bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Supervision of Bawaslu Pemalang Regency in the 2020 Regional Head Election
Authors: Mutiarasari Ntika Nur , Herawati Ratna
Published: September 2022

One of the ongoing democratic activities in 2020 is the Election for the Governor and Deputy Governor, the Regent and Deputy Regent, as well as the Mayor and Deputy Mayor simultaneously in 2020. The success of holding regional elections in Indonesia is largely determined by the performance of the election organizers, one of which is the Election Supervisors a supervisory agency that oversees the process of implementing the Pilkada stages. Pilkada supervision during a pandemic is a big challenge for the ranks of Election Supervisors in Indonesia so it is interesting to study this topic. This research focuses on the supervisory policies issued by the Bawaslu RI during the Covid-19 pandemic and is then linked to the supervision carried out by the Pemalang Regency Bawaslu during the 2020 Pilkada. This legal research used a normative juridical approach and was descriptive analytical in nature which was analysed qualitatively. The results of the study show that there are obstacles and strategies in the supervision of election during the pandemic, but Bawaslu RI and its staff including Bawaslu Pemalang in the supervision of the 2020 Pilkada also carry out with more prevention, socialization to the public through online, maximizing social media owned by the District Bawaslu, coordination between agencies / stakeholders. The Election supervision is also carried out by health protocols in handling Covid-19 in their daily activities in carrying out their duties and authorities.
Regulations Harmonization of Proposal and Stipulation of Special Economic Zone in Indonesia
Authors: Masnun Muh Ali , Pratama Radhyca Nanda
Published: September 2022

The acceleration of economic development in Indonesia cannot be separated when the government implements a Special Economic Zone (KEK) policy by using legal instruments in it. The purpose of this study is to examine the harmonization of regulations related to the proposal and determination of SEZ in Indonesia. This study uses normative legal research, using primary and secondary legal materials. First analysis, the provisions of business entities as proposers for SEZ need to be reviewed because they have a cumulative meaning. Second, private business entities proposing SEZ need to be limited, especially in important areas relating to the life of the wider community. Third, the determination of SEZ by the government (Article) needs to pay attention to RTRW, protected forest areas, and / or analysis of environmental impacts. Fourth, stipulation without a proposal stage is contrary to the principle of kinship. Fifth, Article 8 of the UU KEK is inconsistent with the PP on the Implementation of SEZ and the 2011 Minister of Coordinating Ministry for Guidelines for SEZ Proposals. Sixth, the SEZ proposal by the Minister of Research, Technology and Higher Education needs to be scrutinized and analyzed in depth in the process of its determination.
Environmental Law, Populism, and Welfare State: Discourse on Environmental Law in the 21st Century
Authors: Muksinin Ladlul , Aminah Aminah
Published: September 2022

In the 21st century, the problems of environmental law in various parts of the world are getting more and more alarming. The research results by Elizabeth Fisher (2019) and Sanja Bogojevic (2019) indicate that several environmental law policies have been controlled by populism, as happened in several countries in Europe. Populism is transformed into a movement of people's will which certainly has an impact on the enforcement of environmental laws by various countries around the world. For this reason, this paper intends to discuss the law and to find the definition and influence of populism in protecting environmental laws in the welfare state. The aim was to determine a picture of populism and its influence on the development of environmental law. The result is that populism as an idea or ideology also means a discursive style, and it can also be interpreted as a form of political mobilization. The rise of populism threatens the development of environmental law. Populist attitudes lead to climate skepticism on environmental protection. Environmental protection may provide idealized targets for populists by framing this issue area as an elite project. Individuals who display highly populist attitudes perceive a lack of representation in these issue areas and, therefore, because of the problem of anti-elitism, reject climate and environmental policies. In other words, elite resistance tends to be associated with climate skepticism and lower support for environmental protection.
Reconceptualization of The Competence to be held Responsible in National Criminal Code
Authors: Alfarisi Ikhsan , Afriani Fina , Yasmir Yasmir
Published: September 2022

Construction of norm in determining competence to be responsible stated in Criminal Code (KUHP) needs to be reconceptualized because the construction does not make any qualification on the incompetence to be responsible (verminderde teorekeningsvatbaarheid) in criminal science law. . Criminal Code stipulates that a person is deemed incompetence to be responsible for the crime he/she commits for 2 (two) reasons. First is if the person is considered mentally incapable (gebrekkige ontwikkeling), and the second is if a person is considered incapable because of an illness (ziekelijke storing). This article aims to reconceptualize the competence to be responsible stated in National Criminal Code through qualitative literature study on some texts. The finding of the study is that first, the concept of norm competence to be responsible stated in Criminal Code is no longer relevant with current development of psychiatry and law which have been specialized and interdisciplinary. The second is that the categorization of a person’s mental condition considered light and severe mental retard and has given chance for the concept of incompetence to be responsible (verminderde teorekeningsvatbaarheid), which so far is only recognized in criminal study, to be normatively present in light mental retard category and to give a chance to negatief wettelijk evolution in the study of criminal procedure to move to positief wettelijk on the superego of judge’s decision based on visum et repertum psychiatry of a psychiatrist.
Legal Liability of Minors as Perpetrators of Online Buying and Selling Fraud in Indonesia
Authors: Tantimin Tantimin
Published: September 2022

