Design and Implementation of a Multipurpose Information System for Hematopoietic Stem-Cell Transplantation on the Basis of the Biomedical Research Integrated Domain Group Model.

PURPOSE: An important obstacle to cancer research is that nearly all academic cancer centers maintain substantial collections of highly duplicative, poorly quality-assured, nonintercommunicating, difficult-to-access data repositories. It is inherently clear that this state of affairs increases costs and reduces quality and productivity of both research and nonresearch activities. We hypothesized that designing and implementing a multipurpose cancer information system on the basis of the Biomedical Research Integrated Domain (BRIDG) model developed by the National Cancer Institute and its collaborators might lessen the duplication of effort inherent in capturing, quality-assuring, and accessing data located in multiple single-purpose systems, and thereby increases productivity while reducing costs. METHODS: We designed and implemented a core data structure on the basis of the BRIDG model and incorporated multiple entities, attributes, and functionalities to support the multipurpose functionality of the system. We used the resultant model as a foundation upon which to design and implement modules for importing preexisting data, capturing data prospectively, quality-assuring data, exporting data to analytic files, and analyzing the quality-assured data to support multiple functionalities simultaneously. To our knowledge, our system, which we refer to as the Cancer Informatics Data System, is the first multipurpose, BRIDG-harmonized cancer research information system implemented at an academic cancer center. RESULTS: We describe the BRIDG-harmonized system that simultaneously supports patient care, teaching, research, clinical decision making, administrative decision making, mandated volume-and-outcomes reporting, clinical quality assurance, data quality assurance, and many other functionalities. CONCLUSION: Implementation of a highly quality-assured, multipurpose cancer information system on the basis of the BRIDG model at an academic center is feasible and can increase access to accurate data to support research integrity and productivity as well as nonresearch activities.

Nonlinear channelizer.

The nonlinear channelizer is an integrated circuit made up of large parallel arrays of analog nonlinear oscillators, which, collectively, serve as a broad-spectrum analyzer with the ability to receive complex signals containing multiple frequencies and instantaneously lock-on or respond to a received signal in a few oscillation cycles. The concept is based on the generation of internal oscillations in coupled nonlinear systems that do not normally oscillate in the absence of coupling. In particular, the system consists of unidirectionally coupled bistable nonlinear elements, where the frequency and other dynamical characteristics of the emergent oscillations depend on the system's internal parameters and the received signal. These properties and characteristics are being employed to develop a system capable of locking onto any arbitrary input radio frequency signal. The system is efficient by eliminating the need for high-speed, high-accuracy analog-to-digital converters, and compact by making use of nonlinear coupled systems to act as a channelizer (frequency binning and channeling), a low noise amplifier, and a frequency down-converter in a single step which, in turn, will reduce the size, weight, power, and cost of the entire communication system. This paper covers the theory, numerical simulations, and some engineering details that validate the concept at the frequency band of 1-4 GHz.

A drive-free vibratory gyroscope.

Computational and analytical works have shown that certain coupling schemes can lead to significant enhancements in sensitivity, accuracy, and lower costs for a wide range of sensor devices whose output and performance depends directly on the ability of individual units to generate stable limit cycle oscillations. Vibratory gyroscopes are very good candidates for this new paradigm as their accuracy and sensitivity are directly dependent on the ability of a driving signal to produce and maintain oscillations with stable amplitude, phase, and frequency. To achieve higher accuracy, we show proof of concept of a novel scheme: a drive-free coupled gyroscope system in which the coupling alone can lead to self-regulated limit cycle oscillations in the drive- and sense-axes with stable constant amplitude and phase-locking.

Two-time-scale analysis of a ring of coupled vibratory gyroscopes.

A coupling inertial navigation sensor (INS) system may proven to be beneficial for performance improvement, especially when the manufacturing yield is very low for meeting the specification requirement of various applications. For instance, navigation grade sensors using the current fabrication process would yield one in every few hundreds which would meet the specification requirement after careful selection process and testing. We propose to couple these sensors by putting together the "low grade" sensors in a small array of particular coupling topology to explore their stability properties of known parameter variations produced during the fabrication process. By coupling them in a particular way one may improve the system stability to effect the performance of the INS. Thus in this work we present a coupled inertial navigation sensor (CINS) system consisting of a ring of vibratory gyroscopes coupled through the driving axis of each individual gyroscope. Numerical simulations show that under certain conditions, which depend mainly on the coupling strength, the dynamics of the individual gyroscopes will synchronize with one another. The same simulations also show an optimal network size at which the effects of noise can be minimized, thus yielding a reduction in the phase drift. We quantify the reduction in the phase drift and perform an asymptotic analysis of the motion equations to determine the conditions for the existence of the synchronized state. The analysis yields an analytical expression for a critical coupling strength at which different nonzero mean oscillations merge in a pitchfork bifurcation; passed this critical coupling the synchronized state becomes locally asymptotically stable. The Liapunov-Schmidt (LS) reduction is then applied to determine the stability properties of the synchronized solution and to further show that the pitchfork bifurcation can be subcritical or supercritical, depending on the coefficient of the nonlinear terms in the equations of motion.

