REAL TIME HEALTH MONITORING SYSTEM OF REMOTE PATIENT USING ARM7

Care of critically ill patient, requires spontaneous & accurate decisions so that life-protecting & lifesaving therapy can be properly applied. Statistics reveal that every minute a human is losing his/her life across the globe. More close in India, everyday many lives are affected by heart attacks and more importantly because the patients did not get timely and proper help .This paper is based on monitoring of remote patients, after he is discharged from hospital. I have designed and developed a reliable, energy efficient remote patient monitoring system. It is able to send parameters of patient in real time. It enables the doctors to monitor patient’s parameters (temp, heartbeat, ECG) in real time. Here the parameters of patient are measured continuously (temp, heartbeat, ECG) and wirelessly transmitted using Zigbee

Raman Spectroscopy for Early Detection of Cervical Cancer, a Global Women’s Health Issue—A Review

This review focuses on recent advances and future perspectives in the use of Raman spectroscopy for cervical cancer, a global women’s health issue. Cervical cancer is the fourth most common women’s cancer in the world, and unfortunately mainly affects younger women. However, when detected at the early precancer stage, it is highly treatable. High-quality cervical screening programmes and the introduction of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine are reducing the incidence of cervical cancer in many countries, but screening is still essential for all women. Current gold standard methods include HPV testing and cytology for screening, followed by colposcopy and histopathology for diagnosis. However, these methods are limited in terms of sensitivity/specificity, cost, and time. New methods are required to aid clinicians in the early detection of cervical precancer. Over the past 20 years, the potential of Raman spectroscopy together with multivariate statistical analysis has been shown for the detection of cervical cancer. This review discusses the research to date on Raman spectroscopic approaches for cervical cancer using exfoliated cells, biofluid samples, and tissue ex vivo and in vivo

Comparison of different software packages in power flow and short-circuit simulation studies

Project (M.S., Electrical and Electronic Engineering)--California State University, Sacramento, 2015.The purpose of this project is to conduct ???power flow??? and ???short-circuit??? simulations using three software packages. The first software is ???ETAP??? [1], which is a commercial-grade package provided to the Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department at no cost for up to 25 nodes. The second software is ???PSLF??? [2], which is also a commercial-grade package for power transmission system planning, and the third package is ???RadiRing??? [3], which has been developed at Sacramento State for the use of students and faculty with no restrictions in the number of buses. Since in general obtaining commercial-grade packages with no restriction in the physical size requires substantial costs associated with licensing and service agreements, it is desirable to determine if the performance and accuracy of the software package developed at house (such as ???RadiRing???) are acceptable for use by the students and faculty for educational and research activities. As a result, this project aims at comparison of the results of two basic power system analyses, named as ???power flow??? and ???short-circuit??? calculations using transmission and distribution benchmark systems. As known, power flow and short circuit studies are two key types of analyzes to determine system???s proper operation and to ensure that transmission and distribution equipment meet the present and future design requirements.Electrical and Electronic Engineerin

Effective use of indigenous technology with particular reference to earth stabilised material for rural housing in Sindh