The development of internet technology is directly proportional to the growth of online trade. Easy access to online buying and selling transactions is faced with the risk of fraud, including the fraud committed by minors. This paper discusses the criminal liability of minors who commit criminal acts of fraud in online buying and selling transactions. The research method used was a normative legal research method. The results of this study indicate that online buying and selling transactions carried out by minors based on legal principles of engagement are legal. Fraud of online buying and selling transactions carried out by minors can be subject to criminal penalties by taking into account the rights of children under the Child Protection Act. Although children are not free from legal bondage, keeping children away from the formal justice process can avoid stigmatization of children in conflict with the law.
Urgency of Strengthening Women Participation in The Building of Gender Justice Based Village
Authors: Budoyo Sapto , Hardiyanti Marzellina
Published: September 2022

Village building is part of national building which is regulated in Law No. 6 Year 2014 on Village. People participation is necessary in the building of villages, including the participation of women which is still considered very low particularly in generating their aspiration to build villages. Therefore, strengthening women participation in village building is necessary so that policies regarding women issues can be well accommodated in order to realize village building which is based on gender justice. Law research method was appllied in this study using literature approach in order to collect accurate data. The result of this study shows that it is necessary to strengthen women participation in village building which is based on gender justice because it is indicated that political law in Indonesia tends to support the issue corcerning legal protection toward women position as citizens. This is regulated in constitutional foundation in   Article 27 section (1), Article 28D section (1), and Article 28I section (2) The 1945 Constitution of The Republic of Indonesia and Article 55 No.6 Year 2014 Law on Village. Women representation in villages aims to solve various issues related to women justice particularly on issues around violence cases which seems like a tip of an iceberg and are unresolved. The efforts to strengthen women participation in village building are built through the form of togetherness, growing from root, trust and openness.
The Fulfillment of Rights to Citizenship for Migrant Worker Deportees in Nunukan District
Authors: Mahfud Muh. Afif , Wibawa Kadek Cahya Susila , ALW Lita Tyesta , Saraswati Retno
Published: September 2022

Rights to Citizenship must be protected because it is the basis to be able to access the other rights. Rights to citizenship of migrant workers in Nunukan District is potentially expired and lost if they do not renew their passports. The same case may occur with illegal migrant workers who stay for 5 years abroad. This article aims to analyze the potential of stateless person in Nunukan District, the effort made by the government to handle the issue, and the ideal construction of legal protection for stateless person. This study applied socio legal approach using primary and secondary data which were collected through interview, observation, and in depth interview. Those data then were analyzed qualitatively. Based on the analysis, it is concluded that: (1) the potential of being stateless person in Nunukan District occurred in migrant workers whose passports were expired for more than 5 years, irregular migrant workers who stayed abroad for more than five years, the descendants or children of migrant workers who were born and were raised in Malaysia; (2) the government prevents the occurrence of stateless person: (a) integrated management of handling migrant workers; (b) sweeping in order to prevent irregular migrant workers; (c) simplifying the issuance of Letter of Arrival of Indonesian Citizen (SKDWNI) and Letter of Overseas Arrival (SKDLN); (3)ideal construction of the protection of right to citizenship  for migrant workers is the extension of the scope of migrant workers protection agreement, and the placement of Citizenship and Civil Record Agency officers in order to make the paperwork handling of citizenship document easier.
Reconceptualizing Legal Arrangement on the Doctor-Patient Relationship in Indonesia
Authors: Iswandari Hargianti Dini , Hoque Sanjana
Published: September 2022

The doctor-patient relationship in Indonesia has changed. In the past, patients were inferior to doctors, but over time the relationship has put the two in a more balanced position. This article aims to examine the legal substance in regulating doctor-patient relationships in Indonesia. The arguments presented in this study demonstrated the increase in the number of civil lawsuits or complaints/criminal lawsuits has a substantial impact on legal resolution shifting. Although the law placed the legal relationship among two parties as mere contract-civil relationship, the criminalization is increasingly favored in recent years. As a recommendation, future law-making process needs to comprehensively consider medical science as the basis to lay the legal foundation in regulating doctor-patient relationships.
A Legal Analysis on Resolving Recently Growing Online Business Frauds in Bangladesh
Authors: Kabir Md Adnan
Published: September 2022

