Biomedical engineering frontier research and converging technologies

CERN Document Server

Jun, Ho-Wook; Shin, Jennifer; Lee, SangHoon

2016-01-01

This book provides readers with an integrative overview of the latest research and developments in the broad field of biomedical engineering. Each of the chapters offers a timely review written by leading biomedical engineers and aims at showing how the convergence of scientific and engineering fields with medicine has created a new basis for practically solving problems concerning human health, wellbeing and disease. While some of the latest frontiers of biomedicine, such as neuroscience and regenerative medicine, are becoming increasingly dependent on new ideas and tools from other disciplines, the paradigm shift caused by technological innovations in the fields of information science, nanotechnology, and robotics is opening new opportunities in healthcare, besides dramatically changing the ways we actually practice science. At the same time, a new generation of engineers, fluent in many different scientific “languages,” is creating entirely new fields of research that approach the “old” questions f...

Bioactive materials for biomedical applications using sol-gel technology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gupta, Radha; Kumar, Ashok

2008-01-01

This review paper focuses on the sol-gel technology that has been applied in many of the potential research areas and highlights the importance of sol-gel technology for preparing bioactive materials for biomedical applications. The versatility of sol-gel chemistry enables us to manipulate the characteristics of material required for particular applications. Sol-gel derived materials have proved to be good biomaterials for coating films and for the construction of super-paramagnetic nanoparticles, bioactive glasses and fiberoptic applicators for various biomedical applications. The introduction of the sol-gel route in a conventional method of preparing implants improves the mechanical strength, biocompatibility and bioactivity of scaffolds and prevents corrosion of metallic implants. The use of organically modified silanes (ORMOSILS) yields flexible and bioactive materials for soft and hard tissue replacement. A novel approach of nitric-oxide-releasing sol-gels as antibacterial coatings for reducing the infection around orthopedic implants has also been discussed

The relevance of Heidegger's philosophy of technology for biomedical ethics.

Science.gov (United States)

Svenaeus, Fredrik

2013-02-01

Heidegger's thoughts on modern technology have received much attention in many disciplines and fields, but, with a few exceptions, the influence has been sparse in biomedical ethics. The reason for this might be that Heidegger's position has been misinterpreted as being generally hostile towards modern science and technology, and the fact that Heidegger himself never subjected medical technologies to scrutiny but was concerned rather with industrial technology and information technology. In this paper, Heidegger's philosophy of modern technology is introduced and then brought to bear on medical technology. Its main relevance for biomedical ethics is found to be that the field needs to focus upon epistemological and ontological questions in the philosophy of medicine related to the structure and goal of medical practice. Heidegger's philosophy can help us to see how the scientific attitude in medicine must always be balanced by and integrated into a phenomenological way of understanding the life-world concerns of patients. The difference between the scientific and the phenomenological method in medicine is articulated by Heidegger as two different ways of studying the human body: as biological organism and as lived body. Medicine needs to acknowledge the priority of the lived body in addressing health as a way of being-in-the-world and not as the absence of disease only. A critical development of Heidegger's position can provide us with a criterion for distinguishing the uses of medical technologies that are compatible with such an endeavor from the technological projects that are not.

Biomedical technology transfer: Bioinstrumentation for cardiology, neurology, and the circulatory system

Science.gov (United States)

1976-01-01

Developments in applying aerospace medical technology to the design and production of medical equipment and instrumentation are reported. Projects described include intercranial pressure transducers, leg negative pressure devices, a synthetic speech prosthesis for victims of cerebral palsy, and a Doppler blood flow instrument. Commercialization activities for disseminating and utilizing NASA technology, and new biomedical problem areas are discussed.

[Biomedical informatics].

Science.gov (United States)

Capurro, Daniel; Soto, Mauricio; Vivent, Macarena; Lopetegui, Marcelo; Herskovic, Jorge R

2011-12-01

Biomedical Informatics is a new discipline that arose from the need to incorporate information technologies to the generation, storage, distribution and analysis of information in the domain of biomedical sciences. This discipline comprises basic biomedical informatics, and public health informatics. The development of the discipline in Chile has been modest and most projects have originated from the interest of individual people or institutions, without a systematic and coordinated national development. Considering the unique features of health care system of our country, research in the area of biomedical informatics is becoming an imperative.

Modern technologies for retinal scanning and imaging: an introduction for the biomedical engineer

Science.gov (United States)

2014-01-01

This review article is meant to help biomedical engineers and nonphysical scientists better understand the principles of, and the main trends in modern scanning and imaging modalities used in ophthalmology. It is intended to ease the communication between physicists, medical doctors and engineers, and hopefully encourage “classical” biomedical engineers to generate new ideas and to initiate projects in an area which has traditionally been dominated by optical physics. Most of the methods involved are applicable to other areas of biomedical optics and optoelectronics, such as microscopic imaging, spectroscopy, spectral imaging, opto-acoustic tomography, fluorescence imaging etc., all of which are with potential biomedical application. Although all described methods are novel and important, the emphasis of this review has been placed on three technologies introduced in the 1990’s and still undergoing vigorous development: Confocal Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscopy, Optical Coherence Tomography, and polarization-sensitive retinal scanning. PMID:24779618

75 FR 3948 - Big Sky Energy Corp., Biomedical Waste Systems, Inc., Biometrics Security Technology, Inc...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-25

... SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION [File No. 500-1] Big Sky Energy Corp., Biomedical Waste Systems, Inc., Biometrics Security Technology, Inc., Biosys, Inc., Bolder Technologies Corp., Boyds Wheels, Inc... securities of Biometrics Security Technology, Inc. because it has not filed any periodic reports since...

Biomedical photonics handbook biomedical diagnostics

CERN Document Server

Vo-Dinh, Tuan

2014-01-01

Shaped by Quantum Theory, Technology, and the Genomics RevolutionThe integration of photonics, electronics, biomaterials, and nanotechnology holds great promise for the future of medicine. This topic has recently experienced an explosive growth due to the noninvasive or minimally invasive nature and the cost-effectiveness of photonic modalities in medical diagnostics and therapy. The second edition of the Biomedical Photonics Handbook presents fundamental developments as well as important applications of biomedical photonics of interest to scientists, engineers, manufacturers, teachers, studen

Innovation strategy management survey of the Chilean biomedical industry. Assessment of windows of opportunities to reduce technological gaps.

