Search

The natural world provides numerous cases for analogy and inspiration in engineering design. During the early stages of design, particularly during concept generation when several variants are created, nature can be used to inspire innovative solutions to a design problem. However, identifying and presenting the valuable knowledge from the biological domain to an engineering designer during concept generation is currently a somewhat disorganized process or requires extensive knowledge of a particular method. The proposed research aims to define and formalize the information identification and knowledge transfer processes, which will enable systematic development of biologically-inspired, engineering designs. The computational framework for discovering biological inspiration during function-based design activities is presented and discussed through an illustrative example. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Home Care is considered as a strategy for dehospitalization and humanization of health care. This modality is increased due to epidemiologist profile changes and to new legislation, which aim specially towards aged people primary care and people with physical deficiency. The necessity to keep Home Care as a hospital complement and the difficulty in adjusting the domestic environment for that practice offers Clinical Engineering an opportunity of integration in new health areas. The objective of this paper is to show this opportunity. A platform for Clinical Engineering and Home Care integration is proposed, and that allows through Medical Technology Management activities to get one adequate use of the Home Care technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several respiratory diseases, as well as surgical procedures, introduce pathological alterations in the thoracoabdominal motion. The aim of the present study is to investigate alterations in respiratory mechanics of healthy people, under different breathing patterns by using a real-time implementation of the Forced Oscillation Technique. Twenty individuals were submitted to a protocol in which they performed different breathing patterns for a period of 18 seconds. The results suggest that alterations in the normal breathing pattern can increase the mechanical load of the respiratory system, especially in men and during the exhalation phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The simplified virtual phantoms do not offer good representations for organs and complex anatomic structures. More elaborated, voxel-based phantoms require a significant quantity of tomography images as reference in order to be generated. In both cases, it is not possible to change the composition and position parameters of the generated models, even using external tools. This paper presents a method for populating an image database with virtual anatomic structures from 3-D phantoms generated using a multi-platform software called Blender. The phantoms generation process was based on images from an anatomy atlas and pictures from a skeleton with certified measures. The resulting models present high-definition graphics, comprising three distinct layers that represent, respectively, the human body external anatomy, the osseous system and the internal organs. New phantoms can be generated by modifying the model's appearance and positioning in the tool. The phantoms can also be sectioned from different perspectives, generating images that could be stored in a 2-D image database, making its usage faster, more efficient and functional. The possibility of changing parameters related to the phantoms anatomy and positioning, even using a modeling tool, makes the new kind of phantom a good alternative to voxel-based computer-generated phantoms, without the main problems found on the adoption of the later ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper describes the phases involved in the design and implementation of a Graphic Module, intended to the visualization of biomedical signals and alphanumeric information on a Dot Matrix Liquid Crystal Display. The processing tasks, oriented to transform the digitalized biosignal into the appropriated format, so that it can be displayed properly on a Graphic LCD, were carried out by a Field Programmable Gate Array FPGA. All the digital modules implemented in the FPGA were described using the Very High Speed Integrated Circuit Hardware Description Language VHDL. A methodological approach for the displaying of biomedical signal waveforms and related alphanumeric information on a Graphic LCD was included, as well as the way the characters, the numbers and others special symbols were coded. The biomedical information provided by a Breath Rate Monitor, designed by the Research and Development Group, was used as a test signal, obtaining suitable results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the decade of the sixties, the health care institutions in Venezuelans have suffered a marked and continuous deterioration in their operation, especially regarding their infrastructure and equipment. This is due in part to the lack of an adequate technological management system applied to the health technologies. The objective of this work is to discuss the concept of technological management applied to the field of the health technologies, and later to describe the organizational structure proposed by the Simon Bolívar University for the installation of Clinical Engineering Departments in Venezuelan hospitals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, two methods for T wave segmentations were compared: classic method based on differentiator filter and the method based on slope estimation. This study