In the recent time, the E-commerce sector has been facing serious challenges due to the fraudulent behaviors of a number of E-commerce businesses. Thousands of consumers have lost their money due to these fake transactions. The main purpose of this article is to help to mitigate online business frauds by reviewing the current legislation and regulations in Bangladesh. This research is a descriptive type of research and secondary data and information have been used for study purpose. The study has analyzed existing business laws and provisions, their applicability and deficiencies in reducing online business frauds and dangers. This study finds that there is no committed code or law establishing consumer rights in online businesses. The current laws have not been changed in such a way that online business matters can be handled properly. The study concludes that the legislature may amend existing laws and provisions and also they may consider some foreign countries provisions for taking actions against the fraudulent e-commerce as well as online business organizations. The outcomes of the present study obviously indicate that the risks of online business frauds directly affect consumer behavior when shopping online. Therefore, reducing these risks through undertaking just and proper laws and provisions can increase the trust of the online shopping consumers.
Administrative Enforcement of Food Safety Regulation in Indonesia: Loopholes and Recommendations
Authors: Putri Stephanie Apsari
Published: September 2022

Food safety regulation requires adequate resources. Due to its complexity, food safety regulation needs multidisciplinary stakeholder intervention. The National Agency for Drug and Food Control (NADFC) as the appointed body encountered problems in law enforcement works with other food safety-related bodies. The discussion focuses on the administrative enforcement of food safety regulation in Indonesia and these shortcomings is followed with analysis of some possible solutions. However, their performances are hampered by several issues. This research is conducted with a desktop study of information obtained from primary and secondary sources. Also, to get some insights to improve the administrative enforcement in Indonesia, this study is carried out using comparative method. Therefore, the New South Wales (NSW) laws, regulations, policies, and principles are analysed. This study finds that the drawbacks of the administrative enforcement of food safety regulation in Indonesia is caused by limited enforcement funding; lack of community knowledge and awareness towards food safety; lack of competent food inspectors; and lack of coordination between food safety administrative bodies. Some recommendations have been proposed, namely applying industry funding; implementing food hygiene rating; establishing enforcement guidelines; and appointing a single coordinating body for food safety.
Problems of Law Enforcement in Realizing The Principle of Equality Before The Law in Indonesia
Authors: Rofingi Rofingi , Rozah Umi , Asga Adifyan Rahmat
Published: September 2022

Indonesia is a state of law. The law stipulates the principle of equality before the law. There are various problems in law enforcement. These problems have led to the failure to observe the principle of equality before the law. Just as the persecution suffered by Sarpan, the police admitted that they were the perpetrators of the murder. This is different from the case of Napoleón Bonarparte and Prasetijo Utomo, the suspect of bribery to remove red notice warrant of Djoko Tjandra. In this case, Djoko Tjandra had lunch with the head of the prosecutor's office. This research is significant considering the widespread practice of law enforcement that underestimates the principle of equality before the law, so it will not discriminate against everyone when applying the law in the future. This study uses the non-doctrinal reaserch because it examines laws and regulations and their implementation to the people. From this research, it is found that due to the problems of laws and regulations that are unsuitable for the people, lacked of ethics, beliefs, resources, and transparency in the screening of order agents, the principle of equality before the law has not been implemented, and there is inconsistency in the application of the law Integration leading to the decline in public trust to the law . Therefore, these issues need to be improved to realize the principle of equality before the law in law enforcement.
Strengthening Rembugan as A Mediation Model in The Resolution of River Water Pollution Disputes (A case study in Purbalingga, Central Java, Indonesia).
Authors: Triana Nita , Mukhtar Naqiyah , Izza Farah Nuril , Turistiati Ade Tuti
Published: September 2022

Purbalingga as an industrial area is prone to pollution that has a detrimental impact on society and the environment. It is necessary to find a way that can bring together the parties involved to peacefully resolve environmental disputes. The purpose of this study is to strengthen rembugan as a mediation model for resolving pollution disputes in the old industrial area. This research is qualitative research with a socio-legal approach, by conceptualizing law as non-doctrinal. The results showed that rembugan is a community culture in dispute resolution that reflects the values of local wisdom possessed by the Purbalingga community, namely the attitude of the parties to accept and use consensus methods in dispute resolution. The purpose of rembugan is to achieve harmony and togetherness. The mediator is the Environment Agency (DLH) and Village Head (Kepala Desa). Strengthening rembugan position in the dispute resolution model is supported by Purbalingga community culture, whose characters are honest, free, open, egalitarian, and accepting of consensus.  Strengthening rembugan as a mediation model is also supported by government institutions such as village heads and Environment Agency, and is formally regulated in Law No. 32 of 2009 concerning environmental protection and management.
LES CONTRADICTIONS SYSTEMIQUES COMME SOURCES D’ACCESSIBILITE DIFFICILE DU LANGAGE JURIDIQUE
Authors: Petrů Ivo
Published: September 2022

