Accuracy of Continuous Central Venous Oxygen Saturation Monitoring in Patients Undergoing Cardiac Surgery

Objective: Continuous assessment of central venous oxygen saturation (ScevoxO2) with the CeVOX device (Pulsion Medical Systems, Munich, Germany) was evaluated against central venous oxygen saturation (ScvO2) determined by co-oximetry. Methods: In 20 cardiac surgical patients, a CeVOX fiberoptic probe was introduced into a standard central venous catheter placed in the right internal jugular vein and advanced 2-3cm beyond the catheter tip. After invivo calibration of the probe, ScevoxO2, ScvO2, mixed venous oxygen saturation (SmvO2) haemoglobin (Hb), body temperature, heart rate, central venous and mean arterial pressure, and cardiac index were assessed simultaneously at 30min intervals during surgery and at 60min intervals during recovery in the intensive care unit. Agreement between ScevoxO2, and ScvO2 was determined by Bland-Altman analysis. Simple regression analysis was used to assess the correlation of ScevoxO2, and ScvO2 to Hb, body temperature and haemodynamic parameters. Results: Values of ScevoxO2 and ScvO2 (84 data pairs during surgery and 106 in the intensive care unit) ranged between 45-89% and 43-90%, respectively. Mean bias and limits of agreement of ScevoxO2 and ScvO2 were -0.9 (−7.9/+6.1)% during surgery and −1.2 (−10.5/+8.1)% in the intensive care unit. In 37.9% of all measured data pairs, the difference between ScevoxO2 and ScvO2 was beyond clinically acceptable limits (≥1 s.d.). Mean bias was significantly influenced by cardiac index. Sensitivity and specificity of ScevoxO2 to detect substantial (≥1 s.d.) changes in ScvO2 were 89 and 82%, respectively. Conclusions: In adult patients during and after cardiac surgery, the current version of the CeVOX device might not be the tool to replace ScvO2 determined by co-oxymetry, although sensitivity and specificity of ScevoxO2 to predict substantial changes in ScvO2 were acceptabl

Comment on "On the Extraction of Purely Motor EEG Neural Correlates during an Upper Limb Visuomotor Task"

Bibian et al. show in their recent paper (Bibi\'an et al. 2021) that eye and head movements can affect the EEG-based classification in a reaching motor task. These movements can generate artefacts that can cause an overoptimistic estimation of the classification accuracy. They speculate that such artefacts jeopardise the interpretation of the results from several motor decoding studies including our study (Ofner et al. 2017). While we endorse their warning about artefacts in general, we do have doubts whether their work supports such a statement with respect to our study. We provide in this commentary a more nuanced contextualization of our work presented in Ofner et al. and the type of artefacts investigated in Bibian et al

Cybathlon experiences of the Graz BCI racing team Mirage91 in the brain-computer interface discipline

Abstract Background In this work, we share our experiences made at the world-wide first CYBATHLON, an event organized by the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (ETH Zürich), which took place in Zurich in October 2016. It is a championship for severely motor impaired people using assistive prototype devices to compete against each other. Our team, the Graz BCI Racing Team MIRAGE91 from Graz University of Technology, participated in the discipline “Brain-Computer Interface Race”. A brain-computer interface (BCI) is a device facilitating control of applications via the user’s thoughts. Prominent applications include assistive technology such as wheelchairs, neuroprostheses or communication devices. In the CYBATHLON BCI Race, pilots compete in a BCI-controlled computer game. Methods We report on setting up our team, the BCI customization to our pilot including long term training and the final BCI system. Furthermore, we describe CYBATHLON participation and analyze our CYBATHLON result. Results We found that our pilot was compliant over the whole time and that we could significantly reduce the average runtime between start and finish from initially 178 s to 143 s. After the release of the final championship specifications with shorter track length, the average runtime converged to 120 s. We successfully participated in the qualification race at CYBATHLON 2016, but performed notably worse than during training, with a runtime of 196 s. Discussion We speculate that shifts in the features, due to the nonstationarities in the electroencephalogram (EEG), but also arousal are possible reasons for the unexpected result. Potential counteracting measures are discussed. Conclusions The CYBATHLON 2016 was a great opportunity for our student team. We consolidated our theoretical knowledge and turned it into practice, allowing our pilot to play a computer game. However, further research is required to make BCI technology invariant to non-task related changes of the EEG

Combined biological and chemical assessment of estrogenic activities in wastewater treatment plant effluents

