Analysis Of Qualitative Features Research Articles

The role of microvascular dysfunction in the pathogenesis of heart failure with preserved ­efficiency fraction

Background. The results of a growing number of international studies support the assumption that the prevalence of coronary microvascular dysfunction is much higher than previously thought, including in patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction.
 Aim. To study the role of coronary microvascular dysfunction in the pathogenesis of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction in patients with non-obstructive lesions of the coronary arteries.
 Material and methods. The study included 73 patients with non-obstructive lesions of the coronary arteries. Dynamic single-photon emission computed tomography was used to evaluate the parameters of coronary blood flow reserve. Coronary microvascular dysfunction was defined as the presence of reduced coronary blood flow reserve 2. The distribution of patients was carried out depending on the reserve of coronary blood flow: the first group (n=35) included patients with a reduced reserve 2, the second group with preserved reserve 2 (n=38). Statistical processing of the study results was carried out using nonparametric methods: in the analysis of quantitative indicators, the MannWhitney test was used; in the analysis of qualitative features, the analysis of contingency tables using the Pearson 2 test was performed. To search for relationships between variables, correlation analysis with the calculation of Spearman's correlation coefficients was used.
 Results. In 82.9% of cases, patients in the first group had heart failure, while in patients in the second group, it was diagnosed only in 44.7% of cases (p=0.014). The values of the coronary blood flow reserve correlated with the size of the left atrium (r=0.527; p=0.001), the E/A (r=0.321, p=0.012) and E/e' ratio (r=0.307; p=0.021). In patients with heart failure, the levels of coronary blood flow reserve correlated with the functional class: in patients with functional class I (n=21), the values of this indicator were 2.87 (2.52; 2.94), with class II (n=8) 1.98 (1.65; 2.16), with functional class III (n=17) 1.51 (1.23; 1.69).
 Conclusion. The presence of coronary microvascular dysfunction is associated with a higher incidence of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction; values of coronary blood flow reserve correlate with parameters of diastolic dysfunction.

Amplification of the STOML3, FREM2, and LHFP Genes Is Associated with Mesenchymal Differentiation in Gliosarcoma

Gliosarcoma is a rare glioblastoma variant characterized by a biphasic tissue pattern with alternating areas that display either glial (glial fibrillary acidic protein-positive) or mesenchymal (reticulin-positive) differentiation. Previous analyses have shown identical genetic alterations in glial and mesenchymal tumor areas, suggesting that gliosarcomas are genetically monoclonal, and mesenchymal differentiation was considered to reflect the elevated genomic instability of glioblastomas. In the present study, we compared genome-wide chromosomal imbalances using array comparative genomic hybridization in glial and mesenchymal tumor areas of 13 gliosarcomas. The patterns of gain and loss were similar, except that the gain at 13q13.3-q14.1 (log(2) ratio >3.0), containing the STOML3, FREM2, and LHFP genes, which was restricted to the mesenchymal tumor area of a gliosarcoma. Further analyses of 64 cases of gliosarcoma using quantitative PCR showed amplification of the STOML3, FREM2, and LHFP genes in 14 (22%), 10 (16%), and 7 (11%) mesenchymal tumor areas, respectively, but not in glial tumor areas. Results of IHC analysis confirmed that overexpression of STOML3 and FREM2 was more extensive in mesenchymal than in glial tumor areas. These results suggest that the mesenchymal components in a small fraction of gliosarcomas may be derived from glial cells with additional genetic alterations.

RIDED-2D: A RULE-BASED INSTANTANEOUS DENOISING AND EDGE DETECTION METHOD FOR 2D RANGE SCAN LINE

Edge detection is often regarded as a basic step in range image processing by virtue of its crucial effect. The majority of existing edge detection methods cannot satisfy the requirement of efficiency in many industrial applications due to huge computational costs. In this paper, a novel instantaneous method, named RIDED-2D is proposed for denoising and edge detection for 2D scan line in range images. In the method, silhouettes of 2D scan line are classified into eight types by defining a few new coefficients. Several discriminant criteria on large noise filtering and edge detection are stipulated based on qualitative feature analysis on each type. Selecting some feature point candidates, a practical parameter learning method is provided to determine the threshold set, along with the implementation of an integrated algorithm by merging calculation steps. Because all the coefficients are established based on distances among the points or their ratio, RIDED-2D is inherently invariant to translation and rotation transformations. Furthermore, a forbidden region approach is proposed to eliminate interference of the mixed pixels. Key performances of RIDED-2D are evaluated in detail by including computational complexity, time expenditure, accuracy and stability. The results indicate that RIDED-2D can detect edge points accurately from several real range images, in which large noises and systematic noises are involved, and the total processing time is less than 0.1 millisecond on an ordinary PC platform using the integrated algorithm. Comparing with other state-of-the-art edge detection methods qualitatively, RIDED-2D exhibits a prominent advantage on computational efficiency. Thus, the proposed method qualifies for real-time processing in stringent industrial applications. Besides, another contribution of this paper is to introduce CPU clock counting technique to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm, and suggest a convenient and objective way to estimate the algorithm's time expenditure in other platforms.

