Publications

Al-Jumaily, A & Ramadanny, B 2009, Human Localisation in Built Environments: Intelligent systems based RF, First edition, LAP Lambert Academic Publishing, Germany.
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The human location estimation in indoor enjoinment with good accuracy is required in many health care, surviving, and monitoring activities. The available methodologies are not providing good estimation accuracy or based on making big change in the environment infrastructure. This book, describes the methodologies used for human localisation in an indoor environment based on the strength of radio frequency signal. The book contribution is development of three techniques for representing the signal strength map and extracting location of a user from these maps. A strategy based on a particle filter, fuzzy logic, and neural networks for localisation are evaluated. A series of experiments conducted in a real-life environment and the viability of using radio frequency signal strength for localisation has been investigated and future research directions also highlight it. The methods will help shed some light on this new and exciting localisation system, and should be especially useful to professionals in Communications and intelligent systems fields, or anyone else who may be considering utilizing real time built environment human location applications.

Jin, ZM, Williams, S, Tipper, J, Ingham, E & Fisher, J 2009, 'Tribology of metal-on-metal artificial hip joints' in Biomechanical Systems Technology: Muscular Skeletal Systems, pp. 279-307.
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© 2009 by World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Natural hip joints are briefly introduced, followed by artificial hip replacements. The main problem of osteolysis and loosening of prosthetic components in current polyethylene hip joints is briefly discussed, and alternative bearings, such as metal-on-metal, are introduced. A brief account of the historical development of metal-on-metal hip joint replacements is presented. An overview is given to tribology and its scope, as well as associated techniques. Detailed discussion of results and important findings for metal-onmetal hip implants are presented for contact mechanics, friction, lubrication, and wear. The importance of integrated studies of friction, wear, and lubrication is demonstrated in order to understand the complex tribology mechanism in metal-on-metal hip implants. Concerns about the long-term potential adverse biological reactions due to metallic ions and debris are discussed, and the importance of coupled tribological-biological studies of metal-on-metal hip implants is emphasized. Finally, future developments of both tribological techniques and new hip joint implants are summarized.

Khushaba, RN, Al-Ani, A & Al-Jumaily, A 2009, 'Feature Subset Selection Using Differential Evolution' in Koppen, M, Kasabov, N & Coghill, G (eds), Advances in Neuro-Information Processing - Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer, Germany, pp. 103-110.
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One of the fundamental motivations for feature selection is to overcome the curse of dimensionality. A novel feature selection algorithm is developed in this chapter based on a combination of Differential Evolution (DE) optimization technique and statistical feature distribution measures. The new algorithm, referred to as DEFS, utilizes the DE float number optimizer in a combinatorial optimization problem like feature selection. The proposed DEFS highly reduces the computational cost while at the same time proves to present a powerful performance. The DEFS is tested as a search procedure on different datasets with varying dimensionality. Practical results indicate the significance of the proposed DEFS in terms of solutions optimality and memory requirements.

L.Tipper, J, Richards, L, Ingham, E & Fisher, J 2009, 'Characterization of UHMWPE Wear Particles' in UHMWPE Biomaterials Handbook, pp. 409-422.
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This chapter clearly shows that there are many published methods suitable for separating and characterizing ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) wear particles from tissues and simulator lubricants. Initial attempts to characterize UHMWPE wear particles released into the periprosthetic tissues around failing implants used histological staining and polarized light microscopy to identify UHMWPE. Many of these methods successfully remove proteins and lipids from particles, preserve particle morphology, and yield similar particle size distributions. Clearly, advances in technology are continually being employed and the limitations of each method are now widely recognized. Particle characterization, in terms of size and volume distributions and particle contribution to the osteolytic potential of new and existing UHMWPE materials, is recognized by academic and industrial stakeholders as being an important step in the preclinical assessment of total joint replacements. However, there is no one standard method for isolation or characterization of UHMWPE particles that can be applied to both tissues and simulator lubricant samples, and this would clearly be advantageous. © 2009 Copyright © 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Arndt, GM, Dossey, L, Cullen, LM, Lai, A, Druker, R, Eisbacher, M, Zhang, C, Tran, NT, Fan, H, Retzlaff, K, Bittner, A & Raponi, M 2009, 'Characterization of global microRNA expression reveals oncogenic potential of miR-145 in metastatic colorectal cancer', BMC Cancer, vol. 9, no. 374, pp. 1-17.
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Background MicroRNAs (MiRNAs) are short non-coding RNAs that control protein expression through various mechanisms. Their altered expression has been shown to be associated with various cancers. The aim of this study was to profile miRNA expression in colorectal cancer (CRC) and to analyze the function of specific miRNAs in CRC cells. MirVana miRNA Bioarrays were used to determine the miRNA expression profile in eight CRC cell line models, 45 human CRC samples of different stages, and four matched normal colon tissue samples. SW620 CRC cells were stably transduced with miR-143 or miR-145 expression vectors and analyzed in vitro for cell proliferation, cell differentiation and anchorage-independent growth. Signalling pathways associated with differentially expressed miRNAs were identified using a gene set enrichment analysis.

Baxter, RM, Steinbeck, MJ, Tipper, JL, Parvizi, J, Marcolongo, M & Kurtz, SM 2009, 'Comparison of Periprosthetic Tissue Digestion Methods for Ultra-High Molecular Weight Polyethylene Wear Debris Extraction', JOURNAL OF BIOMEDICAL MATERIALS RESEARCH PART B-APPLIED BIOMATERIALS, vol. 91B, no. 1, pp. 409-418.
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Beveridge, NJ, Tooney, PA, Carroll, AP, Tran, NT & Cairns, MJ 2009, 'Down-regulation of miR-17 family expression in response to retinoic acid induced neuronal differentiation', Cellular Signalling, vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 1837-1845.
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Whole-genome microRNA and gene expression analyses were used to monitor changes during retinoic acid induced differentiation of neuroblasts in vitro. Interestingly, the entire miR-17 family was over-represented among the down-regulated miRNA. The implications of these changes are considerable, as target gene prediction suggests that the miR-17 family is involved in the regulation of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway, synaptic plasticity and other markers of neuronal differentiation. Significantly, many of the target responses predicted by changes in miRNA expression were supported by the observed changes in gene expression. As expected, markers of neuronal differentiation such as anti-apoptotic protein B-cell lymphoma 2 (BCL2), myocyte enhancer factor-2D (MEF2D) and zipper protein kinase (MAP3K12; aka ZPK/MUK/DLK) were each up-regulated in response to differentiation. The expression of these genes was also reduced in response to miR-17 and miR-20a transfection, and more specifically they were also shown to contain functional miRNA recognition elements for members of the miR-17 family by reporter gene assay. This suggests that the miR-17 family have an integral role in fine-tuning the pathways involved in the regulation of neuronal differentiation

Biankin, A, Kench, J, Colvin, E, Segara, D, Scarlett, C, Nguyen, N, Chang, D, Morey, A, Lee, C, Pinese, M, Kuo, S, Susanto, J, Cosman, P, Lindeman, G, Visvader, J, Nguyen, T, Merrett, N, Warusavitarne, J, Musgrove, E, Henshall, S & Sutherland, RL 2009, 'Expression Of S100A2 Calcium-Binding Protein Predicts Response To Pancreatectomy For Pancreatic Cancer', Gastroenterology, vol. 137, no. 2, pp. 558-568.
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BACKGROUND & AIMS: Current methods of preoperative staging and predicting outcome following pancreatectomy for pancreatic cancer (PC) are inadequate. We evaluated the utility of multiple biomarkers from distinct biologic pathways as potential predictive markers of response to pancreatectomy and patient survival. METHODS: We assessed the relationship of candidate biomarkers known, or suspected, to be aberrantly expressed in PC, with disease-specific survival and response to therapy in a cohort of 601 patients. RESULTS: Of the 17 candidate biomarkers examined, only elevated expression of S100A2 was an independent predictor of survival in both the training (n = 162) and validation sets (n = 439; hazard ratio [HR], 2.19; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.48-3.25; P < .0001) when assessed in a multivariate model with clinical variables. Patients with high S100A2 expressing tumors had no survival benefit with pancreatectomy compared with those with locally advanced disease, whereas those without high S100A2 expression had a survival advantage of 10.6 months (19.4 vs 8.8 months, respectively) and a HR of 3.23 (95% Cl: 2.39-4.33; P < .0001). Of significance, patients with S100A2-negative tumors had a significant survival benefit from pancreatectomy even in the presence of involved surgical margins (median, 15.7 months; P = .0007) or lymph node metastases (median, 17.4 months; P = .0002). CONCLUSIONS: S100A2 expression is a good predictor of response to pancreatectomy for PC anti suggests that high S100A2 expression may be a marker of a metastatic phenotype. Prospective measurement of S100A2 expression in diagnostic biopsy samples has potential clinical Utility as a predictive marker of response to pancreatectomy and other therapies that target locoregional disease.

