Automatic Measurement of Fetal Abdominal Biometric Parameters—Feasibility on a Portable Ultrasound Device

An automatic method for measuring the fetal mean abdominal diameter (MAD) or abdominal circumference (AC) with ultrasound is proposed. From a correctly presented abdominal section suitable for MAD or AC measurement, the location of fetal abdomen is detected by image processing. Thereafter, an active contour model is converged along the abdominal boundary for measurement purposes. The validation data set contained 310 images of fetuses with gestational age (GA) from 14 to 41 weeks. The measurement success rate was 88.1%. By manually indicating the location of the abdomen, the success rate was further improved to 95.8% for the failed cases. The correlation between manual and automatic measurements was 0.95 and the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was 0.976 (95% confidence interval (CI);0.969 - 0.981). The average method execution time was 0.3 s. The mean error was lower in young fetuses (0.4%) than in older fetuses (-2.1%). The proposed cross-platform method was implemented on a portable, low-cost ultrasound machine prototype targeted for low- and middle-income countries (LMIC);the results achieved were comparable to those of other state-of-the-art automatic methods.

Algorithms for automatic measurement of SIS-type hysteretic underdamped Josephson junction’s parameters by current-voltage characteristics

Some electrical parameters of the SIS-type hysteretic underdamped Josephson junction(JJ)can be measured by its current-voltage characteristics(IVCs).Currents and voltages at JJ are commensurate with the intrinsic noise level of measuring instruments.This leads to the need for multiple measurements with subsequent statistical processing.In this paper,the digital algorithms are proposed for the automatic measurement of the JJ parameters by IVC.These algorithms make it possible to implement multiple measurements and check these JJ parameters in an automatic mode with the required accuracy.The complete sufficient statistics are used to minimize the root-mean-square error of parameter measurement.A sequence of current pulses with slow rising and falling edges is used to drive JJ,and synchronous current and voltage readings at JJ are used to realize measurement algorithms.The algorithm performance is estimated through computer simulations.The significant advantage of the proposed algorithms is the independence from current source noise and intrinsic noise of current and voltage meters,as well as the simple implementation in automatic digital measuring systems.The proposed algorithms can be used to control JJ parameters during mass production of superconducting integrated circuits,which will improve the production efficiency and product quality.

Establishing minimum clinically important difference values for the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System Physical Function, hip disability and osteoarthritis outcome score for joint reconstruction, and knee injury and osteoarthritis out

AIM To establish minimum clinically important difference(MCID) for measurements in an orthopaedic patient population with joint disorders.METHODS Adult patients aged 18 years and older seeking care for joint conditions at an orthopaedic clinic took the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System Physical Function(PROMIS~? PF) computerized adaptive test(CAT), hip disability and osteoarthritis outcome score for joint reconstruction(HOOS JR), and the knee injury and osteoarthritis outcome score for joint reconstruction(KOOS JR) from February 2014 to April 2017. MCIDs were calculated using anchorbased and distribution-based methods. Patient reports of meaningful change in function since their first clinic encounter were used as an anchor.RESULTS There were 2226 patients who participated with a mean age of 61.16(SD = 12.84) years, 41.6% male, and 89.7% Caucasian. Mean change ranged from 7.29 to 8.41 for the PROMIS~? PF CAT, from 14.81 to 19.68 for the HOOS JR, and from 14.51 to 18.85 for the KOOS JR. ROC cut-offs ranged from 1.97-8.18 for the PF CAT, 6.33-43.36 for the HOOS JR, and 2.21-8.16 for the KOOS JR. Distribution-based methods estimated MCID values ranging from 2.45 to 21.55 for the PROMIS~? PF CAT; from 3.90 to 43.61 for the HOOS JR, and from 3.98 to 40.67 for the KOOS JR. The median MCID value in the range was similar to the mean change score for each measure and was 7.9 for the PF CAT, 18.0 for the HOOS JR, and 15.1 for the KOOS JR.CONCLUSION This is the first comprehensive study providing a wide range of MCIDs for the PROMIS? PF, HOOS JR, and KOOS JR in orthopaedic patients with joint ailments.

Semantic model and optimization of creative processes at mathematical knowledge formation

The aim of this work is mathematical education through the knowledge system and mathematical modeling. A net model of formation of mathematical knowledge as a deductive theory is suggested here. Within this model the formation of deductive theory is represented as the development of a certain informational space, the elements of which are structured in the form of the orientated semantic net. This net is properly metrized and characterized by a certain system of coverings. It allows injecting net optimization parameters, regulating qualitative aspects of knowledge system under consideration. To regulate the creative processes of the formation and realization of mathematical know- edge, stochastic model of formation deductive theory is suggested here in the form of branching Markovian process, which is realized in the corresponding informational space as a semantic net. According to this stochastic model we can get correct foundation of criterion of optimization creative processes that leads to “great main points” strategy (GMP-strategy) in the process of realization of the effective control in the research work in the sphere of mathematics and its applications.

High-precision automatic measurement of two-dimensional geometric features based on machine vision

To realize high-precision automatic measurement of two-dimensional geometric features on parts, a cooperative measurement system based on machine vision is constructed. Its hardware structure, functional composition and working principle are introduced. The mapping relationship between the feature image coordinates and the measuring space coordinates is established. The method of measuring path planning of small field of view （FOV） images is proposed. With the cooperation of the panoramic image of the object to be measured, the small FOV images with high object plane resolution are acquired automatically. Then, the auxiliary measuring characteristics are constructed and the parameters of the features to be measured are automatically extracted. Experimental results show that the absolute value of relative error is less than 0. 03% when applying the cooperative measurement system to gauge the hole distance of 100 mm nominal size. When the object plane resolving power of the small FOV images is 16 times that of the large FOV image, the measurement accuracy of small FOV images is improved by 14 times compared with the large FOV image. It is suitable for high-precision automatic measurement of two-dimensional complex geometric features distributed on large scale parts.

Probabilistic Automatic Outlier Detection for Surface Air Quality Measurements from the China National Environmental Monitoring Network

Although quality assurance and quality control procedures are routinely applied in most air quality networks, outliers can still occur due to instrument malfunctions, the influence of harsh environments and the limitation of measuring methods. Such outliers pose challenges for data-powered applications such as data assimilation, statistical analysis of pollution characteristics and ensemble forecasting. Here, a fully automatic outlier detection method was developed based on the probability of residuals, which are the discrepancies between the observed and the estimated concentration values. The estimation can be conducted using filtering—or regressions when appropriate—to discriminate four types of outliers characterized by temporal and spatial inconsistency, instrument-induced low variances, periodic calibration exceptions, and less PM_(10) than PM_(2.5) in concentration observations, respectively. This probabilistic method was applied to detect all four types of outliers in hourly surface measurements of six pollutants(PM_(2.5), PM_(10),SO_2,NO_2,CO and O_3) from 1436 stations of the China National Environmental Monitoring Network during 2014-16. Among the measurements, 0.65%-5.68% are marked as outliers. with PM_(10) and CO more prone to outliers. Our method successfully identifies a trend of decreasing outliers from 2014 to 2016,which corresponds to known improvements in the quality assurance and quality control procedures of the China National Environmental Monitoring Network. The outliers can have a significant impact on the annual mean concentrations of PM_(2.5),with differences exceeding 10 μg m^(-3) at 66 sites.

Design and Construction of Automatic Monitoring System for Open-pit Coal Mine Slopes

[Objectives]To monitor the stability of open-pit coal mine slopes in real time and ensure the safety of coal mine production.[Methods]The automatic monitoring system of coal mine slope was explored in depth,and the core functions of the system were designed comprehensively.According to the design function of the automatic monitoring system,the slope automatic monitoring system was constructed.Besides,in accordance with the actual situation of the slope,the monitoring frequency of slopes was set scientifically,and the key indicators such as rainfall,deep displacement and surface displacement of the slopes were monitored in an all-round and multi-angle way.[Results]During the monitoring period,the overall condition of the slope remained good,and no landslides or other geological disasters occurred.At the same time,the overall rainfall in the slope area remained low.In terms of monitoring data,the horizontal displacement and settlement of the slopes increased first and then tended to be stable.Specifically,the maximum horizontal displacement during the monitoring period was 22.74 mm,while the maximum settlement was 18.65 mm.[Conclusions]The automatic slope monitoring system has obtained remarkable achievements in practical application.It not only improves the accuracy and efficiency of slope stability monitoring,but also provides valuable reference experience for similar projects.

