Using a virtual environment to assess cognition in the elderly

Early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is essential if treatments are to be administered at an earlier point in time before neurons degenerate to a stage beyond repair. In order for early detection to occur tools used to detect the disorder must be sensitive to the earliest of cognitive impairments. Virtual reality technology offers opportunities to provide products which attempt to mimic daily life situations, as much as is possible, within the computational environment. This may be useful for the detection of cognitive difficulties. We develop a virtual simulation designed to assess visuospatial memory in order to investigate cognitive function in a group of healthy elderly participants and those with a mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Participants were required to guide themselves along a virtual path to reach a virtual destination which they were required to remember. The preliminary results indicate that this virtual simulation has the potential to be used for detection of early AD since significant correlations of scores on the virtual environment with existing neuropsychological tests were found. Furthermore, the test discriminated between healthy elderly participants and those with a MCI.     

基于音素聚类的多语言声学建模方法

首先提出以音素合并后模型自身似然度下降为距离依据,通过聚类生成多语言通用音素的声学建模方法.在此基础上,比较聚类时增加两种约束条件(同一语种内音素不聚类、不同IPA族的音素不聚类)对性能的影响.同时,对通用音素集的规模对识别性能的影响做了一定探索.最后的实验给出建立中英文双语混合模型在关键词检测系统上的结果,比较4种聚类方法在不同通用音素个数情况下的性能优劣.结果显示,使用本文方法进行一定程度的音素合并,性能比不作聚类直接混合建模有明显提升.适当增加音素聚类的约束,有助于进一步提高性能.     

The development of the Quick Exposure Check (QEC) for assessing exposure to risk factors for work-related musculoskeletal disorders

This paper describes the development and evaluation of the Quick Exposure Check (QEC), which is an observational tool developed for Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) practitioners to assess exposure to risks for work-related musculoskeletal disorders and provide a basis for ergonomic interventions. The tool is based on epidemiological evidence and investigations of OSH practitioners' aptitudes for undertaking assessments. It has been tested, modified and validated using simulated and workplace tasks, in two phases of development, with participation of 206 practitioners. The QEC allows the four main body areas to be assessed and involves practitioners and workers in the assessment. Trials have determined its usability, intra- and inter-observer reliability, and validity which show it is applicable to a wide range of working activities. The tool focuses primarily on physical workplace factors, but also includes the evaluation of psychosocial factors. Tasks can normally be assessed within 10min. It has a scoring system, and exposure levels have been proposed to guide priorities for intervention. Subsequently it should be used to evaluate the effectiveness of any interventions made. The QEC can contribute to a holistic assessment of all the elements of a work system.     

Mindlin plate finite elements by a modified transverse displacement

The formulation of 4-node plate bending elements to eliminate the shear locking is presented. The kinematic variables in the Mindlin plate are related through the equilibrium equations; and then the transverse displacement, rotations, and shear strain are expressed in terms of the curvature sum. The elements are formulated by using the modified transverse displacement defined as the transverse displacement subtracted by the curvature sum times the ratio of flexural to shear rigidity. It is shown that the elements describe plate behavior quite correctly without any locking and also that they are applicable to the analysis of both thin and thick plates.     

Microfluidic-based biosensors toward point-of-care detection of nucleic acids and proteins

This article reviews state-of-the-art microfluidic biosensors of nucleic acids and proteins for point-of-care (POC) diagnostics. Microfluidics is capable of analyzing small sample volumes (10⁻⁹–10⁻¹⁸ l) and minimizing costly reagent consumption as well as automating sample preparation and reducing processing time. The merger of microfluidics and advanced biosensor technologies offers new promises for POC diagnostics, including high-throughput analysis, portability and disposability. However, this merger also imposes technological challenges on biosensors, such as high sensitivity and selectivity requirements with sample volumes orders of magnitude smaller than those of conventional practices, false response errors due to non-specific adsorption, and integrability with other necessary modules. There have been many prior review articles on microfluidic-based biosensors, and this review focuses on the recent progress in last 5 years. Herein, we review general technologies of DNA and protein biosensors. Then, recent advances on the coupling of the biosensors to microfluidics are highlighted. Finally, we discuss the key challenges and potential solutions for transforming microfluidic biosensors into POC diagnostic applications.     