Science.gov (United States)

Bas, Tomas Gabriel; Oliu, Carolina Alejandra

2018-04-01

The convergence of different theories (ie, catch-up effect and windows of opportunities) allows for the interpretation of different "technological innovation gaps" in Chile's biomedical industry. It is common knowledge that Chile has always had an economy almost exclusively based on services, commodities, and mainly in the exploitation of natural resources with low value added. The literature confirms that countries that concentrate their economies on the knowledge, research, development, and commercialization of technology and innovation have a better and more stable growth rate in the medium and long run. The "Asian Tigers" are a good example of this. Analyzing the technological gaps that affect the Chilean biomedical industry, it is possible to find windows of opportunities to catch up. This could allow the country to take its knowledge, skills, and capabilities further, thus enabling Chile to not just depend on its unpredictable natural resources. For the first time, a quantitative diagnosis of the Chilean biomedical industry was made. This study considered the Chilean biomedical industry and its innovation and entrepreneurship environment, taking into account its productive capacities and its potential to make progress in technological innovation and, as a result, dramatically reducing technological gaps through windows of opportunities. Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Computational intelligence in biomedical imaging

CERN Document Server

2014-01-01

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the state-of-the-art computational intelligence research and technologies in biomedical images with emphasis on biomedical decision making. Biomedical imaging offers useful information on patients’ medical conditions and clues to causes of their symptoms and diseases. Biomedical images, however, provide a large number of images which physicians must interpret. Therefore, computer aids are demanded and become indispensable in physicians’ decision making. This book discusses major technical advancements and research findings in the field of computational intelligence in biomedical imaging, for example, computational intelligence in computer-aided diagnosis for breast cancer, prostate cancer, and brain disease, in lung function analysis, and in radiation therapy. The book examines technologies and studies that have reached the practical level, and those technologies that are becoming available in clinical practices in hospitals rapidly such as computational inte...

Biomedical applications engineering tasks

Science.gov (United States)

Laenger, C. J., Sr.

1976-01-01

The engineering tasks performed in response to needs articulated by clinicians are described. Initial contacts were made with these clinician-technology requestors by the Southwest Research Institute NASA Biomedical Applications Team. The basic purpose of the program was to effectively transfer aerospace technology into functional hardware to solve real biomedical problems.

Optical coherence tomography: technology and applications (biological and medical physics, biomedical engineering)

CERN Document Server

2013-01-01

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is the optical analog of ultrasound imaging and is emerging as a powerful imaging technique that enables non-invasive, in vivo, high resolution, cross-sectional imaging in biological tissue. This book introduces OCT technology and applications not only from an optical and technological viewpoint, but also from biomedical and clinical perspectives. The chapters are written by leading research groups, in a style comprehensible to a broad audience.

On transferring the grid technology to the biomedical community.

Science.gov (United States)

Mohammed, Yassene; Sax, Ulrich; Dickmann, Frank; Lippert, Joerg; Solodenko, Juri; von Voigt, Gabriele; Smith, Matthew; Rienhoff, Otto

2010-01-01

Natural scientists such as physicists pioneered the sharing of computing resources, which resulted in the Grid. The inter domain transfer process of this technology has been an intuitive process. Some difficulties facing the life science community can be understood using the Bozeman's "Effectiveness Model of Technology Transfer". Bozeman's and classical technology transfer approaches deal with technologies that have achieved certain stability. Grid and Cloud solutions are technologies that are still in flux. We illustrate how Grid computing creates new difficulties for the technology transfer process that are not considered in Bozeman's model. We show why the success of health Grids should be measured by the qualified scientific human capital and opportunities created, and not primarily by the market impact. With two examples we show how the Grid technology transfer theory corresponds to the reality. We conclude with recommendations that can help improve the adoption of Grid solutions into the biomedical community. These results give a more concise explanation of the difficulties most life science IT projects are facing in the late funding periods, and show some leveraging steps which can help to overcome the "vale of tears".

Biomedical engineering and nanotechnology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pawar, S.H.; Khyalappa, R.J.; Yakhmi, J.V.

2009-01-01

This book is predominantly a compilation of papers presented in the conference which is focused on the development in biomedical materials, biomedical devises and instrumentation, biomedical effects of electromagnetic radiation, electrotherapy, radiotherapy, biosensors, biotechnology, bioengineering, tissue engineering, clinical engineering and surgical planning, medical imaging, hospital system management, biomedical education, biomedical industry and society, bioinformatics, structured nanomaterial for biomedical application, nano-composites, nano-medicine, synthesis of nanomaterial, nano science and technology development. The papers presented herein contain the scientific substance to suffice the academic directivity of the researchers from the field of biomedicine, biomedical engineering, material science and nanotechnology. Papers relevant to INIS are indexed separately

Technology for 3D System Integration for Flexible Wireless Biomedical Applications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wen-Cheng Kuo

2018-05-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a new 3D bottom-up packing technology for integrating a chip, an induction coil, and interconnections for flexible wireless biomedical applications. Parylene was used as a flexible substrate for the bottom-up embedding of the chip, insulation layer, interconnection, and inductors to form a flexible wireless biomedical microsystem. The system can be implanted on or inside the human body. A 50-μm gold foil deposited through laser micromachining by using a picosecond laser was used as an inductor to yield a higher quality factor than that yielded by thickness-increasing methods such as the fold-and-bond method or thick-metal electroplating method at the operation frequency of 1 MHz. For system integration, parylene was used as a flexible substrate, and the contact pads and connections between the coil and chip were generated using gold deposition. The advantage of the proposed process can integrate the chip and coil vertically to generate a single biocompatible system in order to reduce required area. The proposed system entails the use of 3D integrated circuit packaging concepts to integrate the chip and coil. The results validated the feasibility of this technology.

Biomedical Imaging Principles and Applications

CERN Document Server

Salzer, Reiner

2012-01-01

This book presents and describes imaging technologies that can be used to study chemical processes and structural interactions in dynamic systems, principally in biomedical systems. The imaging technologies, largely biomedical imaging technologies such as MRT, Fluorescence mapping, raman mapping, nanoESCA, and CARS microscopy, have been selected according to their application range and to the chemical information content of their data. These technologies allow for the analysis and evaluation of delicate biological samples, which must not be disturbed during the profess. Ultimately, this may me

Powering biomedical devices

CERN Document Server

Romero, Edwar

2013-01-01

From exoskeletons to neural implants, biomedical devices are no less than life-changing. Compact and constant power sources are necessary to keep these devices running efficiently. Edwar Romero's Powering Biomedical Devices reviews the background, current technologies, and possible future developments of these power sources, examining not only the types of biomedical power sources available (macro, mini, MEMS, and nano), but also what they power (such as prostheses, insulin pumps, and muscular and neural stimulators), and how they work (covering batteries, biofluids, kinetic and ther

