Arterial blood pressure variability influence on target organs damage in young men with hypertension

С целью оценки взаимосвязи между параметрами вариабельности АД, структурными изменениями левого желудочка и частотой гипертензивной ангиопатии сетчатки было обследовано 139 мужчин, средний возраст — (22,4±4,3) года, с высоким нормальным АД и АГ І степени. Всем пациентам проводили суточное мониторирование АД с оценкой параметров его вариабельности и стандартную эхокардиографию с оценкой параметров ремоделирования левого желудочка. Было установлено наличие сильной корреляционной связи между параметрами ночной вариабельности АД и эхокардиографическими признаками ремоделирования левого желудочка, что указывает на целесообразность использования значений вариабельности АД в качестве дополнительного инструмента индивидуальной оценки сердечно-сосудистого риска у пациентов с артериальной гипертензией.Blood pressure variability (BPV) is a multifaceted phenomenon, which was proven to affect the cardiovascular risk in arterial hypertension (AH) patients. Numerous BPV characteristics can be obtained during 24-hour blood pressure monitoring, but the question about optimal parameters, which precisely reflect the stage of target organ damage and AH clinical outcomes is still relevant. The study aimed to establish the relation between different BPV parameters and left ventricle (LV) myocardial remodeling, hypertensive retinopathy in young men with high normal blood pressure and the 1st grade of hypertension. 139 men, age 18–35 years (mean age — 22.4±4.3) were included into the study. Patients were divided into 3 groups according to the level of office: BP: men with normal BP (n=57), men with high normal blood pressure (n=35), men with the 1st grade of AH (n=47). All men underwent 24-hour BP monitoring with general BPV parameters evaluation, and a standard transthoracic echocardiography with LV remodeling characteristics assessment. Increasing night systolic BPV in patients with high normal blood pressure and the 1st grade of AH significantly and strongly correlates with LV myocardial mass (R=0,924) and LV myocardial mass index (R=0.531). No relation between prevalence of hypertensive retinopathy and BPV parameters were established. 20% of men with high normal blood pressure and the 1st grade of AH have evidence of high BPV. Parameters of night BPV can be usefull as a predictive factor for cardiovascular risk assessment according to its correspondence with ventricular remodeling parameters

Surface and lateral waves of higher-order beam waves

The problem of surface and lateral waves excitation on a plane isotropic boundary of dielectric media is considered. The uniform asymptotic for surface and lateral waves have been obtained by the integral representation of indecent beam field as a spectrum on plane waves

Segmentation of the Images Obtained From Onboard Optoelectronic Surveillance Systems by the Evolutionary Method

The essence of the simpler evolutionary method of image segmentation which relates to ant methods was set forth. The image segmentation process was presented as a set of areas in which agents (ants) move. Probability of transition from one turning point of the route to another was determined taking into account attractiveness of the route and concentration of pheromones on it. A timely convergence of decisions (choice of the same route by the agents) is processed by the use of feedback, i.e. evaporation of pheromones. The parameters setting pheromone weight and attractiveness of the area were calculated. The routes which are the most attractive according to the selected criteria (with the maximum concentration of pheromone) were determined. Unattractive routes disappear with a gradual "drying" of pheromone on such routes. When checking function ability of the simpler evolutionary segmentation method, it was found that implementations of this method with obviously unsuccessful results are possible.Essence of the advanced evolutionary method of image segmentation as improvement of the simpler evolutionary method was outlined. In the improved method, only the best agents increase the level of pheromone on their routes. The level of pheromone on the routes is limited. An expression has been obtained for renewal of pheromone levels. The best route may be either the iteration best or the best-so-far (found since the start of the method) route.In contrast to the simpler evolutionary method, an optimal route of agent movement was found during segmentation of images in all implementations with the use of the advanced evolutionary method.Experimental studies of segmentation of the images obtained from the onboard systems of optoelectronic surveillance using the evolutionary method have been carried out. As an example, possible objects of interest were defined in the segmented image and it was established that the outlined contours of the main objects of interest coincide with the boundaries of the objects in the original image. Presence of a large number of outlined contours of small-sized objects in the segmented image was pointed out and an example of such area was given. Visual estimation of efficiency of application of the evolutionary method was mad

