Search all articles

Aims: Flow-mediated vasodilatation of the brachial artery (FMD), a marker of conduit arterial endothelial function, and reactive hyperemia index (RHI), a marker of resistance arterial endothelial function, measured by peripheral arterial tonometry, are known to be weakly associated with each other, however,...

It has been suggested that measurement of “unattended” blood pressure values may provide advantages over conventional BP measurement; some hypertension guidelines now suggest this approach as the preferred one for measuring office BP. Data on the relationship between unattended BP and cardiovascular...

Objective: Wall-to-lumen ratio of retinal arterioles might serve as an in-vivo parameter of vascular damage. Previous studies have shown a correlation between retinal arteriolar structure and blood pressure values, measured both in the clinic and during 24 hours ambulatory monitoring. We analyzed the...

Many Advisor Systems have been designed and developed to assist us in decision-making, each with their strengths and weaknesses. A popular type of Advisor systems is Travel Advisor systems that assist travelers in their travel arrangements. We have designed and implemented a Travel Advisor system to...

Moments of the mth upper record value XU(m), m≥1, and the joint moments of the mth and nth upper record values XU(m) and XU(n), n>m≥1, of a random variable X with Marshall-Olkin Extended distribution are presented. Certain characterizations of this distribution based on hazard function and a simple...

Effective utilization of business-to-business (B2B) electronic commerce (e-commerce) in hospitals may lead to many benefits such as increased accessibility to healthcare providers, improved process efficiency, enhanced quality of healthcare services, increased responses to changes, decreased scheduling...

In 1981, J. Borsík and J. Doboš studied and solved the problem of how to merge, by means of a function, a (not necessarily finite) collection of metrics in order to obtain a single one as output. Later on, in 2010, G. Mayor and O. Valero proposed and solved the Borsík and Doboš...

Haemophilia A is a genetic disease resulting from deficiency of factor VIII. The database of mutations causing haemophilia A has been developed by the world wide collaboration. In this study, we examined the relation between activity of factor VIII and the missense mutation by using machine learning....

Monge-Ampère equations of the form, uxxuyy - u2 xy = F(u, ux, uy) arise in many areas of fluid and solid mechanics. Here it is shown that in the special case F = u4 yf(u, ux/uy), where f denotes an arbitrary function, the Monge-Ampère equation can be linearized by using a sequence of Ampère, point, Legendre...

Network-on-chip (NoC) are considered the next generation of communication infrastructure, which will be omnipresent in most of industry, office and personal electronic systems. In platform-based methodology, an application is implemented by a set of collaborating intellectual properties (IPs) blocks....

Advanced engineering materials design involves the exploration of massive multidimensional feature spaces, the correlation of materials properties and the processing parameters derived from disparate sources. The search for alternative materials or processing property strategies, whether through analytical,...

There is a great deal of risk analysis techniques and tools available for the management of risks. In principle, each risk analysis technique has its strengths and weaknesses. Techniques such as Probability Theory, Certainty Factors, Dempster-Shaffer Theory of Evidence and Fuzzy Logic are discussed with...

In the two previous papers of this series, the main results on the asymptotic behaviors of empirical divergence measures based on wavelets theory have been established and particularized for important families of divergence measures like Rényi and Tsallis families and for the Kullback-Leibler measures....

Colorizing line drawings requires special skill, experience, and knowledge. Artists also spend a great deal of time and effort creating art. Given this background, research on automated line drawing colorization was recently conducted. However, the existing approaches present multiple problems, one of...

Pulse diagnosis has been proved to be of great practical value in the past dynasties. The key of high-quality pulse diagnosis is how to dynamically adjust the vertical relationship between the pulse and the sensor dynamically. The design adopts a four degree of freedom manipulator combined with a matrix...

Vitamin D deficiency may increase arterial stiffness, a sub-clinical symptom of Target Organ Damage (TOD). This study aimed to investigate the associations between total serum vitamin D level and arterial stiffness assessed by brachial-ankle Pulse Wave Velocity (baPWV) and atherosclerosis assessed by...

Hazard identification is a crucial first step in risk assessment. There are many cases in which hazard identification is carried out by non-experts. One concern is that valid hazards are overlooked and so not considered for mitigation or prevention. This study examined whether a goal-setting anchor could...

Health consciousness and the need to maintain immune system have increased the demand for fresh fruit and vegetable juices due to the presence of nutritional benefits including colorful pigments such as chlorophylls, carotenoids, and anthocyanins. Besides providing green, yellow, and red color in fruits...

Hospital-acquired Respiratory-Tract Infections (HARTIs) are identified as the most frequent type of hospital-acquired infections. They can engender significant morbidity and mortality rates, generating a heavy economic burden, especially in the limited resources countries. In this perspective, this study...

Background: Although Type 2 diabetes (T2DM) is associated with retinal vascular disease, the underlying pathophysiological mechanisms are unclear. Reduced retinal arteriolar diameter has been linked to high clinic blood pressure (BP) but the role of more sensitive measures of BP control have never been...