Résumé : Le langage juridique se présente sous forme de textes difficilement accessibles aux non-initiés. Pourtant, certains de ces textes, comme les textes de lois, sont d’une utilité générale et concernent tout le monde. Tributaire de grands travaux de la théorie juridique sur l’incertitude juridique et de la pratique légistique française, cet article tente de rechercher les sources systémiques de cette situation paradoxale à partir d’exemples tirés notamment du Code civil français. Affirmant que les contradictions qui se manifestent sur le plan linguistique sont immanentes à tout ordre juridique, de l’opposition entre la précision et l’ambiguïté des termes et concepts juridiques, par le conflit entre leur côté traditionnel ou moderne, jusqu’à la divergence entre l’intelligibilité et la technicité des textes juridiques, l’article essaie d’identifier les contradictions systémiques principales responsables de l’accessibilité limitée du langage juridique tant au niveau du vocabulaire juridique qu’au niveau du discours du droit.
The why and how of trustworthy AI
Authors: Schmitz Anna , Akila Maram , Hecker Dirk , Poretschkin Maximilian , Wrobel Stefan
Published: September 2022

Artificial intelligence is increasingly penetrating industrial applications as well as areas that affect our daily lives. As a consequence, there is a need for criteria to validate whether the quality of AI applications is sufficient for their intended use. Both in the academic community and societal debate, an agreement has emerged under the term “trustworthiness” as the set of essential quality requirements that should be placed on an AI application. At the same time, the question of how these quality requirements can be operationalized is to a large extent still open.

In this paper, we consider trustworthy AI from two perspectives: the product and organizational perspective. For the former, we present an AI-specific risk analysis and outline how verifiable arguments for the trustworthiness of an AI application can be developed. For the second perspective, we explore how an AI management system can be employed to assure the trustworthiness of an organization with respect to its handling of AI. Finally, we argue that in order to achieve AI trustworthiness, coordinated measures from both product and organizational perspectives are required.
Cold plasma as a fast acting alternative disinfection method
Authors: Buhl Sebastian , Stich Alexander , Clos Dario , Bulitta Clemens
Published: September 2022

Cold plasma disinfection is a cost-efficient and, above all, fast way of disinfecting even complex products. There are already approaches where plasma disinfection is used for wound treatment or hand disinfection. The ionization of a gas results in a number of physical and chemical processes that have a damaging effect on microorganisms. Especially in the field of medical device reprocessing, a tool that can reliably disinfect even very complex products in a short time would be a great asset. In this work, the potential of a newly developed cold plasma disinfection device was tested for the reduction of microbiological contamination and thus the disinfecting effect. In order to examine this microbiological reduction 3D printed scaffolds with contaminated test plates were used. This was done with different concentrations of the bacteria in the cold plasma disinfection process to determine the maximum germ reduction effect. In a first test run, the maximum effect of germ reduction was achieved with log 3.6. By making further changes and increasing the disinfection cycles, it was possible to increase the germ reduction to log 4.7. If these values are confirmed and can be improved by further modifications (e.g. increasing the plasma concentration), cold plasma technology represents a very good alternative to conventional disinfection methods.
First-cycle oscillation excursions of Pickering-stabilised microbubbles subjected to a high-amplitude ultrasound pulse
Authors: Anderton Nicole , Carlson Craig S. , Matsumoto Ryunosuke , Shimizu Ri-ichiro , Poortinga Albert T. , Kudo Nobuki , Postema Michiel
Published: September 2022

Pickering stabilisation is a manufacturing process involving the adsorption of colloidal particles at gas-liquid interfaces. It is used to create the shells of stable, long-lived ultrasound contrast agent microbubbles. The purpose of the present study is to determine whether high-amplitude sonication influences the integrity of Pickering-stabilised shells. To this purpose, Pickering-stabilised microbubbles were subjected to high-speed photography at 10 million frames per second during 1-MHz, 1-MPa sonication. In addition, radial excursions as a function of time were simulated using the Rayleigh-Plesset equation for free gas microbubbles and microbubbles encapsulated by Pickering-stabilised shells of 7.6-Nm−1 stiffness. The maximum expansions observed from camera recordings were either agreeing with those computed for Pickering-stabilised microbubbles or corresponding to greater values. The results indicate that optically identical microbubbles may undergo shell disruption of different severity. We conclude that the disruption occurs during sonication and not prior to it. These findings may aid in the development of Pickering-stabilised agents that facilitate ultrasoundtriggered release.
Monitoring the gelation of gellan gum with torsion rheometry and brightness-mode ultrasound
Authors: Postema Michiel , Gering Christine , Anderton Nicole , Carlson Craig S. , Kellomäki Minna
Published: September 2022

