HPLC provides a platform to expedite the development and understanding of pharmaceutical reaction processes. Ultimately, the knowledge provided by a structurally information rich technique such as NMR can be correlated with more prevalent and mobile instrumentation [e.g., LC, mid-infrared spectrometers (MIR)] for additional routine process understanding and optimization.

A new automated, sensitive, and fast system for the simultaneous online isolation and preconcentration of lead and strontium by sorption on a microcolumn packed with Sr-resin using an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) detector was developed, hyphenating lab-on-valve (LOV) and multisyringe flow injection analysis (MSFIA). Pb and Sr are directly retained on the sorbent column and eluted with a solution of 0.05 mol L(-1) ammonium oxalate. The detection limits achieved were 0.04 ng for lead and 0.03 ng for strontium. Mass calibration curves were used since the proposed system allows the use of different sample volumes for preconcentration. Mass linear working ranges were between 0.13 and 50 ng and 0.1 and 50 ng for lead and strontium, respectively. The repeatability of the method, expressed as RSD, was 2.1% and 2.7% for Pb and Sr, respectively. Environmental samples such as rainwater and airborne particulate (PM10) filters as well as a certified reference material SLRS-4 (river water) were satisfactorily analyzed obtaining recoveries between 90 and 110% for both elements. The main features of the LOV-MSFIA-ICP-MS system proposed are the capability to renew solid phase extraction at will in a fully automated way, the remarkable stability of the column which can be reused up to 160 times, and the potential to perform isotopic analysis.

Purpose: To establish the current prevalence of gambling and problem gambling in South Korea and to determine the associated demographic and game play patterns., Methods: Administration of a gambling survey over the phone to 4,000 randomly selected South Korean adults (19+), supplemented by an online survey of 4,330 members of a South Korean online panel., Results: The past year prevalence of gambling among South Korean adults was 41.8 %. The past year engagement in individual forms of gambling was 36.2 % for lotteries and instant lotteries; 12.0 % for social gambling; 2.3 % for sports betting; 1.5 % for casino gambling; 1.5 % for internet gambling; and 1.1 % for horse, bicycle, or motor boat betting. The past year prevalence of problem gambling was 0.5 %. Logistic regression identified the best predictors of problem gambling to be: having a greater number of gambling fallacies; gambling on the internet; betting on horses, bicycling, or motor boat racing; social gambling; male gender; mental health problems; sports betting; motivation for gambling (gambling to escape); casino gambling; and lower income., Conclusions: The past year prevalence of gambling (41.8 %) and problem gambling (0.5 %) in South Korea is low compared to other countries, especially relative to other Asian jurisdictions. This relatively low prevalence of gambling is likely related to the very strong negative attitudes toward it, the low participation by females, and restricted access. The low prevalence of problem gambling is likely related to the relatively low prevalence of gambling and restricted access to continuous forms of gambling. The variables that are predictive of problem gambling in South Korea are quite similar to those found in other countries with a couple of important differences.

Continuous processing and production in pharmaceutical manufacturing has received increased attention in recent years mainly due to the industries' pressing needs for more efficient, cost-effective processes and production, as well as regulatory facilitation. To achieve optimum product quality, the traditional trial-and-error method for the optimization of different process and formulation parameters is expensive and time consuming. Real-time evaluation and the control of product quality using an online process analyzer in continuous processing can provide high-quality production with very high-throughput at low unit cost. This review focuses on continuous processing and the application of different real-time monitoring tools used in the pharmaceutical industry for continuous processing from powder to tablets.