was carried out on simulated electrocardiogram (ECG) signals with four simulated added noise types: (a) baseline wander due to breathing (0-0.5 Hz), (b) motion artifacts (3-5 Hz), (c) electromyography and motion artifacts (Gaussian white noise), (c) mixed effects (sum of the previous noises). Four conditions of Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) were computed: 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 dB. The beginning, the end and the width of the T wave was determined with both methods and the mean absolute error was computed for all signals. The slope estimation method shows a T wave width larger than the obtained with the differentiator filter. Both methods showed that the end location is easier to find than the beginning of the T wave. The achieved performance shows a satisfying behavior of both methods in favorable conditions of SNR. However, the differentiator filter method shows better performance that the method base on slope estimation. The noise due to motion artifacts affect greatly the mean absolute error in the beginning and end location of the T wave. An important increase of T wave width variability induced by the artifacts was observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present work, we studied the effect of the mineral content (hydroxyapatite), on the thermal stability of the bone collagen matrix. The demineralization process was followed measuring the percentage of remaining mass and characterized by Fourier Transform Infra Red Spectroscopy (FTIR) and Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), using a Calcium chelant agent (EDTA). A 52 % loss of the initial weight was observed after 72 hours of treatment, associated with a decrease of the mineral content, indicated by changes in the intensity of the peaks correspondent to PO4-3 vibrations. The bone collagen's denaturalization and degradation temperatures was followed by DSC, showing an endotherm in 166° C for the untreated bone and in 113°C for the 72 hours treated bone, correspondent both to the bone collagen denaturalization temperature. The thermogram for the 12 hours demineralized exhibited a small endotherm in 250°C, corresponding to slight degradation, for the 72 hours treated bone the endotherm decreased to 230° C, correspondent to the bone collagen degradation. The above results lead us to conclude that the bone collagen triple helix losses its thermal stability when the interactions with the surrounding hydroxyapatite are eliminated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Single-Trial detection for Evoked Potentials is presented, it was tested with Event Related Potentials (oddball) which are used in the Donchin's Speller. The scheme is based in inner product of registered potentials over signal subspaces, estimated by principal components analysis. Different combinations of projection coefficients were used as characteristic vectors for a gaussian Support Vector Machine classifier. To assess the scheme performance, the ROC area and accuracy were evaluated. Procedures were tested on 9 healthy subjects. Results suggest that the scheme could be used on line. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the main threaths of Obstetrics, since many yaers ago, has been the search of non-invasive mechanisms for evaluating the in-uterus foetal develope and conditions. One of this biophysical variables studied is the foetal respirathory movements (FRM), that can give us valuable physiological and clinical information of the fetus as a biophysical profile and an estimation of integration and conditions of respiartory centers until the muscles involucrated in the generation of the RFM during the prenancy period until the breathing after birth. The goal of this proyect is to analize the FRM pattern obtained by processing 3.5 MHz M mode ultrasonic images. First of all we selected the part of the video related to the RFM, and it was filtered, adjusted in brigthness and contrast, eroted, dilated, in order to generated a signal associated to the movements of the foetal thorax or abdomen. For this signals it can be obtained FRM parameters as "respirathory"frequency, inspyrathory and espirathory times. Thoes parameters has been obtained by deriving the RFM signal and standarizes it value, in order to make easier the claculation of the parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evoked potential (EP) elicited by sensorial stimulation is overlapped on spontaneous oscillations of the electroencephalogram (EEG). The standard method to estimate the EP is the coherent average of EEG epochs, but in many cases, there are not sufficient epochs to improve satisfactorily the signal-to-noise relation (SNR). Then, a method to improve the SNR of the EP based on a wavelet denoising tool associated with a cyclic shift of the epochs, collected during 5 Hz pulse stimulus on the tibial nerve, is presented. In this context, the choice of the wavelet can determine the improvement in SNR. To help in the choice, measures of the latency and amplitude of the EP components using different wavelets was compared with the EP model. The Reverse Biorthogonals wavelets presented better results, and demonstrate to be good choices for the analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main goal of this study is to design a foot prosthesis for transtibial amputees that can be produced in Colombia and reaches the performance requirements for an active lifestyle. The material meant for this purpose is a carbon fiber composite due to is high strength, modulus and stiffness and moderate cost. The matrix of the composite is a low modulus epoxy resin to ensure a fiber-dominated strength case. The