Molecular medicine and concepts of disease: the ethical value of a conceptual analysis of merging biomedical technologies.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Boenink, Marianne

2009-01-01

Although it is now generally acknowledged that new biomedical technologies often produce new definitions and sometimes even new concepts of disease, this observation is rarely used in research that anticipates potential ethical issues in emerging technologies. This article argues that it is useful

The ethics of biomedical big data

CERN Document Server

Mittelstadt, Brent Daniel

2016-01-01

This book presents cutting edge research on the new ethical challenges posed by biomedical Big Data technologies and practices. ‘Biomedical Big Data’ refers to the analysis of aggregated, very large datasets to improve medical knowledge and clinical care. The book describes the ethical problems posed by aggregation of biomedical datasets and re-use/re-purposing of data, in areas such as privacy, consent, professionalism, power relationships, and ethical governance of Big Data platforms. Approaches and methods are discussed that can be used to address these problems to achieve the appropriate balance between the social goods of biomedical Big Data research and the safety and privacy of individuals. Seventeen original contributions analyse the ethical, social and related policy implications of the analysis and curation of biomedical Big Data, written by leading experts in the areas of biomedical research, medical and technology ethics, privacy, governance and data protection. The book advances our understan...

3rd International Conference on Nanotechnologies and Biomedical Engineering

CERN Document Server

Tiginyanu, Ion

2016-01-01

This volume presents the proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Nanotechnologies and Biomedical Engineering which was held on September 23-26, 2015 in Chisinau, Republic of Moldova. ICNBME-2015 continues the series of International Conferences in the field of nanotechnologies and biomedical engineering. It aims at bringing together scientists and engineers dealing with fundamental and applied research for reporting on the latest theoretical developments and applications involved in the fields. Topics include Nanotechnologies and nanomaterials Plasmonics and metamaterials Bio-micro/nano technologies Biomaterials Biosensors and sensors systems Biomedical instrumentation Biomedical signal processing Biomedical imaging and image processing Molecular, cellular and tissue engineering Clinical engineering, health technology management and assessment; Health informatics, e-health and telemedicine Biomedical engineering education Nuclear and radiation safety and security Innovations and technology transfer...

[Biomedical engineering today : An overview from the viewpoint of the German Biomedical Engineering Society].

Science.gov (United States)

Schlötelburg, C; Becks, T; Stieglitz, T

2010-08-01

Biomedical engineering is characterized by the interdisciplinary co-operation of technology, science, and ways of thinking, probably more than any other technological area. The close interaction of engineering and information sciences with medicine and biology results in innovative products and methods, but also requires high standards for the interdisciplinary transfer of ideas into products for patients' benefits. This article describes the situation of biomedical engineering in Germany. It displays characteristics of the medical device industry and ranks it with respect to the international market. The research landscape is described as well as up-to-date research topics and trends. The national funding situation of research in biomedical engineering is reviewed and existing innovation barriers are discussed.

Innovations in Biomedical Engineering 2016

CERN Document Server

Tkacz, Ewaryst; Paszenda, Zbigniew; Piętka, Ewa

2017-01-01

This book presents the proceedings of the “Innovations in Biomedical Engineering IBE’2016” Conference held on October 16–18, 2016 in Poland, discussing recent research on innovations in biomedical engineering. The past decade has seen the dynamic development of more and more sophisticated technologies, including biotechnologies, and more general technologies applied in the area of life sciences. As such the book covers the broadest possible spectrum of subjects related to biomedical engineering innovations. Divided into four parts, it presents state-of-the-art achievements in: • engineering of biomaterials, • modelling and simulations in biomechanics, • informatics in medicine • signal analysis The book helps bridge the gap between technological and methodological engineering achievements on the one hand and clinical requirements in the three major areas diagnosis, therapy and rehabilitation on the other.

John Glenn Biomedical Engineering Consortium

Science.gov (United States)

Nall, Marsha

2004-01-01

The John Glenn Biomedical Engineering Consortium is an inter-institutional research and technology development, beginning with ten projects in FY02 that are aimed at applying GRC expertise in fluid physics and sensor development with local biomedical expertise to mitigate the risks of space flight on the health, safety, and performance of astronauts. It is anticipated that several new technologies will be developed that are applicable to both medical needs in space and on earth.

Biomedical nanotechnology.

Science.gov (United States)

Hurst, Sarah J

2011-01-01

This chapter summarizes the roles of nanomaterials in biomedical applications, focusing on those highlighted in this volume. A brief history of nanoscience and technology and a general introduction to the field are presented. Then, the chemical and physical properties of nanostructures that make them ideal for use in biomedical applications are highlighted. Examples of common applications, including sensing, imaging, and therapeutics, are given. Finally, the challenges associated with translating this field from the research laboratory to the clinic setting, in terms of the larger societal implications, are discussed.

Branding the bio/biomedical engineering degree.

Science.gov (United States)

Voigt, Herbert F

2011-01-01

The future challenges to medical and biological engineering, sometimes referred to as biomedical engineering or simply bioengineering, are many. Some of these are identifiable now and others will emerge from time to time as new technologies are introduced and harnessed. There is a fundamental issue regarding "Branding the bio/biomedical engineering degree" that requires a common understanding of what is meant by a B.S. degree in Biomedical Engineering, Bioengineering, or Biological Engineering. In this paper we address some of the issues involved in branding the Bio/Biomedical Engineering degree, with the aim of clarifying the Bio/Biomedical Engineering brand.

Science and technology of biocompatible thin films for implantable biomedical devices.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Li, W.; Kabius, B.; Auciello, O.; Materials Science Division

2010-01-01

This presentation focuses on reviewing research to develop two critical biocompatible film technologies to enable implantable biomedical devices, namely: (1) development of bioinert/biocompatible coatings for encapsulation of Si chips implantable in the human body (e.g., retinal prosthesis implantable in the human eye) - the coating involves a novel ultrananocrystalline diamond (UNCD) film or hybrid biocompatible oxide/UNCD layered films; and (2) development of biocompatible films with high-dielectric constant and microfabrication process to produce energy storage super-capacitors embedded in the microchip to achieve full miniaturization for implantation into the human body.

BioSTEC 2017: 10th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies : Proceedings Volume 5: HealthInf

NARCIS (Netherlands)

2017-01-01

This book contains the proceedings of the 10th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies (BIOSTEC 2017). This conference is sponsored by the Institute for Systems and Technologies of Information, Control and Communication (INSTICC), in cooperation with the ACM

The biomedical disciplines and the structure of biomedical and clinical knowledge.

