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In this paper, an algorithm of directed graph replacement by acyclic directed graph is constructing and is applying for a study of the key players required for connecting ABA signaling and ABA-mediated drought and thermo tolerance.

Medical devices have a great impact but rigorous production and quality norms to meet, which pushes manufacturing technology to its limits in several fields, such as electronics, optics, communications, among others. This paper briefly explores how the medical industry is absorbing many of the technological developments from other industries, and making an effort to translate them into the healthcare requirements. An example is discussed in depth: implantable neural microsystems used for brain circuits mapping and modulation. Conventionally, light sources and electrical recording points are placed on silicon neural probes for optogenetic applications. The active sites of the probe must provide enough light power to modulate connectivity between neural networks, and simultaneously ensure reliable recordings of action potentials and local field activity. These devices aim at being a flexible and scalable technology capable of acquiring knowledge about neural mechanisms. Moreover, this paper presents a fabrication method for 2-D LED-based microsystems with high aspect-ratio shafts, capable of reaching up to 20 mm deep neural structures. In addition, PDMS glenses on LEDs top surface are presented for focusing and increasing light intensity on target structures., This work was supported in part by FCT with the reference Project UID/EEA/04436/2013, in part by the FEDER funds through the COMPETE 2020-Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalizaca o (POCI) with the reference Project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006941, and in part by the ANI through the Brain-Lighting Project by FEDER funds through Portugal 2020, COMPETE 2020 with the reference POCI-01-0247-FEDER-003416. The work of S. B. Goncalves was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under Grant PD/BD/105931/2014, MIT Portugal Program, and in pail by the Luso-American Development Foundation. The associate editor coordinating the review of this paper and approving it for publication was Prof. Octavian Postolache. (Corresponding author: S. B. Goncalves.)

karel hendrik wesseling ([Fig. 1][1]), emeritus professor of biomedical instrumentation, was born in The Hague, The Netherlands, on April 23, 1935. He studied electrical engineering, in his words, from 1950 on, and since 1953 at the Delft University of Technology (DUT) from which he graduated with

This paper covers the measurement of biopotentials for diagnosis: the electrical voltages that can be measured from electrodes placed on the skin or within the body. Biopotentials include: the electrocardiogram (ECG), electroencephalogram (EEG), electrocortogram (ECoG), electromyogram (EMG), electroneurogram (ENG), electrogastrogram (EGG), action potential (AP), electroretinogram (ERG), electro-oculogram (EOG). This paper also covers skin conductance, pulse oximeters, urology, wearable systems and important therapeutic devices such as: the artificial cardiac pacemaker, defibrillator, cochlear implant, hemodialysis, lithotripsy, ventilator, anesthesia machine, heart-lung machine, infant incubator, infusion pumps, electrosurgery, tissue ablation, and medical imaging. It concludes by covering electrical safety. It provides future subjects for research such as a blood glucose sensor and a permanently implanted intracranial pressure sensor.

