An intracardiac electrogram model to bridge virtual hearts and implantable cardiac devices

Virtual heart models have been proposed to enhance the safety of implantable cardiac devices through closed loop validation. To communicate with a virtual heart, devices have been driven by cardiac signals at specific sites. As a result, only the action potentials of these sites are sensed. However, the real device implanted in the heart will sense a complex combination of near and far-field extracellular potential signals. Therefore many device functions, such as blanking periods and refractory periods, are designed to handle these unexpected signals. To represent these signals, we develop an intracardiac electrogram (IEGM) model as an interface between the virtual heart and the device. The model can capture not only the local excitation but also far-field signals and pacing afterpotentials. Moreover, the sensing controller can specify unipolar or bipolar electrogram (EGM) sensing configurations and introduce various oversensing and undersensing modes. The simulation results show that the model is able to reproduce clinically observed sensing problems, which significantly extends the capabilities of the virtual heart model in the context of device validation

Students Language Performance and TOEFL Preparation Program, Are they connected?

This study examines and describes the relationship between TOEFL preparation Program and Students; language performance. The study also examines the program's effect on students' TOEFL scores improvement. Using spss v.22 in analyzing the data, the researcher employed three groups of students consisting of 15 students, namely the control group, treatment 1 group, and the treatment two groups. Thus, descriptive statistics present verifiable data in numerical form, which uses statistical procedures to tabulate, describe, reflect, and summarize data properties. The two variables data examined, TOEFL paper-based testing score and FCE Cambridge speaking test score, are the focus of the research, free from context generalization of the phenomenon. The result is presented statistically using quantitative methodology. The control group was not exposed to any treatment, while 1 group was given basic general English lessons, and the treatment 2 group was trained using the specially designed TOEFL preparation course. The study result shows significant effects on the improvement of TOEFL score on the treatment 1 group's pre-test mean, the standard of deviation, and the standard error mean were 350.07, 22.745, and 5.873, respectively. The treatment 2 group's mean, the standard of deviation, and the standard error mean were 355.40, 20.117, and 5.194, respectively, and the treatment 1 group' post-test mean, the standard of deviation, and the standard error mean were 387.27, 35.204, and 9.090, respectively. The treatment 2 group's mean, standard of deviation, and standard error mean were 436.87, 44.912, and 6.925, respectively. However, the study result shows that the correlation p-value = .083 indicates no significant correlation between TOEFL Preparation students' language performance

PEMURNIAN MINYAK ATSIRI AKAR WANGI MENGGUNAKAN DESTILASI TAMBAHAN BAHAN KACA

Abstrak: Wangi Persada merupakan kelompok tani akar wangi terletak di daerah Kp. Legok Pulus Ds. Sukakarya Samarang Garut telah menjadi mitra Sekolah Tinggi Teknologi Bandung dalam melakukan kegiatan pengabdian masyarakat. Analsisi masalah yang terjadi di lapangan, yaitu penyulingan minyak atsiri dan kejernihannya, petani masih melakukan penjualan minyak keruh, atau menjaul tumbuhan akar wangi dikebun pada tengkulak dari pada diolah menjadi minyak atsiri, dikarenakan alat penyulingan dan harga minyak keruh yang selama masih belum berpihak pada petani atau dibanderol dengan harga murah. Tim Abdimas bertindak merancang dan menerapkan metode penyulingan secara fisika dengan redestilasi untuk proses pemurnian minyak menggunakan bahan kaca, pembakarannya menggunakan heater dan energi listrik sebagai sumber energinya. Hasil pemurnian yang optimal didapatkan dari kombinasi minyak keruh dan ditambahkan air (aquades). Minyak atsiri yang sudah jernih dapat meningkatkan harga jual dari minyak atsiri yang masih keruh/hitam. Rendemen sisa destilasi dapat dimanfaatkan oleh masyarakat menjadi produk turunannya melaui home industri, sehingga dapat mempengaruhi dan meningkatkan perekonomian petani minyak atsiri akar wangi.Abstract:  Wangi Persada is a vetiver farmer group located in the area Kp. Legok Pulus Ds. Sukakarya Samarang Garut has become a partner of the Sekolah Tingi Teknologi Bandung carrying out community service activities. Analysis of the problems that occur in the field, namely the distillation of essential oils and their clarity, farmers are still selling turbid oil, or selling vetiver plants in the garden to pirates instead of being processed into essential oil, due to distillation equipment and the price of turbid oil which has not been on the side of farmers or at a low price. The Abdimas team designed and implemented physical refining methods with redistillation for the process of refining oil using glass, combustion using a heater and electrical energy as the energy source. The optimal purification results are obtained from a combination of turbid oil and water. Essential oils that are clear can increase the selling price of essential oils that are still cloudy/black. The residual yield of distillation can be utilized by the community into derivative products through the home industry, so that it can affect and improve the economy of vetiver essential oil farmers

