Wavelet decomposition of cardiovascular signals for baroreceptor function tests in pigs

In this paper, the discrete wavelet transform (DWT) was applied to analyze the fluctuations in RR interval and systolic arterial pressure (SAP) recorded from eight alpha-chloralose anesthetized pigs. Our aim was to characterize the autonomic modulation before and after cardiac autonomic blockade and during baroreflex function tests. The instantaneous power of decomposed low-frequency (LF) and high-frequency (HF) components was used for a time-variant spectral analysis. Our results suggested that transient events and changes in autonomic modulation were detected with high temporal resolution. A nonlinear relationship between RR interval and SAP during pharmacologically induced changes in blood pressure was found, when the superimposed effect of respiratory sinus arrhythmia was removed. In addition, the baroslopes were nearly linear when both the LF and HF components were removed using DWT decomposition.     

Accounting for respiration is necessary to reliably infer Granger causality from cardiovascular variability series

This study was designed to demonstrate the need of accounting for respiration (R) when causality between heart period (HP) and systolic arterial pressure (SAP) is under scrutiny. Simulations generated according to a bivariate autoregressive closed-loop model were utilized to assess how causality changes as a function of the model parameters. An exogenous (X) signal was added to the bivariate autoregressive closed-loop model to evaluate the bias on causality induced when the X source was disregarded. Causality was assessed in the time domain according to a predictability improvement approach (i.e., Granger causality). HP and SAP variability series were recorded with R in 19 healthy subjects during spontaneous and controlled breathing at 10, 15, and 20 breaths/min. Simulations proved the importance of accounting for X signals. During spontaneous breathing, assessing causality without taking into consideration R leads to a significantly larger percentage of closed-loop interactions and a smaller fraction of unidirectional causality from HP to SAP. This finding was confirmed during paced breathing and it was independent of the breathing rate. These results suggest that the role of baroreflex cannot be correctly assessed without accounting for R.     

Time-variant power spectrum analysis for the detection of transientepisodes in HRV signal

A time-variant algorithm of autoregressive (AR) identification is introduced and applied to the heart rate variability (HRV) signal. The power spectrum is calculated from the AR coefficients derived from each single RR interval considered. Time-variant AR coefficients are determined through adaptive parametric identification with a forgetting factor which obtains weighted values on a running temporal window of 50 preceding measurements. Power spectrum density (PSD) is hence obtained at each cardiac cycle, making it possible to follow the dynamics of the spectral parameters on a beat-by-beat basis. These parameters are mainly the LF (low-frequency) and the HF (high-frequency) powers, and their ratio, LF/HF. These together account for the balanced sympatho-vagal control mechanism affecting the heart rate. This method is applied to subjects suffering from transient ischemic attacks. The time variant spectral parameters suggest an early activation of LF component in the HRV power spectrum. It precedes by approximately 1.5-2 min the tachycardia and the ST displacement, generally indicative of the onset of an ischemic episode     

Stress control of silicon nitride films deposited by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition

Stress controllable silicon nitride(Si Nx) films deposited by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition(PECVD) are reported. Low stress Si Nx films were deposited in both high frequency(HF) mode and dual frequency(HF/LF) mode. By optimizing process parameters, stress free(-0.27 MPa) Si Nx films were obtained with the deposition rate of 45.5 nm/min and the refractive index of 2.06. Furthermore, at HF/LF mode, the stress is significantly influenced by LF ratio and LF power, and can be controlled to be 10 MPa with the LF ratio of 17% and LF power of 150 W. However, LF power has a little effect on the deposition rate due to the interaction between HF power and LF power. The deposited Si Nx films have good mechanical and optical properties, low deposition temperature and controllable stress, and can be widely used in integrated circuit(IC), micro-electro-mechanical systems(MEMS) and bio-MEMS.     