Gellan gum is a hydrogel with several applications in ultrasonic imaging, novel drug delivery, and tissue regeneration. As hydrogels are dynamic entities, their viscocelastic and therefore their acoustic properties change over time, which is of interest to monitor. To determine the speed of sound from brightness-mode images, however, rather large quantities of hydrogel are needed. In this study, we investigated torsion rheometry as a means to determine acoustic properties. Perceived speeds of sound were derived and computed from torsion rheometry measurements of gelating gellan gum mixed with spermidine trihydrochloride crosslinker. For comparison, brightness-mode ultrasonic images were recorded of the same material inside a phantom well. The rheometry data converged to a speed of sound within a standard devitation of the speed of sound measured from the brightness-mode images.We have shown that dynamic acoustic properties of gelating gellan gum can be simulated and experimentally determined using torsion rheometry.
Feature-based Differentiation of Malignant Melanomas, Lesions and Healthy Skin in Multiphoton Tomography Skin Images
Authors: Lange Irene , Prinke Philipp , Klee Sascha , Piaţek Łukasz , Warzecha Marek , Konig Karsten , Haueisen Jens
Published: September 2022

Malignant melanoma is a very aggressive tumour with the ability to metastasize at an early stage. Therefore, early detection is of great importance. Multiphoton tomography is a new non-invasive examination method in the clinical diagnosis of skin alterations that can be used for such early diagnosis. In this paper, a method for automated evaluation of multiphoton images of the skin is presented. The following features at the cellular and subcellular level were extracted to differentiate between malignant melanomas, lesions, and healthy skin: cell symmetry, cell distance, cell density, cell and nucleus contrast, nucleus cell ratio, and homogeneity of cytoplasm. The extracted features formed the basis for the subsequent classification. Two feature sets were used. The first feature set included all the above-mentioned features, while the second feature set included the significantly different features between the three classes resulting from a multivariate analysis of variance. The classification was performed by a Support Vector Machine, the k-Nearest Neighbour algorithm, and Ensemble Learning. The best classification results were obtained with the Support Vector Machine using the first feature set with an accuracy of 52 % and 79.6 % for malignant melanoma and healthy skin, respectively. Despite the small number of subjects investigated our results indicate that the proposed automatic method can differentiate malignant melanoma, lesions, and healthy skin. For future clinical application, an extended study with more multiphoton images is needed.
An online movement and tremor identification algorithm for evaluation during deep brain stimulation
Authors: Bourgeois Frédéric , Pambakian Nicola , Coste Jérôme , Lange Ijsbrand de , Lemaire Jean-Jacques , Schkommodau Erik , Hemm Simone
Published: September 2022

INTRODUCTION: Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is widely used to alleviate symptoms of movement disorders. During intraoperative stimulation the influence of active or passive movements on the neuronal activity is often evaluated but the evaluation remains mostly subjective. The objective of this paper is to investigate the potential of a previously developed Weighted-frequency Fourier Linear combiner and Kalman filter-based recursive algorithm to identify tremor phases and types. METHODS: Ten accelerometer recordings from eight patients were acquired during DBS from which 186 phases were manually annotated into: rest, postural and kinetic phase without tremor, and rest, postural and kinetic phase with tremor. The method first estimates the instantaneous tremor frequency and then decomposes the motion signal into voluntary and tremorous parts. The tremorous part is used to quantify tremor and the voluntary part to differentiate rest, postural and kinetic phases. RESULTS: Instantaneous tremor frequency and amplitude are successfully tracked online. The overall accuracy for tremorous phases only is 89.1% and 76.3% when also non-tremorous phases are considered. Two main misclassification cases are identified and further discussed. CONCLUSION: The results demonstrate the potential of the developed algorithm as an online tremorous movement classifier. It would benefit from a more advanced tremor detector but nevertheless the obtained digital biomarkers offer an evidence-based analysis and could optimize the efficacy of DBS treatment.
Multiple parallel hidden layers autoencoder for denoising ECG signal
Authors: Samann Fars , Schanze Thomas
Published: September 2022

Deep learning with multiple hidden layers denoising autoencoders (MHL-DAE) is commonly used to denoise images and signals through dimension reduction. Here, we explore the potential of multiple parallel hidden layers denoising autoencoder (MPHL-DAE) to denoise complex bio-signals, like electrocardiogram (ECG). A merge layer, e.g., average layer is considered as the output of the proposed model by combining the outputs of the parallel hidden layers. The parallel hidden layers in the coding layer with activation function of different scale a, e.g., are considered to capture distinct features of the input. The lower/upper number of the required hidden neurons of the coding layer are estimated using data driven approach via singular values decomposition (SVD). The results show that the proposed MPHL-DAE model achieve better/similar SNR improvement compared to MHL-DAE with suitable scale for various noise levels respectively.
Wearable Wake-up System for CCHS Patients
Authors: Mayer Juliane , Junger Philipp , Hokenmaier Lukas , Pott Peter P.
Published: September 2022

Congenital Central Hypoventilation Syndrome (CCHS) leads to insufficient breathing especially during sleep. While patients can be ventilated and monitored during the night, adolescents undergo changes in their biorhythm and lifestyle and are at higher risk to inadvertently fall asleep and stop breathing during the day. In this paper, we propose a prototype mobile wake-up device worn behind both ears that constantly measures oxygen saturation and heart rate noninvasively. If a dangerously low level of saturation is detected, it is assumed that the user fell asleep. To wake them, the device issues an acoustic and haptic alarm. The device settings are accessed via a smartphone app. To evaluate the sensor performance, a subject simultaneously wore the prototype behind his ears and a commercial finger pulse oximeter on his hand. Heart rate and blood oxygen saturation were taken for three measurements of few minutes each. Mean absolute error of oxygen saturation was less than 2 % for two data sets and 6.1 %for the third. It is assumed that during this measurement, the device lost contact to the skin. The heart rate measurement showed satisfactory agreement of < 4 % mean average error. In the future, the measurement quality will be improved by calibration and more reliable attachment to the ear and a user study will be conducted in order to evaluate the prototype usability.
Evaluation of the influence of the nasal cavity in flow simulations of the upper airway of a sleep apnea patient
Authors: Zell Fenja , Ibbeken Alina , Hagen Christina , Steffen Armin , Grzyska Ulrike , Frydrychowicz Alex , Buzug Thorsten M.
Published: September 2022

Computational fluid dynamics can be used to analyze the flow pattern and the anatomical predisposition of the airway collapse in patient-specific simulations of sleep apnea patients. Especially the nasal geometry is a major challenge, because of the complex structures and high calculation effort. Due to this limitations the nasal cavity is often excluded. To investigate the influence of the exclusion of the nasal geometry on the flow in the pharynx, four digital models were created. One, which includes the complete nasal structure, and three simplified models, neglecting the nasal geometry using different cutting planes. Airflow simulations using the k-ε turbulence model are performed with an inlet flow rate of 10 l/min. The results show a good agreement of the average velocities. Deviations of the velocity and pressure values occur particularly in the region of the oropharynx and indicate that the type of simplification has a significant influence on the pressure distribution.
A time-resolved fibrosis model – in vitro assessment of antifibrotic implant coatings
Authors: Khaimov Valeria , Strübing Julia , Stahnke Thomas , Grabow Niels , Schmitz Klaus-Peter , Siewert Stefan
Published: September 2022

Wound healing after implant surgery represents a spontaneous repair process that, when disturbed, can lead to a pathological situation known as fibrosis, characterized by excessive proliferation, increased extracellular matrix deposition, and scarring of the tissue. Tissue-specific cell culture models simulating physiological or pathophysiological cell responses are valuable research tools in the field of fibrosis, among others. In such in vitro systems, endpoint measurements are typically used to assess cell viability and/or proliferation. However, this approach is usually time consuming, costly and often leads to the destruction of the sample. Additionally, these conventional in vitro systems provide only a single snapshot of the respective sample at the end of the experiment. Therefore, we aimed to evolve the fibrotic disease in vitro model established by Stahnke et al. To this end, we chose a time-resolved, non-invasive approach based on cell impedance measurements and bright-field microscopy that allows continuous monitoring of the cells. Such measurements can be directly conducted using the xCELLigence RTCA eSight system. This system was used to characterize the cellular responses of the fibrosarcoma cell line HT-1080 and primary fibroblasts isolated from the Tenon’s capsule of human donors to TGF-β1, a key cytokine involved in the pathogenesis of fibrosis. The data shows that compared to Tenon’s fibroblasts the response of HT-1080 cells to TGF- β1 is less pronounced and only detectable within a narrow time frame. Thus, HT-1080 do not appear to be a suitable cell culture model for the assessment of antifibrotic implant coatings.
Automatic detection of foreign objects and contaminants in colonoscopic video data using deep learning
Authors: Kress Veronika , Wittenberg Thomas , Raithel Martin , Bruns Volker , Lehmann Edgar , Eixelberger Thomas , Hackner Ralf
Published: September 2022

Introduction: In the field of colonoscopy results of automated or supporting procedures using medical image processing are often compromised by contaminants such as blood or stool, but also due to medical instruments. Such objects or contaminations often obscure relevant areas or cause disturbances in various algorithms and also prevent physicians from recognizing relevant information in the video-stream. Hence, automatic detection and segmentation of such contaminations is desirable, by obtaining proper segmentation masks to an algorithm yields the possibility to exclude such areas from analysis. Method: We created a training and validation dataset by collecting (and annotating, where necessary) endoscopic video sequences from various public available datasets and a privat collection. An encoder-decoder deep convolutional neural network was trained with this data to predict segmentation masks for blood, stool, medical instruments and other objects. Results: Depending on the class (blood, stool, ... ), we were able to obtain a mean Dice score in the range between 0.88 to 0.93 on the evaluation dataset. Conclusion: The proposed approach hence allows us providing segmentation masks that are able to reduce problems in the subsequent image analysis and also find regions that were not properly observed.
Annotation Efforts in Image Segmentation can be Reduced by Neural Network Bootstrapping
Authors: Rettenberger Luca , Schilling Marcel , Reischl Markus
Published: September 2022

