On mining incomplete medical datasets: Ordering imputation and classification.

Background: To collect medical datasets, it is usually the case that a number of data samples contain some missing values. Performing the data mining task over the incomplete datasets is a difficult problem. In general, missing value imputation can be approached, which aims at providing estimations for missing values by reasoning from the observed data.

Instantaneous Respiratory Estimation from Thoracic Impedance by Empirical Mode Decomposition.

Impedance plethysmography provides a way to measure respiratory activity by sensing the change of thoracic impedance caused by inspiration and expiration. This measurement imposes little pressure on the body and uses the human body as the sensor, thereby reducing the need for adjustments as body position changes and making it suitable for long-term or ambulatory monitoring. The empirical mode decomposition (EMD) can decompose a signal into several intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) that disclose nonstationary components as well as stationary components and, similarly, capture respiratory episodes from thoracic impedance.

Demonstration of Tightly Radiation-Controlled Molecular Switch Based on CArG Repeats by In Vivo Molecular Imaging.

Purpose: Promoters developed for radiogene therapy always show non-negligible transcriptional activities, even when cells are not irradiated. This study developed a tightly radiation-controlled molecular switch based on radiation responsive element (CArG) repeats for in vivo molecular imaging using the Cre/loxP system.

Procedures: Different numbers of CArG repeats were cloned as a basal promoter directly, and its pre- and postirradiation transcriptional activities were analyzed by luciferase assay.

Innovation of a syringe needle auto-detaching device for clinicians.

Background: Needle-stick injuries accounts for a great proportion of all medical accidents in developing and undeveloped countries. The main cause of needle-stick accident injuries is the medical personnel's ``recovering'' the needle action after injection.

Objective: This study applies an electronic technique to the needling instrument for the purpose of automatically detaching the needle.

Temperature effects on the magnetic properties of silicon-steel sheets using standardized toroidal frame.

This study designed a detachable and standardized toroidal test frame to measure the electromagnetic characteristic of toroidal laminated silicon steel specimens. The purpose of the design was to provide the measurements with standardized and controlled environment. The device also can withstand high temperatures (25-300°C) for short time period to allow high temperature tests.

An efficient data preprocessing approach for large scale medical data mining.

Background: The size of medical datasets is usually very large, which directly affects the computational cost of the data mining process. Instance selection is a data preprocessing step in the knowledge discovery process, which can be employed to reduce storage requirements while also maintaining the mining quality. This process aims to filter out outliers (or noisy data) from a given (training) dataset.

FES for abnormal movement of upper limb during walking in post-stroke subjects.

Background: Hemiplegia can cause accidental falls, as the patients place their arms in front of their chests or next to the hips when they walk. This is due to limitations in the ability to swing their arms during walking.

Objective: This study proposes a functional electrical stimulator approach in order to improve the foot drop and abnormal movement of the upper limbs during walking.