The application of time-frequency methods of acoustic signal processing in the diagnostics of tram drive components

The paper presents the course of investigations and the analysis of the possibility of applying selected methods of time-frequency processing of non-stationary acoustic signals in the assessment of the technical condition of tram drive  components, as well as a new combined method proposed by the authors. An experiment was performed in the form of a pass-by test of the acoustic pressure generated by a Solaris Tramino S105p tram. A comparative analysis has been carried out for an efficient case and a case with damage to the traction gear of the third bogie in the form of broken gear teeth. The recorded signal was analyzed using short-time Fourier transform (STFT) and continuous wavelet transform (CWT). It was found that the gear failure causes an increase in the sound level generated by a given bogie for frequencies within the range of characteristic frequencies of the tested device. Due to the limitations associated with the fixed window resolution in STFT and the inability to directly translate scales to frequencies in CWT, it was found that these methods can be helpful in determining suspected damage, but are too imprecise and prone to errors when the parameters of both transforms are poorly chosen. A new CWT-Cepstrum method was proposed as a solution, using the wavelet transform as a pre-filter before cepstrum signal processing. With a sampling rate of 8192 Hz, a db6 mother wavelet, and a scale range of 1:200, the new method was found to infer the occurrence of damage in an interpretation-free manner. The results were validated on an independent pair of trams of the same model with identical damage and as a reference on a pair of undamaged trams demonstrating that the method can be successfully replicated for different vehicles

Left atrial myxoma in a patient with advanced coronary artery disease qualified to undergo heart surgery - case report

Śluzak przedsionka jest najczęściej występującym łagodnym guzem serca. W przypadku gdy jest bezobjawowy, często jego rozpoznanie jest przypadkowe. Z uwagi na takie powikłania z nim związane, jak: zatorowość obwodowa i płucna, zamknięcie ujść przedsionkowo-komorowych, zaburzenia rytmu serca lub nagły zgon, istotne jest jego wczesne rozpoznanie i leczenie. W niniejszej pracy przedstawiono przypadek chorego zgłaszającego tylko pogorszenie tolerancji wysiłku. We wczesnej diagnostyce echokardiograficznej wykonanej u badanego uwidoczniono zmianę w lewym przedsionku, natomiast w dalszej diagnostyce tego guza stwierdzono współistniejące, istotne zmiany zwężające w tętnicach wieńcowych. Chorego zakwalifikowano do operacyjnego usunięcia guza i jednoczesnego zabiegu pomostowania naczyń wieńcowych.Atrial myxoma is one of the most common benign heart tumors and when asymptomatic its diagnosis is often the case. Due to its complications — peripheral and the pulmonary embolism, the atrio-ventricular orifice closure, arrhythmias or sudden cardiac death — early diagnosis and treatment are important. In this report we want to present a case of a patient with only fatigue as a symptom of illness. Early echocardiographic evaluation showed a tumor in the left atrium and further tests of the tumor revealed the coincidence of advanced coronary artery stenoses. The patient was qualified to undergo tumor excision and coronary artery by-pass grafting

<i>Spitzer</i> Microlensing Parallax Reveals Two Isolated Stars in the Galactic Bulge

We report the mass and distance measurements of two single-lens events from the 2017 $\textit {Spitzer}$ microlensing campaign. The ground-based observations yield the detection of finite-source effects, and the microlens parallaxes are derived from the joint analysis of ground-based observations and $\textit {Spitzer}$ observations. We find that the lens of OGLE-2017-BLG-1254 is a 0.60 ± 0.03 M ⊙ star with D LS = 0.53 ± 0.11 kpc, where D LS is the distance between the lens and the source. The second event, OGLE-2017-BLG-1161, is subject to the known satellite parallax degeneracy, and thus is either a ${0.51}_{-0.10}^{+0.12}\,{M}_{\odot }$ star with D LS = 0.40 ± 0.12 kpc or a ${0.38}_{-0.12}^{+0.13}\,{M}_{\odot }$ star with D LS = 0.53 ± 0.19 kpc. Both of the lenses are therefore isolated stars in the Galactic bulge. By comparing the mass and distance distributions of the eight published $\textit {Spitzer}$ finite-source events with the expectations from a Galactic model, we find that the $\textit {Spitzer}$ sample is in agreement with the probability of finite-source effects occurring in single-lens events