Modern medical technology offers potential for the automatic generation of datasets that can be fed into deep learning systems. However, even though raw data for supporting diagnostics can be obtained with manageable effort, generating annotations is burdensome and time-consuming. Since annotating images for semantic segmentation is particularly exhausting, methods to reduce the human effort are especially valuable. We propose a combined framework that utilizes unsupervised machine learning to automatically generate segmentation masks. Experiments on two biomedical datasets show that our approach generates noticeably better annotations than Otsu thresholding and k-means clustering without needing any additional manual effort. Using our framework, unannotated datasets can be amended with pre-annotations fully unsupervised thus reducing the human effort to a minimum.
Home rehabilitation system for the upper extremity focusing on technology-aided assessment of spasticity
Authors: Panny Matthias , Nagiller Ines , Nagiller Marco , Kim Yeongmi
Published: September 2022

This paper presents a robotic wrist rehabilitation device that facilitates both pronation/supination and flexion/ extension movements. Further, it provides technologyaided assessment capabilities through measurement of joint stiffness, range of motion (ROM) and detection of the catch that is often associated with spasticity. The mechanical and electrical system design, allowing for aforementioned training and assessment capabilities, is presented. An indirect torque measurement via the actuator currents is proposed, which can determine the angle of catch, and compared to the already established methods of using inertial measurement units. The approach is tested using a simplified, mechanical model of the joint catch on the presented device. The results show that the indirect measurement has similar performance of assessing the angle of catch as the inertial data. Therefore, the presented device shows a potential to assess not only stiffness but also the angle of catch without additional sensors.
Fiber orientation on 3D structured collectors for electrospinning
Authors: Götz Andreas , Grabow Niels , Illner Sabine
Published: September 2022

Electrospinning, a standard technique for producing nonwoven fabrics, is widely used in the biomedical field. Due to local electric fields, fiber deposition is influenced by 3D surface structure of metallic collectors. For complex shaped structures, predicting the deposition and orientation of the fibers remains challenging. Investigations on well-defined structures permit a more detailed insight. In this study, metal blocks with round, slit and square holes of various sizes and depths were fabricated and covered with a thin layer of polymer fibers. The fiber arrangement of the layer was investigated by different microscopic methods. Analysis of the results showed less deposition on round holes and well-bridged aligned fibers on gaps which were less than four times wide as deep. Experimental results confirmed the theoretical predictions. Considering these findings, further work can be addressed to specific collector design to attain targeted fiber deposition.
Novel Procedure for Determining the Finger Force in Flexion Depending on the Finger Position
Authors: Carabello Alina , Henkner Rick , Drossel Welf-Guntram
Published: September 2022

Introduction: The design and development of a novel dynamic hand orthosis that allows individual and progressive adaptation to the patient’s condition require knowledge about the maximum voluntary contraction forces of the fingers. The following work presents a test setup and procedure for determination of isometric finger contraction forces during flexion depending on various finger positions and finger tasks. Methods: The test setup places hand and fingers in certain positions (position 0: grasping of a plate; position 1-3: circular grasping of cylinders of three different diameters). The force measurement is carried out using pressure sensing: A capacitive force sensor is placed on each fingertip. To perform various finger tasks, the subjects are asked for isometric contraction of defined finger groups and single fingers against the boundary system. For proof of the concept, measurements are performed with six subjects and compared with reference values from the literature. Results: The separated finger force of each finger can be captured during the finger tasks in varying positions. Furthermore, the total finger force of all active fingers can be determined. It is shown that the total finger force during contraction of all fingers (IMRLtask; 78.4N ± 25.8N, d2) is higher than during contraction of the index finger (25.8N ± 3.4N, d2). Furthermore, the single finger force of the index finger is higher than the index finger activity in IMRL-task. The results also show a tendency for the finger contraction force to increase with increasing flexion. Further investigations may require improvements to the method. In this proof of concept, this potential is revealed and discussed. However, the functionality of the test setup and procedure can be demonstrated.
Comparison of the Y-90 brachytherapy and Ir-192 brachytherapy of skin tumors: a simulation study
Authors: Pashazadeh Ali , Hoeschen Christoph
Published: September 2022

Skin brachytherapy is a successful practice for treating skin cancer patients. Although a gamma source like an Iridium-192 (Ir-192) is commonly used in the skin brachytherapy, the use of a beta source like Yttrium-90 (Y-90) has also been investigated for this purpose. In the current study, we simulated the dose distribution of a proposed Y-90 applicator and an Ir-192 Leipzig applicator in a skin phantom, and compared the performance of each of the methods in treating three tumors in three hypothetical scenarios. Results of this simulation study showed that because of the sharp dose falloff of beta radiation in tissue, the Y-90 applicator may lead to better protection of the bone and/or cartilage under thin tumors. However, it may lead to excessive skin surface dose if thick skin tumors are treated. To choose between the Ir-192 and Y- 90 applicators, one may need to consider the thickness of the tumor and the thickness of the adipose layer between the tumor and the bone.
Stochastic variational deep kernel learning based diabetic retinopathy severity grading
Authors: Siebert Marlin , Tesmer Nikolay , Rostalski Philipp
Published: September 2022