Bishop, AN, Anderson, B, Fidan, B, Pathirana, P & Mao, G 2009, 'Bearing-Only Localization using Geometrically Constrained Optimization', IEEE Transactions On Aerospace And Electronic Systems, vol. 45, no. 1, pp. 308-320.
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We examine the problem of optimal bearing-only localization of a single target using synchronous measurements from multiple sensors. We approach the problem by forming geometric relationships between the measured parameters and their corresponding errors in the relevant emitter localization scenarios. Specifically, we derive a geometric constraint equation on the measurement errors in such a scenario. Using this constraint, we formulate the localization task as a constrained optimization problem that can be performed on the measurements in order to provide the optimal values such that the solution is consistent with the underlying geometry. We illustrate and confirm the advantages of our approach through simulation, offering detailed comparison with traditional maximum likelihood (TML) estimation.

Bliuc, D, Nguyen, N, Milch, V, Nguyen, T, Eisman, J & Center, J 2009, 'Mortality Risk Associated With Low-Trauma Osteoporotic Fracture And Subsequent Fracture In Men And Women', JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association, vol. 301, no. 5, pp. 513-521.
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Bridge, P, Pocock, NA, Nguyen, T, Munns, C, Cowell, CT & Thompson, MW 2009, 'Prediction of Appendicular Skeletal and Fat Mass in Children: Excellent Concordance of Dual-energy X-ray Absorptiometry and Magnetic Resonance Imaging', JOURNAL OF PEDIATRIC ENDOCRINOLOGY & METABOLISM, vol. 22, no. 9, pp. 795-804.

Carroll, TJ, Barton, J, Hsu, M & Lee, M 2009, 'The effect of strength training on the force of twitches evoked by corticospinal stimulation in humans', Acta Physiologica, vol. 197, no. 2, pp. 161-173.
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Aim: Although there is considerable evidence that strength training causes adaptations in the central nervous system, many details remain unclear. Here we studied neuromuscular responses to strength training of the wrist by recording electromyographic and twitch responses to transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and cervicomedullary stimulation of the corticospinal tract. Methods: Seventeen participants performed 4 weeks (12 sessions) of strength training for the radial deviator (RD) muscles of the wrist (n = 8) or control training without external load (n = 9). TMS recruitment curves were constructed from stimuli at five to eight intensities ranging between 15% below resting motor threshold and maximal stimulator output, both at rest and during isometric wrist extension (EXT) and RD at 10% and 50% of maximal voluntary contraction (MVC). Responses to weak TMS and cervicomedullary stimulation (set to produce a response of 10% maximal M wave amplitude during 10% MVC EXT contraction) were also compared at contraction strengths ranging from 10% to 75% MVC. Results: Isometric strength increased following strength training (10.7% for the RD MVC, 8.8% for the EXT MVC), but not control training. Strength training also significantly increased the amplitude of TMS- and cervicomedullary-evoked twitches during low-force contractions. Increases in the force-generating capacity of the wrist extensor muscles are unlikely to account for this finding because training did not affect the amplitude of twitches elicited by supra-maximal nerve stimulation. Conclusion: The data suggest that strength training induces adaptations that increase the net gain of corticospinal-motor neuronal projections to the trained muscles. © 2009 Scandinavian Physiological Society.

Cheng, TM, Savkin, AV, Celler, BG, Su, SW & Wang, N 2009, 'Universal algorithm for exercise rate estimation in walking, cycling, and rowing using triaxial accelerometry', Electronics Letters, vol. 45, no. 8, pp. 394-395.
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A technique that can reliably monitor exercise intensity plays an important role for the effectiveness and safety of an exercise prescription. A universal algorithm for the recursive estimation of exercise rate during a variety of aerobic exercises using measurements from a body-mounted triaxial accelerometer (TA) is proposed. Information about the type of exercise is not required by the algorithm and the TA can be mounted at the same location regardless of the exercise type. The algorithm involves period detection and data fusion. Experimental results demonstrate that the algorithm is effective for common aerobic exercises.

Chou, J, Shimmon, R & Ben-Nissan, B 2009, 'Bisphosphonate determination using H-1-NMR spectroscopy for biomedical applications', Journal Of Tissue Engineering And Regenerative Medicine, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 92-96.
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Bisphosphonate is known to be a very active drug in the treatment of osteoporosis and bone regeneration. A new method has been developed, utilizing nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to identify and measure the amount of bisphosphonate in solution. A standard reference with similar functional group to that of the bisphosphonate was chosen and applied in the experimentation. The results showed that the use of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (H-1-NMR) in determining the solvent residues of various pharmaceutical drugs has proved to be effective. Unlike chromatography, it is possible to use a universal reference standard as an internal standard assayed by quantitative NMR. Using the same theory, this method is capable of both identifying and quantifying the bisphosphonate in various solutions. This paper is the first publication showing this unique measurement method, which can be used in a range of pharmaceutical and biomedical applications.

Cole, C, Sobala, A, Lu, C, Thatcher, S, Bowman, A, Brown, J, Green, P, Barton, GJ & Hutvagner, GJ 2009, 'Filtering of deep sequencing data reveals the existence of abundant Dicer-dependent small RNAs derived from tRNAs', RNA, vol. 15, no. 12, pp. 2147-2160.
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Deep sequencing technologies such as Illumina, SOLiD, and 454 platforms have become very powerful tools in discovering and quantifying small RNAs in diverse organisms. Sequencing small RNA fractions always identifies RNAs derived from abundant RNA specie

Frost, S, Nguyen, N, Center, J, Eisman, J & Nguyen, T 2009, 'Timing Of Repeat Bmd Measurements: Development Of An Absolute Risk-Based Prognostic Model', Journal Of Bone And Mineral Research, vol. 24, no. 11, pp. 1800-1807.
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This study attempted to address the following questions: for an individual who is at present, given their current age and BMD level, what is the individual's risk of fracture and when is nonosteoporotic. the ideal time to repeat a BMD measurement? Nonosteoporotic women (n = 1008) and men (n = 750) over the age of 60 in 1,989 from the Dubbo Osteoporosis Epidemiology Study were monitored until one of the following outcomes occurred: (1) BMD reached "osteoporosis" level (i.e., T-scores <= -2.5) or (2) an incident fragility fracture. During the follow-up period (average, 7 yr), 346 women (34%) and 160 men (21%) developed osteoporosis or sustained a low-trauma fracture. The risk of osteoporosis or fracture increased with advancing age (women: RR/10 yr, 1.3; 95% CI, 1.1-1.6; men: RR/10 yr, 2.3, 95% CI, 1.7-2.9) and lower BMD levels (women: RR per -0.12 g/cm(2) 3.2; 95% CI, 2.6-4.1; RR per -0.12 g/cm(2) 2.6; 95% CI, 2.0-3.3). Using the predicted risk (of osteoporosis or fracture) of 10% as a cut-off level for repeating BMD measurement, the estimated time to reach the cut-off level varied from 1.5 (for an 80-yr-old woman with a T-score of -2.2) to 10.6 yr (for a 60-yr-old man with a T-score of 0). These results suggest that, based on an individual's current age and BMD T-score, it is possible to estimate the optimal time to repeat BMD testing for the individual. The prognostic model and approach presented in this study may help improve the individualization and management of osteoporosis.

Hasbi, A, Fan, T, Alijaniaram, M, Nguyen, T, Perreault, ML, O'Dowd, BF & George, SR 2009, 'Calcium signaling cascade links dopamine D1-D2 receptor heteromer to striatal BDNF production and neuronal growth', Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 106, no. 50, pp. 21377-21382.
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Although the perturbation of either the dopaminergic system or brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) levels has been linked to important neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders, there is no known signaling pathway linking these two major players.Wefound that the exclusive stimulation of the dopamine D1-D2 receptor heteromer, which we identified in striatal neurons and adult rat brain by using confocal FRET, led to the activation of a signaling cascade that links dopamine signaling to BDNF production and neuronal growth through a cascade of four steps: (i) mobilization of intracellular calcium through Gq, phospholipase C, and inositol trisphosphate, (ii) rapid activation of cytosolic and nuclear calcium/calmodulin-dependent kinase IIα, (iii) increased BDNF expression, and (iv) accelerated morphological maturation and differentiation of striatal neurons, marked by increased microtubule-associated protein 2 production. These effects, although robust in striatal neurons from D5-/- mice, were absent in neurons from D1-/- mice. We also demonstrated that this signaling cascade was activated in adult rat brain, although with regional specificity, being largely limited to the nucleus accumbens. This dopaminergic pathway regulating neuronal growth and maturation through BDNF may have considerable significance in disorders such as drug addiction, schizophrenia, and depression.