Trabalho de Projeto do Mestrado Integrado em Engenharia Biomédica apresentado à Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia A onda de pulso arterial (OPA) gerada pelo coração durante a sístole causa a dilatação das artérias do sistema circulatório sistémico. A energia cinética desta dilatação é propagada para a vizinhança e pode ser detetada sob a forma de vibração da pele sobre artérias periféricas como a carótida. A velocidade da vibração é proporcional à velocidade de onda de pulso (VOP) que por sua vez, está intrinsecamente relacionada com a elasticidade da parede arterial. VOP é assim um índice da rigidez arterial, sendo esta por sua vez um indicador de doença cardiovascular (DCV), uma das maiores causas de mortalidade no Ocidente.Este trabalho tem como objetivo demonstrar que um sistema ótico simples baseado em self-mixing (SM) é capaz de extrair a VOP por meios não invasivos. SM é uma técnica de interferometria em que parte da luz refletida por um objeto em movimento provoca a modulação da frequência (FM) na luz captada pelo fotodíodo (PD) na cavidade de um díodo laser (LD). A FM contém informação sobre a frequência Doppler e consequentemente sobre a VOP. Posteriormente um algoritmo baseado na transformada rápida de Fourier (FFT) extrai essa informação, no entanto, este projeto também tem como propósito extrair essa informação analogicamente, sem necessitar de pós-processamento digital, o que habilita esta instrumentação a revelação da VOP em tempo real.____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The arterial pulse wave (APW) generated by the heart during systole causes the arteries in the systemic cardiovascular system to distend. The kinetic energy of this distention is propagated thought the vicinity and it can be detected in the form of vibration on top of the skin over peripheral arteries like the carotid. The velocity of the skin vibration is proportional to the pulse wave velocity (VOP) underneath it and this parameter is intrinsic related to the arterial wall elasticity. VOP is then an index of the arterial stiffness and hence an indicator of cardiovascular disease (CVD), one of the leading causes of mortality in the West.This project aims to demonstrate that a simple optical system based on self-mixing (SM) is capable of detecting VOP in a non-invasive way. SM is an interferometry technique in which part of the light reflected by an object in motion induces a frequency modulation (FM) in the light perceived by the photodiode (PD) in the laser diode (LD) cavity. The FM contains information regarding the Doppler frequency and so information about the VOP. An algorithm based on fast Fourier transform then extracts that information, but another purpose of this project is to extract this information analogically, without the need of software processing, enabling this instrumentation of detecting PW in real time.____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

In the current era of post genomics, there exist a varity of computational methodologies to understand the nature of disease pathology like RegNetworks, DisgiNet, pharmGkb, pharmacomiR and etc. In most of these computational methodologies either a seed pairing approach or a base pair complement is being followed. Hence there exists a gap in understanding the nature of disease pathology in a holistic view point. In this manuscript we combine the approach of seed pairing and graph theory to illustrate the impact of Pharmacogenomics in Regulatory Networks to understand disease Pathology.

Here we consider the Robust Solution as applied to the cholera epidemic in Lower Canada (Quebec) in 1832. We find that the mathematics from that procedure provides the mathematical foundation or the study. The rate of growth of the virus must be kept below 14% to terminate the spread of the disease.

Saint John has a very high rate of Sz in its mainly Irish population. In this paper I examine the possible cause of iron from cast iron piping along with iron in the diet that lead to a weakened immune system and consequent contagious disease such as Cholera. Cholera may do damage to the DNA of fertile women who pass it on to their offspring.

This work presents the development of a hardware architecture for ICU monitors, combining design stages of embedded systems, biomedical instrumentation, intelligent sensors and the IEEE 1451 protocol. The method used defines operational requirements, system decomposition into modules, architecture definition and implementation using commercial development platforms. The entire process is based on national and international standards and protocols, seeking to design the system within the constraints of a product and validate the concept through printed circuit board prototypes. The proposed architecture establishes a network of intelligent biomedical sensors, called STIM, controlled by a central node, called NCAP. The use of this architecture provides modular, self-configuring, easy-to-maintain, plug and play sensors with standardized communication and data interface. The work also describes the process of creating electronic data sheets of the STIMs, called TEDS, which contain the operation characteristics of each smart sensor. Este trabalho apresenta o desenvolvimento de uma arquitetura de hardware para moni- tores de UTI combinando etapas do projeto de sistemas embarcados, instrumentação biomédica, sensores inteligentes e o protocolo IEEE 1451. A metodologia empregada define requisitos operacionais, decomposição do sistema em módulos, definição da arquitetura e implementação utilizando plataformas de desenvolvimento comerciais. Todo o processo é baseado em normas e protocolos de órgãos nacionais e internacionais procurando projetar o sistema dentro das restrições de um produto e validar o conceito por meio de protótipos em placas de circuito impresso. A arquitetura proposta estabelece uma rede de sensores biomédicos inteligentes, denominados STIM, controlados por um elemento cental, denominado NCAP. A utilização desta arquitetura proporciona sensores modulares, autoconfiguráveis, de fácil manutenção, plug and play, com interface de comunicação e dados padronizados. O trabalho também descreve o processo de criação de folhas de dados eletrônicas dos STIMs, denominadas TEDS, que contêm as características de operação de cada sensor inteligente.

