A Novel Non-Enzymatic Glucose Biofuel Cell with Mobile Glucose Sensing

Herein, we report a novel non-enzymatic glucose biofuel cell with mobile glucose sensing. We characterized the power generation and biosensing capabilities in presence of glucose analyte. This system was developed using a non-enzymatic glucose biofuel cell consisting of colloidal platinum coated gold microwire (Au-co-Pt) employed as an anode and the cathode which was constructed using a Gas diffusion electrode (GDE) with a platinum catalyst. The non-enzymatic glucose biofuel cell produced a maximum open circuit voltage of 0.54 V and delivered and a maximum short circuit current density of 1.6 mA/cm2 with a peak power density of 0.226 mW/cm2 at a concentration of 1 M glucose. The non-enzymatic glucose biofuel cell produced an open circuit voltage of 0.38 V and delivered and a short circuit current density of 0.225 mA/cm2 with a peak power density of 0.022 mW/cm 2 at a concentration of 5 mM glucose. These findings showed that glucose biofuel cells can be further investigated in the development of a self-powered glucose biosensor. When used as self-powered glucose sensor, the system showed a good sensitivity of 0.616 μA mM−1 and linear dependence with a correlation coefficient of 0.995 in the glucose concentration range of 2 mM to 50 mM. The system was further characterized by testing the performance of the system at various temperature, pH and amidst various interfering and competing chemical species such as uric acid, ascorbic acid, fructose, maltose and galactose. A charge pump circuit consisting of a blinking LED was connected to the biofuel cell to amplify the input voltage to power small electronic devices. The blinking frequency of the LED corresponds to the glucose concentration. An android mobile phone camera application was used to measure this LED blinking frequency which was in turn converted into the glucose concentration readings using image processing in MATLAB. The user was notified via text message and an email

Advances in Bioengineering

The technological approach and the high level of innovation make bioengineering extremely dynamic and this forces researchers to continuous updating. It involves the publication of the results of the latest scientific research. This book covers a wide range of aspects and issues related to advances in bioengineering research with a particular focus on innovative technologies and applications. The book consists of 13 scientific contributions divided in four sections: Materials Science; Biosensors. Electronics and Telemetry; Light Therapy; Computing and Analysis Techniques

Electroactive poly(vinylidene fluoride) based materials: recent progress, challenges and opportunities

A poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) and its copolymers are polymers that, in specific crystalline phases, show high dielectric and piezoelectric values, excellent mechanical behavior and good thermal and chemical stability, suitable for many applications from the biomedical area to energy devices. This chapter introduces the main properties, processability and polymorphism of PVDF. Further, the recent advances in the applications based on those materials are presented and discussed. Thus, it shown the key role of PVDF and its copolymers as smart and multifunctional material, expanding the limits of polymer-based technologies.FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia) for financial support under the framework of Strategic Funding grants UID/FIS/04650/2019, and UID/QUI/0686/2019 and project PTDC/FIS-MAC/28157/2017, PTDC/BTMMAT/28237/2017, PTDC/EMD-EMD/28159/2017. The author also thanks the FCT for financial support under grant SFRH/BPD/112547/2015 (C.M.C.), SFRH/BPD/98109/2013 (V.F.C.), SFRH/BD/140698/2018 (R.B.P.), SFRH/BPD/96227/2013 (P.M.), SFRH/BPD/121526/2016 (D.M.C.), SFRH/BPD/97739/2013 (V. C.), SFRH/BPD/90870/2012 (C.R.). Financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) through project MAT2016-76039-C4-3-R (AEI/FEDER, UE) (including FEDER financial support) and from the Basque Government Industry and Education Departments under the ELKARTEK, HAZITEK and PIBA (PIBA-2018-06)

Sensing Systems for Respiration Monitoring: A Technical Systematic Review

Respiratory monitoring is essential in sleep studies, sport training, patient monitoring, or health at work, among other applications. This paper presents a comprehensive systematic review of respiration sensing systems. After several systematic searches in scientific repositories, the 198 most relevant papers in this field were analyzed in detail. Different items were examined: sensing technique and sensor, respiration parameter, sensor location and size, general system setup, communication protocol, processing station, energy autonomy and power consumption, sensor validation, processing algorithm, performance evaluation, and analysis software. As a result, several trends and the remaining research challenges of respiration sensors were identified. Long-term evaluations and usability tests should be performed. Researchers designed custom experiments to validate the sensing systems, making it difficult to compare results. Therefore, another challenge is to have a common validation framework to fairly compare sensor performance. The implementation of energy-saving strategies, the incorporation of energy harvesting techniques, the calculation of volume parameters of breathing, or the effective integration of respiration sensors into clothing are other remaining research efforts. Addressing these and other challenges outlined in the paper is a required step to obtain a feasible, robust, affordable, and unobtrusive respiration sensing system

