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Neuromodulation offers treatments for drug resistant pathologies. In this field, the emergence of micro-scale multi-electrode arrays paves the way for selective neural interfaces. But they suffer from the lack of information on the nerve functional anatomy. The global aim of this PhD project is to explore the possibilities of imaging the inside of a nerve in a non-invasive way through electrical impedance tomography (EIT). As a soft-field imaging modality, EIT infers conductivity maps from boundary measurements. An experimental platform was built and allowed the validation of numerical methods developed for data prediction and parameter estimation. In vivo tests were performed in the context of vagus and sciatic nerve stimulation. Specifications were deduced for future experiments, with more reliable electrodes, embedding a higher number of contacts per cross-section., La neuromodulation offre une possibilité de traitement pour des pathologies pharmoco-resistantes. Dans ce domaine, l'émergence de matrices d'électrodes à l'échelle microscopique ouvre la voie à des interfaces neurales sélectives. Cependant, leur fonctionnalité est réduite par le manque d'information sur l'anatomie fonctionnelle du nerf ciblé. L'objectif global de ce projet de thèse est d'explorer les possibilités d'imager un nerf de manière non-invasive par tomographie d'impédance électrique (EIT). Modalité d'imagerie des tissus mous, l'EIT déduit des cartes de conductivité à partir de mesures sur la frontière du domaine étudié. Une plateforme expérimentale a été mise en place et a permis de valider les développements des méthodes numériques effectués pour la prédiction des données et l'estimation des paramètres. Des tests in vivo ont été réalisés dans le contexte de la stimulation du nerf vague et du nerf sciatique. Des spécifications pour de futures expériences ont été déduites, avec l'utilisation d'électrodes plus robustes comprenant un plus grand nombre de contacts par section.

In the past several studies have evaluated the human sleep onset (wake to sleep transition) using the electroencephalographic (EEG) measurements. This paper has evaluated the detection accuracy of sleep stages for multiple features based on the EEG alpha activity, during SO in healthy, insomniac and schizophrenic patients. The features include topographic features such as Directed Transfer Function, Full frequency DTF, Welch Coherence, Minimum Variance Distortionless Response Coherence and Partial Directed Coherence. Sleep stages Wake, NREM (Non-rapid Eye Movement) stages 1 and 2 were classified using Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) classifier and evaluated using classification accuracy. The results suggest that using topographic set of features yield an agreement of 81.3 % with the whole database classification of human expert.

Manual scoring of arousals is generally conducted by sleep experts in spite of being time-consuming and subjective. Our objective of this study was to develop an algorithm for automatic detection of sleep arousals without distinguishing between the types of arousal and sleep disorder groups. The processed and analysed data multiple overnight Polysomnography (PSG) recordings, consisting of 9 human subjects (6 male, 3 female), with age range of 34–69 and different conditions (4 patients with obstructive sleep apnoeas, 4 healthy and 1 patient with periodic limb movement disorder). PSG biosignals were processed to extract necessary features. K-nearest neighbours (KNN) was used as the classifier and performance of algorithm were evaluated by Leave-One-Out Cross-Validation. The average sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of algorithm was 79%, 95.5% and 93%, respectively. These results demonstrate that our algorithm can automatically detect arousals with high accuracy. Furthermore, the algorithm is capable to be upgraded for classification of various types of arousals based upon their origin and characteristics.

This paper describes the semester group project for the North Carolina State University Biomedical Instrumentation class, BME/ECE 522 from the spring semester of 2013. The topic of sleep, and more specifically Rapid Eye Movement (REM) during sleep, was selected by the group, and from that, the electrooculogram was chosen for its particular focus on non-intrusive eye movement detection. Knowledge of the theory behind electrooculography is widely available; however, the consumer market does not favor the electrooculogram, instead preferring electroencephalography or other approaches such as inferring sleep stages from motion. This paper presents the stages involved in our process of understanding the theory and applying it to create a prototype electrooculogram sleep mask. Our sleep mask obtains electrical recordings from the face and, following analog filtering, records this signal via an analog to digital converter. Later, a MATLAB algorithm uses Fourier analysis on this data to determine when REM sleep occurred. We observed that REM detection in the recordings from this prototype sleep mask correlate well with a commercial electroencephalogram device: the Zeo sleep monitor. The results show that the electrooculogram is a promising approach to REM sleep detection.