Improved clinical investigation and evaluation of high-risk medical devices: the rationale and objectives of CORE-MD (Coordinating Research and Evidence for Medical Devices)

: In the European Union (EU) the delivery of health services is a national responsibility but there are concerted actions between member states to protect public health. Approval of pharmaceutical products is the responsibility of the European Medicines Agency, whereas authorizing the placing on the market of medical devices is decentralized to independent 'conformity assessment' organizations called notified bodies. The first legal basis for an EU system of evaluating medical devices and approving their market access was the medical device directives, from the 1990s. Uncertainties about clinical evidence requirements, among other reasons, led to the EU Medical Device Regulation (2017/745) that has applied since May 2021. It provides general principles for clinical investigations but few methodological details-which challenges responsible authorities to set appropriate balances between regulation and innovation, pre- and post-market studies, and clinical trials and real-world evidence. Scientific experts should advise on methods and standards for assessing and approving new high-risk devices, and safety, efficacy, and transparency of evidence should be paramount. The European Commission recently awarded a Horizon 2020 grant to a consortium led by the European Society of Cardiology and the European Federation of National Associations of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, that will review methodologies of clinical investigations, advise on study designs, and develop recommendations for aggregating clinical data from registries and other real-world sources. The CORE-MD project (Coordinating Research and Evidence for Medical Devices) will run until March 2024; here we describe how it may contribute to the development of regulatory science in Europe

Temperature Effects Explain Continental Scale Distribution of Cyanobacterial Toxins

Insight into how environmental change determines the production and distribution of cyanobacterial toxins is necessary for risk assessment. Management guidelines currently focus on hepatotoxins (microcystins). Increasing attention is given to other classes, such as neurotoxins (e.g., anatoxin-a) and cytotoxins (e.g., cylindrospermopsin) due to their potency. Most studies examine the relationship between individual toxin variants and environmental factors, such as nutrients, temperature and light. In summer 2015, we collected samples across Europe to investigate the effect of nutrient and temperature gradients on the variability of toxin production at a continental scale. Direct and indirect effects of temperature were the main drivers of the spatial distribution in the toxins produced by the cyanobacterial community, the toxin concentrations and toxin quota. Generalized linear models showed that a Toxin Diversity Index (TDI) increased with latitude, while it decreased with water stability. Increases in TDI were explained through a significant increase in toxin variants such as MC-YR, anatoxin and cylindrospermopsin, accompanied by a decreasing presence of MC-LR. While global warming continues, the direct and indirect effects of increased lake temperatures will drive changes in the distribution of cyanobacterial toxins in Europe, potentially promoting selection of a few highly toxic species or strains.Peer reviewe

Rotation and pulsation in Ap stars: first light results from TESS sectors 1 and 2

We present the first results from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) on the ro- tational and pulsational variability of magnetic chemically peculiar A-type stars. We analyse TESS 2-min cadence data from sectors 1 and 2 on a sample of 83 stars. Five new rapidly oscillating Ap (roAp) stars are announced. One of these pulsates with periods around 4.7 min, making it the shortest period roAp star known to date. Four out of the five new roAp stars are multiperiodic. Three of these, and the singly-periodic one show the presence of rotational mode splitting. Individual frequencies are provided in all cases. In addition, seven previously known roAp stars are analysed. Additional modes of oscillation are found in some stars, while in others we are able to distinguish the true pulsations from possible aliases present in the ground-based data. We find that the pulsation amplitude in the TESS filter is typically a factor 6 smaller than that in the B filter which is usually used for ground-based observations. For four roAp stars we set constraints on the inclination angle and magnetic obliquity, through the application of the oblique pulsator model. We also confirm the absence of roAp-type pulsa- tions down to amplitude limits of 6 and 13 µmag, respectively, in two of the best characterised non-oscillating Ap (noAp) stars. We announce 27 new rotational variables along with their ro- tation periods, and provide different rotation periods for seven other stars. Finally, we discuss how these results challenge state-of-the-art pulsation models for roAp stars

Spitzer Microlensing Parallax for OGLE-2017-BLG-0896 Reveals a Counter-rotating Low-mass Brown Dwarf

