Robust classification of blurred imagery.

In this paper, we present two novel approaches for the classification of blurry images. It is assumed that the blur is linear and space invariant, but that the exact blurring function is unknown. The proposed fusion-based approaches attempt to perform the simultaneous tasks of blind image restoration and classification.

Supervisory control of multiworkcell manufacturing systems with shared resources.

Flexible-manufacturing systems (FMSs) may comprise a number of workcells where production resources are shared among the workcells for a variety of practical reasons. Although the utilization of independent workcells with sharing resources improves the flexibility of FMSs, avoiding deadlocks is essential for their successful implementation. This paper introduces a novel methodology for the synthesis of a set of conflict- and deadlock-free supervisors to individually control every workcell within a FMS inter-related by common (shared) resources.

On the complexity of supervisory control design in the RW framework.

The time complexity of supervisory control design for a general class of problems is studied. It is shown to be very unlikely that a polynomial-time algorithm can be found when either (1) the plant is composed of m components running concurrently or (2) the set of legal behaviors is given by the intersection of n legal specifications. That is to say, in general, there is no way to avoid constructing a state space which has size exponential in m+n.

Normal forms of fuzzy middle and fuzzy contradictions.

The expressions of "excluded middle" and "crisp contradiction" are reexamined starting with their original linguistic expressions which are first restated in propositional and then predicate forms. It is shown that, in order to generalize the truth tables and hence the normal forms, the membership assignments in predicate expressions must be separated from their truth qualification. In two-valued logic, there is no need to separate them from each other due to reductionist Aristotalean dichotomy.

A 100-200 MHz ultrasound biomicroscope.

The development of higher frequency ultrasound imaging systems affords a unique opportunity to visualize living tissue at the microscopic level. This work was undertaken to assess the potential of ultrasound imaging in vivo using the 100-200 MHz range. Spherically focused lithium niobate transducers were fabricated.

A history of medical and biological imaging with polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) transducers.

Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) is a ferroelectric polymer with unique properties suitable for use in a wide range of medical and biological imaging applications. Most notable among these is its low acoustic impedance, which matches that of the body reasonably well, and its flexible mechanical properties. This paper traces the exploitation of PVDF as a transducer material from its early beginnings for thyroid and breast imaging to its current well-established applications in ultrasound biomicroscopy.

Pulse inversion Doppler: a new method for detecting nonlinear echoes from microbubble contrast agents.

A novel technique for the selective detection of ultrasound contrast agents, called pulse inversion Doppler, has been developed. In this technique, a conventional Doppler or color Doppler pulse sequence is modified by inverting every second transmit pulse. Either conventional or harmonic Doppler processing is then performed on the received echoes.

Interpolation methods for time-delay estimation using cross-correlation method for blood velocity measurement.

The cross-correlation method (CCM) for blood flow velocity measurement using Doppler ultrasound is based on time delay estimation of echoes from pulse-to-pulse. The sampling frequency of the received signal is usually kept as low as possible in order to reduce computational complexity, and the peak in the correlation function is found by interpolating the correlation function. The parabolic-fit interpolation method introduces a bias at low sampling rate to the ultrasound center frequency ratio.

Robust damping control of mobile manipulators.

A novel robust control technique, robust damping control (RDC), is introduced. An RDC controller is further developed for the motion control of a mobile manipulator subject to kinematic constraints. The knowledge of dynamic parameters of the mobile manipulator is assumed to be completely unknown.

Face recognition using kernel direct discriminant analysis algorithms.

Techniques that can introduce low-dimensional feature representation with enhanced discriminatory power is of paramount importance in face recognition (FR) systems. It is well known that the distribution of face images, under a perceivable variation in viewpoint, illumination or facial expression, is highly nonlinear and complex. It is, therefore, not surprising that linear techniques, such as those based on principle component analysis (PCA) or linear discriminant analysis (LDA), cannot provide reliable and robust solutions to those FR problems with complex face variations.

Inverting amplifier genetic circuit performance.

A synthetic genetic circuit has been designed whose topology and function echo those of an electronic inverting amplifier. Several variants of this circuit have been built in our laboratory. This paper reports on the testing of one of these variants and contributes to the field both in terms of evaluating the specific amplifier performance and in terms of providing a methodology for performance evaluation of analog genetic circuits.

Transcutaneous electrical stimulation technology for functional electrical therapy applications.

Key to a successful application of functional electrical stimulation as a rehabilitation therapy (also termed functional electrical therapy or FET) is modular, portable, programmable, and versatile transcutaneous electrical stimulation technology. In this article a hardware platform, Compex Motion, that has been used successfully to develop numerous FET systems for walking, reaching and grasping is presented. The Compex Motion stimulator can be programmed to generate any arbitrary stimulation sequence, which can be controlled or regulated using any external sensor or sensory system.

Hardware accelerator for genomic sequence alignment.

To infer homology and subsequently gene function, the Smith-Waterman algorithm is used to find the optimal local alignment between two sequences. When searching sequence databases that may contain billions of sequences, this algorithm becomes computationally expensive. Consequently, in this paper, we focused on accelerating the Smith-Waterman algorithm by modifying the computationally repeated portion of the algorithm by FPGA hardware custom instructions.