The retinal disease Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is one of the most probable causes of blindness. Automatic detection of DR is mostly done using convolutional neural networks (CNNs) on colour retinal images. This work in contrast uses stochastic variational deep kernel learning (SVDKL) for DR grading, combining a deep CNN with Gaussian processes (GPs) into a single end-to-end trainable model, which promises to provide predictions with a reliable uncertainty estimate exploiting approximate Bayesian inference. Evaluating the performance and uncertainty calibration of SVDKL on DR grading compared to a plain CNN, the EfficientNet-B0, preliminary results on a subset of the Kaggle DR dataset show a naturally enhanced uncertainty calibration for SVDKL over the plain CNN as well as a good diagnostic performance. Despite SVDKL achieving a slightly reduced accuracy, incorrect predictions were in closer proximity to the target stages, which is beneficial for clinical diagnosis due to minimizing the cost related to severe misclassifications.
Biomarkers based on continuous non-invasive blood pressure - review and outlook
Authors: Fortin Jürgen , Lerche Katja
Published: September 2022

Stationary devices for continuous blood pressure (BP) with user-friendly finger sensors are getting common in various clinical fields and new wearable BP-monitors are about to enter the medical world. Apart from the commonly used parameters systolic and diastolic BP, beat-to-beat as well as pulse shape information of these devices is not easily accessible. This article is a review of existing pattern recognition analysis and an outlook to new biomarkers giving a deep insight into the cardiovascular system and its control.
Investigation of Inertial Cavitation Induced by Modulated Focused Ultrasound Stimuli
Authors: George Benedikt , Savšek Ula , Fischer Dagmar , Ermert Helmut , Rupitsch Stefan J.
Published: September 2022

A passive cavitation detection setup is used to assess and verify the capability of frequency- and amplitudemodulated ultrasound burst signals on the generation of inertial cavitation. The measurements were conducted with a flowthrough tissue-mimicking phantom with a canal of dc = 1mm in diameter simulating a fine blood vessel. By means of a flow velocity of vf= 50mm/s circulating blood in the cardiovascular system is imitated. Applying signal frequencies from f = 550 − 950 kHz and peak rarefaction pressures in a range from ˆpPRFP ≈ 0.17 − 1.81 MPa, various ultrasound stimuli with alternating signal parameters were investigated in the absence and presence of a talcum-water mixture acting as cavitation nuclei. By evaluating the broadband emissions in the frequency domain and calculating the voltage spectral density Srm, the results can be compared. The findings of the present study demonstrate that each ultrasound stimulus triggers a similar strength of cavitation noise at the same Mechanical Index, representing a certain pressure. Over the whole frequency and Mechanical Index (pressure) range, each ultrasound signal type generates a voltage spectral density from Srm= 0.25 − 2.25 V/ √ Hz.
Evaluation of a nonlinear viscoelastic-plastic constitutive model in numerical simulation of thermoplastic polymers for stent application
Authors: Lebahn Kerstin , Kleine Thomas , Fiedler Nicklas , Arbeiter Daniela , Grabow Niels
Published: September 2022

To simulate the specific material properties of thermoplastic polymers a suitable constitutive model is essential. The parallel rheological framework (PRF) model was calibrated and evaluated in this study as potential constitutive model for polymer stent application. Tensile as well as recovery tests with different loading rates were performed using PLLA specimens. In order to calibrate the constitutive model, the conducted material tests were simulated accordingly. The parameters of the model were iteratively varied to obtain good accordance of the simulation with the material tests. In contrast to elastic plastic material models, viscoelastic material behavior can be represented with the nonlinear viscoelastic-plastic PRF model. The generated and possibly further refined model can be used for the simulation of polymer stents.
Determination of Infusion Filter Efficiency applying Dynamic Light Scattering
Authors: Kurzhals Anja , Wulf Katharina , Senz Volkmar , Eickner Thomas , Grabow Niels , Schmidt Wolfram
Published: September 2022

Filter membranes (pore size 0.2 μm) are frequently used to perform a sterile filtration. To characterize the pore size of filter membranes, a method to determine the particle retention of nanoparticles was defined. The Dynamic Light Scattering method was first analysed and calibrated to correlate the particle concentration with absolute intensity of scattered light. Afterwards, standard particle suspensions with particle sizes of 0.150 μm and 0.239 μm were lead through an infusion filter and the particle retention of the filter was evaluated by the determination of the original and the filtrated particle concentration. The test filter retained 91% of the smaller and 98% of the larger particles. Evaluating the particle retention with Dynamic Light Scattering could be a time saving method with lesser effort compared to existing methods.