Symbolic dynamics of ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation

In this paper, the symbolic dynamics analysis was used to analyze the complexity of normal heartbeat signal (NSR), Ventricular tachycardia (VT) and ventricular fibrillation (VF) signals. By calculating the information entropy value of symbolic sequences, the complexities were quantified. Based on different information entropy values, NSR, VT and VF signals were distinguished with satisfactory results. The study showed that a sudden drop of symbolic sequence’s entropy value indicated that the patients most likely entered the episode of ventricular tachycardia and this was a crucial episode for the clinical treatment of patients. It had important clinical significance for the automatic diagnosis.     

Mutual information analysis reveals bigeminy patterns in Andersen-Tawil syndrome and in subjects with a history of sudden cardiac death

Herein we introduce the Mutual Information Function (MIF) as a mathematical method to analyze ventricular bigeminy in certain pathological conditions of the heart known to be associated with frequent ventricular arrhythmias. In particular, we show that the MIF is sensitive enough to detect the bigeminy pattern in symbolic series from patients with Andersen-Tawil syndrome as well as in a group of patients from the Sudden Cardiac Death Holter Databases. The results confirm that MIF is an adequate method to detect the autocorrelation between the appearance of sinus and ventricular premature beats resulting in a bigeminy pattern. It is also shown that MIF reflects the bigeminy patterns as a function of the percentage of ventricular premature beats present in the symbolic series and also as a function of the percentage of bigeminy. The MIF was also useful to establish a consistent difference in the bigeminy pattern related to the diurnal and nocturnal periods presumably associated to the circadian rhythm of the heart. Understanding of the ventricular bigeminy patterns throughout 24-hours could provide some insights into the pathogenesis of ventricular tachyarrhythmias in these pathological conditions.     

Vestibular vocal fold behavior during phonation in unilateral vocal fold paralysis

Voice quality in patients with vocal fold paralysis can be affected by several factors, such as the position of the paralyzed vocal fold, its degree of atrophy, the configuration of its free edge, and the level differences between both vocal folds. Depending on the related vocal deficiency the patient will attempt to compensate using different maneuvers, such as increment of vocal tract and neck muscle contraction to improve glottal closure. This is probably one of the reasons why ventricular folds are frequently requested. The objective of this study is to analyze the behavior of the homolateral and contralateral vestibular folds to delineate patterns of vestibular motion during sustained phonation, in cases of unilateral vocal fold paralysis.     

The association of laryngoceles with ventricular phonation

Laryngoceles represent dilatations of the laryngeal saccule that may extend internally into the airway, or externally through the thyrohyoid membrane. Unilateral laryngoceles are uncommon clinical entities and bilateral laryngoceles are rare. Certain activities like glass blowing and playing a wind instrument are associated with laryngocele development, as is laryngeal carcinoma in the ventricular area. This case describes development of bilateral laryngoceles in a patient who chronically uses ventricular phonation during speech. The pathogenesis involves repetitive elevation of intralaryngeal pressure during false vocal cord approximation, exposing the ventricles to abnormally high air pressures. The pathogenesis in this case, as well as in laryngoceles associated with occupational or anatomic risk factors, is discussed.     

Voice Source Characteristics in Mongolian “Throat Singing” Studied with High-Speed Imaging Technique, Acoustic Spectra, and Inverse Filtering

Mongolian “throat singing” can be performed in different modes. In Mongolia, the bass-type is called Kargyraa. The voice source in bass-type throat singing was studied in one male singer. The subject alternated between modal voice and the throat singing mode. Vocal fold vibrations were observed with high-speed photography, using a computerized recording system. The spectral characteristics of the sound signal were analyzed. Kymographic image data were compared to the sound signal and flow inverse filtering data from the same singer were obtained on a separate occasion. It was found that the vocal folds vibrated at the same frequency throughout both modes of singing. During throat singing the ventricular folds vibrated with complete but short closures at half the frequency of the true vocal folds, covering every second vocal fold closure. Kymographic data confirmed the findings. The spectrum contained added subharmonics compared to modal voice. In the inverse filtered signal the amplitude of every second airflow pulse was considerably lowered. The ventricular folds appeared to modulate the sound by reducing the glottal flow of every other vocal fold vibratory cycle.     

An investigation of the laryngeal system as the resonance source of the singer''s formant

Since its introduction, the Sundberg model of the laryngeal system as the resonance source of the singer's formant has gained wide acceptance. However, no studies directly testing this hypothesis in vivo have previously been reported. Thus, the present study was undertaken to test this hypothesis on three classically trained professional male singers. The vocal behaviors of the singer-subjects were evaluated during modal and pulse register phonation via magnetic resonance imaging, strobolaryngoscopy, and acoustic analysis. Results indicated the subjects did not achieve the laryngopharyngeal/laryngeal outlet cross-sectional area ratio requisite to the model and that the formant remained robust in pulse register phonation. It was concluded that these subjects' behaviors were not consistent with Sundberg's model and that the model was inadequate to account for the generation of the singer's formant in these three subjects.     

