TY - JOUR A1 - Kotliar, Konstantin A1 - Nagel, Edgar A1 - Vilser, Walthard A1 - Seidova, Seid-Fatima A1 - Lanzl, Ines T1 - Microstructural alterations of retinal arterial blood column along the vessel axis in systemic hypertension JF - Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science, IOVS N2 - Purpose: Image analysis by the retinal vessel analyzer (RVA) observes retinal vessels in their dynamic state online noninvasively along a chosen vessel segment. It has been found that high-frequency diameter changes in the retinal artery blood column along the vessel increase significantly in anamnestically healthy volunteers with increasing age and in patients with glaucoma during vascular dilation. This study was undertaken to investigate whether longitudinal sections of the retinal artery blood column are altered in systemic hypertension. Methods: Retinal arteries of 15 untreated patients with essential arterial hypertension (age, 50.9 ± 11.9 years) and of 15 age-matched anamnestically healthy volunteers were examined by RVA. After baseline assessment, a monochromatic luminance flicker (530–600 nm; 12.5 Hz; 20 s) was applied to evoke retinal vasodilation. Differences in amplitude and frequency of spatial artery blood column diameter change along segments (longitudinal arterial profiles) of 1 mm in length were measured and analyzed using Fourier transformation. Results: In the control group, average reduced power spectra (ARPS) of longitudinal arterial profiles did not differ when arteries changed from constriction to dilation. In the systemic hypertension group, ARPS during constriction, baseline, and restoration were identical and differed from ARPS during dilation (P < 0.05). Longitudinal arterial profiles in both groups showed significant dissimilitude at baseline and restoration (P < 0.05). Conclusions: The retinal artery blood column demonstrates microstructural alterations in systemic hypertension and is less irregular along the vessel axis during vessel dilation. These microstructural changes may be an indication of alterations in vessel wall rigidity, vascular endothelial function, and smooth muscle cells in this disease, leading to impaired perfusion and regulation. Y1 - 2010 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.1167/iovs.09-3649 SN - 0146-0404 VL - 51 IS - 4 SP - 2165 EP - 2172 PB - ARVO CY - Rockville, Md. ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kotliar, Konstantin A1 - Lanzl, Ines M. T1 - Can vascular function be assessed by the interpretation of retinal vascular diameter changes? JF - Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science, IOVS. 52 (2011), H. 1 Y1 - 2011 SN - 0146-0404 SP - 635 EP - 636 PB - ARVO CY - Rockville, Md. ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kotliar, Konstantin A1 - Mücke, Bruno A1 - Vilser, Walthard A1 - Schilling, Rudolf T1 - Effect of aging on retinal artery blood column diameter measured along the vessel axis / Kotliar, Konstantin E. ; Mücke, Bruno ; Vilser, Walthard ; Schilling, Rudolf ; Lanzl, Ines M. JF - Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science, IOVS. 49 (2008), H. 5 Y1 - 2008 SN - 0146-0404 SP - 2094 EP - 2102 PB - - ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Gerhards, Michael A1 - Sander, Volker A1 - Belloum, Adam ED - Zimmermann, Wolf ED - Lee, Yong Woo ED - Demchenko, Yuri T1 - About the flexible Migration of Workflow Tasks to Clouds : Combining on- and off-premise Executions of Applications T2 - CLOUD COMPUTING 2012 : The Third International Conference on Cloud Computing, GRIDs, and Virtualization ; July 22-27, 2012 - Nice, France N2 - An increasing number of applications target their executions on specific hardware like general purpose Graphics Processing Units. Some Cloud Computing providers offer this specific hardware so that organizations can rent such resources. However, outsourcing the whole application to the Cloud causes avoidable costs if only some parts of the application benefit from the specific expensive hardware. A partial execution of applications in the Cloud is a tradeoff between costs and efficiency. This paper addresses the demand for a consistent framework that allows for a mixture of on- and off-premise calculations by migrating only specific parts to a Cloud. It uses the concept of workflows to present how individual workflow tasks can be migrated to the Cloud whereas the remaining tasks are executed