Our most important research publications

Abstract: The dissertation focuses on the matters of interface between the human brain and computer (Brain Computer interface) that enables direct communication of a human being with a computer, at this time only in direction from the human towards the computer. The theoretical part of the dissertation covers current matters of direct communication between the human and the computer through the electroencephalography (EEG), processing methods of evoked potentials and possibilities of adaptation and their respective usage in the field of BCI systems. The second part of the work encompasses the proposal and verification of the original adaptation method for the BCI system. To reach this aim a system concept was proposed which was further replenished by various aspects improving its features and results. The author proved in his work that the adaptation represents a way to the creation of the BCI system capable of good understanding of a random subject, who begins to operate the developed system.

Abstract: The book describes many aspects of the reliability of interactions among drivers and their vehicles; this reliability attracts the interest of researchers in many countries for a long time. The field of driver-car interaction reliability involves extremly wide spectrum of aspects concerning many areas of science and technology. Therefore a well cooperated group of specialists of 11 Czech universities, research institutes and industrial companies was estabilished with the aim to solve the main problems of the interaction reliability between road vehicle and its driver. The knowledge reached in this area are presented in this book and it will be very useful for all people who will continue in this research.

Abstract: This article proposes automated approach for whole brain infarction core delineation while using only non-contrast computed tomography and computed tomography angiography. The main aim is to provide additional information measuring infarction core volume while exceeding certain level is contraindication of early recanalization. Process of generation of Perfusion Blood Volume maps is described first followed by description of process of infarction core delineation. Verification of correctness is based on comparison against follow-up examinations. Discussion and future works summarizes weaknesses of the method and steps for improvement.

Abstract: Our Medicine-oriented research is based on a medical data set of real patients. It is a security problem to share patient private data with peoples other than clinician or hospital staff. We have to remove person identification information from medical data. The medical data without private data are available after a de-identification process for any research purposes. In this paper, we introduce an universal automatic rule-based de-identification application to do all this stuff on an heterogeneous medical data. A patient private identification is replaced by an unique identification number, even in burned-in annotation in pixel data. The identical identification is used for all patient medical data, so it keeps relationships in a data. Hospital can take an advantage of a research feedback based on results.

Abstract: The paper deals with ERP (Event related potentials) components detection using wavelet transform (both continuous and discrete form), matching pursuit algorithm and Hilbert-Huang transform. The EEG/ERP domain is shortly introduced and essential information about EEG and ERP signals is given. The wavelet transform, matching pursuit algorithm, and Hilbert-Huang transform are introduced and their suitability for ERP components detection is described. Experimental results obtained by using these algorithms for P3 component detection are summarized.

Abstract: The paper deals with ERP (Event related potentials) components detection using wavelet transform and matching pursuit algorithm. The EEG/ERP domain is shortly introduced and essential information about EEG and ERP signals is given. The wavelet transform, matching pursuit algorithms and its modification are introduced and their suitability for ERP components detection is described. Experimental results obtained by using these algorithms for P3 component detection are summarized.

Abstract: The pancreas, liver and hypothalamus have a regulatory function in the glucose homeostasis. As the blood glucose level changes, these compartments react and the level changes again. Subsequently, the interstitial glucose level changes with some delay. I propose a hypothesis that the change of the blood glucose level includes information about the estimated rate with which the hypothalamus expects the blood glucose level to return to normal range by means of regulatory mechanisms. Also, I propose a method to estimate the blood-to-interstitial glucose level delay. With this delay, it was possible to relate the present blood glucose level and future interstitial glucose level with such coefficients, which do not seem to change over the time of the experiment to a significant extent. Perhaps, it is a parameterization of the regulatory processes, which could be possibly encoded within hypothalamus set-points.

Abstract: Several modifications of the Hilbert-Huang transform are presented in this paper. Modifications were designed to restrain the over/undershoot effect oc- curring when envelopes are being calculated. My modifications contribute to better estimation of additional extrema and improve the results acquired from processing the EEG signal (even when it is contamined with artifacts). They make the empirical mode decomposition faster and the decomposed IMFs cor- responds more with the original EEG signal.