Background The Forced Oscillation Technique (FOT) has the potential to increase our knowledge about the biomechanical changes that occur in Cystic Fibrosis (CF). Thus, the aims of this study were to investigate changes in the resistive and reactive properties of the respiratory systems of adults with CF. Methods The study was conducted in a group of 27 adults with CF over 18 years old and a control group of 23 healthy individuals, both of which were assessed by the FOT, plethysmography and spirometry. An equivalent electrical circuit model was also used to quantify biomechanical changes and to gain physiological insight. Results and discussion The CF adults presented an increased total respiratory resistance (p

Born on other applications, wireless sensor networks (WSNs) grew on the promise of biomedical engineering applications. In this research we suggest system architecture for smart healthcare, based on a novel WSN. Our system particularly targets assisted-living residents and others who may help from continuous remote health monitoring. We present the objectives, advantages, and status of the design. An experimental livelihood space has been constructed at the Department of Biomedical Engineering (DBE) at Iran University of Science and Technology (IUST) for assessment of our system. A ten days monitoring and experimental results suggest a physically powerful potential for WSNs to open new research area in biomedical engineering, i.e. for low-cost, ad hoc use of multimodal sensors for a better quality of medical care.

The ALAD (Aminolevulinic Acid Dehydratase) gene polymorphism is linked with the accumulation of lead in the bone, blood and the other internal organs and it may predispose for many critical symptoms in the lead exposed persons. The aim of this study is to determine the primary, secondary and tertiary structure of lead. This enzyme is susceptible towards the toxic effect of lead. Primary structure prediction was done by Protparam tool, Compute PI/MW tool, Proscale tool. Secondary structure prediction was done by Self –optimize prediction method (SOPMA) tool, Porter tool. Tertiary structure prediction was done by protein structure prediction server. Domain was determined by Simple Modular Architecture Research (SMART) tool.

Integrative Approach to Multidisciplinary Training in Physiology and Biomedical Engineering

Neuromodulation offers treatments for drug resistant pathologies. In this field, the emergence of micro-scale multi-electrode arrays paves the way for selective neural interfaces. But they suffer from the lack of information on the nerve functional anatomy. The global aim of this PhD project is to explore the possibilities of imaging the inside of a nerve in a non-invasive way through electrical impedance tomography (EIT). As a soft-field imaging modality, EIT infers conductivity maps from boundary measurements. An experimental platform was built and allowed the validation of numerical methods developed for data prediction and parameter estimation. In vivo tests were performed in the context of vagus and sciatic nerve stimulation. Specifications were deduced for future experiments, with more reliable electrodes, embedding a higher number of contacts per cross-section., La neuromodulation offre une possibilité de traitement pour des pathologies pharmoco-resistantes. Dans ce domaine, l'émergence de matrices d'électrodes à l'échelle microscopique ouvre la voie à des interfaces neurales sélectives. Cependant, leur fonctionnalité est réduite par le manque d'information sur l'anatomie fonctionnelle du nerf ciblé. L'objectif global de ce projet de thèse est d'explorer les possibilités d'imager un nerf de manière non-invasive par tomographie d'impédance électrique (EIT). Modalité d'imagerie des tissus mous, l'EIT déduit des cartes de conductivité à partir de mesures sur la frontière du domaine étudié. Une plateforme expérimentale a été mise en place et a permis de valider les développements des méthodes numériques effectués pour la prédiction des données et l'estimation des paramètres. Des tests in vivo ont été réalisés dans le contexte de la stimulation du nerf vague et du nerf sciatique. Des spécifications pour de futures expériences ont été déduites, avec l'utilisation d'électrodes plus robustes comprenant un plus grand nombre de contacts par section.

This paper presents the steps of a surface Elec-tromyographic (EMG) signal conditioning, with emphasis in the stages of amplification and filtering. A detailed design guideline for the system is exposed, providing the means for the choice of the circuit components. The circuit was validated by three steps: simulation in software, use of sinusoidal wave to test the circuit in a prototype built in printed circuit board, and lastly, tested in the researchers in the left brachial biceps muscle. However, the system accuracy is limited to the tolerance of commercial com-ponents and devices. Lastly, it is proposed an improvement of the circuit for next processing stages, dependent on the applica-tion which the system is intended to be used.

The rapid growth of sensors for a vast number of applications have required that CPU and processors be applied as part of the data acquisition systems for a number of applications including communication, position tracking, health care monitoring, environmental changes, and transportation. In addition, the advances in nanometer electronic systems, compressive sensing (CS) [1-11] based information processing, and stream computing technologies provide great potential in creating novel hardware/software platforms and having fast data acquisition capability. Driven by these new technology developments, it is possible to develop a high speed “Adaptive Design for Information” (ADI) system that leverages the advantages of featurebased data compression, low power nanometer CMOS technology, and stream computing for biomedical instrumentation.