Earth was one of earliest materials used for construction of human shelters. In its raw state, it does not meet the basic physical properties required of a material for use in construction, i. e. compressive strength and durability (water resistance). The raw material can be stabilised to improve these properties through chemical, physical and mechanical methods. Chemical and physical methods involve mixing and compacting the earth with various materials to increase its compressive strength and reduce its propensity to shrink and swell. Mechanical methods of stabilisation involve only compaction of the raw material to produce blocks. Stabilised blocks have adequate compressive strength and durability for use in lowincome housing. They are also easy to handle, can be moulded to a variety of shapes and are suitable for use as structural blocks. The latest developments in the design of moulding machines means that stabilised blocks can be produced on-site at approximately half the cost of the next cheapest construction material (hollow concrete block). The most important consideration in the stabilisation process is the choice of material for mixing. The choice is based on three criteria: (i) composition of the earth, (ii) local availability of the stabilising material and (iii) cost of the stabilising material. For example, in terms of composition, earth with a high clay content, such as the samples used in this study from Sindh Province, Pakistan, was found unsuitable for construction purposes. This is because the clay minerals cause excessive shrinkage and expansion of the material. However, work conducted in this study found that the effects of clay can be mitigated by correcting particle size distribution and stabilisation. Specimens of stabilised material were produced to measure the affects of mixing various additives, including cement, lime, linseed oil, and calcium chloride, with earth. The key findings from research carried out on these specimens are: (a) Cement can not be used without correction of particle size distribution. (b) Previous research work has found lime to be the most effective stabiliser in terms of improving compressive strength. However, it was found that, in the case of the high clay content earth used in this study, cement provided better results. (c) In earth stabilised through correction of particle size distribution, linseed oil provided the most improvement to water resistance. (d) Calcium Chloride is not suitable for use as a stabiliser with earth containing a high proportion of clay minerals. This is because it reacts with the clay minerals to produce water. -(e) A comparative study of the cost and engineering benefits of various stabilised specimens showed that cement provides the greatest improvement to durability, but at the highest cost. Lime was found to be the best stabilising material for high clay content earth in terms of overall cost and engineering benefit. It provides adequate improvement to durability at low cost. Linseed oil was the cheapest stabilising material but, although greatly improving water resistance, it provided little improvement to compressive strength

Oral electrospun multi-component membranous drug delivery systems

Oral drug delivery is perceived by many as the ideal method of drug delivery due to its versatility, ease and convenience. However, the bioavailability of drugs delivered via the oral route remains questionable. Typically, conventional marketed drug delivery systems release drugs in variable and erratic fashions, causing sub-therapeutic or even toxic doses. As a result, patient compliance is threatened, ultimately affecting the success of the therapeutic intervention. Furthermore, the harsh gastric environment further compromises oral bioavailability due to the presence of a highly acidic environment and proteolytic enzymes. A multi-component, membranous drug delivery system (MMDDS) was thus designed, formulated and evaluated for the site-specific delivery of two (or more) drugs in a prolonged release manner, ultimately easing complicated treatment regimens, and improving patient compliance. The MMDDS essentially comprises of a gastric-targeted and an intestinal-targeted component, each containing a protective coat, a drug-loaded layer incorporating the respective drugs, and a pH-responsive mucoadhesive layer for site-specific mucoadhesion. The MMDDS employs a combination of controlled and targeted drug release mechanisms, in addition to gastro-retentive or intestinal retentive mechanisms. Furthermore, the system physically protects the drug delivery system from acidic or proteolytic degradation within the human gastro-intestinal tract. The present study employed the use of pH-dependant mucoadhesion for site-specific, segregated and gastroretentive drug delivery while crosslinking was employed for rate-modulated drug delivery. Rifampicin and isoniazid were selected as the model drugs in this study as they are known for interacting when administered simultaneously (detrimentally affecting the bioavailability of rifampicin). Notwithstanding this interaction, rifampicin and isoniazid must be taken concurrently for successful TB therapy. Therefore these drugs would benefit from the site-specific drug delivery offered by the MMDDS. The primary aim of the pH-responsive mucoadhesive layer was to ensure prolonged adhesion of the MMDDS at a specific site within the human gastro-intestinal tract. The pH-responsive mucoadhesive layer was the fundamental aspect that promoted site-specific and segregated drug delivery. Preliminary in vitro investigations led to the identification of a combination of polymers best suited to develop the respective pHresponsive mucoadhesive layers. A central composite design was employed to determine the optimal ratios of the polymers selected which would impart the largest degree of mucoadhesion within the respective pH ranges. Each mucoadhesive layer was thereafter optimized and subject to various in vitro investigations to determine the effects of the GIT on the properties of the mucoadhesive layer, as well as determine the behaviour of the mucoadhesive layer when subject to simulated gastrointestinal conditions. Electrospinning, a versatile technique employed in the fabrication of fibres in the nanometre size range, was employed to develop the drug loaded layer. Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) nanofibres were thereafter crosslinked employing glutaraldehyde vapours to ensure controlled release of the incorporated drugs. The drug-loaded layer demonstrated good versatility in incorporating vastly different drugs, with only minor adjustments to the fabrication procedure. Furthermore, PVA demonstrated good loading of rifampicin and isoniazid, and near zero-order drug release was achieved after the crosslinking procedure. Prolongation of drug release fundamentally decreases the numbers of doses required to be taken daily, and as such, patient compliance is improved. Furthermore, in vitro analysis revealed that the developed MMDDS behaved superiorly in terms of controlling drug delivery in a site-specific and prolonged fashion in comparison to a marketed gold standard formulation, Rifinah®. These findings were further substantiated by in vivo analysis, which was conducted in a swine model. Results indicated that minimal release of isoniazid was observed in the stomach, based on the plasma concentrations of the drug. Release of isoniazid was initiated only when the intestinal-targeted component entered the intestine of the pig, corresponding to higher plasma concentrations of isoniazid. In this manner, the delivery of isoniazid and rifampicin was segregated, thus improving the oral bioavailability of rifampicin. To summarize, the MMDDS was able to overcome the many challenges associated with oral drug delivery, by easing complicated treatment regimens, and improving the bioavailability of drugs delivered orally. The benefits associated with oral drug delivery have clearly been exploited by the present study, producing a versatile drug delivery “tool” which can successfully be adapted to incorporate any number of drugs (including an entire treatment regimen in one dosage form!) for targeted delivery within the human gastro-intestinal tract in a prolonged manner

The clinical Transferability of Raman Micro-Spectroscopic Systems for Cervical Cytopathology

The clinical potential for Raman microscopic systems is well established for early diagnosis via cytology. Although Raman systems offer a complementary diagnostic tool providing molecular information, it is not yet utilised substantially in clinics. A few challenges for the clinical implementation of Raman spectroscopy are system and user variability. In this study, we asked how much variability occurs due to different Raman systems or users. To address these questions, we measured the same set of cells using two different Raman microscopes and by two different users. And classification models were generated using multivariate partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) and analysed for clinical implementation. Raman spectra were measured from single exfoliated cells (n=400) from ThinPrep samples with negative cytology (n=10) and high-grade cytology (n=10). Raman spectra were acquired from the same set of cells via two identical HORIBA Jobin Yvon XploRATM systems (Villeneuve d\u27Ascq, France), as well as two different users. The Raman data was subjected to PLS-DA and cross-validated via leave-one-patient out. The study\u27s findings suggest that the data acquired from the two Raman systems are 99% identical. However, the observed classification accuracy for the data obtained by user-1 was 92%, whereas by user-2 was 99%

Characterisation of Cartilage Damage via Fusing Mid-Infrared, Near-Infrared, and Raman Spectroscopic Data

Mid-infrared spectroscopy (MIR), near-infrared spectroscopy (NIR), and Raman spectroscopy are all well-established analytical techniques in biomedical applications. Since they provide complementary chemical information, we aimed to determine whether combining them amplifies their strengths and mitigates their weaknesses. This study investigates the feasibility of the fusion of MIR, NIR, and Raman spectroscopic data for characterising articular cartilage integrity. Osteochondral specimens from bovine patellae were subjected to mechanical and enzymatic damage, and then MIR, NIR, and Raman data were acquired from the damaged and control specimens. We assessed the capacity of individual spectroscopic methods to classify the samples into damage or control groups using Partial Least Squares Discriminant Analysis (PLS-DA). Multi-block PLS-DA was carried out to assess the potential of data fusion by combining the dataset by applying two-block (MIR and NIR, MIR and Raman, NIR and Raman) and three-block approaches (MIR, NIR, and Raman). The results of the one-block models show a higher classification accuracy for NIR (93%) and MIR (92%) than for Raman (76%) spectroscopy. In contrast, we observed the highest classification efficiency of 94% and 93% for the two-block (MIR and NIR) and three-block models, respectively. The detailed correlative analysis of the spectral features contributing to the discrimination in the three-block models adds considerably more insight into the molecular origin of cartilage damage