The kinematics of isolated brown dwarfs in the Galaxy, beyond the solar neighborhood, is virtually unknown. Microlensing has the potential to probe this hidden population, as it can measure both the mass and five of the six phase-space coordinates (all except the radial velocity) even of a dark isolated lens. However, the measurements of both the microlens-parallax and finite-source effects are needed in order to recover the full information. Here, we combine the Spitzer satellite parallax measurement with the ground-based light curve, which exhibits strong finite-source effects, of event OGLE-2017-BLG-0896. We find two degenerate solutions for the lens (due to the known satellite-parallax degeneracy), which are consistent with each other except for their proper motion. The lens is an isolated brown dwarf with a mass of either 18 ± 1 M J or 20 ± 1 M J . This is the lowest isolated-object mass measurement to date, only ~45% more massive than the theoretical deuterium-fusion boundary at solar metallicity, which is the common definition of a free-floating planet. The brown dwarf is located at either 3.9 ± 0.1 kpc or 4.1 ± 0.1 kpc toward the Galactic bulge, but with proper motion in the opposite direction of disk stars, with one solution suggesting it is moving within the Galactic plane. While it is possibly a halo brown dwarf, it might also represent a different, unknown population

Seasonal and inter-seasonal RSV activity in the European Region during the COVID-19 pandemic from autumn 2020 to summer 2022

© 2023 The Authors. Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.Background: The emergence of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in early 2020 and subsequent implementation of public health and social measures (PHSM) disrupted the epidemiology of respiratory viruses. This work describes the epidemiology of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) observed during two winter seasons (weeks 40–20) and inter-seasonal periods (weeks 21–39) during the pandemic between October 2020 and September 2022. Methods: Using data submitted to The European Surveillance System (TESSy) by countries or territories in the World Health Organization (WHO) European Region between weeks 40/2020 and 39/2022, we aggregated country-specific weekly RSV counts of sentinel, non-sentinel and Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) surveillance specimens and calculated percentage positivity. Results for both 2020/21 and 2021/22 seasons and inter-seasons were compared with pre-pandemic 2016/17 to 2019/20 seasons and inter-seasons. Results: Although more specimens were tested than in pre-COVID-19 pandemic seasons, very few RSV detections were reported during the 2020/21 season in all surveillance systems. During the 2021 inter-season, a gradual increase in detections was observed in all systems. In 2021/22, all systems saw early peaks of RSV infection, and during the 2022 inter-seasonal period, patterns of detections were closer to those seen before the COVID-19 pandemic. Conclusion: RSV surveillance continued throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, with an initial reduction in transmission, followed by very high and out-of-season RSV circulation (summer 2021) and then an early start of the 2021/22 season. As of the 2022/23 season, RSV circulation had not yet normalised.Peer reviewe

Czasowo-częstotliwościowe metody przetwarzania niestacjonarnych diagnostycznych sygnałów wibroakustycznych

The article presents the issues of interpretation of non-stationary vibroacoustic diagnostic signals. The reasons of the incomplete usefulness of the traditional analysis solely in the field of time or frequency for such cases are explained. The use of time-frequency methods is presented as the proposed solution. The literature was reviewed in aspect of the methods currently used or on which the research is carried out. Older applications, such as the short-time Fourier transform and more complex and contemporary applications such as the Hilbert-Huang transform, are mentioned. Further development directions were also assessed, taking into account the combination of methods and the use of artificial neural networks, assessing the latter as giving the greatest potential in aspect of the evolution of signal processing methods.W artykule zaprezentowano problematykę interpretacji niestacjonarnych wibroakustycznych sygnałów diagnostycznych. Wyjaśniono przyczyny niepełnej przydatności tradycyjnej analizy wyłącznie w dziedzinie czasu lub częstotliwości dla takich przypadków. Jako proponowane rozwiązanie przedstawiono wykorzystanie metod czasowo-częstotliwościowych. Dokonano przeglądu literatury w aspekcie metod obecnie wykorzystywanych lub nad którymi prowadzone są badania. Wymieniono zarówno zastosowania starsze jak krótkoczasowa transformata Fouriera oraz bardziej złożone i współczesne jak transformata Hilberta-Huanga. Dokonano również oceny dalszych kierunków rozwoju z uwzględnieniem kombinacji metod oraz wykorzystania sztucznych sieci neuronowych oceniając te ostatnie jako dające największy potencjał w aspekcie ewolucji metod przetwarzania sygnałów