Ho-pham, L, Nguyen, N & Nguyen, T 2009, 'Effect Of Vegetarian Diets On Bone Mineral Density: A Bayesian Meta-Analysis', American Journal Of Clinical Nutrition, vol. 90, no. 4, pp. 943-950.
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Background: The association between vegetarian diets and bone mineral density (BMD) is controversial because of conflicting findings from previous studies. Objective: The aim of this study was to estimate the effect of vegetarian diets on BMD by using a meta-analytic approach. Design: A systematic electronic literature search was conducted to identify all relevant articles on the association between vegetarian diet and BMD. Nine studies of 2749 subjects (1880 women and 869 men) were included in the analysis. Traditional and Bayesian methods of meta-analysis were applied to synthesize the data. Results: Overall, BMD was approximate to 4% lower in vegetarians than in omnivores (95% CI: 2%, 7%) at both the femoral neck and the lumbar spine. Compared with omnivores, vegans had a significantly lower lumbar spine BMD (6% lower; 95% CI: 2%, 9%), which was more pronounced than in lactoovovegetarians (2% lower; 95% CI: 1%, 4%). The probability that BMD was >= 5% lower in vegetarians than in omnivores (or approximate to 0.3 SD) was 42% for the femoral neck and 32% for the lumbar spine. There was no evidence of publication bias. There was a moderate degree of between-study heterogeneity; the coefficient of heterogeneity varied between 46% and 51%. Conclusion: The results suggest that vegetarian diets, particularly vegan diets, are associated with lower BMD, but the magnitude of the association is clinically insignificant.

Ho-pham, L, Nguyen, N, Vu, B, Pham, H & Nguyen, T 2009, 'Prevalence And Risk Factors Of Radiographic Vertebral Fracture In Postmenopausal Vietnamese Women', Bone, vol. 45, no. 2, pp. 213-217.
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Ho-Pham, LT, Nguyen, PLT, Le, TTT, Doan, TAT, Tran, NT, Le, TA & Nguyen, TV 2009, 'Veganism, bone mineral density, and body composition: a study in Buddhist nuns', OSTEOPOROSIS INTERNATIONAL, vol. 20, no. 12, pp. 2087-2093.
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Khushaba, RN, Al-Jumaily, A & Al-Ani, A 2009, 'Dimensionality Reduction with Neuro-Fuzzy Discriminant Analysis', International Journal of Computational Intelligence, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 225-232.
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One of the most important tasks in any pattern recognition system is to find an informative, yet small, subset of features with enhanced discriminatory power. In this paper, a new neuro-fuzzy discriminant analysis based feature projection technique is presented based on a two stages hybrid of Neural Networks, optimized with Differential Evolution (DE), and a proposed Fuzzy Linear Discriminant Analysis (FLDA) technique. Although dimensionality reduction via FLDA can present a set of well clustered features in the reduced space, but like any version of the existing DAs it assumes that the original data set is linearly separable, which is not the case with many real world problems. In order to overcome this problem, the first stage of the proposed technique maps the initially extracted features in a nonlinear manner into a new domain, with larger dimensionality, in which the features are linearly separable. FLDA acts then on these linearly separable features to further reduce the dimensionality. The proposed combination, referred to as NFDA, is validated on a prosthetic device control problem with Electroencephalogram (EEG) datasets collected from 5 subjects achieving a maximum testing accuracy of 85.7% for a three classes of EEG based imaginations of movements.

Khushaba, RN, Al-Jumaily, A & Al-Ani, A 2009, 'Evolutionary Fuzzy Discriminant Analysis Feature Projection Technique in Myoelectric Control', Pattern Recognition Letters, vol. 30, no. 7, pp. 699-707.
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The controller of a multifunction prosthetic hand usually employs a pattern recognition scheme to discriminate between the myoelectric signals (MES) from different classes of the forearm movements. The MES is recorded using a multichannel approach that makes the feature vector size very large. Hence a dimensionality reduction technique is needed to identify an informative moderate size feature set. This paper proposes a novel feature projection technique based on a combination of fisher linear discriminant analysis (LDA), fuzzy logic (FL), and differential evolution (DE) optimization technique. The new technique, DEFLDA, assigns different membership degrees to the data points in order to reduce the effect of overlapping points in the discrimination process. Furthermore, an optimized weighting scheme is presented in which certain weights are assigned to the features according to their contribution in the discrimination process. The proposed DEFLDA is tested on different datasets and compared with other projection techniques to prove its functionality.

Khushaba, RN, Alsukker, AS, Al-Ani, A, Al-Jumaily, A & Zomaya, AY 2009, 'A Novel Swarm-Based Feature Selection Algorithm in Multifunction Myoelectric Control', Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, vol. 20, no. 4/5, pp. 175-185.
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Accurate and computationally efficient myoelectric control strategies have been the focus of a great deal of research in recent years. Although many attempts exist in literature to develop such strategies, deficiencies still exist. One of the major challenges in myoelectric control is finding an optimal feature set that can best discriminate between classes. However, since the myoelectric signal is recorded using multi channels, the feature vector size can become very large. Hence a dimensionality reduction method is needed to identify an informative, yet small size feature set. This paper presents a new feature selection method based on modifying the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm with the inclusion of Mutual Information (MI) measure. The new method, called BPSOMI, is a mixture of filter and wrapper approaches of feature selection. In order to prove its efficiency, the proposed method is tested against other dimensionality reduction techniques proving powerful classification accuracy.

Lai, A, Cairns, MJ, Tran, N, Zhang, H-P, Cullen, L & Arndt, GM 2009, 'RNA Modulators of Complex Phenotypes in Mammalian Cells', PLOS ONE, vol. 4, no. 3.
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Lai, A, Cairns, MJ, Tran, NT, Zhang, H, Cullen, L & Arndt, GM 2009, 'RNA modulators of complex phenotypes in mammalian cells', PLoS ONE, vol. 487, no. 3.
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RNA-mediated gene silencing, in the form of RNA interference (RNAi) or microRNAs (miRNAs) has provided novel tools for gene discovery and validation in mammalian cells. Here, we report on the construction and application of a random small RNA expression library for use in identifying small interfering RNA (siRNA) effectors that can modify complex cellular phenotypes in mammalian cells. The library is based in a retroviral vector and uses convergent promoters to produce unique small complementary RNAs. Using this library, we identify a range of small RNA-encoding gene inserts that overcome resistance to 5-fluorouracil (5-FU)- or tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-a)- induced cell death in colorectal cancer cells. We demonstrate the utility of this technology platform by identifying a key RNA effector, in the form of a siRNA, which overcomes cell death induced by the chemotherapeutic 5-FU. The technology described has the potential to identify both functional RNA modulators capable of altering physiological systems and the cellular target genes altered by these modulators.

Lee, M, Gandevia, SC & Carroll, TJ 2009, 'Short-term strength training does not change cortical voluntary activation', Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, vol. 41, no. 7, pp. 1452-1460.
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PURPOSE: The neural mechanisms responsible for strength improvement in the early phase of strength training are unknown. One hypothesis is that strength increases because of increased neural drive to the trained muscles. Here, we used twitch interpolation to assess voluntary activation before and after a 4-wk strength training program. METHODS:: Twelve volunteers performed unilateral strength training for the right wrist abductors (three times per week). Control subjects (n = 11) practiced the same movement without resistance. We assessed voluntary activation of the trained muscles during wrist abduction and extension contractions using twitch interpolation with motor nerve and motor cortical stimulation. RESULTS:: Strength training increased wrist abduction maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) force for the trained hand by 11.0% (±8.7, P < 0.01). MVC of the untrained wrist was unchanged. There were no significant changes in wrist extension MVC force in either group. During submaximal wrist abduction, but not extension contractions, the average size of the superimposed twitches produced by cortical stimulation was significantly larger after strength training (P < 0.01). Furthermore, the direction of the twitches produced by cortical stimulation during wrist abductions and maximal wrist extension shifted toward abduction (P = 0.04). There were neither significant changes in voluntary activation measured during MVC with motor nerve or motor cortical stimulation nor changes in the amplitude of evoked EMG responses to motor cortical or motor nerve stimulation. CONCLUSIONS:: Four weeks of strength training produced a small increase in MVC that was specific to the training direction. Although maximal voluntary activation did not change with short-term strength training, the changes in direction and amplitude of cortically evoked twitches suggest that motor cortical stimulation (and presumably volition) can generate motor output more effectively to the trained muscles.

Lee, M, Gandevia, SC & Carroll, TJ 2009, 'Unilateral strength training increases voluntary activation of the opposite untrained limb', Clinical Neurophysiology, vol. 120, no. 4, pp. 802-808.
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Objective: We investigated whether an increase in neural drive from the motor cortex contributes to the cross-limb transfer of strength that can occur after unilateral strength training. Methods: Twitch interpolation was performed with transcranial magnetic stimulation to assess changes in strength and cortical voluntary activation in the untrained left wrist, before and after 4 weeks of unilateral strength-training involving maximal voluntary isometric wrist extension contractions (MVCs) for the right wrist (n = 10, control group = 10). Results: Wrist extension MVC force increased in both the trained (31.5 ± 18%, mean ± SD, p < 0.001) and untrained wrist (8.2 ± 9.7%, p = 0.02), whereas wrist abduction MVC did not change significantly. The amplitude of the superimposed twitches evoked during extension MVCs decreased by 35% (±20%, p < 0.01), which contributed to a significant increase in voluntary activation (2.9 ± 3.5%, p < 0.01). Electromyographic responses to cortical and peripheral stimulation were unchanged by training. There were no significant changes for the control group which did not train. Conclusion: Unilateral strength training increased the capacity of the motor cortex to drive the homogolous untrained muscles. Significance: The data show for the first time that an increase in cortical drive contributes to the contralateral strength training effect. © 2009 International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology.

