Review on Psychological Stress Detection Using Biosignals

This review investigates the effects of psychological stress on the human body measured through biosignals. When a potentially threatening stimulus is perceived, a cascade of physiological processes occurs mobilizing the body and nervous system to confront the imminent threat and ensure effective adaptation. Biosignals that can be measured reliably in relation to such stressors include physiological (EEG, ECG, EDA, EMG) and physical measures (respiratory rate, speech, skin temperature, pupil size, eye activity). A fundamental objective in this area of psychophysiological research is to establish reliable biosignal indices that reveal the underlying physiological mechanisms of the stress response. Motivated by the lack of comprehensive guidelines on the relationship between the multitude of biosignal features used in the literature and their corresponding behaviour during stress, in this paper, the impact of stress to multiple bodily responses is surveyed. Emphasis is put on the efficiency, robustness and consistency of biosignal data features across the current state of knowledge in stress detection. It is also explored multimodal biosignal analysis and modelling methods for deriving accurate stress correlates. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive review on biosignal patterns caused during stress conditions and reliable practical guidelines towards more efficient detection of stress. © 2010-2012 IEEE

HYBRID OFF-LINE OCR FOR ISOLATED HANDWRITTEN GREEK CHARACTERS

In this paper, we present an off-line OCR methodology for isolated handwritten Greek characters mainly based on a robust hybrid feature extraction scheme. First, image pre-processing is performed in order to normalize the character images as well as to correct character slant. At the next step, two types of features are combined in a hybrid fashion. The first one divides the character image into a set of zones and calculates the density of the character pixels in each zone. In the second type of features, the area that is formed from the projections of the upper and lower as well as of the left and right character profiles is calculated. For the classification step Support Vectors Machines (SVM) are used. The performance of the proposed methodology is demonstrated after testing with the CIL database (handwritten Greek character database), which was created from 100 different writers

Clinically driven design of multi-scale cancer models: the ContraCancrum project paradigm

The challenge of modelling cancer presents a major opportunity to improve our ability to reduce mortality from malignant neoplasms, improve treatments and meet the demands associated with the individualization of care needs. This is the central motivation behind the ContraCancrum project. By developing integrated multi-scale cancer models, ContraCancrum is expected to contribute to the advancement of in silico oncology through the optimization of cancer treatment in the patient-individualized context by simulating the response to various therapeutic regimens. The aim of the present paper is to describe a novel paradigm for designing clinically driven multi-scale cancer modelling by bringing together basic science and information technology modules. In addition, the integration of the multi-scale tumour modelling components has led to novel concepts of personalized clinical decision support in the context of predictive oncology, as is also discussed in the paper. Since clinical adaptation is an inelastic prerequisite, a long-term clinical adaptation procedure of the models has been initiated for two tumour types, namely non-small cell lung cancer and glioblastoma multiforme; its current status is briefly summarized