Purpose: Patient-specific quality assurance (PSQA) requires manual operation of different workstations, which is time-consuming and error-prone. Therefore, developing automated solutions to improve efficiency and accu...Purpose: Patient-specific quality assurance (PSQA) requires manual operation of different workstations, which is time-consuming and error-prone. Therefore, developing automated solutions to improve efficiency and accuracy is a priority. The purpose of this study was to develop a general software interface with scripting on a human interactive device (HID) for improving the efficiency and accuracy of manual quality assurance (QA) procedures. Methods: As an initial application, we aimed to automate our PSQA workflow that involves Varian Eclipse treatment planning system, Elekta MOSAIQ oncology information system and PTW Verisoft application. A general platform, the AutoFrame interface with two imbedded subsystems—the AutoFlow and the PyFlow, was developed with a scripting language for automating human operations of aforementioned systems. The interface included three functional modules: GUI module, UDF script interpreter and TCP/IP communication module. All workstations in the PSQA process were connected, and most manual operations were automated by AutoFrame sequentially or in parallel. Results: More than 20 PSQA tasks were performed both manually and using the developed AutoFrame interface. On average, 175 (±12) manual operations of the PSQA procedure were eliminated and performed by the automated process. The time to complete a PSQA task was 8.23 (±0.78) minutes for the automated workflow, in comparison to 13.91 (±3.01) minutes needed for manual operations. Conclusion: We have developed the AutoFrame interface framework that successfully automated our PSQA procedure, and significantly reduced the time, human (control/clicking/typing) errors, and operators’ stress. Future work will focus on improving the system’s flexibility and stability and extending its operations to other QA procedures.展开更多
A block representation of the BLU factorization for block tridiagonal matrices is presented. Some properties on the factors obtained in the course of the factorization are studied. Simpler expressions for errors incur...A block representation of the BLU factorization for block tridiagonal matrices is presented. Some properties on the factors obtained in the course of the factorization are studied. Simpler expressions for errors incurred at the process of the factorization for block tridiagonal matrices are considered.展开更多
A multifrontal code is introduced for the efficient solution of the linear system of equations arising from the analysis of structures. The factorization phase is reduced into a series of interleaved element assembly ...A multifrontal code is introduced for the efficient solution of the linear system of equations arising from the analysis of structures. The factorization phase is reduced into a series of interleaved element assembly and dense matrix operations for which the BLAS3 kernels are used. A similar approach is generalized for the forward and back substitution phases for the efficient solution of structures having multiple load conditions. The program performs all assembly and solution steps in parallel. Examples are presented which demonstrate the code’s performance on single and dual core processor computers.展开更多
文摘Purpose: Patient-specific quality assurance (PSQA) requires manual operation of different workstations, which is time-consuming and error-prone. Therefore, developing automated solutions to improve efficiency and accuracy is a priority. The purpose of this study was to develop a general software interface with scripting on a human interactive device (HID) for improving the efficiency and accuracy of manual quality assurance (QA) procedures. Methods: As an initial application, we aimed to automate our PSQA workflow that involves Varian Eclipse treatment planning system, Elekta MOSAIQ oncology information system and PTW Verisoft application. A general platform, the AutoFrame interface with two imbedded subsystems—the AutoFlow and the PyFlow, was developed with a scripting language for automating human operations of aforementioned systems. The interface included three functional modules: GUI module, UDF script interpreter and TCP/IP communication module. All workstations in the PSQA process were connected, and most manual operations were automated by AutoFrame sequentially or in parallel. Results: More than 20 PSQA tasks were performed both manually and using the developed AutoFrame interface. On average, 175 (±12) manual operations of the PSQA procedure were eliminated and performed by the automated process. The time to complete a PSQA task was 8.23 (±0.78) minutes for the automated workflow, in comparison to 13.91 (±3.01) minutes needed for manual operations. Conclusion: We have developed the AutoFrame interface framework that successfully automated our PSQA procedure, and significantly reduced the time, human (control/clicking/typing) errors, and operators’ stress. Future work will focus on improving the system’s flexibility and stability and extending its operations to other QA procedures.
文摘A block representation of the BLU factorization for block tridiagonal matrices is presented. Some properties on the factors obtained in the course of the factorization are studied. Simpler expressions for errors incurred at the process of the factorization for block tridiagonal matrices are considered.
文摘A multifrontal code is introduced for the efficient solution of the linear system of equations arising from the analysis of structures. The factorization phase is reduced into a series of interleaved element assembly and dense matrix operations for which the BLAS3 kernels are used. A similar approach is generalized for the forward and back substitution phases for the efficient solution of structures having multiple load conditions. The program performs all assembly and solution steps in parallel. Examples are presented which demonstrate the code’s performance on single and dual core processor computers.
