The influence of thiamine and riboflavin on various spoilage microorganisms commonly found in beer
- Authors: Hucker, Barry , Christophersen, Melinda , Vriesekoop, Frank
- Date: 2017
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of the Institute of Brewing Vol. 123, no. 1 (2017), p. 24-30
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Beer is generally considered a stable product owing to its intrinsic ‘unfavourable’ conditions (hops, alcohol, low oxygen, etc.) that inhibit the growth of pathogenic microorganisms. However spoilage microorganism such as Lactobacillus brevis, Pediococcus damnosus, Acetobacter aceti, Zymomonas mobilis and various wild yeasts (e.g. Brettanomcyes spp.) can have significant detrimental effects on the organoleptic properties of the final product. The presence of essential vitamins, such as thiamine and riboflavin, can help to enhance the growth of these microorganisms, accelerating the rate of spoilage. The presence of thiamine had a noticeable effect on the lactic acid productivity of L. brevis and P. damnosus, acetaldehyde productivity of Z. mobilis and acetic acid production of Brettanomyces spp., while riboflavin enhanced 2,3-pentanedione production by P. damnosus and Brettanomyces spp. Copyright © 2017 The Institute of Brewing & Distilling. Copyright © 2017 The Institute of Brewing & Distilling
The new concussion in sport guidelines are here. But how do we get them out there?
- Authors: Finch, Caroline , White, Peta
- Date: 2017
- Type: Text , Journal article , Review
- Relation: British Journal of Sports Medicine Vol. 51, no. 24 (2017), p. 1734-1736
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
Towards the reduction of injury and illness in athletes : Defining our research priorities
- Authors: Finch, Caroline , Bahr, Roald , Drezner, Jonathan , Dvorak, Jiri , Engebretsen, Lars , Hewett, Timothy , Junge, Astrid , Khan, Karim , Macauley, Domhnall , Matheson, Gordon , McCrory, Paul , Verhagen, Evert
- Date: 2017
- Type: Text , Journal article , Review
- Relation: British Journal of Sports Medicine Vol. 51, no. 16 (2017), p. 1178-1182
- Relation: http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/1058737
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
What is the definition of sports-related concussion : A systematic review
- Authors: McCrory, Paul , Feddermann-Demont, Nina , Dvorak, Jiri , Cassidy, David , McIntosh, Andrew , Vos, Pieter , Echemendia, Ruben , Meeuwisse, Willem , Tarnutzer, Alexander
- Date: 2017
- Type: Text , Journal article , Review
- Relation: British Journal of Sports Medicine Vol. 51, no. 11 (2017), p. 877-887
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: Objectives: Various definitions for concussion have been proposed, each having its strengths and weaknesses. We reviewed and compared current definitions and identified criteria necessary for an operational definition of sports-related concussion (SRC) in preparation of the 5th Concussion Consensus Conference (Berlin, Germany). We also assessed the role of biomechanical studies in informing an operational definition of SRC. Design: This is a systematic literature review. Data sources: Data sources include MEDLINE, Embase, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Cochrane Central Register of Clinical Trials and SPORT Discus (accessed 14 September 2016). Eligibility criteria for selecting studies: Eligibility criteria were studies reporting (clinical) criteria for diagnosing SRC and studies containing SRC impact data. Results: Out of 1601 articles screened, 36 studies were included (2.2%), 14 reported on criteria for SRC definitions and 22 on biomechanical aspects of concussions. Six different operational definitions focusing on clinical findings and their dynamics were identified. Biomechanical studies were obtained almost exclusively on American football players. Angular and linear head accelerations linked to clinically confirmed concussions demonstrated considerable individual variation. Summary/conclusions: SRC is a traumatic brain injury that is defined as a complex pathophysiological process affecting the brain, induced by biomechanical forces with several common features that help define its nature. Limitations identified include that the current criteria for diagnosing SRC are clinically oriented and that there is no gold/standard to assess their diagnostic properties. A future, more valid definition of SRC would better identify concussed players by demonstrating high predictive positive/negative values. Currently, the use of helmet-based systems to study the biomechanics of SRC is limited to few collision sports. New approaches need to be developed to provide objective markers for SRC. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. All rights reserved.