Hemoglobin is a unique protein, which is responsible for oxygen and carbon dioxide transportation all the body. The protein location is inside the erythrocytes and the special oval shape makes it easily pass through blood walls to supply oxygen to the tissues and organs. It is supposed that the hemoglobin amount could change depending on the person`s age, gender or nationality. We designed a research to see the molecular differences among Bosnian and Turkish young person`s whose age interval is 18-23 and old person`s age interval is 43-65. Totally 300 person`s, 50 from each Bosnian/ Turkish Female/Male and 50 old male and 50 old female were selected for the research. The students` the hemoglobin amount has been recorded individually and presented in a table. As a result of the measurement, The Turkish females average has the lowest hemoglobin Turkish males average shows the maximum amount of hemoglobin, 12.01 g/dl and 14.65 g/dl respectively. When the female gets older their the hemoglobin amount increase in their blood, 7.3% in Bosnian and 12.2% in Turkish. On the other side, the male blood the hemoglobin amount is almost similar by aging, Bosnian male hemoglobin just increase 0.74%, but in Turkish male 1.3% decrease. The result shows that female the hemoglobin amount is affected by age more than male.

Scoliosis surgery is one of the most difficult orthopedic surgery that have been committed today as the failure rate of orthopedic surgery for adult patients is 15%. Aside from the long duration of surgery, this surgical failure is caused by failure in biomedical instrumentation. Furthermore, this kind of failure is causing inefficiency of the surgery. With current known orthopedic surgery method, three surgeons are needed in a single orthopedic surgery. In fact, a single surgery can take up to 8 hours to be done, which increases the risk of surgical failure. Based on this problem, authors hope that our orthopedic jacks could solve the problem.

Biomehanička vaga je uređaj koja služi za dinamičko praćenje posture i raspodjele težine ljudskog tijela tijekom mirnog stajanja ili vježbanja na vagi. Pružanjem boljeg uvida u funkcioniranje ljudskog lokomotornog sustava, vaga ima široku primjenu kao dijagnostički i rehabilitacijski alat u medicinskim granama poput fizioterapije, sportske medicine, biomehanike. Glavni cilj ovog rada je razvoj korisničkog sustava za biomehaničku vagu koristeći programski alat LabVIEW. Razvijeni programski sustav obuhvaća obradu, prikaz i pohranu podataka sa senzora u realnom vremenu te rad s bazom podataka pacijenata. Osim toga, sustav ima i mogućnost sinkrone pohrane video snimke ispitanika tijekom mjerenja. Biomechanical scale is a medical device specifically designed for dynamic monitoring of parameters of human posture perturbations and body weight distribution in the process of maintaining the body balance or performing exercises. Providing better insight into a state of human locomotor system, the scale is widely used as diagnostic and rehabilitation tool in many branches of medical science, such as kynesitherapy, sport medicine and biomechanics. The main goal of this thesis is construction of a graphical user interface for biomechanical scale by using LabVIEW System Design Software. The developed software is used for real-time data acquisition, data processing, visualization, data storage from built-in sensors and patient database management. Furthermore, GUI can perform synchronous storage of a video recording an examinee while performing the measurement.

Graphical abstract, Many causes of heart muscle diseases and skeletal muscle diseases are inherited and caused by mutations in genes of sarcomere proteins which play either a structural or contractile role in the muscle cell. Tissue samples from human hearts with mutations can be obtained but often samples are only a few milligrams and it is necessary to freeze them for storage and transportation. Myofibrils are the fundamental contractile components of the muscle cell and retain all structural elements and contractile proteins performing in contractile event; moreover viable myofibrils can be obtained from frozen tissue.•We are describing a versatile technique for measuring the contractility and its Ca2+ regulation in single myofibrils. The control of myofibril length, incubation medium and data acquisition is carried out using a digital acquisition board via computer software. Using computer control it is possible not only to measure contractile and mechanical parameters but also simulate complex protocols such as a cardiac cycle to vary length and medium independently.•This single myofibril force assay is well suited for physiological measurements. The system can be adapted to measure tension amplitude, rates of contraction and relaxation, Ca2+ dependence of these parameters in dose-response measurements, length-dependent activation, stretch response, myofibril elasticity and response to simulated cardiac cycle length changes. Our approach provides an all-round quantitative way to measure myofibrils performance and to observe the effect of mutations or posttranslational modifications. The technique has been demonstrated by the study of contraction in heart with hypertrophic or dilated cardiomyopathy mutations in sarcomere proteins.

