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This paper describes the Sweaty II humanoid adult size robot trying to qualify for the RoboCup 2018 adult size humanoid competition. Sweaty came 2nd in RoboCup 2017 adult size league. The main characteristics of Sweaty are described in the Team Description Paper 2017. The improvements that have been made or are planned to be implemented for RoboCup 2018 are described in this paper.
Soccer simulation league is one of the founding leagues of RoboCup. In this paper we discuss the past, present and planned future achievements and changes. Also we summarize the connections and inter-league achievements of this league and provide an overview of the community contributions that made this league successful.
The excessive control signaling in Long Term Evolution networks required for dynamic scheduling impedes the deployment of ultra-reliable low latency applications. Semi-persistent scheduling was originally designed for constant bit-rate voice applications, however, very low control overhead makes it a potential latency reduction technique in Long Term Evolution. In this paper, we investigate resource scheduling in narrowband fourth generation Long Term Evolution networks through Network Simulator (NS3) simulations. The current release of NS3 does not include a semi-persistent scheduler for Long Term Evolution module. Therefore, we developed the semi-persistent scheduling feature in NS3 to evaluate and compare the performance in terms of uplink latency. We evaluate dynamic scheduling and semi-persistent scheduling in order to analyze the impact of resource scheduling methods on up-link latency.
Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) communication promises improvements in road safety and efficiency by enabling low-latency and reliable communication services for vehicles. Besides using Mobile Broadband (MBB), there is a need to develop Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communications (URLLC) applications with cellular networks especially when safety-related driving applications are concerned. Future cellular networks are expected to support novel latencysensitive use cases. Many applications of V2X communication, like collaborative autonomous driving requires very low latency and high reliability in order to support real-time communication between vehicles and other network elements. In this paper, we classify V2X use-cases and their requirements in order to identify cellular network technologies able to support them. The bottleneck problem of the medium access in 4G Long Term Evolution(LTE) networks is random access procedure. It is evaluated through simulations to further detail the future limitations and requirements. Limitations and improvement possibilities for next generation of cellular networks are finally detailed. Moreover, the results presented in this paper provide the limits of different parameter sets with regard to the requirements of V2X-based applications. In doing this, a starting point to migrate to Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) or 5G - solutions is given.
The next generation cellular networks are expected to improve reliability, energy efficiency, data rate, capacity and latency. Originally, Machine Type Communication (MTC) was designed for low-bandwidth high-latency applications such as, environmental sensing, smart dustbin, etc., but there is additional demand around applications with low latency requirements, like industrial automation, driver-less cars, and so on. Improvements are required in 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks towards the development of next generation cellular networks for providing very low latency and high reliability. To this end, we present an in-depth analysis of parameters that contribute to the latency in 4G networks along with a description of latency reduction techniques. We implement and validate these latency reduction techniques in the open-source network simulator (NS3) for narrowband user equipment category Cat-Ml (LTE-M) to analyze the improvements. The results presented are a step towards enabling narrowband Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC) networks.
Although short range wireless communication explicitly targets local and very regional applications, range continues to be an extremely important issue. The range directly depends on the so called link budget, which can be increased by the choice of modulation and coding schemes. Especially, the recent transceiver generation comes with extensive and flexible support for Software Defined Radio (SDR). The SX127x family from Semtech Corp. is a member of this device class and promises significant benefits for range, robust performance, and battery lifetime compared to competing technologies. This contribution gives a short overview into the technologies to support Long Range (LoRa ™), describes the outdoor setup at the Laboratory Embedded Systems and Communication Electronics of Offenburg University of Applied Sciences, shows detailed measurement results and discusses the strengths and weaknesses of this technology.
NEXCODE is a project promoted by the European Space Agency aimed at research design development and demonstration of a receiver chain for telecomm and links in space missions including the presence of new short low-density parity-check codes for error correction. These codes have excellent performance from the error rate viewpoint but also put new challenges as regards synchronization issues and implementation. In this paper after a short review of the results obtained through numerical simulations we present an overview of the breadboard designed for practical testing and the test-plan proposed for the verification of the breadboard and the validation of the new codes and novel synchronization techniques under relevant operation conditions.
In this TDP we describe a new tool created for testing the strategy layer of our soccer playing agents. It is a complete 2D simulator that simulates the games based on the decisions of 22 agents. With this tool, debugging the decision and strategy layer of our agents is much more efficient than before due to various interaction methods and complete control over the simulation.
In the future, the tool could also serve as a measure to run simulations of game series much faster than with the 3D simulator. This way, the impact of different play strategies could be evaluated much faster than before.
The design of control systems of concentrator photovoltaic power plants will be more challenging in the future. Reasons are cost pressure, the increasing size of power plants, and new applications for operation, monitoring and maintenance required by grid operators, manufacturers and plant operators. Concepts and products for fixed-mounted photovoltaic can only partly be adapted since control systems for concentrator photovoltaic are considerable more complex due to the required high accurate sun-tracking. In order to assure reliable operation during a lifetime of more than 20 years, robustness of the control system is one crucial design criteria. This work considers common engineering technics for robustness, safety and security. Potential failures of the control system are identified and their effects are analyzed. Different attack scenarios are investigated. Outcomes are design criteria that encounter both: failures of system components and malicious attacks on the control system of future concentrator photovoltaic power plants. Such design criteria are a transparent state management through all system layers, self-tests and update capabilities for security concerns. The findings enable future research to develop a more robust and secure control system for concentrator photovoltaics when implementing new functionalities in the next generation.
The communication system of a large-scale concentrator photovoltaic power plant is very challenging. Manufacturers are building power plants having thousands of sun tracking systems equipped with communication and distributed over a wide area. Research is necessary to build a scalable communication system enabling modern control strategies. This poster abstract describes the ongoing work on the development of a simulation model of such power plants in OMNeT++. The model uses the INET Framework to build a communication network based on Ethernet. First results and problems of timing and data transmission experiments are outlined. The model enables research on new communication and control approaches to improve functionality and efficiency of power plants based on concentrator photovoltaic technology.
In this paper an RFID/NFC (ISO 15693 standard) based inductively powered passive SoC (system on chip) for biomedical applications is presented. A brief overview of the system design, layout techniques and verification method is dis-cussed here. The SoC includes an integrated 32 bit microcontroller, sensor interface circuit, analog to digital converter, integrated RAM, ROM and some other peripherals required for the complete passive operation. The entire chip is realized in CMOS 0.18 μm technology with a chip area of 1.52mm x 3.24 mm.
A new RFID/NFC (ISO 15693 standard) based inductively powered passive SoC (System on chip) for biomedical applications is presented here. The proposed SOC consists of an integrated 32 bit microcontroller, RFID/NFC frontend, sensor interface circuit, analog to digital converter and some peripherals such as timer, SPI interface and memory devices. An energy harvesting unit supplies the power required for the entire system for complete passive operation. The complete chip is realized on CMOS 0.18 μm technology with a chip area of 1.5 mm × 3.0 mm.
In this paper, a complete passive transponder device has been discussed which is meant to monitor leakage in silicone breast implants. The passive tag operates in the HF frequency range of 13.56MHz using RFID ISO 15693 standard. The complete system consists of the transponder, reader and a PC. This paper focusses on the development of such a state of the art passive RFID transponder to monitor the wellness of the silicone breast implants periodically in order to detect leakage in the same. Keyword: RFID (Radio frequency identification device), EM (Electromagnetic) field, Passive Transponder, Silicone breast implants.
High mobility, electrolyte-gated transistors (EGTs) show high DC performance at low voltages (< 2 V). To model those EGTs, we have used different models for the below and the above threshold regime with appropriate interpolation to ensure continuity and smoothness over all regimes. This empirical model matches very well with our measured results obtained by the electrical characterization of EGTs.