Whose research agenda is it? Reconciling the views of researchers and sports stakeholders
- Authors: Finch, Caroline
- Date: 2017
- Type: Text , Journal article , Editorial
- Relation: British Journal of Sports Medicine Vol. 51, no. 1 (2017), p. 3-4
- Relation: http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/1058737
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: It is now widely recognised that it is important to involve a full range of stakeholders and other research end-users, from the outset when designing and implementing prevention programmes. As long ago as 2003, my team recognised that the views of those actively involved in sport should also be considered when setting research priorities. Findings from our survey of coaches and sports administrators have since informed the direction of much of our sports injury research over the following decade in community Australian Football. There will be similar examples from other sports, even if they have not been formally documented in the sports medicine literature.
3D Finite element modeling of circular reinforced concrete columns confined with FRP using a plasticity based formulation
- Authors: Piscesa, Bambang , Attard, Mario , Samani, Ali Khajeh
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Composite Structures Vol. 194, no. (2018), p. 478-493
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Strengthening reinforced concrete (RC) columns with external confining devices such as FRP wraps or steel tube is widely used in construction. By using external confining devices, both the strength and ductility of RC columns are significantly improved. However, numerical modeling to predict the capacity of strengthened RC columns is limited and often oversimplified. One of the biggest challenges in numerical modeling is to deal with unequal dilation between the concrete inner core (enclosed by both transverse steel and FRP wraps) and the concrete outer core (between the transverse steel and FRP wraps). Inaccurate modeling on the concrete dilatant behavior can lead to incorrect strength prediction. Sophisticated constitutive models which are able to model concrete dilation and robust modeling techniques are required. In this paper, three-dimensional non-linear finite element analysis (3D-NLFEA) of circular RC columns confined with conventional steel stirrups and FRP wraps is presented. In the FEA, the initial stiffness method with Process Modification (acceleration technique) is used to solve the equilibrium forces in the global solution. The constitutive model is based on the plasticity formulation proposed by the authors, which can capture the effective lateral modulus (EL) of the confining devices. This lateral modulus is obtained by observing the principal incremental stresses and strains at each element gauss point. It was found that, the lateral modulus is greatly affected by the boundary condition, dilatant behavior of the constitutive model and the Poisson's ratio of the external confining device. To validate the performance of the proposed model, several comparisons of the proposed model, using 3D-NLFEA, with experimental results is presented. The comparisons show that the predicted response using 3D-NLFEA and the experimental results of RC columns confined with FRP are in a good agreement.
A new cascaded multilevel inverter topology with galvanic isolation
- Authors: Hasan, Mubashwar , Abu-Siada, Ahmed , Islam, Syed , Dahidah, Mohamed
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications Vol. 54, no. 4 (2018), p. 3463-3472
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: IEEE This paper presents a new compact three-phase cascaded multilevel inverter (CMLI) topology with reduced device count and high frequency magnetic link. The proposed topology overcomes the predominant limitation of separate DC power supplies, which CMLI always require. The high frequency magnetic link also provides a galvanic isolation between the input and output sides of the inverter, which is essential for various grid-connected applications. The proposed topology utilizes an asymmetric inverter configuration that consists of cascaded H-bridge cells and a conventional three-phase two-level inverter. A toroidal core is employed for the high frequency magnetic link to ensure compact size and high-power density. Compared with counterpart CMLI topologies available in the literatures, the proposed inverter has the advantage of utilizing the least number of power electronic components without compromising the overall performance, particularly when a high number of output voltage levels is required. The feasibility of the proposed inverter is confirmed through extensive simulation and experimentally validated studies.