While PCR amplicons extend to a few thousand bases, the length of sequences from direct Sanger sequencing is limited to 500-800 nucleotides. Therefore, several fragments may be required to cover an amplicon, a gene or an entire genome. These fragments are typically sequenced in an overlapping fashion and assembled by manually sliding and aligning the sequences visually. This is time-consuming, repetitive and error-prone, and further complicated by circular genomes. An online tool merging two to twelve long overlapping sequence fragments was developed. Either chromatograms or FASTA files are submitted to the tool, which trims poor quality ends of chromatograms according to user-specified parameters. Fragments are assembled into a single sequence by repeatedly calling the EMBOSS merger tool in a consecutive manner. Output includes the number of trimmed nucleotides, details of each merge, and an optional alignment to a reference sequence. The final merge sequence is displayed and can be downloaded in FASTA format. All output files can be downloaded as a ZIP archive. This tool allows for easy and automated assembly of overlapping sequences and is aimed at researchers without specialist computer skills. The tool is genome- and organism-agnostic and has been developed using hepatitis B virus sequence data.

A simple and rapid online microchannel preconcentrator coupled with an amperometric detection for the analysis of carbofuran using polyethylene glycol coated onto magnetic particle (PEG-magnetic particles) sorbents was developed. This simple-to-prepare microchannel preconcentrator used an external magnet to retain the PEG-magnetic particle sorbents inside the microchannel. Under optimum conditions, the system provided two linear ranges, from 0.01 to 10.0 mg L(-1) and from 10.0 to 130.0 mg L(-1) with a limit of detection of 8.7 ± 0.1 μg L(-1). The microchannel preconcentrator provided very good stability; it can be used for up to 326 consecutive injections of 5.0 mg L(-1) carbofuran with a relative standard deviation of less than 3%. The developed system provided a good microchannel-to-microchannel and a good electrode-to-electrode reproducibility (n = 6, %RSD < 1). It also provided an excellent selectivity when it was tested with two other carbamate pesticides, carbaryl and methomyl, with a 43 and 256 times higher detection sensitivity for carbofuran, respectively. The developed system was successfully applied to detect carbofuran in surface water samples obtained near vegetable plantation areas. The concentrations of carbofuran in these samples were found to be in the range of non-detectable to 0.047 ± 0.001 mg L(-1). The developed system is easy to operate and easy to couple with other analytical instruments and it could be easily adapted for the analysis of other polar organic contaminants.

Here we present a validated rapid detection system for propofol, an anaesthetic with a narrow therapeutic window, in whole blood. This method utilises an on-line molecularly imprinted polymer solid-phase extraction, rather than the traditional C18 solid-phase extraction, coupled to fluorescence optical fibre detection. The linearity was assessed from 0.10-15 μg mL(-1) of propofol in whole blood, and the coefficients were greater than 0.995. The absolute recoveries of propofol were 95.81, 97.56 and 97.93% at three different concentrations. The inter-batch precision ranged from 4.3% to 8.1%, and the accuracy value ranged from 102.5% to 104.4%. The developed method was successfully applied to measure propofol concentrations in simulated whole blood samples. The entire analysis procedure lasted only 5 minutes, and the results showed no statistical difference between the new on-line method and a validated high-performance liquid chromatography method. The new on-line method, however, is faster and more convenient for the clinical real-time detection of propofol than previously reported methods.

A new system for monitoring toxicity TOXcontrol® (MicroLAN BV, The Netherlands) has been used to assess the toxicity of a selection of priority or emergent compounds in the laboratory. In this study, inhibition curves and EC50 - Effective Concentration causing 50% inhibition - of selected compounds (including pesticides, pharmaceuticals, surfactants and metals commonly detected in surface or drinking waters) were determined. This new technology is based on the measurement of Vibrio fischeri bioluminescence inhibition (ISO 11348). The main advantage of this equipment, compared to other laboratory assays, is the fully automation of the procedure. The instrument can be operated online in a simple, rapid and reproducible way. The variability of the results obtained with the TOXcontrol® biomonitoring system has been studied. A comparison with standardised technology based in V. fischeri (Microtox®) and additional test with Daphnia magna for selected organic compounds is presented. The results show that the methodology based on the TOXcontrol® system being validated is accurate and reproducible enough enabling this system to be used as an on-line automatic alert system to detect abnormal concentrations of toxic compounds., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