Five wastewater treatment plant effluents were analyzed for known endocrine disrupters and estrogenicity. Estrogenicity was determined by using the yeast estrogen screen (YES) and by measuring the blood plasma vitellogenin (VTG) concentrations in exposed male rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). While all wastewater treatment plant effluents contained measurable concentrations of estrogens and gave a positive response with the YES, only at two sites did the male fish have significantly increased VTG blood plasma concentrations after the exposure, compared to pre-exposure concentrations. Estrone (E1) concentrations ranged up to 51ngL−1, estradiol (E2) up to 6ngL−1, and ethinylestradiol (EE2) up to 2ngL−1 in the 90samples analyzed. Alkylphenols, alkylphenolmonoethoxylates and alkylphenoldiethoxylates, even though found at µgL−1 concentrations in effluents from wastewater treatment plants with a significant industrial content, did not contribute much to the overall estrogenicity of the samples taken due to their low relative potency. Expected estrogenicities were calculated from the chemical data for each sample by using the principle of concentration additivity and relative potencies of the various chemicals as determined with the yeast estrogen screen. Measured and calculated estradiol equivalents gave the same order of magnitude and correlated rather well (R 2=0.6

Functional architecture of reward learning in mushroom body extrinsic neurons of larval Drosophila.

The brain adaptively integrates present sensory input, past experience, and options for future action. The insect mushroom body exemplifies how a central brain structure brings about such integration. Here we use a combination of systematic single-cell labeling, connectomics, transgenic silencing, and activation experiments to study the mushroom body at single-cell resolution, focusing on the behavioral architecture of its input and output neurons (MBINs and MBONs), and of the mushroom body intrinsic APL neuron. Our results reveal the identity and morphology of almost all of these 44 neurons in stage 3 Drosophila larvae. Upon an initial screen, functional analyses focusing on the mushroom body medial lobe uncover sparse and specific functions of its dopaminergic MBINs, its MBONs, and of the GABAergic APL neuron across three behavioral tasks, namely odor preference, taste preference, and associative learning between odor and taste. Our results thus provide a cellular-resolution study case of how brains organize behavior

OIC 09 Alpha - Multimediales Callcenter auf UCMA 2.0 Basis

Ausgangslage: Die IP-Telefonie löst in der heutigen Zeit in vielen Firmen zunehmend die bewährte klassische Telefonie mit einem separaten Telefonnetz ab. So auch im Umfeld Kundenbetreuung mittels Callcenter. Auf diesem Gebiet hat sich besonders die Firma Cisco Systems Inc. mit ihrem Produkt Cisco Unified Intelligent Contact Management Enterprise (ICM), welches gute Auswertungs-Funktionen mit sich bringt, weltweit etabliert. In den letzten Jahren kam im Bereich der IP-Telefonie der Begriff Unified Communications (UC) auf. Dabei werden verschiedenste Kommunikationsmedien, wie Instant Messaging oder E-Mail, in eine einheitliche Anwendungsumgebung integriert und die Präsenzinformationen der Benutzer für die Umwelt ersichtlich gemacht. Der Softwarehersteller Microsoft besitzt seit November 2007 ein Produkt mit dem Namen Office Communication Server (OCS), welches in Firmen UC ermöglicht. Das Anwendungsprogramm Office Communicator (OC) ermöglicht den Benutzern die multimediale Kommunikation mit der Umwelt bei einer optimalen Integration in die bestehenden Microsoft-Office-Produkte. Ziel: Ziel dieser Bachelorarbeit ist es, eine Softwarekomponente (UCSM) zu entwickeln, welche die Vorteile beider Produkte nutzt. Dabei soll ein Prototyp eines multimedialen Contactcenters auf Basis von OCS und ICM entstehen. Lösung: Es wurde eine Softwarekomponente entwickelt, welche Audio- und Instant-Messaging- Anrufe entgegennimmt und diese dem ICM rapportiert. Das ICM entscheidet, ob ein Anruf an einen freien Agenten durchgestellt oder in eine Warteschlange verschoben wird. Dem Anrufer kann auch eine Aufforderung zur Informationseingabe abgespielt werden. Diese Daten unterstützen das ICM bei der Entscheidungsfindung und werden dem ausgewählten Agent per Instant Message zugestellt. Die Bachelorarbeit entstand im Kontext eines Proof of Concepts für Bucher + Suter AG, welche die Anforderungen stellte und ein entsprechendes Gateway zu ICM entwickelte