Orientador: Rickson Coelho Mesquita Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Física Gleb Wataghin Resumo: A espectroscopia óptica de difusão DOS é uma técnica que usa luz no regime do infravermelho próximo (NIR) para extração de informações fisiológicas em tecidos biológicos de forma não invasiva, tais como as concentrações de oxi-hemoglobina (HbO) , desoxi-hemoglobina (Hb) e a saturação de oxigênio no tecido (StO_2). Esta técnica baseia-se no fato de que a luz do infravermelho próximo se propaga difusivamente no tecido biológico, conseguindo se aprofundar alguns centímetros e voltar na superfície de incidência, e sofrendo alterações ao atravessar o meio devido à absorção e ao espalhamento do tecido. Este enfoque utiliza a equação de difusão para o modelamento da luz e suas soluções para conseguir as propriedades ópticas absolutas, que permite inferir as informações fisiológicas do tecido. A técnica experimental DOS utiliza fontes que emitem pulsos ultracurtos (Time Domain DOS) ou intensidades moduladas (Frequency Domain DOS) para extrair tais informações. No entanto, a implementação destas técnicas requerem uma eletrônica avançada, tornando a construção complicada ou a aquisição custosa. Por outro lado, os equipamentos que usam fontes contínuas medem apenas variações relativas dos coeficientes de absorção do tecido. Neste trabalho, estudou-se uma nova metodologia a partir da espectroscopia óptica de difusão usando fontes de onda contínua para vários comprimentos de ondas (CW-DOS) a fim de extrair os valores absolutos de absorção e espalhamento do tecido. A metodologia foi validada com dados ópticos em phantoms e camundongos, conseguindo inferir as propriedades ópticas absolutas para cada estágio. Os resultados refletem que a metodologia é uma boa alternativa para extração de informação fisiológica de forma simples e confiável, e que serve como base para a construção de novos equipamentos de DOS Abstract: Diffuse Optical Spectroscopy (DOS) is a technique that employs near infrared (NIR) light to noninvasively extract physiological information from biological tissue, such as microvascular oxy-hemoglobin (HbO) and deoxy-hemoglobin (Hb) concentrations, and tissue oxygen saturation (StO_2). DOS is based on the fact that NIR light diffuses through deep tissue and interacts with tissue cells and molecules before returning to the surface. Therefore, the tissue composition can be estimated by the absorption and scattering coefficients, which can be monitored by the intensity detected of scattered light. DOS uses the diffusion equation for modeling light propagation, and its solutions to estimate the absolute optical properties. Typical experimental methods in DOS employ ultrashort-pulsed light sources (Time Domain DOS) or intensity modulated light sources (Frequency Domain DOS) to extract such information. However, the implementation of these techniques requires advanced electronics, which makes its use complicated and/or expensive. Instruments that use continuous-wave (CW- DOS) light sources are limited to estimate relative changes of the absorption coefficient, only. In this dissertation, we analyze a methodology based on continuous-wave diffuse optical spectroscopy with several wavelengths to estimate the absolute values of absorption and scattering coefficients of biological tissue. The methodology was validated in optical phantoms and in mice. Our results suggest that the methodology can be a good approach for estimating physiological information in a simple and reliable way, and it can be used as the basis for the construction of new DOS equipments Mestrado Física Mestre em Física CAPES 1373920/2014

