Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
is analyzed in respect to local trends in data windows. The method allows to detect
long-range correlations embedded in a non-stationary time series. The procedure
relies on the conversion of a bounded time series x t
(
t
N)
into an unbound process:
X t :
t
i = 1 ( x i x i )
X t
=
(2.134)
where X t is called a cumulative sum and
is the average in the window t . Then the
integrated time series is divided into boxes of equal length L , and a local straight line
(with slope and intercept parameters a and b )isfitted to the data by the least squares
method:
x i
L
i = 1 ( X i a i b )
E 2
2
=
(2.135)
Next, the fluctuation—the root-mean-square deviation from the trend is calculated
over every window at every time scale:
1
L
L
i = 1 ( X i a i b )
F
(
L
)=
2
(2.136)
This detrending procedure followed by the fluctuation measurement process is
repeated over the whole signal over all time scales (different box sizes L ). Next, a
log
is constructed.
A straight line on this graph indicates statistical self-affinity, expressed as F
log graph of L against F
(
L
)
(
)
L α . The scaling exponent α is calculated as the slope of a straight line fittothe
log
L
(
)
.
The fluctuation exponent α has different values depending on the character of the
data. For uncorrelated white noise it has a value close to
log graph of L against F
L
1
2 , for correlated process
1
2 , for a pink noise α
3
2
α
>
=
1 (power decaying as 1
/
f ), α
=
corresponds to
Brownian noise.
In the case of power-law decaying autocorrelations, the correlation function de-
cays with an exponentγ: R
L γ and the power spectrum decays as S
f β .
(
L
)
(
f
)
The three exponents are related by relations: γ
β.
As with most methods that depend upon line fitting, it is always possible to find a
numberα by the DFA method, but this does not necessarily mean that the time series
is self-similar. Self-similarity requires that the points on the log
=
2
,
β
=
1, and γ
=
1
log graph are suffi-
ciently collinear across a very wide range of window sizes. Detrended fluctuation is
used in HRV time series analysis and its properties will be further discussed in Sect.
4.2.2.4.3.
2.5.4 Recurrence plots
Usually the dimension of a phase space is higher than two or three which makes
its visualization difficult. Recurrence plot [Eckmann et al., 1987] enables us to in-
vestigate the m -dimensional phase space trajectory through a two-dimensional repre-
sentation of its recurrences; namely recurrence plot (RP) reveals all the times when
 
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