On the efficacy of linear system analysis of renal autoregulationin rats

To assess the linearity of the mechanisms subserving renal blood flow autoregulation, broadband arterial pressure fluctuations at three different power levels were induced experimentally and the resulting renal blood flow responses were recorded. Linear system analysis methods were applied in both the time and frequency domain. In the frequency domain, spectral estimates employing fast Fourier transform (FFT), autoregressive moving average (ARMA), and moving average (MA) methods were used. The residuals (i.e. model prediction errors) of the MA model were smaller than the ARMA, model for all levels of arterial pressure forcings. The observed low coherence values and significant model residuals in the 0.02-0.05-Hz frequency range suggest that the tubuloglomerular feedback (TGF) active in this frequency range is a nonlinear vascular control mechanism. In addition, experimental results suggest that the operation of the TGF mechanism is more evident at low/moderate pressure fluctuations and becomes overwhelmed when the arterial pressure forcing is too high     

Modeling of cardiovascular variability using a differential delayequation

The influence of time delay in the baroreflex control of the heart activity is analyzed by using a simple mathematical model of the short-term pressure regulation. The mean arterial pressure in a Windkessel model is controlled by a nonlinear feedback driving a nonpulsatile model of the cardiac pump in accordance with the steady-state characteristics of the arterial baroreceptor reflex. A pure time delay is placed in the feedback branch to simulate the latent period of the baroreceptor regulation. Because of system nonlinearity model dynamics is found to be highly sensitive to time delay and changes of this parameter within a physiological range cause the model to exhibit different patterns of behavior. For low values of time delay (shorter than 0.5 s) the model remains in a steady state. When time delay is longer than 0.5 s, a Hopf bifurcation is crossed and spontaneous oscillations occur with frequencies in the high-frequency (HF) band. Further increases of time delay above 1.2 s cause the oscillations to become more complex, and following the typical Feigenbaum cascade, the system becomes chaotic. In this condition heart rate, pressure, and how show evident variability. The heart rate power spectrum exhibits a peak whose frequency moves from the HF to LF band depending on whether simulated time delay is as short as the vagal-mediated control or long as the sympathetic one     

Stress Controlled Silicon Nitride Thin Film Deposited by Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapour Deposition

SiN, films are deposited on silicon wafers through plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition （PECVD）. The relationship between the film stress and deposition factors is investigated. It is found that low stress films would be obtained by adjusting the ratio of low frequency（LF） power to high frequency（HF） power pulse time or the chamber pressure. The best of the two methods to control stress in the film is changing the percentage of LF power pulse time. The low stress condition is achieved when the percentage of low frequency power pulse time in total time（LF and HF pulse time） is close to 40%, The low stress cantilever of tunable vertical cavity surface emitting laser is obtained by using this deposition condition,     

Coupling arterial windkessel with peripheral vasomotion: modeling the effects on low-frequency oscillations

Arterial pressure (AP) and heart rate (HR) waves have long been recognized as an important sign of cardiovascular regulation, however, the underlying interactions involving vasomotion, arterial mechanisms and neural regulation have not been clarified. With the aid of simple dynamical models consisting of active peripheral vascular districts (PVDs) fed by a compliant/resistant arterial tree, the relationship between local AP and flow and systemic AP waves were analyzed. A PVD was described as a nonlinear flow regulation loop. Various feedback dynamics were experimented and general properties were focused. The PVDs displayed a region of active flow compensation against pressure changes, in which self-sustained low-frequency (LF, 0.1 Hz) appeared. Oscillations critically depended on parameter, Teq, analogous to a windkessel time constant, proportional to arterial compliances: a value of about 2 s (consistent with a normal pulse pressure) performed a buffering effect essential for LF oscillations in peripheral flow; conversely, stiffer arteries damped LF vasomotion. Two PVDs fed by a common compliance oscillated in phase opposition; the consequent negative interference cancelled systemic AP waves, even in presence of large peripheral oscillations. The partial disruption of phase opposition by a common neural drive oscillating at a LF proximal to that of the PVDs unveiled LF waves in AP. Also, several PVDs with randomly different natural frequencies displayed a tendency to reciprocal cancellation, while a limited neurally induced phase alignment unmasked LF oscillations at systemic level. It is concluded that vasomotion, arterial compliances and, neural drives are all elements which may cooperate in forming AP waves.     