We studied the influence of rosuvastatin adding to lisinopril/amlodipine or lisinopril/ hydrochlorothiazide fixed combinations on blood pressure (BP) and arterial stiffness dynamics in hypertensive patients of high or very high cardiovascular risk. Methods: 60 patients (36 men and 24 women aged 52.1...

Increased arterial stiffness is one of the major alterations in arterial wall. It can be evaluated in non-invasively way by measuring the pulse wave velocity PWV in large arteries. Increased PWV is an independent predictor factor of cardiovascular complications in patients with hypertension and chronic...

Background: The relationship between arterial stiffness, blood pressure (BP) and cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) has been studied in healthy populations and cardiovascular patients, since all of which proved to be independent predictors of all-cause mortality. We aimed to investigate the association...

Background: Vascular age may be a more reasonable conception to the patient than the information about the percentage of risk. Objective: To compare degrees of correlation between biological and vascular age with subclinical evidence of arterial disease in treated hypertensive patients. Methods: Subjects...

It has been proven that aortic pulse wave velocity (aoPWV) the measure of arterial stiffness is a strong and independent predictor of both cardiovascular events and all-cause mortality. Beyond the “gold standard” cfPWV brachial-ankle PWV (baPVW) measurement has been accepted for assessing arterial stiffness...

Objectives: up to date the assessment of coronary artery disease (CAD) risk is based mainly on the presence of CV risk factors. However, many markers of subclinical atherosclerosis has been demonstrated as powerful predictors of CV events. Aim of our study was to evaluate if non invasive US parameters,...

We have developed a system for analyzing facial expressions of a person while answering interview questions on a video. A video capturing the answerer is analyzed by OpenCV and the feature parameter for an eye area in addition to the mouth area focused in our reported research. Moreover, the time to...

Good risk governance seems to rest on the three components: knowledge, legally prescribed procedures and social values. All three components are of particular importance for assessing and managing emerging risks, which are characterized by a lack of knowledge about the likelihood and magnitude of potential...

Process capability indices (PCIs) provide numerical measures on whether a process confirms to the defined capability prerequisite. They have been used to measure the ability of process to decide how well the process meets the specification limits (SLs). The PCIs have been successfully applied by companies...

This paper introduces a new type of statistical model: the interval-valued linear model, which describes the linear relationship between an interval-valued output random variable and real-valued input variables. Firstly, notions of variance and covariance of set-valued and interval-valued random variables...

The Lie and Q-conditional invariance of one nonlinear system of PDEs of the thirdorder is searched. The ansatze have been built which reduce the PDEs system to ODEs. The classes of exact solutions of the given system are obtained. The relation between the Korteweg-de Vries equation and Harry-Dym equation...

A (p, q)-analog of two-dimensional conformally invariant field theory based on the quantum algebra Upq(su(1, 1)) is proposed. The representation of the algebra Upq(su(1, 1)) on the space of quasi-primary fields is given. The (p, q)-deformed Ward identities of conformal field theory are defined. The two-...

An effective inventory replenishment method employed in the supply chain is one of the key factors to achieving low inventory while maintaining high customer delivery performance. The state of demand process is often not directly observed by the decision maker. Thus, in many literatures, the inventory...

One of the most commonly evaluated features of the arterial pressure waveforms is augmentation index (AI). Multiple devices have been developed and marketed that measure AI at peripheral arteries. Currently, it is not known if and how these measures of AI are related. Aortic and radial AI (using SphygmoCor),...

Objective: Our aim was to examine the impact of mismatch patterns reflecting pre- and post-natal growth conditions on markers of arterial stiffness and central hemodynamics in young adults. Methods: In all, 1056 participants from Malmö Offspring Study, 484 men and 572 women (age-range 18–44 years),...

We propose a technique of simulation and regression testing for Extended Place/transition Net with Attributed Tokens (EPNAT) models, and then show a prototype tool to partially support it. In the technique, the information about a current marking, current values of variables, and current fireable transitions...

Background and Aim: Low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) is a primary risk factor for atherosclerosis, but it is also associated with elevated blood pressure (BP) and future development of hypertension. We examined the relationship between LDL-C and haemodynamic variables in normotensive and never-treated...

Objective: We previously showed that sequential-nephron blockade (SNB) was more effective than combined renin angiotensin system blockade (RB) for controlling BP in patients with resistant hypertension (RH). We assessed medication adherence (MA) on the antihypertensive (AHT) response to SNB/RB with a...

Background: Arterial hypertension is the main modifiable risk factor of cardiovascular disease. Inflammation and endothelial dysfunction contribute to arterial wall remodeling and blood pressure elevation, leading to the development of age-associated changes of cardiovascular system that limit the lifespan. Objectives:...

Objective: We have previously shown that combined renin-angiotensin system blockade (RB) was less effective than sequential-nephron blockade (SNB) for controlling BP in resistant hypertension (RH). Whether this is accompanied with an improvement in the mechanical properties of large arteries is unknown. Design...