Laser balloon ablation in patients with a left common pulmonary vein.

Background: Pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) with a balloon-based visually guided laser ablation (VGLA) is regarded as a useful therapeutic tool for treating atrial fibrillation (AF). The clinical efficacy of a VGLA has never been fully investigated in patients with a left common pulmonary vein (LCPV). Objective: We investigated the procedural safety as well as clinical usefulness of VGLA in patients with an LCPV. Methods: This study consisted of 130 consecutive patients who underwent VGLA of de novo non-valvular paroxysmal AF. Results: Eleven patients (8.5%) had an LCPV (ostium maximal average diameter: 27.5 ± 4.9 mm, ostium minimal average diameter: 17.7 ± 3.5 mm). Nine out of 11 (81.8%) LCPVs were successfully occluded and isolated at the ostium with a VGLA guided PVI. The ablation procedure time was significantly shorter in the patients with than without an LCPV (61.5 ± 15.4 vs. 86.9 ± 32.9 min, p = 0.01). There was no difference regarding the atrial tachyarrhythmia recurrence between those with and without an LCPV (p = 0.18). A total of fifteen patients underwent a redo procedure, but reconnections were not observed in any of the LCPV patients. Conclusion: The VGLA guided PVI was a useful therapeutic tool even in patients with an LCPV. The presence of an LCPV was not associated with any atrial tachyarrhythmia recurrence.

A High-Energy, Narrow-Pulse-Width, Long-Wave Infrared Laser Based on ZGP Crystal

In this paper, we present a high-energy, narrow pulse-width, long-wave infrared laser based on a ZnGeP2 (ZGP) optical parametric oscillator (OPO). The pump source is a 2.1 μm three -stage Ho:YAG master oscillator power-amplifier (MOPA). At a repetition frequency of 1 kHz, the Ho:YAG MOPA system outputs the maximal average power of 52.1 W, which corresponds to the shortest pulse width of 14.40 ns. By using the Ho:YAG MOPA system as the pump source, the maximal average output powers of 3.15 W at 8.2 μm and 11.4 W at 2.8 μm were achieved in a ZGP OPO. The peak wavelength and linewidth (FWHM) of the long-wave infrared laser were 8156 nm and 270 nm, respectively. At the maximal output level, the pulse width and beam quality factor M2 were measured to be 8.10 ns and 6.2, respectively.

DETERMINATION OF THE INHOMOGENEITY PARAMETERS OF A SPHERE’S COVER ENSURING REQUIRED SOUND REFLECTION IN A WAVEGUIDE

The numerical-analytical method of identifying the inhomogeneity parameters of a material of a sphere’s elastic cover, which allow to ensure minimal (maximal) average pressure in the scattered field of a spherical sound wave, which is radiated by a monopole source, within the disk observation domain in a cylindrical waveguide, has been developed. The sphere is assumed to be either absolutely rigid (moveless) or filled with an homogeneous elastic material. Verification of the scheme for determining the cover’s extremal inhomogeneity characteristics has been carried out and influence of the solution algorithm’s launch parameters on their identification accuracy during the numerical experiment has been evaluated. The finite element method (FEM) and the Hooke-Jeeves algorithm are used in the problem solving.

High success perfect transmission of 1-qubit information using purposefully delayed sharing of non-maximally entangled 2-qubit resource and repeated generalized Bell-state measurements

We propose a new scheme in which perfect transmission of 1-qubit information is achieved with high success using purposefully delayed sharing of non-maximally entangled 2-qubit resource and repeated generalized Bell-state measurements (GBSM). Alice possesses initially all qubits and she makes repeated GBSM on the pair of qubits, consisting of (1) the qubit of information state and (2) one of the two entangled resource qubits (taken alternately) until transmission with perfect fidelity is indicated. Alice then sends to Bob, the qubit not used in the last GBSM and also the result of this GBSM and Bob applies a suitable unitary transformation to replicate exactly the information state. Continued probabilistic transmission with unit fidelity is achieved by changing continuously the generalized Bell basis and also the pair of measured qubits of the collapsed states. We calculate the success probability up to the third repeated attempt of GBSM and plot it with concurrence of the entangled resource state. We also discuss the maximal average fidelity.