Stroke is amongst the leading causes of death and disability worldwide. Today diagnosis of Stroke is restricted to fixed imaging facilities which do not provide a rapid diagnostic. A portable device which could provide a non invasive assessment of stroke would therefore decrease the time of diagnosis and increase the chance of survival. Recent studies have confirmed that Implementing Electrical Bioimpedance in a portable device could provide a reliable means for Stroke diagnostic. However in order to be able to use the brain impedance as an indicator of Stroke, the invariance of brain impedance with time in healthy individuals should be studied first. Experimental Bioimpedance Spectroscopy (BIS) measurements from a healthy control group of 10 subjects have been used in this study to inspect the variation of brain impedance in the span of two weeks. The results of this study suggest that the cap which was used for brain impedance measurements together with the available device have not been an optimal way of measuring the brain impedance and therefore have affected the data by causing artifacts for the results. With the artifacts available in the data acquired in this study it is not possible to make any statements about the variation of brain impedance and therefore a deeper analysis of collected data using descriptive analysis is required in order to be able to judge on the significance of the obtained errors. In the future a larger study group should be considered in order to increase the predictive power of the observations. Stroke är bland de ledande orsakerna till död och funktionshinder i hela världen.I dagsläget är diagnos av stroke begränsad till fasta bildenheter som inte möjliggör en snabb diagnos. En bärbar enhet som möjliggör en icke invasiv bedömning av sjukdomen skulle minska diagnos tiden och följaktligen öka chansen att överleva sjukdomen. Genomförda studier i ämnet har bekräftat att implementering av Electrical Bioimpedance i en bärbar enhet kan räknas som ett effektivt sätt för Stroke diagnostik. För att kunna använda hjärnans impedans för Stroke diagnostik, bör först en studie av hjärnans impedans på friska individer utföras för att kunna visa att impedansen är oförändrad med tiden. Experimentell Bioimpedans Spektroskopi (BIS) mätningar från en frisk kontrollgrupp av 10 försökspersoner har utförts i denna studie för att inspektera variationen av hjärnans impedans under två veckor. Resultaten från denna studie tyder på att sättet av impedans mätningen i dagsläget är inte optimalt. Artefakter presenterad i resultatet gör det omöjligt för att kunna komma till ett beslut om hjärnans impedans variation . För fortsätta studier bör man överväga en större kontrollgrupp och även en analysering av data med hjälp av t-statistik som var inte inom ramen av denna studie.

Background The area under the ROC curve (AUC) of risk models is known to be influenced by differences in case-mix and effect size of predictors. The impact of heterogeneity in correlation among predictors has however been under investigated. We sought to evaluate how correlation among predictors affects the AUC in development and external populations. Methods We simulated hypothetical populations using two different methods based on means, standard deviations, and correlation of two continuous predictors. In the first approach, the distribution and correlation of predictors were assumed for the total population. In the second approach, these parameters were modeled conditional on disease status. In both approaches, multivariable logistic regression models were fitted to predict disease risk in individuals. Each risk model developed in a population was validated in the remaining populations to investigate external validity. Results For both approaches, we observed that the magnitude of the AUC in the development and external populations depends on the correlation among predictors. Lower AUCs were estimated in scenarios of both strong positive and negative correlation, depending on the direction of predictor effects and the simulation method. However, when adjusted effect sizes of predictors were specified in the opposite directions, increasingly negative correlation consistently improved the AUC. AUCs in external validation populations were higher or lower than in the derivation cohort, even in the presence of similar predictor effects. Conclusions Discrimination of risk prediction models should be assessed in various external populations with different correlation structures to make better inferences about model generalizability. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12874-017-0345-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Published standards for the performance evaluation of pulmonary ventilators are mainly directed to manufacturers rather than to end-users and often considered inadequate or not comprehensive. In order to contribute to overcome the problems above, a novel measurement system was proposed and tested with waveforms of mechanical ventilation by means of experimental trials carried out with infant ventilators typically used in neonatal intensive care units: the main quantities of mechanical ventilation in newborns are monitored, i.e. air flow rate, differential pressure and volume from infant ventilator are measured by means of two novel fiber-optic sensors (OFSs) developed and characterized by the authors, while temperature and relative humidity of air mass are obtained by two commercial transducers. The proposed fiber-optic sensors (flow sensor Q-OFS, pressure sensor P-OFS) showed measurement ranges of air flow and pressure typically encountered in neonatal mechanical ventilation, i.e. the air flow rate Q ranged from 3 l min−1 to 18 l min−1 (inspiratory) and from −3 l min−1 to −18 l min−1 (expiratory), the differential pressure ΔP ranged from −15 cmH2O to 15 cmH2O. In each experimental trial carried out with different settings of the ventilator, outputs of the OFSs are compared with data from two reference sensors (reference flow sensor RF, reference pressure sensor RP) and results are found consistent: flow rate Q showed a maximum error between Q-OFS and RF up to 13 percent, with an output ratio Q RF/Q OFS of not more than 1.06 ± 0.09 (least square estimation, 95 percent confidence level, R 2 between 0.9822 and 0.9931). On the other hand the maximum error between P-OFS and RP on differential pressure ΔP was lower than 10 percent, with an output ratio ΔP RP/ΔP OFS between 0.977 ± 0.022 and 1.0 ± 0.8 (least square estimation, 95 percent confidence level, R 2 between 0.9864 and 0.9876). Despite the possible improvements, results were encouraging and suggested the proposed measurement system can be considered suitable for performances evaluation of neonatal ventilators and useful for both end-users and manufacturers.

