Automating Blood Flow Simulation Through the Aorta in Patient-specific CT Images

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling of blood flow is significant for obtaining patient-specific hemodynamics information for functional assessment of the cardiovascular system. In this work, we present a framework for fully automatic CFD simulation through the aorta. The proposed framework consists of four main stages: (1) automatic segmentation of the aorta, (2) model generation, (3) mesh creation, and (4) blood flow simulation. In the segmentation part, we utilized a 3D MultiResUnet network for automatic segmentation of organs at risk from the CodaLab SegThor Challenge. After that, we extract ascending and descending aorta and further proceed with the model and mesh generation. Finally, we simulate the pressure along the surface of the aorta, the displacement, and the velocity. The entire framework was implemented in Python with open-sourced dependencies (Pytorch, VTK, SimVascular, SimpleITK), can be executed from the command line, and does not require user intervention, significantly reducing aorta simulation time

Attitudes about vaccination in the community

Cijepljenje protiv zarazne bolesti medicinska je intervencija kojoj je svrha da izazove specifični zaštitni imunosni odgovor protiv uzročnika zarazne bolesti ili njegova proizvoda prije nego bolest nastupi. Razvoj cjepiva jedna je od najznačajnijih prekretnica u povijesti medicine. Aktivnom imunizacijom postignut je velik pad mortaliteta i morbiditeta bolesti protiv kojih je obavezno cijepljenje, kao i invaliditeta koji se može javiti kao posljedica tih bolesti. Iako cijepljenje spada među najsigurnije medicinske intervencije, prisutan je rizik od nuspojava. One su uglavnom blage, no rijetko dolazi do razvoja ozbiljnih i teških nuspojava koje mogu ostaviti trajne posljedice. Unatoč tome, službeni stav medicine jest da korist cijepljenja uvelike premašuje potencijalne rizike. Mišljenja o cijepljenju podijeljena su od samih njegovih početaka, no posljednjih desetljeća sve se više raspravlja o ovoj kontroverznoj temi. Odbijanje cijepljenja iz nemedicinskih razloga, već zbog zabrinutosti o njegovoj sigurnosti, opravdanosti, učinkovitosti i etičnosti dovodi do suboptimalnih cijepnih obuhvata, što otvara vrata epidemijama potisnutih bolesti. Posljednjih godina zabilježen je pad procijepljenosti obveznim cjepivima u Republici Hrvatskoj te se ovim istraživanjem žele utvrditi stavovi o cijepljenju u zajednici. Tijekom izrade završnog rada provedeno je istraživanje na društvenim mrežama putem Google obrasca u periodu od 18.7.2017.- 10.9.2017. Za potrebe ovog istraživanja sastavljen je upitnik od tri dijela. Prvi dio je prikupljao sociodemografske podatke o ispitanicima, drugi dio je sadržavao 20 čestica gdje su ispitanici na Likertovoj skali procjenjivali koliko se slažu s nekom tvrdnjom vezanom za cijepljenje, a posljednji dio upitnika je sadržavao tri pitanja s ponuđenim odgovorima. Istraživanje je provedeno na uzorku od 3929 ispitanika. Rezultati su pokazali da 64,09% ispitanika podržava cijepljenje, 18,58% mu se protivi, a ostali su neodlučni. MO- PA- RU i ''5u1'' cjepiva pokazala su se kao ona koja izazivaju najviše zabrinutosti. Negativnije stavove prema cijepljenju imaju žene, roditelji odnosno skrbnici, ljudi koji dolaze iz ruralnih sredina i oni snižom razinom obrazovanja

Evaluation Framework for Computer Vision-Based Guidance of the Visually Impaired

Visually impaired persons have significant problems in their everyday movement. Therefore, some of our previous work involves computer vision in developing assistance systems for guiding the visually impaired in critical situations. Some of those situations includes crosswalks on road crossings and stairs in indoor and outdoor environment. This paper presents an evaluation framework for computer vision-based guiding of the visually impaired persons in such critical situations. Presented framework includes the interface for labeling and storing referent human decisions for guiding directions and compares them to computer vision-based decisions. Since strict evaluation methodology in this research field is not clearly defined and due to the specifics of the transfer of information to visually impaired persons, evaluation criterion for specific simplified guiding instructions is proposed.Comment: Technical paper published at 64th International Symposium ELMAR-2022, ISBN: 978-1-6654-7002-

