BackgroundLung cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide; it refers to the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells in the lung. A computed tomography (CT) scan of the thorax is the most sensitive method for detecting cancerous lung nodules. A lung nodule is a round lesion which can be either non-cancerous or cancerous. In the CT, the lung cancer is observed as round white shadow nodules. The possibility to obtain a manually accurate interpretation from CT scans demands a big effort by the radiologist and might be a fatiguing process. Therefore, the design of a computer-aided diagnosis (CADx) system would be helpful as a second opinion tool.MethodsThe stages of the proposed CADx are: a supervised extraction of the region of interest to eliminate the shape differences among CT images. The Daubechies db1, db2, and db4 wavelet transforms are computed with one and two levels of decomposition. After that, 19 features are computed from each wavelet sub-band. Then, the sub-band and attribute selection is performed. As a result, 11 features are selected and combined in pairs as inputs to the support vector machine (SVM), which is used to distinguish CT images containing cancerous nodules from those not containing nodules.ResultsThe clinical data set used for experiments consists of 45 CT scans from ELCAP and LIDC. For the training stage 61 CT images were used (36 with cancerous lung nodules and 25 without lung nodules). The system performance was tested with 45 CT scans (23 CT scans with lung nodules and 22 without nodules), different from that used for training. The results obtained show that the methodology successfully classifies cancerous nodules with a diameter from 2 mm to 30 mm. The total preciseness obtained was 82%; the sensitivity was 90.90%, whereas the specificity was 73.91%.ConclusionsThe CADx system presented is competitive with other literature systems in terms of sensitivity. The system reduces the complexity of classification by not performing the typical segmentation stage of most CADx systems. Additionally, the novelty of the algorithm is the use of a wavelet feature descriptor.

Original scientific paperGenerally, the flexible robot system can be modeled as the two-mass system which consists of a motor and load connected by a spring. Thus, its elasticity causes resonance in the system. By using the conventional PID controller, this method cannot perform well in this situation. Much research has proceeded with the aim of reducing vibration. A new effective control method, the resonance ratio control, has been introduced as a new way to guarantee the robustness and suppress the oscillation during task executions for a position and force control. In this paper, three techniques are proposed for improving the performance of resonance ratio control. Firstly, a new multi encoder based disturbance observer (MEDOB) is shown to estimate the disturbance force on the load side. The proposed observer is not necessary to identify the nominal spring coefficient. Secondly, coefficient diagram method (CDM) has been applied to calculate a new gain of the force controller. A new resonance ratio gain has been presented as 2.0. Finally, the MEDOB and load side disturbance observer (LDOB) are employed to identify a spring coefficient of flexible robot system. By using the proposed identification method, it is simple to identify the spring coefficient and easy to implement in the real flexible robot system. The effectiveness of the proposed identification method is verified by simulation and experimental results.Key words: Disturbance observer, Two-mass system, Coefficient diagram method, Resonance ratio control Sinteza bezsenzornog upravljanja silom za fleksibilnog robota korištenjem upravljanja omjerom rezonancija temeljenim na metodi koeficijentnog dijagrama. Općenito, sustav fleksibilnog robota može se modelirati kao dvomaseni sustav koji se sastoji od motora i tereta povezanih oprugom. Rezonancija sustava posljedica je elastičnosti opruge. Korištenje konvencionalnog PID regulatora ne daje zadovoljavajuće performanse u ovoj situaciji. Provedena su mnoga istraživanja s ciljem smanjenja vibracija. Tako je uvedena nova učinkovita metoda upravljanja, upravljanje omjerom rezonancija, kao novi način da se osigura robusnost i priguše oscilacije tijekom izvršavanja zadatka putem upravljanja pozicijom i silom. U ovom radu predložene su tri tehnike za poboljšanje performansi upravljanja omjerom rezonancija. Prvo, pokazano je kako novi observer poremećaja temeljen na više enkodera (MEDOB) estimira poremećajnu silu na strani tereta. Predloženi observer nije nužan za identifikaciju nominalnog koeficijenta opruge. Drugo, metoda koeficijentnog dijagrama (CDM) je primijenjena za proračun novog pojačanja regulatora sile. Iznos 2.0 je odre en kao novo pojačanje omjera rezonancija. Konačno, MEDOB i observer poremećaja na strani tereta (LDOB) korišteni su za identifikaciju koeficijenta opruge sustava fleksibilnog robota. Predložena metoda identifikacije jednostavna je za implementaciju na stvarni sustav, te se pomoću nje jednostavno identificira koeficijent opruge. Učinkovitost predložene metode identifikacije provjerena je...

This paper proposes a mobile augmented reality (MAR) system aimed to support students in the use of a milling and lathe machines at a university manufacturing laboratory. The system incorporates 3D models of machinery and tools, text instructions, animations and videos with real processes to enrich the information obtained from the real world. The elements are shown when the user points the camera of a mobile device to specific parts of the machinery, where augmented reality (AR) markers are placed. The main goals of the project were (1) create an AR system that guides inexperienced users in machinery handling and (2) measure the acceptance rate and performance of the system in the school manufacturing laboratory. The guidance is provided by means of virtual information about how to operate the machinery when the trainer is not present. The system was implemented as a mobile app for Android devices and it was tested by 16 students and teachers at the university manufacturing laboratory through a survey. The results of this study revealed that students, laboratory technicians, and teachers had positive opinions and good acceptance about the use of the MAR system in the manufacturing laboratory. ß 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 24:967-981, 2016; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/cae;

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