A novel concept for three-phase cascaded multilevel inverter topologies
- Authors: Hasan, Mubashwar , Abu-Siada, Ahmed , Islam, Syed , Muyeen, S.
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Energies Vol. 11, no. 2 (2018), p. 1-16
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: One of the key challenges in multilevel inverters (MLIs) design is to reduce the number of components used in the implementation while maximising the number of output voltage levels. This paper proposes a new concept that facilitates a device count reduction technique of existing cascaded MLIs. Moreover, the proposed concept can be utilised to extend existing single phase cascaded MLI topologies to three-phase structure without tripling the number of semiconductor components and input dc-supplies as per the current practice. The new generalized concept involves two stages; namely, cascaded stage and phase generator stage. The phase generator stage is a combination of a conventional three-phase two level inverter and three bi-directional switches while the cascaded stage can employ any existing cascaded topology. A laboratory prototype model is built and extensive experimental analyses are conducted to validate the feasibility of the proposed cascaded MLI concept.
A novel scaled boundary finite element formulation with stabilization and its application to image-based elastoplastic analysis
- Authors: He, Ke , Song, Chongmin , Ooi, Ean Tat
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering Vol. 115, no. 8 (2018), p. 956-985
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Digital images are increasingly being used as input data for computational analyses. This study presents an efficient numerical technique to perform image-based elastoplastic analysis of materials and structures. The quadtree decomposition algorithm is employed for image-based mesh generation, which is fully automatic and highly efficient. The quadtree cells are modeled by scaled boundary polytope elements, which eliminate the issue of hanging nodes faced by standard finite elements. A novel, simple, and efficient scaled boundary elastoplastic formulation with stablisation is developed. In this formulation, the return-mapping calculation is only required to be performed at a single point in a polytope element, which facilitates the computational efficiency of the elastoplastic analysis and simplicity of implementation. Numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the efficiency and accuracy of the proposed technique for performing the elastoplastic analysis of high-resolution images.
A technology review for regeneration of sulfur rich amine systems
- Authors: Garg, Bharti , Verheyen, Vincent , Pearson, Pauline , Feron, Paul , Cousins, Ashleigh
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article , Review
- Relation: International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control Vol. 75, no. (2018), p. 243-253
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Reducing the capital cost of post combustion CO2 capture by eliminating flue gas desulfurisation (FGD) pre-treatment, requires management of the amines preferential SO2 absorption. Novel technologies such as CS-Cap restrict the impact of SO2 to only a small fraction of the amine inventory resulting in high sulfate burden amines. Traditional thermal reclamation of these spent absorbents has advantages regarding simplicity, but ranks poorly for industrial ecology around PCC. These amines require low energy regeneration technologies compatible with their physico-chemical properties that also maximise the potential for valorising by-products. This review summarises the sulfur chemistry and outlines several amine reclamation processes. It assesses the status of established and novel regeneration technologies for their applicability to high sulfur loaded amines. Should deep sulfur removal be required, a hybrid approach with initial bulk removal (as product) followed by a polishing step to further reduce sulfur is prospective. A preliminary estimation of the relative cost of using standard reclamation methods for treating Sulfur loaded CS-Cap absorbent revealed the cost would increase due to its higher sulfate burden despite comparable treatment volumes. Research gaps are identified which would enable better comparison between the costs of traditional FGD versus higher reclamation costs for combined capture technologies.