Science.gov (United States)

Nederbragt, H

2000-11-01

The relation between biomedical knowledge and clinical knowledge is discussed by comparing their respective structures. The knowledge of a disease as a biological phenomenon is constructed by the interaction of facts and theories from the main biomedical disciplines: epidemiology, diagnostics, clinical trial, therapy development and pathogenesis. Although these facts and theories are based on probabilities and extrapolations, the interaction provides a reliable and coherent structure, comparable to a Kuhnian paradigma. In the structure of clinical knowledge, i.e. knowledge of the patient with the disease, not only biomedical knowledge contributes to the structure but also economic and social relations, ethics and personal experience. However, the interaction between each of the participating "knowledges" in clinical knowledge is not based on mutual dependency and accumulation of different arguments from each, as in biomedical knowledge, but on competition and partial exclusion. Therefore, the structure of biomedical knowledge is different from that of clinical knowledge. This difference is used as the basis for a discussion in which the place of technology, evidence-based medicine and the gap between scientific and clinical knowledge are evaluated.

BIOMedical Search Engine Framework: Lightweight and customized implementation of domain-specific biomedical search engines.

Science.gov (United States)

Jácome, Alberto G; Fdez-Riverola, Florentino; Lourenço, Anália

2016-07-01

Text mining and semantic analysis approaches can be applied to the construction of biomedical domain-specific search engines and provide an attractive alternative to create personalized and enhanced search experiences. Therefore, this work introduces the new open-source BIOMedical Search Engine Framework for the fast and lightweight development of domain-specific search engines. The rationale behind this framework is to incorporate core features typically available in search engine frameworks with flexible and extensible technologies to retrieve biomedical documents, annotate meaningful domain concepts, and develop highly customized Web search interfaces. The BIOMedical Search Engine Framework integrates taggers for major biomedical concepts, such as diseases, drugs, genes, proteins, compounds and organisms, and enables the use of domain-specific controlled vocabulary. Technologies from the Typesafe Reactive Platform, the AngularJS JavaScript framework and the Bootstrap HTML/CSS framework support the customization of the domain-oriented search application. Moreover, the RESTful API of the BIOMedical Search Engine Framework allows the integration of the search engine into existing systems or a complete web interface personalization. The construction of the Smart Drug Search is described as proof-of-concept of the BIOMedical Search Engine Framework. This public search engine catalogs scientific literature about antimicrobial resistance, microbial virulence and topics alike. The keyword-based queries of the users are transformed into concepts and search results are presented and ranked accordingly. The semantic graph view portraits all the concepts found in the results, and the researcher may look into the relevance of different concepts, the strength of direct relations, and non-trivial, indirect relations. The number of occurrences of the concept shows its importance to the query, and the frequency of concept co-occurrence is indicative of biological relations

Special Issue: 3D Printing for Biomedical Engineering.

Science.gov (United States)

Chua, Chee Kai; Yeong, Wai Yee; An, Jia

2017-02-28

Three-dimensional (3D) printing has a long history of applications in biomedical engineering. The development and expansion of traditional biomedical applications are being advanced and enriched by new printing technologies. New biomedical applications such as bioprinting are highly attractive and trendy. This Special Issue aims to provide readers with a glimpse of the recent profile of 3D printing in biomedical research.

Special Issue: 3D Printing for Biomedical Engineering

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chee Kai Chua

2017-02-01

Full Text Available Three-dimensional (3D printing has a long history of applications in biomedical engineering. The development and expansion of traditional biomedical applications are being advanced and enriched by new printing technologies. New biomedical applications such as bioprinting are highly attractive and trendy. This Special Issue aims to provide readers with a glimpse of the recent profile of 3D printing in biomedical research.

Biomedical Engineering

CERN Document Server

Suh, Sang C; Tanik, Murat M

2011-01-01

Biomedical Engineering: Health Care Systems, Technology and Techniques is an edited volume with contributions from world experts. It provides readers with unique contributions related to current research and future healthcare systems. Practitioners and researchers focused on computer science, bioinformatics, engineering and medicine will find this book a valuable reference.

Introduction to biomedical engineering technology

CERN Document Server

Street, Laurence J

2011-01-01

IntroductionHistory of Medical DevicesThe Role of Biomedical Engineering Technologists in Health CareCharacteristics of Human Anatomy and Physiology That Relate to Medical DevicesSummaryQuestionsDiagnostic Devices: Part OnePhysiological Monitoring SystemsThe HeartSummaryQuestionsDiagnostic Devices: Part TwoCirculatory System and BloodRespiratory SystemNervous SystemSummaryQuestionsDiagnostic Devices: Part ThreeDigestive SystemSensory OrgansReproductionSkin, Bone, Muscle, MiscellaneousChapter SummaryQuestionsDiagnostic ImagingIntroductionX-RaysMagnetic Resonance Imaging ScannersPositron Emissio

Updating the biomedical engineering curriculum: Inclusion of Health Technology Assessment subjects.

Science.gov (United States)

Martinez Licona, Fabiola; Urbina, Edmundo Gerardo; Azpiroz-Leehan, Joaquin

2010-01-01

This paper describes the work being carried out at Metropolitan Autonomous University (UAM) in Mexico City with regard to the continuous evaluation and updating of the Biomedical Engineering (BME) curriculum. In particular the courses regarded as part of the BME basic branch are reduced and new sets of elective subjects are proposed in order to bring closer the research work at UAM with the subjects in the BME curriculum. Special emphasis is placed on subjects dealing with Health Technology Assessment (HTA) and Health economics, as this branch of the BME discipline is quite promising in Mexico, but there are very few professionals in the field with adequate qualifications.

An Overview of SBIR Phase 2 Physical Sciences and Biomedical Technologies in Space

Science.gov (United States)

Nguyen, Hung D.; Steele, Gynelle C.

2015-01-01

Technological innovation is the overall focus of NASA's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. The program invests in the development of innovative concepts and technologies to help NASA's mission directorates address critical research and development needs for agency projects. This report highlights innovative SBIR Phase II projects from 2007-2012 specifically addressing areas in physical sciences and biomedical technologies in space, which is one of six core competencies at NASA Glenn Research Center. There are twenty two technologies featured with emphasis on a wide spectrum of applications such as reusable handheld electrolyte, sensor for bone markers, wideband single crystal transducer, mini treadmill for musculoskeletal, and much more. Each article in this report describes an innovation, technical objective, and highlights NASA commercial and industrial applications. This report serves as an opportunity for NASA personnel including engineers, researchers, and program managers to learn of NASA SBIR's capabilities that might be crosscutting into this technology area. As the result, it would cause collaborations and partnerships between the small companies and NASA Programs and Projects resulting in benefit to both SBIR companies and NASA.

