Automatic Procedure (automatic + procedure)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Use of automated microscopy for the detection of disseminated tumor cells in bone marrow samples

CYTOMETRY, Issue 4 2001
Elin Borgen
Abstract The use of automated microscopy has reached the maturity necessary for its routine use in the clinical pathology laboratory. In the following study we compared the performance of an automated microscope system (MDSÔ) with manual method for the detection and analysis of disseminated tumor cells present in bone marrow preparations from breast carcinoma patients. The MDS System detected rare disseminated tumor cells among bone marrow mononuclear cells with higher sensitivity than standard manual microscopy. Automated microscopy also proved to be a method of high reproducibility and precision, the advantage of which was clearly illustrated by problems of variability in manual screening. Accumulated results from two pathologists who had screened 120 clinical slides from breast cancer patients both by manual microscopy and by use of the MDS System revealed only two (3.8%) missed by the automatic procedure, whereas as many as 20 out of 52 positive samples (38%) were missed by manual screening. Cytometry (Comm. Clin. Cytometry) 46:215,221, 2001. © 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]


Kernel estimates of hazard functions for carcinoma data sets

ENVIRONMETRICS, Issue 3 2006
Ivana Horová
Abstract The present article focuses on kernel estimates of hazard functions and their derivatives. Our approach is based on the model introduced by Müller and Wang (1990). In order to estimate the hazard function in an effective manner an automatic procedure in a paper by Horová et al. (2002) is applied. The procedure chooses a bandwidth, a kernel and an order of a kernel. As a by-product we propose a special procedure for the estimation of the optimal bandwidth. This is applied to the carcinoma data sets kindly provided by the Masaryk Memorial Cancer Institute in Brno. Attention is also paid to the points of the most rapid change of the hazard function. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


The revenge of the Patterson methods.

JOURNAL OF APPLIED CRYSTALLOGRAPHY, Issue 2 2007

The Patterson techniques, recently developed by the same authors for the ab initio crystal structure solution of proteins, have been applied to single and multiple anomalous diffraction (SAD and MAD) data to find the substructure of the anomalous scatterers. An automatic procedure has been applied to a large set of test structures, some of which were originally solved with remarkable difficulty. In all cases, the procedure automatically leads to interpretable electron density maps. Patterson techniques have been compared with direct methods; the former seem to be more efficient than the latter, so confirming the results obtained for ab initio phasing, and disproving the common belief that they could only be applied to determine large equal-atom substructures with difficulty. [source]


Automatic inference of protein quaternary structure from crystals

JOURNAL OF APPLIED CRYSTALLOGRAPHY, Issue 5 2003
Hannes Ponstingl
The arrangement of the subunits in an oligomeric protein often cannot be inferred without ambiguity from crystallographic studies. The annotation of the functional assembly of protein structures in the Protein Data Bank (PDB) is incomplete and frequently inconsistent. Instructions for the reconstruction, by symmetry, of the functional assembly from the deposited coordinates are often absent. An automatic procedure is proposed for the inference of assembly structures that are likely to be physiologically relevant. The method scores crystal contacts by their contact size and chemical complementarity. The subunit assembly is then inferred from these scored contacts by a clustering procedure involving a single adjustable parameter. When predicting the oligomeric state for a non-redundant set of 55 monomeric and 163 oligomeric proteins from dimers up to hexamers, a classification error rate of 16% was observed. [source]


Solving crystal structures in P1: an automated procedure for finding an allowed origin in the correct space group

JOURNAL OF APPLIED CRYSTALLOGRAPHY, Issue 2 2000
Maria Cristina Burla
Crystal structure solution in P1 may be particularly suitable for complex crystal structures crystallizing in other space groups. However, additional efforts and human intervention are often necessary to locate correctly the structural model so obtained with respect to an allowed origin of the actual space group. An automatic procedure is described which is able to perform such a task, allowing the routine passage to the correct space group and the subsequent structure refinement. Some tests are presented proving the effectiveness of the procedure. [source]


Simultaneous preparation of 16, -[18F]fluoroestradiol-sulphamates in an automated module.