Reducing the effect of respiration in baroreflex sensitivity estimation with adaptive filtering

Cardiac baroreflex is described by baroreflex sensitivity (BRS) from blood pressure and heart rate interval (RRi) fluctuations. However, respiration affects both blood pressure and RRi via mechanisms that are not necessarily of baroreflex origin. To separate the effects of baroreflex and respiration, metronome-guided breathing in a high frequency band (HF, 0.25-0.4 Hz) and a low frequency spectral band (LF, 0.04-0.15 Hz) have therefore been commonly used for BRS estimation. The controlled breathing may, however, change the natural functioning of the autonomic system and interfere BRS estimates. To enable usage of spontaneous breathing, we propose an adaptive LMS-based filter for removing the respiration effect from the BRS estimates. ECG, continuous blood pressure and respiration were measured during 5 min spontaneous and 5 min controlled breathing at 0.25 Hz in healthy males (n = 24, 33+/-7 years). BRS was calculated with spectral methods from the LF band with and without filtering. In those subjects whose spontaneous breathing rate was <0.15 Hz, the BRS(LF) values were overestimated, whereas the adaptive filtering reduced the bias significantly. As a conclusion, the adaptive filter reduces the distorting effect of respiration on BRS values, which enables more accurate estimation of BRS and the usage of spontaneous breathing as a measurement protocol.     

Characterization of the Arterial System in the Time Domain

The impulse response function and the input impedance of the systemic arterial tree emphasize different aspects of this system. The impulse response function is calculated via inverse Fourier transformation of the input impedance. The effects of truncation of the impedance are reduced by subjecting the data to a Dolph-Chebyshev filter. The impulse response functions of a windkessel model, a uniform tube model, and of the arterial system of the dog, are given. The impulse response functions of the windkessel model and of the arterial system of the control dog show a sharp initial peak followed by an exponential decay (equal decay time as that of the diastolic pressure tracing). The height of the decay extrapolated to time zero is related to total arterial compliance. Total arterial compliance calculated in this way agrees with the value calculated from the ratio of the time constant of the diastolic pressure decay and peripheral resistance. The presence of peaks in the impulse response function indicates a distinct reflection site as shown in the uniform tube model and found in the dog with balloon occlusion of the descending aorta. The measurement of the time intervals between these peaks and the start of excitation together with the pulse wave velocity enable us to calculate the distance between the location of the reflecting site and the heart.     

基于受限玻尔兹曼机的语音带宽扩展

语音带宽扩展是为了提高语音质量,利用语音低频和高频之间的相关性重构语音高频的一种技术。高斯混合模型法是语音带宽技术中被广泛应用的一种方法,但是,由于该方法假设语音高频、低频服从高斯分布,且只表征了语音低频、高频之间的线性关系,从而导致合成的高频语音出现失真。因此,该文提出一种基于受限玻尔兹曼机的方法,该方法利用两个高斯伯努利受限玻尔兹曼机提取语音低频和高频中蕴含的高阶统计特性;并利用前馈神经网络将语音低频高阶统计特性参数映射为高频高阶统计特性参数。这样,通过提取语音低频和高频中蕴含的高阶统计特性,该方法可以深层挖掘语音高频和语音低频之间的实际关系,从而更加准确地模拟频谱包络分布,合成质量更高的语音。客观测试、主观测试结果表明,该方法性能优于传统的高斯混合模型方法。     

Effects of record length selection on the accuracy of spectralestimates of heart rate variability: a simulation study

