Myocardial perfusion by contrast echocardiography. Establishment of normal pattern of intracoronary injection and safety in humans

OBJECTIVE: To establish the normal pattern and safety of echocardiographic contrast in patients with no significant obstruction of epicardial coronary arteries. METHODS: 67 patients with normal coronary arteries or obstructions < 50% were selected from 277 patients who underwent coronary angiography (CA). Mean age was 56 ± 11years and 36 were males. At the end CA, echocardiographic contrast was selectively injected into each coronary artery. The parasternal short axis of the left ventricle (LV) was divided into six segments: anterior (A), antero-lateral (AL), postero-lateral (PL), posterior (P), infero-septal (IS) and antero-septal (AS). Anterolateral (ALPM) and posteromedial papillary muscles (PMPM) were also considered. The pattern and intensity of the appearance of the myocardial contrast was visually analyzed. RESULTS: The right coronary artery (RCA) was dominant in 60 patients. Contrast appearance was sudden and simultaneous in the 3 muscle layers. All segments could be contrasted after the injection in both coronary arteries. 100% of the AS, A and AL segments, 97% of the PL and 98% of the ALPM were perfused by the left coronary artery (LCA). P and IS segments were perfused by the RCA in 85% and 82%, respectively, and by a dominant LCA in 71% of the cases. The PMPM was perfused by a dominant RCA in 77% and by a dominant LCA in 86%. There were no symptoms. CONCLUSION: Intracoronary injection of the sonicated solution is a safe procedure that allows for an excellent opacification of the myocardium and can potentially be used during routine CA.

Hypertension in a female nursing staff-pattern of occurrence, diagnosis, and treatment

OBJECTIVE: To report the pattern of occurrence, diagnosis, and treatment of hypertension in a female nursing staff of an emergency hospital. METHODS: We carried out a cross-sectional study that included interviews and blood pressure measurements of 494 nursing professionals at an emergency hospital in the city of Salvador, in the state of Bahia, Brazil. We considered hypertensive all individual with blood pressure > or = 140/90 mmHg or normal pressure if on regular treatment. RESULTS: We found a prevalence of hypertension of 36.4%. Only 18.3% of the individuals ignored their hypertensive condition, and 64.2% admitted not being having regular treatment. Of those individuals who were having treatment, 69.4% had elevated blood pressure on examination. The major reasons for not being on treatment was the occasional elevation of blood pressure (22.2%) and medical counseling (20.0%). CONCLUSION: The results point to the need to introduce hypertension control measures in this occupational group, because of the magnitude of the disease and the potential impact on diffusion of knowledge and measures to control hypertension.

Assessment of the DIXTAL DX-2710 Automated Oscillometric Device for Blood Pressure Measurement with the Validation Protocols of the British Hypertension Society (BHS) and the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI)

OBJECTIVE: To assess the Dixtal DX2710 automated oscillometric device used for blood pressure measurement according to the protocols of the BHS and the AAMI. METHODS: Three blood pressure measurements were taken in 94 patients (53 females 15 to 80 years). The measurements were taken randomly by 2 observers trained to measure blood pressure with a mercury column device connected with an automated device. The device was classified according to the protocols of the BHS and AAMI. RESULT: The mean of blood pressure levels obtained by the observers was 148±38/93±25 mmHg and that obtained with the device was 148±37/89±26 mmHg. Considering the differences between the measurements obtained by the observer and those obtained with the automated device according to the criteria of the BHS, the following classification was adopted: "A" for systolic pressure (69% of the differences < 5; 90% < 10; and 97% < 15 mmHg); and "B" for diastolic pressure (63% of the differences < 5; 83% < 10; and 93% < 15 mmHg). The mean and standard deviation of the differences were 0±6.27 mmHg for systolic pressure and 3.82±6.21 mmHg for diastolic pressure. CONCLUSION: The Dixtal DX2710 device was approved according to the international recommendations.

Development of a semi-automatic self learning pattern recognition system for the control of electronic boards

This project was funded under the Applied Research Grants Scheme administered by Enterprise Ireland. The project was a partnership between Galway - Mayo Institute of Technology and an industrial company, Tyco/Mallinckrodt Galway. The project aimed to develop a semi - automatic, self - learning pattern recognition system capable of detecting defects on the printed circuits boards such as component vacancy, component misalignment, component orientation, component error, and component weld. The research was conducted in three directions: image acquisition, image filtering/recognition and software development. Image acquisition studied the process of forming and digitizing images and some fundamental aspects regarding the human visual perception. The importance of choosing the right camera and illumination system for a certain type of problem has been highlighted. Probably the most important step towards image recognition is image filtering, The filters are used to correct and enhance images in order to prepare them for recognition. Convolution, histogram equalisation, filters based on Boolean mathematics, noise reduction, edge detection, geometrical filters, cross-correlation filters and image compression are some examples of the filters that have been studied and successfully implemented in the software application. The software application developed during the research is customized in order to meet the requirements of the industrial partner. The application is able to analyze pictures, perform the filtering, build libraries, process images and generate log files. It incorporates most of the filters studied and together with the illumination system and the camera it provides a fully integrated framework able to analyze defects on printed circuit boards.