Através dos dispositivos e técnicas desenvolvidas na área da Instrumentação Biomédica é possível oferecer um tratamento ou de forma geral soluções que permitam uma vivência mais plena em sociedade para pessoas que possuem algum tipo de deficiência ou doença. Com o aumento da capacidade computacional nos últimos anos foi possível desenvolver muitas técnicas e dispositivos apoiados em processamento digital de sinais e há um grande interesse pelo desenvolvimento de interfaces mais naturais, como sinais biológicos para o controle de próteses e dispositivos. Este trabalho tem por objetivo apresentar o desenvolvimento de um método de Inteligência Computacional baseado em Regressão Logística capaz de classificar 17 movimentos do segmento mão-braço realizados pelos voluntários do estudo através do processamento do sinal mioelétrico (SME) adquiridos dos sujeitos em questão. Adicionalmente é realizada uma avaliação da influência de alguns dos canais, características do sinal e movimentos executados na taxa de acerto global. Para a realização do sistema foi utilizado um aparato experimental capaz de adquirir os SME através de 12 canais utilizando eletrodos não invasivos e posteriormente digitalizá-los. Logo após efetua-se a extração das três características utilizadas no trabalho, que servem de entrada para o método de Regressão Logística. Para este estudo foram processados três bancos de dados que perfazem um total de 50 voluntários. A taxa média de acerto alcançada foi de 70,1%, considerando todas as variações de testes realizados enquanto a média para os melhores casos de cada variação de entrada realizada foi de 92,5%. Through the devices and techniques developed in the field of Biomedical Instrumentation commonly is possible to offer treatment or solutions to provide a more pleasurable experience in society for people who have a disability or illness. With increasing computing capability in recent years, it has been possible to develop many techniques and devices supported by digital signal processing, and there is a great interest in the development of more natural interfaces, such as biological signals for the control of devices and prostheses. This work aims to present the development of a computational intelligence method based on Logistic Regression able to classify 17 movements of the hand-arm segment performed by the subjects of this study through the processing of the myoelectric signal (SME) acquired from the subject in question. Additionally, an assessment of the influence of some of the combination of the channels, signal characteristics and movements performed in the overall hit rate is additionally performed. To conduct the system has built an experimental apparatus able to acquire the SME through 12 channels using non-invasive electrodes and scan them. Thereafter there is a three features extraction from the signal which serves as input to the Logistic Regression method. For this study were processed three databases that compose 50 volunteers. The average hit rate achieved was 70.1%, considering all tests variations while the average for the best cases for each input variation performed was 92,5 %.

This report describes a new crankarm dynamometer designed to evaluate the strength produced by cyclists in real conditions. The dynamometer was designed to be fitted on a conventional crankset while data were transmitted via wireless communication channels available on a BluetoothTM module. Some 3D solid models were created in the SolidsWorks2010TM development environment to analyze the static and dynamic characteristics, by using the finite elements technique. Each crankset arm was used as a load cell based on strain gages configured as two Wheatstone bridges. The signals were conditioned on a printed circuit board attached directly to the structure. As a result, the load cell shows a maximum nonlinearity error between 2.1 % and 2.8 %. Some tests were performed on a cycling trainer, allowing to evaluate the system's functionality and to determine the involved forces in the crankset.