Mironov, V, Zhang, J, Gentile, C, Brakke, K, Trusk, T, Jakab, K, Forgacs, G, Kasyanov, V, Visconti, RP & Markwald, RR 2009, 'Designer 'blueprint' for vascular trees: Morphology evolution of vascular tissue constructs', Virtual and Physical Prototyping, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 63-74.
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Organ printing is a variant of the biomedical application of rapid prototyping technology or layer-by-layer additive biofabrication of 3D tissue and organ constructs using self-assembled tissue spheroids as building blocks. Bioengineering of perfusable intraorgan branched vascular trees incorporated into 3D tissue constructs is essential for the survival of bioprinted thick 3D tissues and organs. In order to design the optimal 'blueprint' for digital bioprinting of intraorgan branched vascular trees, the coefficients of tissue retraction associated with post-printing vascular tissue spheroid fusion and remodelling must be determined and incorporated into the original CAD. Using living tissue spheroids assembled into ring-like and tube-like vascular tissue constructs, the coefficient of tissue retraction has been experimentally evaluated. It has been shown that the internal diameter of ring-like and the height of tubular-like tissue constructs are significantly reduced during tissue spheroid fusion. During the tissue fusion process, the individual tissue spheroids also change their shape from ball-like to a conus-like form. A simple formula for the calculation of the necessary number of tissue spheroids for biofabrication of ring-like structures of desirable diameter has been deduced. These data provide sufficient information to design optimal CAD for bioprinted branched vascular trees of desirable final geometry and size.

Nguyen, HT & Su, SW 2009, 'Conditions for triangular decoupling control', INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CONTROL, vol. 82, no. 9, pp. 1575-1581.
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Nguyen, HT & Su, SW 2009, 'Conditions for triangular decoupling control', International Journal of Control, vol. 82, no. 9, pp. 1-7.
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The main purpose of this article is to explore the relationship of two existing conditions for the triangular decoupling problem. The first one is the triangular-diagonal-dominance condition proposed by Hung and Anderson. The second one is the stable coprime factorisation-described condition proposed by Gomez and Goodwin, which has been proven as a necessary and sufficient condition for the triangular decoupling problem. This article proves that the two conditions are actually equivalent. It also provides easy-to-use criteria for assessment of the solvability of the triangular decoupling problem.

Nguyen, HTT, Von Schoultz, B, Pham, DMT, Nguyen, DB, Le, QH, Nguyen, DV, Hirschberg, AL & Nguyen, TV 2009, 'Peak bone mineral density in Vietnamese women', Archives of Osteoporosis, vol. 4, no. 1-2, pp. 9-15.
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This cross-sectional study showed that peak bone mineral density in Vietnamese women is comparable to that in Caucasian women; however, the prevalence of osteoporosis in post-menopausal Vietnamese women was slightly higher than in Caucasian women. The age of achieving peak bone mass in Vietnamese women was between 26 and 30 years. Introduction: While peak bone mass and its determinants have been well-documented in Caucasian populations, little has been studied in Asian populations. The present study was designed to estimate the peak bone mineral density (BMD), age of its attainment, and to examine the prevalence of osteoporosis in Vietnamese women aged 50+. Methods: The study was designed as a cross-sectional study with 328 women aged between 10 and 65 years (average age: 41) who were randomly selected from two districts around Hanoi city according to a stratified sampling scheme. BMD at the lumbar spine, femoral neck and total hip was measured by a DXA instrument (GE Lunar Prodigy, WI, USA). BMD was modeled as a cubic function of age, from which peak BMD and age at peak BMD were estimated. Bootstrap method was utilized to estimate the 95% confidence interval of peak BMD and age at peak BMD. From the peak BMD, T-score was calculated for each woman, and using the World Health Organization criteria, any woman with femoral neck BMD T-score ≤ -2.5 was classified as having osteoporosis. Results: Peak BMD was estimated at 1.16 g/cm2 (standard deviation [SD]: 0.13 g/cm2) at the lumbar spine, 1.02 g/cm2 (SD 0.12) at the total hip, and 0.94 g/cm 2 (SD 0.11) at the femoral neck. In the cubic polynomial model, the age at peak BMD was estimated to range between 27 and 29 years. The prevalence of osteoporosis among those aged between 50 and 65 years was 23%. This prevalence was higher than in Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Caucasian populations. Conclusion: These data suggest that although the peak BMD in Vietnamese women is comparable to, the prevalence of osteoporosis is hig...

Nguyen, T, Chandrashekar, K, Qin, Z, Parent, A & Zhang, J 2009, 'Epidemiology Of Intracranial Aneurysms Of Mississippi: A 10-Year (1997-2007) Retrospective Study', Journal of Stroke & Cerebrovascular Diseases, vol. 18, no. 5, pp. 374-380.
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Background: Despite massive efforts, progress so far has been modest in isolating the genetic determinants for intracranial aneurysm (IA). More detailed epidemiology data might be essential for successful genome-wide association study. Here, we aimed to investigate epidemiology and identify the key risk factors associated with the pathogenesis of IA in a large specific population. Methods: We investigated the epidemiology and analyzed the risk factors of IA pathogenesis by using an International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision database search of the patients treated at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, MS, within the past 10-year period (1998-2007). All recruited patients were interviewed to assess multiple risk factors and comorbidities (hypertension, tobacco abuse, females sex, diabetes mellitus, coronary artery disease, coronary obstructive pulmonary disease, alcohol abuse, stroke, hyperlipidemia, illicit drug use, and family history). Result: In this retrospective study, we identified several significant risk factors among well-defined human subjects. The 3 major risk factors identified for our IA population are hypertension, tobacco abuse, and female sex. However, African American race was not a significant risk factor in our study. Furthermore, top two risk factors (hypertension, tobacco abuse) were found to be highly associated with familial cases. Conclusions: In this study, using a specific and well-defined large population, we reported that some key risk factors were further confirmed to be strongly associated with the pathogenesis of IA whereas further investigation into racial factors is apparently needed. Our finding of the confounding effects of top risks with familial cases further complicated the genetic analysis of IA.

Nguyen, TV 2009, 'Calcium supplement and bone loss', OSTEOPOROSIS INTERNATIONAL, vol. 20, no. 12, pp. 2149-2149.
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Pham, H, Dang, D, Minh, N, Nguyen, D & Nguyen, T 2009, 'Correlates Of Environmental Factors And Human Plague: An Ecological Study In Vietnam', International Journal Of Epidemiology, vol. 38, no. 6, pp. 1634-1641.
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Methods The study included all 510 communes of the Central Highlands region (with a total population of similar to 4 million) where 95% of incidence of plague cases in Vietnam had been reported from 1997 through 2002. Plague was clinically ascertained by using a standard protocol by WHO. Data on domestic fleas and rodents were obtained by using traps and periodic surveillance in accordance with the WHO guidelines. Temperature, duration of sunshine, rainfall and humidity were recorded as monthly averages by local meteorological stations. The association between these ecological factors and plague was assessed by using the Poisson regression model. Results From 1997 through 2002, 472 cases of plague were reported, of whom 24 (5.1%) died. The incidence of plague peaked during the dry season, with similar to 63% of cases occurring from February through April. The risk of plague occurrence was associated with an increased monthly flea index (RR and 95% CI: 1.93; 1.61-2.33 for months with the flea index > 1) and increased rodent density (RR 1.23; 1.15-1.32 per each 3% increase in density). Moreover, the risk of plague increased during the dry season (RR 2.07; 1.64-2.62), when rainfall fell < 10 mm (RR 1.44; 1.17-1.77). Conclusions These data suggest that the flea index, rodent density and rainfall could be used as ecological indicators of plague risk in Vietnam. The data also suggest that the occurrence of plague in Vietnam's Central Highlands is likely resulted from multiple causes that remain to be delineated.