on-premise. KW - Workflow Orchestration KW - Workflow KW - Grid Computing KW - Cloud Service Broker KW - Cloud Computing Y1 - 2012 SN - 978-1-61208-216-5 SP - 82 EP - 87 PB - IARIA Journals ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Novacek, V. A1 - Tran, Thanh Ngoc A1 - Klinge, U. A1 - Tolba, R. H. A1 - Staat, Manfred A1 - Bronson, D. G. A1 - Miesse, A. M. A1 - Whiffen, J. A1 - Turquier, F. T1 - Finite element modelling of stapled colorectal end-to-end anastomosis : Advantages of variable height stapler design JF - Journal of Biomechanics N2 - The impact of surgical staplers on tissues has been studied mostly in an empirical manner. In this paper, finite element method was used to clarify the mechanics of tissue stapling and associated phenomena. Various stapling modalities and several designs of circular staplers were investigated to evaluate the impact of the device on tissues and mechanical performance of the end-to-end colorectal anastomosis. Numerical simulations demonstrated that a single row of staples is not adequate to resist leakage due to non-linear buckling and opening of the tissue layers between two adjacent staples. Compared to the single staple row configuration, significant increase in stress experienced by the tissue at the inner staple rows was observed in two and three rows designs. On the other hand, adding second and/or third staple row had no effect on strain in the tissue inside the staples. Variable height design with higher staples in outer rows significantly reduced the stresses and strains in outer rows when compared to the same configuration with flat cartridge. KW - Variable height stapler design KW - Anastomotic leakage KW - Finite element modelling KW - End-to-end colorectal anastomosis KW - Surgical staplers Y1 - 2012 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbiomech.2012.07.021 SN - 1873-2380 VL - 45 IS - 115 SP - 2693 EP - 2697 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Nguyen, Nhu Huynh A1 - Duong, Minh Tuan A1 - Tran, Thanh Ngoc A1 - Pham, Phu Tinh A1 - Grottke, O. A1 - Tolba, R. A1 - Staat, Manfred T1 - Influence of a freeze–thaw cycle on the stress–stretch curves of tissues of porcine abdominal organs JF - Journal of Biomechanics N2 - The paper investigates both fresh porcine spleen and liver and the possible decomposition of these organs under a freeze–thaw cycle. The effect of tissue preservation condition is an important factor which should be taken into account for protracted biomechanical tests. In this work, tension tests were conducted for a large number of tissue specimens from twenty pigs divided into two groups of 10. Concretely, the first group was tested in fresh state; the other one was tested after a freeze-thaw cycle which simulates the conservation conditions before biomechanical experiments. A modified Fung model for isotropic behavior was adopted for the curve fitting of each kind of tissues. Experimental results show strong effects of the realistic freeze–thaw cycle on the capsule of elastin-rich spleen but negligible effects on the liver which virtually contains no elastin. This different behavior could be explained by the autolysis of elastin by elastolytic enzymes during the warmer period after thawing. Realistic biomechanical properties of elastin-rich organs can only be expected if really fresh tissue is tested. The observations are supported by tests of intestines. KW - Autolysis KW - Decomposition KW - Freeze–thaw process KW - Spleen KW - Liver Y1 - 2012 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbiomech.2012.07.008 SN - 1873-2380 VL - 45 IS - 14 SP - 2382 EP - 2386 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Spelthahn, Heiko A1 - Schubert, Jürgen A1 - Schöning, Michael Josef T1 - Dünnschichtsensoren für die Schwermetallanalytik JF - GIT : Labor-Fachzeitschrift N2 - Die Detektion von Schadstoffen repräsentiert in der Umweltanalytik eine wichtige Aufgabenstellung. Gerade die Abwasser- bzw. Brauchwasseranalytik sowie die Prozesskontrolle haben einen hohen Stellenwert. Siliziumbasierte Dünnschichtsensoren bieten eine kostengünstige Möglichkeit, „online“-Messungen bzw. Vor-Ort-Messungen zeitnah durchzuführen. In dieser Arbeit wird ein potentiometrisches Sensorarray auf der Basis von Chalkogenidgläsern zur Detektion von Schwermetallen in wässrigen Medien vorgestellt. Y1 - 2012 SN - 0016-3538 VL - 56 IS - 4 SP - 285 EP - 287 