Abstract
Medical devices are becoming more interconnected and complex, and are increasingly supported by fragmented organizational systems, e.g. through different processes, committees, supporting staff and training regimes. Distributed Cognition has been proposed as a framework for understanding the design and use of medical devices. However, it is not clear that it has the analytic apparatus to support the investigation of such complexities. This paper proposes a framework that introduces concentric layers to DiCoT, a method that facilitates the application of Distributed Cognition theory. We use this to explore how an inpatient blood glucose meter is coupled with its context. The analysis is based on an observational study of clinicians using a newly introduced glucometer on an oncology ward over approximately 150. h (11. days and 4 nights). Using the framework we describe the basic mechanics of the system, incremental design considerations, and larger design considerations. The DiCoT concentric layers (DiCoT-CL) framework shows promise for analyzing the design and use of medical devices, and how they are coupled with their context. © 2014 Elsevier Inc.

Abstract
This paper presents the analysis of a distribution system subject to reconfiguration with high wind penetration over a period of 24 hours. In order to meet this objective, the reconfiguration problem is solved through mixed integer linear programming considering the stochasticity of the variables, where the balance between load and generation has to be satisfied at the lowest cost in each period. The model considers a wind profile that follows an Auto-Regressive (AR) pattern to take into account uncertainty in wind generation, bus loads for a typical demand profile, and non-renewable distributed generation, all implemented for a 33-bus case study representing a weakly meshed distribution network. Test results from the case study show the effects on voltages, currents and substation behaviors as well as the power loss and the overall cost of the system.

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In this paper, we adopt a novel numerical algorithm, referred to as dual augmented Lagrangian method (DALM), for efficient test cost reduction based on spatial variation modeling. The key idea of DALM is to derive the dual formulation of the L1-regularized least-squares problem posed by Virtual Probe (VP), which can be efficiently solved with substantially lower computational cost than its primal formulation. In addition, a number of unique properties associated with discrete cosine transform (DCT) are exploited to further reduce the computational cost of DALM. Our experimental results of an industrial RF transceiver demonstrate that the proposed DALM solver achieves up to 38× runtime speed-up over the conventional interior-point solver without sacrificing any performance on escape rate and yield loss for test applications.

Abstract
The existing technologies using electromagnetic waves or lasers are not very efficient due to the large attenuation in the aquatic environment. Ultrasound reveals a lower attenuation, and thus has been used in underwater long-distance communications. For high data-rates and real-time applications it is necessary to use frequencies in the MHz range, allowing communication distances of hundreds of meters with a delay of milliseconds. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to develop ultrasound transducers able to work at high frequencies and wideband, with suitable responses to digital modulations. This work shows how the acoustic impedance influences the performance of an ultrasonic emitter transducer when digital modulations are used and operating at frequencies between 100 kHz and 1 MHz. The study includes a Finite Element Method and a MATLAB/Simulink simulation with an experimental validation to evaluate two types of piezoelectric materials: one based on ceramics (high acoustic impedance) with a resonance design and the other based in polymer (low acoustic impedance) designed to optimize the performance when digital modulations are used. The transducers performance for Binary Amplitude Shift Keying, On-Off Keying, Binary Phase Shift Keying and Binary Frequency Shift Keying modulations with a 1 MHz carrier at 125 kbps baud rate are compared.