An online reversed phase liquid chromatography-gas chromatography (RPLC-GC) method is proposed to quantify free, total and esterified sterols of edible oils. To determine free sterols the diluted oils are injected into the liquid chromatograph, where free sterols are separated from triglycerides and the sterol fraction is automatically transferred to the gas chromatograph to be analysed. To determine total sterols the samples were saponified with potassium hydroxide in ethanolic solution and the unsaponifiable fraction was extracted with diethyl ether. The extract was then analysed by RPLC-GC, avoiding the laborious thin layer chromatography step used in the Official European Union (EU) Method. The relative standard deviations (RSDs) from the absolute peak area varied from 7.6% to 15.8%. Limits of detection (LODs) were less than 8.5 mg/kg. No variability in retention time was observed. The method was applied to the determination of total sterols in edible oil samples and the results were compared with those obtained with the Official EU Method. Good agreement was found between both methods, except in the case of campesterol., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

This paper presents a new methodology for collaborative sensor data management known as WikiSensing. It is a novel approach that incorporates online collaboration with sensor data management. We introduce the work on this research by describing the motivation and challenges of designing and developing an online collaborative sensor data management system. This is followed by a brief survey on popular sensor data management and online collaborative systems. We then present the architecture for WikiSensing highlighting its main components and features. Several example scenarios are described to present the functionality of the system. We evaluate the approach by investigating the performance of aggregate queries and the scalability of the system.

Two parallel anaerobic membrane bioreactors (MBRs), integrated with or without ultrasound equipment for online membrane fouling control (US-AnMBR, or AnMBR) were established to digest waste activated sludge (WAS). The characteristics of bound extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) and bacterial communities in the systems were investigated for further understanding of the membrane fouling mechanisms. Ultrasound was an effective method for reducing cake layer resistance. A relatively high amount of bound EPS were found in the cake layer, especially for the US-AnMBR, by responding to the external forces (i.e. cross flow and ultrasound). High-throughput pyrosequencing and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) were applied to analyze the bacterial diversity. Some bacterial populations contributing to membrane fouling were identified to accumulate in the cake layer, such as Peptococcaceae, Bacteroides and Syntrophobacterales. Since the ultrasounded retentate was recirculated back to the reactor, the bacterial community in the digested sludge was affected., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Plasma air purifying systems present an interesting alternative to filters for purifying air. In this study, molecular processes in a commercially available ac driven plasma air purifier were studied in detail. This air purifier is supposed to reduce all air contaminants to small nontoxic molecules (e.g., H(2)O and CO(2)). However, degradation mechanisms are not yet fully understood. In this study, we investigated the exhaust of the plasma air purifier to determine which degradation products are formed. An interface was designed and constructed to allow the direct coupling of the plasma air purifier's exhaust to a mass spectrometer. The compounds studied, primary and secondary amines, were introduced at a concentration of 1 ppmV. Contrary to our expectations, polymerization instead of degradation was observed. The higher the ac voltage applied (max. 9.0 kV) to the plasma air purifier, the higher the mass of the oligomer distribution. Side chain oxidation products as well as oligomers could be observed for all compounds tested. Starting with amines of low mass (m/z < 200), compounds of molecular masses above 1000 Da were observed in the plasma air purifier. Detailed analysis of the observed mass spectra as well as experiments with deuterated dibutylamine helped to unravel the mechanism taking place in the plasma air purifier. Nitrate anions generated in the plasma air purifier (presumably from N(2)) are proposed to form ionic clusters with protonated amines.

