Radim Farana

Inter-Rater Reliability of Carotid Atherosclerotic Plaque Quantification by 3-Dimensional Sonography

Embolization from atherosclerotic carotid plaques is the most common cause of ischemic stroke; therefore, identification of high‐risk plaques by sonography is important. The aim of this study was to investigate the agreement between 2 investigators in the evaluation of sonographic parameters relating to plaque stability.

MOULD LEVEL CONTROL FOR THE CONTINUOUS STEEL CASTING

Abstract Existing systems for the control of mould level of continuous steel casting in Czech Steelworks have had problems with the stability of the steel level position. A new control algorithm is designed on the basis of mathematical modelling and digital simulation. This should better satisfy the actual demand on the control quality. A PI controller with a variable gain and dither signal was used. During several months of practical tests and the experimental tuning of the controller, parameters were determined regarding the required shape time diagram of the steel level for all types of steels, resulting in very good slab surface quality.

Advances in the development of an imaging device for plaque measurement in the area of the carotid artery

This paper describes the advances in the development and subsequent testing of an imaging device for three-dimensional ultrasound measurement of atherosclerotic plaque in the carotid artery. The embolization from the atherosclerotic carotid plaque is one of the most common causes of ischemic stroke and, therefore, we consider the measurement of the plaque as extremely important. The paper describes the proposed hardware for enhancing the standard ultrasonic probe to provide a possibility of accurate probe positioning and synchronization with the cardiac activity, allowing the precise plaque measurements that were impossible with the standard equipment. The synchronization signal is derived from the output signal of the patient monitor (electrocardiogram (ECG)), processed by a microcontroller-based system, generating the control commands for the linear motion moving the probe. The controlling algorithm synchronizes the movement with the ECG waveform to obtain clear images not disturbed by the heart activity.

Smart fiber optic sensors for small displacement measurement

The paper describes implementation of smart sensors (SS) at the distributed measurement systems. To the main advantages of smart sensors bleong: -- compact form with common supply and standard output signals, with good functionality at hard conditions, -- minimization and compensation of the disturb influence to measuring transducers and to the output signal (temperature influence, static characteristic non-linearity, transfer disturbing), -- local signal processing with duplex communication, function testing and data validation. Some results will be present with design, structure and properties of small displacement smart sensors with two types of optical fiber transducers. These sensors are interconnected with controllers by ILAN or WLAN with PC computers and SCADA/MMI program support that enable to reach very good functional parameters with higher flexibility, reliability, testing and maintenance.