Printed electronics offers certain technological advantages over its silicon based counterparts, such as mechanical flexibility, low process temperatures, maskless and additive manufacturing process, leading to extremely low cost manufacturing. However, to be exploited in applications such as smart sensors, Internet of Things and wearables, it is essential that the printed devices operate at low supply voltages. Electrolyte gated field effect transistors (EGFETs) using solution-processed inorganic materials which are fully printed using inkjet printers at low temperatures are very promising candidates to provide such solutions. In this paper, we discuss the technology, process, modeling, fabrication, and design aspect of circuits based on EGFETs. We show how the measurements performed in the lab can accurately be modeled in order to be integrated in the design automation tool flow in the form of a Process Design Kit (PDK). We also review some of the remaining challenges in this technology and discuss our future directions to address them.
Flashcards are a well known and proven method to learn and memorise. Such a way of learning is perfectly suited for “learning on the way,” but carrying all the flashcards could be awkward. In this scenario, a mobile device (mobile phone) is an adequate solution. The new mobile device operating system Android from Google allows for writing multimedia-enriched applications.
The developed solution enables the presentation of animations and 3D virtual reality (VR) on mobile devices and is well suited for mobile learning, thus creating new possibilities in the area of e-learning worldwide. Difficult relations in physics as well as intricate experiments in optics can be visualised on mobile devices without need for a personal computer.
“Today’s network landscape consists of quite different network technologies, wide range of end-devices with large scale of capabilities and power, and immense quantity of information and data represented in different formats” [9]. A lot of efforts are being done in order to establish open, scalable and seamless integration of various technologies and content presentation for different devices including mobile considering individual situation of the end user. This is very difficult because various kinds of devices used by different users or in different times/parallel by the same user which is not predictable and have to be recognized by the system in order to know device capabilities. Not only the devices but also Content and User Interfaces are big issues because they could include different kinds of data format like text, image, audio, video, 3D Virtual Reality data and upcoming other formats. Language Learning Game (LLG) is such an example of a device independent application where different kinds of devices and data formats, as a content of a flashcard is used for a collaborative learning. The idea of this game is to create a short story in a foreign language by using mobile devices. The story is developed by a group of participants by exchanging sentences/data via a flashcard system. This way the participants can learn from each other by knowledge sharing without fear of making mistakes because the group members are anonymous. Moreover they do not need a constant support from a teacher.
Structures for interconnecting active microwave semiconductor-devices, e.g. FET's and MIC's, with the electrical surrounding or with each other have to be designed more and more carefully when increasing the desired upper frequency limit. Therefore, several connecting structures for device embedding have been examined. Mainly, their applicability for the frequency range from 10 GHz to 100 GHz was considered. Additionally, different equivalent circuits were developed to approximately describe their behaviour for CAD-applications.
Mobile learning (m-learning) can be considered as a new paradigm of e-learning. The developed solution enables the presentation of animations and 3D virtual reality (VR) on mobile devices and is well suited for mobile learning. Difficult relations in physics as well as intricate experiments in optics can be visualised on mobile devices without need for a personal computer. By outsourcing the computational power to a server, the coverage is worldwide.
In the brain-cell microenvironment, diffusion plays an important role: apart from delivering glucose and oxygen from the vascular system to brain cells, it also moves informational substances between cells. The brain is an extremely complex structure of interwoven, intercommunicating cells, but recent theoretical and experimental works showed that the classical laws of diffusion, cast in the framework of porous media theory, can deliver an accurate quantitative description of the way molecules are transported through this tissue. The mathematical modeling and the numerical simulations are successfully applied in the investigation of diffusion processes in tissues, replacing the costly laboratory investigations. Nevertheless, modeling must rely on highly accurate information regarding the main parameters (tortuosity, volume fraction) which characterize the tissue, obtained by structural and functional imaging. The usual techniques to measure the diffusion mechanism in brain tissue are the radiotracer method, the real time iontophoretic method and integrative optical imaging using fluorescence microscopy. A promising technique for obtaining the values for characteristic parameters of the transport equation is the direct optical investigation using optical fibers. The analysis of these parameters also reveals how the local geometry of the brain changes with time or under pathological conditions. This paper presents a set of computations concerning the mass transport inside the brain tissue, for different types of cells. By measuring the time evolution of the concentration profile of an injected substance and using suitable fitting procedures, the main parameters characterizing the tissue can be determined. This type of analysis could be an important tool in understanding the functional mechanisms of effective drug delivery in complex structures such as the brain tissue. It also offers possibilities to realize optical imaging methods for in vitro and in vivo measurements using optical fibers. The model also may help in radiotracer biomarker models for the understanding of the mechanism of action of new chemical entities.
Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) with hemodynamic optimized biventricular pacing is an established therapy for heart failure patients with sinus rhythm, reduced left ventricular ejection fraction and wide QRS complex. The aim of the study was to evaluate electrical right and left cardiac atrioventricular delay and left atrial delay in CRT responder and non-responder with sinus rhythm.
Methods: Heart failure patients with New York Heart Association class 3.0 ± 0.3, sinus rhythm and 27.7 ± 6.1% left ventricular ejection fraction were measured by surface ECG and transesophageal bipolar left atrial and left ventricular ECG before implantation of CRT devices. Electrical right cardiac atrioventricular delay was measured between onset of P wave and onset of QRS complex in the surface ECG, left cardiac atrioventricular delay between onset of left atrial signal and onset of left ventricular signal in the transesophageal ECG and left atrial delay between onset and offset of left atrial signal in the transesophageal ECG.
Results: Electrical atrioventricular and left atrial delay were 196.9 ± 38.7 ms right and 194.5 ± 44.9 ms left cardiac atrioventricular delay, and 47.7 ± 13.9 ms left atrial delay. There were positive correlation between right and left cardiac atrioventricular delay (r = 0.803 P < 0.001) and negative correlation between left atrial delay and left ventricular ejection fraction (r = −0.694 P = 0.026) with 67% CRT responder.
Conclusions: Transesophageal electrical left cardiac atrioventricular delay and left atrial delay may be useful preoperative atrial desynchronization parameters to improve CRT optimization.
Gaps in basic math knowledge are among the biggest obstacles to a successful start in university. Students starting their studies in STEM disciplines display significant diversity, “math anxiety” is a widespread phenomenon, and the transition to a self-determined way of studying presents a huge challenge. Universities offer support measures such as preparatory courses. Over the years, Offenburg University realized that with increased diversity, traditional ways of teaching in front of the class have become inefficient. The majority of the students remained inactive and just listened to the teachers’ explanations and the few active participants’ answers.
Since 2013 our new course concept fosters a shift from teaching to active learning on a large scale, involving several hundred participants of our on-site preparatory math courses. This switch to broad active practicing, however, must go hand in hand with providing individual support for an increasingly diverse student body. Meanwhile students bring along their mobile devices, and the training App TeachMatics serves as a facilitator. The course concept has been very well received by both students and teachers.
Existing approaches solving multi-vehicle pickup and delivery problems with soft time windows typically use common benchmark sets to verify their performance. However, there is a gap from these benchmark sets to real world problems with respect to instance size and problem complexity. In this paper we show that a combination of existing approaches together with improved heuristics is able to deal with the instance sizes and complexity of real world problems. The cost savings potential of the heuristics is compared to human dispatching plans generated from the data of a European carrier.
This paper describes the new Sweaty II humanoid adult size robot trying to qualify for the RoboCup 2016 adult size humanoid competition. Based on experiences during RoboCup 2014, the Sweaty robot has been completely redesigned to a new robot Sweaty II. A major change is the use of linear actuators for the legs. Another characteristic is its indirect actuation by means of rods. This allows a variable transmission ratio depending on the angle of a joint.
This paper describes the new Sweaty humanoid adult size robot trying to qualify for the RoboCup 2014 adult size humanoid competition. The robot is built from scratch to eventually allow it to run. One characteristic is that to prevent the motors from overheating, water evaporation is used for cooling. The robot is literally sweating which has given it its name. Another characteristic is, that the motors are not directly connected to the frame but by means of beams. This allows a variable transmission ratio depending on the angle.
This paper describes the Sweaty II humanoid adult size robot trying to qualify for the RoboCup 2017 adult size humanoid competition. Sweaty came 2nd in RoboCup 2016 adult size league. The paper describes the main characteristics of Sweaty that made this success possible, and improvements that have been made or are planned to be implemented for RoboCup 2017.