Morphofunctional Characteristics of Mongolian Children and Adolescents Living in Different Ecological Zones

In 2014–2015, 13,477 Mongolian schoolchildren (5833 boys and 7644 girls from different regions of the country), aged 8–17, were subjected to a comprehensive biological study. The program included 50+ anthropometric and anthroposcopic traits. Out of this set, bodily dimensions and functional parameters were used for the present paper. Their analysis was carried out among residents of mountain-taiga, steppe, and desert zones, which are still the main ecological niches of Mongolia. The urban sample (the best known Mongolian population, which included only subjects born and living in Ulaanbaatar) was used as a control group. The urban children and adolescents, as well as those living in the mountain-taiga zone, are characterized by maximal average values of the parameters. In the capital, these parameters are mostly affected by the living conditions, which are the best, confirming the results of previous studies. At the same time, the stressful urban factors account for higher indicators of the hemodynamic system in urban schoolchildren. The resemblance of these characteristics in steppe and desert dwellers results from relatively similar climatic conditions and physical stress patterns.

Secure-Aware Multipath Routing Using Atom Search Rider Optimization Algorithm in Wireless Sensor Networks

WSN is comprised of sensor nodes that sense the data for various applications. The nodes are employed for transmitting sensed data to BS through intermediate nodes or the cluster heads in multi-hop environment. Erroneous selection of CHs may lead to large energy consumption and thereby degrades system performance. Hence, an effective technique was developed by proposing Rider-ASO for secure-aware multipath routing in the WSN. The proposed routing protocol offers security to the network concerning various trust factors. Initially, cluster head selection is done using RCSO. Then, the trust values of the cluster heads that are selected is computed to ensure security while routing. For the multipath routing, proposed Rider-ASO is developed by combining ASO and ROA. Thus, the proposed algorithm finds multiple secured paths from the source into destination based on selected CHs. The developed Rider-ASO outperformed other methods with minimal delay of 0.009 sec, maximal average residual energy 0.5494 J, maximal PDR of 97.82%, maximal throughput rate of 96.07%, respectively.

Vibroimpact Mobile Robot

A simple model of a capsule robot is studied. The device moves upon a rough horizontal plane and consists of a capsule with an embedded motor and an internal moving mass. The motor generates a harmonic force acting on the bodies. Capsule propulsion is achieved by collisions of the inner body with the right wall of the shell. There is Coulomb friction between the capsule and the support, it prevents a possibility of reversal motion. A periodic motion is constructed such that the robot gains the maximal average velocity.

The Effect of 8 Weeks of Complex Training Methods on the Countermovement Jump Performance

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to find out whether a more specific stimulus, such as training which stimulates the production of power above 90% of Pmax (Pmax = maximal average concentric power output), is effective in enhancing the countermovement jump (CMJ) performance using the method of complex pairs or separate execution of the exercises in the complex pair (separate complex pair).METHODSThirty male students of the Faculty of Sports Studies were divided into 2 experimental (EX1, EX2) and 1 control group (CNTR). The experimental groups trained for 8 weeks using the complex training (CT) method twice a week with the same amount of repetitions for each exercise. The complex pair consisted of half-squat jumps with the intensity over 90% of Pmax and plyometric depth-jumps. EX1 trained using the complex pair method with the intracomplex rest interval of up to 15 seconds. EX2 trained all sets of the half-squat jumps first and then all sets of the plyometric exercise. We used non-parametric statistics and linear regression analysis to evaluate the effect on increasing the CMJ performance after the intervention program.RESULTSThere were no significant differences between the pre-test and post-test in any of the experimental groups (p > 0.05), although there were significant differences between the weeks in EX1 and EX2 (p < 0.05). The CMJ performance increased insignificantly (p > 0.05) each week by 0.14 cm in EX1 and by 0.07 cm in EX2. CONCLUSIONThese results did not clearly show the application of the CT methods to be useful in enhancing the CMJ. In practice we recommend using the complex pairs to save training time and increase training intensity. However, an additional longer-term intervention experiment with a bigger sample size and groups randomized by the CMJ parameter (not by Pmax) is needed.

On Extremal Problems for Pairs of Uniformly Distributed Sequences and Integrals with Respect to Copula Measures

Motivated by the maximal average distance of uniformly distributed sequences we consider some extremal problems for functionals of type {\mu _C} \mapsto \int_0^1 {{{\int_0^1 {Fd} }_\mu }_C,} where µC is a copula measure and F is a Riemann integrable function on [0, 1]2 of a specific type. Such problems have been considered in [4] and are of interest in the study of limit points of two uniformly distributed sequences.