Green Purchasing Practices and Environmental Performance

Green purchasing aims to minimize negative environmental impacts in manufacturing process and transportation by using durable, recyclable and reusable materials. This study aims investigate the impact of green purchasing practices including green product, green process and green supplier on environmental and business performance in the context of Malaysian manufacturing companies. A total of 156 questionnaires were distributed to different industry sectors. The findings show that green product, green process and green supplier are significantly and positively related to environmental performance. In addition, green product is the main predictor of the environmental performance. Ultimately, the results could offer useful guidance for green purchasing practices implementation in Malaysian manufacturing companies and provide a springboard for further empirical research in the area

Effect modification of environmental factors on influenza-associated mortality: a time-series study in two Chinese cities

Background: Environmental factors have been associated with transmission and survival of influenza viruses but no studies have ever explored the role of environmental factors on severity of influenza infection.Methods: We applied a Poisson regression model to the mortality data of two Chinese metropolitan cities located within the subtropical zone, to calculate the influenza associated excess mortality risks during the periods with different levels of temperature and humidity.Results: The results showed that high absolute humidity (measured by vapor pressure) was significantly (p < 0.05) associated with increased risks of all-cause and cardiorespiratory deaths, but not with increased risks of pneumonia and influenza deaths. The association between absolute humidity and mortality risks was found consistent among the two cities. An increasing pattern of influenza associated mortality risks was also found across the strata of low to high relative humidity, but the results were less consistent for temperature.Conclusions: These findings highlight the need for people with chronic cardiovascular and respiratory diseases to take extra caution against influenza during hot and humid days in the subtropics and tropics. © 2011 Yang et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.published_or_final_versio

Heart rate variability and target organ damage in hypertensive patients

Background: We evaluated the association between linear standard Heart Rate Variability (HRV) measures and vascular, renal and cardiac target organ damage (TOD). Methods: A retrospective analysis was performed including 200 patients registered in the Regione Campania network (aged 62.4 ± 12, male 64%). HRV analysis was performed by 24-h holter ECG. Renal damage was assessed by estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), vascular damage by carotid intima-media thickness (IMT), and cardiac damage by left ventricular mass index. Results: Significantly lower values of the ratio of low to high frequency power (LF/HF) were found in the patients with moderate or severe eGFR (p-value < 0.001). Similarly, depressed values of indexes of the overall autonomic modulation on heart were found in patients with plaque compared to those with a normal IMT (p-value <0.05). These associations remained significant after adjustment for other factors known to contribute to the development of target organ damage, such as age. Moreover, depressed LF/HF was found also in patients with left ventricular hypertrophy but this association was not significant after adjustment for other factors. Conclusions: Depressed HRV appeared to be associated with vascular and renal TOD, suggesting the involvement of autonomic imbalance in the TOD. However, as the mechanisms by which abnormal autonomic balance may lead to TOD, and, particularly, to renal organ damage are not clearly known, further prospective studies with longitudinal design are needed to determine the association between HRV and the development of TOD

Genetics of callous-unemotional behavior in children

Callous-unemotional behavior (CU) is currently under consideration as a subtyping index for conduct disorder diagnosis. Twin studies routinely estimate the heritability of CU as greater than 50%. It is now possible to estimate genetic influence using DNA alone from samples of unrelated individuals, not relying on the assumptions of the twin method. Here we use this new DNA method (implemented in a software package called Genome-wide Complex Trait Analysis, GCTA) for the first time to estimate genetic influence on CU. We also report the first genome-wide association (GWA) study of CU as a quantitative trait. We compare these DNA results to those from twin analyses using the same measure and the same community sample of 2,930 children rated by their teachers at ages 7, 9 and 12. GCTA estimates of heritability were near zero, even though twin analysis of CU in this sample confirmed the high heritability of CU reported in the literature, and even though GCTA estimates of heritability were substantial for cognitive and anthropological traits in this sample. No significant associations were found in GWA analysis, which, like GCTA, only detects additive effects of common DNA variants. The phrase ‘missing heritability’ was coined to refer to the gap between variance associated with DNA variants identified in GWA studies versus twin study heritability. However, GCTA heritability, not twin study heritability, is the ceiling for GWA studies because both GCTA and GWA are limited to the overall additive effects of common DNA variants, whereas twin studies are not. This GCTA ceiling is very low for CU in our study, despite its high twin study heritability estimate. The gap between GCTA and twin study heritabilities will make it challenging to identify genes responsible for the heritability of CU