Segmentation of Optical-electronic Images From On-board Systems of Remote Sensing of the Earth by the Artificial Bee Colony Method

It was established that it is not possible to apply the known methods of image segmentation directly to segmentation of optical-electronic images of on-board systems of remote sensing of the Earth. We have stated the mathematical problem on segmentation of such images. It was established that the result of segmentation of images of on-board systems of remote sensing of the Earth is separation of an image into artificial objects (objects of interest) and natural objects (a background). It has been proposed to use the artificial bee colony method for segmentation of images. We described the essence of the method, which provides for determination of agents positions, their migration, conditions for stopping of an iteration process by the criterion of a minimum of a fitness function and determination of the optimal value of a threshold level. The fitness function was introduced, which has the physical meaning of a sum of variance brightness of segments of a segmented image. We formulated the optimization problem of image segmentation of an on-board optical-electronic observation system. It consists in minimization of a fitness function under certain assumptions and constraints.The paper presents results from an experimental study on application of the artificial bee colony method to segmentation of an optical-electronic image. Experimental studies on segmentation of an optical-electronic image confirmed the efficiency of the artificial bee colony method. We identified possible objects of interest on the segmented image, such as tanks with oil or fuel for aircraft, airplanes, airfield facilities, etc.The visual assessment of the quality of segmentation was performed. We calculated errors of the first type and the second type. It was established that application of the artificial bee colony method would improve the quality of processing of optical-electronic images. We observed a decrease of segmentation errors of the first type and the second type by the magnitude from 7 % to 33 % on averag

Construction of Methods for Determining the Contours of Objects on Tonal Aerospace Images Based on the Ant Algorithms

A method has been proposed for determining contours of objects on tonal aerospace images based on ant algorithms. The method, in contrast to those already known, takes into consideration patterns in the image formation; the ant algorithm is used for determining the contours. Determining an object's contours in the image has been reduced to calculating the fitness function, the totality of agents' motion areas, and the pheromone concentration along agents' motion routes.We have processed a tonal image for determining the contours of objects using a method based on the ant algorithm. In order to reduce the number of "junk" objects, the main principles and stages of the method for multi-scale processing of aerospace images based on the ant algorithm have been outlined. Determining the contours on images with a different value of the scale factor is carried out applying a method based on the ant algorithm. In addition, we rescale images with a different scale factor value to the original size and calculate the image filter. The resulting image is a pixelwise product of the original image and the image filter.The multiscale processing of tonal aerospace images with different scale values has been performed using methods based on the ant algorithms. It was established that application of a multi-scale processing reduces the number of "junk" objects. At the same time, due to multi-scale processing, not the objects' contours are determined but the objects in full.We estimated errors of first and second kind in determining the contours of objects on tonal aerospace images based on the ant algorithms. It was established that using the constructed methods has made it possible to reduce the first and second kind errors in determining the contours on tonal aerospace images by the magnitude of 18–22 % on averag

Devising A Method for Processing the Image of A Vehicle's License Plate When Shooting with A Smartphone Camera

This paper reports an improved method for processing the image of a vehicle's license plate when shooting with a smartphone camera. The method for processing the image of a vehicle's license plate includes the following stages: – enter the source data; – split the video streaming into frames; – preliminary process the image of a vehicle's license plate; – find the area of a vehicle's license plate; – refine character recognition using the signature of a vehicle's license plate; – refine character recognition using the combined results from frames in the streaming video; – obtain the result of processing. Experimental studies were conducted on the processing of images of a vehicle's license plate. During the experimental studies, the license plate of a military vehicle (Ukraine) was considered. The original image was the color image of a vehicle. The results of experimental studies are given. A comparison of the quality of character recognition in a license plate has been carried out. It was established that the improved method that uses the combined results from streaming video frames works out efficiently at the end of the sequence. The improved method that employs the combined results from streaming video frames operates with numerical probability vectors. The assessment of errors of the first and second kind in processing the image of a license plate was carried out. The total accuracy of finding the area of a license plate by known method is 61 % while the improved method's result is 76 %. It has been established that the minimization of errors of the first kind is more important than reducing errors of the second kind. If a license plate is incorrectly identified, these results would certainly be discarded at the character recognition stage