Pham, TD, Brandl, M & Beck, D 2009, 'Fuzzy declustering-based vector quantization', Pattern Recognition, vol. 42, no. 11, pp. 2570-2577.
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Vector quantization is a useful approach for multi-dimensional data compression and pattern classification. One of the most popular techniques for vector quantization design is the LBG (Linde, Buzo, Gray) algorithm. To address the problem of producing poor estimate of vector centroids which are subjected to biased data in vector quantization; we propose a fuzzy declustering strategy for the LBG algorithm. The proposed technique calculates appropriate declustering weights to adjust the global data distribution. Using the result of fuzzy declustering-based vector quantization design, we incorporate the notion of fuzzy partition entropy into the distortion measures that can be useful for classification of spectral features. Experimental results obtained from simulated and real data sets demonstrate the effective performance of the proposed approach. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Saez de Adana, F, Gutierrez, O, Navarro, MA & Mohan, AS 2009, 'Efficient Time-Domain Ray-Tracing Technique for the Analysis of Ultra-Wideband Indoor Environments including Lossy Materials and Multiple Effects', INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION.
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Styrkarsdottir, U, Halldorsson, BV, Gretarsdottir, S, Gudbjartsson, DF, Walters, GB, Ingvarsson, T, Jonsdottir, T, Saemundsdottir, J, Snorradottir, S, Center, JR, Nguyen, TV, Alexandersen, P, Gulcher, JR, Eisman, JA, Christiansen, C, Sigurdsson, G, Kong, A, Thorsteinsdottir, U & Stefansson, K 2009, 'New sequence variants associated with bone mineral density', NATURE GENETICS, vol. 41, no. 1, pp. 15-17.
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Su, SW, Celler, BG, Savkin, AV, Nguyen, HT, Cheng, TM, Guo, Y & Wang, L 2009, 'Transient and steady state estimation of human oxygen uptake based on noninvasive portable sensor measurements', Medical & Biological Engineering & Computing, vol. 47, no. 10, pp. 1111-1117.
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The main motivation of this study is to establish an ambulatory cardio-respiratory analysis system for the monitoring and evaluation of exercise and regular daily physical activity. We explored the estimation of oxygen uptake by using noninvasive portable sensors. These sensors are easy to use but may suffer from malfunctions under free living environments. A promising solution is to combine sensors with different measuring mechanisms to improve both reliability and accuracy of the estimation results. For this purpose, we selected a wireless heart rate sensor and a tri-axial accelerometer to form a complementary sensor platform. We analyzed the relationship between oxygen uptake measured by gas analysis and data collected from the simple portable sensors using multivariable nonlinear modeling approaches. It was observed that the resulting nonlinear multivariable model could not only achieve a better estimate compared with single input single output models, but also had greater potential to improve reliability.

Subramony, SH, Nguyen, TV, Langford, L, Lin, X, Parent, AD & Zhang, J 2009, 'Identification of a new form of autosomal dominant spastic paraplegia', CLINICAL GENETICS, vol. 76, no. 1, pp. 113-116.
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Teymourtash, AR & Ebrahimi Warkiani, M 2009, 'Natural convection over a non-isothermal vertical flat plate in supercritical fluids', Scientia Iranica, vol. 16, no. 6 B, pp. 470-478.
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In many applications, convection heat transfer is coupled with conduction and radiation heat transfer, which generate temperature gradients along the walls and may greatly affect natural convection heat transfer. The main objective of this study is to calculate the heat-transfer characteristics for natural convection from a non-isothermal vertical flat plate into a supercritical fluid. The influence of the non-uniformity of wall temperature on the heat transfer by natural convection along a vertical plate, having a linearly distributed temperature (characterized by the slope S) is also investigated. The thermal expansion coefficient is considered as a function of the temperature, the pressure, the van der Waals constants and the compressibility factor. The trends of the curves obtained with this equation and with values from tables of thermodynamic properties were similar and diverged at a critical point. These features confirmed the validity of this equation. Then, the governing systems of partial differential equations are solved numerically using the finite difference method. The local Nusselt number was then calculated and plotted as a function of the local Rayleigh number. It was observed that a positive slope of temperature distribution increases the heat transfer rate and a negative slope decreases it. © Sharif University of Technology, December 2009.

Teymourtash, AR & Warkiani, ME 2009, 'Natural Convection over a Non-Isothermal Vertical Flat Plate in Supercritical Fluids', SCIENTIA IRANICA TRANSACTION B-MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, vol. 16, no. 6, pp. 470-478.

Tran, B, Nguyen, N, Center, J, Eisman, J & Nguyen, T 2009, 'Enhancement Of Absolute Fracture Risk Prognosis With Genetic Marker: The Collagen I Alpha 1 Gene', Calcified Tissue International, vol. 85, no. 5, pp. 379-388.
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Tran, NT 2009, 'Fast and simple micro-RNA northern blots', Biochemistry Insights, vol. 2, pp. 1-3.
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RNA northern blots provide robust measurements of gene expression. The simple northern blot technique described in this report has been optimised to provide rapid, reproducible detection and analysis of mature and precursor forms of microRNAs. This protocol economises on the use of commercially available components and secondly reduces the hybridisation step to 2 hours.

Van Landingham, M, Nguyen, TV, Roberts, A, Parent, AD & Zhang, J 2009, 'Risk factors of congenital hydrocephalus: a 10 year retrospective study', JOURNAL OF NEUROLOGY NEUROSURGERY AND PSYCHIATRY, vol. 80, no. 2, pp. 213-217.
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Wang, L, Su, SW, Celler, BG, Chan, GS, Cheng, TM & Savkin, AV 2009, 'Assessing the human cardiovascular response to moderate exercise', Physiological Measurement, vol. 30, pp. 227-244.
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This study aims to quantitatively describe the steady-state relationships among percentage changes in key central cardiovascular variables (i.e. stroke volume, heart rate (HR), total peripheral resistance and cardiac output), measured using non-invasive means, in response to moderate exercise, and the oxygen uptake rate, using a new nonlinear regression approachâsupport vector regression.

Wirth, MA, Klotz, C, Deffenbaugh, DL, McNulty, D, Richards, L & Tipper, JL 2009, 'Cross-linked glenoid prosthesis: A wear comparison to conventional glenoid prosthesis with wear particulate analysis', JOURNAL OF SHOULDER AND ELBOW SURGERY, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 130-137.
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Wong, M, Dobbins, T, Tseung, J, Tran, NT, Lee, C, O'Brien, C, Clark, J & Rose, B 2009, 'Oestrogen receptor beta expression in pleomorphic adenomas of the parotid gland', Journal Of Clinical Pathology, vol. 62, no. 9, pp. 789-793.
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Aims: Pleomorphic adenomas of the salivary gland have gender and age distributions suggesting that oestrogen has a causal role. However, oestrogen receptor (ER)alpha is expressed at low levels in normal salivary gland tissues and data from salivary gland

Yuan, C, Jin, Z, Tipper, JL & Yan, X 2009, 'Numerical surface characterization of wear debris from artificial joints using atomic force microscopy', CHINESE SCIENCE BULLETIN, vol. 54, no. 24, pp. 4583-4588.
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Zhang, X, Cairns, MJ, Rose, B, O'Brien, C, Shannon, K, Clark, J, Gamble, J & Tran, NT 2009, 'Alterations in miRNA processing and expression in pleomorphic adenomas of the salivary gland', International Journal of Cancer, vol. 124, no. 12, pp. 2855-2863.
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Genome-wide microRNA (miRNA) expression profiling of salivary gland pleomorphic adenomas revealed a distinct expression signature consisting largely of upregulated miRNAs compared with matched normal tissue. Microarray data were confirmed by quantitative

Abedin, MJ & Mohan, AS 2009, 'Use of Smart Antennas for the Localization of RFID Reader', APMC: 2009 ASIA PACIFIC MICROWAVE CONFERENCE, VOLS 1-5, Asia Pacific Microwave Conference 2009, IEEE, Singapore, SINGAPORE, pp. 1036-+.
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Ahmad, MY & Sanagavarapu, AM 2009, 'RFID reader localization using passive RFID tags', Proceedings of the Asia-Pacific Microwave Conference 2009, Asia-Pacific Microwave Conference, IEEE, Suntec City Singapore, Singapore., pp. 606-609.
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Abstract - This paper describes an indoor wireless localization method of an RFID reader using passive tags placed at known locations. The reader location is estimated using the received signal strength indication (RSSI) and trilateration. However, in an indoor wireless environment, the RSSI undergoes fading due the presence of unavoidable scatterers. Hence, trilateration under such fading environments would cause errors in localization. In this paper, we examine techniques to reduce the error of the estimated reader positions.

Al-Jumaily, A & Olivares, R 2009, 'Electromyogram (EMG) Driven System Based Virtual Reality for Prosthetic and Rehabilitation Devices', The 11th International Conference on Information Integration and Web-based Applications & Services (iiWAS2009)( ACM), Information Integration and Web-based Applications and Services, The Association for Computing Machinery, Malaysia, pp. 580-584.
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The users of current prosthetic and rehabilitation devices are facing problems to adapt to their new hosts or not receiving any bio-feedback despite rehabilitation process and retraining, particularly when working with Electromyogram (EMG) signals. In characterizing virtual human limbs, as a potential prosthetic device in 3D virtual reality, patients are able to familiarize themselves with their new appendage and its capabilities in a virtual training environment or can see their movements intention. This paper presents a Virtual Reality (VR) based design and implementation of a below-shoulder 3D human arm capable of 10-class EMG based motions driven system of biomedical EMG signal. The method considers a signal classification output as potential control stimulus to drive the virtual prosthetic prototype. A hierarchical design methodology is adopted based on anatomical structure, congruent with Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) architecture. The resulting simulation is based on a portable, self-contained VR model implementation paired with an instrumental virtual control-select board capable of actuating any combinations of singular or paired kinematic 10-class EMG motions. The built model allows for multiple degree of freedom profiles as the classes can be activated independently or in conjunction with others allowing enhanced arm movement.