JOURNAL OF LABELLED COMPOUNDS AND RADIOPHARMACEUTICALS, Issue 10 2001
-[18F]fluoroestradiol-1, -sulphamate, A high-yield procedure for 1
Abstract After successfully synthesizing 16, -[18F]fluoroestradiol-3,17, -disulphamate in an automatic procedure, we studied the conditions for obtaining 16, -[18F]fluoroestradiol-monosulphamates in a similar manner. The described procedure can simultaneously provide approximately 3 GBq of 16, -[18F]fluoroestradiol-3-sulphamate and 1 GBq of 16, -[18F]fluoroestradiol-17, -sulphamate of high radiochemical purity. By treating 16, -[18F]fluoroestradiol-3,17, -disulphamate with Kryptofix 2.2.2 and potassium carbonate, 16, -[18F]fluoroestradiol-17, -sulphamate also becomes available at high radioactivity. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


The use of Artificial Neural Networks to classify primate vocalizations: a pilot study on black lemurs

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PRIMATOLOGY, Issue 4 2010
Luca Pozzi
Abstract The identification of the vocal repertoire of a species represents a crucial prerequisite for a correct interpretation of animal behavior. Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) have been widely used in behavioral sciences, and today are considered a valuable classification tool for reducing the level of subjectivity and allowing replicable results across different studies. However, to date, no studies have applied this tool to nonhuman primate vocalizations. Here, we apply for the first time ANNs, to discriminate the vocal repertoire in a primate species, Eulemur macaco macaco. We designed an automatic procedure to extract both spectral and temporal features from signals, and performed a comparative analysis between a supervised Multilayer Perceptron and two statistical approaches commonly used in primatology (Discriminant Function Analysis and Cluster Analysis), in order to explore pros and cons of these methods in bioacoustic classification. Our results show that ANNs were able to recognize all seven vocal categories previously described (92.5,95.6%) and perform better than either statistical analysis (76.1,88.4%). The results show that ANNs can provide an effective and robust method for automatic classification also in primates, suggesting that neural models can represent a valuable tool to contribute to a better understanding of primate vocal communication. The use of neural networks to identify primate vocalizations and the further development of this approach in studying primate communication are discussed. Am. J. Primatol. 72:337,348, 2010. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]


An augmented reality system to guide radio-frequency tumour ablation

COMPUTER ANIMATION AND VIRTUAL WORLDS (PREV: JNL OF VISUALISATION & COMPUTER ANIMATION), Issue 1 2005
S. Nicolau
Abstract Radio-frequency ablation is a difficult operative task that requires a precise needle positioning in the centre of the pathology. This article presents an augmented reality system for hepatic therapy guidance that superimposes in real-time 3D reconstructions (from CT acquisition) and a virtual model of the needle on external views of a patient. The superimposition of reconstructed models is performed with a 3D/2D registration based on radio-opaque markers stuck on to the patient's skin. The characteristics of the problem (accuracy, robustness and time processing) led us to develop automatic procedures to extract and match the markers and to track the needle in real time. Experimental studies confirmed that our algorithms are robust and reliable. Preliminary experiments conducted on a human abdomen phantom showed that our system is highly accurate (needle positioning error within 3,mm) and enables the surgeon to reach a target in less than 1 minute on average. Our next step will be to perform an in vivo evaluation. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Single-crystal structure validation with the program PLATON

JOURNAL OF APPLIED CRYSTALLOGRAPHY, Issue 1 2003
A. L. Spek
The results of a single-crystal structure determination when in CIF format can now be validated routinely by automatic procedures. In this way, many errors in published papers can be avoided. The validation software generates a set of ALERTS detailing issues to be addressed by the experimenter, author, referee and publication journal. Validation was pioneered by the IUCr journal Acta Crystallographica Section C and is currently standard procedure for structures submitted for publication in all IUCr journals. The implementation of validation procedures by other journals is in progress. This paper describes the concepts of validation and the classes of checks that are carried out by the program PLATON as part of the IUCr checkCIF facility. PLATON validation can be run at any stage of the structure refinement, independent of the structure determination package used, and is recommended for use as a routine tool during or at least at the completion of every structure determination. Two examples are discussed where proper validation procedures could have avoided the publication of incorrect structures that had serious consequences for the chemistry involved. [source]