The state of the art in the field of design and study of photonic crystal fibres for biomedical applications is considered and some original results recently obtained by the authors are presented. Optical properties of the fibres that offer prospects of their wide application as biological sensors, 'labs-on-a-chip', and facilities of electromagnetic radiation control in a wide range of wavelengths aimed at designing novel biomedical instrumentation are considered

This text is aimed at late sophomore- or early junior-level students,with a basic level of understanding of electrical circuits and signal processing. Some background in anatomy, the author writes, “would be useful.” Acknowledging J.G. Webster’s Medical Instrumentation: Application and Design as well as his edited Encyclopedia of Medical Devices and Instrumentation, Principles of Biomedical Instrumentation consists of nine chapters providing a concise overview of the subject. The book is liberally illustrated, and each chapter concludes with a reference section and a series of problem assignments. A solutions manual is available for instructors using the text. Although the author is from The Netherlands, the text is reasonably generic and could be useful worldwide. The book is liberally illustrated, and each chapter concludes with a reference section and a series of problem assignments.

This paper presents the design, fabrication, and electrical measurement results from a low-noise high-performance amplifier fabricated in the 0.5 μm silicon-on-sapphire (SOS) technology. The amplifier was designed with rail-to-rail input and output swing and constant transconductance in its entire common-mode range and targets biomedical instrumentation in SOS/SOI technologies. The amplifier reports $$3\,\hbox{nV}/{\sqrt{\hbox{Hz}}}$$ of input-referred voltage noise at 10 kHz and has 0.4 mV of input-referred offset. The gain-bandwidth product of the amplifier is 12 MHz and the open-loop gain is 75 dB. The amplifier occupies 0.08 mm2 of area and consumes 1.4 mW of power.

This paper presents the design, development and implementation of a reconfigurable low-cost biopotential amplifier trainer module (RTR module) and quantitative analysis of the students’ compatibility with the trainer module. The trainer module can measure Electrocardiogram (ECG), Electroencephalogram (EEG) and Electromyogram (EMG) biopotential signals by reconfiguring the module using the basic circuit and filtering blocks. Given hand on experience, the module is designed and implemented in such reconfigurable manner that the students can avoid, disconnect and add any filtering blocks to understand the effect of these filters to the biopotential signals. The laboratory experience is an important component of the learning process. The RTR module is a low cost and compact educational tool. With this RTR module, the students should be able to recognize the biopotential signals and the acquisition methods in an intuitive and easy way, allowing them to improve their skills of designing biomedical instrumentation.

This paper presents a device that uses three cardiography signals to characterize several important parameters of a subject’s circulatory system. Using electrocardiogram, finger photoplethysmogram, and ballistocardiogram, three heart rate estimates are acquired from beat-to-beat time interval extraction. Furthermore, pre-ejection period, pulse transit time (PTT), and pulse arrival time (PAT) are computed, and their long-term evolution is analyzed. The system estimates heart rate variability (HRV) and blood pressure variability (BPV) from the heart rate and PAT time series, to infer the activity of the cardiac autonomic system. The software component of the device evaluates the frequency content of HRV and BPV, and also their fractal dimension and entropy, thus providing a detailed analysis of the time series’ regularity and complexity evolution, to allow personalized subject evaluation.

Resonant passive sensors composed by resistive, inductive, and capacitive (RLC) simple sensors are widely used in biotelemetric systems. In this paper, a novel method to read remotely these RLC sensors is presented. The developed method is based on the simultaneous application of three excitation signals of same amplitudes, set at different frequencies, to determine remotely the RLC sensor resonance frequency and quality factor . Theoretical analysis and experimental results are also presented.

This work describes an innovative medical nanorobot architecture based on important discoveries in nanotechnology, integrated circuit patents, and some publications, directly or indirectly related to one of the most challenging new fields of science: molecular machines. Thus, the architecture described in this paper reflects, and is supported by, some remarkable recent achievements and patents in nanoelectronics, wireless communication and power transmission techniques, nanotubes, lithography, biomedical instrumentation, genetics, and photonics. We also describe how medicine can benefit from the joint development of nanodevices which are derived, and which integrate techniques, from artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, and embedded smart sensors. Teleoperated surgical procedures, early disease diagnosis, and pervasive patient monitoring are some possible applications of nanorobots, reflecting progress along a roadmap for the gradual and practical development of nanorobots. To illustrate the described nanorobot architecture, a computational 3D approach with the application of nanorobots for diabetes is simulated using clinical data. Theoretical and practical analysis of system integration modeling is one important aspect for supporting the rapid development in the emerging field of nanotechnology. This provides useful directions for further research and development of medical nanorobotics and suggests a time frame in which nanorobots may be expected to be available for common utilization in therapeutic and medical procedures.