基于GMM-UBM和GLDS-SVM的英文发音错误检测方法

将语种和说话人识别的方法应用到英语发音错误检测系统, 提出一种基于广义线性区分序列支持向量机 (Generalized linear discriminant sequence based SVM, GLDS-SVM)的发音错误检测方法. 主要创新点为: 1)提出一种基于状态拼接的特征规整方案, 增强SVM对发音特征的建模能力; 2)提出一种基于多模型融合的模型训练策略, 该策略可以更加充分地利用训练数据, 并在一定程度上解决了由于真实发音错误数据缺乏造成的正负样本不均衡的问题; 3)将GLDS-SVM与基于通用背景模型GMM (Universal background models based GMM, GMM-UBM)的方法进行融合, 以进一步提高发音检错性能. GLDS-SVM和GMM-UBM的融合系统在仿真测试集和真实测试集上的等错误率 (Equal error rate, EER)分别达到9.92%和16.35%. 同时, GLDS-SVM在模型占用空间和运算速度方面均比传统径向基函数 (Radial basic function, RBF)核方法具有明显优势.     

Service-oriented manufacturing: a new product pattern and manufacturing paradigm

Service plays an increasingly important role in modern manufacturing: (a) Services and physical products are integrated into one product service system (PSS) to provide a comprehensive solution for customers; (b) The companies involved in offering PSS focus on specialized sectors, and provide producer services for one another. In this paper, the new product pattern together with the innovative manufacturing paradigm is called service-oriented manufacturing. The competitive advantage of a PSS can be originated from products or services, and the ownership of PSS’s may or may not be transferred from sellers to buyers during transactions. Various PSS’s were categorized into three classes. The characteristics of each type of PSS’s and the shift between them are discussed. Many companies, which provide producer services and manufacturing services to one another, form a service-based manufacturing network. The reasons why producer services act as intermediate goods among different companies and motivations for companies to outsource their business processes are analyzed economically. Many companies in different segments of the production-chain may have discrepant profitability. Technology strength and industry insight competences are adopted to explain the discrepant values added from various segments along the production chain. Service-oriented manufacturing is summarized from the perspectives of business model, industry insight and technology strength (BIT).     

Icon identification in context: the changing role of icon characteristics with user experience

OBJECTIVE: This research examined the relative importance of icon characteristics in determining the speed and accuracy of icon identification. BACKGROUND: Studies to date have focused on the role of one or two icon characteristics when users first experience an icon set. This means that little is known about the relative importance of icon characteristics or how the role of icon characteristics might change as users gain experience with icons. METHODS: Thirty participants carried out an icon identification task over a long series of trials to simulate learning through experience. Icon characteristics investigated included semantic distance, concreteness, familiarity, and visual complexity. RESULTS: Icon characteristics were major determinants of performance, accounting for up to 69% of the variance observed in performance. However, the importance of icon characteristics changed with experience: Semantic distance is crucial initially while icon-function relationships are learned, but familiarity is important later because it has lasting effects on access to long-term memory representations. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that icon concreteness may not be of primary importance when identifying icons and that semantic distance and familiarity may be more important. APPLICATION: Designers need to take into account icon characteristics other than concreteness when creating icons, particularly semantic distance and familiarity. The precise importance of the latter characteristics will vary depending on whether icons are rarely encountered or frequently used.     

Genetic Parallel Programming: design and implementation

This paper presents a novel Genetic Parallel Programming (GPP) paradigm for evolving parallel programs running on a Multi-Arithmetic-Logic-Unit (Multi-ALU) Processor (MAP). The MAP is a Multiple Instruction-streams, Multiple Data-streams (MIMD), general-purpose register machine that can be implemented on modern Very Large-Scale Integrated Circuits (VLSIs) in order to evaluate genetic programs at high speed. For human programmers, writing parallel programs is more difficult than writing sequential programs. However, experimental results show that GPP evolves parallel programs with less computational effort than that of their sequential counterparts. It creates a new approach to evolving a feasible problem solution in parallel program form and then serializes it into a sequential program if required. The effectiveness and efficiency of GPP are investigated using a suite of 14 well-studied benchmark problems. Experimental results show that GPP speeds up evolution substantially.     

Video gameplay, personality and academic performance

The relationship between video gameplay, video game genre preference, personality, and GPA was investigated in an online correlational study with university students. In addition to administering self-report measures of GPA and personality, we asked three different questions regarding styles of video gameplay. The first asked the average time spent playing video games per week (habitual players), the second asked the total time spent playing favorite video games (selective players), and the third asked the number of different video games played in a year (diverse players). Students who were medium in selective player style (spent 11-50 h) had significantly higher GPAs than students low on selective player style (spent 0-10 h). Students high on habitual playing style (7 or more hours a week) showed significantly lower levels of Conscientiousness compared to students low on habitual playing style (0-1 h a week). Students who were high on the diverse style (i.e., 7 or more games played a year) showed significantly higher Openness scores than students low on the diverse style (0-3 games a year). Finally, several notable relations were found between video game genre preference, GPA, and personality. Results are discussed in terms of the positive implications of video gameplay on academic performance.