The combined use of a dual-UV detector as well as a fluorimetric and a multielectrode electrochemical detector (equipped with a dual electrode, consisting of a conventional size 3 mm diameter glassy carbon electrode (GCE) and of a pair of 30 μm thick carbon microfibers) is proposed for the detection of the following 15 underivatized amino acids: L: -histidine (his), L: -cysteine (cys), creatine (crn), S-methyl-L: -cysteine (me-cys), DL: -homocysteine (hcy), L: -methionine (met), beta-(3,4-dihydroxyphenyl)-L: -alanine (dopa), L: -tyrosine (tyr), DL: -m-tyrosine (m-tyr), L: -a-methyl-dopa (me-dopa), L: -phenylanine (phe), DL: -alpha-methyltyrosine (me-tyr), 5-hydroxy-tryptophan (5htp), 3-nitro-L: -tyrosine (NO(2)Tyr) and L: -tryptophan (trp), as well as of two dipeptides: L: -cystathionine (cysta), L: -carnosine (car), and of creatinine (cre). A multilinear solvent (acetonitrile) gradient elution program, determined by a simple optimization algorithm, is required for the efficient reversed phase separation of the above mixture of 18 solutes within 27 min at a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min and at 25°C.

A home-made membrane inlet- single photon ionization/chemical ionization- time-of-flight mass spectrometer has been described. A vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) lamp with photon energy of 10.6 eV was used as the light source for single photon ionization (SPI). Chemical ionization (CI) was achieved through ion-molecule reactions with O2- reactant ions generated by photoelectron ionization. The two ionization modes could be rapidly switched by adjusting electric field in the ionization region within 2 s. Membrane inlet system used for rapid enrichment of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in water was constructed by using a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) membrane with a thickness of 50 microm. A purge gas was added to accelerate desorption of analytes from the membrane surface. The purge gas could also help to prevent the pump oil back-streaming into the ionization region from the analyzer chamber and improve the signal to noise ratio (S/N). Achieved detection limits were 2 microg x L(-1) for methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) in SPI mode and 1 microg x L(-1) for chloroform in SPI-CI mode within 10 s analysis time, respectively. The instrument has been successfully applied to the rapid analysis of MTBE in simulated underground water nearby petrol station and VOCs in disinfected drinking water. The results indicate that the instrument has a great application prospect for online analysis of VOCs in water.

Traditionally air quality networks have been carrying out the continuous, on-line measurement of volatile organic compounds (VOC) in ambient air with GC-FID. In this paper some identification and coelution problems observed while using this technique in long-term measurement campaigns are described. In order to solve these problems a GC-MS was set up and operated simultaneously with a GC-FID for C2-C11 VOCs measurement. There are few on-line, unattended, long term measurements of atmospheric VOCs performed with GC-MS. In this work such a system has been optimized for that purpose, achieving good repeatability, linearity, and detection limits of the order of the GC-FID ones, even smaller in some cases. VOC quantification has been made by using response factors, which is not frequent in on-line GC-MS. That way, the identification and coelution problems detected in the GC-FID, which may led to reporting erroneous data, could be corrected. The combination of GC-FID and GC-MS as complementary techniques for the measurement of speciated VOCs in ambient air at sub-ppbv levels is proposed. Some results of the measurements are presented, including concentration values for some compounds not found until now on public ambient air VOC databases, which were identified and quantified combining both techniques. Results may also help to correct previously published VOC data with wrongly identified compounds by reprocessing raw chromatographic data., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

We describe a flow-through biosensor for online continuous water toxicity monitoring. At the heart of the device are disposable modular biochips incorporating agar-immobilized bioluminescent recombinant reporter bacteria, the responses of which are probed by single-photon avalanche diode detectors. To demonstrate the biosensor capabilities, we equipped it with biochips harboring both inducible and constitutive reporter strains and exposed it to a continuous water flow for up to 10 days. During these periods we challenged the biosensor with 2-h pulses of water spiked with model compounds representing different classes of potential water pollutants, as well as with a sample of industrial wastewater. The biosensor reporter panel detected all simulated contamination events within 0.5-2.5 h, and its response was indicative of the nature of the contaminating chemicals. We believe that a biosensor of the proposed design can be integrated into future water safety and security networks, as part of an early warning system against accidental or intentional water pollution by toxic chemicals.