A Novel Cascaded PID Controller for Automatic Generation Control Analysis With Renewable Sources

Present day power scenarios demand a high quality uninterrupted power supply and needs environmental issues to be addressed. Both concerns can be dealt with by the introduction of the renewable sources to the existing power system. Thus, automatic generation control(AGC) with diverse renewable sources and a modified-cascaded controller are presented in the paper.Also, a new hybrid scheme of the improved teaching learning based optimization-differential evolution(hITLBO-DE) algorithm is applied for providing optimization of controller parameters. A study of the system with a technique such as TLBO applied to a proportional integral derivative(PID), integral double derivative(IDD) and PIDD is compared to hITLBO-DE tuned cascaded controller with dynamic load change.The suggested methodology has been extensively applied to a 2-area system with a diverse source power system with various operation time non-linearities such as dead-band of, generation rate constraint and reheat thermal units. The multi-area system with reheat thermal plants, hydel plants and a unit of a wind-diesel combination is tested with the cascaded controller scheme with a different controller setting for each area. The variation of the load is taken within 1% to 5% of the connected load and robustness analysis is shown by modifying essential factors simultaneously by± 30%. Finally, the proposed scheme of controller and optimization technique is also tested with a 5-equal area thermal system with non-linearities. The simulation results demonstrate the superiority of the proposed controller and algorithm under a dynamically changing load.

On the Probable Cause of the Discrepancies between Hipparcos and VLBI Pleiades Distance Measurements

It will show, a recent extension of special relativity on the grounds of a novel concept of velocity, which also predicts the speed of transversal motions on the plane of the sky to increase with enduring observation time, to fully explain the differences of the observational results of the former experiments referring to the distance of the Pleiades from Earth.

Automatic measurement of air-pressure sensor based on two-pressure control instrument

To measure the performance of high precision air-pressure sensors in below normal pressure,an automatic measurement instrument has been designed and implemented.It can simulate environment of low pressure from 300hPa to 1 000hPa with high accuracy by proportional-integral-derivative(PID)control quickly,and it can also generate various relative humidity by two-pressure control.The results show that this instrument can reach controlled pressure quickly.And it works well with the minimum average pressure difference,and the fluctuation is±0.02hPa at 500hPa.And it can keep in a stable status for a long time.It works well in performance testing of pressure sensors.The structure of the system is simple,takes small investment,and can be operated conveniently.

A Measurement Study of the Ethereum Underlying P2P Network

This work carried out a measurement study of the Ethereum Peer-to-Peer(P2P)network to gain a better understanding of the underlying nodes.Ethereum was applied because it pioneered distributed applications,smart contracts,and Web3.Moreover,its application layer language“Solidity”is widely used in smart contracts across different public and private blockchains.To this end,we wrote a new Ethereum client based on Geth to collect Ethereum node information.Moreover,various web scrapers have been written to collect nodes’historical data fromthe Internet Archive and the Wayback Machine project.The collected data has been compared with two other services that harvest the number of Ethereumnodes.Ourmethod has collectedmore than 30% more than the other services.The data trained a neural network model regarding time series to predict the number of online nodes in the future.Our findings show that there are less than 20% of the same nodes daily,indicating thatmost nodes in the network change frequently.It poses a question of the stability of the network.Furthermore,historical data shows that the top ten countries with Ethereum clients have not changed since 2016.The popular operating system of the underlying nodes has shifted from Windows to Linux over time,increasing node security.The results have also shown that the number of Middle East and North Africa(MENA)Ethereum nodes is neglected compared with nodes recorded from other regions.It opens the door for developing new mechanisms to encourage users from these regions to contribute to this technology.Finally,the model has been trained and demonstrated an accuracy of 92% in predicting the future number of nodes in the Ethereum network.

The Quantized Characterization of Cooked Rice Hardness and Research on the Automatic Measurement Technology

The hardness of cooked rice is one of the most important criteria which determine the rice quality. The commonly used near-infrared reflectance (NIR) method is still in argument due to its indirectness and possible error. In this paper, a mechanical method was proposed and its principle, automation, components and operative reliability were evaluated and compared with the NIR method. The results showed that the mechanical testing method can accurately detect the rice quality and were consistent with the NIR testing data. This new mechanical method can be effectively used in rice quality testing and branding with the advantage of simplicity, accuracy and reliability.

