Search results for "Observer"
showing 10 items of 345 documents
Evaluation of retro-reflective coating performance by reflectance and perceived relative brightness measurements
2011
Retro-reflective properties of six types and five different colors or retro-reflective materials were discussed in this paper. Reflectance optical indicatrix of samples was determined and compared to obtained psychophyisical data of perceived brightness of human observer. Microscopic structure of the retro-reflective active regions of RR's was studied. Statistically significant differences in reflectivity and brightness of various types and colors of RR's were found.
Prevalence and factors associated with bullying phenomenon among pre-adolescents attending first-grade secondary schools of Palermo, Italy, and a com…
2021
Abstract Background Bullying is recognized as one of the most significant social and health problems in the school environment for children and adolescents. In Italy, bullying involved 2 in 10 kids between 11–17 years that referred to have been bullied two or more times in a month. In Sicily, the estimated prevalence of children aged 11 to 15 that suffered at least one act of bullying in the last two months was 14% in 2011. Methods A questionnaire consisting of 30 items investigating physical, verbal and indirect bullying, observers of bullying, resiliency, and prosociality was administered to preadolescents of ten first-grade secondary schools within the Palermo Province in order to analyz…
Improved inter-observer agreement of an expert review panel in an oncology treatment trial--Insights from a structured interventional process.
2015
Abstract Purpose Oncologic imaging is a key for successful cancer treatment. While the quality assurance (QA) of image acquisition protocols has already been focussed, QA of reading and reporting offers still room for improvement. The latter was addressed in the context of a prospective multicentre trial on fluoro-deoxyglucose (FDG)–positron-emission tomography (PET)/CT-based chemoradiotherapy for locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Material and methods An expert panel was prospectively installed performing blinded reviews of mediastinal NSCLC involvement in FDG–PET/CT. Due to a high initial reporting inter-observer disagreement, the independent data monitoring committee (I…
A study on the reproducibility of cephalometric landmarks when undertaking a three-dimensional (3D) cephalometric analysis
2012
Objectives: Cone Beam Computerized Tomography (CBCT) allows the possibility of modifying some of the diagnostic tools used in orthodontics, such as cephalometry. The first step must be to study the characteristics of these devices in terms of accuracy and reliability of the most commonly used landmarks. The aims were 1- To assess intra and inter-observer reliability in the location of anatomical landmarks belonging to hard tissues of the skull in images taken with a CBCT device, 2- To determine which of those landmarks are more vs. less reliable and 3- To introduce planes of reference so as to create cephalometric analyses appropriated to the 3D reality. Study design: Fifteen patients who h…
The Mona Lisa effect: Testing the limits of perceptual robustness vis-à-vis slanted images
2014
We report three experiments that test the limits of the Mona Lisa effect. The gaze of a portrait that is looking at us appears to follow us around as we move with respect to the picture. Even if our position is shifted considerably to the side, or if the picture is severely slanted, do we feel the gaze to be directed at us? We determined the threshold where this effect breaks down to be maximally 70? of picture slant relative to the observer. Different factors modulate this remarkable robustness, among them being the display medium and the nature of the picture. The threshold was considerably lower when the picture was mounted on a physical surface as opposed to a computer simulation of sla…
Exploring relationships between pianists’ body movements, their expressive intentions, and structural elements of the music
2011
Body movements during music performance have been found to be indicative of the performer’s musical intentionality, and contribute to an observer’s perception of expressive playing. This study investigates the effect of structural elements of the score, and the playing of different levels of expression on body movements during a piano performance. Pianists were required to play the same piece in four different performance conditions. Their movements were tracked by an optical motion capture system, and the comparisons that were made between specific parts of the body used, performance condition, and musical score locations were subsequently statistically examined. We found that the head an…
A Synchronous Reference Frame Robust Predictive Current Control for Three-Phase Grid-Connected Inverters
2010
This paper presents a new predictive current control for three-phase grid-connected inverters in the synchronous reference frame. The control combines a deadbeat control law with a diagonal Luenberger observer to estimate the future value of the grid currents. It provides a decoupled control of the active and reactive power and offers robustness against the computational delay inherent in the digital implementation and against filter and grid-impedance uncertainties. This control exhibits a very fast current response while widely improving the gain and phase margins of the traditional predictive controllers.
An Online Observer for Minimization of Pulsating Torque in SMPM Motors.
2015
A persistent problem of surface mounted permanent magnet (SMPM) motors is the non-uniformity of the developed torque. Either the motor design or the motor control needs to be improved in order to minimize the periodic disturbances. This paper proposes a new control technique for reducing periodic disturbances in permanent magnet (PM) electro-mechanical actuators, by advancing a new observer/estimator paradigm. A recursive estimation algorithm is implemented for online control. The compensating signal is identified and added as feedback to the control signal of the servo motor. Compensation is evaluated for different values of the input signal, to show robustness of the proposed method.
Concordance Analysis
2011
Background In this article, we describe qualitative and quantitative methods for assessing the degree of agreement (concordance) between two measuring or rating techniques. An assessment of concordance is particularly important when a new measuring technique is introduced.
Identificación de Urgencias por Asma y Enfermedad Pulmonar Obstructiva Crónica en el Servicio de Urgencias de un Hospital. Estudio de Concordancia
1999
ResumenObjetivoAnalizar la concordancia de los resultados obtenidos en la identificación de los casos de asma y enfermedad pulmonar obstructiva crónica (EPOC) diagnosticados en las historias clínicas de urgencias del Hospital Clínico Universitario de Valencia.MétodosEn el contexto de un estudio más amplio sobre la relación entre urgencias por asma y EPOC y determinados factores de riesgo ambientales, se revisaron todas las historias clínicas de urgencias médicas de mayores de 14 años del Hospital Clínico Universitario de Valencia correspondientes a los años 1993 y 1994. Los observadores fueron dos diplomados en enfermería, previamente entrenados en el procedimiento de identificación de caso…