Computational and mathematical methods in medicine
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Comput Math Methods Med · Jan 2015
Parameter Optimization for Selected Correlation Analysis of Intracranial Pathophysiology.
Recently we proposed a mathematical tool set, called selected correlation analysis, that reliably detects positive and negative correlations between arterial blood pressure (ABP) and intracranial pressure (ICP). Such correlations are associated with severe impairment of the cerebral autoregulation and intracranial compliance, as predicted by a mathematical model. The time resolved selected correlation analysis is based on a windowing technique combined with Fourier-based coherence calculations and therefore depends on several parameters. ⋯ In this study, we will introduce a method to optimize the parameters of the selected correlation analysis by correlating an index, called selected correlation positive (SCP), with the outcome of the patients represented by the Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS). For that purpose, the data of twenty-five patients were used to calculate the SCP value for each patient and multitude of feasible parameter sets of the selected correlation analysis. It could be shown that an optimized set of parameters is able to improve the sensitivity of the method by a factor greater than four in comparison to our first analyses.
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Comput Math Methods Med · Jan 2015
Nonsynonymous Single-Nucleotide Variations on Some Posttranslational Modifications of Human Proteins and the Association with Diseases.
Protein posttranslational modifications (PTMs) play key roles in a variety of protein activities and cellular processes. Different PTMs show distinct impacts on protein functions, and normal protein activities are consequences of all kinds of PTMs working together. ⋯ In this study, we elucidated the proteome wide relationship of eight damaged PTMs to human inherited diseases and cancers. Some human inherited diseases or cancers may be the consequences of the interactions of damaged PTMs, rather than the result of single damaged PTM site.
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Comput Math Methods Med · Jan 2015
ReviewAugmented Reality: A Brand New Challenge for the Assessment and Treatment of Psychological Disorders.
Augmented Reality is a new technological system that allows introducing virtual contents in the real world in order to run in the same representation and, in real time, enhancing the user's sensory perception of reality. From another point of view, Augmented Reality can be defined as a set of techniques and tools that add information to the physical reality. To date, Augmented Reality has been used in many fields, such as medicine, entertainment, maintenance, architecture, education, and cognitive and motor rehabilitation but very few studies and applications of AR exist in clinical psychology. ⋯ Another relevant factor is the quality of the user's experience in the Augmented Reality system determined from emotional engagement and sense of presence. This experience could increase the AR ecological validity in the treatment of psychological disorders. This paper reviews the recent studies on the use of Augmented Reality in the evaluation and treatment of psychological disorders, focusing on current uses of this technology and on the specific features that delineate Augmented Reality a new technique useful for psychology.
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Comput Math Methods Med · Jan 2015
Extraction of heart rate variability from smartphone photoplethysmograms.
Heart rate variability (HRV) is a useful clinical tool for autonomic function assessment and cardiovascular diseases diagnosis. It is traditionally calculated from a dedicated medical electrocardiograph (ECG). In this paper, we demonstrate that HRV can also be extracted from photoplethysmograms (PPG) obtained by the camera of a smartphone. ⋯ In addition, five different algorithms to detect the characteristic points of PPG wave were also investigated: peak point (PP), valley point (VP), maximum first derivative (M1D), maximum second derivative (M2D), and tangent intersection (TI). The results showed that M2D and TI algorithms had the best performance. These results suggest that the smartphone might be used for HRV measurement.
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Comput Math Methods Med · Jan 2015
Tactics and strategies for managing Ebola outbreaks and the salience of immunization.
We present a stochastic transmission chain simulation model for Ebola viral disease (EVD) in West Africa, with the salutary result that the virus may be more controllable than previously suspected. The ongoing tactics to detect cases as rapidly as possible and isolate individuals as safely as practicable is essential to saving lives in the current outbreaks in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. Equally important are educational campaigns that reduce contact rates between susceptible and infectious individuals in the community once an outbreak occurs. However, due to the relatively low R 0 of Ebola (around 1.5 to 2.5 next generation cases are produced per current generation case in naïve populations), rapid isolation of infectious individuals proves to be highly efficacious in containing outbreaks in new areas, while vaccination programs, even with low efficacy vaccines, can be decisive in curbing future outbreaks in areas where the Ebola virus is maintained in reservoir populations.