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In order to study the effects caused by substituting Co for Cu on the electronic and transport properties of Gd4(Co1-xCux)3 compounds with x=0.05, 0.1, 0.2, and 0.3, electrical resistivity [ρ(T)] measurements were performed in the temperature range 12–300 K. The paramagnetic-ferrimagnetic and spin-reorientation transitions are marked by clear anomalies in dρ/dT. For x=0.2, however, the onset of ferrimagnetic order at TC produces just a comparatively small peak in dρ/dT. This fact is compatible with a hypothetical mixed ferrimagnetic phase exhibiting partial disorder of the magnetic moments, as suggested by magnetic measurements [T. M. Seixas, J. M. Machado da Silva, H. F. Braun, and G. Eska (unpublished)]. The spin disorder resistivity shows a pronounced decrease with increasing x that can be attributed to the observed reduction of the magnetic moment of Co atoms. This stresses the important role played by 3d-band electrons in both magnetic state and in the strong s-d electron scattering. Magnon-induced electron scattering is also apparent in all compounds through well-defined maxima in dρ/dT, at temperatures ranging from 37 to 48 K, where the magnetic contribution to dρ/dT largely exceeds the phonon contribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Heart failure (HF) represents a huge financial and economic burden worldwide. Some authors advocate that remote monitoring should be implemented to improve HF management, but given its increasing incidence, as well as its morbidity and mortality, a question still remains: are we monitoring it properly? There is no shortage of literature on home monitoring devices, however, most of them are designed to monitor an unsuitable array of variables and, to the best of our knowledge, there are no large randomized studies about their impact on morbidity/mortality of HF patients., Objective: Description of a novel monitoring device., Methods: As a solution, we designed MONITORIA (MOnitoring NonInvasively To Overcome mortality Rates of heart Insufficiency on Ambulatory)., Results: This is a multimodal device that will provide real time monitoring of vital, electrophysiological, hemodynamic and chemical signs, transthoracic impedance, and physical activity levels. The device is meant to perform continuous analysis and transmission of all data. Significant alterations in a patient's variable will alert the attending physician and, in case of potentially life-threatening situations, the national emergency medical system. The MONITORIA device will, also, have a function that sends shocks or functions as a pacemaker to treat certain arrhythmias/blockades. This function can be activated the very first time the patient utilizes it, based on their risk of sudden cardiac death., Discussion/conclusions: MONITORIA is a promising device mostly because it is included in a follow-up program that takes into account a multi-perspective feature of HF development and is based on the real world patient, adapting innovations not to the disease but rather to the patients., (Copyright © 2021 Sociedade Portuguesa de Cardiologia. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.)

Heart failure (HF) is a multifactorial chronic syndrome with progressive increasing incidence causing a huge financial burden worldwide. Remote monitoring should, in theory, improve HF management, but given increasing morbidity and mortality, a question remains: are we monitoring it properly? Device-based home monitoring enables objective and continuous measurement of vital variables and non-invasive devices should be first choice for elderly patients. There is no shortage of literature on the subject, however, most studies were designed to monitor a single variable or class of variables that were not properly assembled and, to the best of our knowledge, there are no large randomized studies about their impact on HF patient management. To overcome this problem, we carefully selected the most critical possible HF decompensating factors to design MONITORIA, a non-invasive device for comprehensive HF home monitoring. MONITORIA stands for MOnitoring Non-Invasively To Overcome mortality Rates of heart Insufficiency on Ambulatory, and in this paper, which is part I of a series of three articles, we discuss the theoretical basis for its design. MONITORIA and its inherent follow-up strategy will optimize HF patient care as it is a promising device, which will essentially adapt innovation not to the disease but rather to the patients., (Copyright © 2020 Sociedade Portuguesa de Cardiologia. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.)

The Biot-Granier (Gbt) is a new thermal dissipation-based sap flow measurement methodology, comprising sensors, data management and automatic data processing. It relies on the conventional Granier (Gcv) methodology upgraded with a modified Granier sensor set, as well as on an algorithm to measure the absolute temperatures in the two observation points and perform the Biot number approach. The work described herein addresses the construction details of the Gbt sensors and the characterization of the overall performance of the Gbt method after comparison with a commercial sap flow sensor and independent data (i.e., volumetric water content, vapor pressure deficit and eddy covariance technique). Its performance was evaluated in three trials: potted olive trees in a greenhouse and two vineyards. The trial with olive trees in a greenhouse showed that the transpiration measures provided by the Gbt sensors showed better agreement with the gravimetric approach, compared to those provided by the Gcv sensors. These tended to overestimate sap flow rates as much as 4 times, while Gbt sensors overestimated gravimetric values 1.5 times. The adjustments based on the Biot equations obtained with Gbt sensors contribute to reduce the overestimates yielded by the conventional approach. On the other hand, the heating capacity of the Gbt sensor provided a minimum of around 7 °C and maximum about 9 °C, contrasting with a minimum around 6 °C and a maximum of 12 °C given by the Gcv sensors. The positioning of the temperature sensor on the tip of the sap flow needle proposed in the Gbt sensors, closer to the sap measurement spot, allow to capture sap induced temperature variations more accurately. This explains the higher resolution and sensitivity of the Gbt sensor. Overall, the alternative Biot approach showed a significant improvement in sap flow estimations, contributing to adjust the Granier sap flow index, a vulnerability of that methodology.

Background: Wearable sensing and information and communication technologies are key enablers driving the transformation of health care delivery toward a new model of connected health (CH) care. The advances in wearable technologies in the last decade are evidenced in a plethora of original articles, patent documentation, and focused systematic reviews. Although technological innovations continuously respond to emerging challenges and technology availability further supports the evolution of CH solutions, the widespread adoption of wearables remains hindered., Objective: This study aimed to scope the scientific literature in the field of pervasive wearable health monitoring in the time interval from January 2010 to February 2019 with respect to four important pillars: technology, safety and security, prescriptive insight, and user-related concerns. The purpose of this study was multifold: identification of (1) trends and milestones that have driven research in wearable technology in the last decade, (2) concerns and barriers from technology and user perspective, and (3) trends in the research literature addressing these issues., Methods: This study followed the scoping review methodology to identify and process the available literature. As the scope surpasses the possibilities of manual search, we relied on the natural language processing tool kit to ensure an efficient and exhaustive search of the literature corpus in three large digital libraries: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, PubMed, and Springer. The search was based on the keywords and properties to be found in articles using the search engines of the digital libraries., Results: The annual number of publications in all segments of research on wearable technology shows an increasing trend from 2010 to February 2019. The technology-related topics dominated in the number of contributions, followed by research on information delivery, safety, and security, whereas user-related concerns were the topic least addressed. The literature corpus evidences milestones in sensor technology (miniaturization and placement), communication architectures and fifth generation (5G) cellular network technology, data analytics, and evolution of cloud and edge computing architectures. The research lag in battery technology makes energy efficiency a relevant consideration in the design of both sensors and network architectures with computational offloading. The most addressed user-related concerns were (technology) acceptance and privacy, whereas research gaps indicate that more efforts should be invested into formalizing clear use cases with timely and valuable feedback and prescriptive recommendations., Conclusions: This study confirms that applications of wearable technology in the CH domain are becoming mature and established as a scientific domain. The current research should bring progress to sustainable delivery of valuable recommendations, enforcement of privacy by design, energy-efficient pervasive sensing, seamless monitoring, and low-latency 5G communications. To complement technology achievements, future work involving all stakeholders providing research evidence on improved care pathways and cost-effectiveness of the CH model is needed., (©Tatjana Loncar-Turukalo, Eftim Zdravevski, José Machado da Silva, Ioanna Chouvarda, Vladimir Trajkovik. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (http://www.jmir.org), 05.09.2019.)

This article addresses the design, development, and evaluation of T-shirt prototypes that embed novel textile sensors for the capture of cardio and respiratory signals. The sensors are connected through textile interconnects to either an embedded custom-designed data acquisition and transmission unit or to snap fastener terminals for connection to external monitoring devices. The performance of the T-shirt prototype is evaluated in terms of signal-to-noise ratio amplitude and signal interference caused by baseline wander and motion artefacts, through laboratory tests with subjects in standing and walking conditions. Performance tests were also conducted in a hospital environment using a T-shirt prototype connected to a commercial three-channel Holter monitoring device. The textile sensors and interconnects were realized with the assistance of an industrial six-needle digital embroidery tool and their resistance to wear addressed with normalized tests of laundering and abrasion. The performance of these wearable systems is discussed, and pathways and methods for their optimization are highlighted., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

In this article we present a smart textile system for the continuous monitoring of cardiorespiratory signals, produced and integrated with an industrial embroidery unit. The design of a T-shirt system, having embedded textile sensors and interconnects and custom designed circuit for data collection and Bluetooth transmission is presented. The performance of skin-contact textile electrodes, having distinctive electrical characteristics and surface morphologies, was characterized by measurements of signal to noise ratio, under dry and moisture conditions. The influence of the electrodes size and the wear resistance were addressed. Results of an electrocardiogram acquisition with a subject wearing the T-shirt and display on a smartphone are also shown. The presented smart textile systems exhibit good performance and versatility for custom demand production.

Endoleaks are one of the major concerns in the long-term follow-up of endovascular aneurysm repair treatment (EVAR). Therefore, periodic monitoring is required to detect eventual damages in an implanted stent-graft. A monitoring system for post EVAR procedure based on inductive-coupling which avoids the need to resorting to more complex biomedical imaging systems is presented here. Endoleaks are detected with capacitive pressure sensors placed in the stent-graft and monitored externally after the measure of the oscillation frequency provided by the LC circuit created by sensors and inductive coupling.

A new wearable data capture system for gait analysis is being developed. It consists of a pantyhose with embedded conductive yarns interconnecting customized sensing electronic devices that capture inertial and electromyographic signals and sends aggregated information to a personal computer through a wireless link. The use of conductive yarns to build the myoelectric electrodes and the interconnections of the wired sensors network, as well as the topology and functionality of the sensor modules are presented.