Abstract: This preliminary paper deals with influence of mental load on driver?s attention. EEG (electroencephalography) and ERP (Event related potentials) techniques are used for investigation of the level of driver?s attention. A short overview of experiments dealing with drivers? attention is given and the ERP technique and the P3 component are described. General assumptions related to P3 amplitude and P3 latency are introduced. Then experimental design is described. At present the resulting EEG/ERP data are analyzed and their interpretation will be provided during congress presentation and in the final version of the paper.

Abstract: This paper deals with the processing of signals from EEG/ERP experiments. Selected methods for EEG/ERP signal processing are shortly presented. Since these methods are usually implemented for various platforms and within various tools, a new designed and developed software system, which allows users running them uniformly, is presented. The methods are added and processed as plug-ins. It ensures a high modularity and flexibility of the system. The main system components (JERPA, JUIGLE) are introduced and shortly described.

Abstract: Brain research is currently a rapidly growing scientific field. Large amounts of data, various data formats and non-standardized domain descriptions lead to incompatible results and interpretations of neuroscientific data and to difficult communication between laboratories and scientific teams. Neuroinformatics, a newly established scientific field, provides integration across all levels and scales of neuroscience. Our research group has contributed to the building of a neuroinformatics infrastructure by developing and integrating data management and analytic tools for EEG/ERP (electroencephalography, event-related potential) research.

Abstract: The cerebrovascular diseases research are based on real patient's data received from a collaborating centre. The goal of research is to take advantage of heterogeneous medical data relationships. Medical data relationships leads to get more data mining facilities in studying of dependencies and crucial values of parameters in a huge volume of real imaging examinations with clinical and therapeutic data. There are lot of difficulties and security issues when providing research on medical data. All real patient's identifiers must be removed for privacy reasons. A research team does not necessity know the patient identity information. We keep limited characteristics only and can be accessible to patient's medical doctors. These characteristics are useful to provide us analysis and statistics results. The aggregated results are publicly available.

Abstract: The paper shortly describes EEG/ERP domain and the system for storage and management of data and metadata from EEG/ERP experiments. The system has been developed using common technologies and data structures (object oriented code, relational database). A registration of the system as a recognized data source requires representation of its data and metadata by semantic web resources. A short overview of differences between common data structures and semantic web representations is given and possible approaches to automated transformation of data and metadata from common data structures are mentioned. The existing semantic web frameworks and tools, widely tested for our purposes, are listed. Finally, the integration of selected tools and the software solution for automated transformation from the relational database to a semantic web representation is described.

Abstract: Generally, the interoperability is the key feature to any widely used application or an information system. A system build on the basis of semantic data interpretation can also lead to an easy extensible and adaptable system, in the future. Otherwise, you have to deal with a lack of agreed terminologies or codes between standards e.g. DASTA vs. HL7, different coding structures and even variety of file formats or inconsistent database table schema. The most of these difficulties can be solved by the semantically interoperable system. We present our implementation strategy and meta data extraction methods for a research information system with an heterogeneous medical data. The medical data can have different origin, type, file format and even its version. We discuss the research information system that we primarily use for cerebrovascular brain diseases research.

Abstract: This paper deals with the software infrastructure for EEG/ERP (electroencephalography, event related potentials) research. The requirements for building this infrastructure have arisen from laboratory needs, unavailability of appropriate software tools and incompatibility of previously used commercial solutions. The standardization of EEG/ERP data formats and construction of complex and publicly open software infrastructure is also supported by International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility (INCF) since these efforts can significantly accelerate brain research. The presented software infrastructure includes the web based EEG/ERP portal as the central data storage for data/metadata obtained in EEG/ERP experiments and JERPA software as the desktop software tool for computationally demanding operations. Supporting libraries (e.g. library of signal processing methods), developed and integrated to EEG/ERP portal and/or JERPA software, are briefly described.

Abstract: This paper deals with difficulties occurring during transformation of schema and data from an object-oriented code to a semantic web representation (RDF, OWL). The authors describe differences in semantic expressivity between the object-oriented approach and the semantic web approach and look for the ways to fill this semantic gap. Then some existing approaches with their difficulties are introduced and a preliminary idea using Java annotations is proposed. Java annotations add missing semantic information into Java code, which is consequently processed by the proposed framework and serialized into output semantic web structure (OWL).