The False Vocal Folds: Shape and Size in Frontal View During Phonation Based on Laminagraphic Tracings

The geometry of the false vocal fold region during phonation is important to the understanding of the aerodynamics and acoustics of voice. The shape and dimensions of this region during phonation were estimated using laminagraphic tracings of the larynx. Laminagrams from two previous studies, one with non-singer subjects (Experiment I, Hollien and Colton, 1969) and the other with singers (Experiment II, Wilson, 1972), were traced, photocopied, and measured. Statistical analysis showed significantly greater false vocal fold height in males than females for both experiments. The false vocal fold gap was also significantly greater in males than females for Experiment II, but reached only borderline significance for Experiment I. For each gender, most of the linear measures were greater in Experiment I when compared to Experiment II; these differences may be passive in nature (due to actual differences in subject size) or active (due to muscle contraction that displaced the false vocal folds during singing).     

Septal repair implants: evaluation of magnetic resonance imaging safety at 3 T

Specialized implants are used for transcatheter closure of septal defects, including atrial and ventricular septal defects, and patent foramen ovale. These metallic devices may pose a risk to patients undergoing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) procedures especially if performed at 3 T. Therefore, this investigation evaluated MRI safety at 3 T for septal repair implants (CardioSEAL Septal Repair Implant and STARFlex Septal Repair Implant, NMT Medical, Boston, MA, USA) by characterizing magnetic field interactions, heating and artifacts. These implants exhibited minor magnetic field interactions; heating was not excessive (+0.5°C); and artifacts will only create a problem if the area of interest is in the same area as or near these devices. Thus, the findings indicated that it would be safe for a patient with these implants to undergo MRI at 3 T or lower. Importantly, because of the minor magnetic field interactions, MRI may be performed immediately after implantation.     

Guided-Wave Two-Dimensional Acousto-Optic Scanner Using Proton-Exchanged Lithium Niobate Waveguide

Two-dimensional scanning of a 0.6328 mum guided-light beam has been realized using noncolinear acousto-optic (AO) coplanar Bragg diffraction together with colinear AO guided-mode to substrate radiation-mode conversion in a Z-cut Xpropagation LiNbO3 proton-exchanged (PE) waveguide. The two surface acoustic (SAW) waves utilized are at the center frequencies of 500 and 200 MHz, propagating in the Y and X axes, respectively. Two-dimensional scanning of approximately 720 resolvable light beam spots, namely, 18 40 (horizontal vertical) scanning, has been demonstrated using a light beam of 1.0 mm aperture. The total number of resolvable beam spots can be greatly increased from 720 by simply utilizing SAW transducers of larger bandwidth and a light beam of greater aperture. It should also be possible to significantly increase the diffraction efficiency from 3 % by optimizing the parameters of the PE waveguide and the SAWs.     

Hybrid Wavelength and Code Division Multiple Access in Optical Networks

A review of schemes for multiple access in fiber optic networks shows that a hybrid of wavelength and code division multiple access (WCDMA) combines the best features of both. In particular, the hybrid scheme retains the large information carrying capacity of wavelength division multiple access (WDMA) and flexibility of code division multiple access (CDMA). In this paper WDMA, optical CDMA (OCDMA), and WCDMA networks are discussed. In OCDMA networks, concept of incoherent and coherent coding including inverse decoding and matched filter is introduced. The delay performance of both WDMA and WCDMA networks, under the simple suboptimum access protocols based on cyclic search, is computed. It has been shown quantitatively that tuning delay significantly affects the delay performance of both WDMA and WCDMA networks. Futhermore, delay performance of WCDMA networks is always better than the WDMA networks for the same tuning delay, load, and number of users.     

Effect ofγ-radiation on the spectral luminescence characteristics of impure cadmium tungstate crystals

Results of a study of the effect of γ-radiation on the spectral luminescence properties of cadmium tungstate crystals doped with silver, bismuth, and molybdenum cations are presented. Spectral characteristics of the nondnnnoped crystals are briefly described. Absorption and photo and X-ray luminescence spectra of the crystals taken before and after exposure to γ-radiation (5.5·10⁴ Gy) are compared. It is found that the spectral characteristics of the crystals doped with silver, bismuth, and molybdenum cations do not change markedly after the exposure. The relation between the type of impurity-induced defects, individual characteristics of the impurity cations, and the character of the effect of γ-radiation on the spectral luminescence properties of impure crystals is analyzed (preliminarily). Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Spektroskopii, Vol. 64, No. 1, pp. 55–60, January–February, 1997.     

Femtosecond Transform-Limited Pulse Generation by Compensating for the Linear Chirp of SPM Spectra in Dispersion Shifted Fibers

A simple technique of pulse compression, based on the linear chirp compensation of self-phase modulation (SPM) spectra in dispersion shifted fibers, is demonstrated. The optimization procedure is carried out, for a short span of a single-mode fiber, using a parabolic law, which describes the behavior of the squared output pulse width versus the pump peak power in the case of Gaussian pulses. The experimental results give a minimum pulse duration of 233 fs, which is in good agreement with the model. Shorter and coherent pulses, down to 90 fs, have been obtained by inserting an interference filter at the optical output.     