The incidence of childhood obesity is rising in the United Kingdom and this has far-reaching and serious consequences both for the physical and psychological well-being of the child, as well as significant financial implications for the health service. General practitioners (GPs) play a central role in identifying and assessing such children and directing them to the best services. While most cases of obesity are simply due to an imbalance in calorie intake and expenditure, children do need to be formally assessed to ensure that red flags are not missed, which might signify an important underlying aetiology, co-morbidity or complication. To date, there have not been tools available to guide a GP through this assessment. In this paper, we present and explain the thinking behind a tool, which was developed for use by GPs from Bristolas part of a trial to assess the transferability of a childhood obesity clinic into primary care. We look at the evidence base behind the guidelines and then assess the appropriateness and safety of the 152 referrals made using this tool. We believe that this screening tool would enable over 85% of obese children to seek their initial weight management in primary care. Additional evaluation is needed in different regions to ensure effectiveness, sensitivity and specificity of this new tool.

Purpose: Physical-technical quality assurance is one of the essential tasks of the National Reference Centers in the German Breast Cancer Screening Program. For this purpose the mammography units are required to transfer the measured values of the constancy tests on a daily basis and all phantom images created for this purpose on a weekly basis to the reference centers. This is a serious logistical challenge. To meet these requirements, we developed an innovative software tool., Materials and Methods: By the end of 2005, we had already developed web-based software (MammoControl) allowing the transmission of constancy test results via entry forms. For automatic analysis and transmission of the phantom images, we then introduced an extension (MammoControl DIANA). This was based on Java, Java Web Start, the NetBeans Rich Client Platform, the Pixelmed Java DICOM Toolkit and the ImageJ library., Results: MammoControl DIANA was designed to run locally in the mammography units. This allows automated on-site image analysis. Both results and compressed images can then be transmitted to the reference center. We developed analysis modules for the daily and monthly consistency tests and additionally for a homogeneity test., Conclusion: The software we developed facilitates the immediate availability of measurement results, phantom images, and DICOM header data in all reference centers. This allows both targeted guidance and short response time in the case of errors. We achieved a consistent IT-based evaluation with standardized tools for the entire screening program in Germany., (© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.)

The potential for application of online devices for providing real-time analysis of milk-clotting parameters during milking was studied. The experiment tested established relationships between glandular-level bacterial infection and milk-clotting parameters as evaluated by visible or near-infrared spectroscopy. The parameters yielded by the AfiLab (S.A.E. Afikim, Afikim, Israel) online device were shown to be applicable to derivation of real-time estimations of milk-clotting parameters on the individual cow level. The ability of the AfiLab to perform this task was validated online and statistically by calibration against laboratory testing procedures., (Copyright © 2011 American Dairy Science Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Membrane distillation (MD) is presented for the first time as a real-time, online concentration technique, where the aqueous matrix is removed from the sample to enhance analyte enrichment. Therefore, MD is a universal method for a wide range of compounds and is unlike conventional membrane extractions that rely on the permeation of the solute into an extractant phase. The MD process showed excellent precision with relative standard deviation between 3% and 5%, linear calibration, and the detection limits for pharmaceutical compounds in the range of 0.01 to 20 mg L(-1) by HPLC-UV analysis. The temperature and flow rate of the feed solution were found to be important variables.