Artificial neural network modeling and sensitivity analysis of performance and emissions in a compression ignition engine using biodiesel fuel
- Authors: Jaliliantabar, Farzad , Ghobadian, Barat , Najafi, Gholamhassan , Yusaf, Talal
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Energies Vol. 11, no. 9 (2018), p. 1-24
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: In the present research work, a neural network model has been developed to predict the exhaust emissions and performance of a compression ignition engine. The significance and novelty of the work, with respect to existing literature, is the application of sensitivity analysis and an artificial neural network (ANN) simultaneously in order to predict the engine parameters. The inputs of the model were engine load (0, 25, 50, 75 and 100%), engine speed (1700, 2100, 2500 and 2900 rpm) and the percent of biodiesel fuel derived from waste cooking oil in diesel fuel (B0, B5, B10, B15 and B20). The relationship between the input parameters and engine cylinder performance and emissions can be determined by the network. The global sensitivity analysis results show that all the investigated factors are effective on the created model and cannot be ignored. In addition, it is found that the most emissions decreased while using biodiesel fuel in the compression ignition engine.
Body mass index is negatively associated with telomere length : A collaborative cross-sectional meta-analysis of 87 observational studies
- Authors: Gielen, Marij , Hageman, Geja , Antoniou, Evangelia , Nordfjall, Katarina , Mangino, Massimo , Balasubramanyam, Muthuswamy , De Meyer, Tim de , Hendricks, Audrey , Giltay, Erik , Hunt, Steven , Nettleton, Jennifer , Salpea, Klelia , Diaz, Vanessa , Farzaneh-Far, Ramin , Atzmon, Gil , Harris, Sarah , Hou, Lifang , Gilley, David , Hovatta, Iiris , Kark, Jeremy , Nassar, Hisham , Kurz, David , Mather, Karen , Willeit, Peter , Zheng, Yun-Ling , Pavanello, Sofia , Demerath, Ellen , Rode, Line , Bunout, Daniel , Steptoe, Andrew , Boardman, Lisa , Marti, Amelia , Needham, Belinda , Zheng, Wei , Ramsey-Goldman, Rosalind , Pellatt, Andrew , Kaprio, Jaakko , Hofmann, Jonathan , Gieger, Christian , Paolisso, Giuseppe , Hjelmborg, Jacob , Mirabello, Lisa , Seeman, Teresa , Wong, Jason , Van Der Harst, Pim , Broer, Linda , Kronenberg, Florian , Kollerits, Barbara , Strandberg, Timo , Eisenberg, Dan , Duggan, Catherine , Verhoeven, Josine , Schaakxs, Roxanne , Zannolli, Raffaela , Dos Reis, Rosana , Charchar, Fadi , Tomaszewski, Maciej , Mons, Ute , Demuth, Ilja , Molli, Andrea , Cheng, Guo , Krasnienkov, Dmytro , D'Antono, Bianca , Kasielski, Marek , McDonnell, Barry , Ebstein, Richard , Sundquist, Kristina , Pare, Guillaume , Chong, Michael , Zeegers, Maurice
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition Vol. 108, no. 3 (2018), p. 453-475
- Relation: http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/1123472
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Background: Even before the onset of age-related diseases, obesity might be a contributing factor to the cumulative burden of oxidative stress and chronic inflammation throughout the life course. Obesity may therefore contribute to accelerated shortening of telomeres. Consequently, obese persons are more likely to have shorter telomeres, but the association between body mass index (BMI) and leukocyte telomere length (TL) might differ across the life span and between ethnicities and sexes. Objective: A collaborative cross-sectionalmeta-analysis of observational studies was conducted to investigate the associations between BMI and TL across the life span. Design: Eighty-seven distinct study samples were included in the meta-analysis capturing data from 146,114 individuals. Studyspecific age- and sex-adjusted regression coefficients were combined by using a random-effects model in which absolute [base pairs (bp)] and relative telomere to single-copy gene ratio (T/S ratio) TLs were regressed against BMI. Stratified analysis was performed by 3 age categories ("young": 18-60 y; "middle": 61-75 y; and "old": >75 y), sex, and ethnicity. Results: Each unit increase in BMI corresponded to a-3.99 bp (95% CI: -5.17, -2.81 bp) difference in TL in the total pooled sample; among young adults, each unit increase in BMI corresponded to a -7.67 bp (95% CI:-10.03,-5.31 bp) difference. Each unit increase in BMI corresponded to a -1.58 × 10-3 unit T/S ratio (0.16% decrease; 95% CI: -2.14 × 10-3, -1.01 × 10-3) difference in ageand sex-adjusted relative TL in the total pooled sample; among young adults, each unit increase in BMI corresponded to a -2.58 × 10-3 unit T/S ratio (0.26% decrease; 95% CI: -3.92 × 10-3, -1.25 × 10-3). The associations were predominantly for the white pooled population. No sex differences were observed. Conclusions: A higher BMI is associated with shorter telomeres, especially in younger individuals. The presently observed difference is not negligible. Meta-analyses of longitudinal studies evaluating change in body weight alongside change in TL arewarranted.