New sensors and actuators based on emerging transducer technologies can play a crucial role in the field of biomedical instrumentation and rehabilitation technologies. Piezoelectricity and transducers based on the piezoelectric effect might lead to the adoption of compact sensor and actuator solutions in this field. This paper addresses a review of piezoelectric and piezoresistive transducer applications in the field of biomedical instrumentation. As an emerging application field, the potential implementation of these transducers in inertial motion analysis is addressed. The potential applications for these devices are high but we will focus on piezoelectric sensors in the area of inertial and portable biomechanical measurement systems and on piezoelectric actuators in active orthotics.

This work aims to investigate new indexes quantitatively differentiate sleep insomnia patients from healthy subjects, in the context of sleep onset fluctuations. Our study included the use of existing PSG dataset, of 20 healthy subjects and 20 insomniac subjects. The differences between normal sleepers and insomniacs was investigated, in terms of dynamics and content of Sleep Onset (SO) process. An automated system was created to achieve this and it consists of six steps: 1) pre-processing of signals 2) feature extraction 3) classification 4) automatic scoring 5) sleep onset detection 6) identification of subject groups. The pre-processing step consisted of the removal of noise and movement artifacts from the signals. The feature extracting step consists of extracting time, frequency and non-linear features of Electroencephalogram (EEG) and Electromyogram (EMG) signals. In the third step, classification was done using ANN (Artificial Neural Networks) classifier. The fourth step consisted of scoring sleep stages (wake, S1, S2, S3 and REM) and produced a hypnogram. In the fifth step, we are detecting sleep onset from our automatic detected hypnogram and identified time of SO reference point and the combination of stages. In the final step we differentiated healthy subjects from insomniac patients based on the parameters calculated in the fifth step.

Submitted by Boris Flegr (boris@uerj.br) on 2021-01-05T19:43:17Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Carla Fernandes dos Santos Lara Dissertacao completa.pdf: 1219344 bytes, checksum: 79faeed3a9f6057931e00a9fc904fb5c (MD5) Made available in DSpace on 2021-01-05T19:43:17Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Carla Fernandes dos Santos Lara Dissertacao completa.pdf: 1219344 bytes, checksum: 79faeed3a9f6057931e00a9fc904fb5c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-12-11 Asthma is an obstructive disease of the lower airways. Pulmonary function tests that do not require effort are needed for diagnostic accuracy. The negative expiratory pressure technique (NEP) has been used to assess the expiratory flow limitation (EFL) in obstructive diseases. However, there are few studies describing the use of NEP in patients with asthma. In this context, the aim of this study was to evaluate new respiratory function parameters by NEP in patients with asthma. This was an analytical, observational, and cross-sectional controlled study involving two categorized groups according to the Asthma Control Scoring System (ACSS): a group of patients with controlled asthma (CA) and another group of patients with uncontrolled asthma (UA), as well a control group (CG). The modified Borg dyspnea scale and funcional tests of NEP, plethysmography and spirometry were performed in these three groups on the exposed sequence and in two stages: before and after bronchodilator (Bd) use. It was observed increased EFL% and reduced expiratory flow variations for those with more severe obstruction (UA group). The EFL% and Δ25-75% reflected the pathophysiological changes occurring in medium caliber bronchus in asthma, and moderately correlated with forced expiratory volume in first second (FEV1). There was no significant variation in NEP parameters after using the Bd in seated patients. The ACSS showed good to excellent correlation with spirometry, moderate correlation with body plethysmography, and reasonable correlation with NEP. Clinical data obtained from the modified Borg dyspnea scale were reasonably correlated with lung function tests. FEV1 was the best lung parameter that correlated with the modified Borg dyspnea scale (r = -0.46, p