Sorting of bending magnets for the SSRF booster

The Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility(SSRF)booster ring,a full energy injector for the storage ring,is deigned to accelerate the electron beam energy from 150MeV to 3.5GeV that demands high extraction efficiency at the extraction energy with low beam loss rate when electrons are ramping.Closed orbit distortion(COD)caused by bending magnet field uniformity errors which affects the machine performance harmfully could be effectively reduced by bending magnet location sorting.Considering the affections of random errors in measurement,both ideal sorting and realistic sorting are studied based on measured bending magnet field uniformity errors and one reasonable combination of bending magnets which can reduce the horizontal COD by a factor of 5is given as the final installation sequence of the booster bending magnets in this paper.     

Measurement of nonlinear coefficient of optical fiber based on small chirped soliton transmission

We measure the waveform and phase curves of short optical pulses before and after transmission over different lengths of fibers by use of the pulse analyzer with the frequency-resolved optical gating (FROG),and numerically simulate pulse evolution under the experimental conditions.The nonlinear coefficient of the fiber is given by comparing the experimental results with the numerical ones.Difference between the experiment and numerical simulation is analyzed.     

Resonance scattering of canonical elastic shells in absorbing fluid medium

Resonance scattering of elastic spherical shell and cylindrical shell while the surrounding fluid medium has absorption is studied. The normal mode solution derived using exact elastic theory and the separation of variables is still applicable. However, the scattering form function has to be modified for the absorbing medium, otherwise the unreasonable result would be obtained. The backscattering form function in the absorbing medium is redefined, and the form function of elastic spherical and cylindrical shell with vacuum or solid matter filled is calculated in various absorption conditions. The results show that the absorption of surrounding fluid leads to notable attenuation of the coincidence resonances in the mid-frequency, but it has a little influence on the low-frequency resonance scattering induced by the filler inside the shell.     

Single-beam self-referenced phase-sensitive surface plasmon resonance sensor with high detection resolution

A versatile and low-cost single-beam self-referenced phase-sensitive surface plasmon resonance(SPR)sensing system with ultra-high resolution performance is presented.The system exhibits a root-mean-square phase fluctuation of ±0.0028.over a period of 45 min.i.e.a resolution of±5.2×10-9 refractive index units.The enhanced performance has been achieved through the incorporation of three design elements:a true single-beam configuration enabling complete self-referencing so that only the phase change associated with SPR gets detected,a differential measurement scheme to eliminate spurious signals not related to the sensor response,and the elimination of retardation drifts by incorporating temperature stabilization in the liquid crystal phase modulato .Our design should bring the detection sensitivity of non-labeling SPR biosensing closer to that achievable by conventional fluorescence-based techniques.     

Influences of SiO2 protective layers and annealing on the laser-induced damage threshold of Ta2O5 films

Ta2O5 films are prepared on BK7 substrates with conventional electron beam evaporation deposition.The effects of SiO2 protective layers and annealing on the laser-induced damage threshold (LIDT) of the films are investigated.The results show that SiO2 protective layers exert little influence on the electric field intensity(EFI)distribution,microstructure and microdefect density but increase the absorption slightly.Annealing iS effective on decreasing the microdefect density and the absorption of the films.Both SiO2 protective layers and annealing are beneficial to the damage resistance of the films and the latter is more effective to improve the LIDT.Moreover,the maximal LIDT of Ta2O5 films is achieved by the combination of SiO2 protective layers and annealing.     

A stereo matching algorithm using multi-peak candidate matches and geometric constraints

Gray cross correlation matching technique is adopted to extract candidate matches with gray cross correla- tion coefficients less than some certain range of maximal correlation coefficient called multi-peak candidate matches. Multi-peak candidates are extracted corresponding to three closest feature points at first. The corresponding multi-peak candidate matches are used to construct the model polygon. Correspondence is determined based on the local geometric relations between the three feature points and the multi-peak candidates. The disparity test and the global consistency checkout are applied to eliminate the remaining ambiguous matches that are not removed by the local geometric relational test. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm is feasible and accurate.     

Fiber Modal Index Measurements Based on Fiber Gratings

A novel method based on fiber gratings for measuring the effective indices of fiber modes is proposed. The effective index difference between the core mode and a cladding mode was obtained by analyzing the interference fringe of a pair of cascaded long-period fiber gratings. In order to extract the core mode index from the measured index difference, an index matching oil immersion method is proposed. By analyzing the interaction between the cladding mode and the oil applied on the cladding surface, the mode order and the effective index of the involved cladding mode might be calculated. Experimental results about the interference fringe shifts induced by the oil index and the oil-applied length are also presented.