In this paper, an observer based fuzzy adaptive controller (FAC) is designed fora class of large scale systems with non-canonical non-affine nonlinear subsystems. It isassumed that functions of the subsystems and the interactions among subsystems areunknown. By constructing a new class of state observer for each follower, the proposedconsensus control method solves the problem of unmeasured sta...

BACKGROUND Endoscopic findings are essential in evaluating the disease activity in ulcerative colitis. The aim of this study was to evaluate how endoscopists assess individual endoscopic features of mucosal inflammation in ulcerative colitis, the inter-observer agreement, and the importance of the observers' experience. METHODS Five video clips of ulcerative colitis were shown to a group of e...

this paper presents a new observer-based control scheme for a class of nonlinear systems. in the proposed method, nonlinear observer and twisting algorithm controller are employed to realize a sensor-less control strategy for complex systems which makes use of non measurable process information instead of installing as many sensors as possible. due to lack of availability of the complex system ...

PURPOSE The Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) is a widely employed tool for measuring clinical competence. In the drive toward comprehensive assessment, OSCE stations and checklists may become increasingly complex. The objective of this study was to probe inter-observer reliability and observer accuracy as a function of OSCE checklist length. METHOD Study participants included ...

AIMS To test the hypothesis that inter-observer variability accounts for the wide variation in reported prevalences of fibrin strands on prosthetic heart valves and to develop criteria for their identification and reporting. METHODS AND RESULTS A videotape with 30 sequences of prosthetic heart valves imaged by transoesophageal echocardiography and showing abnormalities such as strands, microb...

BACKGROUND Although facial cleanliness is part of the SAFE strategy for trachoma there is controversy over the reliability of measuring a clean face. A child's face with no ocular and nasal discharge is clean and the endpoint of interest, regardless of the number of times it must be washed to achieve that endpoint. The issue of reliability rests on the reproducibility of graders to assess a cle...

PURPOSE To assess inter- and intra-observer errors in identifying the transepicondylar axis and Whiteside's line in a cadaveric model mimicking total knee arthroplasty. METHODS Four cadaveric knees with intact soft tissues were used. The knees were exposed anteriorly using the Insall approach, with the patella everted laterally. Three observers (2 surgeons and one trainee) took turns to ident...

In a prospective study, 232 neonates were examined sonographically using the methods of Graf and Terjesen. In order to determine the reproducibility of the methods, 50 hips were evaluated by two skilled examiners. In an inter-observer study, five physicians and five medical students evaluated 24 images, which were evaluated on ten occasions at two-weekly intervals by one of the authors. Statist...

Volunteers are increasingly being recruited into citizen science projects to collect observations for scientific studies. An additional goal of these projects is to engage and educate these volunteers. Thus, there are few barriers to participation resulting in volunteer observers with varying ability to complete the project's tasks. To improve the quality of a citizen science project's outcomes...

Most existing saliency models use low-level features or task descriptions when generating attention predictions. However, the link between observer characteristics and gaze patterns is rarely investigated. We present a novel saliency prediction technique which takes viewers’ identities and personal traits into consideration when modeling human attention. Instead of only computing image salience...