Simulated mossy fiber associated feedforward circuit functioning as a highpass filter.

Learning and memory rely on the strict regulation of communication between neurons in the hippocampus. The mossy fiber (MF) pathway connects the dentate gyrus to the auto-associative CA3 network, and the information it carries is controlled by a feedforward circuit combining disynaptic inhibition with monosynaptic excitation. Analysis of the MF associated circuit using a mapped clock oscillator (MCO) model reveals the circuit to be a highpass filter.

Automated adaptive heart interbeat time extraction from long term noisy and variable ECG signals.

We describe the development of an automated, adaptive method to obtain the time interval between successive heart beats from noisy and highly variable electrocardiography signals. These interbeat time series are critical to the fractal characterization of cardiac health. When the biophysical measurement is severely tainted with noise from multiple sources, there is a need for algorithms to robustly extract the important patterns from the signal in question.

Autofocusing for automated microscopic evaluation of blood smear and pap smear.

Autofocusing is a fundamental procedure towards automated microscopic evaluation of blood smear and pap smear samples for clinical diagnosis. This paper presents comparison results of 16 focus algorithms based on a total of 8000 bright-field images from 10 blood smear and pap smear samples. A ranking methodology adapted from our previously proposed ranking system is used for thoroughly evaluating the performance of the selected 16 focus algorithms.

Optimal window length in the windowed adaptive chirplet analysis of visual evoked potentials.

Visual evoked potentials (VEPs) are electrical signals measured from the scalp in response to rapid and repetitive visual stimuli. The windowed adaptive chirplet transform (ACT) has been proposed recently to provide a unified and compact representation of VEPs from its transient portion to the steady-state portion. An important question concerns proper selection of window length.

Noise analysis for multi-slice radio frequency current density imaging.

Radio frequency current density imaging (RF-CDI) is an imaging technique that measures current density distribution at the Larmor frequency utilizing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The multi-slice RF-CDI sequence has extended the ability of RF-CDI to image multiple slices and thus has enhanced its capacity for biomedical applications. In this paper, the influence of MRI random noise on the sensitivity of multi-slice RF-CDI measurement is studied.

FPMOD: a modeling tool for sampling the conformational space of fusion proteins.

Fusion proteins are an important class of proteins with diverse applications in biotechnology. They consist of 2 or more rigid domains joined by a flexible linker. Understanding the conformational space of fusion proteins conferred by the flexible linkers is important to predicting its behavior.

A radial basis function classifier for pediatric aspiration detection.

Silent aspiration presents a serious health issue for children with dysphagia. To date, there is no satisfactory means of detecting aspiration in the home or community. In an effort to design a practical device that could offer reliability, non-invasiveness, portability, and easy usability, radial basis functions based on cervical accelerometry signals were investigated.

Prevention of Spontaneous Seizure-like Events in Both in-silico and in-vitro Epilepsy Models.

In this paper, we apply the small perturbation control strategy for the prevention of seizure-like events (SLEs) characterized as lower dimensional possibly rhythmic (LPR) activities in both the coupled oscillators in-silico model and the in-vitro low magnesium rat hippocampal slice model. Utilizing the wavelet artificial neural network (WANN), state transitions towards SLEs can be predicted. Successful suppression of SLEs was achieved when brief control perturbations were applied to the field coupling portals of the coupled oscillators model and to the mossy fibers via extracellular field stimulating electrode, respectively.

A new approach to current density impedance imaging.

Current density impedance imaging (CDII) is a new impedance imaging technique that utilizes current density vector measurements made using magnetic resonance imager (MRI). CDII provides a simple mathematical expression for the gradient of the logarithm of conductivity, nablaln(sigma), at each point in a region where two current density vector has been measured. From the images of the gradient of the logarithm of conductivity, ln(sigma) can be reconstructed through integration and of sigma by a priori knowledge of the conductivity at a single point in the object.

MMG-based classification of muscle activity for prosthesis control.

We have previously proposed the use of "muscle sounds" or mechanomyography (MMG) as a reliable alternative measure of muscle activity with the main objective of facilitating the use of more comfortable and functional soft silicone sockets with below-elbow externally powered prosthesis. This work describes an integrated strategy where data and sensor fusion algorithms are combined to provide MMG-based detection, estimation and classification of muscle activity. The proposed strategy represents the first ever attempt to generate multiple output signals for practical prosthesis control using a MMG multisensor array embedded distally within a silicon soft socket.

Time-frequency analysis of visual evoked potentials by means of matching pursuit with chirplet atoms.

Detection of visual evoked potentials (VEP) elicited by repetitive stimuli is valuable in both laboratorial research and clinical practice. Therefore, knowing the characteristics of VEPs is of fundamental importance for adequate design of a signal detector. Usually, the signal is modeled as a steady-state VEP (ssVEP) consisting of the fundamental frequency and the higher harmonics, while ignoring the information contained in its transients (tVEP).

Modeling protein tandem mass spectrometry data with an extended linear regression strategy.

Tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) has emerged as a cornerstone of proteomics owing in part to robust spectral interpretation algorithm. The intensity patterns presented in mass spectra are useful information for identification of peptides and proteins. However, widely used algorithms can not predicate the peak intensity patterns exactly.