4th International Conference on Biomedical Engineering in Vietnam

Physiological measurement has been deeply investigated in microenvironment. The physiology on molecular or biochemical levels is examined to diagnose disease in early state. With new brain imaging techniques such as multi - channel near – infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), the functions of the cognitive brain activities can be determined. In this study, the relationship between specific physiology of brain cortex and psychology of untruth is assessed through measurements of the changes in concentration deoxygenated hemoglobin (HHb) and oxygenated hemoglobin (HbO2)by multi - channel NIRS. Moreover, we found the complex combination at prefrontal cortex (Cz ) is related to physiology of truth and untruth.

This paper aims to experiment high order moment features in two well-known problems which are motor imagery and person authentication in Brain Computer Interface (BCI) systems using Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) technique. To improve performance of the systems, we propose a new feature by combining 2

nd

order and 4

th

order moments of signal together. Our results show that such the feature not only achieves very high recall and precision ratios but also is practical for online NIRS-based BCI systems. Our systems can achieve recall and precision ratio at 99.2% for the left-hand and right-hand imagery problem, and up to 100% for the person authentication problem.

This paper aims to experiment several synchronous nonlinear features in the well-known 2-class motor imagery problem in Brain Computer Interface (BCI) systems using Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) technique. Those features including phase synchronizations and nonlinear interdependences are well known and widely applied on several neural-related problems such as epilepsy prediction. However, only a few publications are related to NIRS-based BCI systems. We conducted several experiments using NIRS technique to analyze how useful those synchronous nonlinear features can be applied on NIRS-based BCI systems. Results show that while the nonlinear interdependences can produce quite good recall and precision ratios, the phase synchronizations are not good for classification because the accuracy is as low as that in random guessing.

A technique of near-infrared (NIR) transillumination imaging was applied to develop an injection assist system. We have developed a simultaneous observation system for a body surface image and a transillumination image of blood vessels. The system consists of a high-intensity and low-leak light source, near-infrared CMOS camera and a small and light one-eye head mounted display. In transillumination imaging, we could visualize the veins in the adult forearm with the thickness of as much as 67 mm. A model phantom of the veins in the forearm was fabricated with the blood-contained tubes buried in pork thigh meat. The blood tube was hardly observable with a naked eye. Using the developed system, we could identify the blood tube in the NIR transillumination image, and could extract the blood successfully with the assist of the NIR image.

For more than 30 years, researchers and doctors from Russian, the U.S, France, Israel and other countries have studied methods of transcrebral or transcranial electrotherapy stimulation (TES). Transcranial impulse electrotherapy is a specific type of transcranial electrotherapy that uses low power impulse current to stimulate the antinoceptive system of the encephalon to provide procedures of electrodream and transcranial electroanagelsia. The stimulation current must be kept constant during treatment session. Traditionally, it can be done by employing close-loop control that continuously supervises the stimulation current. The fact that the impulse current for TES is low power can cause difficulties in measuring and controlling the current. Therefore, in this paper, we will introduce detailed design of current stabilization circuit that produces constant impulse current but doesn’t require closed loop control.

Using an array of near-infrared (NIR) LED’s, we can obtain transillumination images of an animal body and visualize the veins and arteries in the adult forearm as thick as 6 cm. To examine the feasibility of three dimensional (3D) reconstruction using these transillumination images, experiments were conducted to evaluate the image of an absorber in a tissue-equivalent phantom. An experimental system was designed to obtain a transillumination image of a model of blood vessels in the adult forearm. Imaging was accomplished with a high-resolution cooled digital CCD camera, placed at the opposite side of the phantom to the light source. The transillumination images were obtained with different depths of the absorber from the container wall.

Nanostructures of piezoelectric materials are attractive building blocks for useful bioimplant devices such as self-powering nanogenerators and nano-biosensors. Yet, one of the most efficient piezo-nanomaterials - PbZr

x

Ti

1 − 

x

O

3

(PZT) nanowires is difficult to synthesize without suffering from polycrystallinity or poor stoichiometric control. Current large-scale nanofabrication methods have been restricted by their complexity and cost, while bottom-up synthesis of nanowires has been limited in methods to assemble these structures at precisely-defined locations. Here, we report a novel fabrication method which requires only low resolution photolithography to generate ultra smooth, high performance PZT nanowires over wafer scales. These fabricated PZT nanomaterials also shows a biocompatible interface with living cells to offer a great potential for its applications in biomedicine such as self-powering implant devices and cellular biomechanical sensors.

Thanking to the ability of providing images of slices of organs with very high accuracy currently the PET / CT scanner is widely used for early diagnosis of many cancers and some other diseases. This paper examines the reconstruction algorithms in PET/CT scanner and builds mathematical model describing the operation of this device.

For a Computed Tomography (CT) Scanner used as a Non Destructive Testing (NDT) machine, 3D volume is reconstructed mathematically using un-attenuated (primary IO) and attenuated (secondary I) intensities. Primary intensity (IO) values are acquired from area of the imaging detector that is not covered by the object being tested. This procedure is prone to errors due to detector artifacts, nonlinear detector behavior, and scattered radiations detection as primary intensities, etc. This study is an attempt to make this procedure efficient and unimpeachable in which an X-ray I

O

monitor device is designed and validated that permit precise detection of the primary intensity to obtain better normalization and consequently higher quality image. Using TSL235 photodiode from Texas Instrument the X-ray intensity measured in current is directly converted into frequency which provides high resolution and precise X-ray detection. The device is designed to be easily integrate with an existing CT machine and could be interfaced and read out with a standard Personal Computer (PC) without any need of additional hardware. Furthermore, this device could also be used for other applications, like direct measurement of scattered radiations to apply correction to data set of scan obtained.

This study is an attempt to characterize the specially designed x-ray sensors for the predesigned x-ray intensity monitoring device by evaluating their linearity and sensitivity. Two different sensors are designed using S8559 and S8193 photodiodes from Hamamatsu Photonics, Japan. These photodiodes coupled with Cesium Iodide (CsI) scintillator are used to convert x-ray intensities into variable voltage signals. The linearity and sensitivity of the two sensors are evaluated by finding the operating range of sensors under the same conditions and parameters. This has been accomplished by varying x-ray tube voltage and current and by varying position of sensor from fixed source (x-ray tube). The term sensors characterization indicates investigation of x-ray sensors behavior. For this purpose some experiments are developed in which x-ray sensor and x-ray Io device are examined. Computed Tomography (CT 500) machine which is used in Non Destructive Testing of objects generates the primary and secondary x-ray intensities.

Efficient detection of un-attenuated and attenuated x-rays intensities is crucial to reconstruct 3D volume in a Computed Tomography (CT) machine employed for Non-Destructive Testing. In this study, an x-ray sensor is developed and characterized to be used with an existing X-ray Io device by evaluating its linearity and operating range. The sensor is developed by using Photodiode BPX61 from Siemens coupled with Sheelite (Calcium Tungstate [CaWO4]) scintillator. Sheelite illuminate by exposure of x-rays and BPX61 converts illuminated light into relative current signal. The current signal is amplified and for further processing transmitted to x-ray Io device virtual instrument which consist of a PIC microcontroller and a Personal Computer (PC). As the x-ray intensity depend upon x-ray tube voltage and current, the linearity and operating range of developed sensor is evaluated by performing special experiments in which the two quantities (tube voltage and current) are accreting one at a time while keeping the other constant. Using normalized values obtained from Oscilloscope and HyperTerminal measurements, the conversion time error is observed and reduced thus increasing linear and operating regions.

Bending stiffness of 12 specimen groups of Stainless steel and Titanium IM nails from 9 established manufacturers were measured and compared. With this respect, a rapid literature review is conducted. Further, the difference of stainless steel and titanium bending stiffness is discussed. The results are provided as a reference for manufacturers and regulatory authorities as an indication for effectiveness and safety of IM nails.

Electronics used in medical applications attract lots of researches on it, consequently more patients will be treated and have a healthy life. The analog-to-digital converter (ADC) is the inter-connection between the analog and digital part of a device, plays an important role transferring signals in real life to signals in digital domain. One requirement for this ADC is how to reduce power dissipation that can afford devices using battery source. A MDAC (Multiplying Digital to Analog Converter) using charge-pump capacitor technique is introduced for pipelined ADC topology. Compared with the switch-cap technique, MDAC using charge-pump technique consumes less power, hence reducing the total power used in the device. This MDAC is proposed for 1.5-bit stage pipelined ADC, using UMC 0.25

μ

m technology, 2.5V supply and 0.5Mhz sampling rate.

The design technique of using gray code addressing to reduce power dissipation in CPU of pacemaker is presented in this paper. The experimental results of reducing power up to 20% would be a promising result. This work is implemented by using Altera Quartus II 9.0, the device Cylone II EP2C20F484C7 is used.

New paradigm of biosensor electrode material, carbon-based composite materials (carbon nanotube (CNT), graphite, and graphene), have received great attentions because of high electronic conductivity and suitable mechanical properties. Among them, graphene modified electrodes show remarkable performance in biosensor applications with its high surface area, electrical and chemical properties. However, the graphene lose their intrinsic electrical and chemical properties during fabrication process by aggregation and oxidation. Here we suggest graphene and Nafion polymer composite not only enhancing processability but also maintaining properties. The easily fabricated glucose biosensor shows good performances with fast electron transfer rate, high selectivity, and low concentration range of detection with linear response.