Continuous patient monitoring with a patient centric agent : A block architecture
- Authors: Uddin, Ashraf , Stranieri, Andrew , Gondal, Iqbal , Balasubramanian, Venki
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: IEEE Access Vol. 6, no. (2018), p. 32700-32726
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: The Internet of Things (IoT) has facilitated services without human intervention for a wide range of applications, including continuous remote patient monitoring (RPM). However, the complexity of RPM architectures, the size of data sets generated and limited power capacity of devices make RPM challenging. In this paper, we propose a tier-based End to End architecture for continuous patient monitoring that has a patient centric agent (PCA) as its center piece. The PCA manages a blockchain component to preserve privacy when data streaming from body area sensors needs to be stored securely. The PCA based architecture includes a lightweight communication protocol to enforce security of data through different segments of a continuous, real time patient monitoring architecture. The architecture includes the insertion of data into a personal blockchain to facilitate data sharing amongst healthcare professionals and integration into electronic health records while ensuring privacy is maintained. The blockchain is customized for RPM with modifications that include having the PCA select a Miner to reduce computational effort, enabling the PCA to manage multiple blockchains for the same patient, and the modification of each block with a prefix tree to minimize energy consumption and incorporate secure transaction payments. Simulation results demonstrate that security and privacy can be enhanced in RPM with the PCA based End to End architecture.
Detection of power transformer winding deformation using improved FRA based on binary morphology and extreme point variation
- Authors: Zhao, Zhongyong , Yao, Chenguo , Li, Chengxiang , Islam, Syed
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics Vol. 65, no. 4 (2018), p. 3509-3519
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: IEEE Frequency response analysis (FRA) has recently been developed as a widely accepted tool for power transformer winding mechanical deformation diagnosis, and has proven to be effective and powerful in many cases. However, there still exist problems regarding the application of FRA. FRA is a comparative method in which the measured FRA signature should be compared with its fingerprint. Small differences of FRA signatures in certain frequency bands might be produced by external disturbance, which hinders fault diagnosis. Additionally, the existing correlation coefficient indicator recommended by power industry standards cannot reflect key information of signatures, namely the extreme points. This paper proposes an improved FRA based on binary morphology and extreme point variation. Binary morphology is first introduced to extract the certain frequency bands of signatures with significant difference. A composite indicator of extreme point variation is adopted to realize the diagnosis of fault level. A ternary diagram is constructed by the area proportions of the binary image to identify winding faults, which has a potential to realize cluster analysis of fault types.
Development of flexible haptic forceps based on the electrohydraulic transmission system
- Authors: Ogawa, Kenji , Ibrahim, Yousef , Ohnishi, Kouhei
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics Vol. 14, no. 12 (2018), p. 5256-5267
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Minimally invasive surgery (MIS) has many benefits, e.g., unnecessary trauma and blood loss can be minimized by opening tiny surgery scars, recovery process of patients can be lessened, and the possibilities of complications can be decreased. The natural orifice transluminal surgery (NOTES) is one of the MIS surgical methodologies. NOTES surgery is performed using an endoscope. This methodology does not rely on making holes to patients' body to insert the medical instruments. Although some medical robots for NOTES have been proposed, current robots mainly suffer from the absence/limitation of haptic feedback to the surgeon's hands. In order to overcome this problem, this paper proposes electro hydraulic transmission system (EHTS) based forceps. The EHTS is a remote actuation system using fluid energy. By using the EHTS, the classical position and force transmission losses will not be influenced by the tube's shape. The validity of the proposal and its advantages have been experimentally verified and presented in this paper.
Development of flexible haptic forceps based on the electrohydraulic transmission system
- Authors: Ogawa, Kenji , Ibrahim, Yousef , Ohnishi, Kouhei
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics Vol. 14, no. 12 (2018), p. 5256-5267
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Minimally invasive surgery (MIS) has many benefits, e.g., unnecessary trauma and blood loss can be minimized by opening tiny surgery scars, recovery process of patients can be lessened, and the possibilities of complications can be decreased. The natural orifice transluminal surgery (NOTES) is one of the MIS surgical methodologies. NOTES surgery is performed using an endoscope. This methodology does not rely on making holes to patients' body to insert the medical instruments. Although some medical robots for NOTES have been proposed, current robots mainly suffer from the absence/limitation of haptic feedback to the surgeon's hands. In order to overcome this problem, this paper proposes electro hydraulic transmission system (EHTS) based forceps. The EHTS is a remote actuation system using fluid energy. By using the EHTS, the classical position and force transmission losses will not be influenced by the tube's shape. The validity of the proposal and its advantages have been experimentally verified and presented in this paper.
Effectiveness of online tailored advice to prevent running-related injuries and promote preventive behaviour in Dutch trail runners : A pragmatic randomised controlled trial
- Authors: Hespanhol, Luiz , van Mechelen, Willem , Verhagen, Evert
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: British journal of sports medicine Vol. 52, no. 13 (2018), p. 851-858
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: BACKGROUND: Trail running is popular worldwide, but there is no preventive intervention for running-related injury (RRI). AIM: To evaluate the effectiveness of adding online tailored advice (TrailS6 ) to general advice on (1) the prevention of RRIs and (2) the determinants and actual preventive behaviour in Dutch trail runners. METHODS: Two-arm randomised controlled trial over 6 months. 232 trail runners were randomly assigned to an intervention or control group. All participants received online general advice on RRI prevention 1 week after baseline. Every 2 weeks, participants in the intervention group received specific advice tailored to their RRI status. The control group received no further intervention. Bayesian mixed models were used to analyse the data. RESULTS: Trail runners in the intervention group sustained 13% fewer RRIs compared with those in the control group after 6 months of follow-up (absolute risk difference -13.1%, 95% Bayesian highest posterior credible interval (95% BCI) -23.3 to -3.1). A preventive benefit was observed in one out of eight trail runners who had received the online tailored advice for 6 months (number needed to treat 8, 95% BCI 3 to 22). No significant between-group difference was observed on the determinants and actual preventive behaviours. CONCLUSIONS: Online tailored advice prevented RRIs among Dutch trail runners. Therefore, online tailored advice may be used as a preventive component in multicomponent RRI prevention programmes. No effect was observed on determinants and actual preventive behaviours. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: The Netherlands National Trial Register (NTR5431).