In their famous work on prospect theory Kahneman and Tversky have presented a couple of examples where human decision making deviates from rational decision making as defined by decision theory. This paper describes the use of extended behavior networks to model human decision making in the sense of prospect theory. We show that the experimental findings of non-rational decision making described by Kahneman and Tversky can be reproduced using a slight variation of extended behavior networks.
In this paper we show that a model-free approach to learn behaviors in joint space can be successfully used to utilize toes of a humanoid robot. Keeping the approach model-free makes it applicable to any kind of humanoid robot, or robot in general. Here we focus on the benefit on robots with toes which is otherwise more difficult to exploit. The task has been to learn different kick behaviors on simulated Nao robots with toes in the RoboCup 3D soccer simulator. As a result, the robot learned to step on its toe for a kick that performs 30% better than learning the same kick without toes.
This paper describes the magmaOffenburg 3D simulation team trying to qualify for RoboCup 2009. It focuses on two distinctive features of the team: decisions making using extended behavior networks and its software architecture and implementation in Java to open the simulation for the Java community.
This paper describes the magmaOffenburg 3D simulation team trying to qualify for RoboCup 2010. While last year’s TDP focused on decisions making using extended behavior networks and on its software architecture and implementation in this year we describe the tool set that was created for RoboCup 3D. It contians a GUI for agent- and world state visualization, for evaluation of localization algorithms and benchmarks in general, a visual editor for Extended Behavior Networks creation and debugging, a live movement tool to interact with the joints and finally a tool for editing behavior motor files.
After having described many different aspects of our team software in previous years, in this paper we take the freedom to describe the magmaChallenge framework provided by the magmaOffenburg team. The framework is used as a benchmark tool to run different challenges like the running challenge in 2014 or the kick accuracy challenge in 2015. This description should serve as a documentation to simplify the maintenance by the community and to add new benchmarks in the future.
This paper describes the magmaOffenburg 3D simulation team trying to qualify for RoboCup 2012. While last year’s TDP focused on the tool set created for 3D simulation and the support for heterogeneous robot models, this year we focus on the different ways how robot behavior can be defined in the magmaOffenburg framework and how those behaviors can be improved by learning.
This paper describes the magmaOffenburg 3D simulation team trying to qualify for RoboCup 2013. While last year’s TDP focused on different ways how robot behavior can be defined in the magmaOffenburg framework this year we focus on how we statistically evaluate new features on distributed systems. We also show some results gained through such analysis.
This paper describes the magmaOffenburg 3D simulation team trying to qualify for RoboCup 2011. While last year’s TDP focused on the tool set created for 3D simulation in this year we describe the further improvement in this tools as well as some new features we implemented focusing on heterogeneous robot models which seem to be used in RoboCup 2012.
An additional tool was written to simply generate situation-dependent strategies. Furthermore some tools, described last year, are now integrated in one single GUI to easy things up.
In previous work we [1] and other authors (e.g. [2]) have shown that agent-based systems are successful in optimizing delivery plans of single logistics companies and are meanwhile successfully productive in industry. In this paper we show that agent-based systems are particularly useful to also optimize transport across logistics companies. In intercompany optimization, privacy is of major importance between the otherwise competing companies. Some data has to be treated strictly private like the cost model or the constraint model. Other data like order information has to be shared. However, typically the amount of orders released to other companies has also to be limited. We show that our agent-based approach can be easily fine tuned to trade off privacy against the benefit of cooperation.
Introduction: Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) with biventricular (BV) pacing is an established therapy for heart failure (HF) patients with ventricular desynchronization and reduced left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction. The aim of this study was to evaluate electrical ventricular desynchronization with transthoracic and transesophageal signal averaging electrocardiography in HF, to better select patients for CRT.
Methods: 13 HF patients (age 68 ± 10 years; 2 females, 11 males) with New York Heart Association (NYHA) class 2.8 ± 0.5, 28.6 ± 12.6 % LV ejection fraction and 155 ± 24 ms QRS duration (QRSD) were analysed with transthoracic and transesophageal electrocardiogram recording and novel National Intruments LabView 2009 signal averaging software. Esophageal TO Osypka catheter was perorally applied to the esophagus and placed in the position of maximum LV de-flection. The 0.05-Hz high-pass filtered surface electrocardiogram and the 10-Hz high-pass filtered bipolar transesophageal electrocardiogram were recorded with Bard EP-System and 1000-Hz sampling rate.
Results: Transesophageal LV electrogram recording was possible in all HF patients (n=13). Transesophageal interventricular conduction delay (IVCD) was 51 ± 19 ms and measured between the earliest onset of QRS in the 12-channel surface electrocardiogram and the onset of the LV deflection in the transesophageal electrocardiogram. Transesophageal intra-left ventricular delay (LVCD) was 90 ± 16 ms and measured between the onset and offset of the LV deflection in the transesophageal electrocardiogram. QRSD to transesophageal IVCD ratio was 3.43 ± 1.31 ms, QRSD to transesophageal LVCD ratio was 1.75 ± 0.28 ms and QRSD was evaluated between onset and offset of QRS signal in the 12-channel surface electrocardiogram.
Conclusion: Determination of IVCD, LVCD, QRSD-to-IVCD-ratio and QRSD-to-LVCD-ratio by transesophageal LV electrogram recording with LabView 2009 signal averaging technique may be useful parameters of ventricular desynchronisation to improve patient selection for CRT.
IPv6 over resource-constrained devices (6Lo) emerged as a de-facto standard for the Internet of Things (IoT) applications especially in home and building automation systems. We provide results of an investigation of the applicability of 6LoWPAN with RPL mesh networks for home and building automation use cases. The proper selection of Trickle parameters and neighbor reachable time-outs is important in the RPL protocol suite to respond efficiently to any path failure. These parameters were analyzed in the context of energy consumption w.r.t the number of control packets. The measurements were performed in an Automated Physical Testbeds (APTB). The results match the recommendation by RFC 7733 for selecting various parameters of RPL protocol suite. This paper shows the relationship between various RPL parameters and control traffic overhead during network rebuild. Comparative measurement results with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) in this work showed that 6Lo with RPL outperformed BLE in this use case with less control traffic overheads.
Printed Electronics (PE) is a promising technology that provides mechanical flexibility and low-cost fabrication. These features make PE the key enabler for emerging applications, such as smart sensors, wearables, and Internet of Things (IoTs). Since these applications need secure communication and/or authentication, it is vital to utilize security primitives for cryptographic key and identification. Physical Unclonable Functions (PUF) have been adopted widely to provide the secure keys. In this work, we present a weak PUF based on Electrolyte-gated FETs using inorganic inkjet printed electronics. A comprehensive analysis framework including Monte Carlo simulations based on real device measurements is developed to evaluate the proposed PE-PUF. Moreover, a multi-bit PE-PUF design is proposed to optimize area usage. The analysis results show that the PE-PUF has ideal uniqueness, good reliability, and can operates at low voltage which is critical for low-power PE applications. In addition, the proposed multi-bit PE-PUF reduces the area usage around 30%.
This paper presents an enhancement on QPSK modulation technique for near field communication (NFC). The enhanced modulation is based on continuous-phase QPSK with Gaussian filtering during switch from one phase to the other. Signal processing is done digitally with minimum external discrete components for air interface. The telemetry system can be used to assist a smart capsule (slave) that can be swallowed to establish data communication with external device (master). The system is designed, simulated, and emulated on FPGA showing 20 dB attenuation on side-lobes of the spectrum.
A new miniaturized capsule with 32bit processor and bidirectional communication system is being developed for multitask application. The capsule is designed to be a platform for medical assistant application inside the body. The processor core SIRIUS has been developed, simulated, synthesized to a netlist and verified. The designed telemetry unit is a synchronous bidirectional communication block using continuous phase DQPSK of 115 kHz low carrier frequency for inductive data transmission suited for human body energy transfer. The communication system can assist the electronic pill to trigger an actuator for drug delivery, to record temperature, or to measure pH of the body. The complete system is designed to fit small-size mass medical application with low power consumption, size of 7x25 mm. The system is designed, simulated, emulated on FPGA, and routed in AMIS Technology.
