Translating computational modelling tools for clinical practice in congenital heart disease

Increasingly large numbers of medical centres worldwide are equipped with the means to acquire 3D images of patients by utilising magnetic resonance (MR) or computed tomography (CT) scanners. The interpretation of patient 3D image data has significant implications on clinical decision-making and treatment planning. In their raw form, MR and CT images have become critical in routine practice. However, in congenital heart disease (CHD), lesions are often anatomically and physiologically complex. In many cases, 3D imaging alone can fail to provide conclusive information for the clinical team. In the past 20-30 years, several image-derived modelling applications have shown major advancements. Tools such as computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and virtual reality (VR) have successfully demonstrated valuable uses in the management of CHD. However, due to current software limitations, these applications have remained largely isolated to research settings, and have yet to become part of clinical practice. The overall aim of this project was to explore new routes for making conventional computational modelling software more accessible for CHD clinics. The first objective was to create an automatic and fast pipeline for performing vascular CFD simulations. By leveraging machine learning, a solution was built using synthetically generated aortic anatomies, and was seen to be able to predict 3D aortic pressure and velocity flow fields with comparable accuracy to conventional CFD. The second objective was to design a virtual reality (VR) application tailored for supporting the surgical planning and teaching of CHD. The solution was a Unity-based application which included numerous specialised tools, such as mesh-editing features and online networking for group learning. Overall, the outcomes of this ongoing project showed strong indications that the integration of VR and CFD into clinical settings is possible, and has potential for extending 3D imaging and supporting the diagnosis, management and teaching of CHD

How Resilient Are Our Societies? Analyses, Models, and Preliminary Results

Traditional social organizations such as those for the management of healthcare and civil defence are the result of designs and realizations that matched well with an operational context considerably different from the one we are experiencing today: A simpler world, characterized by a greater amount of resources to match less users producing lower peaks of requests. The new context reveals all the fragility of our societies: unmanageability is just around the corner unless we do not complement the "old recipes" with smarter forms of social organization. Here we analyze this problem and propose a refinement to our fractal social organizations as a model for resilient cyber-physical societies. Evidence to our claims is provided by simulating our model in terms of multi-agent systems.Comment: Paper submitted for publication in the Proc. of SERENE 2015 (http://serene.disim.univaq.it/2015/

Davutoğlu: Thinking Depth and Global Political Activism as New Grand Strategy

This paper is an analytical synopsis of Ahmet Davutoğlu’s pro-civilizational activism, an essay on this globally recognized diplomat and expert in the field of international relations, history of political thought and political philosophy. Davutoğlu is an author of the strategic doctrine of new Turkey as global actor with neo-Ottomanist Geist. It shows his multidimensional approach to civilizations and their world views (Weltanschauung), to their truth perceptions and cultural other/otherness, as well as his diplomatic discourse that generates security, peace and democracy that made him one of the main initiators of the Alliance of Civilizations in an era of Huntingtonian macro-conflictualism as new global disorder. This article focuses on non-rational differentiation in the West and the rest in the era of post-modern “international sprint”, when the world is transformed into a global village and when the only solution is in finding common values, a social philosophy that ties different culturological perspectives. In this context, Davutoğlu’s geopolitical doctrine is based on principles of security for all, dialogue, economic (inter)dependence and cultural coexistence and pluralism, which can especially help the Balkans area to avoid being a field of post-Ottoman historical tragedies

Higher Education and Corruption: Macedonian Alumni Experiences

Corruption (lat. corruptio, corrumpere, pervert) means dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power, typically involving bribery. The most general meaning of corruption, as systematic phenomena (Dinkovski, 20012: 12), is impurity, infection, or decay. It is abuse of public power for personal interests that distort the social institutions. This destructive phenomenon is very present in the Balkan countries. Some 50 % of the population of the Western Balkan believe that corruption practices occur often or very often in a number of public institutions (from central and local government, parliament, hospitals, judiciary and the police). One in six citizens of the Western Balkans citizens had either direct or indirect exposure to a bribery experience with a public official. (Bisogno, 2010: 9, 15) This research is done in 2012 and includes interviews with 25 alumni from different universities in Macedonia, treating the abovementioned issue from clients’, i.e. student’s perspective, based on the experience of corruption during the years of studies. From the analytical approach we concluded that other forms of corruption (favoritism, book buying, sexual services) are more present than bribery or direct payment in our universities, that reporting corruption cases is not occurring from revenge fear and that all student declare that corruption damages education and their future prospect

The Study of Mashing Methods and Features of Fermentations Products

If mashing is conducted at 62 to 63˚C, a higher maltose composition is obtained, and the limit is of fermentation rate is higher. The wort, which has a lot of maltose ferments quickly, and the yeast is kept suspended for a long time. Continuous mashing at 62 to 64˚C yields beer with a high fermentation limit; if these temperatures are exceeded, and continuous mashing is carried out at 72 to 75˚C, beers with high dextrin content and low fermentation limit are obtained. To produce beer, primary and secondary fermentation are performed. During primary fermentation, the obtained sugars are converted into alcohol, CO2, and lasts up to 7 days; during secondary fermentation, the beer matures, and this process lasts up to 21 days. This paper will address the importance of achieving the right temperatures during the malt heating process, as well as their importance in the development of the fermentation process

PRODUCTION OF NON-ALCOHOLIC BEER

This study is conducted on the basis of market demand and J.S.C. “Birra Peja”, Peja, Kosovo, beer factory management demand for a quality non-alcoholic beer. This study aims to produce alcohol-free beer with technological process. This beer should have 0% alcohol and 6.0 - 6.2% basic extract. The entire production process is engaged in this study. The work done in the production was monitored by the laboratory of the factory Birra Peja . The work was also monitored in the laboratory of the brewery “Union” in Ljubljana, Slovenia, the National Institute of Health in Pristina, and the Peja Agricultural Institute. Chemical and microbiological analyzes were carried out based on methods according to the European Convention on Breweries (ECB) and Mitteleuropäische Brautechnische Analysenkommission e. V. (Central European Commission for Brewing Analysis) or MEBAK. From laboratory analyzes and sensory evaluations of beer quality, we have come to the conclusion that non-alcoholic or zero-alcohol beer is of good quality, and, considering the hight quality, it should be produced in “Birra Peja