Brno University of Technology

About: Brno University of Technology is a education organization based out in Brno, Czechia. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Fracture mechanics & Filter (video). The organization has 6339 authors who have published 15226 publications receiving 194088 citations. The organization is also known as: Vysoké učení technické v Brně & BUT.

Prefrontal but not temporal grey matter changes in males with first-episode schizophrenia.

Abstract: Introduction Changes of brain morphology are now considered as a part of the pathology of schizophrenia. Voxel-based morphometry may be used to study regional changes of the grey matter in the whole brain. It is advantageous to study first-episode patients to prevent the influence of many possible biasing factors when trying to identify primary pathological processes underlying the manifestation of the illness. Objective To investigate regional grey matter changes in the first-episode schizophrenia patients. Methods Optimized voxel-based morphometry was used to detect changes in grey matter volume in 22 patients with first-episode schizophrenia compared with 18 healthy volunteers of comparable age, gender and handedness. Results The first-episode schizophrenia group had significantly reduced grey matter volume in the prefrontal cortex (inferior and middle prefrontal gyrus, cingulate gyrus). We identified no differences in the temporal cortex. Conclusion Our data support the theoretical assumption that prefrontal dysfunction underlines the primary pathology and clinical manifestation of schizophrenia. We are inclined to explain the differences in the pattern of morphological changes reported in other first-episode studies – especially the lack of changes in the temporal cortex – by heterogeneity of schizophrenia, potential progression and antipsychotic medication effect.

Study of the performance of RSSI based Bluetooth Smart indoor positioning

Abstract: Recently, there is a high interest for appropriate systems and methods to localize the position of people and their devices in indoor environments (e.g. home, office, hospital). From technical and economical points of view, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) is one of the promising technologies in this field. This paper deals with the study of performances of this technology for these purposes. For the indoor localization, a received signal strength indication (RSSI) method is used. It was tested in ideal (anechoic chamber) and real (in the office) environment conditions. For the measurement campaign and evaluation of the obtained results a generic framework is proposed. Experimental results (simulation vs. measurement) show similar behaviour of the BLE technology in ideal (no signal reflection) and real (multipath propagation) transmission environments.