Kardiovaskuläre Variabilitätsanalysen zur Risikostratifizierung nach Herzoperationen

Methoden zur Charakterisierung der kardiovaskulären Regulation wurden angewendet, um den Heilungsverlauf und das Risiko bei herzchirurgischen Patienten zu untersuchen. Dabei wurde der Zeitverlauf während der ersten 24 Stunden nach der Herzoperation, der präoperative autonome Status des Patienten und die Beeinflussung verschiedener Operationstechniken auf das postoperative kardiovaskuläre Regulationsverhalten untersucht. Die Ergebnisse deuten darauf hin, daß diese Bereiche in zukünftige Verfahren zur Risikostratifizierung bei herzchirurgischen Patienten einbezogen werden sollten

A New Synthetic Conduit for the Treatment of Peripheral Nerve Injuries

Background Peripheral nerve defects (PND) often cause lifelong physical disability, and the available treatment options are often not satisfactory. PND are usually bridged with an autologous nerve transplant or a nerve guidance conduit (NGC), when coaptation as preferred technique is not possible. The aim of this experimental study was to determine the effectiveness of a novel NGC for regeneration in the treatment of PND. Materials and methods A conduit made of gelatin with an innovative interior structure was tested for the repair of a 6-mm gap versus direct microsurgical suture repair without gap. Results We found that bridging the defect with this conduit was as effective as direct microsurgical coaptation without a defect. Conclusions This nerve conduit, effective in bridging neural defects, appears as an alternative to autologous nerve grafts, avoiding the problems related to nerve graft harvesting, host–donor differences in diameter, mismatches in number and pattern of fascicles, cross-sectional shape and area, and morbidity of the donor area

EyeGuidance - a computer controlled system to guide eye movements

The densely innervated human cornea is the only superficial tissue of the human body in which nerve fibres are accessible in vivo by corneal confocal microscopy (CCM). Morphological parameters of the corneal sub-basal nerve plexus (SNP) derived from CCM images can potentially serve as a sensitive biomarker for early diagnosis of various neurodegenerative diseases. The evaluation of a single image with a typical field of view of 0.16 mm2 is insufficient for robust morphometric assessment. Mosaicking approaches have therefore been proposed to examine the SNP on a larger scale. Here we present a highly automated technique that significantly facilitates the generation of mosaic images of the SNP and is suitable for clinical tests

Cooperative Service Robots for the Predictive Maintenance of Process Plants

In this contribution we outline a new project in the field of service robotics. The goal is to develop teams of mobile robots that perform routine inspection, health monitoring, and early fault detection in large chemical process plants or in public utility networks. We envisage a general-purpose assistant for the maintenance engineer to collect, compress and screen large amounts of inspection data. It will provide fast and extensiv

Reflection on boon and bane of Water Absorbing Components in Active Implants during Package Testing and Operation

For package testing of active implants internal humidity measurements are performed. Thereby, the water absorbency of the measurement components can affect the measurement result, leading to an erroneously prolonged predicted lifetime. Here, the influence of internal components is discussed using an exemplary setup. It is described how to model and consider the components’ absorbencies for lifetime estimation and how beneficial they are during implant operation

Simultaneous 3D mapping and localization from segmented range views by similarity optimization

Ein neuer Ansatz wurde für mobile Roboter zur gleichzeitigen 3D (Drei-Dimensionaler) Kartierung und Lokalisierung vorgestellt. Die Grundlage bilden attributierte Flächenmodelle, die z.B. von segmentierten Laserscanner-Tiefenbildern stammen. Zur Optimierung der Gesamtähnlichkeit zwischen Flächenmodellen unter Zeitbedingungen werden mehrere Verfahren (Beschränkte Baumsuche, Iterative Verfeinerung, Evolutionäralgorithmus) kombiniert. Es wird speziell anhand der Ähnlichkeitsmaße gezeigt, wie das Wissen über die Lage stufenweise generiert und verwendet wird. Erste Messungen an realen segmentierten Tiefenbildfolgen zeigen, dass das Verfahren unbekannte übelappung, Verdeckung und Segmentierungsfehler toleriert sowie Echtzeitpotenzial besitzt.An increasing number of service robots do not only operate in a three-dimensional world, but truly require 3D models of their work space. We propose a new approach for the simultaneous 3D mapping and localization problem from multiple segmented range views. Attributed surface graphs provide a compact representation which is at hand for symbolic action planning while being extended by new sensor data. To achieve real-time operation, the similarity between surface models is maximized on three cooperative and competitive layers: bounded tree search with landmark ordering on the bottom, iterative refinement of surface assignment and pose at the middle layer, and an evolutionary algorithm on top. Different degrees of knowledge about relative location are generated and used, by plugging in different measures of surface and relation similarity. Reconstruction results from real range image sequences show that occlusion, unknown overlap and segmentation errors are tolerated

Official Rules of Writing in the North of France ? The writing of Notarial Documents in Normandy Between Practices and Regulations

International audienc