Diode laser based light sources for biomedical applications

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Müller, André; Marschall, Sebastian; Jensen, Ole Bjarlin

2013-01-01

Diode lasers are by far the most efficient lasers currently available. With the ever-continuing improvement in diode laser technology, this type of laser has become increasingly attractive for a wide range of biomedical applications. Compared to the characteristics of competing laser systems, diode...... imaging. This review provides an overview of the latest development of diode laser technology and systems and their use within selected biomedical applications....

Development of Biomedical Polymer-Silicate Nanocomposites: A Materials Science Perspective

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chia-Jung Wu

2010-04-01

Full Text Available Biomedical polymer-silicate nanocomposites have potential to become critically important to the development of biomedical applications, ranging from diagnostic and therapeutic devices, tissue regeneration and drug delivery matrixes to various bio-technologies that are inspired by biology but have only indirect biomedical relation. The fundamental understanding of polymer-nanoparticle interactions is absolutely necessary to control structure-property relationships of materials that need to work within the chemical, physical and biological constraints required by an application. This review summarizes the most recent published strategies to design and develop polymer-silicate nanocomposites (including clay based silicate nanoparticles and bioactive glass nanoparticles for a variety of biomedical applications. Emerging trends in bio-technological and biomedical nanocomposites are highlighted and potential new fields of applications are examined.

After the Biomedical Technology Revolution: Where to Now for a Bio-Psycho-Social Approach to Social Work?

Science.gov (United States)

Healy, Karen

2016-07-01

In the late twentieth century, the bio-psycho-social framework emerged as a powerful influence on the conceptualisation and delivery of health and rehabilitation services including social work services in these fields. The bio-psycho-social framework is built on a systems view of health and well-being ( Garland and Howard, 2009). The systems perspective encourages medical and allied health professions, including social work, to recognise and to respond to the multiple systems impacting on individual health and well-being ( Engel, 2003). This paper analyses how advances in biomedical technology, particularly in the fields of neuroscience and human genomics, are challenging the bio-psycho-social approach to practice. The paper examines the pressures on the social work profession to embrace biomedical science and points to the problems in doing so. The conclusion points to some tentative ways forward for social workers to engage critically with biomedical advances and to strengthen the bio-psycho-social framework in the interests of holistic and ethical approaches to social work practice.

Biomedical and health informatics education and research at the Information Technology Institute in Egypt.

Science.gov (United States)

Hussein, R; Khalifa, A

2011-01-01

During the last decade, Egypt has experienced a revolution in the field of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) that has had a corresponding impact on the field of healthcare. Since 1993, the Information Technology Institute (ITI) has been leading the development of the Information Technology (IT) professional training and education in Egypt to produce top quality IT professionals who are considered now the backbone of the IT revolution in Egypt. For the past five years, ITI has been adopting the objective of building high caliber health professionals who can effectively serve the ever-growing information society. Academic links have been established with internationally renowned universities, e.g., Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) in US, University of Leipzig in Germany, in addition those with the Egyptian Fellowship Board in order to enrich ITI Medical Informatics Education and Research. The ITI Biomedical and Health Informatics (BMHI) education and training programs target fresh graduates as well as life-long learners. Therefore, the program's learning objectives are framed within the context of the four specialization tracks: Healthcare Management (HCM), Biomedical Informatics Research (BMIR), Bioinformatics Professional (BIP), and Healthcare Professional (HCP). The ITI BMHI research projects tackle a wide-range of current challenges in this field, such as knowledge management in healthcare, providing tele-consultation services for diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases for underserved regions in Egypt, and exploring the cultural and educational aspects of Nanoinformatics. Since 2006, ITI has been positively contributing to develop the discipline of BMHI in Egypt in order to support improved healthcare services.

Biomedical data integration in computational drug design and bioinformatics.

Science.gov (United States)

Seoane, Jose A; Aguiar-Pulido, Vanessa; Munteanu, Cristian R; Rivero, Daniel; Rabunal, Juan R; Dorado, Julian; Pazos, Alejandro

2013-03-01

In recent years, in the post genomic era, more and more data is being generated by biological high throughput technologies, such as proteomics and transcriptomics. This omics data can be very useful, but the real challenge is to analyze all this data, as a whole, after integrating it. Biomedical data integration enables making queries to different, heterogeneous and distributed biomedical data sources. Data integration solutions can be very useful not only in the context of drug design, but also in biomedical information retrieval, clinical diagnosis, system biology, etc. In this review, we analyze the most common approaches to biomedical data integration, such as federated databases, data warehousing, multi-agent systems and semantic technology, as well as the solutions developed using these approaches in the past few years.

Biomedical research applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anon.

1982-01-01

The biomedical research Panel believes that the Calutron facility at Oak Ridge is a national and international resource of immense scientific value and of fundamental importance to continued biomedical research. This resource is essential to the development of new isotope uses in biology and medicine. It should therefore be nurtured by adequate support and operated in a way that optimizes its services to the scientific and technological community. The Panel sees a continuing need for a reliable supply of a wide variety of enriched stable isotopes. The past and present utilization of stable isotopes in biomedical research is documented in Appendix 7. Future requirements for stable isotopes are impossible to document, however, because of the unpredictability of research itself. Nonetheless we expect the demand for isotopes to increase in parallel with the continuing expansion of biomedical research as a whole. There are a number of promising research projects at the present time, and these are expected to lead to an increase in production requirements. The Panel also believes that a high degree of priority should be given to replacing the supplies of the 65 isotopes (out of the 224 previously available enriched isotopes) no longer available from ORNL

Biomedical engineering education--status and perspectives.

Science.gov (United States)

Magjarevic, Ratko; Zequera Diaz, Martha L

2014-01-01

Biomedical Engineering programs are present at a large number of universities all over the world with an increasing trend. New generations of biomedical engineers have to face the challenges of health care systems round the world which need a large number of professionals not only to support the present technology in the health care system but to develop new devices and services. Health care stakeholders would like to have innovative solutions directed towards solving problems of the world growing incidence of chronic disease and ageing population. These new solutions have to meet the requirements for continuous monitoring, support or care outside clinical settlements. Presence of these needs can be tracked through data from the Labor Organization in the U.S. showing that biomedical engineering jobs have the largest growth at the engineering labor market with expected 72% growth rate in the period from 2008-2018. In European Union the number of patents (i.e. innovation) is the highest in the category of biomedical technology. Biomedical engineering curricula have to adopt to the new needs and for expectations of the future. In this paper we want to give an overview of engineering professions in related to engineering in medicine and biology and the current status of BME education in some regions, as a base for further discussions.

