Differentially Methylated Genomic Regions in Birth-Weight Discordant Twin Pairs.

Poor nutrition during critical growth phases may alter the structural and physiologic development of vital organs thus "programming" the susceptibility to adult-onset diseases and disease-related health conditions. Epigenome-wide association studies have been performed in birth-weight discordant twin pairs to find evidence for such "programming" effects, but no significant results emerged. We further investigated this issue using a new computational approach: Instead of probing single genomic sites for significant alterations in epigenetic marks, we scan for differentially methylated genomic regions.

Function formula oriented construction of Bayesian inference nets for diagnosis of cardiovascular disease.

An intelligent cardiovascular disease (CVD) diagnosis system using hemodynamic parameters (HDPs) derived from sphygmogram (SPG) signal is presented to support the emerging patient-centric healthcare models. To replicate clinical approach of diagnosis through a staged decision process, the Bayesian inference nets (BIN) are adapted. New approaches to construct a hierarchical multistage BIN using defined function formulas and a method employing fuzzy logic (FL) technology to quantify inference nodes with dynamic values of statistical parameters are proposed.

A Novel ECG Data Compression Method Using Adaptive Fourier Decomposition With Security Guarantee in e-Health Applications.

This paper presents a novel electrocardiogram (ECG) compression method for e-health applications by adapting an adaptive Fourier decomposition (AFD) algorithm hybridized with a symbol substitution (SS) technique. The compression consists of two stages: first stage AFD executes efficient lossy compression with high fidelity; second stage SS performs lossless compression enhancement and built-in data encryption, which is pivotal for e-health. Validated with 48 ECG records from MIT-BIH arrhythmia benchmark database, the proposed method achieves averaged compression ratio (CR) of 17.

An effective low-complexity multi-vital-signs compression technique for embedded-link e-home healthcare.

Transplanting the existing e-home healthcare system to source-limited embedded-link device for home-use health monitoring, intelligent medical diagnosis and wireless transmission is attractive. Yet, constrains of portable storage, computing and transmission promote the need of data compression for such applications. Existing compression techniques are mostly desktop-computer-based and computation-consuming, making them unsuitable for mobile device.

[Cuffless blood pressure acquisition system based on a novel calibration method].

Based on Moens-Korteweg model & hydrostatic principle, a simple calibration method by changing vertical distance between heart and radial artery is proposed in this paper. Using hydrostatic pressure to change arterial pressure and pulse wave transmit time, consequently obtain several sets of cardiovascular parameters and finally build up relationship between blood pressure and pulse wave transmit time. Clinical tests have been carried with different age and gender for long and short time monitoring.

From Codabar to ISBT 128: Implementing Barcode Technology in Blood BankAutomation System.

Barcode technology has been widely employed in medicine and healthcare industry. In this paper, it firstly introduces the application of barcode technology in information automation system oriented to blood banks and other transfusion facilities. In the following, the label paradigm of Codabar in Macao Blood Transfusion Center (CTS-Macau) is examined through the comparison with ISBT 128, an international barcode and labeling standard for blood and blood products.