Al-Jumaily, A & Olivares, RA 2009, 'Electromyogram (EMG) driven system based virtual reality for prosthetic and rehabilitation devices', iiWAS2009 - The 11th International Conference on Information Integration and Web-based Applications and Services, pp. 582-586.
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The users of current prosthetic and rehabilitation devices are facing problems to adapt to their new hosts or not receiving any bio-feedback despite rehabilitation process and retraining, particularly when working with Electromyogram (EMG) signals. In characterizing virtual human limbs, as a potential prosthetic device in 3D virtual reality, patients are able to familiarize themselves with their new appendage and its capabilities in a virtual training environment or can see their movements' intention. This paper presents a Virtual Reality (VR) based design and implementation of a below-shoulder 3D human arm capable of 10-class EMG based motions driven system of biomedical EMG signal. The method considers a signal classification output as potential control stimulus to drive the virtual prosthetic prototype. A hierarchical design methodology is adopted based on anatomical structure, congruent with Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) architecture. The resulting simulation is based on a portable, self-contained VR model implementation paired with an instrumental virtual control-select board capable of actuating any combinations of singular or paired kinematic 10-class EMG motions. The built model allows for multiple degree of freedom profiles as the classes can be activated independently or in conjunction with others allowing enhanced arm movement. © 2010 ACM.

Basiri, M, Bishop, AN & Jensfelt, P 2009, 'Distributed control of triangular sensor formations with angle-only constraints', ISSNIP 2009 - Proceedings of 2009 5th International Conference on Intelligent Sensors, Sensor Networks and Information Processing, pp. 121-126.
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This paper considers the coupled formation control of three mobile agents moving in the plane. Each agent has only local inter-agent bearing knowledge and is required to maintain a specified angular separation relative to its neighbors. The problem considered in this paper differs from similar problems in the literature since no inter-agent distance measurements are employed and the desired formation is specified entirely by the internal triangle angles. Each agent's control law is distributed and based only on its locally measured bearings. A convergence result is established which guarantees global convergence of the formation to the desired formation shape. © 2009 IEEE.

Beck, D & Wong, STC 2009, 'Conference scence: Wake-up call for the engineering and biomedical science communities in nanomedicine', Nanomedicine, pp. 515-517.
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The IEEE-NIH 4th life Science Systems and Applications Workshop 2009 (LISSA '09) was jointly organized by the IEEE LISSA Technical Committee and the NIH Nano Task Force. It was endorsed by the NIH Biomedical Information Science and Technology Initiative (BISTI) and the National Library of Medicine. The workshop was held in the Natcher Conference Center on the NIH campus in Bethesda, MD, USA. It took place on the 9-10 April, 2009, during the NIH NanoWeek and had approximately 200 delegates from around the globe (including North America, Europe, Asia and Australia) from both engineering and biomedical science disciplines. The conference featured around 40 talks, including nine plenary speakers emphasizing current state-of-the-art nanotechnology practices, developments and industry applications. All talks were scheduled in three oral and seven special sessions, as well as three breakout sessions. In addition, the interactive poster sessions hosted over 30 abstracts and attracted much attention from the audience; these sessions were readily used by many attendees to connect with colleagues of similar interest. In this article, we provide some of the highlights from the workshop. © 2009 Future Medicine Ltd.

Beck, D, Zhou, X, Pham, T, Sabatini, B & Wong, STC 2009, 'An image driven systems biology approach for neurodegenerative disease studies in the TSC-mTOR pathway', 2009 IEEE/NIH Life Science Systems and Applications Workshop, LiSSA 2009, pp. 36-39.
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In this brief paper we present an overview of the TSC-mTOR pathway and its importance in neurodegenerative disease (ND). We illustrate the influence of ND on dendritic spine morphology. Then we discuss some details of functional gene networks (FGN) and use this information to propose an image driven systems biology approach for the construction of a FGN for ND. We conclude on its importance and the prospective outcome of our study. © 2009 IEEE.

Bishop, AN & Jensfelt, P 2009, 'A stochastically stable solution to the problem of robocentric mapping', Proceedings - IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, pp. 1615-1622.
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This paper provides a novel solution for robocentric mapping using an autonomous mobile robot. The robot dynamic model is the standard unicycle model and the robot is assumed to measure both the range and relative bearing to the landmarks. The algorithm introduced in this paper relies on a coordinate transformation and an extended Kalman filter like algorithm. The coordinate transformation considered in this paper has not been previously considered for robocentric mapping applications. Moreover, we provide a rigorous stochastic stability analysis of the filter employed and we examine the conditions under which the mean-square estimation error converges to a steady-state value. © 2009 IEEE.

Bishop, AN & Jensfelt, P 2009, 'An optimality analysis of sensor-target geometries for signal strength based localization', ISSNIP 2009 - Proceedings of 2009 5th International Conference on Intelligent Sensors, Sensor Networks and Information Processing, pp. 127-132.
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In this paper we characterize the bounds on localization accuracy in signal strength based localization. In particular, we provide a novel and rigorous analysis of the relative receiver-transmitter geometry and the effect of this geometry on the potential localization performance. We show that uniformly spacing sensors around the target is not optimal if the sensor-target ranges are not identical and is not necessary in any case. Indeed, we show that in general the optimal sensor-target geometry for signal strength based localization is not unique. © 2009 IEEE.

Bishop, AN, Savkin, AV & Pathirana, PN 2007, 'Vision based target tracking using robust linear filtering', 2007 European Control Conference, ECC 2007, 2007 European Control Conference (ECC), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc., Kos, pp. 1442-1447.
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The use of perspective projection in tracking a target from a video stream involves nonlinear observations. The target dynamics, however, are modeled in Cartesian coordinates and result in a linear system. In this paper we provide a robust version of a linear Kalman filter and perform a measurement conversion technique on the nonlinear optical measurements. We show that our linear robust filter significantly outperforms the Extended Kalman Filter. Moreover, we prove that the state estimation error is bounded in a probabilistic sense.

Bliuc, D, Nguyen, ND, Nguyen, TV, Eisman, JA & Center, JR 2009, 'Role of bone density and clinical risk factors in mortality risk following all osteoporotic fractures in elderly women and men: An 18-year prospective study from Dubbo Osteoporosis Epidemiology Study', BONE, 2nd Joint Meeting of the International-Bone-and-Mineral-Society/Australian-New-Zealand-Bone-and-Mineral-Society, ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC, Sydney, AUSTRALIA, pp. S21-S22.
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Boberg, A, Bishop, AN & Jensfelt, P 2009, 'Robocentric mapping and localization in modified spherical coordinates with bearing measurements', ISSNIP 2009 - Proceedings of 2009 5th International Conference on Intelligent Sensors, Sensor Networks and Information Processing, pp. 139-144.
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In this paper, a new approach to robotic mapping is presented that uses modified spherical coordinates in a robot-centered reference frame and a bearing-only measurement model. The algorithm provided in this paper permits robust delay-free state initialization and is computationally more efficient than the current standard in bearing-only (delay-free initialized) simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM). Importantly, we provide a detailed nonlinear observability analysis which shows the system is generally observable. We also analyze the error convergence of the filter using stochastic stability analysis. We provide an explicit bound on the asymptotic mean state estimation error. A comparison of the performance of this filter is also made against a standard world-centric SLAM algorithm in a simulated environment. © 2009 IEEE.

Chan, KY, Yiu, KC, Low, SY, Nordholm, S & Ling, SS 2009, 'Speech recognition enhancement using beamforming and a genetic algorithm', 2nd International Workshop on Data Mining and Artificial Intelligence (DMAI 2009), IEEE International Conference on Network and System Security, International Conference on network and System Security, IEEE, Gold Coast, Australia, pp. 510-515.
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This paper proposes a genetic algorithm (GA) based beamformer to optimize speech recognition accuracy for a pretrained speech recognizer. The proposed beamformer is designed to tackle the non-differentiable and non-linear natures of speech recognition by employing the GA algorithm to search for the optimal beamformer weights. Specifically, a population of beamformer weights is reproduced by crossover and mutation until the optimal beamformer weights are obtained. Results show that the speech recognition accuracies can be greatly improved even in noisy environments.

Cheng, TM, Savkin, AV, Celler, BG, Su, SW & Wang, N 2009, 'Exercise rate estimation using a triaxial accelerometer', Proceedings of the International Conference on Bio-inspired Systems and Signal Processing, 2009, International Conference on Bio-inspired Systems and Signal Processing, Institute for Systems and Technologies of Information,, Portugal, pp. 535-538.