prosthesis is designed for the average Colombian amputee, weighting 80kg (175lb) and having foot dimensions 27cm (10.6in) long and 8cm (3.15in) wide, and for a high activity level, in which vertical forces can reach up to 350% of bodyweight. The prosthesis is designed using mathematical models and validated using Finite Element Analysis software. The design includes the foot prosthesis and an aluminum alloy pyramid adapter. The prosthesis is intended to be manufactured initially by lamination and later by vacuum infusion and water cutting pretending to be produced, in a near future, at a scale that answers the need of foot prosthesis in Colombia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This papers describes the risk analysis of high-frequency Electrosurgical Units. It was in five stages, enclosing from equipment principle of functioning uplo the risks points of control and its periodicity, searched in scientific publications, end alert of ECRI and specific national and international estandart with respect to high-frequency electrosurgical units. As results it was suggest risks the management, detaching the risks factors, the hazard, the damages, the control points and the periodicity for accomplishment of the control points, with the objective not only protect to the patients and operators, but of also detaching the importance of the participation of all the staff involved in the process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Article shows the design of a system for detection of retinal diseases using stimulation and multianswer interpretation techniques, as the multifocal Electroretinogram (mfERG). Here is considered the design of a new computerized ophthalmologic instrument, for the evaluation of the electrophysiological answer of the retina that will make possible the development of future investigations that can conduct to the functional diagnosis of the visual field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The disciplines that need human body parts to teach their programs have great problems dealing with obtaining and maintaining those organs. To avoid these difficulties this paper suggests a prototype constructed with Artificial Intelligence, through Artificial Neural Nets, used to develop a system with which the student can interact during his learning. The program has computer treated real images to substitute body parts and the user can point, given signals and symptoms, which areas of the organs are their cause. The constructed prototype is directed to the spinal cord and an Artificial Neural Net is developed with patterns obtained in normal Neuroanatomy books with an expert help. The user is presented, at each interaction, to a random set of signals and symptoms and then he is urged to indicate in a displayed image, which parts of the organ could be damaged. Tests with medicine students using this dynamically conducted software had good results, showing that adequate systems could replace the usual methods or be used in cooperation with them, diminishing the related problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Animal models have been extensively applied for research on developmental biology and for cell lineages characterization, especially with higher animals believed to be more related to human cell biology. This work reports the establishment of a fetal bovine chondrogenic cell line and demonstrates its multipotentiality through the qualitative evaluation of its chondrogenic and osteogenic potential. This cell source is capable of matrix mineralization upon cell induction with medium supplementation and under the proper microenvironment can retain its chondrocytic phenotype. These suggest the potential application of this cell line for biomaterial evaluation, particularly bone tissue engineering and the characterization of osteoinductivity. It constitutes an additional source to the use of human bone marrow stem cells for the biological evaluation of biomaterials. The advantages presented for the bovine model include reduced ethical issues, increased availability and that the fetal nature of the tissue supposes a greater multipotentiality compared to human adult multipotent cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work describes a mammographic image compression method that uses segmentation and the prediction by partial matching (PPM) data compression algorithm, together with the gray code and a bit plane image decomposition. The compressor will be included in a Computer-Aided Diagnosis System which is still being developed. Results show that the method achieves competitive compression rates in comparison with other advanced compressors, and brings some additional benefits which will be discussed in this work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stroke is one of the main causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Besides of body movement deficit and bed immobilization, the patients with stroke have shown less respiratory muscle strength, leading to lung mechanics changes which predispose those patients to lung infections and often hospital confinement. The main purpose of the present work is to analyze the efficiency of training of the respiratory muscle power in the patients with stroke, by means of the Threshold™ PEP. The maximum static respiratory pressure and the expiratory peak flow were evaluated using a vacuum manometer and a Peak Flow Asthma Plan, respectively. In order to to train the expiratory muscle system, a Threshold™ PEP was used. 36 patients with stroke in confinement were selected and divided in 2 groups: Group I (trained stroke group) and Group II (control stroke group). The results, obtained in a five days trial, show that the patients submitted to the expiratory muscular training have presented a considerable increase of the maximum respiratory pressure, which may enable a decrease of the complications originated from the respiratory muscular weakness. Furthermore, it has been shown that Threshold™ PEP is an efficient device for supporting the gain of respiratory muscular strength. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) related mortality and associated impairment of the quality of life, as well as related economic burden and predictive models of the future trends demonstrate that COPD is one of the critical health care issues in the Americas and globally. Therefore, it necessitates improved quantitative diagnostic methods and techniques for long term monitoring of patient's conditions and active medical intervention, population comparative studies, and related comprehensive documentation of patients' expanded pulmonary function tests. Presented work encompasses developed techniques for enhanced diagnostic evaluation and documentation of patient's respiratory dynamics and includes modular spherical representation of respiratory flow, volume, time characteristics with a capability of planar projections, which may include among others currently used standard flow/volume loops. Those spherical and/or planar characteristics can be complemented by associative display and quantitative analysis of auscultatory events characterized in time and/or frequency domains thus going beyond present practice of qualitative description of auscultatory observation which, when described in this traditional form, have limited value in long term monitoring. Independently developed, but with parallel utilization capabilities, non contact image based extraction and evaluation of thoracic and abdominal respiration related movements allow quantitative evaluation of abnormal asynchronies. Portability of this PC based system with USB connectivity and developed software allow enhancement of patient's pulmonary function and respiratory dynamics evaluation especially in long term monitoring of patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to propose the measurement a new type of physiological variability. The premise is that there is embedded information in the form of short-term metabolic variability (MV) when the human gas exchange is measured using the mixing chamber and the breath by breath indirect calorimetry technique (ICT). This two measurement methods are compared to observe metabolic dynamics when subjects are subdue to physiological stimulus. Variances and low frequency power spectrums (0-0.5 Hz) are use to measure the MV activity. The hypothesis is proved measuring the MV in a population of 17 young volunteers subdue the clino-ortho maneuver. The test protocol was adapted using 30 minutes of data acquisition to include both mixing chamber and breath by breath ICT. Subjects were measured after 8 hours of fasting. The results showed a MV increment from 32.5 to 40 ml/min (p<0.01) for de VO2 standard deviation with none significance change for de the VCO2 using the mixing chamber ICT. Analogously the ICT breath by breath MV showed a total power spectrum change from 34.9 to 60 (ml/bth)2 for the VO2 and from 24 to 37 (ml/bth)2 for the VCO2 (p<0.05), mainly in the frequency region from 0.01 to 0.03 Hz. Therefore, it was concluded that breath by breath MV was approximately 3 times more relevant than the mixing chamber MV with the possibility to evidence metabolic control mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are a variety of protocols to probe the autonomic nervous system (ANS). A non invasive tool to asses this activity is by studying the heart rate variability (HRV), under controlled maneuvers. Controlled respiration induces modulation in tachograms (time intervals between cardiac beats) the so-called respiratory rythms. In the pupil some authors have also reported these respiratory changes, but they are less evident than in the heart rate and have been poorly studied. In this work we registered the spontaneous HRV and pupillary area variability (PAV) simultaneously. This system simultaneously register the EKG in D2 and the pupil activity (at three frames per second) under conditions of controlled luminance, in eight normal subjects with an age range 23-35 years, with a maneuver of controlled respiration at a rate of six respirations per minute for two minutes to study the relationship between the HRV and PAV. In this maneuver, the tachogram and pupillogram signals were analized in the frequency domain at the same frequency criteria than HRV, by mean periodogram, also we calculated its coherence function. The spectral analysis showed an evident band centered in 0.1 Hz in both spectrum, this band is correspondent to respiratory rhythm. This is most evident in the coherence function and it has a signifcat value of 0.7 (significance ≥ 0.5). That shows the close relation between both signals in this maneuver; it probably reflects a common origin of respiratory modulation at this different ANS effectors. During inspiration the pupil dilates whereas during expiration the pupil constricts showing the same type of alternation sympathetic/parasympathetic observed at the heart level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work describes new methods of analysis of heart rate variability whose efficiency has been demonstrated. It begins defining term HRV, continuous with a brief summary of the traditional methods of analysis of HRV. Finally describe results obtained when applying the methods of Transformed of Lomb, Detrended Fluctuation Analysis, and Symbolic Dynamics to a group of chronic chagasic patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study, was to build support vector machines (SVM) for predicting success of electric shocks in the internal cardioversion (IC) of patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). Some investigations have found correlations between parameters and necessary energy for defibrillating AF, but no tool exist for predicting whether an electric shock will be successful or not in low energy IC. Thirty eight patients with AF, for elective DC cardioversion at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, were included in our study. Two catheters were positioned in the right atrial appendage (RAA) and the coronary sinus (CS), to deliver a biphasic shock waveform, synchronized with the R wave of the electrocardiogram (ECG) signal. A voltage step-up protocol (50-300 V) was used for patient cardioversion. The ECG was analyzed for an average time interval of 52,8±10.1 s (corresponding to segments before each shock). Residual atrial fibrillatory signal (RAFS) was estimated by means of bandpass filtering and ventricular activity (QRST) cancellation. QRST complexes were cancelled using a recursive least squared (RLS) adaptive filter. The atrial fibrillatory frequency (AFF) and the instantaneous frequency (IF) series were extracted from the RAFS. AFF was calculated from whole segments and from the 10 seconds of the RAFS previous shocks. The mean, standard deviation and approximate entropy of the IF time series were computed. RR intervals of the ECG segments were also analyzed. A total of 26 patients were successfully cardioverted, employing 167 shocks (141 non successful). SVMs were built for classifying success on shocks for energy up to 2, 3 and 6 Joules, employing different combinations of the computed parameters. A maximal exactitude of 93.42% (sensitivity=92.31% and specificity= 93.65%) was obtained classifying shocks below 2 Joules, 95.51% (sensitivity=92.86% and specificity=96%) for shocks up to 3 Joules, and 92.91% (sensitivity=78.95% and specificity= 95.37%) for shocks ≤6 Joules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a methodology for feature extraction by means of adaptive filter banks in case of automatic identification of arrhythmias using ECG recording. Proposed filter banks, which are supposed to track in more accurate way any change of parameters of time-varying sequence, is developed for biorthogonal wavelet bases using Teager algorithm. Besides, adaptive lifting schemes, which allow filter order change, are used for filter bank implementation. Lifting schemes are introduced because lower computational complexity and less processing time. As features, both maximum value and variance of different wavelet decomposition levels are selected for brain zone classification. Results are provided using MIT database, in case of 2, 4, and 6 wavelet vanishing moments, for classification of 10 different arrhythmias. As a result, classification performance level of 98.5% value, estimated by means of bayesian classifier with Mahalanobis distance, is reached which is better than in 5% in comparison to those obtained figures for filter banks but having fixed parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heartbeat clustering is convenient in Holter record analysis and interpretation for data mining. Nevertheless, this clustering has to address several problems due to factors such as long signal length (high computational burden), noise and artifacts (patient movements, baseline wander, electrodeskin contact variability, powerline interference), and waveform variability because of patient's physiology and pathology. Therefore, it is very important to choose a suitable clustering configuration sufficiently robust against these problems. Such configuration includes the core of the clustering method itself, centroid initialization, dissimilarity measure, feature extraction and selection, and computational cost optimization techniques. To this aim, we present in this work an improved version of the k-means clustering algorithm. First, a preclustering stage is employed to reduce the initial heartbeat set using Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) and a suitable conservative threshold. In the clustering stage, a local search heuristic (kmedians) is analyzed. Feature extraction from heartbeats is carried out by using WT coefficients (from biortogonal 2.2 wavelet) and trace segmentation. The modified k-means considers both the dynamical and nonlinear behavior of ECG signal and provide best performance that k-means standard algorithm. As a result, the modified k-means algorithm is less sensitive to the presence of outliers and hence clustering error declines (up 8% in average) compared to the k-means standard algorithm. Non supervised analysis results are presented for a set of 44872 heartbeats with 16 different types of arrhythmia from MIT's arrhythmia database. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the evaluation of a high fidelity ECG hardware/software (CardioSoft, Houston, TX), in a group of chronic chagasic patients. It has been observed that several electrocardiographic abnormalities that are present in Chagas'patients, also occur in the Brugada syndrome, which involves genetically defective cardiac sodium channels, This fact suggests that acquired damage to cardiac sodium channels may also occur in Chagas' disease. We compared several conventional and advanced resting 12-lead and derived Frank-lead ECG parameters in 34 Chagas' seropositive patients (studied at the Universidad de Los Andes) to those in 34 age-and gender-matched healthy controls (studied at NASA's Johnson Space Center). Chagas' patients who had resting (Bundled Branch Block) BBBs, (Left Ventricle Hypertrophy) LVH criteria by conventional ECG, pathologic arrhythmias and/or echocardiographic ejection fractions (EFs) < 40% (n=10) were excluded, however, for the rest of patients significant differences persisted in multiple conventional and advanced ECG parameters between the Chagas' and control subjects (n=24/group), especially in their respective J-Tpeak interval durations, QT interval variability indices, T-wave axes and low frequency (Heart Rate Variability) HRV powers (p=0.001, p=0.001, p=0.006 and p=0.025 respectively). Concerning the potential changes in transmural dispersion of repolarization and cardiac sodium channel function, the Chagas' seropositive patients also had: 1) significantly increased corrected Tpeak-Tend interval durations versus controls (97 ± 9 vs. 91 ± 10 ms, p=0.05); 2) significantly decreased corrected J-Tpeak interval durations versus controls (212 ± 19 versus 226 ± 18 ms; p=0.009) and 3) more than twice the incidence of resting ST segment elevation in any of leads V1-V3 and of both leftward and rightward QRS axis deviation than controls. Chagas' patients with preserved (Left Ventricle) LV systolic function have untoward changes in cardiac repolarization, including decreased corrected J-Tpeak intervals and increased corrected Tpeak-Tend intervals (‘TDR') and (QT variability) QTV, potentially suggesting an acquired loss of cardiac sodium channel function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, an Adaptive Wavelet Transform is applied on a Quincunx grid (Red-Black Wavelet Transform) with the image denoising purpose. The Quincunx filtering is applied on digitalized mammography images in order to detect microcalcifications. From the images, features like the gradient magnitude and features of local contrast and normalized local contrast with differents windows sizes, are extracted. These features model the microcalcifications and health tissue. The model applies a sequential selection method based on a General Regression Neural Network (GRNN) to obtain the best features. Images segmentation is carried out by means of unsupervised k-means algorithm; obtain images with information about microcalcifications and mamma tissue. The results are compare applied the classic Wavelet Orthogonal filtering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose an image processing method able to detect cells trough in vitro phase-contrast video microscopy. Bodies of the cells and image background are very similar; it does not allow having a good performance of tracking process. The proposed method normalizes original image to obtain better object-background contrast, image is equalized to highlight the object to be tracked, and image is threshold in order to obtain a better object-background contrast. Gray Level Morphological Gradient is applied to obtain more defined contours in the areas surrounded by Halos. Dilatation and Erosion were combined to achieve this goal. A subtraction process was applied after dilation of image to obtain borders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a methodology resulting from several studies based in medical technology management and Health Public Politics for the Health Ministry and Social Developments by the Simón Bolívar University, Venezuela. This research is based on the premise of an extensive analysis and a Quality Control of Health Institutions studying their politics, technology and procedures looking for an improvement in all different areas of Health Institutions. In the visits made to different Public Hospitals, several problems were detected at infrastructure, at the medical industry facilities and in their medical equipment. Therefore, we have elaborated a schematic methodology that helps to promote the development of efficient medical procedures and the improvement of the deficient areas of the Institutions. Public Health Institutions problems should be focused in a multifactorial perspective over all areas of the Institutions but it's known that this is an slow and complex process construction. Recommendations aimed to improve the basic institutional procedures, such as planning, budgeting, information and evaluation have been made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ICT's has been Technologies that in last years has been entering in the daily activities of people all throught the World. Medicine is not an exeption of these, because there has been an important impact of these Technologies in the last decades these area, telemedicine is an example of these. The Present Study shows the degee of penetration of the ICT in our continent, and the dificulties that exists to make that our countries can have all the virtues of these new elements, and the politics that may help solve them [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The modern society is in a constant search towards increasing the quality and the efficiency of the sanitary systems. Although many strategies and experiences have been applied, the optimal model has been not found. The application of technology in medicine has played an important role that shall continue in the future. But influence of biomedical technology in the hospital depend of many factors, by this reason is necessary to focus Technology Management in integral manner. In this way, the hospital will be more competitive. In this paper the authors introduce a methodology for Biomedical Technology Management and show the relationship between different functions from this model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biomedical Technology Management has been researched through the years, because the importance of the services