To evaluate the effects of record length selection on the accuracy of spectral estimates of heart rate variability (HRV), a simulation study was carried out using a set of 58 signals obtained by autoregressive (AR) fitting a representative sample of real HRV signals. Four record lengths of 180, 300, 420, and 540 s were considered. Spectral estimation was performed by both the Blackman-Tukey (B-T) and AR methods. Accuracy was assessed for: (1) point spectral estimates, by computing the normalized averaged bias (NAB) and variance (NAV); and (2) the most commonly used spectral parameters [total power (TP) and the powers in the bands: very low frequency (VLF) (0÷0.04 Hz), low frequency (LF) (0.04÷0.15 Hz), and high frequency (HF) (0.15÷0.45 Hz)], by computing the normalized bias (NB) and variance (NV). The results are: whatever the record length considered, the 90th percentiles (90P) of the NAB were <10%, whereas those of the NB were <9% for TP, LF, and HF powers, and <14% for the VLF power, in both methods. The NAV was proportional to the reciprocal of record length, showing high 90P values for the shortest record length (26.4% for B-T and 44.2% for AR). The NV showed the same trend but 90P values were much lower (<8% for TP, LF, and HF powers and <19% for VLF power, in both methods). In the final part of the paper a procedure for the computation of approximate upper bounds of the relative absolute error of spectral measures at each record length, based on the knowledge of the NE and NV, is presented     

Characterization of dynamic interactions between cardiovascular signals by time-frequency coherence

An assessment of the dynamic interactions between cardiovascular signals can provide valuable information to improve the understanding of cardiovascular control. In this study, two methodologies for the characterization of time-frequency (TF) coherence between cardiovascular signals are described. The methodologies are based on the smoothed pseudo-Wigner-Ville distribution (SPWVD) and multitaper spectrogram (MTSP), and include the automatic assessment of the significance level of coherence estimates. The capability to correctly localize TF regions, where signals are locally coupled, is assessed using computer-generated data, and data from healthy volunteers. The SPWVD allows for the localization of these regions with higher accuracy (AC > 96.9% for SNR ≥ 5 dB) than the MTSP (AC > 84.4% for SNR ≥ 5 dB). In 14 healthy subjects, TF coherence analysis was used to describe the changes, which a tilt table test provokes in the cardiovascular control. Orthostatic stress provoked an increase in the coupling between R-R variability (RRV) and systolic arterial pressure variability; it did not provoke any significant changes in the coupling between RRV and respiration. In HF band, it decreased the strength of the coupling between RRV and pulse interval variability estimated from arterial pressure signal.     

低应力PECVD氮化硅薄膜的制备

研究了等离子增强化学气相淀积(PECVD)工艺中射频条件(功率和频率)对氮化硅薄膜应力的影响.对于不同射频条件下薄膜的测试结果表明:低频(LF)时氮化硅薄膜处于压应力,高频(HF)时处于张应力,且相同功率时低频的沉积速率和应力分别为高频时的两倍左右;在此基础上采用不同高低频时间比的混频工艺实现了对氮化硅薄膜应力的调控,且在高低频时间比为5:1时获得了应力仅为10 MVa的极低应力氮化硅薄膜.     

Prediction of short cardiovascular variability signals based on conditional distribution

A new approach measuring the predictability of a process is proposed. The predictor is defined as the median of the distribution conditioned by a sequence of L - 1 previous samples (i.e., a pattern). A function referred to as the corrected mean squared predictor error is defined to prevent the perfect adequacy to the data (i.e., the decrease to zero of the prediction error), thus avoiding to divide the whole set of data in learning and test sets. This function exhibits a minimum and this minimum is taken as a measure of predictability of the series. The use of the minimization procedure avoids to fix a priori the pattern length L. This approach permits one a reliable measure of predictability on short data sequences (around 300 samples). Moreover, this method, in connection with a surrogate data approach, is useful to detect nonlinear dynamics. The analysis indicates that, in simulated and real data, predictability and nonlinearity measures provide different information. The application of this approach to the analysis of cardiovascular variability series of the heart period (RR interval) and systolic arterial pressure (SAP) shows: 1) SAP series is more predictable than RR interval series; 2) predictability of the RR interval series is larger during tilt, during controlled respiration at 10 breaths/min (bpm) and after high-dose administration of atropine; 3) SAP series is dominated by linear correlation; 4) RR interval series exhibits nonlinear dynamics during controlled respiration at 10 bpm and after low-dose administration of atropine, while it is linear during sympathetic activation produced by tilt and after peripheral parasympathetic blockade caused by high-dose administration of atropine.     