Clegg, JK, Cochrane, JR, Sayyadi, N, Skropeta, D, Turner, P & Jolliffe, KA 2008, 'Solid-State and Solution-Phase Conformations of Pseudoproline-Containing Dipeptides', AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF CHEMISTRY, 23rd RACI Organic Division Conference 2008, CSIRO PUBLISHING, Hobart, AUSTRALIA, pp. 711-719.
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Forst, SA, Nguyen, ND, Center, JR, Eisman, JA & Nguyen, TV 2009, 'Excess of post-fracture mortality among men and women: A relative survival analysis', BONE, 2nd Joint Meeting of the International-Bone-and-Mineral-Society/Australian-New-Zealand-Bone-and-Mineral-Society, ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC, Sydney, AUSTRALIA, pp. S104-S104.
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Frost, SA, Nguyen, ND, Eisman, JA & Nguyen, TV 2009, 'Misdiagnosis of osteoporosis based on a single bone mineral density measurement', BONE, 2nd Joint Meeting of the International-Bone-and-Mineral-Society/Australian-New-Zealand-Bone-and-Mineral-Society, ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC, Sydney, AUSTRALIA, pp. S104-S105.
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Gan, Y & Al-Jumaily, A 2009, 'Intelligent Pedestrian Detection System in Semi-dark Environment', International Conference on Soft Computing and Pattern Recognition (SoCPaR 2009), International Conference on Soft Computing and Pattern Recognition, IEEE Computer Society Conference Publishing Services (CPS), Malaysia, pp. 598-603.
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Computer vision techniques have been widely used in various applications. In recent years, as energy efficiency have gradually become a important issues, computer vision techniques can be integrated into a smart control system that helps increase the energy efficiency by controlling the turn on of the light based on human detection . However, implement such system that detect walking human in a semi-dark environment remains a challenge. This paper proposes a novel detection technique combining movement analysis and SVM classifier to tackle this problem. This technique consist of a few steps: a statistical background model to segment moving objects as foreground, followed by an analysis model to generate pedestrian candidates based on the movement of foreground objects and lastly a SVM classifier that verify the pedestrian candidates based on the shape features.

Herek, AM, Su, SW, Trinh, HM & Ha, QP 2009, 'Performance of First and Second-Order Sliding Mode Observers for Nonlinear Systems', Proceedings of the 3rd International Workshop on Artificial Intelligence in Science and Technology, The International Workshop on Artificial Intelligence in Science and Technology, The University of Tasmania, Hobart Tasmania Australia, pp. 1-7.
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This paper presents a brief study on the design and performance comparison of conventional first-order and super-twisting second-order sliding mode observers for some nonlinear control systems. Estimation accuracy, fast response, chattering effect, peaking phenomenon and robustness are considered for nonlinear systems under observer-based output feedback control and state feedback control.

Ho-Pham, LT, Nguyen, ND & Nguyen, TV 2009, 'Effect of vegetarian diet on bone mineral density: A Bayesian meta-analysis', BONE, 2nd Joint Meeting of the International-Bone-and-Mineral-Society/Australian-New-Zealand-Bone-and-Mineral-Society, ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC, Sydney, AUSTRALIA, pp. S78-S78.
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Lai, JCY, Leung, FHF & Ling, SH 2009, 'A New Differential Evolution with Wavelet Theory Based Mutation Operation', 2009 IEEE CONGRESS ON EVOLUTIONARY COMPUTATION, VOLS 1-5, IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation, IEEE, Trondheim, NORWAY, pp. 1116-+.
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Lau, HT & Al-Jumaily, A 2009, 'Automatically Early Detection of Skin Cancer: Study Based on Neural Network Classification', International Conference on Soft Computing and Pattern Recognition (SoCPaR 2009), International Conference on Soft Computing and Pattern Recognition, IEEE Computer Society Conference Publishing Services (CPS), Malaysia, pp. 375-380.
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In this paper, an automatically skin cancer classification system is developed and the relationship of skin cancer image across different type of neural network are studied with different types of preprocessing.. The collected images are feed into the system, and across different image processing procedure to enhance the image properties. Then the normal skin is removed from the skin affected area and the cancer cell is left in the image. Useful information can be extracted from these images and pass to the classification system for training and testing. Recognition accuracy of the 3-layers back-propagation neural network classifier is 89.9% and auto-associative neural network is 80.8% in the image database that include dermoscopy photo and digital photo.

Li, W, Zomaya, AY & Al-Jumaily, A 2009, 'Cellular Automata Based Models of Wireless Sensor Networks', 7th ACM International Symposium on Mobility Management and Wireless Access (MobiWac'09), ACM International Workshop on. Mobility Management and Wireless Access, Association for Computing Machinery, Inc. (ACM), Spain, pp. 1-6.
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Large scale wireless sensor networks present interesting challenges in many applications due to a number of factors, such as, energy constraints, the dynamic nature of the network topology and various application needs. An important issue is how the sensor nodes can achieve efficient global behavior under distributed control mechanisms? One of many possible solutions is to construct a self-organized wireless sensor network to deal with this challenge. This paper presents an algorithm to construct a self-organized wireless sensor network based on two dimensional cellular automata that can provide better understanding for how local behavior at node level influences the overall system behavior and affect the system performance. Two types of Cellular Automata (CA) are considered; for the synchronous CA based system; the regular patterns are identified and discussed. To overcome some limitations arising from the use of a synchronous CA implementation an asynchronous CA is employed.

Ling, SH, Lau, SC, Luo, M & Ge, SS 2009, 'Dynamic Resource Allocation with Machine Degradation using Decentralized Multi-Agent Approach', 2009 IEEE/ASME INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ADVANCED INTELLIGENT MECHATRONICS, VOLS 1-3, IEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics, IEEE, Singapore, SINGAPORE, pp. 1169-+.

Ling, SS, Nguyen, HT & Chan, KY 2009, 'A New Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm for Neural Network Optimization', 2nd International Workshop on Data Mining and Artificial Intelligence (DMAI 2009), IEEE International Conference on Network and System Security, International Conference on network and System Security, IEEE, Gold Coast, Australia, pp. 516-521.
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This paper presents a new particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm for tuning parameters (weights) of neural networks. The new PSO algorithm is called fuzzy logic-based particle swarm optimization with cross-mutated operation (FPSOCM), where the fuzzy inference system is applied to determine the inertia weight of PSO and the control parameter of the proposed cross-mutated operation by using human knowledge. By introducing the fuzzy system, the value of the inertia weight becomes variable. The cross-mutated operation is effectively force the solution to escape the local optimum. Tuning parameters (weights) of neural networks is presented using the FPSOCM. Numerical example of neural network is given to illustrate that the performance of the FPSOCM is good for tuning the parameters (weights) of neural networks.

More, FJ, Weng, K, Mclean, P & Su, S 2009, 'Analysis of Nonlinear and Linear Behaviors of Heart Rate for Running Exercise', ICIEA: 2009 4TH IEEE CONFERENCE ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS AND APPLICATIONS, VOLS 1-6, 4th IEEE Conference on Industrial Electronics and Applications, IEEE, Xian, PEOPLES R CHINA, pp. 3911-3916.

More, FJ, Weng, K, McLean, PB & Su, SW 2009, 'Analysis of nonlinear and linear behaviors of heart rate for running exercise', 4th IEEE Conference on Industrial Electronics and Applications, 2009. ICIEA 2009., IEEE Conference in Industrial Electronics and Applications, IEEE, Xi'an, China, pp. 3920-3925.
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This study investigates the nonlinear/linear behaviors of human heart rate response to treadmill exercise, for young and healthy subjects. The heart rate of the subject is measured, starting at a speed of 7 km/h, and increasing until the maximum heart rate for the subject is reached. The obtained nonlinear model is complicated and is not robust. Furthermore, sustained exercise at maximum heart rate is not always safe. For these reasons, this is not a suitable method for running exercise. Instead, we develop simple linear models for the same speed range, which is suitable for treadmill running exercise. We also propose a new model, called dasiaH modelpsila, to predict the percentage of heart rate reserve during running exercise. It has been proven that the presented model can predict the percentage change of heart rate for running exercise in the identified linear response range.

Nguyen, N, Nguyen, HT & Su, SW 2009, 'Robust Multivariable Strategy and its Applications to a Powered Wheelchair', Proceedings of the 31st Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society Annual Conference, IEEE, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, pp. 7114-7117.
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The paper proposes a systematic robust multivariable control strategy based on combination of systematic triangularization technique and robust control strategies. Two design stages are required. In the first design stage, multivariable control problem is reduced into a series of scalar control problems via triangularization technique. For each specific scalar system, two advanced control strategies are proposed and implemented in the second design stage. The first one is based on Model Predictive Control, which is an iterative, finite horizon optimization procedure. The second control strategy is known as Neuro-Sliding Mode Control, which integrates Sliding Mode Control (SMC) and Neural Network Design to achieve both chattering-free and system robustness. Real-time implementation on a powered wheelchair system confirms that robustness and desired performance of a multivariable system under model uncertainties and unknown external disturbances can indeed be achieved by the combination of triangularization technique and Neuro-Sliding Mode Control.