The clinical application of the current methods of measuring nasal obstruction has been limited by complicated, invasive and stressful procedures that require the full co-operation of the patient. A pilot study is described where a simple way of evaluating nasal obstruction, based on oscillation methods, was investigated. The technique did not disturb spontaneous breathing and required little co-operation and comprehension. Significant differences were obtained when clinically classified normal (5.2 +/- 1.8 cmH2O l(-1) s) and patient (10.6 +/- 5.9 cmH2O l(-1) s) groups were evaluated (p0.01). A significant reduction (p0.02) was also observed in impedance results before (8.5 +/- 1.1 cmH2O l(-1) s) and after (5.2 +/- 1.7 cmH2O l(-1) s) clinically successful nasal surgery, closely reflecting the clinical conditions of the subjects. This simple forced oscillation technique showed good potential for future clinical applications in the pre-screening of nasal patients and the evaluation of therapeutic surgery.

Nowadays, the biomedical instrumentation holds a prominent position within medicine. Following this trend, the BPM (beat per minute) has become an important tool to elucidate about the functioning of the organism and wakeup for anomalies by monitoring the heartbeat in the human body. These devices are mostly used in hospitals and clinics but are gradually finding their way into domestic use. This paper demonstrates on an approach to design a cheap, accurate and reliable device which can easily measure the heart rate of a human body.

This paper proposes a reconfigurable control system based on the biopotential signal generated by the muscles to control small activities. The system aims to develop a platform geared towards helping physically disabled people. The biopotential signal is captured by surface electrodes and is conditioned and amplified using biomedical instrumentation amplifiers (electromyogram - EMG). The controller responsible for interpreting biopotential signals is implemented on a reconfigurable device (FPGA). It is an ongoing project and currently, we already have experimental results demonstrating the main features of the desired system.

Biomarkers have been described as characteristics, most often molecular, that provide information about biological states, whether normal, pathological, or therapeutically modified. They hold great potential to assist diagnosis and prognosis, monitor disease, and assess therapeutic effectiveness. While a few biomarkers are routinely utilised clinically, these only reflect a very small percentage of all biomarkers discovered. Numerous factors contribute to the slow uptake of these new biomarkers, with challenges faced throughout the biomarker development pipeline. Microfluidics offers two important opportunities to the field of biomarkers: firstly, it can address some of these developmental obstacles, and secondly, it can provide the precise and complex platform required to bridge the gap between biomarker research and the biomarker-based analytical device market. Indeed, adoption of microfluidics has provided a new avenue for advancement, promoting clinical utilisation of both biomarkers and their analytical platforms. This review will discuss biomarkers and outline microfluidic platforms developed for biomarker analysis.

Several studies in healthcare require the acquisition and analysis of biological signals. The stage of acquisition of these signals depends on protocols, equipment and specific techniques, and is a compulsory part of the schedule of several studies. For this reason, it is interesting to be able to optimize it. The main objective of this work is the development in an emulator hardware of biological signals for teaching and learning in area of biomedical engineering and aid to new technologies arising from the use of biological signals. In this context, the development of equipment capable of emulating and simulating biological signals becomes relevant because, with them, you can subtract the acquisition step, saving time and at aiding aimed studies its processing. These devices provide a biological signal in analog form that was previously stored digitally in a database emulating them, or simply simulating these signals when they are generated by computer programs. An important application for the emulators and simulators of this kind, is to evaluate the accuracy, precision and performance of the systems processing signals in real time. Thus, this study includes a literature review that describes the importance of the study of biological signals and proposes an architecture and organization of an emulator / simulator called BioSim in order to improve techniques for the study of these signals as well as to evaluate and calibrate equipment that use these signals. The BioSim corresponds to a four-channel system consisting of processing modules, MAPLE ( ARM Cortex M3 ) and Arduino MEGA ( ATMEGA 2560 ) , with a storage capacity of 4 Giga Bytes per channel , through a micro SD card ( SanDisk ), and a man-machine interface comprising a liquid crystal display and buttons for navigation. To evaluate the developed equipment were considered signs simulated by a computer program, in emulation of database a several biological signals collected in previous studies by our research group of the Biomedical Engineering Laboratory of the Federal University of Uberlândia - BioLab. The results suggest that the device is able to simulate and emulate biological signals in real time, sampled to 20 kHz, with a resolution of 12 bits. This will allow the optimization of the acquisition process of the biological signals, reducing the time for carrying out research in area of the Biomedical Engineering. Vários estudos na área da saúde exigem a aquisição e análise de sinais biológicos. A etapa de aquisição destes sinais depende de protocolos, equipamentos e técnicas específicas, e é parte obrigatória do cronograma de diversas pesquisas. Por este motivo, é interessante que se consiga otimizá-la. O principal objetivo do presente trabalho foi o desenvolvimeto de um hardware emulador de sinais biológicos para o ensino e aprendizagem na área de engenharia biomédica, e auxiliar as novas tecnologias provenientes da utilização de sinais biológicos. Neste contexto, o desenvolvimento de equipamentos capazes de emular e simular sinais biológicos se torna relevante, pois, com eles, pode-se subtrair a etapa de aquisição, economizando tempo e auxiliando os estudos voltados para o seu processamento. Estes dispositivos disponibilizam sinais biológicos em sua forma analógica, que previamente estavam armazenados digitalmente em uma base de dados, emulando-os, ou, simplesmente simulando estes sinais quando os mesmos são gerados por programas computacionais. Uma aplicação importante para os emuladores e simuladores desta natureza, é avaliar a exatidão, precisão e desempenho dos sistemas que processam sinais em tempo real. Assim, este estudo contempla uma revisão da literatura que descreve a importância do estudo envolvendo os sinais biológicos e propõe uma arquitetura e organização de um emulador/simulador denominado BioSim, a fim de melhorar as técnicas para o estudo destes sinais, bem como avaliar e calibrar equipamentos que os utilizam. O BioSim corresponde a um sistema de quatro canais, que consiste de módulos de processamento, MAPLE (ARM Cortex M3) e Arduino MEGA (ATMEGA 2560), com uma capacidade de armazenamento de 4 Giga Bytes por canal, através de um cartão micro SD (SanDisk), e uma interface homem-máquina, que compreende uma tela de cristal líquido e botões para navegação. Para avaliar o equipamento desenvolvido foram considerados sinais simulados por um programa computacional além da emulação de um banco de dados de diversos sinais biológicos coletados em estudos anteriores pelo nosso grupo de pesquisa do Laboratório de Engenharia Biomédica da Universidade Federal de Uberlândia BioLab. Os resultados sugerem que o dispositivo é capaz de simular e emular sinais biológicos em tempo real, amostrados até 20 kHz, com uma resolução de 12 bits. Isto permitirá a otimização do processo de aquisição dos sinais biológicos, reduzindo o tempo para a realização de pesquisas na área da Engenharia Biomédica. Mestre em Ciências