Electronic pills, smart capsules or miniaturized microsystems swallowed by human beings or animals for various biomedical and diagnostic applications are growing rapidly in the last years. This paper searched out the important existing electronic pills in the market and prototypes in research centers. Further objective of this research is to develop a technology platform with enhanced feature to cover the drawback of most
capsules. The designed telemetry unit is a synchronous bidirectional communication block using continuous phase DQPSK of 115 kHz low carrier frequency for inductive data transmission suited for human body energy transfer. The communication system can assist the electronic pill to trigger an actuator for drug delivery, to record temperature, or to measure pH of the body. It consists additionally to a 32bit processor, memory, external peripheries, and detection facility. The complete system is designed to fit small-size mass medical application with low power consumption, size of 7x25mm. The system is designed, simulated and emulated on FPGA.
A new electronic capsule with bidirectional communication system is being developed for multi-task application. The capsule is designed to be a platform for medical assistant application inside the body. The designed telemetry unit is a synchronous bidirectional communication block using continuous phase DQPSK of 115 kHz low carrier frequency for inductive data transmission suited for human body energy transfer. The communication system can assist the electronic pill to trigger an actuator for drug delivery, to record temperature, or to measure pH of the body. It consists additionally to a 32bit processor, memory, external peripheries, and detection facility. The complete system is designed to fit small-size mass medical application with low power consumption, size of 7x25mm. The system is designed, simulated and emulated on FPGA. A final layout of the complete chip design is still under progress.
A new approach of continuous phase QPSK Band-Pass modulation technique is being developed as enhancement to the QPSK modulation scheme for inductive data transmission (NFC). The modulation is based on Gaussian filtering of the phase transition from one state to the other rather than discontinuity in phase shift. The carrier is based on low frequency 115 KHz suitable for human body energy penetration due to its large skin-depth and lower inductive power attenuation. The complete signal processing is done digitally, external coil and capacitor is used for transceiver interface. The telemetry assists a smart pill swallowed by human being to trigger an actuator for drug delivery, record temperature, or perform diagnostic task inside the body. The smart pill includes 32bit processor, 16 Kbyte memory, temperature sensor, telemetry unit, and additional external peripheries. The complete system is designed, embedded in one SoC, and realized on ASIC with chip-area less than 14 mm<sup>2</sup>.
Nowadays the processing power of mobile phones, Smart phones and PDA is increasing, as well as the transmission bandwidth. Nevertheless there is still the need to reduce the content and the need of processing the data. Proposals and solutions for dynamic reduction of the transmitted content will be discussed. For that, device specific properties will be taken into account, aiming at reducing the need of processing power at the client side to display the 3D Virtual Reality data. Therefore, well known technologies like data compression are combined with new approaches to achieve the goal of adaptive content transmission. For device dependant reduction of processing power the data has to be pre-processed at the server side or the server itself has to take over functionality of weak mobile devices.
Nowadays the processing power of mobile phones, smartphones and PDAs is increasing as well as the transmission bandwidth. Nevertheless there is still the need to reduce the content and the need of processing the data. We discuss the proposals and solutions for dynamic reduction of the transmitted content. For that, device specific properties are taken into account, as much as for the aim to reduce the need of processing power at the client side to be able to display the 3D (virtual reality) data. Therefore, well known technologies, e.g. data compression are combined with new developed ideas to reach the goal of adaptive content transmission. To achieve a device dependant reduction of processing power the data have to be preprocessed at the server side or the server even has to take over functionality of weak mobile devices.
This paper shows the results of the evaluation of two sets of mobile web design guidelines concerning mobile learning. The first set of guidelines is concerned with the usage of text on mobile device screens. The second set is concerned with the usage of images on mobile devices. The evaluation is performed by eye tracking (objective) as well as questionnaires and interviews (subjective) respectively.
The iSign project started in 2000 as a web-based laboratory setting for students of electrical engineering. In the meantime it has broadened into a heterogeneous learning environment offering learning material, adaptive user settings and access to a simulation tool. All these offerings can be accessed via web and wireless by different clients, such as PCs, PDAs and mobile phones. User adaptive systems offer unique and personalised environment for every learner and therefore are a very important aspect of modern e-learning systems. The iSign project aims to personalise the content structure based on the learner's behaviour, content pattern, policies, and system environment. The second aspect of the recent research and development within this project is the generation of suitable content and presentation for different clients. This generation is based additionally on the user preferences in order to obtain the desirable presentation for a given device. New, valuable features are added to the mobile application, empowering the user not only to control the simulation process with his mobile device but also to input data, view the simulation's output and evaluate the results. Experiences with students have helped to improve functionality and look-and-feel whilst using the iSign system. Our goal is to provide unconstrained, continuous and personalised access to the laboratory settings and learning material everywhere and at anytime with different devices.
The idea of this game is to use a flashcard system to create a short story in a foreign language. The story is developed by a group of people by exchanging sentences via a flashcard system. This way, people can learn from each other without fear of making mistakes because the group members are anonymous.
This paper analyzes the applicability of existing communication technology on the Smart Grid. In particular it evaluates how networks, e.g. Peer-to-Peer (P2P) and decentralized Virtual Private Network (VPN) can help set up an agent-based system. It is expected that applications on Smart Grid devices will become more powerful and be able to operate without a central control instance. We analyze which requirements agents and Smart Grid devices place on communication systems and validate promising approaches. The main focus is to create a logical overlay network that provides direct communication between network nodes. We provide a comparison of different approaches of P2P networks and mesh-VPNs. Finally the advantages of mesh-VPN for agent-based systems are worked out.
Learning to Walk With Toes
(2020)
This paper explains how a model-free (with respect to the robot model and the behavior to learn) approach can facilitate learning to walk from scratch. It is applied to a simulated Nao robot with toes. Results show an improvement of 30% in speed compared to a model without toes and also compared to our model-based approach, but with less stability.
This paper treats the Brillouin backscattering in a single mode optical fiber and its implications on the Brillouin Ring Laser Gyroscope (BRLG). The BRLG consists of a fiber ring cavity in which stimulated Brillouin scattering is induced and provides two resonant counterpropagating backscattered waves. If this cavity is rotating around its axis, the backscattered waves get different resonant frequencies because of the Sagnac effect. The frequency difference is proportional to the rotation rate (Omega) by inducing a frequency offset between the counterpropagating waves. Some reported Brillouin spectra exhibit several peaks, which means that one pump wave provides at least two backscattered waves with distinguishable frequencies. In order to understand this multi-backscattering and to take advantage of it for the BRLG, we present results of a simulation of the Brillouin backscattering in a single mode optical fiber.
In this paper we propose a motion framework forbipedal robots that decouples motion definitions from stabilizingthe robot. This simplifies motion definitions yet allows dynamicmotion adaptations. Two applications, walking and stopping onone leg, demonstrate the power of the framework. We show thatour framework is able to perform walking and stopping on one legeven under extreme conditions and improves walking benchmarkssignificantly in the RoboCup 3D soccer simulation domain.
The aim of this research work was to develop a boiler model with few parameters required for energy planning. The showcase considered for this work was the boiler system of the energy center at Offenburg University of Applied Sciences. A grey box model of the boiler was developed systematically starting from model abstraction, simplification, model break-down and to the use of empirical correlations wherever necessary to describe the intermediate effects along with the use of information from manufacturer’s specification in order to reduce parameters. This strategy had resulted in a boiler model with only 6 parameters, namely, nominal burner capacity, water gallery capacity, air ratio, heat capacity of wall, thermal conductance on flue gas and hot water side. Most of these parameters can be obtained through the information available in the spec sheets and thus an energy planner will be able to parameterize the model with low effort. The model was validated with the monitored data of the showcase. It was tested for the start-up, shut-down behavior and the effect of storage.