its quality and security to an effective cost by means of medical equipments. In Colombia important laws and standards has been development in relation to the regulatory frame of the biomedical technology such as, classification, control of quality, evaluation and acquisition processes, as well as minimal requirements for IPS (Delivering Heath Services Entities) accreditation. However, to the manager of medical technology in the IPS, those processes are confused and difficult to apply, since they not count on standardized procedures or guides nor either do not exist control mechanisms that stimulate their implementation. Therefore, UAO research group in Clinical Engineering has designed a Model of Biomedical Technology Management to the IPS in the Valle del Cauca, which standardizes the processes of acquisition, installation and use of the biomedical technologies in order to guarantee its operation with the maximum of benefits, quality and security to reasonable costs. The present work present the principal activities carried out in the first stage of the project as well as results reached and finally the propose actions to the following stages are outlined too. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper is presented the implementation of a Brain-Computer Interface, based in the P300 event related potential response, aimed to command a simulated wheelchair. Is proposed a modification of the original Farwell and Donchin stimulation matrix, introducing new symbols that when intensifying they change from black to red color. These symbols are defined to codify direction and speed of the movement of the simulated wheelchair. The software BCI2000 was used for signal acquisition, stimulation and classification. Preliminary evaluations allow obtaining clears P300 responses, which were able to be easily classified in offline procedures. Also the communication protocol from BCI2000 output, to the wheelchair simulation module was successfully tested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Brain Computer Interfaces (BCI) are an alternative of communication for people with severe motor disabilities. A BCI is a system that does not depend on the brain's normal output pathways of peripheral nerves and muscles. These systems extract information either from EEG activity recorded from the scalp (non invasive) or the activity of individual cortical neurons recorded from implanted electrodes (invasive). In this work a synopsis of the state of the art at world-wide and national level is presented, describing the classes of BCI as well as the used paradigms for their implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present work, the sampling distribution of a commonly used index for evaluating the Event-Related Synchronization and Desynchronization (ERS/ERD) is derived, based on a direct relationship between it and a statistical test for assessing whether two sample spectra have the same theoretical spectrum. The distribution obtained is closely related to the noncentral F distribution. Based on such sampling distribution, critical values as well as confidence limits for the index may be obtained and hence ERS/ERD can now be evaluated under a statistical basis. An example of the technique was also provided in the EEG signals from 10 normal subjects during intermittent photic stimulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work presents a proposal of system for the development of a platform designed to support practical learning of biomedical engineering subjects in undergraduate electrical engineering courses. This system (the Biomedical Signal Processing System — Didactical Module, or SPSB-MD) includes hardware and software tools for the study of the special characteristics of bioelectrical signals for Electrical Engineering undergraduate students and biomedical professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we present the results of using a virtual content developed inside a telepresence application. The application combines video-conference with networked virtual environment allowing an instructor and a group of students to manipulate a virtual object in a collaborative manner. The virtual environment describes bones and muscular structures in order to support teaching of musculoskeletical concepts in a remote physiology class. The virtual environment simulates the movement of flexion and extension of the elbow and the muscular contraction. Current preliminary results show that the content developed within telepresence application can compensate for the lack of physical presence of the instructor in the classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present the development of a data base of signals used in the oscillometric method of blood pressure measurement in a human arm, the libraries with the interface functionalities to the unify access for the storage data and with the processing of that, besides we show a software implemented using these libraries. The data base include a wide variety of signals records taken to a simulator, in experimental environment and humans records taken in life real environment like hospitals, works and the home. The libraries permit the access to all data base information, such as the performance of digital processing techniques above that. This was programmed using the object oriented programming paradigm, which permit the reusability and extensibility of that. The software is a representative example of the libraries use and a useful tool to the development of investigations about these signals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CARDIOTRAINER is a multimedia intended for the interactive training of medical and paramedical