Flow cytometry (FC) is widely used for diagnostic purposes in clinical practice. This analysis typically aims at clustering cellular events according to their biological characteristics, known as gating, and then use the selected clusters in order to conclude about clinical outcomes. As each step of this process is highly subjective, various proposed methods have attempted to automate each step of the procedure separately, but any method has been proposed in order to automate the whole diagnostic process. We constructed a tool that simulates the experts decisions during the whole process in order to conclude if a sample is pathologic or not (`healthy'). We used flow cytometric data from 10 individuals with a diagnosis of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) from a panel that produces 7 files for each sample. With the help of the present tool we were able to identify whether the analysis of the tested sample confirms the diagnosis of CLL, thus successfully reproducing the experts' decisions at each step of the diagnostic workflow. The validation was conducted by experts against the traditional manual procedure. The proposed methodology is the first attempt to automate the entire process, which is a prerequisite for a fully automated diagnostic system that would ensure objectivity to the clinical diagnostic procedure. The experimental results presented herein show that our proposed new technique has satisfying performance at each level of evaluation.

Among the key components of designing accessible products and services for disabled users is accessibility testing and support. The VERITAS FP7 project has developed a platform that consists of several tools that provide automatic simulation feedback and reporting for built-in accessibility support at all stages of ICT product development. In this explorative pilot study, we evaluated the usability and technology acceptance of using three of these tools in the design of accessible GUI-based ICT products in five application domains. A sample of 80 designers/developers (12 female; 68 male) evaluated the three tools by filling in the standard SUS and TAM questionnaires. Results revealed good usability and technology acceptance for all three tools as a novel accessibility testing method. The VERITAS platform can offer an intuitive solution in accessibility design and can ensure that ICT products are designed for all.

We introduce an open framework for built-in accessibility support at all stages of product development based on the Virtual User Model concept. The goal is to introduce simulation-based and VR testing into the automotive, smart living spaces, workplace, infotainment and personal healthcare applications areas. Our framework also aims to ensure that future products and services are being systematically designed for all people including those with functional limitations. An open simulation platform parted of several tools provides automatic simulation feedback and reporting for guideline/methodologies compliance and quality of service. To achieve this objective, detailed virtual user physical, cognitive, behavioral and psychological models as well as the corresponding simulation models have been integrated to support simulation and testing at all stages of product planning and development.

This paper presents a novel framework for partial matching and retrieval of 3-D models based on a query-by-range-image approach. Initially, salient features are extracted for both the query range image and the 3-D target model. The concept behind the proposed algorithm is that, for a 3-D object and a corresponding query range image, there should be a virtual camera with such intrinsic and extrinsic parameters that would generate an optimum range image, in terms of minimizing an error function that takes into account the salient features of the objects, when compared to other parameter sets or other target 3-D models. In the context of the developed framework, a novel method is also proposed to hierarchically search in the parameter space for the optimum solution. Experimental results illustrate the efficiency of the proposed approach even in the presence of noise or occlusion.