This paper investigates the maximum torque capability and torque ripple reduction using the asymmetric stator teeth for interior permanence magnet (IPM) synchronous machines. Traditional electric machines have the identical width for all stator teeth and the winding function is fixed. Using different widths for different stator teeth changes the winding function, therefore, the torque ripple components. The mathematical modeling of interior permanent magnet (IPM) synchronous machine torque ripple and finite element analysis simulation results for the characteristic properties of electric machines are presented. Compared with a similar rating IPM machine, certain combinations of the teeth widths can reduce the torque ripple by 80% with less than 4% average torque decline.
This paper discusses a technological solution to real-time road transportation optimization using a commercial multi-agent based system, LS/ATN, which has been proven through real-world deployment to reduce transportation costs for both small and large fleets in the full and part load business. Subsequent to describing the real-time optimization approach, we discuss how the platform is currently evolving to accept live data from vehicles in the fleet in order to improve optimization accuracy. A selection of the predominant pervasive technologies available today for enhancing intelligent route optimization is described.
Special implant connection module was developed to combine full features of two commercial heart rhythm simulators, ARSI-4 and Intersim II, into a master-slave teaching system. Seven workstations were equipped with the Carelink and Homemonitoring remote patient monitoring systems. This combination enables in-vitro training of physicians, nurses and students in pace-maker and defibrillator measurements during implantation and individual programming in the follow-up. Thus, extended sets of arrhythmias and electrode problems can be used to simulate problems and their solutions in a wide range of the clinical routine.
Introduction: Despite lots of developments in the last years, radiofrequency ablation of rhythm diseases is a safe but still complex procedure that requires special experience and expertise of the physicians and biomedical engineers. Thus, there is a need of special trainings to become familiar with the different equipment and to explain several effects that can be observed during clinical routine.
Methods: The Offenburg University of Applied Sciences offers a biomedical engineering study path specialized in the fields of cardiology, electrophysiology and cardiac electronic implants. It`s Peter Osypka Institute for Pacing and Ablation provides teaching following the slogan “Learning by watching, touching and adjusting”. It conducts lots of trainings for students as well as young physicians interested in electrophysiology and radiofrequency ablation.
Results: In-vitro trainings will be provided using the Osypka HAT 200 and HAT300s, Stockert EPshuttle and SmartAblate system as well as the Boston EPT-1000XP and Maestro 3000 and the Radionics RFG-3E cardiac radio frequency ablation generators. All of them require different handling as well as special accessories like catheter connection cables or boxes and back plates. The participants will be trained in the setup of temperature, power and cut-off impedance dependent on different ablation catheters. Furthermore troubleshooting in hard- and software is part of the program. Performing procedures in pork or animal protein and using physiological saline solution to simulate the blood flow, they can study the influence of contact force and impedance on lesion geometry etc. and to avoid adverse effects like “plops”. Lots of catheter types are available: 4mm tip, 8mm standard and gold tip, open and closed irrigated tip ablation catheters of different companies. The experiments will be completed by measuring the lesion size dependent on the used catheter type and ablation settings.
Conclusion: In-vitro training in radiofrequency ablation is a challenge for biomedical engineering students and young physicians.
Introduction: Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) with biventricular (BV) pacing is an established therapy for heart failure (HF) patients with ventricular desynchronisation and reduced left ventricular (LV) function. The aim of this study was to evaluate preejection period (PEP) and left ventricular ejection time (LVET) with transthoracic signal averaging impedance and electrocardiography in HF patients with and without BV pacing.
Methods: 10 HF patients (age 68.9 ± 8 years; 2 females, 9 males) with New York Heart Association (NYHA) class 2,9 ± 0.5, 30.9 ± 10.5 % LV ejection fraction and 159.4 ± 22.9 ms QRS duration were analysed with transthoracic impedance and electrocardiography (Cardioscreen Medis, Ilmenau, Germany) and novel National Intruments LabView 2009 signal averaging software. One day after BV pacing device implantation, AV and VV delays were optimized by transthoracic impedance cardiography and stroke volume (SV) and cardiac output (CO) were gained by Cardioscreen.
Results: Transthoracic impedance and electrocardiography AV and VV delay opimization was possible in all HF patients with BV pacing devices (n= 10). PEP was 154 ± 24ms without BV pacing and measured between onset of QRS in the surface electrocardiogram and onset of ventricular deflection in the impedance cardiogram. LVET was 342 ± 65ms without BV pacing and measured between onset and offset of ventricular deflection in the impedance cardiogram. The use of optimal AV and VV delay BV pacing resulted in improvement of SV from 64.1 ± 26.5 ml to 94.1 ± 33.96 ml (P < 0.05) and CO from 4.05 ± 1.36 l/min to 6.44 ± 1.56 l/min (P < 0.05).
Conclusion: PEP and LVET may be useful parameters of ventricular Desynchronisation. AV and VV delay optimized BV pacing improve SV and CO. Impedance and electrocardiography with LabView 2009 signal averaging may be a simple and useful technique to optimize CRT.
Introduction: Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) with biventricular pacing is an established therapy for heart failure (HF) patients with sinus rhythm and ventricular desynchronisation. The aim of this study was to evaluate interventricular conduction delay (IVCD) and interatrial conduction delay (IACD) before and after premature ventricular contractions (PVC) in HF patients.
Methods: 13 HF patients (age 68 ± 10 years; 2 females, 11 males) with New York Heart Association functional class 2,8 ± 0.5, left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction 28,6 ± 12,6 %, 154 ± 25 ms QRS duration and PVC were analysed with bipolar transesophageal LV and left atrial electrogram recording and National Instruments LabView 2009 software. The level of significance of the t-test is 0,005.
Results: QRS duration increases during PVC (188 ± 32 ms) in comparison to the beat before (154 ± 25 ms, P = ) and after PVC (152 ± 25 ms,). IVCD increases during PVC up to 65 ± 33 ms (51 ± 19 ms in the beat before PVC, P=0.18, 49 ± 19 ms after PVC, P = 0.12). Intra-LV delay of 90 ± 16 ms is not different in the beat before PVC, 90 ± 14 ms during PVC (P = 0.99) and 94 ± 16 ms in the beat after PVC (P = 0.38). IACD is not significantly PVC influenced (67 ± 12 ms before PVC and 65 ± 13 ms after PVC, P = 0.71). Intra-left atrial conduction delay is not significant longer during PVC (57 ± 28 ms) than in the beat before PVC (54 ± 13 ms, P = 0.51) or after PVC (54 ± 8 ms, P = 0.45). PQ duration increases significantly after PVC (224 ± 95 ms) in comparison to the beat before PVC (176± 29 ms, P =...).
Conclusion: Transesophageal left cardiac electrocardiography with LabView 2009 software can improve evaluation of IVCD and IACD before, during and after PVC in HF patient selection for CRT.
Android is an operating system which was developed for use in smart mobile phones and is the current leader in this market. A lot of efforts are being spent to make Android available to the embedded world, as well. Many embedded systems do not have a local GUI and are therefore called headless devices. This paper presents the results of an analysis of the general suitability of Anroid in headless embedded systems and ponders the advantages and disadvantages. It focuses on the hardware related issues, i.e. to what extent Android supports hardware peripherals normally used in embedded systems.
Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) is an established class I level A biventricular pacing therapy in chronic heart failure patients with left bundle branch block and reduced left ventricular ejection fraction, but not all patients improved clinically. Purpose of the study was to evaluate electrical interatrial conduction delay (IACD) to interventricular conduction delay (IVCD) ratio with focused transesophageal left atrial and left ventricular electrocardiography.
Methods: Thirty eight chronic heart failure patients (age 63.4±10.2 years; 3 females, 35 males) with New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional class 3.0±0.2 and 171.71±36.17ms QRS duration were analysed using posterior left atrial and left ventricular transesophageal electrocardiography with hemispherical electrodes before CRT. Electrical IACD was measured between onset of P-wave in the surface ECG and onset of left atrial signal. Electrical IVCD was measured between onset of QRS complex in the surface ECG and onset of left ventricular signal.