[Master course in biomedical engineering].

Science.gov (United States)

Jobbágy, Akos; Benyó, Zoltán; Monos, Emil

2009-11-22

The Bologna Declaration aims at harmonizing the European higher education structure. In accordance with the Declaration, biomedical engineering will be offered as a master (MSc) course also in Hungary, from year 2009. Since 1995 biomedical engineering course has been held in cooperation of three universities: Semmelweis University, Budapest Veterinary University, and Budapest University of Technology and Economics. One of the latter's faculties, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics, has been responsible for the course. Students could start their biomedical engineering studies - usually in parallel with their first degree course - after they collected at least 180 ECTS credits. Consequently, the biomedical engineering course could have been considered as a master course even before the Bologna Declaration. Students had to collect 130 ECTS credits during the six-semester course. This is equivalent to four-semester full-time studies, because during the first three semesters the curriculum required to gain only one third of the usual ECTS credits. The paper gives a survey on the new biomedical engineering master course, briefly summing up also the subjects in the curriculum.

An optimal big data workflow for biomedical image analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aurelle Tchagna Kouanou

Full Text Available Background and objective: In the medical field, data volume is increasingly growing, and traditional methods cannot manage it efficiently. In biomedical computation, the continuous challenges are: management, analysis, and storage of the biomedical data. Nowadays, big data technology plays a significant role in the management, organization, and analysis of data, using machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques. It also allows a quick access to data using the NoSQL database. Thus, big data technologies include new frameworks to process medical data in a manner similar to biomedical images. It becomes very important to develop methods and/or architectures based on big data technologies, for a complete processing of biomedical image data. Method: This paper describes big data analytics for biomedical images, shows examples reported in the literature, briefly discusses new methods used in processing, and offers conclusions. We argue for adapting and extending related work methods in the field of big data software, using Hadoop and Spark frameworks. These provide an optimal and efficient architecture for biomedical image analysis. This paper thus gives a broad overview of big data analytics to automate biomedical image diagnosis. A workflow with optimal methods and algorithm for each step is proposed. Results: Two architectures for image classification are suggested. We use the Hadoop framework to design the first, and the Spark framework for the second. The proposed Spark architecture allows us to develop appropriate and efficient methods to leverage a large number of images for classification, which can be customized with respect to each other. Conclusions: The proposed architectures are more complete, easier, and are adaptable in all of the steps from conception. The obtained Spark architecture is the most complete, because it facilitates the implementation of algorithms with its embedded libraries. Keywords: Biomedical images, Big

Report on the Results of the 1988 Survey of Former Biomedical Engineering Technology Students. Research Report Number 56.

Science.gov (United States)

Livieratos, Barbara B.

In spring 1988, a telephone survey was conducted of students who had been enrolled in Howard Community College's (HCC's) Biomedical Engineering Technology (BMET) program between 1972 and 1987. The study sought to gather information for future student recruitment and program planning efforts. Responses were obtained from 43 (35%) of a potential…

Biomedical enhancements as justice.

Science.gov (United States)

Nam, Jeesoo

2015-02-01

Biomedical enhancements, the applications of medical technology to make better those who are neither ill nor deficient, have made great strides in the past few decades. Using Amartya Sen's capability approach as my framework, I argue in this article that far from being simply permissible, we have a prima facie moral obligation to use these new developments for the end goal of promoting social justice. In terms of both range and magnitude, the use of biomedical enhancements will mark a radical advance in how we compensate the most disadvantaged members of society. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Biomedical Impact in Implantable Devices-The Transcatheter Aortic Valve as an example

Science.gov (United States)

Anastasiou, Alexandros; Saatsakis, George

2015-09-01

Objective: To update of the scientific community about the biomedical engineering involvement in the implantable devices chain. Moreover the transcatheter Aortic Valve (TAV) replacement, in the field of cardiac surgery, will be analyzed as an example of contemporary implantable technology. Methods: A detailed literature review regarding biomedical engineers participating in the implantable medical product chain, starting from the design of the product till the final implantation technique. Results: The scientific role of biomedical engineers has clearly been established. Certain parts of the product chain are implemented almost exclusively by experienced biomedical engineers such as the transcatheter aortic valve device. The successful professional should have a multidisciplinary knowledge, including medicine, in order to pursue the challenges for such intuitive technology. This clearly indicates that biomedical engineers are among the most appropriate scientists to accomplish such tasks. Conclusions: The biomedical engineering involvement in medical implantable devices has been widely accepted by the scientific community, worldwide. Its important contribution, starting from the design and extended to the development, clinical trials, scientific support, education of other scientists (surgeons, cardiologists, technicians etc.), and even to sales, makes biomedical engineers a valuable player in the scientific arena. Notably, the sector of implantable devices is constantly raising, as emerging technologies continuously set up new targets.

Advanced computational approaches to biomedical engineering

CERN Document Server

Saha, Punam K; Basu, Subhadip

2014-01-01

There has been rapid growth in biomedical engineering in recent decades, given advancements in medical imaging and physiological modelling and sensing systems, coupled with immense growth in computational and network technology, analytic approaches, visualization and virtual-reality, man-machine interaction and automation. Biomedical engineering involves applying engineering principles to the medical and biological sciences and it comprises several topics including biomedicine, medical imaging, physiological modelling and sensing, instrumentation, real-time systems, automation and control, sig

Handbook of photonics for biomedical engineering

CERN Document Server

Kim, Donghyun; Somekh, Michael

2017-01-01

Nanophotonics has emerged rapidly into technological mainstream with the advent and maturity of nanotechnology available in photonics and enabled many new exciting applications in the area of biomedical science and engineering that were unimagined even a few years ago with conventional photonic engineering techniques. Handbook of Nanophotonics in Biomedical Engineering is intended to be a reliable resource to a wealth of information on nanophotonics that can inspire readers by detailing emerging and established possibilities of nanophotonics in biomedical science and engineering applications. This comprehensive reference presents not only the basics of nanophotonics but also explores recent experimental and clinical methods used in biomedical and bioengineering research. Each peer-reviewed chapter of this book discusses fundamental aspects and materials/fabrication issues of nanophotonics, as well as applications in interfaces, cell, tissue, animal studies, and clinical engineering. The organization provides ...

Careers in biomedical engineering.

Science.gov (United States)

Madrid, R E; Rotger, V I; Herrera, M C

2010-01-01

Although biomedical engineering was started in Argentina about 35 years ago, it has had a sustained growth for the last 25 years in human resources, with the emergence of new undergraduate and postgraduate careers, as well as in research, knowledge, technological development, and health care.