Background: Globally plants are the primary sink of atmospheric CO(2), but are also the major contributor of a large spectrum of atmospheric reactive hydrocarbons such as terpenes (e.g. isoprene) and other biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOC). The prediction of plant carbon (C) uptake and atmospheric oxidation capacity are crucial to define the trajectory and consequences of global environmental changes. To achieve this, the biosynthesis of BVOC and the dynamics of C allocation and translocation in both plants and ecosystems are important., Methodology: We combined tunable diode laser absorption spectrometry (TDLAS) and proton transfer reaction mass spectrometry (PTR-MS) for studying isoprene biosynthesis and following C fluxes within grey poplar (Populus x canescens) saplings. This was achieved by feeding either (13)CO(2) to leaves or (13)C-glucose to shoots via xylem uptake. The translocation of (13)CO(2) from the source to other plant parts could be traced by (13)C-labeled isoprene and respiratory (13)CO(2) emission., Principal Finding: In intact plants, assimilated (13)CO(2) was rapidly translocated via the phloem to the roots within 1 hour, with an average phloem transport velocity of 20.3±2.5 cm h(-1). (13)C label was stored in the roots and partially reallocated to the plants' apical part one day after labeling, particularly in the absence of photosynthesis. The daily C loss as BVOC ranged between 1.6% in mature leaves and 7.0% in young leaves. Non-isoprene BVOC accounted under light conditions for half of the BVOC C loss in young leaves and one-third in mature leaves. The C loss as isoprene originated mainly (76-78%) from recently fixed CO(2), to a minor extent from xylem-transported sugars (7-11%) and from photosynthetic intermediates with slower turnover rates (8-11%)., Conclusion: We quantified the plants' C loss as respiratory CO(2) and BVOC emissions, allowing in tandem with metabolic analysis to deepen our understanding of ecosystem C flux.

Salts and buffers, commonly used in isolation and stabilization of biological analytes, have a deleterious effect on electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS). Excessive concentrations of salts lead to ion suppression and adduct formation, which mask or complicate ion signals. In this work, we describe a salt remover (SR), configured as a three-compartment flow-through system, where the central compartment is separated from the outer compartments by a cation-exchange membrane (CEM) and an anion-exchange membrane (AEM). One platinum electrode is placed in each of the outer compartments, where water or electrolyte is flowing. The CEM electrode is held at a negative potential relative to the AEM side; cations/anions migrate by electrophoresis to the CEM/AEM receiver liquids, respectively. Proteins have poorer electrophoretic mobility relative to the buffer components, permitting removal of the salt. The salt-free proteins proceed to the ESI source. The capillary scale SR (internal volume 2.5 μL) described here effectively desalted continuous flows of NaCl solutions (200 mequiv/L at 1 μL/min, equivalent to a flux of 200 nequiv/min with 88% efficiency) and achieved >99.8% salt removal with 154 mM NaCl (isotonic saline) at 1 μL/min. With optimized current, >80% of concurrently present 20 μM protein was transmitted. Desalting efficiency and analyte loss was evaluated with different salt concentration and flow rate combinations under different applied current. Good-quality ESI-MS spectra of cytochrome c, myoglobin, and lysozyme as test proteins in a saline solution, passed through the SR, are demonstrated.

Neurological patients with impaired upper limbs often receive arm therapy to restore or relearn lost motor functions. During the last years robotic devices were developed to assist the patient during the training. In daily life the diversity of movements is large because the human arm has many degrees of freedom and is used as a manipulandum to interact with the environment. To support a patient during the training the amount of support should be adapted in an assist-as-needed manner. We propose a method to learn the arm support needed during the training of activities of daily living (ADL) with an arm rehabilitation robot. The model learns the performance of the patient and creates an impairment space with a radial basis function network that can be used to assist the patient together with a patient-cooperative control strategy. Together with the arm robot ARMin the learning algorithm was evaluated. The results showed that the proposed model is able to learn the required arm support for different movements during ADL training., (© 2011 IEEE)

The installation of suitable sensors close to the tool tip on milling centres is not possible in industrial environments. It is therefore necessary to design virtual sensors for these machines to perform online fault detection in many industrial tasks. This paper presents a virtual sensor for online fault detection of multitooth tools based on a bayesian classifier. The device that performs this task applies mathematical models that function in conjunction with physical sensors. Only two experimental variables are collected from the milling centre that performs the machining operations: the electrical power consumption of the feed drive and the time required for machining each workpiece. The task of achieving reliable signals from a milling process is especially complex when multitooth tools are used, because each kind of cutting insert in the milling centre only works on each workpiece during a certain time window. Great effort has gone into designing a robust virtual sensor that can avoid re-calibration due to, e.g., maintenance operations. The virtual sensor developed as a result of this research is successfully validated under real conditions on a milling centre used for the mass production of automobile engine crankshafts. Recognition accuracy, calculated with a k-fold cross validation, had on average 0.957 of true positives and 0.986 of true negatives. Moreover, measured accuracy was 98%, which suggests that the virtual sensor correctly identifies new cases.