Raman Spectroscopy and Machine Learning Enables Estimation of Articular Cartilage Structural, Compositional, and Functional Properties

Objective: To differentiate healthy from artificially degraded articular cartilage and estimate its structural, compositional, and functional properties using Raman spectroscopy (RS). Design: Visually normal bovine patellae (n = 12) were used in this study. Osteochondral plugs (n = 60) were prepared and artificially degraded either enzymatically (via Collagenase D or Trypsin) or mechanically (via impact loading or surface abrasion) to induce mild to severe cartilage damage; additionally, control plugs were prepared (n = 12). Raman spectra were acquired from the samples before and after artificial degradation. Afterwards, reference biomechanical properties, proteoglycan (PG) content, collagen orientation, and zonal (%) thickness of the samples were measured. Machine learning models (classifiers and regressors) were then developed to discriminate healthy from degraded cartilage based on their Raman spectra and to predict the aforementioned reference properties. Results: The classifiers accurately categorized healthy and degraded samples (accuracy = 86%), and successfully discerned moderate from severely degraded samples (accuracy = 90%). On the other hand, the regression models estimated cartilage biomechanical properties with reasonable error (≤ 24%), with the lowest error observed in the prediction of instantaneous modulus (12%). With zonal properties, the lowest prediction errors were observed in the deep zone, i.e., PG content (14%), collagen orientation (29%), and zonal thickness (9%). Conclusion: RS is capable of discriminating between healthy and damaged cartilage, and can estimate tissue properties with reasonable errors. These findings demonstrate the clinical potential of RS.Peer reviewe

Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Enables Arthroscopic Histologic Grading of Human Knee Articular Cartilage

Purpose: To develop the means to estimate cartilage histologic grades and proteoglycan content in ex vivo arthroscopy using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). Methods: In this experimental study, arthroscopic NIR spectral measurements were performed on both knees of 9 human cadavers, followed by osteochondral block extraction and in vitro measurements: reacquisition of spectra and reference measurements (proteoglycan content, and three histologic scores). A hybrid model, combining principal component analysis and linear mixed-effects model (PCA-LME), was trained for each reference to investigate its relationship with in vitro NIR spectra. The performance of the PCA-LME model was validated with ex vivo spectra before and after the exclusion of outlying spectra. Model performance was evaluated based on Spearman rank correlation (ρ) and root-mean-square error (RMSE). Results: The PCA-LME models performed well (independent test: average ρ = 0.668, RMSE = 0.892, P < .001) in the prediction of the reference measurements based on in vitro data. The performance on ex vivo arthroscopic data was poorer but improved substantially after outlier exclusion (independent test: average ρ = 0.462 to 0.614, RMSE = 1.078 to 0.950, P = .019 to .008). Conclusions: NIRS is capable of nondestructive evaluation of cartilage integrity (i.e., histologic scores and proteoglycan content) under similar conditions as in clinical arthroscopy. Clinical Relevance: There are clear clinical benefits to the accurate assessment of cartilage lesions in arthroscopy. Visual grading is the current standard of care. However, optical techniques, such as NIRS, may provide a more objective assessment of cartilage damage.publishedVersionPeer reviewe

Preprocessing Strategies for Sparse Infrared Spectroscopy: A Case Study on Cartilage Diagnostics

The aim of the study was to optimize preprocessing of sparse infrared spectral data. The sparse data were obtained by reducing broadband Fourier transform infrared attenuated total reflectance spectra of bovine and human cartilage, as well as of simulated spectral data, comprising several thousand spectral variables into datasets comprising only seven spectral variables. Different preprocessing approaches were compared, including simple baseline correction and normalization procedures, and model-based preprocessing, such as multiplicative signal correction (MSC). The optimal preprocessing was selected based on the quality of classification models established by partial least squares discriminant analysis for discriminating healthy and damaged cartilage samples. The best results for the sparse data were obtained by preprocessing using a baseline offset correction at 1800 cm−1, followed by peak normalization at 850 cm−1 and preprocessing by MSC.publishedVersio