Spiking Neural Networks and Mathematical Models.

Neural networks are applied in various scientific fields such as medicine, engineering, pharmacology, etc. Investigating operations of neural networks refers to estimating the relationship among single neurons and their contributions to the network as well. Hence, studying a single neuron is an essential process to solve complex brain problems. Mathematical models that simulate neurons and the way they transmit information are proven to be an indispensable tool for neuroscientists. Constructing appropriate mathematical models to simulate information transmission of a biological neural network is a challenge for researchers, as in the real world, identical neurons in terms of their electrophysiological characteristics in different brain regions do not contribute in the same way to information transmission within a neural network due to the intrinsic characteristics. This review highlights four mathematical, single-compartment models: Hodgkin-Huxley, Izhikevich, Leaky Integrate, and Fire and Morris-Lecar, and discusses comparison among them in terms of their biological plausibility, computational complexity, and applications, according to modern literature.

The Healthgrid White Paper.

Over the last four years, a community of researchers working on Grid and High Performance Computing technologies started discussing the barriers and opportunities that grid technologies must face and exploit for the development of health-related applications. This interest lead to the first Healthgrid conference, held in Lyon, France, on January 16th-17th, 2003, with the focus of creating increased awareness about the possibilities and advantages linked to the deployment of grid technologies in health, ultimately targeting the creation of a European/international grid infrastructure for health. The topics of this conference converged with the position of the eHealth division of the European Commission, whose mandate from the Lisbon Meeting was "To develop an intelligent environment that enables ubiquitous management of citizens' health status, and to assist health professionals in coping with some major challenges, risk management and the integration into clinical practice of advances in health knowledge." In this context "Health" involves not only clinical procedures but covers the whole range of information from molecular level (genetic and proteomic information) over cells and tissues, to the individual and finally the population level (social healthcare). Grid technology offers the opportunity to create a common working backbone for all different members of this large "health family" and will hopefully lead to an increased awareness and interoperability among disciplines. The first HealthGrid conference led to the creation of the Healthgrid association, a non-profit research association legally incorporated in France but formed from the broad community of European researchers and institutions sharing expertise in health grids. After the second Healthgrid conference, held in Clermont-Ferrand on January 29th-30th, 2004, the need for a "white paper" on the current status and prospective of health grids was raised. Over fifty experts from different areas of grid technologies, eHealth applications and the medical world were invited to contribute to the preparation of this document.

A web service-based Grid portal for Edgebreaker compression.

BACKGROUND: In health applications, and elsewhere, 3D data sets are increasingly accessed through the Internet. To reduce the transfer time while maintaining an unaltered 3D model, adequate compression and decompression techniques are needed. Recently, Grid technologies have been integrated with Web Services technologies to provide a framework for interoperable application-to-application interaction. OBJECTIVES: The paper describes an implementation of the Edgebreaker compression technique exploiting web services technology and presents a novel approach for using such services in a Grid Portal. The Grid portal, developed at the CACT/ISUFI of the University of Lecce, allows the processing and delivery of biomedical images (CT--computerized tomography--and MRI--magnetic resonance images) in a distributed environment, using the power and security of computational Grids. METHODS: The Edgebreaker Compression Web Service has been deployed on a Grid portal and allows compressing and decompressing 3D data sets using the Globus toolkit GSI (Globus Security Infrastructure) protocol. Moreover, the classical algorithm has been modified extending the compression to files containing more than one object. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: An implementation of the Edgebreaker compression technique and related experimental results are presented. A novel approach for using the compression web service in a Grid portal allowing storing and preprocessing of huge 3D data sets, and subsequent efficient transmission of results for remote visualization is also described.

Comparison of the effect of oxitropium bromide and of slow-release theophylline on nocturnal asthma.

The effects of a new inhaled antimuscarinic drug, oxitropium bromide, and of a slow-release theophylline preparation upon nocturnal asthma were compared in a placebo-controlled double-blind study. Two samples were studied: 12 patients received oxitropium at 600 micrograms (6 subjects) or at 400 micrograms t.i.d. (6 subjects) whereas 11 received theophylline at 300 mg b.i.d. Morning dipping, assessed by the fall in peak flow overnight, was significantly reduced in the periods when either active drug was taken, whereas no difference was noticed during the placebo administration. No significant difference was noticed between results obtained with either active drug, as well as with either dosage of oxitropium. No subject reported side effects of oxitropium, as compared to three subjects reporting nausea, vomiting and tremors after theophylline. Oxitropium proves to be a valuable alternative to theophylline in nocturnal asthma, since it is equally potent, safer and does not require the titration of dosage.