Electric Stimulation

This book provides useful information to physicians for managing ocular hypertension, which is one of the more controversial ocular conditions. It examines the social aspects of the disease and the new technologies available for treating it.

In the first contribution, Morbiducci and co-workers discuss the theoretical and methodological bases supporting the Lagrangian- and Euler-based methods, highlighting their application to cardiovascular flows. The second contribution, by the Ansón and van Lenthe groups, proposes an automated virtual bench test for evaluating the stability of custom shoulder implants without the necessity of mechanical testing. Urdeitx and Doweidar, in the third paper, also adopt the finite element method for developing a computational model aim to study cardiac cell behavior under mechano-electric stimulation. In the fourth contribution, Ayensa-Jiménez et al. develop a methodology to approximate the multidimensional probability density function of the parametric analysis obtained developing a mathematical model of the cancer evolution.

While the ability of animals to learn rhythms is an unquestionable fact, the underlying neurophysiological mechanisms are still no more than conjectures. This monograph explores the requirements of such mechanisms, reviews those previously proposed and postulates a new one based on a direct electric coding of stimulation frequencies. Experi­ mental support for the option taken is provided both at the single neuron and neural network levels. More specifically, the material presented divides naturally into four parts: a description of the experimental and theoretical framework where this work becomes meaningful (Chapter 2), a detailed specifica­ tion of the pacemaker neuron model proposed together with its valida­ tion through simulation (Chapter 3), an analytic study of the behavior of this model when submitted to rhythmic stimulation (Chapter 4) and a description of the neural network model proposed for learning, together with an analysis of the simulation results obtained when varying seve­ ral factors related to the connectivity, the intraneuronal parameters, the initial state and the stimulation conditions (Chapter 5). This work was initiated at the Computer and Information Science Depart­ ment of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and completed at the Institut de c Lber n e t Lca of the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Barcelona. Computers at the latter place have adopted Catalan as their mother tongue and thus some computer-made figures in this monograph, specially those in Chapter 5, appear labeled in that tongue.

While the ability of animals to learn rhythms is an unquestionable fact, the underlying neurophysiological mechanisms are still no more than conjectures. This monograph explores the requirements of such mechanisms, reviews those previously proposed and postulates a new one based on a direct electric coding of stimulation frequencies. Experi­ mental support for the option taken is provided both at the single neuron and neural network levels. More specifically, the material presented divides naturally into four parts: a description of the experimental and theoretical framework where this work becomes meaningful (Chapter 2), a detailed specifica­ tion of the pacemaker neuron model proposed together with its valida­ tion through simulation (Chapter 3), an analytic study of the behavior of this model when submitted to rhythmic stimulation (Chapter 4) and a description of the neural network model proposed for learning, together with an analysis of the simulation results obtained when varying seve­ ral factors related to the connectivity, the intraneuronal parameters, the initial state and the stimulation conditions (Chapter 5). This work was initiated at the Computer and Information Science Depart­ ment of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and completed at the Institut de c Lber n e t Lca of the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Barcelona. Computers at the latter place have adopted Catalan as their mother tongue and thus some computer-made figures in this monograph, specially those in Chapter 5, appear labeled in that tongue.

An exploration of cutting-edge theories on the electromagnetic basis of consciousness