Exploiting dynamical symmetry in coupled nonlinear elements for efficient frequency down-conversion.

The rich dynamical behavior stemming from unidirectional coupling in a single array of overdamped nonlinear elements has, recently, been extensively studied. By adjusting control parameters, one obtains regimes of oscillations with a frequency that scales in a characteristic way with the control parameter. With an external time-sinusoidal driving signal, a richness of synchronized (to the drive frequency or its subharmonics depending on the control parameter) dynamical behavior ensues. Including M > or = 2 arrays with a suitably chosen cross coupling has also been shown to lead to multifrequency patterns in the emergent dynamics. Here, we consider this arrangement and demonstrate that, under the appropriate conditions, the oscillation frequency of each successive array decreases by a rational factor with increasing M . This frequency down-conversion, obtainable without a heterodyning signal, affords the promise of very efficient signal processing in a variety of applications wherein, currently, the frequency down-conversion stage typically involves multistep processes with complicated and (often) noisy circuitry.

Complex behavior in driven unidirectionally coupled overdamped Duffing elements.

It is well known that overdamped unforced dynamical systems do not oscillate. However, well-designed coupling schemes, together with the appropriate choice of initial conditions, can induce oscillations (corresponding to transitions between the stable steady states of each nonlinear element) when a control parameter exceeds a threshold value. In recent publications [A. Bulsara, Phys. Rev. E 70, 036103 (2004); V. In, ibid. 72, 045104 (2005)], we demonstrated this behavior in a specific prototype system, a soft-potential mean-field description of the dynamics in a hysteretic "single-domain" ferromagnetic sample. These oscillations are now finding utility in the detection of very weak "target" magnetic signals, via their effect on the oscillation characteristics--e.g., the frequency and asymmetry of the oscillation wave forms. We explore the underlying dynamics of a related system, coupled bistable "standard quartic" dynamic elements; the system shows similarities to, but also significant differences from, our earlier work. dc as well as time-periodic target signals are considered; the latter are shown to induce complex oscillatory behavior in different regimes of the parameter space. In turn, this behavior can be harnessed to quantify the target signal.

Multifrequency synthesis using two coupled nonlinear oscillator arrays.

We illustrate a scheme that exploits the theory of symmetry-breaking bifurcations for generating a spatio-temporal pattern in which one of two interconnected arrays, each with N Van der Pol oscillators, oscillates at N times the frequency of the other. A bifurcation analysis demonstrates that this type of frequency generation cannot be realized without the mutual interaction between the two arrays. It is also demonstrated that the mechanism for generating these frequencies between the two arrays is different from that of a master-slave interaction, a synchronization effect, or that of subharmonic and ultraharmonic solutions generated by forced systems. This kind of frequency generation scheme can find applications in the developed field of nonlinear antenna and radar systems.

Coupling-induced oscillations in overdamped bistable systems.

It is well known that overdamped and unforced dynamical systems do not oscillate. However, well-designed coupling schemes, together with the appropriate choice of initial conditions, can induce oscillations when a control parameter exceeds a threshold value. We demonstrate this effect in a specific system, a soft-potential mean-field description of the dynamics in a (hysteretic) single-domain ferromagnetic sample. Using a specific (unidirectional, with cyclic boundary conditions) coupling scheme, together with nonidentical initial conditions, one can cause the coupled system of N elements (N odd) to oscillate when the coupling coefficient is swept through a critical value. The ensuing oscillations could find utility in the detection of very weak "target" signals, via their effect on the oscillation characteristics.

Experimental observation of multifrequency patterns in arrays of coupled nonlinear oscillators.

Frequency-related oscillations in coupled oscillator systems, in which one or more oscillators oscillate at different frequencies than the other oscillators, have been studied using group theoretical methods by Armbruster and Chossat [Phys. Lett. A 254, 269 (1999)] and more recently by Golubitsky and Stewart [in Geometry, Mechanics, and Dynamics, edited by P. Newton, P. Holmes, and A. Weinstein (Springer, New York, 2002), p. 243]. We demonstrate, experimentally, via electronic circuits, the existence of frequency-related oscillations in a network of two arrays of N oscillators, per array, coupled to one another. Under certain conditions, one of the arrays can be induced to oscillate at N times the frequency of the other array. This type of behavior is different from the one observed in a driven system because it is dictated mainly by the symmetry of the coupled system.

Maintenance of chaos in a computational model of a thermal pulse combustor.

The dynamics of a thermal pulse combustor model are examined. It is found that, as a parameter related to the fuel flow rate is varied, the combustor will undergo a transition from periodic pulsing to chaotic pulsing to a chaotic transient leading to flameout. Results from the numerical model are compared to those obtained from a laboratory-scale thermal pulse combustor. Finally the technique of maintenance (or anticontrol) of chaos is successfully applied to the model, with the result that the operation of the combustor can be continued well into the flameout regime. (c) 1997 American Institute of Physics.