|
Projects Reports 2003 |
|
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
|
|
| Characteristics of
antral follicles and the ability of in vitro ova maturation |
| Leader: |
Prof. Dr. Veljko
Vlaisavljević |
| Participants: |
Prof. Dr. Damjan Zazula;
Boris Cigale, MSc; Jurij Munda |
| Project partners: |
Teaching Hospital of
Maribor |
| Financed by: |
Ministry of Education,
Science and Sport of the Republic of Slovenia |
| This project
continues the research work done so far on the growth of dominant
follicles either in natural or in stimulated cycles. Comparative
examinations are gong to be conducted by a 3D ultrasound device.
Therefore, the first project months were devoted to the studying of
the device and its proprietary formats of the stored data. We are
developing a software interface which is going to support processing
of the obtained ultrasound recordings by our own recognition
algorithms. |
|
|
|
|
|
SimBio - A generic environment for bio-numerical simulation |
| Leader: |
Asst.
Prof. Dr. Božidar Potočnik |
| Participants: |
Prof. Dr. Damjan Zazula;
Dušan Heric; Boris Cigale, MSc; Daniel Bernad |
| Project partners: |
University of Sheffield,
Teaching Hospital of Maribor |
| Financed by: |
European Union |
|
The central objective
of the ongoing SimBio project activities is the improvement of
clinical and medical practices by the use of numerical simulation for
bio-medical problems. Building on existing experience with particular
applications, a generic simulation environment will be produced which
will provide an innovative enabling technology for advanced clinical
practice and health care. A key feature in the SimBio project is the
possibility to use individual patient data as input to the modelling
and simulation process. The SimBio generic environment will be
validated and evaluated by three specific applications:
-
electromagnetic
source localisation within the human brain based on
electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG)
measurements at the surface of the head;
-
bio-mechanical
simulations of the human head, including modelling of
neurodegenerative diseases and neurosurgical interventions;
-
the design of novel
replacement parts for the menisci of the human knee joint and
methods for their surgical implantation.
Our laboratory is
responsible to perform site independent SimBio generic environment
installation and evaluation/validation of results generated in order
to solve the problem of Design of novel replacement parts for the
menisci of the human knee joint and methods for their surgical
implantation (prosthesis design). In last year we had begun to install
the SimBio generic environment. We fixed the procedure for the MR
imaging material acquisition and we also developed software interfaces
for their transfer into the SimBio environment. We also developed an
Image Segmentation Tool (IST tool), i.e. a helping tool for manual
segmentation/annotation of the MR images (not necessarily knee
images). It enables that clinicians manually annotate (segment) every
2D slice of the MR sequence.
We are also responsible for a verification of the SimBio environment
image segmentation results. For this purpose we start to develop an
Image Verification Tool (IPVT tool). This tool will measure an
accuracy of the Simbio environment image segmentation results
according to several statistical measures. Currently, the IPVT tool
enables 2D verification, i.e. differences between image processing
results of the SimBio environment and manual annotations of clinicians
are observed on every 2D MR slice.
Project's official site:
http://www.simbio.de
Project's local site:
http://storm.uni-mb.si/SimBio/ |
|
|
|
|
| NEW - Neuromuscular Assesment in the Elderly Worker |
| Leader: |
Roberto Merletti (Politecnico
di Torino, Italy) |
| Participants: |
Prof. Dr. Damjan Zazula,
Dr. Dean Korošec, Aleš Holobar |
| Project partners: |
12 European institutions
(10 academic, 2 industrial), involved in SEMG research |
| Financed by: |
EU 5 FW |
The main
objectives of the NEW (Neuromuscular assessment in the Elderly Worker)
project are non-invasive assessment of the muscle properties in the
elderly workers, the prevention of muscle disorders and the reduction
of its consequences. Our main focus is on the extraction of
information from the raw signals detected on the muscles during their
contraction, specifically on decomposition of surface EMG signals.
In last year the performance of surface EMG decomposition techniques
based on the higher-order statistics was tested and improved. New
approaches for optimization of non-linear equations system were
developed and their performance studied. We verified some important
theoretical issues concerning the model of the surface EMG signals and
the achievable performance of source separation algorithms. Based on
the theoretical ascertainment a new decomposition method was proposed.
Although following simple decomposition concepts, the method proved to
offer an equivalent performance to more complex and time consuming
blind source separation methods that are based on the joint
diagonalization of spatial time-frequency distributions of observed
signals.
Project's official site: http://www.lisin.polito.it/new/
Project's local site:
http://storm.uni-mb.si/new/ |
|
|
|
|
| AREDVIDERO -
Assessment and Revision of the Virtual Delivery Room |
| Leader: |
Prof. Dr. Damjan Zazula |
| Participants: |
Asst. Prof. Dr. Danilo Korže,
Dr. Dean Korošec, Matjaž Divjak, BSc, Aleš Holobar, BSc, |
| Project partners: |
University of Maribor
(Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science), Stanford
University (Division of Neonatal and Developmental Medicine, Department of Pediatrics School of Medicine) |
| Financed by: |
Lucile Packard
Foundation for Children's health center for advanced pediatric
education, Slovenian Ministry of Science and Technology |
AREVIDERO
(Assessment and Revision of Virtual Delivery Room) project extends the
work of VIDERO (Virtual Delivery Room) project whose main goal was to
create a virtual environment in which a group of medical students or
even doctors could perform virtual neonatal resuscitation. AREVIDERO
project concentrates on validation and verification of VIDERO’s
program code, improvement and extension of newborn’s life signs, and
practical evaluation of the virtual training environment in
educational processes of neonatal medicine.
During last year we collaborated in start-up and testing of the VIDERO
system on computers of Lucille Packard Children's Hospital at the
Stanford University, Palo Alto, USA. Together with their experts we
also designed a program of the validation study, in which we planned
to use the VIDERO system in the introductory training of medical
students. Currently the program is still in the procedure of the ethic
committee of the hospital. Unfortunately, the realisation of the study
had to be delayed due to very intensive activities in establishing the
Center for Paediatric Education (CAPE, http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/november13/cape.html),
led by Dr. Halamek. However, VIDERO is now already one of the tools in
the rich arsenal of technologies, which CAPE, as the first such
institution in the world, is introducing in the organised simulated
training of neonatologists.
On the other hand we have meanwhile, in the scope of more technical
project activities, complemented and improved our knowledge and
software technologies for further development of virtual reality
training systems. We obtained (outside of the AREVIDERO project, in
which costs of equipment and work are not eligible) a licence for
Cortona SDK software, with which we plan to design and implement new
versions of the 'virtual baby', based on, of course, rich experience
from both VIDERO and AREVIDERO collaborations. |
|
|
|
|
| CoLoS - Conceptual Learning of
Science(American-European project) |
| Leader: |
Prof. Dr. Damjan Zazula |
| Participants: |
Asst. Prof. Dr. Danilo Korže, Dr. Dean Korošec, Dr. Božidar
Potocnik, Matjaž Divjak, Aleš Holobar, Iztok Prelog, Jurij Munda |
| Project partners: |
13 European universities and Hewlett-Packard Labs, Palo Alto |
| Financed by: |
This project does not have permanent financial support |
| The System
Software Laboratory contributed to the CoLoS activities in 2002 as
well. We upgraded selected teaching tools which had been developed in
the previous years. Especially a lot of attention was paid to
completion of the virtual delivery room documentation, which initiated
submissions of a few journal papers. The laboratory members were also
invited to speak about the virtual baby at the opening plenary session
of Electrotechnical and Computer Science conference ERK 2002 at
Porotrož, Slovenia. |
|
