Automated Coronary Artery Tracking with a Voronoi-Based 3D Centerline Extraction Algorithm.

Coronary artery disease is one of the leading causes of death worldwide, and medical imaging methods such as coronary artery computed tomography are vitally important in its detection. More recently, various computational approaches have been proposed to automatically extract important artery coronary features (e.g.

A closer look at yoga nidra- early randomized sleep lab investigations.

Objectives: We aimed to examine trial feasibility plus physiological and psychological effects of a guided meditation practice, Yoga Nidra, in adults with self-reported insomnia.

Methods: Twenty-two adults with self-reported insomnia were recruited to attend two visits at our research center. At Visit 1 (V1), participants were asked to lie quietly for ninety minutes.

Investigation of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation improvements with microneedle array electrodes based on multiphysics simulation.

This paper investigates microneedle array electrodes for transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, and compares their performance with conventional surface electrodes. A three-dimensional model of tissue was developed for finite element multiphysics simulations. Investigations included current density in different depths of a tissue, space constant under electrodes, specific absorption ratio of tissue, selectivity of stimulation, temperature rise, and blood flow.

Tracheal Sounds Features Changes in Different Sleep Stages Based on Complex Wavelet Analysis.

Breathing sounds analysis during sleep is an informative method to study the upper airway. Different sleep stages may affect the breathing sound features. In this study, the tracheal breathing sounds were recorded from 5 individuals and the complex Gaussian wavelet of the deceleration phase of about 3000 successive breath cycles were calculated.

Molybdenum coated SU-8 microneedle electrodes for transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation.

Electrophysiological devices are connected to the body through electrodes. In some applications, such as nerve stimulation, it is needed to minimally pierce the skin and reach the underneath layers to bypass the impedance of the first layer called stratum corneum. In this study, we have designed and fabricated surface microneedle electrodes for applications such as electrical peripheral nerve stimulation.

Sleep Stage Detection Using Tracheal Breathing Sounds: A Pilot Study.

Sleep stage detection is needed in many sleep studies and clinical assessments. Generally, sleep stages are identified using spectral analysis of electrocephologram (EEG) and electrooculogram (EOG) signals. This study, for the first time, has investigated the feasibility of detecting sleep stages using tracheal breathing sounds, and whether the change of breathing sounds due to sleeping stage differs at different periods of sleeping time; the motivation was seeking an alternative technique for sleep stage identification.

Designing and implementing bioimpedance spectroscopy device by measuring impedance in a mouse tissue.

Studies show that any complications including hemorrhage, lack of blood supply, lack of oxygen supply and death of cells in a tissue, will have a clear effect on electrical properties of that tissue. Thus, by measuring impedance of a set of tissues, potential problems of the damaged tissue may be found. Since electrical impedance is closely related to the measuring frequency, obviously, every tissue exhibits its own specific impedance according to its electrical properties at each frequency.

Extraction of nucleolus candidate zone in white blood cells of peripheral blood smear images using curvelet transform.

The main part of each white blood cell (WBC) is its nucleus which contains chromosomes. Although white blood cells (WBCs) with giant nuclei are the main symptom of leukemia, they are not sufficient to prove this disease and other symptoms must be investigated. For example another important symptom of leukemia is the existence of nucleolus in nucleus.