This dissertation describes the development of a non-invasive framework for better understanding the motion of bones in knee joints in 3D space using ultrasound and low complexity image registration for applications in the domain of biomedical research and treatment planning related to knee joints. Kinematic analysis allows the motion of individual bones in the knee joint to be measured. These motion measurements provide significant insights into normal and abnormal joint trajectories which can lead to improved artificial joint component design, superior diagnosis for ligament injuries and adequate therapeutic strategies to be formulated. Knee joint kinematics is complex in a sense that the natural motions of flexion, extension and internal, external rotation are coupled. During flexion, the two main bones in a knee joint, the tibia and femur, do not bend like a door hinge, instead they rotate about several specific axes. This type of motion makes it crucial that the joint kinematics be evaluated in 3D space. The existing techniques, whether they use x-ray, optoelectronic, ultrasonic or video motion capture to track the bone movements under the skin, are somewhat prone to invasiveness or ionizing radiation or skin wobbling during dynamic activities. In this thesis, a 2D B-mode ultrasound based multi-slice H shaped array sensor and its calibration technique are proposed. This novel calibrated array is capable of tracking the relative motion of the bones in a knee joint in 3D space without the requirement of any invasive implantation of beads in the knee but it still provides the required accuracy when compared to the current clinical standard Roentgen Stereo Analysis (RSA). Finally, a single element ultrasound sensor based method using image registration for rigid body motion parameter estimation is proposed. This approach not only facilitates joint kinematic determination but also guides pre- and post-surgery planning of the knee joint based non-invasive A-mode ultrasound. The unique feature of the proposed methods are the estimation of the six rigid-body transform parameters with large convergence radius with enough precision, robustness to ultrasound (US) speckle noise and speed of convergence.

In this chapter, the monitoring of the electrical activity of skeletal muscles is depicted. The main components of the detection and conditioning of the EMG signals is explained in the sense of the biomedical instrumentation. But, first, a brief description of EMG generation is introduced. The hardware components of the general instrumentation system used in the acquisition of EMG signal such as amplifier, filters, analog-to-digital converter are discussed in detail. Subsequently, different types of electrodes used in different EMG techniques are mentioned. Then, various EMG signals that can be detected and monitored via EMG systems are described and their clinical importance is discussed with detail. Finally, different EMG techniques used in clinical studies and their purposes are explained with detail. © 2018 IGI Global. All rights reserved.

