Teaching Signal Processing to the Medical Profession

Knowledge of signal processing is very important for medical students. A medical signal may be used for monitoring, constructing an image, or for extracting the numerical quantity of a parameter. This information forms a basis for medical decisions. However, the processing of the signal may lead to distortion and an incorrect interpretation. The present article describes an educational practical for first year medical students. It uses the electrocardiogram, which can be obtained easily, as a convenient example of a medical signal. The practical was developed at the VU University Amsterdam and summarizes the elementary concepts of signal processing

The Consequences of Surgical Trauma on Intra-Peritoneal Tumour Recurrence and/or Adhesion Formation

Peritoneal carcinomatosis and postoperative intra-abdominal adhesion formation still are genuine problems after potentially curative intra-abdominal surgery. The inflammatory reaction triggered by surgical trauma to the peritoneum not only promotes adhesion formation but also stimulates tumour recurrence. Implicating a common denominator. The exact mechanisms involved are only partly clarified. To be able to prevent or reduce these surgical “complications” a thorough knowledge of the underlying process is necessary. Animal experimental models as well as cell culture models were used to unravel this process. For tumour recurrence this thesis showed that the (post) surgical intra-peritoneal microenvironment enhances successful implantation of spilled tumour cells, whereas growth of adhered tumour cell cl

Left parietal tACS at alpha frequency induces a shift of visuospatial attention

Background Voluntary shifts of visuospatial attention are associated with a lateralization of parieto-occipital alpha power (7-13Hz), i.e. higher power in the hemisphere ipsilateral and lower power contralateral to the locus of attention. Recent noninvasive neuromodulation studies demonstrated that alpha power can be experimentally increased using transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS). Objective/Hypothesis We hypothesized that tACS at alpha frequency over the left parietal cortex induces shifts of attention to the left hemifield. However, spatial attention shifts not only occur voluntarily (endogenous/ top-down), but also stimulus-driven (exogenous/ bottom-up). To study the task-specificity of the potential effects of tACS on attentional processes, we administered three conceptually different spatial attention tasks. Methods 36 healthy volunteers were recruited from an academic environment. In two separate sessions, we applied either high-density tACS at 10Hz, or sham tACS, for 35–40 minutes to their left parietal cortex. We systematically compared performance on endogenous attention, exogenous attention, and stimulus detection tasks. Results In the endogenous attention task, a greater leftward bias in reaction times was induced during left parietal 10Hz tACS as compared to sham. There were no stimulation effects in either the exogenous attention or the stimulus detection task. Conclusion The study demonstrates that high-density tACS at 10Hz can be used to modulate visuospatial attention performance. The tACS effect is task-specific, indicating that not all forms of attention are equally susceptible to the stimulation

The reduction of the critical current in Nb3Sn cables under transverse loads

The degradation of the critical current of impregnated Rutherford type Nb3Sn cables was investigated as a function of the applied transverse load and magnetic field. The cable is made of modified jelly-roll-type strand material and has a keystone angle of 1.0°. The voltage-current characteristics were determined for the magnetic field ranging from 2 to 11 T and transverse pressure up to 250 MPa on the cable surface. It was found that the 48-strand cable, made of strands with six elements in the matrix, showed a larger critical current degradation than the 26-strand cable with 36 elements per strand. The global degradation of the 48-strand cable was 63% at 150 MPa, and 40% at 150 MPa for the 26-strand cable. Microanalysis of the cross-section before and after compression is presented, showing significant permanent damage to the superconducting strands

Cavity-enhanced photoionization of an ultracold rubidium beam for application in focused ion beams

A two-step photoionization strategy of an ultracold rubidium beam for application in a focused ion beam instrument is analyzed and implemented. In this strategy the atomic beam is partly selected with an aperture after which the transmitted atoms are ionized in the overlap of a tightly cylindrically focused excitation laser beam and an ionization laser beam whose power is enhanced in a build-up cavity. The advantage of this strategy, as compared to without the use of a build-up cavity, is that higher ionization degrees can be reached at higher currents. Optical Bloch equations including the photoionization process are used to calculate what ionization degree and ionization position distribution can be reached. Furthermore, the ionization strategy is tested on an ultracold beam of $^{85}$Rb atoms. The beam current is measured as a function of the excitation and ionization laser beam intensity and the selection aperture size. Although details are different, the global trends of the measurements agree well with the calculation. With a selection aperture diameter of 52 $\mu$m, a current of $\left(170\pm4\right)$ pA is measured, which according to calculations is 63% of the current equivalent of the transmitted atomic flux. Taking into account the ionization degree the ion beam peak reduced brightness is estimated at $1\times10^7$ A/(m$^2\,$sr$\,$eV).Comment: 13 pages, 9 figure

An allosteric model of KaiC phosphorylation

In a recent series of ground-breaking experiments, Nakajima et al. [Science 308, 414-415 (2005)] showed that the three cyanobacterial clock proteins KaiA, KaiB, and KaiC are sufficient in vitro to generate circadian phosphorylation of KaiC. Here, we present a mathematical model of the Kai system. At its heart is the assumption that KaiC can exist in two conformational states, one favoring phosphorylation and the other dephosphorylation. Each individual KaiC hexamer then has a propensity to be phosphorylated in a cyclic manner. To generate macroscopic oscillations, however, the phosphorylation cycles of the different hexamers must be synchronized. We propose a novel synchronisation mechanism based on differential affinity: KaiA stimulates KaiC phosphorylation, but the limited supply of KaiA dimers binds preferentially to those KaiC hexamers that are falling behind in the oscillation. KaiB sequesters KaiA and stabilizes the dephosphorylating KaiC state. We show that our model can reproduce a wide range of published data, including the observed insensitivity of the oscillation period to variations in temperature, and that it makes nontrivial predictions about the effects of varying the concentrations of the Kai proteins.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures. Accepted for publication in PNA