Whole heart segmentation from CT images using 3D U-Net architecture

Recent studies have demonstrated the importance of neural networks in medical image processing and analysis. However, their great efficiency in segmentation tasks is highly dependent on the amount of training data. When these networks are used on small datasets, the process of data augmentation can be very significant. We propose a convolutional neural network approach for the whole heart segmentation which is based upon the 3D U-Net architecture and incorporates principle component analysis as an additional data augmentation technique. The network is trained end-to-end i.e. no pre-trained network is required. Evaluation of the proposed approach is performed on 20 3D CT images from MICCAI 2017 Multi-Modality Whole Heart Segmentation Challenge dataset, divided into 15 training and 5 validation images. Final segmentation results show a high Dice coefficient overlap to ground truth, indicating that the proposed approach is competitive to state-of-the-art. Additionally, we provide the discussion of the influence of different learning rates on the final segmentation results

Cases of spontaneous interbreeding of wolf and domestic dog in the region of Southeast Banat

The study presents the first documented data indicating the occurrence of spontaneous interbreeding of wolf and domestic dog in nature on the territory of Serbia, based on three specimens originating from the region of Southeast Banat. Some unique morpho-anatomical malformations of the cranium in two specimens are described. Based on complex morphological and craniometrical analysis of hybrid specimens and comparison with the corresponding material of authentic wolves from this region, it is possible to follow a local process of multiple wolf/dog hybridization and disturbance of the authentic genetic structure of wolf. The identification of wolf/dog hybrids is a subject of primary concern for the development of conservation and management strategies. Because of great vulnerability of the population of South-Carpathian wolves on the boundaries of their range in Serbia, there is a need for permanent and increased protection in order to maintain their adequately strong population in this region.U ovoj studiji po prvi put se prezentuju podaci o spontanom parenju vuka i domaćeg psa u prirodnim uslovima na teritoriji Srbije, zasnovani na tri hibridna primerka jugoistočnog Banata. Na osnovu složene morfološke i kraniološke analize hibrida i poređenjem sa "materijalom autohtonih" vukova iz tog regiona, moguće je pratiti proces lokalne multipne hibridizacije sa psima i poremećaja autentične genetičke strukture vuka. Identifikacija hibrida vuka i psa jeste od naročite važnosti u razviću konzervacije, zaštiti i strategiji menadžmenta.nul

Cases of spontaneous interbreeding of wolf and domestic dog in the region of Southeast Banat

The study presents the first documented data indicating the occurrence of spontaneous interbreeding of wolf and domestic dog in nature on the territory of Serbia, based on three specimens originating from the region of Southeast Banat. Some unique morpho-anatomical malformations of the cranium in two specimens are described. Based on complex morphological and craniometrical analysis of hybrid specimens and comparison with the corresponding material of authentic wolves from this region, it is possible to follow a local process of multiple wolf/dog hybridization and disturbance of the authentic genetic structure of wolf. The identification of wolf/dog hybrids is a subject of primary concern for the development of conservation and management strategies. Because of great vulnerability of the population of South-Carpathian wolves on the boundaries of their range in Serbia, there is a need for permanent and increased protection in order to maintain their adequately strong population in this region.U ovoj studiji po prvi put se prezentuju podaci o spontanom parenju vuka i domaćeg psa u prirodnim uslovima na teritoriji Srbije, zasnovani na tri hibridna primerka jugoistočnog Banata. Na osnovu složene morfološke i kraniološke analize hibrida i poređenjem sa "materijalom autohtonih" vukova iz tog regiona, moguće je pratiti proces lokalne multipne hibridizacije sa psima i poremećaja autentične genetičke strukture vuka. Identifikacija hibrida vuka i psa jeste od naročite važnosti u razviću konzervacije, zaštiti i strategiji menadžmenta.nul