Summer Biomedical Engineering Institute 1972

Science.gov (United States)

Deloatch, E. M.

1973-01-01

The five problems studied for biomedical applications of NASA technology are reported. The studies reported are: design modification of electrophoretic equipment, operating room environment control, hematological viscometry, handling system for iridium, and indirect blood pressure measuring device.

From biomedical-engineering research to clinical application and industrialization

Science.gov (United States)

Taguchi, Tetsushi; Aoyagi, Takao

2012-12-01

The rising costs and aging of the population due to a low birth rate negatively affect the healthcare system in Japan. In 2011, the Council for Science and Technology Policy released the 4th Japan's Science and Technology Basic Policy Report from 2011 to 2015. This report includes two major innovations, 'Life Innovation' and 'Green Innovation', to promote economic growth. Biomedical engineering research is part of 'Life Innovation' and its outcomes are required to maintain people's mental and physical health. It has already resulted in numerous biomedical products, and new ones should be developed using nanotechnology-based concepts. The combination of accumulated knowledge and experience, and 'nanoarchitechtonics' will result in novel, well-designed functional biomaterials. This focus issue contains three reviews and 19 original papers on various biomedical topics, including biomaterials, drug-delivery systems, tissue engineering and diagnostics. We hope that it demonstrates the importance of collaboration among scientists, engineers and clinicians, and will contribute to the further development of biomedical engineering.

VI Latin American Congress on Biomedical Engineering

CERN Document Server

Hadad, Alejandro

2015-01-01

This volume presents the proceedings of the CLAIB 2014, held in Paraná, Entre Ríos, Argentina 29, 30 & 31 October 2014. The proceedings, presented by the Regional Council of Biomedical Engineering for Latin America (CORAL) offer research findings, experiences and activities between institutions and universities to develop Bioengineering, Biomedical Engineering and related sciences. The conferences of the American Congress of Biomedical Engineering are sponsored by the International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering (IFMBE), Society for Engineering in Biology and Medicine (EMBS) and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), among other organizations and international agencies and bringing together scientists, academics and biomedical engineers in Latin America and other continents in an environment conducive to exchange and professional growth. The Topics include: - Bioinformatics and Computational Biology - Bioinstrumentation; Sensors, Micro and Nano Technologies - Biomaterials, Tissu...

3D printing – a key technology for tailored biomedical cell culture lab ware

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Schmieder Florian

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Today’s 3D printing technologies offer great possibilities for biomedical researchers to create their own specific laboratory equipment. With respect to the generation of ex vivo vascular perfusion systems this will enable new types of products that will embed complex 3D structures possibly coupled with cell loaded scaffolds closely reflecting the in-vivo environment. Moreover this could lead to microfluidic devices that should be available in small numbers of pieces at moderate prices. Here, we will present first results of such 3D printed cell culture systems made from plastics and show their use for scaffold based applications.

Discrete-Time Biomedical Signal Encryption

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Victor Grigoraş

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Chaotic modulation is a strong method of improving communication security. Analog and discrete chaotic systems are presented in actual literature. Due to the expansion of digital communication, discrete-time systems become more efficient and closer to actual technology. The present contribution offers an in-depth analysis of the effects chaos encryption produce on 1D and 2D biomedical signals. The performed simulations show that modulating signals are precisely recovered by the synchronizing receiver if discrete systems are digitally implemented and the coefficients precisely correspond. Channel noise is also applied and its effects on biomedical signal demodulation are highlighted.

Application of infrared to biomedical sciences

CERN Document Server

Etehadtavakol, Mahnaz

2017-01-01

The book covers the latest updates in the application of infrared to biomedical sciences, a non-invasive, contactless, safe and easy approach imaging of skin and tissue temperatures. Its diagnostic procedure allows practitioners to identify the locations of abnormal chemical and blood vessel activity such as angiogenesis in body tissue. Its non-invasive approach works by applying the technology of the infrared camera and state-of-the-art software, where high-resolution digital infrared imaging technology benefits highly from enhanced image production, standardized image interpretation protocols, computerized comparison and storage, and sophisticated image enhancement and analysis. The book contains contributions from global prominent scientists in the area of infrared applications in biomedical studies. The target audience includes academics, practitioners, clinicians and students working in the area of infrared imaging in biomedicine.

Biomedical Applications of Enzymes From Marine Actinobacteria.

Science.gov (United States)

Kamala, K; Sivaperumal, P

Marine microbial enzyme technologies have progressed significantly in the last few decades for different applications. Among the various microorganisms, marine actinobacterial enzymes have significant active properties, which could allow them to be biocatalysts with tremendous bioactive metabolites. Moreover, marine actinobacteria have been considered as biofactories, since their enzymes fulfill biomedical and industrial needs. In this chapter, the marine actinobacteria and their enzymes' uses in biological activities and biomedical applications are described. © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A novel biomedical image indexing and retrieval system via deep preference learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Pang, Shuchao; Orgun, Mehmet A; Yu, Zhezhou

2018-05-01

The traditional biomedical image retrieval methods as well as content-based image retrieval (CBIR) methods originally designed for non-biomedical images either only consider using pixel and low-level features to describe an image or use deep features to describe images but still leave a lot of room for improving both accuracy and efficiency. In this work, we propose a new approach, which exploits deep learning technology to extract the high-level and compact features from biomedical images. The deep feature extraction process leverages multiple hidden layers to capture substantial feature structures of high-resolution images and represent them at different levels of abstraction, leading to an improved performance for indexing and retrieval of biomedical images. We exploit the current popular and multi-layered deep neural networks, namely, stacked denoising autoencoders (SDAE) and convolutional neural networks (CNN) to represent the discriminative features of biomedical images by transferring the feature representations and parameters of pre-trained deep neural networks from another domain. Moreover, in order to index all the images for finding the similarly referenced images, we also introduce preference learning technology to train and learn a kind of a preference model for the query image, which can output the similarity ranking list of images from a biomedical image database. To the best of our knowledge, this paper introduces preference learning technology for the first time into biomedical image retrieval. We evaluate the performance of two powerful algorithms based on our proposed system and compare them with those of popular biomedical image indexing approaches and existing regular image retrieval methods with detailed experiments over several well-known public biomedical image databases. Based on different criteria for the evaluation of retrieval performance, experimental results demonstrate that our proposed algorithms outperform the state

Applications of nanotechnology, next generation sequencing and microarrays in biomedical research.