SQL based frequent pattern mining

Data mining, frequent pattern mining, database mining, mining algorithms in SQL

stochastic method for automated matching of horizons across a fault in 3D seismic data

Seismic analysis, horizon matching, fault tracking, marked point process,stochastic annealing

Advancing the understanding of brain function with multivariate pattern analysis

Magdeburg, Univ., Fak. für Naturwiss., Diss., 2009

Management of XML data by means of schema matching

Magdeburg, Univ., Fak. für Informatik, Diss., 2010

Statistical pattern recognition for audio-forensics : empirical investigations on the application scenarios audio steganalysis and microphone forensics

Magdeburg, Univ., Fak. für Informatik, Diss., 2013

Comparison of Contemporary Protocols for High-speed Data Transport via 10 Gbps WAN Connections

This work is dedicated to comparison of open source as well as proprietary transport protocols for highspeed data transmission via IP networks. The contemporary common TCP needs significant improvement since it was developed as general-purpose transport protocol and firstly introduced four decades ago. In nowadays networks, TCP fits not all communication needs that society has. Caused of it another transport protocols have been developed and successfully used for e.g. Big Data movement. In scope of this research the following protocols have been investigated for its efficiency on 10Gbps links: UDT, RBUDP, MTP and RWTP. The protocols were tested under different impairments such as Round Trip Time up to 400 ms and packet losses up to 2%. Investigated parameters are the data rate under different conditions of the network, the CPU load by sender andreceiver during the experiments, size of feedback data, CPU usage per Gbps and the amount of feedback data per GiByte of effectively transmitted data. The best performance and fair resources consumption was observed by RWTP. From the opensource projects, the best behavior is showed by RBUDP.

Citation-based Plagiarism Detection : applying citation pattern analysis to identify currently non-machine-detectible disguised plagiarism in scientific publications

Magdeburg, Univ., Fak. für Informatik, Diss., 2013

Spatio-temporal pattern formation in microemulsions under different physical and chemical conditions

Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg, Fakultät für Naturwissenschaften, Dissertation, 2016

Ontogenetic variation of plastral spotting pattern in Phrynops hilarii (Testudines, Chelidae)

The plastral spotting variation in the chelid turtle Phrynops hilarii (Duméril & Bibron, 1835) in relation to sex, size, and geographic procedence of individuals was analyzed. States for qualitative characters were analyzed using non-parametric tests. Quantitative characters (shell and scute measurements) were standardized for body size by linear regression against carapace length, and were subjected to principal components analysis and canonical discriminant function analysis. Results suggest that increased plastral spotting is a polymorphic ontogenetic trait in P. hilarii. Neither hatchlings nor juveniles have plastral pattern moderately or heavily pigmented. The simplest pattern, however, may persist without changes in some adults. There are no differences between sexes. The spatial distribution of the plastral pattern is not ordered latitudinally or longitudinally, showing no relationship with gradients of elevation, temperature, or precipitation. This pattern trait lacks of taxonomic significance. The morphometric analysis failed to reveal any character of diagnostic utility in the plastron to support the possibility that these patterns correspond to different sympatric taxa.

The influence of shell species and size on the shell selection pattern of Paguristes tortugae (Decapoda, Diogenidae) from Anchieta Island (Ubatuba, Brazil)

Shell selection by the hermit crab Paguristes tortugae Schmitt, 1933 from Anchieta Island (Brazil) was analyzed using the six most frequently occupied shell species in the field and taking into account the sexual condition of the individuals, the shell size and the shell species. The experiments were conducted under laboratory conditions and the shell species preference was estimated on the basis of the frequency that each species was chosen by the individuals. The preferred shell species and size were determined by regression analysis. The highest correlation coefficients were obtained for the relations between the hermit dimensions and shell dry weight. The ovigerous females preferred shells with larger internal volume: Leucozonia nassa (Gmelin, 1791) and Cerithium atratum (Born, 1778). In the experiment of shell size, males preferred heavier shells whereas females selected the shape characteristics of the shell, such as the aperture and the internal volume, which are probably related to the growth and offspring guarantee, respectively. In general, and independent of sex condition, P. tortugae showed significant selection among all shells utilized. The results suggest that shell selection by P. tortugae involves sexual and reproductive condition preferences.

Shell utilization pattern of the hermit crab Clibanarius vittatus (Crustacea, Anomura) in an estuary at São Vicente, State of São Paulo, Brazil

We evaluated the gastropod shell utilization pattern of the hermit crab Clibanarius vittatus (Bosc, 1802) at Pescadores Beach in São Vicente, State of São Paulo, Brazil. Specimens were collected monthly from May 2001 through April 2003, in the intertidal zone at low tide. The crabs were weighed and their carapace shield length measured. All gastropod shells were identified and had their shell biometric parameters (total length and aperture length) measured (mm) and weighed (g). A total of 2,344 hermit crabs (644 males, 1,594 females, 45 ovigerous females and 61 individuals in intersex), using 13 species of gastropod shells, were collected. Stramonita haemastoma (Linnaeus, 1767), Cymatium parthenopeum (Von Salis, 1793) and Achatina fulica (Bowdich, 1822) comprised over 98% of all the shells. Male and intersex crabs were significantly larger than the females. This size difference strongly influenced the shell utilization pattern, principally in A. fulica, which has the largest shell size, that was only used by males and intersexual individuals of C. vittatus. Cymatium parthenopeum was the only shell species that showed a high determinant coefficient in all the biometric correlations evaluated. The high abundance of S. haemastoma shells and a strong correlation between crab size and shell aperture length established by a significant determination coefficient, indicated that C. vittatus uses this species as the principal resource for shell occupation at Pescadores Beach.