An orally available exendin-4 formulation, using an enteric-coated capsule containing pH-sensitive NPs, was studied. In the

in

vivo

dissolution study, it was found that the enteric-coated capsule remained intact while in the stomach; the capsule was completely dissolved in the proximal segment of the small intestine and the loaded contents were then released. Oral administration of the capsule containing exendin-4 loaded NPs showed a maximum plasma concentration at 5 h after treatment; the bioavailability, relative to its subcutaneous counterpart, was found to be 14.0 ± 1.8 %. The absorbed exendin-4 could then stimulate the insulin secretion and provide a prolonged glucose-lowering effect. The aforementioned results suggest that the orally available exendin-4 formulation developed warrants further exploration as a potential therapy for diabetic patients.

It is well known that the uses of nanoparticles (NPs) can enhance medical imaging, diagnostics, and drug delivery. But for these applications and for drug delivery in particular, the difficulty in targeting specific organs in the body limits the role of these NPs for medical interventions. In cancer therapy for instance, systemic injections of drug-loaded nanoparticles result into an increase of toxicity in the body coupled with a reduction of the therapeutic outcome due to a lack of efficient targeting. Therefore, although the small size of drug-loaded NPs allows them to preferentially accumulate at tumor sites because tumors lack an effective lymphatic drainage system, most of the NPs may not reach the tumor sites but would rather reach healthy organs through systemic circulations. Hence, the challenge would be to deliver the higher percentage of the drug close enough to the tumor sites while avoiding systemic circulations. This can be achieved by adding an additional capability known as Magnetic Resonance Navigation (MRN) to the NPs without compromising their potentials for medical imaging, diagnostics, and drug delivery. MRN used for targeted drug delivery relies on magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) embedded in therapeutic magnetic microcarriers (TMMCs) where such MNPs being fully saturated in a high homogeneous magnetic field, allow the induction of a pulling force through the use of 3D directional gradients for vascular navigation along a pre-planned path. Although the effectiveness of MRN is independent of the depth at which it operates unlike the use of an external magnet, travel is limited to larger diameter blood vessels. As such, MRN is complemented by bacterial propulsion where drug-loaded MC-1 magnetotactic bacteria (MTB) relying on a chain of NPs known as magnetosomes for directional control and previously transported through MR-compatible microcarriers, are being considered as vehicles capable of reaching the tumor sites through the microvasculature.

Exendin-4 is a potent insulinotropic agent in diabetes patients; however, its therapeutic utility is limited due to the frequent injections required. In this study, an orally available exendin-4 formulation, using a pH-responsive NP, was developed. Following oral administration of

123

I-labeled- exendin-4 loaded NPs in rats, the biodistribution of the administered drug was investigated using a dual isotope dynamic SPECT/CT scanner. The results showed that the radioactivity of

123

I-exendin-4 propagated from the esophagus, stomach, and small intestine and then was absorbed into the systemic circulation; with time progressing,

123

I-exendin-4 was metabolized and excreted into the urinary bladder.

Transcranial Doppler ultrasound (TCD) is used to measure cerebral blood flow velocity in patients with cerebrovascular pathology. The task of locating an adequate acoustic window, through which TCD may be performed, is frequently time consuming or impossible for patients with thick or dense temporal bones. We examined the possibility of utilising B-Mode ultrasound images to guide detection of acoustic windows prior to TCD. B-Mode images of the temporal bone were acquired on deceased sheep shortly after death. We found that on selected sheep, the inner table of the temporal bone was visible on B-Mode imaging. We suggest that visibility of the inner table of the temporal bone on B-Mode imaging is associated with a high probability of successful TCD at that location.

Improving the quality of sleep is an important issue for many researches. A number of biomedical signals, such as EEG, EMG, and EOG were used to classify sleep stages. Based on those signals, one can detect and diagnose the sleep related disorders. There were many researches focused on automatic sleep stages classification. In this research, a new classification method is presented by applying Elman neuron network combined with fuzzy rules and features are extracted by wavelets packets. Nine subjects were recruited from Cheng-Ching General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan. The sampling frequency is 250Hz and the single channel (C

3

-A

1

) EEG signal was acquired for each subject. Combined network was used to recognize the sleep stages in each epoch (a 10 second segment data). The classification results relied on the strong points of neural network and fuzzy logic with average sensitivity is 88.48%, average specificity achieves 95.96%, and average accuracy is 93.79%. The data samples and the length of sleep intervals will be increased for experiment in the future to improve the accuracy.

This paper presents the scheme WICRIC (Wavelet based Ideal Cross point Regions for lossless Image Compression) for lossless compression and decompression of digital images. The main idea is to use the Ideal Cross point Regions for lossless Image Compression (ICRIC) scheme together with wavelet transform. The base of this statement is the effect of Gray coding on cross point regions of the transformed matrix of the original image. Before Gray coding data sets of cross points are determined, they are called the ideal cross point regions (ICRs). The wavelet transform makes images more compact, thus increases the number of usable ICRs. After Gray coding these regions always contain only bits 1 or bits 0 depending on the number of each bit plane after the bit plane decomposition. The bit state in ideal cross point regions is very good at entropy coding because the probability of data bits 1/0 is 1 there. This optimization of probability like that has important effects on encoding and decoding processes of lossless image compression for data transmission. This scheme of WICRIC is developed from the traditional scheme ICRIC (Ideal Cross point Regions for lossless Image Compression) and the Wavelet transform, it can give high compression ratios for both medical and photometric images, and so it can be installed in medical imaging systems like digital radiology, CT, MRI,....

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an inflammatory autoimmune disease in which 30% of patients are seronegative for the two serological RA markers, rheumatoid factor (RF) and anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibodies (ACCP). However, both markers also have lower sensitivities in early stages of the disease. The lack of effective biomarkers for this subpopulation of RA patients causes a delayed diagnosis. Therefore, discovery of novel circulating autoantibody biomarkers for these early RF-negative and ACCP-negative RA patients are advance planning of these subsets. 136 enriched antigenic markers were identified by high-throughput screening an RA library with autoantibodies in the sera of RA patients (positive selection) and healthy control (negative selection). Phage-ELISA-based re-screening determined 13 out of 136 enriched antigenic targets in which increased antibody levels rised up. Two of the 13 identified targets, namely special A-T rich DNA binding protein (SATB1) and EGF-containing fibulin-like extracellular matrix protein 1 (EFEMP1), which had highest increased antibody levels, were selected for further characterization. Reactivity of serum antibodies against these proteins was tested in a protein ELISA using the sera of 137 RA patients and 159 healthy controls. Autoantibodies against SATB1 were detected with 79% sensitivity and 82% specificity, while 87% sensitivity and 52% specificity were obatained for antibodies directed against EFEMP1. With regard to cytokine assay, interestingly, pro-inflammationary cytokines including TNF (tumour necrosis factor) increased over 1000 pg/ml or IL-4 (interleukin-4) or IL- 13 similarly increased up to 90 pg/ml and 102 pg/ml, respectively for co-culture with anti-SATB1 monoclonal antibody. Under treatment with EFEMP1 mAb resulting IL-1, TNF and IL-4 triggered up to 1300 pg/ml, 1250 pg/ml and 180 pg/ml, respectively. In T cell phenotype characterization, two subsets of CD4

 + 

T cell and CD8

 + 

cell were stimulated and differentiated from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) at 29.7% and 1.2% for anti-SATB mAb; 31.3% and 2.8% for anti-EFEMP1 mAb.

Multiple Sclerosis MS is one of the principal causes of morbidity worldwide. One of the strategies employed by the emergent science of metabolomics is MS biomarker identification. In this context, the technique of High-Resolution Magic Angle Spinning (HR-MAS) Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectra is widely used in metabolomic analysis involving tissue studies. Indeed, the NMR offers the potential to study molecular structures and their associations and interactions. In this paper, we present a new content-based object indexing and retrieval scheme for biomarkers detection. The biomarker identification is addressed by comparing 2D NMR MS spectrum groups for metabolite change detection using kernel based support vector data description (SVDD). Preliminary results obtained on synthetic spectrum database are shortly presented.

Early identification of aortic aneurysms is important for effective treatment. Although imaging systems have the ability to identify aortic aneurysms, high cost prevents their use for screening. On the other hand, pulse waves can be measured easily, and because pulse wave velocity is affected by the aortic aneurysm, there is a possibility to find an aortic aneurysm by pulse wave measurement. The aim of this study is to propose a method to find an aortic aneurysm from the pulse wave and to develop a measurement device. The aortic aneurysm causes the expansion of artery. The basic theory is based on the wave of a mechanical reactance silencer. The transfer functions of a pulse wave between brachial artery and anterior tibial artery were investigated. The transmission loss is increased by increase of the inner radius of an aortic aneurysm. The interval frequency of local minimum points of the transfer function correlates with the length of an aortic aneurysm. When the stiffness decreases, the characteristic impedance decreases, the pulse wave velocity decreases and the frequencies of the local peaks become low. It is therefore possible to estimate the size of an aortic aneurysm from the transfer function. The method to find an aortic aneurysm from the pulse wave was investigated theoretically and experimentally with silicone tubes. The relation between the transfer function and the pathological arterial change was clarified. This method can be used for diagnosis of aortic aneurysms.

Wavelet transforms and other frequency domain methods are widely used for edge detection, but they suffer from shift and rotation sensitivity. Recently, new x-let multiscale transforms have been developed. This paper describes a method for medical image edge detection in contourlet transform domain that uses cycle spinning. The edge detection is done by performing contourlet transform to the medical image, keeping the coefficients where the signal-to-noise ratio is high, and reducing the coefficients where the signal-to-noise ratio is low. For the contourlet transform to be translation-invariant a 2-D cycle spinning is implemented on subbands ∆ 

1

and ∆ 

2

. Cycle spinning for edge detection is implemented. The transformed data are shifted, edge detected and unshifted. The method has been compared with earlier edge detection methods that use the discrete wavelet transform and contourlet transform.

Breast cancer is one of the most frequently leading causes of cancer deaths in middle-aged women. Until now, mammography is still the most effective procedure for early diagnosis of the breast cancer. Computer-aided detection (CAD) system can be very helpful for radiologists in identification abnormalities earlier and faster than traditional screening program. Therefore, efforts have been made to develop CAD systems for mammographic interpretation. The identification of massive lesions in mammograms is still challenging because of their irregular shapes and ill-defined margins and faint contrast. Regions-of-Interest (ROIs) that high probably contain massive lesions are first detected. They are then classified as mass region or non-mass region using their extracted features. In this paper we will investigate the application of neural network in classifying massive lesions in digital mammograms.

A novel sensing structure based on microring resonators with feedback using silicon waveguides is proposed in this paper. The proposed structure can produce a sharp asymmetric Fano resonance line shape, in which the slope between the zero and the unity transmission is greatly enhanced, comparing with that of the conventional microring resonators. As a result, biological sensors using this structure can provide a high sensitivity. In addition, multimode interference (MMI) couplers are employed as coupling elements instead of using directional couplers in the microring resonators. MMI couplers have shown to have relaxed fabrication requirements, simplicity, compactness and are less sensitive to the wavelength. The analytical description of output spectrum response of the proposed sensor is analyzed and derived. The transfer matrix method (TMM) and beam propagation method (BPM) are used to optimally design the sensor structure.

Humidity is defined as the amount of moisture containing in the air. The most common way used to describe it is relative humidity. The function of some of breathing devices is used to humidify air for medical purpose, and the method of humidification is involved with water droplets being produced. The small water droplets sometimes attach to the sensor and affect the readings from the humidity measuring tools. Therefore this project was aiming to measure humidity accurately and quickly in a presence of water droplets.

In this paper, we present a new method of cell classification using geometrical features of shape analysis. Firstly, the contour of cell is detected and approximated by one polygon. Secondly, by using the bounded polygon, the shape of cell is normalized. Then, the cell is classified into three kinds of cells: bull sperm cell (B-SC), human fibroblast cell (H-FC), and human mesenchymal stem cell (H-MSC) by using the structure of bounded polygon. Our approach overcomes the difficulty caused by the similarity between three kinds of cells when their shapes are unpredictably deformed in microscope image. We have applied our proposed method into data collected by one microscope with 40x eyepiece lens.

This study aims to observe the silica gel insoles for adult females foot plantar pressure changes thus to find any other factors that cause female foot pain further. Six female subjects were participated in this study, the foot pressure parameters was recorded by Novel emed pressure measurement system. Each person had walked three times under bare foot state, and with 2 layers, 4 layers, 6 layers of silica gel insoles under the heel separately. Multiple comparison results showed that different layers of silica gel pad used in experiment was sensitive to plantar pressure change. With simulated inner heel height increased, the peak pressure reduced significantly in the heel. The experimental silica gel insoles, as its special material different from common insoles, all subjects feel soft and comfortable in the experimental process, which may indicates the insoles have a cushion to foot pressure load increase.

Biomedical Engineering is among the emerging technological disciplines in Vietnam. This is evidenced by the identification of undergraduate BME as one of the

Advanced

programs supported by the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) and hosted by the new Biomedical Engineering Department within the School of Electronics and Telecommunications at the Hanoi University of Science and Technology (HUST). Furthermore, a second BME department has emerged at the Vietnam National University- Hoc Chi Minh City- International University (IU). The predominant focus of both of these BME departments and curriculums is in biomedical instrumentation, which historically has been the most frequent field of employment for biomedical engineers in Vietnam. Because the intent of both of these BME programs is to educate their students to be competitive internationally for graduate programs and employment, there is an emphasis to expand their curricula to include broader BME topics such as biomechanics and biomaterials. With the award of a grant from the Vietnam Education Foundation (VEF) as a VEF U.S. Faculty Scholar, the lead author taught an engineering biomechanics course for Vietnamese undergraduate students for three consecutive years. Two of these offerings were at HUST and one was at IU. The pedagogical format of the course changed each year and ranged from a mixture of onsite and internet distance learning, to onsite and video conferencing, to fully onsite. Each year the course was centered around the design of an orthopedic fixation appliance...a bone plate. Course materials include PowerPoint slides, supplemental readings, and assignment descriptions, and were customized specifically for this course. Each offering presented unique challenges relating to instructional technology, course pace, and cultural and language differences. Notwithstanding, each of the course offerings was considered a success based on student learning, mastery and performance, and student course evaluations.

This study focuses on an typical of the most commonly used footwork of pushing to catch a ball across the front, and analyze impact, friction force during touchdown. Meanwhile, different sport shoes’ biomechanical features were compared, and the effect of badminton’s biomechanical characteristics of the lower limbs on the badminton shoes and its possible mechanism was further explored. The results found that comparing with ordinary shoes, professional badminton shoes have better ground grip ability, but the cushioning property are in the same level. Although this is a pilot study, professional badminton shoes still reflecting certain advantages in improving performance.

Tissue Engineering is one the most encouraging form of treatment for patients with advanced forms of articular cartilage degeneration today, and remains under active development. The extraction of required samples for effective TE research is complicated by the absolute need for sterility during the biopsy procedure. However, there are situations in which a standard bio-safety hood is not able to provide sterility for a required operation, particularly in the case of large subject matter which will not fit within the hood without disturbing laminar hood flow or in the case where large pieces of equipment such as powered tools are required. This gives rise to the necessity of an alternative method of sterile biopsy. The main aim of this study is the development and evaluation of a technique based on using positive pressure nitrogen gas in order to provide a locally and temporary sterile environment, which can be suitable in a general laboratory or clinical setting and also may be applicable in emergency applications, outdoor surgery and so on.

In this study, a computer-controlled tactile stimulator was developed, which can stimulate visual and auditory senses simultaneously by using the E-Prime software. The newly developed system consists of three units: a control unit, a drive unit and a vibration unit. Since the developed system is a small, lightweight with low electrical consumption, a maximum of 35 stimulation channels and various visual and auditory stimulation combinations. The system was designed to stimulate the fingers. The stimulator is expected to be highly practical due to a diverse combination of stimuli, such as tactile–visual, tactile–auditory, visual–auditory and tactile–visual–auditory stimulation with computer-control.

40

Streptomyces

isolates were recovered from soils taken from various sites around Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) and nearby peripheral areas, including 4 from a far-off location. Identification was done by conventional and molecular approaches (

16S rRNA

and

rpoB

genes sequence homology). All isolates were subjected to antibacterial assay against 2 pathogenic bacteria of gram positive and gram negative (

Escherichia

coli

ATCC 25922 &

Staphylococcus

aureus

ATCC 25923), by perpendicular streak method using MHA and TSA as the test media. With MHA as the test media in the antibacterial assay, > 50 % of the isolates showed antibacterial activity to at least one of the test bacteria as compared by using TSA as the test media. Color series of aerial mycelium was described based on growth on ISP-2 medium; there was a significant association between grey and non-grey color series of the aerial mycelium in association with the antibacterial activity of the isolates on MHA (89% vs. 42% respectively, P = 0.013) and TSA (78% vs. 35% respectively, P = 0.025). As a conclusion, different chemical composition of the test media could have an effect on the outcome of the antibacterial assay (MHA vs. TSA). The observed relationship between aerial mass-color (grey vs. nongrey) and antibacterial activity warrant further investigation in a larger sample of isolates.

Antioxidant activity of Dabai (

Canarium

odontophyllum

Miq.) pulp polyphenols was observed in animal model to investigate its potential in reducing

in

vivo

lipid peroxidation. Dried fullfat and defatted Dabai pulp were prepared and administered daily to hypercholesterolemicinduced rabbits (0.5% dietary cholesterol) at 5% of purified diet, besides a group receiving statin (10mg/kg/day) for 56 days. All groups were induced with hypercholesterolemia except in negative control. At the end of experimental period, the

in

vivo

antioxidative capacities of Dabai pulp were evaluated using assays; TBARS, SOD, GPx and TAS in whole blood and plasma samples of animals. Results indicated that defatted- and fullfat-Dabai pulp significantly reduced 36% and 15% plasma MDA (relative to without treatment [PC]), respectively while only 4% insignificant reduction was due to statin. On the contrary, plasma TAS levels were 76% and 66.2%, significantly higher (than without treatment) attributable to defatted and fullfat Dabai parts supplementation, respectively as compared to 9% insignificant reduction in statin group. Both pulps also caused marked increments in activity of enzymes especially SOD thus suggesting the strong

in

vivo

antioxidant capacities of Dabai pulp (defatted, especially) as future active pharmaceutical ingredient.

‘Sibu olive’ is known botanically as “

Canarium

Odontophyllum

Miq.” The present study was designed to assess the effect of Sibu olive (SO) consumption on cholesterol level and the development of atherosclerosis of mild hypercholesterolemia rabbits. A total of thirty five rabbits were randomly divided into 5 groups (n=7); NC (normal diet), PC (normal diet + 0.5% cholesterol), HS (hypercholestrolemic diet + 10 mg/kg/day simvastatin), HF (hypercholsterolemic diet + 5% fullfat SO) and HD group (hypercholesterolemic diet + 5% defatted SO). Main outcome measures were body weight changes, changes in total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol ( LDL-C), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), and atherosclerotic plaque formation. After 8 weeks, there was increment in body weight changes (1.75–2.24 kg) of animals. The HD group showed significant reduction in total cholesterol (96.3%), LDL-C (26.5%) and HDL-C increment (46.8%) relative to PC. Futhermore, the atherosclerotic plaque formation in HD group diminished by 79.4% compared to PC. The polyphenols like phenolic acids, flavonoids, and anthocyanidins) that promote the lipid lowering potential of the SO fruit. Hence, in the future, SO fruit may serve as potent alternative treatment in the prevention of atherosclerosis.

Biomedical diagnostic devices always have crucial aspects on development of biomedical technology. Blood sampling process through microchannels is required in biomedical diagnostic devices. In this paper, we have investigated advancing meniscus of biomedical sample in various side-wall shaped microchannels. Advancing meniscus of liquid mainly depends on side-wall shape of microchannel, even though dynamic contact angle is sustained as same value regardless of side-wall shape.

This paper presents hemoglobin measurement based on microfluidic blood cuvettes. Blood sample filled MBC by capillary action, and hemoglobin in the blood sample was measured by absorbance of 530nm-wavelenth light. Microfluidic blood cuvette was fabricated by poly-methylmethacrylate (PMMA) substrate and dry film photoresist (DFR). Two different MBC including dual-side wall and sing-side wall microchannels were designed and fabricated. During blood filling process, air was trapped in microfluidic blood cuvette of dual-side wall microchannel, while there was no air trapping in microfluidic blood cuvettes of single-side wall microchannel. Sensitivity of hemoglobin measurement was more linear in 105(

μ

m-depth microchannel rather than 35(

μ

m-depth microchannel.

We have applied the luciferin-luciferase reaction and are developing a technique to detect the released ATP from platelets in their aggregation. A photomultiplier tube (PMT) was used as a photodetector and a serial counting device was connected to count the output signal from the PMT. Using this apparatus, the luminous reaction of rat heparinized blood was observed in two types of blood circuits; one was totally composed of poly vinyl chloride (PVC) tube and the other was inserted a glass tube section into the PVC circuit. As a result, after the removal of residual ATPs in plasma by luciferin, emission intensity progressively increased in the both circuits. In the circuit without a glass section, the emission intensity was remarkably lower.

Stainless steel (SUS) has been used in many industrial fields such as bio and medical parts. Especially, implanted medical device (IMD) has been widely researched for enhancing a human life from biological treatment using those devices. These medical devices require some essential requirements, such as biocompatible, non-toxic and human safety. For these reason, many researchers have been suggest a method of surface treatment to decrease a biological damages due to implanted in vivo. However, these proposed methods were had some disadvantages such as semi-permanent and require additional processes. To overcome these disadvantages, our research proposes a surface texturing method that is anodic oxidation based on electro-chemical reaction. Firstly, 1

μ

m aluminum thin layer was deposited on the 4inch SUS-316L wafer. At this point, for the comparison of SUS-316L wafer with different surface roughness conditions, we have prepared polished and unpolished surface wafer. Using suggested method, porous aluminum oxide layer was formed and then we have removed oxide layer using alumina chemical etchant. Finally, we have fabricated various shapes of irregular nano/micro dimple structures with 100nm to 50

μ

m according to surface roughness conditions.

In this paper, plasma extraction device based on microstructure in microchannels was presented. Also, we analyzed the blood flow according to blood transportation methods for application of blood separation. The microchannels for blood separation were designed blood cell channel, plasma channel and separation channel. The separation channel to separate the plasma was performed the role of micro filter based. The overall shape of microchannels was designed to spiral shape. Spiral microchannel was designed for prevention of blood cell cross-over from blood cell channel to plasma channel and clogging. Microchannels were made of polymethylsiloxane which is optically transparent. Blood sample was diluted with phosphate buffered saline at the ratio of 1:3. Characteristics of blood cell flow through microchannel, also, were observed with respect to two different blood transportation methods including pushing by syringe pump and pulling by vacuum pump. As results, blood flow driven by vacuum pump (pulling) was slower than that driven by syringe pump (pushing), but almost no blood cell was crossover from blood cell channel to plasma channel in pulling transportation method.

A lipoprotein contains both proteins and lipids water-bound to the proteins including enzymes, transporters, structural proteins, antigens, adhesins and toxins. In the present study, a LpnS gene encoding lipoprotein from Streptomyces lividans 66 was cloned by using polymerase chain reaction, southern blot and hybridization. After sequencing, the LpnS gene had 1235 bps coding 415 amino acids that had 100% homology to lipoprotein of Streptomyces lividans TK 24 and 99 % of Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2) and 71 % Streptomyces flavogriseus ATCC 3331 and 71% of ABC transporter of Streptomyces griseoflavus. This gave more data about lipoprotein in Streptomyces lividans 66.

Hyaluronic acid (HA), one of the most potential biological materials, is increasingly widely used in pharmaceutical and cosmetics nowadays. Hyaluronic acid was produced commercially from rooster combs and the fermentation of Streptococci groups A and C. In order to contribute to the safety and cheap hyaluronic acid for human, we used rice-washing water as medium to culture Streptococcus thermophilus MR10 which was detected as hyaluronic acid production source isolated in fermented foods in Vietnam. This is the first report pointing the the effects of cheap rice-washing water on the HA production of Streptococcus thermophilus. In the medium containing ricewashing water, Streptococcus thermophilus produced HA better than the usual MRS medium for Streptococcus thermophilus growth.

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) have the important role in general health, providing a beneficial micro flora in the intestinal tract. The tested Lactobacillus acidophilus VTCC-B-702 and Lactobacillus rhamnosus ATCC 11443 were grown individually and co-cultured together in the same environment. Agar-well diffusion test was performed to determine the antibiotic susceptibility and antimicrobial activity. Two tested LAB exhibited the sensitivity to ampicilin and tetracycline at 5×10-3 to 1×10-2 (mg/ml), but resistant at 5×10-4 (mg/ml). L. acidophilus was resistant to erythromycin at all concentration, but L. rhamnosus was sensitivity to erythromycin at 5x10-3 to 1x10-2 (mg/ml), but resistant at 5×10-4(mg/ml). After co-cultured, both of these microrganisms were resistant to erythromycin. This action showed there were erythromycin resistant determinant from L. acidophilus to L. rhamnosus. The antimicrobial activities were also tested on Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella typhi, Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The effects showed the synergy except on Escherichia coli.

Various reactions that produce color are known to be selective for certain types of carbohydrates. It was difficult to identify N-acetyl-glucosamine in hyaluronan because the hyaluronan was produced very low in microorgansims. Besides, in the traditional methods of Morgan-Elson, using alkali borate to lysis hyaluronan to give N-acety-D-glucosamine caused the unspecific products that could not react to di-methyl-benzaldehyde (DMAB). The study developed the method to detect N-acetyl-D-glucosamine by thin layer chromatography (TLC) that showed the stable purple traces on TLC than in liquid. The study was confirmed by applying high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC).

The DNA extraction is the first step provided DNA samples for further genetic studies. As a small animal the DNA extraction from seahorse means killing the living specimens. This study is investigated to estimate the tissue sample size which can be used for extraction of enough DNA for further studies without killing living specimens and find out the suitable method for extraction of DNA from seahorse. Tissue samples were obtained by taking small tail rings at the end of the tails or the fins of living seahorses. Two methods were applied for extraction of DNA: Phenol method and salt method. The extracted DNA was concentrated by Nanodrop system. The quality of DNA was measured by agarose gel and PCR assay. While DNA from fin tissue gave no result in PCR, all DNA from tail tissue with about 20ng/ul gave the good PCR result even extracted by phenol or salt method. With the tail tissue, high concentration of DNA was achieved in both methods. 41% samples and 57.4% samples gave DNA concentration higher than 20ng/ul by phenol and salt method, respectively. The purity of DNA yield extracted by phenol is lower than by salt method (18% in phenol method compared to 44.5% in salt method). Thus, salt method gave higher efficiency than phenol method. The salt method gave higher percentage of sample with high concentration and high purity of DNA than phenol method. The salt method is considered as the suitable method. With the weight of tail tissue around 20mg total amount of DNA at least is 3

μ

g which adequate for further genetic analysis. Beside the over success of salt method compare to phenol method, the salt method is lower cost and less hazardous chemicals as in salt method phenol, an expensive chemical and toxic, is not required.

Aspergillus

parasiticus

and

flavus

are known as the main producers carcinogen aflatoxins. The presence of these fungus and aflatoxins in food is a serious risk for human and animal health. The identification of these fungi is not straightforward due to its similarities with closely related species. In this study, a multiplex PCR assay have been developed which overcame the disadvantages in detection of

Aspergillus

parasiticus

and

flavus

by conventional morphological method. Twelve isolates of filamentous fungi, representing six

Aspergillus

and

Aspergillus

-related species were used. DNA was extracted from mycelium following SDS method modified from Plaza’s method. The extracted DNA was used for the PCR method to identify the presence of selected fungi using specific primer sets. The result of identification was analysed by agarose gel electrophoresis. The sensitivity and specificity of the detection were checked by result of a gradient PCR assays. Two specific set of primers were successful designed based on Aflatoxin biosynthesis gene cluster to detect A.

parasiticus

and A.

flavus

species, with the limitation of detection (LOD) for each set of primer is 0.005ng and 0.008ng. A multiplex PCR assay set up with two these sets of primers was also successful in detection of both targets of A.

parasiticus

and A.

flavus

at the annealing temperature of 65°C with high sensitive and specificity. The limitation of detection (LOD) is 0.5ng. A highly specific multiplex PCR assay have been developed to detect the presence of

Aspergillus

parasiticus

and

flavus

in food. This will permit prediction of the presence of aflatoxins type G and aflatoxins type B, the most potent natural carcinogens.

Extraction of DNA from specimens is a required step which provides DNA for further studies in molecular genetics. In human genetic study, blood is a prefer specimen as they provide adequate DNA. However, blood specimen not always easy to collect while hair root is easier. This research is carried out to select an efficient DNA extraction method using hair root specimens. Totally 200 hair roots were collected from 20 volunteers and divided into 2 groups different in period time: fresh or 1 week, for evaluation of 2 extraction methods: phenol and salting out. The comparison will performed to evaluate the extraction method for each group based on the quantity and quality of DNA extracted. Quantity of DNA was measured by Nanodrop system. Quality of DNA was measured by the DNA on agarose gel and the product of a PCR assay. The phenol method is considered as a better method for extraction of DNA from hair root which give a higher quantity and quality of DNA. With 5 fresh hair roots, extraction by phenol method result in >1000ng of DNA and the average purity of DNA at 1.7, while extraction by salting out method result in about 800ng of DNA and the average purity at 1.0. Storing hair root leading to reducing the quantity of DNA extracted. PCR assay testing on DNA extracted showed the result that either salting out method or phenol method with the same amount of DNA in PCR assay they showed the successful PCR products on agarose gel. The phenol method is an efficient method for extraction of DNA from hair roots. 5 hair roots can be achieved in around 1

μ

g of DNA which is enough for at least 10 PCR assays in human molecular genetic studies. Fresh hair root is recommended for extraction of DNA.

Lactobacillus

acidophilus

strain is one of the most commonly used probiotics.

L

.

acidophilus

is linked to decreased instances of vaginal yeast infection, gastrointestinal dysfunction and even boosting immune function. Common food sources of

L

.

acidophilus

include yogurt and fermented soy products, such as miso and tempeh. There are many species of

Lactobacillus

acidophilus

bacteria that are found in a variety of environments, from dairy products to the human gastrointestinal tract (GI). Identification of

L

.

acidophilus

species from different sources is important that will supply their different products to contibute in medicinal and life sciences. Therefore, this study was to find the DNA profiles in

Lactobacillus

acidophilus

ATCC 4356 and

Lactobacillus

acidophilus

VTCC-B-871 by restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis. Besides, using a probe having 400 base pairs (bp) of

minD

gene from

Lactobacillus

rhamnosus

JCM 1553, Southern blotting and hybridization were performed. There were a difference between two tested

Lactobacillus

acidophilus

.

Detection of TTX produced in cultured medium containing peptone, yeast extract that was made from animal or other biological sources caused the false positive results when using thin layer chromatgraphy method. With such results, it was a lot of mistakes when detect tetrodotoxin in food as a toxin or in medicine as a drug. Therefore, it was needed to look up a modification in TTX detection in cultured medium. In the study, the tested samples were designed and the mobile phases for thin layer chromatgraphy were optimized. The results showed the suitable system for TTX detection was pyridine: ethylacetate: acetic acid: chloroform with the ratio as 15:5:5:2 or butanol: acetic acid: distilled water (15:3:6). The tetrodotoxin level was detectable at 10 ng.

Suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA) belongs to the class of histone deacetylase inhibitors emerging as potent antitumor agents. In this study, effects of SAHA on DAOY cells as model cell line for medulloblastoma, one of the most common malignant pediatric brain tumors, were analysed at the protein level by using gel-based proteomics. A 2D proteome map of DAOY cells in the pH range of 4-7 was created using 2D electrophoresis combined with MALDI-TOF/ TOF-MS. The 2D reference map of control and SAHA treated DAOY cells comprises 1196 identified protein spots of 778 distinct proteins. This is the first report of a 2D proteome map of SAHA treated DAOY cells and the largest catalogue of proteins identified in DAOY cells so far. Quantitative analysis of SAHA induced effects on the cells was performed using 2D-DIGE technique. After treatment with 10

μ

M SAHA, alterations were observed for 220 protein spots. Especially, SAHA induced fragmentation of many known caspase substrates. Higher levels of mitochondrial proteins indicated apoptosis via the mitochondrial pathway. Altogether, these findings point to induction of various antitumor activities by SAHA.

Streptococcus thermophilus was isolated from ferment foods in Vietnam. This strain was determined by API 50 CHL (BioMerieux). Interestingly, we have detected and characterized the enzyme called cholesterol esterase that will be used in cholesterol diagnostic and treating the cholesterol ester storage disease in women. After culturing, the free cell supernatant was precipitated with 60% ammonium sulfate and resuspended in distilled water. After dialysis, the supernatant had been titrated with 1M sodium hydroxide and detected by thin layer chromatography (TLC). The detection was based on the determination the free fatty acid that was the product of cholesterol ester hydrolyzation by cholesterol esterase. The color changed in titration and the spot appearance compared with the standard in TLC showed the presence of cholesterol esterase. The cholesterol esterase production was also optimized in different conditions containing vitamin D, and palmitic acid as the substrates of cholesterol. The study showed that Streptococcus thermophilus should be supplied in ferment food as yogurt in order to improve the health for human.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the fifth most common malignancy in the world. It is much prevalent in many of the developing countries than in the industrialized world. The effect of

Ficus

Benjamina

extract and

Pereskia

Saecnarosa

extract was studied on the level of micro and macro minerals in normal and induced liver cancer rats. The extracts of

Ficus

Benjamina

and

Pereskia

Saecnarosa

were prepared and were given to the rats through

ad

libitum

. Forty-four male rats from the species

Sprague

Dawley

were used as a model. They were acclimatized for duration of one week and further divided into 6 groups at random. The 6 groups were: control, cancer; normal rats supplemented with

Ficus

Benjamina

, cancer rats supplemented with

Ficus

Benjamina

, normal rats supplemented with

Pereskia

saecnarosa

and cancer rats supplemented with

Pereskia

saecnarosa

. Twelve weeks later, the blood of each rat was taken for the analysis of calcium, iron and zinc and body weight was taken before and after the treatment. The very obvious result was the highest weight gained by the normal rats supplemented with

Ficus

benjamina

extract. However, the weight gain was not significant to the control group but it was significant to the cancerous group. In all the 6 groups irrespective of their treatment, the level of minerals was almost the same. From the statistical analysis, it was found that there was a significant relationship in the level of calcium between the cancerous rats and the cancerous rats given

Pereskia

saecnarosa

(p<0.05). Moreover, a significant relationship in the level of iron was found between the cancerous rats and the cancerous rats supplemented with

Pereskia

saecnarosa

(p<0.05). However the cancerous rats supplemented with

Pereskia

saecnarosa

showed a lower level of ferrum in their blood serum. Furthermore a significant relationship was found in the level of zinc between the control rats and normal rats supplemented with

Pereskia

saecnarosa

(p<0.05). In conclusion, there is no significant relationship between the effect of

Ficus

Benjamina

and

Pereskia

saecnarosa

extract and the level of calcium, iron and zinc.

Determination of psycho-emotional tension on humans is performed by means of psychological tests, the electrical characteristics of biologically active points connected with the psycho-emotional sphere, and on indicators characterizing the state of a subject’s visual attention. The level of such tension is determined as an aggregate of these three components with the rules of fuzzy logic. It is shown that the resulting method can be used as an informative feature for prediction and medical diagnosis of conditions such as stomach and heart disease. The use of dissimilar parameters characterizing different areas of psychology takes into account the systemic nature of mental phenomena such as psycho-emotional tension. Fuzzy logic decision-making can correctly account for uncertainties in a parameter under consideration, combined with incomplete understanding of its properties in practice. Additionally, such an assessment of psycho-emotional tension allows one to integrate this indicator into fuzzy output systems for a broad range of tasks in the fields of medical and psychological diagnosis, including vocational suitability.

It has been thought that imbalance in the jaws can cause loss in arm strength. In this study, EMG will be used to determine the EMG–Force relationship of the jaw, neck and arms muscles. This will give us useful insights on the arms strength loss due to the biomechanical effects of the imbalance in the jaw mechanism. Three male subjects (average age: 20.67±2.89 years old) participated in this investigation. The subject were asked to stand with their arms and legs extended in frontal plan in such a way that the ratio subject intra-feet distance/ subject height equal 0.25. The experimental protocol consisted of two paradigms that (1) From the initial position (0 mm, 5 kg), external loading weight was added incrementally (6kg, 7kg) until the subject can hold the weight in 10 seconds. Check EMG signal quality and data storage; (2) Perform variation in spacer thickness from 2mm to 3mm and execute step 1 for each variation. Myoelectric signals of the masseter, trapezoid, deltoid and brachiodiolis muscles were measured. Higuchi fractal dimension was used to analyze the complexity of surface EMG signal of these four muscles. The results showed that (1) The activities of arm muscles varied according to the applied pull-down force; (2) The masseter, trapezoid and deltoid muscles displayed the greatest amount of activity in this study. There was also a significant difference in the fractal dimension values of the surface EMG signal before and after the loss of arm strength.

Monitoring respiratory activity provides important information about patient’s well-being. There are many respiratory activity monitoring techniques introduced so far. This paper presents a portable respiratory monitor using Respiratory Inductive Plethysmography (RIP) technology. RIP sensor’s characteristics are also studied. Experimental results have shown that RIP sensor’s sensitivity and linearity can be improved by designing the RIP sensor properly. In addition, the monitor’s accuracy in term of respiratory rate measurement is verified by experiment on 10 subjects. Experimental results have shown that our monitor can measure respiratory rate with error ±1 bpm. Furthermore, it can transfer data to PC (via Bluetooth) where chest and abdomen movement efforts are plotted. These plots are useful for diagnosing and monitoring several respiratory disorders.

Nanoparticle in drug delivery offers major improvements to those limitations by providing longer circulation times, greater specificity, and enhances anticancer effects. Thus, the objective of this study is to synthesize a polymeric nanoparticle encapsulating TMX, and investigate the

in

vitro

characteristics on breast cancer cell line, MCF-7. Materials and Methods. The nanoparticles were synthesized through gamma irradiation polymerization between Nisopropylacrylamide (NIPAAM), N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone (VP), poly(ethyleneglycol) diacrylate (PEG-DA). TMX was directly loaded into the nanoparticles by random physical entrapment. Photon Cross Correlation Spectroscopy Nanophox (PCCSNanophox) and Transmission Electron Microscopcy (TEM) were used to observe size and morphology of the nanoparticles. To study the

in

vitro

effects, MCF-7 cells were treated with TMX-nanoparticles and its cytotoxicity effects were investigated through MTT assay. Results and Discussion. From the results, it was confirmed that nanoparticles at 0.055M subjected to 8kGy of gamma irradiation posses a consistent size distribution of 49.89 nm SD ±1.82. This was further confirmed through pictures taken with TEM in which the nanoparticles had a clearly distinguishable core-shell structure, with a spherical or elliptical shape with smooth surface. Through the cytotoxicity assay, it showed that TMX-nanoparticles had a greater inhibitory effect compared to TMX alone at 48 hrs and 72 hrs. There was also no evidence of toxicity by void polymeric nanoparticles.

Electrocardiogram measurement plays a fundamental role for the finding and monitoring of a variety of cardiac problems. In this investigational study we considered three lead computer interface ECG module with PIC Controller, based on the Einthoven’s triangle technique. Our developed ECG module operates on bipolar limb lead arrangement and a particular gold plated switch is used for leads selection with the intention to reduce contact noises. LAB WINDOWS software is used to display a real time ECG signal that supports us to evaluate heart rate and PQRST amplitudes. Our investigational outcome illustrates 80% – 90 % precision as compared to conventional ECG machine, therefore it allowing an efficient ECG measurement regardless of artifacts.

Nowadays, radiographs are used more widely in clinical diagnostics. Therefore, automatic detection and extraction of spine in radiographic image are problems which are paid more attention to quantify the severity of spinal diseases. This will help reduce the number of clinical evaluation by a doctor and will allow studies based on large database. The purpose of this paper is to present a new approach to automatic detection of the spine in posteroanterio radiographic image. First, we define a region of interest (ROI) based on a set of radiographs. This region contains sufficient information and data of the vertebra. Filters with threshold based on the brightness and the features of images and spine, are used to remove redundant information. Then a mask is brought in to save the position of the spine. Based on the determined position of the spine, a method is applied to smooth the edge and to add parts of the spinal disability. In addition, the mask processing will detect the direction of curvature of the spine to facilitate other processes. The result which is obtained from the steps above for good quality X-ray image is almost entirely derived spine and less noise, although the poor quality images still have high noise surrounding the bone.

The objective of the present study was to evaluate anti-inflammatory effects of betulinic acid on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated BV2 microglial cells. Pretreatment of betulinic acid significantly attenuated LPSinduced NO production and protein expression of iNOS. Betulinic acid also significantly suppressed LPS-induced release and expression of cytokines such as TNF-

α

and IL-1

β

. Furthermore, betulinic acid significantly suppressed LPSinduced MMP-9 expression, which has been suggested to play an important role in the migration of activated microglia. In order to understand the possible mechanism by which betulinic acid suppresses LPS-induced cytokine production and migration of microglia, the role of NF-kB, a major proinflammatory transcription factor, was examined. Betulinic acid significantly suppressed LPS-induced degradation of IkB, which retains NF-kB in the cytoplasm. Therefore, nuclear translocation of NF-kB upon LPS stimulation was significantly suppressed bybetulinic acid. Taken together, the present study for the first time demonstrates thatbetulinic acid possesses anti-inflammatory activity and inhibition of microglial migration through the suppression of nuclear translocation of NF-kB in BV2 microglial cells.

Glioblastoma multiforme is one of the most common and aggressive tumors in central nervous system. It often possesses characteristic necrotic lesions with hemorrhages, which increase the chances of exposure to thrombin. Thrombin has been known as a regulator of MMP-9 expression and cancer cell migration. However, the effects of thrombin on glioma cells have not been clearly understood. In the present study, influences of thrombin on glioma cell migration were examined using Boyden chamber migration assay and thrombin-induced changes in MMP-9 expression were measured using zymography, semi-quantitative RT-PCR, and Western blotting. Furthermore, underlying signaling pathways by which thrombin induces MMP-9 expression were examined. Thrombin-induced migration and MMP-9 expression were significantly potentiated in the presence of wortmannin, a PI3K inhibitor, whereas MAPK inhibitors suppressed thrombin-induced migration and MMP-9 expression in C6 glioma cells. The present data strongly demonstrate that MAPK and PI3K pathways evidently regulate thrombin-induced migration and MMP-9 expression of C6 glioma cells. Therefore, the control of these pathways might be a beneficial therapeutic strategy for treatment of invasive glioblastoma multiforme.

Diffuse optical imaging (DOI) of the brain has emerged as a new neuroimaging technique that is seeing growing applications in brain research. The technique’s simplicity, lower cost and applicability to children have contributed to its popularity. However, poor quantification of local hemodynamic changes based on optical signals remains a major hurdle and significant efforts are still being pursued to better understand how to recover accurate images of functional activation, generate statistical maps and recognize the limitations of DOI. In the context of aging, further confounds arise due to anatomical and physiological changes that must be accounted for in the signal modeling. In this work, DOI signals are revisited in this context. In particular we investigate the diffusion path length factor and its modifications with age.

Stem cell transplantation therapy has been becoming one of the most attractive medical treatments for repairing ischemic tissues in limbs, myocardial infarction and the brain. To understand the mechanism implicated during the healing, a cell tracking system under MRI would be very useful in the field of fundamental research and clinical applications.

An MRI contrast agent composed of bioinert polymeric carriers such as poly(vinyl alcohol) or dextran and gadolinium chelate was synthesized by activating their hydroxyl groups with 1,1’-carbonylbis-1H-imidazole (polymeric-Gd). Three kinds of cells, NIH-3T3, rat bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) and rat endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) were labeled with the polymeric-Gd by the electroporation under a very mild condition. The amount of the delivered contrast agent, cytotoxicity, and the intracellular stability of the polymeric Gd was evaluated in vitro. These labeled cells were injected hindlimb ischemia rat models and the MR contrast at a given amount of cells injected was evaluated.

Our results revealed at the first time that the stem cell migration in the ischemic or nonischemic cells were very different and even the cell survival period of time after transplantation was greatly affected by the ischemic situation of the rats.

For last decade, we are developing the novel local drug delivery devices using biodegradable polymers, especially polylactide (PLA) and poly(D,L-lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) have been developed in our labaortory due to its relatively good biocompatibility, asily controlled biodegradability, good processability and only FDA approved synthetic degradable polymers. The relationship between various kinds of drug and different types of geometrical devices and pharmacological activity are proposed and discussed for the application of pharmaceutics formulations. Also, local drug delivery devices proposed in these works are introduced in view of preparation method, drug release behavior, biocompatibility, pharmacological effect, and animal studies. In conclusion, we can control the drug release profiles varying with the preparation, formulation and geometrical parameters. It is very important to design a suitable formulation for the wanted period of bioactive molecules loaded in biodegradable polymers for the local delivery of drug. The drug release is affected by many factors such as hydrophilicity of drug, electric charge of drug, drug loading amount, polymer molecular weight, the monomer composition, the size of implants, the applied fabrication techniques, and so on.

We designed new polymer nanoparticles embedding quantum dots with artificial cell membrane-surface as a highly sensitive bioimaging probe. These nanoparticles were prepared by assembling phospholipid polymer as a platform and oligopeptide as a bioaffinity moiety on the surface of the nanoparticles. They showed high resistance to non-specific cellular uptake from HeLa cells due to the nature of phospholipid polymer with phosphorylcholine groups. On the other hand, when arginine octapeptide was immobilized on the surface, they could permeate the membrane of HeLa cells effectively and good fluorescence based on quantum dots could be observed. Cytotoxicity was not produced by these nanoparticles even after immobilization of octapeptide. Thus we obtained stable fluorescent polymer nanoparticles covered with artificial cell membrane, which are useful as an excellent bioimaging probe evaluation for biomolecular function in the target cells.

Fire security system always provides high security against fire. Conventional fire security systems are wired and they usually contain smoke detectors and control panel. The control panel is sometimes hard to operate. Not everyone can understand the use of the control panel. In hospitals and other health care institutions very expensive equipments are normally installed. So each and every organization needs proper insurance and safety for their equipments and patients. Normally fire is detected using smoke detectors, but after detecting the fire the operator or the user should know the exact place of fire in the organization. We have introduced a system that will detect and show the exact place of wire (for example in floor or any room). It is basically two channel device that can detect fire or on rooms or floors. This system is very easy to operate and it also operates on RF signals. Everyone can easily operate its portable receiver. Wireless fire security system for hospitals is also very low cost device. It is the best way to insure the proper safety against fire. The major problem of third world countries is electricity or energy, this fire security system has the solution of this problem. This security system can be operated on both AC as well as on rechargeable DC batteries. The DC batteries can operate all the seven smoke detectors attached through each transmitter. The battery is also very cheap and easy to access in local places. All the components of this fire security system are easily available. It is the best fire security device at low cost.

This paper proposed a average threshold algorithm for predicting motor control area of human brain using fNIRS technique. Firstly, data obtained from human brain were pre-processed to reduce noise and artifacts. Thus, the data were analyzed using a decomposition wavelet algorithm with a Bior 5.5 function to produce wavelet coefficients. From these coefficients, one can create a coefficient threshold to determine motor control area as well as to distinguish two brain hemispheres based on oxy hemoglobin (oxy-Hb) concentration. Experimental results for predicting motor control area confirmed the feasibility of the proposed method.

A mean threshold algorithm was proposed to detect eye blinking using ElectroEncephaloGraphy (EEG) in this paper. Firstly, the activity of eye blinking related to the delta area of human brain was investigated using EEG technology. Before analyzing the EEG data, original data were smoothed to reduce noise or artifacts by a band-pass filter. Secondly, the proposed threshold method was applied to determine a threshold value which can be used to distinguish cases of eye blinking and opened eye. Moreover, the phenomenon of eye blinking can be useful for diagnosing eye diseases such as dry eye or congenital glaucoma. Experimental results showed that the proposed eye blinking threshold approach is the effectiveness.

This paper proposed a linear regression (LR) algorithm for hand tapping recognition using functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS). Brain data with noise and artifacts were re-processed to obtain data smoothy using a Savitzky-Golay filter. The smoothy data were calculated using the proposed LR algorithm in order to produce the angular coefficients of the straight lines which correspond to oxygen-Hemoglobin (Oxy-Hb) concentration. Therefore, one can distinguish the right and left hand tapping tasks based on the different angular coefficients of the lines corresponding to the difference of the right and left brain Oxy-Hb. In addition, the difference of the left and right brain activities were determined based on comparing the angular coefficients. Experimental results showed to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

We design and implement a system of home health care Telemedicine for Blood Pressure Measurement including Tele-Blood Pressures having a capable of transmitting data over the Internet via an ADSL or 3G and server applications to store and process data. The standard of Health Level Seven is applied to exchange information.

In this article we describe the design a wireless nurse call system for visually and audibly alerting nursing staff for use in hospitals, clinics, assisted living and senior living. If action from nurses is too slow, this system can make an alert or send an immediate Short Message Services (SMS) message to nurses and administrators advising them of the tardy response. The logging program has been designed to record the time and location of all calls and be very easy to operate to monitor, record and print reports.

Our objective is to investigate and analyze the appropriateness of personnel who operate, maintain and repair medical equipment in some hospitals in Vietnam. Recommendations are proposed for actions regarding clinical engineering, and the link between research, education and entrepreneurship.

We have discovered an unusual type of nano carbon which exhibits super high electrical conductivity over well known SWNT (single walled carbon nano tube) and graphene nano platelets. The new nano carbon material is suspected to be a graphene hybrid composite with some portions of tubular nano carbon including carbon nano tube, carbon nano rod and carbon nano wire. As the tubular shape nano carbon is always observed at low catalyst portion (MS/CS ratio, MS= Metal Source, CS= Carbon Source) while graphene related structure is always observed at much higher concentration of the catalyst, we assume that the extra amount of catalyst could work as a divider to separate single sheet of carbon into graphene products . The nano carbon materials of the present study are synthesized by the unoxidizing pyrrollysis of salt-milled solid carbon sources using specific catalyst...

Novel biocompatible protein-oleic acid conjugate was prepared to form self-assembled nanoparticles (NP) when exposed to an aqueous medium. The conjugation of protein-fatty acid was confirmed using FTIR and NMR. The physicochemical properties of NP were characterized by the experimental conditions such as pH, temperature and the amount of protein/fatty acid. The self-assembled NP had a uniformly spherical shape with particle size (150-200 nm) and showed good physical stability. This NP had no any potential cellular toxicity. Paclitaxel was chosen as model drug for anti-cancer effect using self-assembled NP. Drug release was controlled over an extended period of time. Furthermore, surface-modified NP using folic acid showed a higher cancer-cell killing effect as compared with Taxol

®

. The

in

vivo

pharmacokinetic parameters and biodistribution of the NP containing paclitaxel also indicated longer blood circulation.

The aim of our study was to design pH-sensitive pulsatile drug delivery system which exposes a pulsed release of drug. Polyacrylic acid (PAA) is a pH-responsive weak polyelectrolyte polymer that exhibits a highly coiled conformation at low pH but a highly extended state at high pH. Binary blends of PAA and ethylcellulose (EC) with different ratios were used for coatings as pH sensitive polymeric systems efficiently controlling the release of drug from the coated film through a design of pulsed release with some pause intervals. Imaging analyses using scanning electron microscopy, near-infrared imaging, confocal laser scanning microscopy, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy confirmed the release behavior of the drug and fumaric acid from coated tablets.

Ultrasound tomography based on inverse scattering has the capability to resolve structures which are smaller than the wavelength of the incident wave, as opposed to conventional ultrasound imaging using echo method. Some material properties such as sound contrast are very useful to detect small objects. Born Iterative Method (BIM) based on first-order Born approximation has been introduced as an efficient diffraction tomography approach. However, this method has a high complexity because it has to solve large iterative forward and inverse problems. In this paper, we propose to replace Tikhonov regularization by

l

1

-regularized least squares problem (LSP) in solving the inverse problem in BIM. As a result, the quality of reconstruction is improved and the complexity is reduced.

Ultrasound shear wave imaging can be used to estimate quantitative information about soft tissue mechanical properties, specifically the complex shear modulus (CSM). It is promising because it has the potential to bridge molecular, cellular, and tissue biology and to support for medical diagnoses. However, there is a lack of efficient methods for CSM estimation due to high complexity and low reconstruction’s quality. To overcome these disadvantages, in this paper, we have applied the Bayesian-approach-based Maximum Likelihood Ensemble Filter (MLEF) for CSM estimation. The error performance is below 10%. Both simulated and experimental data were tested in order to assess the proposed method.

Epilepsy is a neural disorder in which the electrical discharge in the brain is abnormal, synchronized and excessive. Scalp Electroencephalogram (EEG) is often used in the diagnosis and treatment of epilepsy by examining the epileptic seizures and epileptic spikes. By modeling the signal acquired at each electrode of the EEG measurement system as a linear combination of source signals generated in the brain, we can apply Blind Source Separation (BSS) techniques to separate the seizures from other signals. Alternating Columns - Diagonal Centers (AC-DC) and Second-Order-Blind Identification (SOBI) are well-known BSS algorithms and have been previously applied to the separation of seizures. However, the seizure signals in new-born babies exhibit nonstationary second order statistics. In this paper, we concentrate on applying two time-frequency (TF) based algorithms: TF-SOBI and TF-UBSS to seizure separation. These algorithms are more appropriate for analyzing nonstationary signals and have not been previously applied to studies of EEG-based seizures.

Gene regulatory activity prediction is an important step to understand which Transcription Factors (TFs) are important for regulation of gene expression in cells. The development of recent high throughput technologies and machine learning approaches allow us to archive this task more efficiently. Support Vector Machine (SVM) has been successfully applied for the case of predicting gene regulatory activity in

Drosophila

embryonic development. Here, we introduce meta-heuristic approaches to select the best parameters for regulatory prediction from transcription factor binding profiles. Experimental results show that our approach outperforms existing methods and the potentials for further analysis beyond the prediction.

Identification of DNA regulatory elements in the human genome remains a significant challenge. Variation in these regulatory elements can contribute to disease in many ways by altering protein levels. Enhancers constitute an important class of these DNA regulatory elements, and a major component of current research is focused on a more complete understanding of enhancer function and improved techniques for enhancer detection. We recently developed a computational approach to identify enhancers from primary DNA sequence using a support vector machine (kmer-SVM) framework. Here we show that the kmer-SVM model can accurately predict tissue specific enhancer activity without any prior knowledge about TF binding sites. We adapt this approach to predict genomic TF binding data generated by the ENCODE project, showing that genomic MYC binding can be accurately predicted from local DNA sequence with the kmer-SVM. We find similar accuracy with an SVM using PWMs representing known TF binding specificities. By integrating Chip-seq and expression data, we show that while much of MYC binding is shared between ENCODE cell types and is promoter proximal, cell-type specific MYC binding is distal and is correlated with enhanced cell-specific expression of nearby (~50kb) genes. The distinction between shared and cell-specific MYC binding is determined by DNA sequence variation around the canonical MYC binding site, which by itself cannot distinguish cell-specific binding events. These results suggest that tissue specific enhancer activity is specified by primary DNA sequence, that local sequence context controls tissue specific activity through cooperative TF interactions, and that local context sequence features can be identified from genomic binding data.

Purpose: The purpose of this study were to apply rough set model to nursing knowledge discovery process. Method: Data mining based on rough set model was conducted on a large clinical data set containing Nursing Minimum Data Set elements. Randomized patient data were selected from Uniform Hospital Discharge Data which had the frequently used nursing diagnoses. Patient and care characteristics including nursing diagnoses, interventions and outcomes were analyzed to derive the decision rules. Results: Number of comorbidity, marital status, nursing diagnosis related to risk for infection and nursing intervention related to infection protection, and discharge status were the predictors to determine the length of stay. Age, impaired skin integrity, pain, and discharge status were identified as valuable predictors for nursing outcome, relived pain. Age, pain, potential for infection, marital status, and primary disease were identified as important predictors for mortality. Conclusion: This study demonstrated the utilization of Rough Set Model through a large data set with standardized language format to identify the contribution of specific care to patient’s health.

In this paper the novel neural NARX technique was applied for classification and detection purposes. Decision making was performed in two stages: feature extraction using the principal component analysis (PCA) and the neural NARX model trained with the backpropagation method. The performance of the neural NARX-based classifier was evaluated in terms of training and classification accuracies. The results confirmed that the proposed neural NARX-based classifier has potential in detecting the tumors.

The development of cluster and parallel computers has increased the popularity of implementing the Monte Carlo computational method in medical and scientific applications. However, having access to these high-performance systems is not easy and a reasonable size system is not yet able to solve many popular Monte Carlo problems near real-time. The Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) have been proved to be useful in speeding up the Monte Carlo algorithm since they are able to execute the problem with a high degree of parallelism. In recent years, the Graphic Processing Units (GPUs) have been proved to be useful for many general-purpose calculations due to their parallel and pipelined architecture, which is able to accelerate various algorithms. Since Monte Carlo simulations require intensive computations, GPU architecture can also deliver great performance for Monte Carlo simulations similarly to the FPGA. This paper explores performance characteristics of the FPGA and GPU in computational intensive 3-D Monte Carlo applications. The study is part of our current research on the study of dynamic radiation topotherapy with stationary sweeping fan beam and translational moving microbeam on stationary treatment couch. We performed our initial study with photon interactions on 3-D water phantoms and the initial results (without intensive performance tuning) showed that performance of the 16-core NVidia GeForce 8400 GS GPU was about 2 times better than single-core 3-GHz Intel Xeon and about 4 times slower than the Xilinx Virtex-5 FPGA. We learned that out-of-core memory contention is an important performance drawback. Although we performed our study on photon transport, we expected the results to be similar for charged-particle transport (our interest in dynamic topotherapy) since only core Monte Carlo calculations were implemented on the GPU and the FPGA.

In recent years, we have seen a some sort of medical literature about using of cell phones in different fields of medical sciences. The aim of this article to present the utility of patients coming to their clinicians will cell phone photos that serve to some extent as a substitute for missing medical records. The serial self–recorded photos by two of patients in two different fields of maxillofacial surgery were selected. Our cases have not any documented records from local hospitals at the time of admission to our clinic.

The comprehensive study of the photos taken by patients showed it serve to some extent as an alternate for missing medical records. In cases where records do not exist or a new clinician has not access to the former clinician and the patients cannot explain what treatment they received, use of photos taken by the patient may help doctors to make better decisions.

Scoliosis is a disorder that causes an abnormal curve of the spine, or backbone. Treatment decisions for scoliosis are based on consideration of the patient’s physiologic maturity, curve severity, curve location, cosmetic concerns, and the estimated potential for progression. In order to reduce the observer variability in radiographic scoliosis assessment, we developed a semi-automatic method for measuring the Cobb angle using deformable model with fuzzy spatial relations integrated and our algorithm applying on the final contour of the model. In experiment, the method proves it is faster and requires less manipulation than the manual method. Also, this method does not require any special qualifications, skills or trainings to use it. Therefore it can be developed to make portable software which could be widely used by the healthcare providers.

A deep characterization of the molecular mechanisms underlying the functioning of the receptors involved in chemical sensing, is fundamental for gaining insights into the way our cells communicate with the external world. Unfortunately, the paucity of experimental structural information hampers such characterization. Protein structural bioinformatics, combined with computational biology and experimental techniques is the key to face these challenges. Here I will show our recent works regarding the bitter-taste signaling pathway. Moreover, I will also present some elements of the state of art of membrane protein structural bioinformatics field.

In this paper, similarities and distinctions between random sequences and DNA sequences are analized. It will be shown that by using the complex unit roots representation, and some methods of signal analysis, DNA sequences look as random sequences with some fractal shape (in their DNA walks). A short review on the main results about the long range statistical dependence and the main parameters of complessity will be also given. However, by using wavelet transform it is possible to give some more information about a possible hidden rule concerning the nucleotide distribution. In fact, clusters of wavelet coefficients clearly show the differences between random sequences and DNA sequences.

Mathematical models of tumor growth have become an important approach to understanding tumor biology. To date, such models have been applied to only a few tumor types. The goal of this study is to apply a tumor model to liver metastases, to understand if the model is useful for this very common, clinically important type of tumor. CT scan and MRI scan tumor growth data will be extracted from routine imaging studies, examining tumor size in patients who received no treatment as well as those who were treated with a variety of modalities. Calculations of tumor growth velocity, diffusion and proliferation will be calculated. These parameters will then be correlated with survival data.

Our work suggests that protein native state structures occupy a novel phase of matter corresponding to the marginally compact conformations of a flexible tube. This phase arises from common attributes of proteins and is independent of amino acid sequences. Our approach provides a simple and unified framework to understand protein folding and amyloid formation. With a constraint on the local radius of curvature, the tube model is also shown to have ground state conformations similar to that of DNA toroids.

E

.

coli

is a simple organism with a complex, dual-membrane cell envelope. Moreover the two membranes differ in their compositions and thus also their permeabilities. Both membranes contain multiple proteins that perform a variety of functions. While it is clear that the membrane is not simply and inert environment that simply serves to contain the proteins, the precise details of its role and the complex interplay between membrane and proteins are far from understood. Here we employ atomistic and coarse-grain simulations to focus on the interaction of melittin with model inner and outer membranes and aggregation and diffusion of proteins in the outer membrane. The complexity of the membrane composition in terms of lipids and proteins is addressed.

Prion diseases are fatal and incurable neurodegenerative maladies of unique etiology. These disorders have attracted considerable attention for their unique infectivity pathogenic mechanism. Here we describe the milestone studies that have lead to the demonstration that prions are solely constituted of proteins. The formal demonstration has been achieved through several papers describing unconvertible evidence that recombinant prion protein refolded into amyloid fibrils can contain infectious species that lead to disease in animal models of prion coversion and replication. These molecules have been named as synthetic infectious prions.

M2 protein plays as an proton channel in influenza virus, and many candidates were proposed to inhibit its activity. Three new inhibitors were proposed recently by Du Q-S, et al. (2010), and their biding energy was higher than two commercial drug, Amantadine and Rimantadine. To investigate the potency of the new compound on drug-resistant variants, molecular docking was used to investigate how they bind in two positions of M2 proton channel and its mutants of H3N2 virus. The global docking on the M2 protein (residues 22-46) showed that the coexistence of two binding positions in NMR structure is possible, but the inhibitors favor the in pore position more than the outside of the pore. In the detail docking, mean binding energies of the new inhibitors were lower the commercial drugs, Rimantadine. The comparison between mean binding energy and intermolecular energy indicated that the torsional free energy has caused this decreasing energy. In another word, the adding new groups actually increase binding energy of inhibitors but it also makes them heavy and hard to rotate. In other hand, these new inhibitors were failed in binding on mutant D44A, and their binding energies were no different between wild type and mutants V27A, S31N and L26F. These mutants have suggested some hints to improve inhibitors’ structure, and chosen a choice about how these mutants resist the inhibitors.

A number of diseases such as the Alzheimer’s disease, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, type-2 diabetes are believed to be associated with the aggregation of proteins and amyloid peptides. In this mini-review we discuss general factors that govern the aggregation of polypeptide chains. It is shown that the extent of population of an ensemble of fibril-prone structures in the spectrum of conformations of an isolated protein, is the major determinant of fibril formation rates. Presently, available drugs help to mask the symptoms, but do not treat aggregation-associated diseases making it vital to develop drugs to cope them. Recent progress on design of topleads for the Alzheimer’s disease will be covered.

A diagnostic engine for supporting physicians in analyzing symptoms and anamnesis of patients is proposed.

The system uses fuzzy logic as the picklock to overcome difficulties typically encountered when dealing with a computer aided model for medical diagnosis, since the large number of parameters to be taken into account.

The model in its current formulation allows physicians to have immediate diagnostic hypotheses considering patient’s anamnesis, symptoms, drug administered and previously formulated diagnoses, simultaneously accessing available databases and suggesting new diagnostic examinations.

An auto-adaptative fuzzy logic approach can be easily implemented, that could allow the model to progressively learn from each formulated diagnosis.

”This article “A Pipelined Analog - To - Digital Converter (ADC) Using Umc 0.25

μ

m Technology for Pacemaker Application”, written by Phan Vo Kim Anh and Hoang Trang, published in 4th International Conference on Biomedical Engineering in Vietnam IFMBE Proceedings Volume 40, 2013, pp 47-49, DOI (10.1007/978-3-642-32183-2_13) has been retracted at the request of the authors because it was submitted without the consent of one of the authors. In addition, the article contains data of unacknowledged scientists.”