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The 12-lead electrocardiogram is a key component of cardiac screening in elite adolescent footballers. Current technology hampers mobile electrocardiogram monitoring that could reduce the time-to-diagnosis in symptomatic athletes. Recently, a 22-lead mobile electrocardiogram monitor, CardioSecur (Personal MedSystems GmbH), has been approved for use in adults. In this study, the differences in parameter accuracy between CardioSecur’s 22-lead electrocardiogram and the gold standard 12-lead electrocardiogram were assessed in elite adolescent footballers (n=31) using Bland-Altman and paired t-tests/Wilcoxon analysis. Agreement between the two devices was clinically acceptable for heart rate (bias=− 0.633 bpm), PR Interval (bias=− 1.73 ms), Bazzett’s corrected QTc interval (bias=2.03 ms), T-wave axis (bias=6.55°), P-wave duration (bias=− 0.941 ms), Q-wave amplitude (bias=0.0195 mV), Q-wave duration (bias=1.98 ms), rhythm (bias=0.0333), ST-segment (bias=− 0.0629), J-point analysis (bias=− 0.01) and extended T wave and QRS duration analysis. Unsatisfactory agreement was observed in QRS axis (bias=− 19.4°), P-wave axis (bias=− 0.670°), QRS amplitude (bias=− 0.660 mV), P-wave amplitude (bias=0.0400 mV) and T-wave amplitude (bias=− 0.0675 mV). CardioSecur’s 22-lead electrocardiogram agrees with the gold standard in rhythm, durations, T-wave determination in all leads assessed, permitting its use in adolescent footballers for immediate pitch- or track-side analysis.

Current echocardiographic criteria cannot accurately differentiate exercise induced left ventricular (LV) hypertrabeculation in athletes from LV non-compaction cardiomyopathy (LVNC). This study aims to evaluate the role of speckle tracking echocardiography (STE) in characterising LV myocardial mechanics in healthy adolescent athletes with and without LVNC echocardiographic criteria.Adolescent athletes evaluated at three sports academies between 2014 and 2019 were considered for this observational study. Those meeting the Jenni criteria for LVNC (end-systolic non-compacted/compacted myocardium ratio 2 in any short axis segment) were considered LVNC+ and the rest LVNC-. Peak systolic LV longitudinal strain (SA total of 417 participants were included, mean age 14.5 ± 1.7 years, of which 6.5% were LVNC+ (n = 27). None of the athletes showed any additional LVNC clinical criteria. All average SAmong healthy adolescent athletes, 6.5% met the echocardiographic criteria for LVNC, but showed normal LV STE parameters, in contrast to available data on paediatric LVNC describing abnormal myocardial function. STE could better characterise the myocardial mechanics of athletes with LV hypertrabeculation, thus allowing the transition from structural to functional LVNC diagnosis, especially in suspected physiological remodelling.

Purpose Few data exist on the descriptions of LV myocardial mechanics and reserve during dynamic exercise of adolescent athletes. The aim of this study was to describe the LV myocardial and cardiopulmonary changes during exercise using 2-D strain deformation imaging. Methods Elite adolescent male football players (n = 42) completed simultaneous cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) and exercise echocardiography measurement of LV myocardial deformation by 2-D strain imaging. LV longitudinal and circumferential 2-D strain and strain rates were analyzed at each stage during incremental exercise to a work rate of 150 W. Additionally, exercise LV myocardial deformation and its relation to metabolic exercise parameters were evaluated at each exercise stage and in recovery using repeated measures ANOVA, linear regression and paired t tests. Results LV peak systolic baseline 2-D strain (longitudinal: − 15.4 ± 2.5%, circumferential: − 22.5 ± 3.1%) increased with each exercise stage, but longitudinal strain plateaued at 50 W (mean strain reserve − 7.8 ± 3.0) and did not significantly increase compared to subsequent exercise stages (P > 0.05), whilst circumferential strain (mean strain reserve − 11.6 ± 3.3) significantly increased (P 2 and O2 pulse (P Conclusion This study describes LV myocardial deformation dynamics by 2-D strain and provides reference values for LV myocardial strain and strain rate during exercise in adolescent footballers. It found important differences between LV longitudinal and circumferential myocardial mechanics during exercise and introduces a methodology that can be used to quantify LV function and cardiac reserve during exercise in adolescent athletes.