Results: Electrical IACD and IVCD could be evaluated by transesophageal left atrial and left ventricular electrocardiography in all heart failure patients with correlation to 1.18±0.92 IACD-IVCD-ratio (r=-0.57, P<0.001; r=0.66, P<0.001). There were 32 CRT responder with reduction of NYHA class from 3.0±0.22 to 1.97±0.31 (P<0.001) during 16.5±18.9 month CRT with 75.19±33.49ms IACD, 78.91±24.73ms IVCD, 1.04±0.66 IACD-IVCD-ratio and correlation between IACD and IACDIVCD- ratio (r=0.84, P<0.001). There were 6 CRT nonresponder with no reduction of NYHA class from 3.0±0.3 to 2.9±0.5 during 14.3±13.7 month biventricular pacing, 50.0±28.26ms IVCD (P=0.014), 1.92±1.65 IACD-IVCD-ratio (P=0,029) and correlation between 67.0±24.9ms IACD and IACD-IVCD-ratio (r=0.85, P=0.031).
Conclusions: Focused transesophageal left atrial and left ventricular electrocardiography can be utilized to analyse electrical IACD and IVCD in heart failure patients. IACDIVDC- ratio may be a useful parameter to evaluate electrical left cardiac desynchronization in heart failure patients.
Cardiac resynchronization therapy is an established therapy for heart failure patients with sinus rhythm, reduced left ventricular ejection fraction and prolongation of QRS duration. The aim of the study was to evaluate ventricular desynchronization with electrical interventricular delay (IVD) to left ventricular delay (LVD) ratio in atrial fibrillation heart failure patients. IVD and LVD were measured by transesophageal posterior left ventricular ECG recording. In atrial fibrillation heart failure patients with prolonged QRS duration, the mean IVD-to-LVD-ratio was 0.84 +/- 0.42 with a range from 0.17 to 2.2 IVD-to-LVD-ratio. IVD-to-LVD-ratio correlated with QRS duration. IVD-to-LVD-ratio may be a useful parameter to evaluate electrical ventricular desynchronization in atrial fibrillation heart failure patients.
Background: Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) with biventricular (BV) pacing is an established therapy for heart failure (HF) patients (P) with sinus rhythm, reduced left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction (EF) and electrical ventricular desynchronization. The aim of the study was to evaluate electrical interventricular delay (IVD) and left ventricular delay (LVD) in right ventricular (RV) pacemaker pacing before upgrading to CRT BV pacing.
Methods: HF P (n=11, age 69.0 ± 7.9 years, 1 female, 10 males) with DDD pacemaker (n=10), DDD defibrillator (n=1), RV pacing, New York Heart Association (NYHA) class 3.0 ± 0.2 and 24.5 ± 4.9 % LVEF were measured by surface ECG and transesophageal bipolar LV ECG before upgrading to CRT defibrillator (n=8) and CRT pacemaker (n=3). IVD was measured between onset of QRS in the surface ECG and onset of LV signal in the transesophageal ECG. LVD was measured between onset and offset of LV signal in the transesophageal ECG. CRT atrioventricular (AV) and BV pacing delay were optimized by impedance cardiography.
Results: Interventricular and intraventricular desynchronization in RV pacemaker pacing were 228.2 ± 44.8 ms QRS duration, 86.5 ± 32.8ms IVD, 94.4 ± 23.8ms LVD, 2.6 ± 0.8 QRS-IVD-ratio with correlation between IVD and QRS-IVD-ratio (r=-0.668 P=0.0248) and 2.3 ± 0.7 QRS-LVD-ratio. The LVEF-IVD-ratio was 0.3 ± 0.1 with correlation between IVD and LVEF-IVD-ratio (r=-0.8063 P=0.00272) and with correlation between QRS duration and LVEF-IVD-ratio (r=-0.7251 P=0.01157). Optimal sensing and pacing AV delay were 128.3 ± 24.8 ms AV delay after atrial sensing (n=6) and 173.3 ± 40.4 ms AV delay after atrial pacing (n=3). Optimal BV pacing delay was -4.3 ± 11.3 ms between LV and RV pacing (n=7). During 30.4 ± 29.6 month CRT follow-up, the NYHA class improved from 3.1 ± 0.2 to 2.2 ± 0.3.
Conclusions: Transesophageal electrical IVD and LVD in RV pacemaker pacing may be additional useful ventricular desynchronization parameters to improve P selection for upgrading RV pacemaker pacing to CRT BV pacing.
Cardiac resynchronization therapy with atrioventricular and interventricular pacing delay optimized biventricular pacing is an established therapy for heart failure patients with sinus rhythm and reduced left ventricular ejection fraction. The aim of the study was to evaluate atrioventricular and interventricular pacing delay optimization in cardiac resynchroniza-tion therapy by transthoracic impedance cardiography in biventricular pacing with different left ventricular electrode po-sition. In biventricular pacing heart failure patients with lateral, posterolateral and anterolateral left ventricular electrode position, the mean optimal atrioventricular sening delay was 108.6 ± 20.3 ms and the mean optimal interventricular pac-ing delay -12.3 ± 25.9 ms. Transthoracic impedance cardiography may be a useful technique to optimize atrioventricular and interventricular pacing delay in biventricular pacing with different left ventricular electrode position.
Termination of atrial flutter (AFL) is not possible in all AFL patients (P) with transesophageal left atrial pacing (TLAP) with undirected electrical pacing field (EPF) and high atrial pacing threshold. Purpose of the study was to evaluate bipo-lar transesophageal left atrial electrocardiography (TLAE) and TLAP with directed EPF for evaluation and termination of AFL with and without simultaneous transesophageal echocardiography (TEE).
Methods: AFL P were analysed using either a TO electrode with one cylindrical (CE) and three or seven hemispherical electrodes (HE) or TEE electrode with four HE (Osypka, Rheinfelden, Germany). Burst TLAP cycle length was between 200msand 50ms.
Results: AFL cycle length was 233±30 ms with mean ventricular cycle length of 540±149 ms. AFL could be terminated by rapid bipolar TLAP with directed EPF using HE-HE and CE-HE with induction of atrial fibrillation (AF), induction of AF and spontaneous conversion to sinus rhythm and direct conversion to sinus rhythm. Directed EPF was simulated with finite element method.
Conclusions: AFL can be evaluated by bipolar TLAE. AFL can be terminated with rapid TLAP with directed EPF with and without simultaneous TEE. Bipolar TLAE with rapid TLAP is a safe, simple and useful method for evaluation and termination of AFL.
Cardiac resynchronisation therapy (CRT) with biventricular pacing (BV) is an established therapy for heart failure (HF) patients with interventricular conduction delay (IVCD). The aim of the study was to evaluate transesophageal IVCD and left ventricular (LV) pacing with directed electrical pacing field (EPF) in HF patients.
Methods: HF patients were analysed with bipolar transesophageal LV electrocardiogram recording and LV pacing with constant voltage stimulus output, 4 ms stimulus duration, distal cylindrical electrode (CE) and seven 6 mm hemispherical electrodes (HE) with 15 mm electrode distance (TO, Dr. Osypka, Rheinfelden, Germany).
Results: LV electrocardiogram recording with HE-HE and CE-HE evaluated a mean IVCD of 79.9 ± 36.7 ms. Directed EPF with CE-HE and HE-HE allowed LV VAT (n=12) and LV D00 pacing (n=5) with a mean effective capture output of 97.35 ± 6.64 V. In 15 responders with IVCD of 87 ± 33 ms arterial pulse pressure (PP) increased from 65 ± 24 mmHg to 79 ± 27 mmHg (p < 0.001). EPF was simulated with finite element method.
Conclusions: Transesophageal LV electrocardiography and directed EPF pacing with CE and HE allowed the evaluation of IVCD and PP to select patients for BV pacing.
Introduction: Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) with biventricular pacing (BV) is an established therapy for heart failure (HF) patients (P) with ventricular desynchronisation, but not all patients improved clinically. Aim of this study was to evaluate electrical intra-left ventricular conduction delay (LVCD) and interventricular conduction delay (IVCD), to better select patients for CRT.
