Application of chemometric methods for assessment and modelling of microbiological quality data concerning coastal bathing water in Greece

Background. Worldwide, the aim of managing water is to safeguard human health whilst maintaining sustainable aquatic and associated terrestrial, ecosystems. Because human enteric viruses are the most likely pathogens responsible for waterborne diseases from recreational water use, but detection methods are complex and costly for routine monitoring, it is of great interest to determine the quality of coastal bathing water with a minimum cost and maximum safety. Design and methods. This study handles the assessment and modelling of the microbiological quality data of 2149 seawater bathing areas in Greece over 10-year period (1997-2006) by chemometric methods. Results. Cluster analysis results indicated that the studied bathing beaches are classified in accordance with the seasonality in three groups. Factor analysis was applied to investigate possible determining factors in the groups resulted from the cluster analysis, and also two new parameters were created in each group; VF1 includes E. coli, faecal coliforms and total coliforms and VF2 includes faecal streptococci/enterococci. By applying the cluster analysis in each seasonal group, three new groups of coasts were generated, group A (ultraclean), group B (clean) and group C (contaminated). Conclusions. The above analysis is confirmed by the application of discriminant analysis, and proves that chemometric methods are useful tools for assessment and modeling microbiological quality data of coastal bathing water on a large scale, and thus could attribute to effective and economical monitoring of the quality of coastal bathing water in a country with a big number of bathing coasts, like Greece

Paradigm shift in Parkinson's disease: using continuous telemonitoring to improve symptoms control. Results from a 2-years journey

IntroductionConventional care in Parkinson's disease (PD) faces limitations due to the significant time and location commitments needed for regular assessments, lacking quantitative measurements. Telemonitoring offers clinicians an opportunity to evaluate patient symptomatology throughout the day during activities of daily living.MethodsThe progression of PD symptoms over a two-year period was investigated in patients undergoing traditional evaluation, supplemented by insights from ambulatory measurements. Physicians integrated a telemonitoring device, the PDMonitor®, into daily practice, using it for informed medication adjustments.ResultsStatistical analyses examining intra-subject changes for 17 subjects revealed a significant relative decrease of −43.9% in the device-reported percentage of time spent in “OFF” state (from 36.2 to 20.3%). Following the 24-month period, the majority of the subjects improved or exhibited stable symptom manifestation. In addition to positively impacting motor symptom control, telemonitoring was found to enhance patient satisfaction about their condition, medication effectiveness, and communication with physicians.DiscussionConsidering that motor function is significantly worsened over time in patients with PD, these findings suggest a positive impact of objective telemonitoring on symptoms control. Patient satisfaction regarding disease management through telemonitoring can potentially improve adherence to treatment plans. In conclusion, remote continuous monitoring paves the way for a paradigm shift in PD, focusing on actively managing and potentially improve symptoms control

Three-dimensional reconstruction of coronary arteries and plaque morphology using CT angiography - comparison and registration with IVUS

Background: The aim of this study is to present a new methodology for three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction of coronary arteries and plaque morphology using Computed Tomography Angiography (CTA). Methods: The methodology is summarized in six stages: 1) pre-processing of the initial raw images, 2) rough estimation of the lumen and outer vessel wall borders and approximation of the vessel's centerline, 3) manual adaptation of plaque parameters, 4) accurate extraction of the luminal centerline, 5) detection of the lumen - outer vessel wall borders and calcium plaque region, and 6) finally 3D surface construction. Results: The methodology was compared to the estimations of a recently presented Intravascular Ultrasound (IVUS) plaque characterization method. The correlation coefficients for calcium volume, surface area, length and angle vessel were 0.79, 0.86, 0.95 and 0.88, respectively. Additionally, when comparing the inner and outer vessel wall volumes of the reconstructed arteries produced by IVUS and CTA the observed correlation was 0.87 and 0.83, respectively. Conclusions: The results indicated that the proposed methodology is fast and accurate and thus it is likely in the future to have applications in research and clinical arena

Simple and sensitive HPLC-UV method for determination of bexarotene in rat plasma

Bexarotene is currently marketed for treatment of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma and there has been growing interest in its therapeutic effectiveness for other cancers. Neuroprotective effects of bexarotene have also been reported. In this study, a simple, sensitive and cost-efficient bioanalytical method for determination of bexarotene in rat plasma was developed and fully validated. The method utilises protein precipitation with acetonitrile and liquid-liquid extraction with n-hexane-ethyl acetate (10:1, v/v). An HPLC-UV system with a Waters Atlantis C18 column and a mobile phase of acetonitrile-ammonium acetate buffer (10 mM, pH 4.1) at a ratio of 75:25 (v/v), flow rate 0.2 mL/min was used. Chromatograms were observed by a UV detector with wavelength set to 259 nm. Intra- and inter-day validations were performed and sample stability tests were conducted at various conditions. The applicability of the method was demonstrated by a pharmacokinetic study in rats. Intravenous bolus dose of 2.5 mg/kg was administered to rats and samples were obtained at predetermined time points. As a result, pharmacokinetic parameters of AUCinf (4668 ± 452 h ng/mL), C0 (6219 ± 1068 ng/mL) and t1/2 (1.15 ± 0.02 h) were obtained. In addition, the developed method was further applied to human and mouse plasma to assess the suitability of the method for samples from other species

Modeling “psychosis” in vitro by inducing disordered neuronal network activity in cortical brain slices

# The Author(s) 2009. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Introduction Dysregulation of neuronal networks has been suggested to underlie the cognitive and perceptual abnor-malities observed schizophrenia. Discussions An in vitro model of psychosis is proposed based on the two different approaches to cause aberrant networ

The Role of Eye Gaze in Security and Privacy Applications: Survey and Future HCI Research Directions

For the past 20 years, researchers have investigated the use of eye tracking in security applications. We present a holistic view on gaze-based security applications. In particular, we canvassed the literature and classify the utility of gaze in security applications into a) authentication, b) privacy protection, and c) gaze monitoring during security critical tasks. This allows us to chart several research directions, most importantly 1) conducting field studies of implicit and explicit gaze-based authentication due to recent advances in eye tracking, 2) research on gaze-based privacy protection and gaze monitoring in security critical tasks which are under-investigated yet very promising areas, and 3) understanding the privacy implications of pervasive eye tracking. We discuss the most promising opportunities and most pressing challenges of eye tracking for security that will shape research in gaze-based security applications for the next decade

Three-dimensional reconstruction of coronary arteries and plaque morphology using CT angiography – comparison and registration with IVUS

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study is to present a new methodology for three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction of coronary arteries and plaque morphology using Computed Tomography Angiography (CTA). METHODS: The methodology is summarized in six stages: 1) pre-processing of the initial raw images, 2) rough estimation of the lumen and outer vessel wall borders and approximation of the vessel’s centerline, 3) manual adaptation of plaque parameters, 4) accurate extraction of the luminal centerline, 5) detection of the lumen - outer vessel wall borders and calcium plaque region, and 6) finally 3D surface construction. RESULTS: The methodology was compared to the estimations of a recently presented Intravascular Ultrasound (IVUS) plaque characterization method. The correlation coefficients for calcium volume, surface area, length and angle vessel were 0.79, 0.86, 0.95 and 0.88, respectively. Additionally, when comparing the inner and outer vessel wall volumes of the reconstructed arteries produced by IVUS and CTA the observed correlation was 0.87 and 0.83, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicated that the proposed methodology is fast and accurate and thus it is likely in the future to have applications in research and clinical arena