Modern Telemetry

Telemetry is based on knowledge of various disciplines like Electronics, Measurement, Control and Communication along with their combination. This fact leads to a need of studying and understanding of these principles before the usage of Telemetry on selected problem solving. Spending time is however many times returned in form of obtained data or knowledge which telemetry system can provide. Usage of telemetry can be found in many areas from military through biomedical to real medical applications. Modern way to create a wireless sensors remotely connected to central system with artificial intelligence provide many new, sometimes unusual ways to get a knowledge about remote objects behaviour. This book is intended to present some new up to date accesses to telemetry problems solving by use of new sensors conceptions, new wireless transfer or communication techniques, data collection or processing techniques as well as several real use case scenarios describing model examples. Most of book chapters deals with many real cases of telemetry issues which can be used as a cookbooks for your own telemetry related problems

New autonomous sensor system for the continous monitoring of the composting process from the inside

The composting process is Nature's way of recycling organic wastes with a good quality organic fertilizer as a result. This process, though, needs of a thoroughly monitoring of temperature and humidity for a good resulting material. During this Ph.D thesis we developed a wireless temperature and humidity autonomous system that monitored from the inside of compost. The fact of measuring and transmitting from the inside implies the need of a protection for the circuit and an issue in the measure. Temperature suffers delays when measuring from the inside of a protection and, as such, we developed an algorithm, implementable on microcontrollers, to counteract the effects of first order step responses. The conditioning has been optimized in terms of components and consumption, obtaining a theoretical and experimental comparative between the classic conditioning and the use of direct interfaces. Commercial humidity sensors need to be in direct contact with the environment they are measuring, but that is not possible in compost since they can get damaged. That is why we designed a humidity sensor based on coplanar capacitive electrodes that can measure through a protection layer. Some theoretical models have been obtained for the physical optimization of both the sensor and the influence of the protective layer. Compost has never been characterised as a transmission environment, and as such, communications in compost are innovative. The heterogeneity of the material and its changes in humidity, temperature and density made the transmission complex. We found the proper frequency band to commercially work in compost and the RF transmission model in compost to estimate attenuation vs distance.El procés de compostatge és la forma que té la natura de reciclar els residus orgànics amb un fertilitzant orgànic de bona qualitat com a resultat. Aquest procés, però, necessita d’una monitorització de la temperatura i la humitat per a obtenir un bon material resultant. Durant aquesta tesi doctoral s'ha desenvolupat un sistema autònom sense fils de mesura de temperatura i humitat des de dins del compost. El fet de que la mesura i la transmissió s’hagin fet des de dins comporta la necessitat d’un material protector per l’electrònica, la qual cosa esdevé un problema en la mesura. La temperatura pateix retards quan es mesura des de dins d’un material protector, i per això, s’ha desenvolupat un algoritme implemetanble en microcontroladors per contrarestar els efectes de respostes esglaó de primer ordre. S'ha optimitzat el condicionament des del punt de vista de components i consum, obtenint una comparativa teòrica i experimental entre els mètodes de condicionament clàssic i l'ús d'interfícies directes. Els sensors de humitat comercials necessiten estar en contacte directe amb l’ambient a mesurar. Això no és possible en el compost ja que es poden malmetre. Per això s’ha dissenyat un sensor d’humitat basat en elèctrodes capacitius plans que poden mesurar a través de capes de protecció. S'han extret models teòrics per l’optimització física tant del sensor com de la influencia de la capa protectora El compost no ha estat mai caracteritzat com un medi de transmissió, i per tant, les comunicacions dins del compost suposen una novetat. La heterogeneïtat del material i els seus canvis en temperatura, humitat i densitat fan de la transmissió un tema complex. S’ha trobat, a més, la banda de freqüència òptima per treballar comercialment i el seu model de transmissió RF estimant l’atenuació en funció de la distànciaPostprint (published version