Methods: 65 HF patients (age 63.4 ± 10.6 years; 7 females, 58 males) with New York Heart Association (NYHA) class 3 ± 0.2, 24.4 ± 6.7 % left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction and 167.4 ± 35.6 ms QRSD were included. Esophageal TO Osypka focused hemispherical electrodes catheter was perorally applied in position of maximum LV deflection to measure LVCD between onset and offset of LV deflection and IVCD between earliest onset of QRS in the 12-channel surface ECG and onset of LV deflection in the focused bipolar transesophageal LV electrogram.
Results: There were 50 responders with LVCD of 76.5 ± 20.4 ms, IVCD of 80.5 ± 26.1 ms (P=0.34) and QRSD of 171 ± 37.7 ms. 15 non-responders had longer LVCD of 90 ± 28.5 ms (P = 0.045), shorter IVCD of 50.1 ± 29.1 ms (P < 0.001) and QRSD of 155.3 ± 25 ms (P=0.14). During 21.3 ± 20.3 month BV pacing follow-up, the responder`s NYHA classes improved from 3 ± 0.2 to 2. ± 0.3 (P < 0.001) whereas the non-responders NYHA classes did not improve from 3 ± 0.2 to 2.9 ± 0.3 (P = 0.43) during 15.7 ± 13.9 month BV pacing follow-up (53 Boston, 10 Medtronic and 2 St. Jude CRT devices).
Conclusion: Determination of electrical LVCD and IVCD by focused bipolar transesophageal LV electrogram recording may be an additional useful technique to improve patient selection for CRT.
Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) with biventricular (BV) pacing is an established therapy in approximately two-thirds of symptomatic heart failure (HF) patients (P) with left bundle branch block (LBBB). The aim of this study was to evaluate left atrial (LA) conduction delay (LACD) and left ventricular (LV) conduction delay (LVCD) using pre-implantational transesophageal electrocardiography (ECG) in sinus rhythm (SR) CRT responder (R) and non-responder (NR).
Methods: SR HF P (n=52, age 63.6±10.4 years; 6 females, 46 males) with New York Heart Association (NYHA) class 3.0±0.2, 24.4±7.1 % LV ejection fraction and 171.2±37.6 ms QRS duration (QRSD) were measured by bipolar filtered transesophageal LA and LV ECG recording with hemispherical electrodes (HE) TO catheter (Osypka AG, Rheinfelden, Germany). LACD was measured between onset of P-wave in the surface ECG and onset of LA deflection in the LA ECG. LVCD was measured between onset of QRS in the surface ECG and onset of LV deflection in the LV ECG.
Results: There were 78.8 % SR CRT R (n=41) with 171.2±36.9 ms QRSD, 73.3±25.7 ms LACD, 80.0±24.0 ms LVCD and 2.3±0.5 QRSD-LVCD-ratio. SR CRT R QRSD correlated with LACD (r=0.688, P<0.001) and LVCD (r=0.699, P<0.001). There were 21.2 % SR CRT NR (n=11) with 153.4±22.4 ms QRSD (P=0.133), 69.8±24.8 ms LACD (n=6, P=0.767), 54.2±31.0 ms LVCD (P<0.0046) and 3.9±2.5 QRSD-LVCD-ratio (P<0.001). SR CRT NR QRSD not corre-lated with IACD (r=-0.218, P=0.678) and IVCD (r=0.042, P=0.903). During a 22.8±21.3 month CRT follow-up, the CRT R NYHA class improved from 3.1±0.3 to 1.9±0.3 (P<0.001). In CRT NR, NYHA class not improved (2.9±0.4 to 2.9±0.2, P=1) during 11.2±9.8 months BV pacing.
Conclusions: Transesophageal LA and LV ECG with HE can be utilized to analyse LACD and LVCD in HF P. Pre-implantational LVCD and QRSD-LVCD-ratio may be additional useful parameters to improve P selection for SR CRT.
Capture threshold (CT) for transesophageal left atrial (LA) pacing (TLAP) and transesophageal left ventricular (LV) pacing (TLVP) with conventional cylindrical electrodes (CE) are higher than TLAP feeling threshold (FT). Purpose of the study was to evaluate focused TLAP CT and FT for supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) initiation and focused TLVP CT for cardiac resynchronisation therapy (CRT) simulation.
Methods: SVT initiation in patients (P) with palpitations (n=49, age 47 ± 17 years) was analysed during spontaneous rhythm and during focused bipolar TLAP with atrial constant current stimulus output, distal CE and three or seven 6 mm hemispherical electrodes (HE) (TO, Osypka AG, Rheinfelden, Germany). CRT simulation in heart failure P (n=75, age 62 ± 11 years) was evaluated by focused bipolar TLAP and/or TLVP with ventricular constant voltage stimulus output and different pacing mode.
Results: Focused electrical pacing field between CE and HE (n=28) allowed low threshold TLAP with 8.0 ± 2.6 mA CT at 9.9 ms stimulus duration (SD) which was lower than 9.2 ± 4.5 mA FT at 9.9 ms SD. Focused electrical pacing field between HE and HE (n=21) allowed low threshold TLAP with 8.1 ± 2.2 mA CT at 9.9 ms SD which was lower than 9.8 ± 5.0 mA FT at 9.9 ms SD. SVT initiation by programmed AAI TLAP was possible in 23 P and not possible in 26 P. CRT simulation was evaluated with TLAP and TLVP with VAT, D00 and V00 pacing mode and 95.5 ± 10.9 V TLVP CT at 4.0 ms SD.
Conclusions: Programmed focused AAI TLAP allowed initiation of SVT with very low CT and high FT and focused electrical pacing field between CE-HE and HE-HE.CRT simulation with focused TLAP and/or TLVP with VAT, D00 and V00 pacing mode may be a useful technique to detect responders to CRT.
Introduction: Cardiac resynchronisation therapy (CRT) with atrioventricular (AV) and interventricular (VV) optimized biventricular pacing (BV) is an established therapy for heart failure (HF) patients. The aim of the study was to compare AV and VV delay optimization with cardiac output (CO), cardiac index (CI), contractility index (IC) and acceleration index (ACI) impedance cardiographic (ICG) methods in CRT.
Methods: 15 HF patients (age 66 ± 10 years; 2 females, 13 males) in New York Heart Association (NYHA) class 3.1 ± 0.4, left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction 21.3 ± 7.8 % and QRS duration 176.1 ± 31.7 ms underwent AV and VV delay optimization with CO, CI, IC and ACI (Cardioscreen ®, Medis GmbH, Ilmenau, Germany) at different AV and VV delay BV pacing settings versus right ventricular (RV) pacing one day after implantation of a CRT device.
Results: Optimal AV delay after atrial sensing was 108.6 ± 20.3 ms (n=14) and optimal AV delay after atrial pacing 190 ± 14.1 ms (n=2) with AV delay range from 80 ms to 200 ms. Optimal VV delay was -12.3 ± 25.9 ms left ventricular before RV pacing. RV versus BV pacing mode resulted in improvement of CO from 3.4 ± 1.2 l/min to 4.4 ± 1.4 l/min (p<0.001), CI from 1.8 ± 0.64 l/min/m² to 2.4 ± 0.78 l/min/m² (p<0.001), IC from 0.028 ± 0.011 1/s to 0.036 ± 0.013 1/s (p<0.001) and ACI from 0.667 ± 0.227 1/s² to 0.834 ± 0.282 1/s² (p<0.002). During 34 ± 26 month BV pacing, the NYHA class improved from 3.1 ± 0.4 to 2.1 ± 0.4 (p<0.001).
Conclusion: AV and VV delay optimized BV pacing acutely improve hemodynamic parameters of transthoracic ICG and their NYHA class during long-term follow-up. ICG may be a simple and useful technique to optimize AV and VV delay in CRT.