A Measurement Theoretical Foundation of Statistics

It is a matter of course that Kolmogorov’s probability theory is a very useful mathematical tool for the analysis of statistics. However, this fact never means that statistics is based on Kolmogorov’s probability theory, since it is not guaranteed that mathematics and our world are connected. In order that mathematics asserts some statements concerning our world, a certain theory (so called “world view”) mediates between mathematics and our world. Recently we propose measurement theory (i.e., the theory of the quantum mechanical world view), which is characterized as the linguistic turn of quantum mechanics. In this paper, we assert that statistics is based on measurement theory. And, for example, we show, from the pure theoretical point of view (i.e., from the measurement theoretical point of view), that regression analysis can not be justified without Bayes’ theorem. This may imply that even the conventional classification of (Fisher’s) statistics and Bayesian statistics should be reconsidered.

Implementation of Mooring Automatic Positioning System for Deepwater Semi-Submersible Platform Based on Dual-Stage Actuator

The automatic positioning control of mooring system for deepwater semi-submersible platform has become a key issue in the research and development field of deep-sea resources. The Dual- Stage Actuator (DSA) proposed in this paper can replace the single actuator to achieve the high speed and high precision positioning by cooperative control. The relative model and control algorithm of motion trajectory (CAMT) are designed and validated, which proves that the method proposed in this paper is effective.

Discrete Event System Framework for Fault Diagnosis with Measurement Inconsistency:Case Study of Rogue DHCP Attack

Fault detection and diagnosis(FDD) facilitates reliable operation of systems. Various approaches have been proposed for FDD like Analytical redundancy(AR), Principal component analysis(PCA), Discrete event system(DES) model etc., in the literature. Performance of FDD schemes greatly depends on accuracy of the sensors which measure the system parameters.Due to various reasons like faults, communication errors etc.,sensors may occasionally miss or report erroneous values of some system parameters to FDD engine, resulting in measurement inconsistency of these parameters. Schemes like AR, PCA etc.,have mechanisms to handle measurement inconsistency, however,they are computationally heavy. DES based FDD techniques are widely used because of computational simplicity, but they cannot handle measurement inconsistency efficiently. Existing DES based schemes do not use Measurement inconsistent(MI)parameters for FDD. These parameters are not permanently unmeasurable or erroneous, so ignoring them may lead to weak diagnosis. To address this issue, we propose a Measurement inconsistent discrete event system(MIDES) framework, which uses MI parameters for FDD at the instances they are measured by the sensors. Otherwise, when they are unmeasurable or erroneously reported, the MIDES invokes an estimator diagnoser that predicts the state(s) the system is expected to be in, using the subsequent parameters measured by the other sensors. The efficacy of the proposed method is illustrated using a pumpvalve system. In addition, an MIDES based intrusion detection system has been developed for detection of rogue dynamic host configuration protocol(DHCP) server attack by mapping the attack to a fault in the DES framework.

Advancement in Wide Area Monitoring Protection and Control Using PMU’s Model in MATLAB/SIMULINK

A big step forward to improve power system monitoring and performance, continued load growth without a corresponding increase in transmission resources has resulted in reduced operational margins for many power systems worldwide and has led to operation of power systems closer to their stability limits and to power exchange in new patterns. These issues, as well as the on-going worldwide trend towards deregulation of the entire industry on the one hand and the increased need for accurate and better network monitoring on the other hand, force power utilities exposed to this pressure to demand new solutions for wide area monitoring, protection and control. Wide-area monitoring, protection, and control require communicating the specific-node information to a remote station but all information should be time synchronized so that to neutralize the time difference between information. It gives a complete simultaneous snap shot of the power system. The conventional system is not able to satisfy the time-synchronized requirement of power system. Phasor Measurement Unit (PMU) is enabler of time-synchronized measurement, it communicate the synchronized local information to remote station.