Athlete preparticipation screening focuses on preventing sudden cardiac death (SCD) by detecting diseases such as arrhythmogenic ventricular cardiomyopathy (AVC), which affects primarily the right ventricular myocardium. Diagnosis may be obscured by physiological remodeling of the athlete heart. Healthy athletes may meet the 2010 Task Force Criteria right ventricular outflow tract (RVOT) dimension cut-offs, questioning the suitability of the modified Task Force Criteria (mTFC) in adolescent athletes. In this study, 67 male adolescent footballers undergoing preparticipation screening were reviewed. All athletes underwent a screening for resting ECG and echocardiogram according to the English FA protocol, as well as cardiopulmonary exercise testing, stress ECG, and exercise echocardiography. Athletes’ right ventricular outflow tract (RVOT) that met the major AVC diagnostic criteria for dilatation were identified. Of 67 evaluated athletes, 7 had RVOT dilatation that met the major criteria, all in the long axis parasternal view measurement. All had normal right ventricular systolic function, including normal free-wall longitudinal strain (ranging from − 21.5 to − 32.7%). Left ventricular ejection fraction ranged from 52 to 67%, without evidence of structural changes. Resting ECGs and cardiopulmonary exercise tests were normal in all individuals. In a series of healthy athletes meeting the major AVC diagnostic criteria for RVOT dilatation, none had any other pathological changes on a detailed screening including ECG, exercise testing, and echocardiography. This report highlights that current AVC echocardiographic diagnosis criteria have limitations in this population.

At the "Future Security 2011" we presented an overview of our studies on the "Detection and Identification of Illicit and Hazardous Substances with Proton-Transfer-Reaction Mass Spectrometry (PTR-MS)" including first results on explosives, chemical warfare agents and illicit and prescribed drugs detection. Since then we have considerably extended these preliminary studies to the detection of defined traces of some of the most common explosives, namely TNT, PETN, TATP, and DATP deposited into aluminum foam bodies, and to the detection of a number of novel and widely unknown designer drugs: ethylphenidate, 4-fluoroamphetamine and dimethocaine. Moreover, we have dramatically improved our time-of-flight based PTR-MS instruments by substantially increasing their sensitivity and hence lowering the detection limit, making them even more suitable and applicable to threat agents with extremely low vapour pressures. Data from measurements on certified gas standards are presented in order to underline these statements. The data demonstrate that, in comparison to the first generation instruments, a gain of one order of magnitude in terms of sensitivity and detection limit has been obtained.

Recent controversy concerning post-fire logging in Oregon is emblematic of the problems of “salvage logging” globally ([1][1]). Although tree regeneration after disturbances in forested areas is important ([2][2]–[4][3]), a narrow view of this issue ignores important ecological lessons

The paper draws on a number of Grid projects, particularly on the experience of NeuroGrid, a UK project in the Neurosciences tasked with developing a Grid-based collaborative research environment to support the sharing of digital images and patient data across multiple distributed sites. It outlines recurrent socio-technical issues, highlighting the challenges of scaling up technological networks in advance of the regulatory networks which normally regulate their use in practice.

Background/AimsTo encourage the adoption and ?meaningful use? (MU) of electronic health records (EHRs) as part of health care reform and the ARRA stimulus legislation, the federal government is providing financial incentives to providers who adopt certified EHRs and meet criteria for their meaningful use. The federal Health Information Technology (HIT) Regional Extension Center (REC) program was created to provide technical assistance (TA) to priority primary care providers (PPCPs) in small practices to help them adopt EHRs and qualify for MU incentives. The New Mexico HITREC is one of 62 nationally, each of which will assist 1000+ providers. Such groundbreaking incentives and assistance present a potential EHR ?tipping point? for small practices.MethodsNM HITREC recently began to address its goals for the two year funding: Outreach to educate providers through conferences, presentations, and one-on-one contacts concerning the MU criteria and incentives and the benefits of the TA available through the REC; recruitment of PPCPs willing to adopt EHRs and receive HITREC assistance; promotion of HIT workforce training programs; assisting providers with selecting and implementing EHRs; connecting to the state?s health information exchange; using EHRs for performance measurement and other MU criteria; sharing effective tools with other RECs; and participating in local and national evaluation efforts. New one-on-one recruitment procedures have been undertaken recently and are proving more effective.ResultsNM HITREC is in its early months of recruitment, and has signed approximately one fourth of the potential providers as of November 1, 2010. This number is under the goal set for this stage, but the rate of recruitment has been increasing using the new recruitment techniques. It is anticipated that 800 or more will be recruited by late March, 2011. These results will be reported at the March conference, along with early EHR implementation successes and insights.ConclusionsIt is anticipated that the experience gained by the RECs will expedite the implementation of EHRs in small practices and provide guidance even to large and specialty practices seeking to achieve MU. This in turn should have a transformational effect on quality and efficiency for providers in all practices.

This paper discusses a computer model of a staring thermal imaging sensor with respect to spatial nonuniformities. The staring sensor is a two-dimensional array of infrared detectors that is often called a focal plane array (FPA). Microscopic differences in the fabrication of a detector and nonuniformity in the input and output circuits of the charge-coupled device (CCD) can cause spatial nonuniformities across the FPA. Thus an image viewed by such a sensor will be covered with spatial noise for which correction should be made. Since the computer model can generate output images for a staring sensor with spatial nonuniformities, the objective of this paper is to present a computer simulation of the one-point and two-point spatial nonuniformity correction of a staring sensor. The corrections will be performed on flat fields and barcharts with spatial noise. The signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) for the bars and the background will be calculated before and after the correction. In addition, the simulated image after correction will be evaluated by comparing it with an image from a real system. The limits and assumptions of the simulation also will be discussed.