Online-monitoring systems in intensive care are affected by a high rate of false threshold alarms. These are caused by irrelevant noise and outliers in the measured time series data. The high false alarm rates can be lowered by separating relevant signals from noise and outliers online, in such a way that signal estimations, instead of raw measurements, are compared to the alarm limits. This paper presents a clinical validation study for two recently developed online signal filters. The filters are based on robust repeated median regression in moving windows of varying width. Validation is done offline using a large annotated reference database. The performance criteria are sensitivity and the proportion of false alarms suppressed by the signal filters.

A three-layer microfluidic device was developed that combined perfusion of cultured cells with on-line chemical analysis for near real-time monitoring of cellular secretions. Two layers were reversibly sealed to form a cell chamber that allowed cells grown on coverslips to be loaded directly into the chip. The outlet of the chamber was in fluidic contact with a third layer that was permanently bonded. Perfusate from the cell chamber flowed into this third layer where a fluorescence enzyme assay for non-esterified fatty acid (NEFA) was performed on-line. The device was used to monitor efflux of NEFAs from approximately 6,200 cultured adipocytes with 83 s temporal resolution. Perfusion of murine 3T3-L1 cultured adipocytes resulted in an average basal concentration of 24.2 +/- 2.4 microM NEFA (SEM, n = 6) detected in the effluent corresponding to 3.31 x 10(-5) nmol cell(-1) min(-1). Upon pharmacological treatment with a beta-adrenergic agonist to stimulate lipolysis, a 6.9 +/- 0.7-fold (SEM, n = 6) sustained increase in NEFA secretion was observed. This multilayer device provides a versatile platform that could be adapted for use with other cell types to study corresponding cellular secretions in near real-time.

Background: Searching the Web for documents using information retrieval systems plays an important part in clinicians' practice of evidence-based medicine. While much research focuses on the design of methods to retrieve documents, there has been little examination of the way different search engine capabilities influence clinician search behaviors., Objectives: Previous studies have shown that use of task-based search engines allows for faster searches with no loss of decision accuracy compared with resource-based engines. We hypothesized that changes in search behaviors may explain these differences., Methods: In all, 75 clinicians (44 doctors and 31 clinical nurse consultants) were randomized to use either a resource-based or a task-based version of a clinical information retrieval system to answer questions about 8 clinical scenarios in a controlled setting in a university computer laboratory. Clinicians using the resource-based system could select 1 of 6 resources, such as PubMed; clinicians using the task-based system could select 1 of 6 clinical tasks, such as diagnosis. Clinicians in both systems could reformulate search queries. System logs unobtrusively capturing clinicians' interactions with the systems were coded and analyzed for clinicians' search actions and query reformulation strategies., Results: The most frequent search action of clinicians using the resource-based system was to explore a new resource with the same query, that is, these clinicians exhibited a "breadth-first" search behaviour. Of 1398 search actions, clinicians using the resource-based system conducted 401 (28.7%, 95% confidence interval [CI] 26.37-31.11) in this way. In contrast, the majority of clinicians using the task-based system exhibited a "depth-first" search behavior in which they reformulated query keywords while keeping to the same task profiles. Of 585 search actions conducted by clinicians using the task-based system, 379 (64.8%, 95% CI 60.83-68.55) were conducted in this way., Conclusions: This study provides evidence that different search engine designs are associated with different user search behaviors.