There is a growing interest in accurately measuring the timing of the J peak of the ballistocardiogram (BCG) in order to obtain cardiovascular function markers non-invasively, especially in modern home healthcare applications. In this paper we have studied the effect that some common uncertainty sources have in the time measurement of the J peak. This is a necessary step towards the standardization of modern ballistocardiography systems equivalent to that available for ECG systems. We conclude that, to reduce J peak time uncertainty below the measured intrinsic uncertainty of about ±2 ms, the minimal bandwidth should be from 1.5 Hz to 22.5 Hz; the sampling frequency can be decreased up to 50 Hz when using cubic spline interpolation; 5 bits are required to quantify the signal, and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) should be over 40 dB and 3 dB respectively.

As diversas áreas da Engenharia, em parceria com a ciência médica, têm contribuído de forma eficaz para o avanço do conhecimento e dos resultados em aplicações práticas na vida do deficiente físico. De forma geral, pesquisas com este foco têm permitido o desenvolvimento de dispositivos e recursos com o objetivo de oferecer novamente a mobilidade e a liberdade perdidas com a deficiência. Este trabalho tem a finalidade de desenvolver um sistema que utiliza Eletromiografia de Superfície e Máquina de Vetores de Suporte para a caracterização de determinados movimentos de um braço humano, possibilitando, futuramente, a integração em sistemas de reabilitação. Primeiramente os sinais mioelétricos são obtidos nos músculos do braço de voluntários através de eletrodos de superfície ligados a um eletromiógrafo. O sinal é adquirido, utilizando como padrão um modelo virtual que demonstra ao voluntário os movimentos do segmento mão-braço que devem ser imitados. Esses movimentos são executados e seus sinais mioelétricos adquiridos. Posteriormente, esses sinais são processados e características são extraídas. Em seguida, são alocadas algumas de suas características (RMS, média, variância, desvio padrão, skewness e kurtosis) na entrada da Máquina de Vetores de Suporte, que apresenta, como saída, o reconhecimento, ou não, do movimento previamente executado pelo voluntário. No final do processo, observou-se que aumentando o número de canais elevou-se a taxa de acerto dos movimentos e, com a retirada de determinada característica, houve decréscimo na taxa de acerto do sistema. Nestes casos, os 9 movimentos distintos atingiram uma taxa de acerto média de 83,2%, para dois canais, e 91,3%, para oito canais, e, em ambos sistemas de canais, com as seis características. A wide range of engineering scopes, along with the knowledge from the medical science, has efficiently been contributing to further knowledge and results for practical applications in the life of the physically challenged. In general, such researches have allowed the development of devices and resources aimed at giving back the mobility and freedom lost with the deficiency. This paper intends to develop a system that uses Surface Electromyography and Support-Vector Machines (SVM) for the characterization of specific movements of a human arm enabling the future integration in rehabilitation systems. At first, myoelectric signals are obtained in the arm muscles of volunteers by means of surface electrodes attached to an Electromyography. The signal is acquired using a virtual model as pattern demonstrating to the volunteer the hand-arm movements which are to be replicated by the subject. As these movements are done, its respective myoelectric signals are acquired. Later on, these signals are processed and their characteristics extracted. Some of these features (such as RMS, standard deviation, variance, mean, kurtosis, skewness) will then be inserted in as input data in the Support- Vector Machine, which shows as an output a valid or null recognition of the movement earlier executed by the volunteer. At the end of the process, it was observed that increasing the number of channels increased by hit rate movements and, with the removal of certain characteristic, there was a decrease in the hit rate of the system. In these cases, nine distinct movements reached an average accuracy of 83.2% for two channels, and 91.3% for eight channels, and in both systems of channels, with six features.

This paper reviews the development and use of laser-Doppler perfusion monitors and imagers over the past two decades. The enormous interest in microvascular blood perfusion coupled with the ease of use of the technique has led to 1500+ publications citing its use. However, useful results can only be achieved with an understanding of the basic principles of the instrumentation and its application in the various clinical disciplines. The basic theoretical background is explored and definitions of blood perfusion and laser-Doppler perfusion are established. The calibration method is then described together with potential routes to standardisation. A guide to the limitations in application of the technique gives the user a clear indication of what can be achieved in new studies as well as possible inadequacy in some published investigations.

An in-house calibration laboratory for the Biomedical Instrumentation Maintenance Services of the hospitals in the West of Scotland was established in 1993. This paper describes the development of this calibration service in the context of an overall quality system and also estimates its costs. Not only does the in-house service have many advantages but it is shown to be cost effective for workloads exceeding 260 items per annum.

