Background: Automatic Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (automatic CPAP, APAP) is an effective treatment option for Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome (OSAS). The differentiation of obstructive and central respiratory events is crucial in adjusting the optimal pressure in this treatment mode. In this pilot study we evaluated a new automatic CPAP algorithm in OSAS patients. Methods: Fourteen (14...

This paper describes a pilot project being undertaken by Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) and Deutsche Welle (DW) in cooperation with Fraunhofer Institute for Media Communication (IMK). The project goal is to ascertain the practical usefulness of automatic approaches for the structuring and indexing of digital audio archives of radio broadcasters. Automatic approaches have an enormous potential to ...

application of automatic systems, including discharge measurement technology is one of the effective methods for improving delivery management, water use efficiency, flexibility, and performance of irrigation networks. several aspects such as hydraulic, technical, physical, environmental, economic, social, and managerial, have significant impact on these systems selection. due to diversity of t...

BACKGROUND The identification of obstructive and central hypopneas is considered challenging in clinical practice. Presently, obstructive and central hypopneas are usually not differentiated or scores lack reliability due to the technical limitations of standard polysomnography. Esophageal pressure measurement is the gold-standard for identifying these events but its invasiveness deters its usa...

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology has a requirement for complex and evolving systems to manage its weather forecasting, monitoring and alerts. A needs analysis has indicated that due to the nature of the domain, where the environment is constantly changing and there are numerous different goals, intelligent multi agent systems technology is highly appropriate. This paper describes a pilot pr...

The Bouncy Knee concept has previously proved of value when fitted to stabilised knee units of active amputees. The stance phase flex-extend action afforded by a Bouncy Knee increased the symmetry of gait and also gave better tolerance to slopes and uneven ground. A bouncy function has now been incorporated into a knee of the semi-automatic knee lock design in a pilot laboratory trial involving...

Electrical companies routinely inspect their overhead lines by helicopter. Current detailed aerial inspection approach uses trained inspectors who fly aboard helicopters to inspect the lines with binoculars and cameras, while recording the data in a logbook. The procedure is performed while the helicopter hovers over and around power lines and structures, creating an element of danger for the p...

This paper describes QAST, a pilot track of CLEF 2007 aimed at evaluating the task of Question Answering in Speech Transcripts. The paper summarizes the evaluation framework, the systems that participated and the results achieved. These results have shown that question answering technology can be useful to deal with spontaneous speech transcripts, so for manually transcribed speech as for autom...

In this paper we present an approach towards supporting the ergonomic design of aircraft cockpits by predicting the probability that pilots might miss relevant information due to routine learning effects combined with non-adequate placement of display instruments. The approach is based on an executable cognitive pilot model. We focus on the cognitive interaction between (1) rule-based processin...