Nguyen, ND, Frost, SA, Center, JR, Eisman, JA & Nguyen, TV 2009, 'Do men and women have similar absolute risk of fracture?', BONE, 2nd Joint Meeting of the International-Bone-and-Mineral-Society/Australian-New-Zealand-Bone-and-Mineral-Society, ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC, Sydney, AUSTRALIA, pp. S39-S39.
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Nguyen, TV 2009, 'Contribution of genetic factors to the individualized prognosis of fracture', BONE, 2nd Joint Meeting of the International-Bone-and-Mineral-Society/Australian-New-Zealand-Bone-and-Mineral-Society, ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC, Sydney, AUSTRALIA, pp. S35-S35.
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Nguyen, TV, Nguyen, ND, Frost, SA, Center, JR & Eisman, JA 2009, 'Five-year and 10-year absolute risk of clinical vertebral fracture for individuals', BONE, 2nd Joint Meeting of the International-Bone-and-Mineral-Society/Australian-New-Zealand-Bone-and-Mineral-Society, ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC, Sydney, AUSTRALIA, pp. S87-S88.
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Pathirana, PN, Bishop, AN, Savkin, AV, Ekanayake, SW & Bauer, NJ 2009, 'A robust set-valued state estimation approach to the problem of vision based SLAM for mobile robots', 2009 European Control Conference, ECC 2009, 2009 European on Control Conference (ECC), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc., Budapest, Hungary, pp. 2798-2803.
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The problem of visual simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) is examined in this paper using ideas and algorithms from robust control and estimation theory. Using a stereo-vision based sensor, a nonlinear measurement model is derived which leads to nonlinear measurements of the landmark coordinates along with optical flow based measurements of the relative robot-landmark velocity. Using a novel analytical measurement transformation, the nonlinear SLAM problem is converted into the linear domain and solved using a robust linear filter. The linear filter is guaranteed stable and the SLAM state estimation error is bounded within an ellipsoidal set. No similar results are available for the commonly employed extended Kalman filter which is known to exhibit divergence and inconsistency characteristics in practice.

Pronobis, A, Sjöö, K, Aydemir, A, Bishop, AN & Jensfelt, P 2009, 'A framework for robust cognitive spatial mapping', 2009 International Conference on Advanced Robotics, ICAR 2009.
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Spatial knowledge constitutes a fundamental component of the knowledge base of a cognitive, mobile agent. This paper introduces a rigorously defined framework for building a cognitive spatial map that permits high level reasoning about space along with robust navigation and localization. Our framework builds on the concepts of places and scenes expressed in terms of arbitrary, possibly complex features as well as local spatial relations. The resulting map is topological and discrete, robocentric and specific to the agent's perception. We analyze spatial mapping design mechanics in order to obtain rules for how to define the map components and attempt to prove that if certain design rules are obeyed then certain map properties are guaranteed to be realized. The idea of this paper is to take a step back from existing algorithms and literature and see how a rigorous formal treatment can lead the way towards a powerful spatial representation for localization and navigation. We illustrate the power of our analysis and motivate our cognitive mapping characteristics with some illustrative examples.

Saez de Adana, F & Mohan, AS 2009, 'Analysis of UWB Indoor Environments Using TD-UTD Including Lossy Materials and Multiple Effects', 2009 IEEE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ULTRA-WIDEBAND (ICUWB 2009), 9th IEEE International Conference on Ultra-Wideband, IEEE, Vancouver, CANADA, pp. 226-+.
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Su, SW, Anderson, B, Chen, W & Nguyen, HT 2009, 'Multi-realisation of nonlinear systems', Proceedings of the 48th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, 2009 held jointly with the 2009 28th Chinese Control Conference. CDC/CCC 2009., IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, IEEE, Shanghai, China, pp. 5901-5905.
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The system multi-realization problem is to find a state-variable realization for a set of systems, sharing as many parameters as possible. A multi-realization can be used to efficiently implement a multi-controller architecture for Multiple Model Adaptive Control (MMAC). We extend the linear multi-realization problem to nonlinear systems. The problem of minimal multi-realization of a set of MIMO systems is introduced and solved for feedback linearizable systems.

Su, SW, Nguyen, HT, Jarman, R, Zhu, J, Lowe, DB, McLean, PB, Huang, S, Nguyen, N, Nicholson, RS & Weng, K 2009, 'Model Predictive Control of Gantry Crane with Input Nonlinearity Compensation', International Conference on Control, Automation and Systems Engineering, International Conference on Control, Automation and Systems Engineering, World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology, Penang, Malaysia, pp. 312-316.
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This paper proposed a nonlinear model predictive control (MPC) method for the control of gantry crane. One of the main motivations to apply MPC to control gantry crane is based on its ability to handle control constraints for multivariable systems. A pre-compensator is constructed to compensate the input nonlinearity (nonsymmetric dead zone with saturation) by using its inverse function. By well tuning the weighting function matrices, the control system can properly compromise the control between crane position and swing angle. The proposed control algorithm was implemented for the control of gantry crane system in System Control Lab of University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), and achieved desired experimental results.

Tran, BNH, Nguyen, ND, Center, JR, Eisman, JA & Nguyen, TV 2009, 'Contribution of fat mass and obesity-associated (FTO) gene to bone loss: The Dubbo osteoporosis epidemiology study', BONE, 2nd Joint Meeting of the International-Bone-and-Mineral-Society/Australian-New-Zealand-Bone-and-Mineral-Society, ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC, Sydney, AUSTRALIA, pp. S116-S116.
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Tran, BNH, Nguyen, ND, Center, JR, Eisman, JA & Nguyen, TV 2009, 'Contributions of the FTO gene to fracture risk', BONE, 2nd Joint Meeting of the International-Bone-and-Mineral-Society/Australian-New-Zealand-Bone-and-Mineral-Society, ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC, Sydney, AUSTRALIA, pp. S19-S19.
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Weng, K, Nguyen, N, Nguyen, HT & Su, SW 2009, 'Rate estimation for the monitoring of rehabilitation exercises', Proceedings of the 31st Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society Annual Conference, The Printing House, Inc., Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, pp. 6267-6270.
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This study investigates the rate estimation problem encountered in rehabilitation exercise monitoring by using noninvasive portable sensors. The purpose of this paper has two main parts. The first part is to find suitable approaches for the rate detection of tri-axial accelerometer (TA) signals and ECG signals respectively. It is found that the integral type approaches (the average magnitude difference function (AMDF) and autocorrelation function (ACF)) are particularly suitable for TA signal pre-processing, while differential type approaches are very efficient for electrocardiographic (ECG) signal pre-processing. The second part is to develop a square wave matching method to detect the rate from the pre-processed signals. Experimental results indicate that the proposed methods can effectively detect pace rate from TA and heart rate from ECG and remove undesirable spikes.

Wu, JP, Yan, XP, Jin, ZM, Tipper, JL, Yuan, CQ & Zhou, XC 2008, 'Application of principal component analysis and a fuzzy C-means clustering algorithm to wear debris morphology classification', PROCEEDINGS OF THE INSTITUTION OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS PART J-JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING TRIBOLOGY, 5th China International Symposium on Tribology/1st International Tribology Symposium of IFToMM, SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD, Beijing, PEOPLES R CHINA, pp. 1059-1066.
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Yang, F & Mohan, AS 2009, 'Detection of Malignant Breast Tissues using Microwave Imaging', APMC: 2009 ASIA PACIFIC MICROWAVE CONFERENCE, VOLS 1-5, Asia Pacific Microwave Conference 2009, IEEE, Singapore, SINGAPORE, pp. 397-400.

Yang, S, Nguyen, N, Center, J, Eisman, J & Nguyen, T 2009, 'Effect of beta-blocker and thiazide use on fracture risk', BONE, 2nd Joint Meeting of the International-Bone-and-Mineral-Society/Australian-New-Zealand-Bone-and-Mineral-Society, ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC, Sydney, AUSTRALIA, pp. S93-S93.
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Yang, S, Nguyen, N, Eisman, J & Nguyen, T 2009, 'Beta-blockers and fracture risk: A Bayesian meta-analysis', BONE, 2nd Joint Meeting of the International-Bone-and-Mineral-Society/Australian-New-Zealand-Bone-and-Mineral-Society, ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC, Sydney, AUSTRALIA, pp. S93-S93.
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Yeung, CW, Leung, FH, Chan, KY & Ling, SS 2009, 'An integrated approach of particle swarm optimization and support vector machine for gene signature selection and cancer prediction', International Joint Conference on Neural Networks 2009, IEEE International Joint Conference on Neural Networks, IEEE, Atlanta, USA, pp. 3450-3456.
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To improve cancer diagnosis and drug development, the classification of tumor types based on genomic information is important. As DNA microarray studies produce a large amount of data, expression data are highly redundant and noisy, and most genes are believed to be uninformative with respect to the studied classes. Only a fraction of genes may present distinct profiles for different classes of samples. Classification tools to deal with these issues are thus important. These tools should learn to robustly identify a subset of informative genes embedded in a large dataset that is contaminated with high dimensional noises. In this paper, an integrated approach of support vector machine (SVM) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) is proposed for this purpose. The proposed approach can simultaneously optimize the selection of feature subset and the classifier through a common solution coding mechanism. As an illustration, the proposed approach is applied to search the combinational gene signatures for predicting histologic response to chemotherapy of osteosarcoma patients. Crossvalidation results show that the proposed approach outperforms other existing methods in terms of classification accuracy. Further validation using an independent dataset shows misclassification of only one out of fourteen patient samples, suggesting that the selected gene signatures can reflect the chemoresistance in osteosarcoma.