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hillen, Walter A1 - Alper Selver, M. A1 - Fischer, Felix A1 - Kuntalp, Mehmet T1 - A software tool for interactive generation, representation, and systematical storage of transfer functions for 3D medical images / Alper Selver, M. ; Fischer, Felix ; Kuntalp, Mehmet ; Hillen, Walter JF - Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine. 86 (2007), H. 3 Y1 - 2007 SN - 0169-2607 SP - 270 EP - 280 PB - - ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bohrn, U. A1 - Stütz, E. A1 - Fuchs, K. A1 - Fleischer, M. A1 - Schöning, Michael Josef A1 - Wagner, P. T1 - Monitoring of irritant gas using a whole-cell-based sensor system JF - Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical N2 - Cell-based sensors for the detection of gases have long been underrepresented, due to the cellular requirement of being cultured in a liquid environment. In this work we established a cell-based gas biosensor for the detection of toxic substances in air, by adapting a commercial sensor chip (Bionas®), previously used for the measurement of pollutants in liquids. Cells of the respiratory tract (A549, RPMI 2650, V79), which survive at a gas phase in a natural context, are used as biological receptors. The physiological cell parameters acidification, respiration and morphology are continuously monitored in parallel. Ammonia was used as a highly water-soluble model gas to test the feasibility of the sensor system. Infrared measurements confirmed the sufficiency of the medium draining method. This sensor system provides a basis for many sensor applications such as environmental monitoring, building technology and public security. Y1 - 2012 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.snb.2012.05.088 SN - 0925-4005 VL - 175 SP - 208 EP - 217 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kurulgan Demirci, Eylem A1 - Demirci, Taylan A1 - Linder, Peter A1 - Trzewik, Jürgen A1 - Gierkowski, Jessica Ricarda A1 - Gossmann, Matthias A1 - Kayser, Peter A1 - Porst, Dariusz A1 - Digel, Ilya A1 - Artmann, Gerhard A1 - Temiz Artmann, Aysegül T1 - rhAPC reduces the endothelial cell permeability via a decrease of contractile tensions induced by endothelial cells JF - Journal of Bioscience and Bioengineering N2 - All cells generate contractile tension. This strain is crucial for mechanically controlling the cell shape, function and survival. In this study, the CellDrum technology quantifying cell's (the cellular) mechanical tension on a pico-scale was used to investigate the effect of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) on human aortic endothelial cell (HAoEC) tension. The LPS effect during gram-negative sepsis on endothelial cells is cell contraction causing endothelium permeability increase. The aim was to finding out whether recombinant activated protein C (rhAPC) would reverse the endothelial cell response in an in-vitro sepsis model. In this study, the established in-vitro sepsis model was confirmed by interleukin 6 (IL-6) levels at the proteomic and genomic levels by ELISA, real time-PCR and reactive oxygen species (ROS) activation by florescence staining. The thrombin cellular contraction effect on endothelial cells was used as a positive control when the CellDrum technology was applied. Additionally, the Ras homolog gene family, member A (RhoA) mRNA expression level was checked by real time-PCR to support contractile tension results. According to contractile tension results, the mechanical predominance of actin stress fibers was a reason of the increased endothelial contractile tension leading to enhanced endothelium contractility and thus permeability enhancement. The originality of this data supports firstly the basic measurement principles of the CellDrum technology and secondly that rhAPC has a beneficial effect on sepsis influenced cellular tension. The technology presented here is promising for future high-throughput cellular tension analysis that will help identify pathological contractile tension responses of cells and prove further cell in-vitro models. KW - Cell permeability KW - Cellular force KW - Endothelial cells KW - Recombinant activated protein C KW - Lipopolysaccharide KW - Contractile tension KW - CellDrum Y1 - 2012 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbiosc.2012.03.019 SN - 1347-4421 VL - 113 IS - 2 SP - 212 EP - 219 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER -