Abstract: Computational simulations of the heart are a powerful tool for a comprehensive understanding of cardiac function and its intrinsic relationship with its muscular architecture. Cardiac biomechanical models require a vector field representing the orientation of cardiac fibers. A wrong orientation of the fibers can lead to a
non-realistic simulation of the heart functionality. In this paper we explore the impact of the fiber information on the simulated biomechanics of cardiac muscular anatomy. We have used the John Hopkins database to perform a biomechanical simulation using both a synthetic benchmark fiber distribution and the data obtained experimentally from DTI. Results illustrate how differences in fiber orientation affect heart deformation along cardiac cycle.

Abstract: International conference on Cardiac electrophysiological simulation challenge
In this paper, we show that canonical (shape-based) geometries can be endowed to cardiac structures using tubular coordinates defined over their medial axis. We give an analytic formulation of these geometries by means of B-Splines. Since B-Splines present vector space structure PCA can be applied to their control points and statistical models relating boundaries and the interior of the anatomical structures can be derived. We demonstrate the applicability in two cardiac structures, the 3D Left Ventricular volume, and the 2D Left-Right ventricle set in 2D Short Axis view.

Abstract: High mental workload reduces human performance and the ability to correctly carry out complex tasks. In particular, aircraft pilots enduring high mental workloads are at high risk of failure, even with catastrophic outcomes. Despite progress, there is still a lack of knowledge about the interrelationship between mental workload and brain functionality, and there is still limited data on flight-deck scenarios. Although recent emerging deep-learning (DL) methods using physiological data have presented new ways to find new physiological markers to detect and assess cognitive states, they demand large amounts of properly annotated datasets to achieve good performance. We present a new dataset of electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings specifically collected for the recognition of different levels of mental workload. The data were recorded from three experiments, where participants were induced to different levels of workload through tasks of increasing cognition demand. The first involved playing the N-back test, which combines memory recall with arithmetical skills. The second was playing Heat-the-Chair, a serious game specifically designed to emphasize and monitor subjects under controlled concurrent tasks. The third was flying in an Airbus320 simulator and solving several critical situations. The design of the dataset has been validated on three different levels: (1) correlation of the theoretical difficulty of each scenario to the self-perceived difficulty and performance of subjects; (2) significant difference in EEG temporal patterns across the theoretical difficulties and (3) usefulness for the training and evaluation of AI models.