Introduction: Cardiac resynchronisation therapy (CRT) with atrioventricular (AV) and interventricular (VV) optimized biventricular pacing (BV) is an established therapy for heart failure (HF) patients with electrical interventricular conduction delay (IVCD). The aim of the study was to compare AV and VV delay optimization with cardiac output (CO) and acceleration index (ACI) impedance cardiographic (ICG) methods.
Methods: HF patients with IVCD 86.8 ± 33 ms (n=15, age 66 ± 10 years; 2 females, 13 males), New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional class 3.1 ± 0.4, left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction 21.3 ± 7.8 % and QRS duration 176.1 ± 31.7 ms underwent AV and VV delay optimization with CO and ACI methods (Cardioscreen, Medis GmbH, Ilmenau, Germany). After evaluation of optimal AV delay, we evaluated optimal VV delay during simultaneous LV and right ventricular (RV) pacing (LV=RV), LV before RV pacing (LV-RV) and RV before LV pacing (RV-LV).
Results: Optimal VV delay was -12.3 ± 25.9 ms LV-RV pacing with VV delay range from -80 ms LV-RV pacing to +20 ms RV-LV pacing and RV=LV pacing. Optimal AV delay after atrial sensing was 108.6 ± 20.3 ms (n=14) and optimal AV delay after atrial pacing 190 ± 14.1 ms (n=2) with AV delay range from 80 ms to 200 ms. RV versus BV pacing mode resulted in improvement of CO from 3.4 ± 1.2 l/min to 4.4 ± 1.4 l/min (p<0.001) and ACI from 0.667 ± 0.227 1/s² to 0.834 ± 0.282 1/s² (p<0.002). During 34 ± 26 month BV pacing, the NYHA class improved from 3.1 ± 0.4 to 2.1 ± 0.4 (p<0.001).
Conclusion: AV and VV delay optimized BV pacing acutely improve ICG CO and ACI and their NYHA class during long-term follow-up. ICG may be a simple and useful technique to optimize AV and VV delay in CRT.
Introduction: Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) with left ventricular (LV) pacing is an established therapy for heart failure (HF) patients (P) with ventricular desynchronisation and reduced LV ejection fraction (EF). The aim of this study was to test the utilization of the transesophageal approach to measure arterial pulse pressure (PP) during LV pacing and electrical interventricular conduction delay (IVCD), to better select patients for CRT.
Methods: 32 HF patients (age 64 ± 10 years; 5 females, 27 males) with New York Heart Association (NYHA) class 2.8 ± 0.6, 27 ± 11 % LV EF and 155 ± 35 ms QRS duration were analysed with semi-invasive left cardiac pacing and electrocardiography. Esophageal TO8 Osypka catheter of 10.5 F diameter was perorally applied to the esophagus and placed in the position of maximum left atrial (LA) deflection and maximum LV deflection to measure PP with VAT or D00 pacing modes.
Results: Temporary transesophageal LV pacing was possible with VAT mode (n=16) and D00 mode (n=16) in all patients. In 15 Δ-PP-responders, PP was higher during LV pacing on than LV pacing off (78.3 ± 26.6 versus 65.9 ± 23.7 mmHg, P < 0.001) and NYHA class improved from 3.1 ± 0.35 to 2.1 ± 0.35 (P < 0.001) during 29 ± 26 month biventricular (BV) pacing follow-up (6 Medtronic and 9 Boston BV pacing devices). In 17 Δ-PP-non-responders, PP was not higher during LV pacing on than LV pacing off (61.5 ± 23.9 versus 60.9 ± 23.5 mmHg, P = 0.066). IVCD was significant longer in Δ-PP-responders than in Δ-PP-non-responders (87 ± 33 ms versus 37± 29 ms, P < 0.001).
Conclusion: Semi-invasive transesophageale LA and LV pacing with D00 and VAT mode and LV electrogram recording may be useful techniques to predict CRT improvement.
Background: Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) is an established therapy for heart failure (HF) patients (P) with reduced left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction and electrical interventricular desynchronization, but not all P improved clinically. The aim of the study was to evaluate electrical interventricular delay (IVD) to LV delay (LVD) ratio in atrial fibrillation (AF) CRT responder (R) and non-responder (NR).
Methods: AF P (n = 18, age 60.6 ± 11.4 years, 1 female, 17 males) with HF New York Heart Association (NYHA) class 3.0 ± 0.2, 25.3 ± 5.9 % LV ejection fraction and 157.8 ± 24.4 ms QRS duration (QRSD) were measured by surface ECG and focused transesophageal bipolar LV ECG before implantation of CRT pacemaker (n = 2) or CRT defibrillator (n = 16). IVD was measured between onset of QRS in the surface ECG and onset of LV signal in the LV ECG. LVD was measured between onset and offset of LV signal in the LV ECG.
Results: Electrical ventricular desynchronization in AF CRT P were 61.9 ± 26.9ms IVD, 80.6 ± 24.3ms LVD, 0.85 ± 0.41 IVD-LVD-ratio (Figure), 3.12 ± 1.89 QRSD-IVD-ratio and 2.07 ± 0.47 QRSD-LVD-ratio. There were 72.2 % AF CRT R (n = 13) with 64.2 ± 24.6ms IVD and 77.8 ± 21.6ms LVD with Pearson correlation to 0.89 ± 0.39 IVD-LVD-ratio (r = 0.87, P < 0.01; r = -0.69, P < 0.01), 2.82 ± 1.32 QRSD-IVD-ratio (r = -0.76, P < 0.01; r = 0.67, P = 0.011) and 2.13 ± 0.46 QRSD-LVD-ratio (r = 0.57, P = 0.041; r = -0.85, P < 0.01). There were 27.8% AF CRT NR (n = 5) with 56.0 ± 34.5ms IVD and 87.8 ± 31.9ms LVD without correlation to 0.74 ± 0.48 IVD-LVD-ratio, 3.88 ± 2.98 QRSD-IVD-ratio and 1.90 ± 0.48 QRSD-LVD-ratio. During 15.3 ± 13.1 month CRT follow-up, the AF CRT R NYHA class improved from 3.0 ± 0.2 to 2.2 ± 0.3 (P < 0.001). During 18.8 ± 20.7 month CRT follow-up, the AF CRT NR NYHA class not improved from 3 to 3.3 ± 0.97.
Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) is an established biventricular pacing therapy in heart failure patients with left bundle branch block and reduced left ventricular ejection fraction, but not all patients improved clinically as CRT responder. Purpose of the study was to evaluate electrical left atrial conduction delay (LACD) with focused transesophageal electrocardiography in CRT responder and CRT non-responder.
Methods: Twenty heart failure patients (age 66.6±8.2 years; 2 females, 18 males) with New York Heart Association functional class 3.0±0.3 and 174.2±40.2ms QRS duration were analysed using posterior left atrial transesophageal electrocardiography with hemispherical electrodes. Electrical LACD was measured between onset and offset of transesophageal left atrial signal before implantation of CRT devices.
Results: Electrical LACD could be evaluated by bipolar transesophageal left atrial electrocardiography using TO Osypka electrode in all heart failure patients with negative correlation between 54.7±18.1ms LACD and 24.9±6.4% left ventricular ejection fraction (r=-0.65, P=0.002). There were 16 CRT responders with reduction of New York Heart Association functional class from 3.0±0.29 to 2.1±0.2 (r=0.522, P=0.038) during 9.41±10.96 month biventricular pacing and negative correlation between 49.6±14.2ms LACD and 26.0±6.2% left ventricular ejection fraction (r=-0.533, P=0.034). There were 4 CRT non-responders with no reduction of New York Heart Association functional class from 3.0±0.4 to 2.8±0.5 (r=0.816, P=0.184) during with 13.88±16.39 month biventricular pacing and no correlation between 75.25±19.17ms LACD and 20.75±6.4% left ventricular ejection fraction (r=-0.831, P=0.169).
Conclusions: Focused transesophageal left atrial electrocardiography can be utilized to analyse electrical LACD in heart failure patients. LACD correlated negative with left ventricular ejection fraction in CRT responders. LACD may be a useful parameter to evaluate electrical left atrial desynchronization in heart failure patients.