An intelligent automatic correlation method of oilbearing strata based on pattern constraints:An example of accretionary stratigraphy of Shishen 100 block in Shinan Oilfield of Bohai Bay Basin,East China

Aiming at the problem that the data-driven automatic correlation methods which are difficult to adapt to the automatic correlation of oil-bearing strata with large changes in lateral sedimentary facies and strata thickness,an intelligent automatic correlation method of oil-bearing strata based on pattern constraints is formed.We propose to introduce knowledge-driven in automatic correlation of oil-bearing strata,constraining the correlation process by stratigraphic sedimentary patterns and improving the similarity measuring machine and conditional constraint dynamic time warping algorithm to automate the correlation of marker layers and the interfaces of each stratum.The application in Shishen 100 block in the Shinan Oilfield of the Bohai Bay Basin shows that the coincidence rate of the marker layers identified by this method is over 95.00%,and the average coincidence rate of identified oil-bearing strata reaches 90.02% compared to artificial correlation results,which is about 17 percentage points higher than that of the existing automatic correlation methods.The accuracy of the automatic correlation of oil-bearing strata has been effectively improved.

Automatic Detection and Measurement of Fetal Biparietal Diameter and Femur Length —Feasibility on a Portable Ultrasound Device

An automatic method able to recognize a presented section through the biparietal plane of the fetal head and a section through the fetal femur in ultrasound images is developed. Once the correct anatomical section for measurement is identified by the machine, the placement of the measurement calipers is automatically determined by fitting an active contour model to the structure of interest. The fetal biparietal diameter (BPD) and femur length (FL) are then measured automatically. The validation data set contained 167 and 197 B-mode images for BPD and FL measurements, respectively. The images were acquired using 4 different ultrasound scanners, which resulted in varied image quality and gain settings. The mean gestational age (GA) of the fetuses was 19.4 weeks, range 16 to 41 weeks. A measurement success rate of 90% was achieved for both BPD and FL. The correlation coefficients between the manual and automatic measurements were 0.995 (BPD) and 0.967 (FL), mean errors were 0.5 mm (BPD) and -1.7 mm (FL) and error range with 95% confidence interval (CI) were ﹣3.8 - 4.8 mm (BPD) and ﹣11.4 - 8.1 mm (FL). The automatic measurement results were consistent in both high and low gain settings. The intraclass correlation coefficients between manual and automatic measurements were 0.995 (95% CI;0.981 - 0.999) for BPD in high gain, 1.0 (95% CI;0.998 - 1.0) for BPD in low gain, 0.998 (95% CI;0.991 - 0.999) for FL in high gain and 0.999 (95% CI;0.996 - 1.0) for FL in low gain settings. The method was implemented on a prototype, portable ultrasound machine designed to be used in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). The overall performance of the method supports our hypothesis that automated methods can be used and are beneficial in a clinical setting.

Design of a Modularized Automatic Measurement and Control System for LaserInduced Breakdown Spectrometer

In order to improve the compatibility of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy( LIBS) instrument for different types of parts and optimize the analysis and testing processes,a modularized automatic measurement and control system was developed. Based on the characteristics of each LIBS component, the following development steps have been performed:( 1) a summary of characteristic parameters of the component are established;( 2) the integration mechanism of multiple electrical interfaces is designed;( 3) the component control instruction library is developed. The experimental results indicate that the measurement and control system is compatible with most LIBS parts in the market.Spectrometer and laser can be compatible with at least three different types of parts. In addition,a multilayer iterative testing process is designed to improve the efficiency of optimization process of LIBS parameters. The experimental results have shown that the automatic optimization of the delay time compared to the manual testing provides significant gain in testing efficiency. The range of delay time in the experiments is 1. 28 to 10. 28 μs and the step value is 1,0. 5,0. 2 and 0. 1 μs. The gain in testing efficiency has been found to be increased by 73. 76%,75. 93%,78. 81% and 80. 42%,respectively.

Automatic recognition of depression based on audio and video:A review

Depression is a common mental health disorder.With current depression detection methods,specialized physicians often engage in conversations and physiological examinations based on standardized scales as auxiliary measures for depression assessment.Non-biological markers-typically classified as verbal or non-verbal and deemed crucial evaluation criteria for depression-have not been effectively utilized.Specialized physicians usually require extensive training and experience to capture changes in these features.Advancements in deep learning technology have provided technical support for capturing non-biological markers.Several researchers have proposed automatic depression estimation(ADE)systems based on sounds and videos to assist physicians in capturing these features and conducting depression screening.This article summarizes commonly used public datasets and recent research on audio-and video-based ADE based on three perspectives:Datasets,deficiencies in existing research,and future development directions.