Ontology‐based Qualitative Feature Analysis: Bays as a Case Study

AbstractA methodology for analyzing geographic data using the techniques of: (1) qualitative geometric abstraction; and (2) ontological analysis of geographic features is described. The first technique is a bottom‐up approach to extract qualitative spatial relations from geographic representations (raster or vector) while the second technique is a top‐down approach to determine which qualitative relations can possibly hold between the parts of the geographic features. The process of analyzing geographic data includes the extraction of both the features and the qualitative relations among features. These qualitative relations are then used to classify the geographic features within the “space” of ontological possibilities. In this article bays in Wisconsin and their cartographic representation are used as a running example and the subject of a case study.

Comparison of Video Laryngoscopy Technologies

Indirect laryngoscopy allows practitioners to “see around the corner” of a patient's airway during intubation. Inadequate airway management is a major contributor to patient injury, morbidity and mortality. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the video quality of commercially available video laryngoscopy systems. A team of four investigators at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and the Peter Kiewit Institute performed intubation simulations using a number of video laryngoscopy systems. Testing was done with a Laerdal Difficult Airway Manikin (Laerdal Medical Corp., Wappingers Falls, NY) in a setting that simulated difficult airways, adverse lighting conditions and various system configurations (e.g., maximizing screen contrast, minimizing screen brightness, maximizing screen color hue, etc.). Systems included the STORZ C-MACTM (KARL STORZ Endoscopy, Tuttlingen, Germany), a prototype developed by STORZ (a McIntosh #3 video blade with USB connectivity to an ultra mobile PC; “UMPC”) and a GlideScope® Portable GUL (Verathon Inc., Bothell, WA). Equipment was evaluated based on investigator's perceptions of the color (“C”), clarity (“L”) and brightness (“B”) of the image onscreen for each of the systems. Perceptions were given one of three possible ratings: High=3, Moderate=2 or Low=1. Statistics were performed using a two-tailed Wilcoxon Rank Sum test for independent samples. A summary of the results of the testing are shown below (shown as “Mean±Standard Deviation”): • C-MAC–L=2.13±0.99, C=1.75±0.89, B=2.5±0.93, Total=6.38±2.5 • GlideScope®–L=2.38±0.92, C=1.38±0.52, B=2.38±0.92, Total=6.13±1.96 • UMPC–L=1.88±0.83, C=1.75±1.04, B=1.88±0.83, Total=5.5±2.2 Testing showed that there were no significant differences between image clarity, color, brightness or overall score of any of the tested systems (α=0.05). Since there were no significant differences in video quality between the three systems, the choice of system falls to user preference, which can vary from person to person, and qualitative analysis of features that are outside the scope of this study. Investigators plan to evaluate additional video laryngoscopy solutions in an effort to create a platform-agnostic video laryngoscopy suite. Funding by KARL STORZ Endoscopy. Investigators were blinded to funding source until after testing was completed. The authors wish to thank Dr. W. Bosseau Murray for his insightful comments.

Value of ultrasonography in acute renal failure: analysis of qualitative features in patients with nephropathia epidemica

To assess the value of renal ultrasonography (US) and the frequency of qualitative pathology in patients with nephropathia epidemica (NE) and to determine whether these features are related to the clinical course of NE. Renal US was undertaken in 23 hospital-treated NE cases during the acute phase of the disease (first study). A second US study was performed 3-6 months later. Captured US images were used in the analysis. From acute to control phase the overall rating of kidney status improved in 20 patients, parenchymal swelling decreased and corticomedullary border differentiation improved in 21, echogenicity decreased in 18, and patchy pattern in parenchymal echo-texture decreased in 15. The severity of findings in US evinced some association with fluid volume overload, high blood pressure level and blood leukocyte count, and severe clinical renal insufficiency. The degree of parenchymal swelling had more statistically significant associations with clinical course than other US features. Qualitative US features are as sensitive as quantitative US parameters in assessment of NE patients' clinical course and recovery, assuming that a comparative study is available. US using only qualitative features is fairly limited in evaluating NE patients' clinical situation.