Efficient video coding using visual sensitive information for HEVC coding standard
- Authors: Podder, Pallab , Paul, Manoranjan , Murshed, Manzur
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: IEEE Access Vol. 6, no. (2018), p. 75695-75708
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: The latest high efficiency video coding (HEVC) standard introduces a large number of inter-mode block partitioning modes. The HEVC reference test model (HM) uses partially exhaustive tree-structured mode selection, which still explores a large number of prediction unit (PU) modes for a coding unit (CU). This impacts on encoding time rise which deprives a number of electronic devices having limited processing resources to use various features of HEVC. By analyzing the homogeneity, residual, and different statistical correlation among modes, many researchers speed-up the encoding process through the number of PU mode reduction. However, these approaches could not demonstrate the similar rate-distortion (RD) performance with the HM due to their dependency on existing Lagrangian cost function (LCF) within the HEVC framework. In this paper, to avoid the complete dependency on LCF in the initial phase, we exploit visual sensitive foreground motion and spatial salient metric (FMSSM) in a block. To capture its motion and saliency features, we use the dynamic background and visual saliency modeling, respectively. According to the FMSSM values, a subset of PU modes is then explored for encoding the CU. This preprocessing phase is independent from the existing LCF. As the proposed coding technique further reduces the number of PU modes using two simple criteria (i.e., motion and saliency), it outperforms the HM in terms of encoding time reduction. As it also encodes the uncovered and static background areas using the dynamic background frame as a substituted reference frame, it does not sacrifice quality. Tested results reveal that the proposed method achieves 32% average encoding time reduction of the HM without any quality loss for a wide range of videos.
Enabling global exchange of groundwater data : GroundWaterML2 (GWML2)
- Authors: Brodaric, Boyan , Boisvert, Eric , Chery, Laurence , Dahlhaus, Peter , Grellet, Sylvain , Kmoch, Alexander , Létourneau, Francois , Lucido, Jessica , Simons, Bruce , Wagner, Bernhard
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Hydrogeology Journal Vol. 26, no. 3 (2018), p. 733-741
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: GWML2 is an international standard for the online exchange of groundwater data that addresses the problem of data heterogeneity. This problem makes groundwater data hard to find and use because the data are diversely structured and fragmented into numerous data silos. Overcoming data heterogeneity requires a common data format; however, until the development of GWML2, an appropriate international standard has been lacking. GWML2 represents key hydrogeological entities such as aquifers and water wells, as well as related measurements and groundwater flows. It is developed and tested by an international consortium of groundwater data providers from North America, Europe, and Australasia, and facilitates many forms of data exchange, information representation, and the development of online web portals and tools. © 2018, The Author(s).
Head impact velocities in FIS World Cup snowboarders and freestyle skiers : Do real-life impacts exceed helmet testing standards?
- Authors: Steenstrup, Sophie , Mok, Kam-Ming , McIntosh, Andrew , Bahr, Roald , Krosshaug, Tron
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: British Journal of Sports Medicine Vol. 52, no. 1 (2018), p. 32-40
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Introduction Prior to the 2013-2014 season, the International Ski Federation (FIS) increased the helmet testing speed from a minimum requirement of 5.4 to 6.8 m/s for alpine downhill, super-G and giant slalom and for freestyle ski cross, but not for the other freestyle disciplines or snowboarding. Whether this increased testing speed reflects impact velocities in real head injury situations on snow is unclear. We therefore investigated the injury mechanisms and gross head impact biomechanics in four real head injury situations among World Cup (WC) snowboard and freestyle athletes and compared these with helmet homologation laboratory test requirements. The helmets in the four cases complied with at least European Standards (EN) 1077 (Class B) or American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) F2040. Methods We analysed four head injury videos from the FIS Injury Surveillance System throughout eight WC seasons (2006-2014) in detail. We used motion analysis software to digitize the helmet's trajectory and estimated the head's kinematics in two dimensions, including directly preimpact and postimpact. Results All four impacts were to the occiput. In the four cases, the normal-to-slope preimpact velocity ranged from 7.0(±SD 0.2) m/s to 10.5±0.5 m/s and the normalto-slope velocity change ranged from 8.4±0.6 m/s to 11.7±0.7 m/s. The sagittal plane helmet angular velocity estimates indicated a large change in angular velocity (25.0±2.9 rad/s to 49.1±0.3 rad/s). Conclusion The estimated normal-to-slope preimpact velocity was higher than the current strictest helmet testing rule of 6.8 m/s in all four cases. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved.