Overcoming the Impedance Range Limitations of Portable Bioelectrical Impedance Spectroscopy Clinical Devices.

Several portable commercial bioimpedance spectroscopy (BIS) devices are used in clinical research, but are limited by their reduced impedance measuring range to less demanding four-electrode configuration measurements. Some of these devices provide raw bioimpedance data for research purposes. The SFB7 device from ImpediMed® is a typical portable clinical device which perform 256 measurement points from 3 kHz to 1 MHz, providing for each point the resistance R and the reactance X.

Nesting chinstrap penguins accrue large quantities of sleep through seconds-long microsleeps.

Microsleeps, the seconds-long interruptions of wakefulness by eye closure and sleep-related brain activity, are dangerous when driving and might be too short to provide the restorative functions of sleep. If microsleeps do fulfill sleep functions, then animals faced with a continuous need for vigilance might resort to this sleep strategy. We investigated electroencephalographically defined sleep in wild chinstrap penguins, at sea and while nesting in Antarctica, constantly exposed to an egg predator and aggression from other penguins.

Pulse wave velocity measurement along the ulnar artery in the wrist region using a high frequency ultrasonic array.

A pulse wave velocity (PWV) measurement method performed above a small blood vessel using an ultrasonic probe is studied and reported in this paper. These experimentations are carried out using a high-frequency probe (14-22 MHz), allowing a high level of resolution compatible with the vessel dimensions, combined with an open research ultrasound scanner. High frame-rate (HFR) imaging (10 000 frames per second) is used for a precise PWV estimation.

Pupillary behavior during wakefulness, non-REM sleep, and REM sleep in birds is opposite that of mammals.

Mammalian pupils respond to light and dilate with arousal, attention, cognitive workload, and emotions, thus reflecting the state of the brain. Pupil size also varies during sleep, constricting during deep non-REM sleep and dilating slightly during REM sleep. Anecdotal reports suggest that, unlike mammals, birds constrict their pupils during aroused states, such as courtship and aggression, raising the possibility that pupillary behavior also differs between mammals and birds during sleep.

Optical flow sensor as a reference for reduction of motion artefacts in photoplethysmographic measurements.

Methods commonly used for reduction of motion artefacts in photoplethysmography employ accelerometry as a reference for adaptive filtering and signal processing. In this paper, we propose the use of an optical flow sensor to measure the relative displacement between a photoplethysmographic sensor and the measurement site. In order to evaluate the performances of this novel method, a wrist-worn device that enables simultaneous acquisition of physiological information and relative motion has been developed.

INSA Wound Mapping System: II. Preliminary Porcine Results.

In the first paper, a versatile wound monitoring system, capable of mapping the extent of a wound and characterizing the tissues involved without removing the dressing, was presented. This was achieved through electrical impedance measurements, made via an electrode matrix embedded within the wound dressing.In this second paper, we present early mapping results obtained on porcine models.

An Implantable, Low-Power Instrumentation for the Long Term Monitoring of the Sleep of Animals under Natural Conditions.

Sleep is a universal and complex state and it is widely agreed that this state is present in every animal species. However, the evolutionary origins of sleep remain ignored or misunderstood, which has led researchers to study, in various species, this common behaviour of all living organisms. Sleep is commonly studied at various levels under laboratory conditions, using tethered devices which record electroencephalographic or electromyographic readings.

Recording of bruxism events in sleeping humans at home with a smart instrumented splint.

: The aim of this paper is to report quantitative and qualitative characteristics of bruxism events recorded in sleeping humans with a new smart ambulatory system specifically designed to measure dental clenching and grinding forces. The device is wireless and rechargeable, which enables its use over extended periods.: Thirty recordings were obtained from volunteer subjects who wore the device at home during 10 consecutive nights (Clinicaltrials.

Ambulatory sensor for circumference monitoring of lower limbs.

The continuous monitoring of edema in the lower limbs of the human body is presently not possible as suitable devices are not available. This paper presents the characterization and the testing of a novel ambulatory device dedicated to the monitoring of circumference variations in the lower limb. The sensor, based on an inductive loop integrated into a textile band, is connected to a miniaturized electronic system which wirelessly sends the calculated perimeter value of the leg to a smart mobile device.

Evaluation of a real-time low-power cardiorespiratory sensor for the IoT.

A wide variety of sensors have been developed in the biomedical engineering community for telemedicine and personalized healthcare applications. However, they usually focus on sensor connectivity and embedded signal processing, at the expense of the sensing part. This observation lead to the development and exhaustive evaluation of a new ECGbased cardiorespiratory IoT sensor.

ONEIROS, a new miniature standalone device for recording sleep electrophysiology, physiology, temperatures and behavior in the lab and field.

Background: Sleep is an inactive state of reduced environmental awareness shared by all animals. When compared to wakefulness, sleep behavior is associated with changes in physiology and brain activity. The nature of these changes varies considerably across species, and therefore is a rich resource for gaining insight into the evolution and functions of sleep.

Detection of collaborative activity with Kinect depth cameras.

The health status of elderly subjects is highly correlated to their activities together with their social interactions. Thus, the long term monitoring in home of their health status, shall also address the analysis of collaborative activities. This paper proposes a preliminary approach of such a system which can detect the simultaneous presence of several subjects in a common area using Kinect depth cameras.

Wearable impedance monitoring system for dialysis patients.

This paper describes the development and the validation of a prototype wearable miniaturized impedance monitoring system for remote monitoring in home-based dialysis patients. This device is intended to assess the hydration status of dialysis patients using calf impedance measurements. The system is based on the low-power AD8302 component.

Localised impedance monitoring device for the remote clinical assessment of home-based dialysis patients.

BioImpedance Spectroscopy (BIS) has been clinically used to determine the hydrational status of patients undergoing haemodialysis (HD). In the present project we are developing a calf-localised, integrated impedimetric device to periodically and conveniently measure and transmit information on the hydrational status of home-based patients to a remote clinic. Surprisingly, we have found that simple postural changes before or during measurement lead to significant fluid shifts in the lower leg that are as important and as long lasting as the effects of haemodialysis.

SLAM-associated protein favors the development of iNKT2 over iNKT17 cells.

Invariant NKT (iNKT) cells differentiate in the thymus into three distinct lineages defined by their cytokine and transcription factor expression. Signaling lymphocyte activation molecule (SLAM)-associated protein (SAP) is essential for early stages of iNKT cell development, but its role during terminal differentiation of iNKT1, iNKT2, or iNKT17 cells remains unclear. Taking advantage of SAP-deficient mice expressing a Vα14-Jα18 TCRα transgene, we found that SAP is critical not only for IL-4 production but also for the terminal differentiation of IL-4-producing iNKT2 cells.

Design and development of an impedimetric-based system for the remote monitoring of home-based dialysis patients.

A key clinical challenge is to determine the desired 'dry weight' of a patient in order to terminate the dialysis procedure at the optimal moment and thus avoid the effects of over- and under-hydration. It has been found that the effects of haemodialysis on patients can be conveniently monitored using whole-body bioimpedance measurements. The identified need of assessing the hydrational status of patients undergoing haemodialysis at home gave rise to the present Dialydom (DIALYse à DOMicile) project.

Characterization of a multi-user indoor positioning system based on low cost depth vision (Kinect) for monitoring human activity in a smart home.

An increasing number of systems use indoor positioning for many scenarios such as asset tracking, health care, games, manufacturing, logistics, shopping, and security. Many technologies are available and the use of depth cameras is becoming more and more attractive as this kind of device becomes affordable and easy to handle. This paper contributes to the effort of creating an indoor positioning system based on low cost depth cameras (Kinect).

TLR-induced cytokines promote effective proinflammatory natural Th17 cell responses.

Naive CD4 lymphocytes undergo a polarization process in the periphery to become induced Th17 (iTh17) cells. Using retinoic acid-related orphan receptor γt (RORγt)-gfp mice, we found that RORγt and the transcription factor promyelocytic leukemia zinc finger (PLZF) are valuable new markers to identify the recently described natural Th17 (nTh17) cell population. nTh17 cells are thymically committed to promptly produce large amounts of IL-17 and IL-22.

A support vector machine for predicting defibrillation outcomes from waveform metrics.

Background: Algorithms to predict shock success based on VF waveform metrics could significantly enhance resuscitation by optimising the timing of defibrillation.

Objective: To investigate robust methods of predicting defibrillation success in VF cardiac arrest patients, by using a support vector machine (SVM) optimisation approach.

Methods: Frequency-domain (AMSA, dominant frequency and median frequency) and time-domain (slope and RMS amplitude) VF waveform metrics were calculated in a 4.

ActimedARM - design of a wearable system to monitor daily actimetry.

We developed a low power kinematic sensor, ActimedARM, incorporating three-axis accelerometer and magnetometer, a microcontroller ARM3, a ZigBee wireless communication and μSD memory storage. With embedded algorithms it can detect in real time the postures of the subject. A preliminary assessment conducted on 12 subjects reached a 97% correct classification rate.

The challenges facing wearable sensor systems.

It has been pointed out that, in spite of significant national and international funding programmes, there is a dearth of successfully commercialised wearable monitoring systems. Although problems such as financial reimbursement, device interoperability and the present lack of the required connected healthcare infrastructure are major hurdles to the provision of remote clinical monitoring of home-based patients, the "Mount Everest" of monitoring applications, why are wearable systems not already commercialised and used in less demanding applications? The numerous wearable systems which appear on the Web and even in the literature are, for the most part, basic prototypes unsuited to the demands of real-life applications. SMEs which do seek to commercialise clinically promising systems are unfortunately faced with many challenges and few as yet have survived long enough to successfully commercialise their innovations.

Wearable sensor systems: the challenges.

Given the soaring costs associated with the treatment of ever more prevalent chronic disease, it is widely agreed that a revolution is required in health care provision. It is often thought that the necessary technology already exists for the home-based monitoring of such patients and that it is other factors which are holding back the more widespread clinical uptake of these new tools. The authors suggest that the necessary sensor-related technologies are often not as advanced as may first appear; certainly they are generally not adequate for the robust, long-term monitoring of patients under real-life conditions.

IL-17-producing invariant NKT cells in lymphoid organs are recent thymic emigrants identified by neuropilin-1 expression.

Despite increasing knowledge on the mechanisms of invariant natural killer T (iNKT)-cell development in the thymus, the function of recent thymic emigrant (RTE) iNKT cells remains largely unexplored, principally because of a lack of bona fide markers to distinguish RTE from long-lived iNKT cells. Whether the recently described IL-17-producing iNKT cell subset is part of RTE has notably not been addressed. In the present study, we show that neuropilin-1 (Nrp-1), a transmembrane receptor mainly found on T-regulatory (Treg) cells in the murine immune system, is specifically expressed on RTE iNKT cells in naive mice.

Thermal parameters measurement on fire fighter: improvement of the monitoring system.

Real time monitoring of the thermal parameters on firefighter when operating is one of the ProeTEX project goals. The newly developed equipments in the framework of this project, integrate one temperature sensor and one heat flux sensor in the rescuer's outer garment. The environment in which firefighters operate is dangerous and the thermal risks can occur everywhere.