personnel of urgency systems or any other ones using the biphasic defibrillator-monitor CARDIODEF® 2. The trainer allows the trainee to get acquainted with its main characteristics and its operation procedure. It also includes the safety measures to be applied and the necessary procedures to assist a patient with mortal arrhythmias as ventricular fibrillation or with non-immediately mortal ones. Making use of modern multimedia development tools several drills have been implemented, where the trainee must cardiovert or defibrillate a patient, such as it should be done in a real-life case. Drills can be repeated as many times as required in male or female adult patients or in pediatric patients. In the paper the possibilities of the trainer are illustrated using some of the main screens presented to the trainee, and the application results are presented and discussed. It is concluded that CARDIOTRAINER is a valuable training tool for increase the understanding, proficiency and skill of personnel using CARDIODEF® 2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this work is to present a projection of costs for ultrasound scanning equipment acquisitions by medical imaging clinics and to understand how these acquisitions affect the final value of ease exam. In order to meet customer demands for the newest technology, medical imaging clinics substitute their equipments in shorter periods of time, trying to follow the launching of more sophisticated products. The cost of the anticipation of ultrasound scanning replacement was projected to verify how it affects the clinic budget. According to medical imaging clinics market profile, two factors of great importance in ultrasound scanning acquisition have been identified: the cost of tax loans paid and the monthly demand of imaging services. Medical imaging clinics seldom have the preoccupation to verify the impact of these factors in the equipment replacement, which may cause damage to their financial health. For this study data from 04 clinics, that have together 12 equipment acquisition processes in a given period, have been collected and analyzed. The clinics are located in the city of Campinas (SP, Brazil), which has a population greater than 1 million people. Each chosen clinic monthly makes, by ultrasound equipment, from 400 to 700 exams. The results showed that each exam costs from $1.00 up to $7.22, just due to ultrasound scanning equipment acquisition. When the anticipation of medical equipment replacement was combined to the cost of tax loans paid and the monthly demand of imaging services, the projected cost of an imaging exam reached values between $1.00 and $20.00. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of IV Latin American Congress on Biomedical Engineering 2007, Bioengineering Solutions for Latin America Health is the property of Springer eBooks and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article presents an interface adaptation methodology to hypermedia systems based on the methodology developed by Barbosa [1], where the site development with breast cancer contents is used to refine the students' knowledge of the healthy area of UFSC who receive in their classroom. While this system was been developed it was defined the adaptation will only occur in the interface shown to the user with the use of different medias during the presentation of the contents which are introduced according to the individual characteristics of the students based on the Multiple Intelligence Theory (MI). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The children with motor limitations are generally frustrated when, due to those limitations, their school performances are below their class colleagues. In this work it was developed a virtual environment with the goal of evaluating some initial knowledge of reading without generating stress and anxiety. This environment presents games tests with two phases implemented in Flash. The first phase evaluates if the children get to distinguish between letters and other expression forms (numbers, symbols and scribbles), and in the second phase it is noticed that the words can be written in several ways without modifying the sense, such as capital, lower, hand letter and printed letters. For having been implemented in Flash, the executable file of the virtual environment was small, allowing that it is used in any computer. The game test was analyzed by a linguist and also a psychologist. The linguist concluded that the virtual environment can evaluate these capacities as efficiently as the conventional tests. The psychologist considered that the developed method should not provoke stress and anxiety because the children don't know that are being tested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recreational SCUBA dive courses have a curriculum that covers security procedures which should be followed in case of emergency. Nevertheless, this is a complex matter and after the course there is no training of these procedures anymore. Besides, when an emergency situation happens, divers, panic-driven, do not succeed to follow the security procedures because the majority is counter instinctive, and even expert divers have difficulty in following them, as emergencies are unusual, and when they happen, people are not prepared. Moreover, diving accident information is spread over many publications, making difficult for divers to access it. Therefore, a knowledge management system associated with e-learning can reduce diving accidents since it will consolidate accident information and will also provide training and recycling for geographic dispersed scuba divers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]