Invited Speakers

Pedro Damião Rebelo, (MD), University of Aveiro

Title of the talk: Learning from nature

Short Bio: Pedro Damião dos Santos Rebelo (MD), USF Fénix de Aveiro, University of Aveiro

Rui Fonseca-Pinto, (MD, Ph.D.), Polytechhnic of Leiria

Title of the talk: Adaptive Analysis in Medical Data Processing: The Hilbert-Huang Transform Challenges

Abstract: Mathematical methods have historically assumed a central role in classical Signal Pro- cessing theory, carrying the robustness of the formal demonstration techniques to the methodologies, which start in some cases by empirical rules with good results in practice. Despite the solid Mathematical foundation, there are assumptions regarding the signal and the system itself that, if not considered, can lead to biased information, incomplete results or results without physical meaning. When faced with real data, usually we are dealing with the transient nature of the physical phenomena itself, and also to the finite span of captured data (which may be shorter than the longest time scale that describes the phenomena).

Signal stationarity and system linearity must be regarded as an exception instead of a rule in real data signal processing (in particular in biomedical data in which the non-stationarity property is highly present). Hence, a new paradigm of signal processing has emerged since the early nineties of the last century, changing the imposed a priori knowledge of the basis functions (i.e. sinusoidal functions or more recently wavelet func- tions). This adaptive analysis approach is based on the idea of choosing the methodology independently of the data to be processed.

In this talk, the Hilbert-Huang Transform (HHT) state-of-the-art will be presented, pointing the main steps in the recently proposed solutions for some identified drawbacks in the technique.The main goal is to increase the awareness of the Mathematical community for the open problems regarding the EMD decomposition. In order to illustrate the HHT performance, recent results from our group will be presented regarding the assessment of the homeostatic control in chronic dysfunction of the Autonomic Nervous System and also some examples of the clinical potential of using HHT in acute are management and clinical decision with patients.

Short CV: Rui Fonseca-Pinto (MD, Ph.D.), ciTechCare – center for innovative care and health technology, Polytechhnic of Leiria, IT – Instituto de Telecomunicações, Leiria