高低频不同电压条件下腔室内CCP冷等离子体源的仿真分析

等离子体的状态的变化特征,特别是在双频情况下,是PECVD工艺设备的一项重要指标,这促使人们用不同的方法对它们进行研究。本文使用CFD-ACE 商业软件建立了二维流体模型对N2等离子体进行仿真。首先在高频13.56MHz,高频电压300V,低频电压0V的条件下描述了等离子体,特别是在鞘层部位的电势、电子数量密度、氮自由基和电子温度,分布的基本特征。在此基础上,讨论了高频电压分别是200V,300V,400V时及低频0.3MHz,低频电压分别是500V,600V,700V时对等离子体密度的影响。结论表明,在电极表面形成了约3mm厚的鞘层,在鞘层内电势和电子温度随时间和空间变化较大,而在非鞘层区域内电势跟随电极电压的变化而变化,但几乎不随空间变化,电子温度也只在很小的范围内变化。氮自由基的数量密度也受射频电压的调制,但相对变化很小。等离子体密度仅在鞘层区域内随时间发生变化,所以通过比较主等离子体区参数可以看出,等离子体的密度随着高频电压升高,随低频电压的升高略有下降,同时x方向和y方向的均匀性将会发生变化。因此,在其他条件不变的情况下需要选择合适的高低频电压来获得高密度和均匀性均合乎要求的等离子体。     

Contourlet-based image adaptive watermarking

In the contourlet transform (CT), the Laplacian pyramid (LP) decomposes an image into a low-frequency (LF) subband and a high-frequency (HF) subband. The LF subband is created by filtering the original image with 2-D low-pass filter. However, the HF subband is created by subtracting the synthesized LF subband from the original image but not by 2-D high-pass filtering the original image. In this paper, we propose a contourlet-based image adaptive watermarking (CIAW) scheme, in which the watermark is embedded into the contourlet coefficients of the largest detail subbands of the image. The transform structure of the LP makes the embedded watermark spread out into all subbands likely in which the LF subbands are included when we reconstruct the watermarked image based on the watermarked contourlet coefficients. Since both the LF subbands and the HF subbands contain watermarking components, our watermarking scheme is expected to be robust against both the LF image processing and the HF image processing attacks. The corresponding watermarking detection algorithm is proposed to decide whether the watermark is present or not by exploiting the unique transform structure of LP. With the new proposed concept of spread watermark, the watermark is detected by computing the correlation between the spread watermark and the watermarked image in all contourlet subbands fully. The proposed CIAW scheme is particularly superior to the conventional watermarking schemes when the watermarked image is attacked by some image processing methods, which destroy the HF subbands, thanks to the watermarking components preserved in the LF subbands. Experimental results show the validity of CIAW in terms of both the watermarking invisibility and the watermarking robustness. In addition, the comparison experiments prove the high-efficiency of CIAW again.     

Assessment of Endothelial Function Using Arterial Pressure Signals

Peripheral arterial tonometry (PAT) is a useful method to assess endothelial function. Analysis of pulse wave amplitude with PAT during reactive hyperemia can be used to study peripheral vascular endothelial function very well. We had injected a specific nitric oxide (NO) synthesize inhibitor intra-arterially into five adult male rats to verify the validation of our proposed photoplethysmograpy (PPG) system for endothelial function assessment. However, the reproducibility was not good for the system applied for measuring fingertip peripheral arteries. Therefore, an air-pressure sensing system with the high reproducibility was developed for peripheral vascular endothelial function assessment. This study showed that the vasodilatation index measured with air-pressure sensing system correlated very well with that measured using peripheral arterial tonometry. In addition, only few minutes are needed for conducting a self endothelial function assessment at home. And, early self-monitoring of cardiovascular dysfunction and arterial stiffness can be easily and effectively achieved.