Efficient Orthogonal Realization of Image Transforms

One can find ample examples in the literature of implementations of image transforms such as the discrete cosine transform and the lapped orthogonal transform. The objective is invariantly the minimization of the number of multiplies and adds. Of course, a reduction of operations from O(N 2 )to O(NlogN) is a great achievement, yet the cost resulting from non-local communication and operation accuracy is seldom taken into account. Especially accuracy needed to preserve the dominant property of the transforms may turn out to be expensive. These properties are that the transforms are a collection of highly structured orthonormal basis functions and the first concern should be to preserve these properties by enforcing them through a decomposition of the transforms in terms of inexpensive elementary operations which can be inaccurate without violating the global properties. This paper presents a decomposition of image transforms into a network of 2 \Theta 2 so-called fast rotations which..

Enterohepatic circulation of triiodothyronine (T3) in rats:Importance of the microflora for the liberation and reabsorption of T3 from biliary T3 conjugates

In normal rats, T3 glucuronide (T3G) is themajor biliary T3 metabolite, but excretion of T3 sulfate (T3S) isgreatly increased after inhibition of type I deiodinase, e.g. with6-propyl-2-thiouracil (PTU). In this study, the fate of the T3conjugates excreted with bile was studied to assess the significance of a putative enterohepatic circulation of T3 in rats.Conventional (CV) or intestine-decontaminated (ID) rats received iv [125I]T3G or [125I]T3S, the latter usually after pretreatment with PTU (1 mg/100 g BW). Radioactivity in plasma andbile or feces was analyzed by Sephadex LH-20 chromatographyand HPLC. Within 1 h, 88% of injected T3G was excreted inbile of CV or ID rats, independent of PTU. About 75% of theinjected T3S was excreted within 4 h in PTU-treated rats, incontrast to only 20% in controls. Up to 13 h after iv administration of T3G or T3S (+PTU) to intact ID and CV rats, fecalradioactivity consisted of more than 90% T3 in all CV rats, 95%of T3S in T3S-injected ID rats, and 30% T3 and 67% T3G inT3G-injected ID rats. In overnight-fasted CV rats injected withT3G, total plasma radioactivity rapidly declined until a nadir of0.10% dose/ml at about 2.5 h, but radioactivity reappeared witha broad maximum of 0.12% dose/ml between 5.5-10 h. In thelatter phase, plasma radioactivity consisted of predominantly I"and T3 in a ratio of 2:1. Reabsorption was diminished in fed CVrats and prevented in ID rats. Plasma T3 4-10 h after iv T3Ginjection to overnight-fasted CV rats was 12, 2, and 3 timeshigher than that in bile-diverted rats, fed CV rats, and ID rats,respectively, and similar to that 4 h after the injection of T3itself. Total plasma radioactivity as well as plasma T3 6-13 hafter iv administration T3S in PTU-treated rats were significantly increased in CV us. ID rats, e.g. T3 0.016% us. 0.005%dose/ml. These results demonstrate a significant enterohepaticcirculation of T3 in rats in which bacterial hydrolysis of T3conjugates excreted with bile plays an important role. {Endocrinology 125: 2822-2830,1989

Validation of non-invasive arterial pressure monitoring during carotid endarterectomy

Background: Patients undergoing carotid endarterectomy require strict arterial blood pressure (BP) control to maintain adequate cerebral perfusion. In this study we tested whether non-invasive beat-to-beat Nexfin finger BP (BPfin) can replace invasive beat-to-beat radial artery BP (BPrad) in this setting. Methods: In 25 consecutive patients (median age 71 yr) scheduled for carotid endarterectomy and receiving general anaesthesia, BPfin and BPrad were monitored simultaneously and ipsilaterally during the 30-min period surrounding carotid artery cross-clamping. Validation was guided by the standard set by the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI), which considers a BP monitor adequate when bias (precision) is <5 (8) mm Hg, respectively. Results: BPfin, us BPrad bias (precision) was -3.3 (10.8), 6.1 (5.7) and 3.5 (5.2) mm Hg for systolic, diastolic, and mean BP, respectively. One subject was excluded due to a poor quality BP curve. In another subject, mean BPfin overestimated mean BPrad by 13.5 mm Hg. Conclusion: Mean BPfin could be considered as an alternative for mean BPrad during a carotid endarterectomy, based on the AAMI criteria. In 23 of 24 patients, the use of mean BPfin would not lead to decisions to adjust mean BPrad values outside the predefined BP threshol

Defining the awake baseline blood pressure in patients undergoing carotid endarterectomy

BACKGROUND: To minimize the incidence of intraoperative stroke following carotid endarterectomy (CEA) under general anesthesia, blood pressure (BP) is suggested to be maintained between "awake baseline" BP and 20% above. However, there is neither a widely accepted protocol nor a definition to determine this awake BP. In this study, we analyzed the BP during hospital admission in the days before CEA and propose a definition of how to determine awake BP. METHODS: In our cohort of 1180 CEA-patients, all noninvasive BP measurements were retrospectively analyzed. BP was measured during preoperative outpatient screening (POS), the last three days before surgery at the ward and in the operating room (OR) directly before anesthesia. Primary outcome was the comparability of all these preoperative BP measurements. Secondary outcome was the comparability of preoperative BP measurements stratified for postoperative stroke within 30 days. RESULTS: POS BP (148±22/80±12 mmHg [mean arterial pressure, MAP: 103±14 mmHg]) and the BP measured on the ward 3, 2, 1 days before surgery and on the day of surgery (146±25/77±13 [MAP: 100±15]), (142±23/76±13 [MAP: 98±15]), (145±23/76±12 [MAP: 99±14]) and (144±22/75±12 mmHg [MAP: 98±14]) were comparable (all P=NS). However, BP in the OR directly before anesthesia was higher, (163±27/88±15 mmHg [MAP: 117±18mmHg]) (P<0.01 vs. all other preoperative moments). A significant higher preinduction systolic BP and MAP was observed in patients suffering a stroke within 30 days compared to patients without (P=0.03 and 0.04 respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Awake BP should be determined by averaging available BP values collected preoperatively on the ward and POS. BP measured in the OR directly before induction of anesthesia overestimates "awake" BP; and therefore, it should not be used

European steel policies in the 1980s: Hindering technological innovation and market structure change?

L51, L61,

An evaluation of objective measures for intelligibility prediction of time-frequency weighted noisy speech

Existing objective speech-intelligibility measures are suitable for several types of degradation, however, it turns out that they are less appropriate in cases where noisy speech is processed by a time-frequency weighting. To this end, an extensive evaluation is presented of objective measure for intelligibility prediction of noisy speech processed with a technique called ideal time frequency (TF) segregation. In total 17 measures are evaluated, including four advanced speech-intelligibility measures (CSII, CSTI, NSEC, DAU), the advanced speech-quality measure (PESQ), and several frame-based measures (e.g., SSNR). Furthermore, several additional measures are proposed. The study comprised a total number of 168 different TF-weightings, including unprocessed noisy speech. Out of all measures, the proposed frame-based measure MCC gave the best results (q¼0.93). An additional experiment shows that the good performing measures in this study also show high correlation with the intelligibility of single-channel noise reduced speech.MediamaticsElectrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Scienc