The 31st annual IEEE International Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference was held in Montevideo, Uruguay, on May 12–15, 2014. This is the first time that this conference took place in Latin America and in the southern hemisphere as well. The conference was attended by a total of 321 registered participants. Under the theme “Instrumentation and Measurement for Sustainable Development,” the conference covered many topics related to Instrumentation and Measurement, with papers presented on the following topics: 1) Biomedical Instrumentation; 2) Measurements on Energy and Power Systems; 3) Wireless Sensors; 4) Noninvasive Measurement Techniques; 5) Nanotechnology Applications in Measurement and Instrumentation; 6) Noise Measurements in Electronic Devices; and 7) Sensors and Instrumentation for the Environment and Climate Change Monitoring.

Because automation technology is developing so rapidly, pressure sensors in industry become more and more important. The pressure sensors have been widely used in the industrial, automobile and biomedical instrumentation. This paper focuses on the fabrication and characterization of a highly sensitive silicon pressure sensor. In this experiment the parameters influencing the characteristics of sensors are discussed, which include diaphragm thickness, piezoresistor layout, junction depth and environment temperature. Based on the experimental results, highly sensitive silicon pressure sensors can be fabricated under the conditions that the diaphragm is thinner, the junction depth is shallower on a (100) n-type Si substrate and the p-type piezoresistors are along the (110) direction.

Safe monitoring of foetal heart rate is a valuable tool for the healthy evolution and wellbeing of both foetus and mother. This paper presents a non-invasive optical technique that allows for foetal heart rate detection using a photovoltaic infrared (IR) detector placed on the mother's abdomen. The system presented here consists of a photoplethysmography (PPG) circuit, abdomen circuit and a personal computer equipped with MATLAB. A near IR beam having a wavelength of 880 nm is transmitted through the mother's abdomen and foetal tissue. The received abdominal signal that conveys information pertaining to the mother and foetal heart rate is sensed by a low noise photodetector. The PC receives the signal through the National Instrumentation Data Acquisition Card (NIDAQ). After synchronous detection of the abdominal and finger PPG signals, the designed MATLAB-based software saves, analyses and extracts information related to the foetal heart rate. Extraction is carried out using recursive least squares adaptive filtration. Measurements on eight pregnant women with gestational periods ranging from 35-39 weeks were performed using the proposed system and CTG. Results show a correlation coefficient of 0.978 and a correlation confidence interval between 88-99.6%. The t test results in a p value of 0.034, which is less than 0.05. Low power, low cost, high signal-to-noise ratio, reduction of ambient light effect and ease of use are the main characteristics of the proposed system.

What are the experiences of Chinese students taking engineering courses taught in English by American professors using active learning techniques? Case studies of three such courses are explored in this work. Specifically, two American professors taught courses in English to about 90 students whose native language was Chinese. These courses included a required Electronics course for electrical engineering sophomores, a seminar on Medical Device Product Development within a required Biomedical Instrumentation course for juniors in biomedical engineering, and a lecture series on New Product Development for first year honors students. All courses included homework teams and active learning techniques in the classroom. Surveys were given to students throughout the courses. Statistical analyses of these surveys show that the Chinese students valued the homework team experience and believed that it helped them learn although some variation is seen among the courses. Peer evaluations of teamwork also showed that students responded well to homework teams. Despite considerable variation in their comfort with speaking English, the students did well in these courses taught in English with active learning techniques.

The Journal of Control, Automation and Electrical Systems (JCAES) is a new bimonthly publication sponsored by the Brazilian Society for Automatics (SBA). The SBA was established in 1975 as a scientific organization to promote the Science and Engineering of Automation and Control in Brazil and to be a leading forum for researchers, students and professionals working in the various fields of Control and Automation. Currently the SBA has over 700 members in Brazil (professionals, students, and organizations) and is responsible for organizing the major South-American academic event in the field of automatics, the Brazilian Congress for Automatics (CBA), a biannual event that attracts around 1,000 participants, as well as the Brazilian Symposium on Intelligent Automation (SBAI). Furthermore, the SBA co-sponsors many other events promoting Automation and Control activities in Brazil. Since 1987 the SBA has been responsible for the affiliated journal Controle & Automacao (Control & Automation Journal), the most important scientific journal in the control and automation area in Brazil, which has seen the publication of 23 volumes (since 1987), and is considered to be one of the leading scientific journals in Latin America. As a result, the JCAEShas inherited a high profile and long academic tradition since it will now be replacing Controle & Automacao, distinguished by the fact that the new Journal will be truly international. The mission of the JCAES is to publish original research papers, as well as tutorials pertaining to alternative sources of energy, automation systems, circuits and systems, control theory and applications, discrete event systems, electrical machines and drives, electric power systems, electronic and biomedical instrumentation, energy

In order to assess a possible relationship between ageing and expiratory flow limitation (EFL), and the potential of the negative expiratory pressure technique (NEP) in the study of ageing, this technique was evaluated in 30 volunteers (10 young, 10 middle aged, 10 elderly) using a prototype of a NEP instrument developed in our laboratory. Ageing caused a significant increase in EFL (ANOVA, p

WOS:000322540700008 (Nº de Acesso Web of Science) Impedance cardiography is a technique developed with the intent of monitoring cardiac output. By inspecting a few properties of the obtained signal (impedance cardiogram (ICG), the left ventricular ejection time can be derived with certainty, and an estimate of cardiac output is available. This signal is nowadays used in non-invasive monitoring, requiring the placement of electrodes over the subject’s skin, either ECG-type or in the form of encircling bands. The work here reported describes the implementation steps and the results obtained when embedding the ICG circuitry in a wheelchair’s backrest. The subject is seated normally, is normally dressed, and is completely unaware that monitoring is taking place. That means that the variation of tenths of ohm produced due to the cardiac cycle has to be detected with electrodes having substantial coupling impedance. Contactless ICG with embedded sensors was developed and tested on fourteen healthy subjects. The signal was always acquired, although respiratory activity is also important, constituting a noteworthy innovation in the area

Instrumentation amplifiers are used extensively inbio-potential reading, industrial sensor applications, Wheatstone bridgeamplifiers etc. In this work, a high input common-mode range instrumentationamplifier is presented. The amplifier is composed of two second generationcurrent conveyors (CCII+) with common-mode input range close to supply swingsand a differential difference current conveyor (DDCC) at the second stage withhigh voltage swing at the output. Also an optional DC servo loop is employed asa feedback to second stage for the removal of any possible DC offset voltage atthe output which can be used for AC coupled applications. The simple designstrategy with high input common-mode range and nearly rail-to-rail output stagetogether with increased bandwidth advantage of current-mode approach makes theproposed implementation desirable for many of the general purposeinstrumentation applications. The design is made using 0.35μm AMS technologywith 3V supply voltage. The operation is verified by HSPICE simulations.

This personal essay described the development of the field of Biomedical Engineering from its early days, from the perspective of one who lived through that development. It describes the making of a major invention using data that had been rejected by other scientists, the re-discovery of an obscure fact of physiology and its use in developing a major medical instrument, the development of a new medical imaging modality, and the near-death rescue of a research project. The essay concludes with comments about the development and present status of impedance imaging, and recent changes in the evolution of biomedical engineering as a field.

An automatic vessel diameter measurement technique based on linear discriminant analysis (LDA) has been proposed. After estimating the vessel wall, the vessel cross-section profile is divided into three regions: two corresponding to the background and one to the vessel. The algorithm was tested on more than 5000 cross-sections of retinal vessels from the REVIEW dataset through comparative study with the state-of-the-art techniques. Cross-correlation analyses were performed to determine the degree to which the proposed technique was close to the ground truth. The results indicate that proposed algorithm consistently performed better than most of other techniques and was highly correlated with the manual measurement as the reference diameter. The proposed method does not require any supervision and is suitable for automatic analysis.

© 2012 Gomez and Sanchez, licensee InTech. This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Biomedical Instrumentation to Analyze Pupillary Responses in White-Chromatic Stimulation and Its Influence on Diagnosis and Surgical Evaluation

Pulse examination was probably the earliest attempt to distinguish between health and illnesses. Starting at the pre-Hippocratic era, Chinese medicine practitioners developed techniques for pulse examination and defined pulse images based on their perceptions of pulse waveforms at the radial artery. Pulse images were described using basic variables (frequency, rhythm, wideness, length, deepness, and qualities) developed under philosophical trends such as Taoism and Confucianism. Recent advances in biomedical instrumentation applied to cardiology opened possibilities to research on pulse examination based on ancient Chinese medical theories: the pulse wave analysis. Although strongly influenced by philosophy, some characteristics used to describe a pulse image are interpretable as parameters obtained by pulse waveform analysis such as pulse wave velocity and augmentation index. Those clinical parameters reflect concepts unique to Chinese medicine - such as yinyang - while are based on wave reflection and resonance theories of fluids mechanics. Major limitations for integration of Chinese and Western pulse examination are related to quantitative description of pulse images and pattern differentiation based on pulse examination. Recent evidence suggests that wave reflection and resonance phenomena may bridge Chinese medicine and cardiology to provide a more evidence-based medical practice.

The interest of scientific community on brain activities and issues are well-known, especially for neuro-detection of variety of impairments that affect cerebral areas. Various techniques and methods have been using to characterize and to try to understand brain activities for many purposes. Epilepsy, one of them, is a topic of great impact in brain research as well as in Alzheimer issues. Thanks to the development of new biomedical instrumentation it is possible to use appropriate techniques to diagnose the specific pathology. DTI (Diffusion Tensor Imaging) is one of the ultimate technique to have a comprehensive approach to brain activities. This interdisciplinary research highlights the use of DTI to determine preliminarily the ROI (Region Of Interest) for patients with suspected cases of epilepsy. A specific algorithm has been developed to trace out the ROI and the fibers.

O desenvolvimento de ferramentas voltadas para a área da tecnologia assistida tem crescido muito nos últimos anos devido ao avanço tecnológico e científico. Uma das áreas em destaque na Comunidade Científica nos últimos anos é a área denominada de Brain-Computer Interface ou simplesmente BCI, que basicamente utiliza sinais cerebrais para controlar ou gerenciar dispositivos. Neste trabalho é desenvolvido um sistema experimental BCI, síncrono e não invasivo, utilizando sinais cerebrais da região do córtex somatossensorial capturados com um EEG de 3 canais, com o objetivo de comandar um protótipo de cadeira de rodas motorizada sem a participação de nervos periféricos e músculos. São realizados 4 experimentos onde voluntários não treinados realizam tarefas motoras imaginárias de 2, 3 ou 4 movimentos, onde são avaliados diversos aspectos como, por exemplo, o método de seleção e extração de características, taxas de acerto na classificação, aplicação do método empregado em uma base de dados internacional conhecida para comparação de resultados, assim como a avaliação geral do sistema. Foram obtidas taxas de acerto médias de 74,9% para os 3 melhores voluntários do experimento com 2 movimentos, 60% para o experimento com 3 movimentos e 40,2% para o experimento de 4 movimentos. No experimento de interface com a cadeira de rodas foram obtidas taxas de acerto médias de 65,7 e 49,2% para 2 ou 3 direções, respectivamente. É importante ressaltar que essas taxas de acerto são similares às obtidas em outros trabalhos. The development of tools for assistive technology has grown tremendously in recent years due to technological and scientific advancement. One of the areas highlighted in the scientific community in recent years is called Brain-Computer Interface or simply BCI, which basically uses brain signals to control or manage devices. In this work is developed an experimental BCI system, synchronous and non-invasive, using brain signals from somatosensory cortex captured with a 3-channel EEG, in order to command a motorized wheelchair without the involvement of peripheral nerves and muscles. Four experiments are performed where untrained volunteers perform imaginary tasks (two, three or four imaginary movements), which are evaluated several aspects, such as the method of selection and feature extraction, classification accuracy rates, application of the method employed in an international database for comparison, as well as the general evaluation of the system. Were obtained hit rates (average) of 74.9% for the three best volunteers of the experiment with two movements, 60% for the experiment with three movements and 40.2% for the experiment with four movements. In the experiment with the wheelchair were obtained 65.7 and 49.2% hit rates (average) for 2 or 3 directions, respectively. It is noteworthy that these hit rates are compatible with other works.

The present report describes the development of hardware and software for the clinical application of otoacoustic emissions (OAEs). This development is driven by the need to quickly, inexpensively, and reliably detect and measure the properties of these small acoustic signals, across a range of audio frequencies, in background noise that is often greater than the evoked sound. However, before exploring the techniques used to measure OAEs, the authors briefly explain the nature of these responses and their clinical significance, which forms the motivation for the development of biomedical instrumentation for their measurement. >

Renowned great scientist and redox pioneer, Dr. Britton Chance, closed his 97 years of legendary life on November 16, 2010. He was the Eldridge Reeves Johnson emeritus professor of biophysics, physical chemistry, and radiologic physics at the University of Pennsylvania. He achieved fame as a prominent biophysicist and developer of highly innovative biomedical instrumentation. His scientific career stretched over almost one century and he achieved many scientific and engineering breakthroughs throughout his long prolific career. The advances that he and his colleagues achieved led to great strides in our understanding of biology and disease. He was among the first scientists to recognize the importance of free radicals and reactive oxygen species in mitochondrial metabolism and cells as well as to map pathways of redox biology and signaling. Dr. Chance served as a pioneer and inspiration to generations of researchers in the fields of redox biochemistry, metabolism, and disease. He will be missed by all of us in the research community but will live on through his monumental scientific accomplishments, the novel instrumentation he developed, as well as the many scientists whom he trained and influenced.

Due to the rapid social changes in recent decades, we are now facing the challenge of an aging population structure. The rising demand for better healthcare and living quality has contributed to the huge sum of investment poured from governments, research and industry forces worldwide. As the organizer of the special session 5: Advanced Instrumentation for Healthcare of 2011 I2MTC, the I&M Society Taipei Chapter aims to provide an overview of the biomedical instrumentation development in Taiwan.