Smart Devices and Systems for Wearable Applications

Wearable technologies need a smooth and unobtrusive integration of electronics and smart materials into textiles. The integration of sensors, actuators and computing technologies able to sense, react and adapt to external stimuli, is the expression of a new generation of wearable devices. The vision of wearable computing describes a system made by embedded, low power and wireless electronics coupled with smart and reliable sensors - as an integrated part of textile structure or directly in contact with the human body. Therefore, such system must maintain its sensing capabilities under the demand of normal clothing or textile substrate, which can impose severe mechanical deformation to the underlying garment/substrate. The objective of this thesis is to introduce a novel technological contribution for the next generation of wearable devices adopting a multidisciplinary approach in which knowledge of circuit design with Ultra-Wide Band and Bluetooth Low Energy technology, realization of smart piezoresistive / piezocapacitive and electro-active material, electro-mechanical characterization, design of read-out circuits and system integration find a fundamental and necessary synergy. The context and the results presented in this thesis follow an “applications driven” method in terms of wearable technology. A proof of concept has been designed and developed for each addressed issue. The solutions proposed are aimed to demonstrate the integration of a touch/pressure sensor into a fabric for space debris detection (CApture DEorbiting Target project), the effectiveness of the Ultra-Wide Band technology as an ultra-low power data transmission option compared with well known Bluetooth (IR-UWB data transmission project) and to solve issues concerning human proximity estimation (IR-UWB Face-to-Face Interaction and Proximity Sensor), wearable actuator for medical applications (EAPtics project) and aerospace physiology countermeasure (Gravity Loading Countermeasure Skinsuit project)

Southwest Research Institute assistance to NASA in biomedical areas of the technology

Significant applications of aerospace technology were achieved. These applications include: a miniaturized, noninvasive system to telemeter electrocardiographic signals of heart transplant patients during their recuperative period as graded situations are introduced; and economical vital signs monitor for use in nursing homes and rehabilitation hospitals to indicate the onset of respiratory arrest; an implantable telemetry system to indicate the onset of the rejection phenomenon in animals undergoing cardiac transplants; an exceptionally accurate current proportional temperature controller for pollution studies; an automatic, atraumatic blood pressure measurement device; materials for protecting burned areas in contact with joint bender splints; a detector to signal the passage of animals by a given point during ecology studies; and special cushioning for use with below-knee amputees to protect the integrity of the skin at the stump/prosthesis interface

A pervasive body sensor network for monitoring post-operative recovery

Over the past decade, miniaturisation and cost reduction brought about by the semiconductor industry has led to computers smaller in size than a pin head, powerful enough to carry out the processing required, and affordable enough to be disposable. Similar technological advances in wireless communication, sensor design, and energy storage have resulted in the development of wireless “Body Sensor Network (BSN) platforms comprising of tiny integrated micro sensors with onboard processing and wireless data transfer capability, offering the prospect of pervasive and continuous home health monitoring. In surgery, the reduced trauma of minimally invasive interventions combined with initiatives to reduce length of hospital stay and a socioeconomic drive to reduce hospitalisation costs, have all resulted in a trend towards earlier discharge from hospital. There is now a real need for objective, pervasive, and continuous post-operative home recovery monitoring systems. Surgical recovery is a multi-faceted and dynamic process involving biological, physiological, functional, and psychological components. Functional recovery (physical independence, activities of daily living, and mobility) is recognised as a good global indicator of a patient’s post-operative course, but has traditionally been difficult to objectively quantify. This thesis outlines the development of a pervasive wireless BSN system to objectively monitor the functional recovery of post-operative patients at home. Biomechanical markers were identified as surrogate measures for activities of daily living and mobility impairment, and an ear-worn activity recognition (e-AR) sensor containing a three-axis accelerometer and a pulse oximeter was used to collect this data. A simulated home environment was created to test a Bayesian classifier framework with multivariate Gaussians to model activity classes. A real-time activity index was used to provide information on the intensity of activity being performed. Mobility impairment was simulated with bracing systems and a multiresolution wavelet analysis and margin-based feature selection framework was used to detect impaired mobility. The e-AR sensor was tested in a home environment before its clinical use in monitoring post-operative home recovery of real patients who have undergone surgery. Such a system may eventually form part of an objective pervasive home recovery monitoring system tailored to the needs of today’s post-operative patient.Open acces