Volume 35, Issue 5

A novel non-parametric method for mutual information estimation is presented. The method is suited for informative feature selection in classification and regression problems. Performance of the method is demonstrated on problem of stable short peptide classification.

The low-voltage cardioversion-defibrillation is a modern sparing electrotherapy method for such dangerous heart arrhythmias as paroxysmal tachycardia and fibrillation. In an excitable medium, such arrhythmias relate to appearance of spiral waves of electrical excitation, and the spiral waves are superseded to the electric boundary of the medium in the process of treatment due to high-frequency stimulation from the electrode. In this paper we consider the Aliev–Panfilov myocardial model, which provides a positive tension of three-dimensional scroll waves, and an axisymmetric model of the left ventricle of the human heart. Two relations of anisotropy are considered, namely, isotropy and physiological anisotropy. The periods of stimulation with an apical electrode are found so that the electrode successfully entrains its rhythm in the medium, the spiral wave is superseded to the base of the ventricle, and disappears. The results are compared in two-dimensional and three-dimensional media. The intervals of effective stimulation periods are sufficiently close to each other in the two-dimensional case and in the anatomical model. However, the use of the anatomical model is essential in determination of the time of superseding.

This paper revisits the usage of spatially averaged haemodynamic models such as non-stationary 1D/0D in space and stationary 0D in space models. Conditions of equivalence between different 1D model formulations are considered. The impact of circular and elliptic shapes of the tube cross-section on the friction term and the tube law is analyzed. Finally, the relationship between 0D lumped and 1D models is revealed.

In this work we analyze the impact of left ventricular assist devices on the systemic circulation in subjects with heart failure associated with left ventricular dilated cardiomyopathy. We use an integrated model of the left heart and blood flow in the systemic arteries with a left ventricular assist device. We study the impact of the rotation speed of the pump on haemodynamic characteristics of distal arteries. We identify the rotation speed for simultaneous recovery of the healthy average values in all systemic arteries, the heart and the aorta. Our numerical experiments show that blood distribution over the graph of systemic vessels does not depend on flow regimes in ascending aorta. We also observe that the optimal pump rotation speed changes in the atherosclerotic vascular network and depends on stenoses localization.

The paper discusses a stabilization of a finite element method for the equations of fluid motion in a time-dependent domain. After experimental convergence analysis, the method is applied to simulate a blood flow in the right ventricle of a post-surgery patient with the transposition of the great arteries disorder. The flow domain is reconstructed from a sequence of 4D CT images. The corresponding segmentation and triangulation algorithms are also addressed in brief.