Investigation of community attitudes towards vaccination

Razvoj cjepiva jedna je od najvažnijih prekretnica u povijesti medicine. Iako cijepljenje ubrajamo među najsigurnije medicinske intervencije, prisutan je rizik nuspojava. Uglavnom su blage, no rijetko dolazi do razvoja ozbiljnih i teških nuspojava koje mogu ostaviti trajne posljedice. Mišljenja o cijepljenju podijeljena su od samih njegovih početaka, no posljednjih desetljeća sve se više raspravlja o ovoj temi. Odbijanje cijepljenja zbog zabrinutosti o njegovoj sigurnosti, opravdanosti, učinkovitosti i etičnosti dovodi do manjih cijepnih obuhvata, što otvara vrata epidemijama potisnutih bolesti. Cilj istraživanja bio je procijeniti percepciju i stavove o cijepljenju u zajednici. Istraživanje je provedeno putem interneta u periodu od srpnja do rujna 2017. te je prikupljeno 3929 odgovora. Rezultati su pokazali da 64,09% sudionika podržava cijepljenje i ima pozitivne stavove. MO-PA-RU i „5u1” cjepiva su koja izazivaju najviše zabrinutosti kod sudionika. Negativnim stavovima prema cijepljenju su sklonije žene, roditelji/skrbnici, osobe u ruralnim sredinama te osobe s nižom razinom obrazovanja.The development of the vaccine is one of the most important milestones in the history of medicine. Although vaccination is among the safest medical interventions, there is a risk of side effects. They are mostly mild, and there are seldom serious side effects that can leave permanent consequences. Opinions on vaccination have been divided since its beginnings, but in the last decades, this issue has been increasingly discussed. Rejection of vaccination because of concerns about safety, justification, efficiency, and ethics leads to a smaller number of vaccinations, which opens the door to the spread of vaccine-preventable diseases. An investigation of community perception and attitudes was conducted using a Google form from July to September 2017, and 3929 responses were collected. The results have shown that 64.09% of participants supported vaccination and have positive attitudes. MMR and 5-in-1 are the vaccines that cause the most concern among the participants. Women, parents/guardians, people in rural environments, and people with a lower level of education are more prone to negative attitudes towards vaccination

Impacts of biomedical hashtag-based Twitter campaign: #DHPSP utilization for promotion of open innovation in digital health, patient safety, and personalized medicine

The open innovation hub Digital Health and Patient Safety Platform (DHPSP) was recently established with the purpose to invigorate collaborative scientific research and the development of new digital products and personalized solutions aiming to improve human health and patient safety. In this study, we evaluated the effectiveness of a Twitter-based campaign centered on using the hashtag #DHPSP to promote the visibility of the DHPSP initiative. Thus, tweets containing #DHPSP were monitored for five weeks for the period 20.10.2020–24.11.2020 and were analyzed with Symplur Signals (social media analytics tool). In the study period, a total of 11,005 tweets containing #DHPSP were posted by 3020 Twitter users, generating 151,984,378 impressions. Analysis of the healthcare stakeholder-identity of the Twitter users who used #DHPSP revealed that the most of participating user accounts belonged to individuals or doctors, with the top three user locations being the United States (501 users), the United Kingdom (155 users), and India (121 users). Analysis of co-occurring hashtags and the full text of the posted tweets further revealed that the major themes of attention in the #DHPSP Twitter-community were related to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), medicine and health, digital health technologies, and science communication in general. Overall, these results indicate that the #DHPSP initiative achieved high visibility and engaged a large body of Twitter users interested in the DHPSP focus area. Moreover, the conducted campaign resulted in an increase of DHPSP member enrollments and website visitors, and new scientific collaborations were formed. Thus, Twitter campaigns centered on a dedicated hashtag prove to be a highly efficient tool for visibility-promotion, which could be successfully utilized by healthcare-related open innovation platforms or initiatives

Cardiac CT heart segmentation with ITK

Osnovni cilj rada je predstaviti sustav za segmentaciju srca iz CT slika kardiovaskularnog sustava. Predstavljena je implementacija triju metoda za segmentaciju medicinskih slika. Implementirani sustav sastoji se od dva osnovna dijela. Prvi dio je predobrada kojim se slike pripremaju za drugi dio: korak segmentacije. Opisane su teorijske osnove geometrijski deformabilnih modela, sa naglaskom na fast marching metodu, metodu detekcije oblika te metodu geodetskih aktivnih kontura. Implementacija navedenih metoda provedena je u programskom jeziku C++ uz pomoć biblioteka iz alata Insight Toolkit. Prikazani su dobiveni rezultati predobrade i segmentacije za svaku od navedenih metoda. Na kraju je prikazana usporedba dobivenih rezultata segmentacije.The main goal of this paper is segmentation of the heart from cardiac CT images. The implementation of three methods for medical images segmentation is introduced in the paper. The action of implemented system is based on two main stages. First stage is preprocessing of the input images in which images are prepared for second stage: segmentation. Theoretical fundamentals of geometrical deformable models, with the emphasis on fast marching, shape detection and geodesic active contours are given. The system is implemented in programming language C++ with the help of libraries from Insight Toolkit. The results of efficiency are processed and displayed on actual images. Finally, comparison of obtained results is shown