Science.gov (United States)

Elingaramil, Sauli; Li, Xiaolong; He, Nongyue

2013-07-01

Next-generation sequencing technologies, microarrays and advances in bio nanotechnology have had an enormous impact on research within a short time frame. This impact appears certain to increase further as many biomedical institutions are now acquiring these prevailing new technologies. Beyond conventional sampling of genome content, wide-ranging applications are rapidly evolving for next-generation sequencing, microarrays and nanotechnology. To date, these technologies have been applied in a variety of contexts, including whole-genome sequencing, targeted re sequencing and discovery of transcription factor binding sites, noncoding RNA expression profiling and molecular diagnostics. This paper thus discusses current applications of nanotechnology, next-generation sequencing technologies and microarrays in biomedical research and highlights the transforming potential these technologies offer.

Biomedical imaging graduate curricula and courses: report from the 2005 Whitaker Biomedical Engineering Educational Summit.

Science.gov (United States)

Louie, Angelique; Izatt, Joseph; Ferrara, Katherine

2006-02-01

We present an overview of graduate programs in biomedical imaging that are currently available in the US. Special attention is given to the emerging technologies of molecular imaging and biophotonics. Discussions from the workshop on Graduate Imaging at the 2005 Whitaker Educational Summit meeting are summarized.

Biomedical photonics handbook therapeutics and advanced biophotonics

CERN Document Server

Vo-Dinh, Tuan

2014-01-01

Shaped by Quantum Theory, Technology, and the Genomics RevolutionThe integration of photonics, electronics, biomaterials, and nanotechnology holds great promise for the future of medicine. This topic has recently experienced an explosive growth due to the noninvasive or minimally invasive nature and the cost-effectiveness of photonic modalities in medical diagnostics and therapy. The second edition of the Biomedical Photonics Handbook presents recent fundamental developments as well as important applications of biomedical photonics of interest to scientists, engineers, manufacturers, teachers,

Micro/Nanostructured Films and Adhesives for Biomedical Applications.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Jungkyu K; Kang, Sung Min; Yang, Sung Ho; Cho, Woo Kyung

2015-12-01

The advanced technologies available for micro/nanofabrication have opened new avenues for interdisciplinary approaches to solve the unmet medical needs of regenerative medicine and biomedical devices. This review highlights the recent developments in micro/nanostructured adhesives and films for biomedical applications, including waterproof seals for wounds or surgery sites, drug delivery, sensing human body signals, and optical imaging of human tissues. We describe in detail the fabrication processes required to prepare the adhesives and films, such as tape-based adhesives, nanofilms, and flexible and stretchable film-based electronic devices. We also discuss their biomedical functions, performance in vitro and in vivo, and the future research needed to improve the current systems.

[Big data, medical language and biomedical terminology systems].

Science.gov (United States)

Schulz, Stefan; López-García, Pablo

2015-08-01

A variety of rich terminology systems, such as thesauri, classifications, nomenclatures and ontologies support information and knowledge processing in health care and biomedical research. Nevertheless, human language, manifested as individually written texts, persists as the primary carrier of information, in the description of disease courses or treatment episodes in electronic medical records, and in the description of biomedical research in scientific publications. In the context of the discussion about big data in biomedicine, we hypothesize that the abstraction of the individuality of natural language utterances into structured and semantically normalized information facilitates the use of statistical data analytics to distil new knowledge out of textual data from biomedical research and clinical routine. Computerized human language technologies are constantly evolving and are increasingly ready to annotate narratives with codes from biomedical terminology. However, this depends heavily on linguistic and terminological resources. The creation and maintenance of such resources is labor-intensive. Nevertheless, it is sensible to assume that big data methods can be used to support this process. Examples include the learning of hierarchical relationships, the grouping of synonymous terms into concepts and the disambiguation of homonyms. Although clear evidence is still lacking, the combination of natural language technologies, semantic resources, and big data analytics is promising.

How can we improve Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math education to encourage careers in Biomedical and Pathology Informatics?

Science.gov (United States)

Uppal, Rahul; Mandava, Gunasheil; Romagnoli, Katrina M; King, Andrew J; Draper, Amie J; Handen, Adam L; Fisher, Arielle M; Becich, Michael J; Dutta-Moscato, Joyeeta

2016-01-01

The Computer Science, Biology, and Biomedical Informatics (CoSBBI) program was initiated in 2011 to expose the critical role of informatics in biomedicine to talented high school students.[1] By involving them in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) training at the high school level and providing mentorship and research opportunities throughout the formative years of their education, CoSBBI creates a research infrastructure designed to develop young informaticians. Our central premise is that the trajectory necessary to be an expert in the emerging fields of biomedical informatics and pathology informatics requires accelerated learning at an early age.In our 4(th) year of CoSBBI as a part of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI) Academy (http://www.upci.upmc.edu/summeracademy/), and our 2nd year of CoSBBI as an independent informatics-based academy, we enhanced our classroom curriculum, added hands-on computer science instruction, and expanded research projects to include clinical informatics. We also conducted a qualitative evaluation of the program to identify areas that need improvement in order to achieve our goal of creating a pipeline of exceptionally well-trained applicants for both the disciplines of pathology informatics and biomedical informatics in the era of big data and personalized medicine.

How can we improve Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math education to encourage careers in Biomedical and Pathology Informatics?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rahul Uppal

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The Computer Science, Biology, and Biomedical Informatics (CoSBBI program was initiated in 2011 to expose the critical role of informatics in biomedicine to talented high school students.[1] By involving them in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM training at the high school level and providing mentorship and research opportunities throughout the formative years of their education, CoSBBI creates a research infrastructure designed to develop young informaticians. Our central premise is that the trajectory necessary to be an expert in the emerging fields of biomedical informatics and pathology informatics requires accelerated learning at an early age.In our 4th year of CoSBBI as a part of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI Academy (http://www.upci.upmc.edu/summeracademy/, and our 2nd year of CoSBBI as an independent informatics-based academy, we enhanced our classroom curriculum, added hands-on computer science instruction, and expanded research projects to include clinical informatics. We also conducted a qualitative evaluation of the program to identify areas that need improvement in order to achieve our goal of creating a pipeline of exceptionally well-trained applicants for both the disciplines of pathology informatics and biomedical informatics in the era of big data and personalized medicine.

Exploring subdomain variation in biomedical language

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Séaghdha Diarmuid Ó

2011-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Applications of Natural Language Processing (NLP technology to biomedical texts have generated significant interest in recent years. In this paper we identify and investigate the phenomenon of linguistic subdomain variation within the biomedical domain, i.e., the extent to which different subject areas of biomedicine are characterised by different linguistic behaviour. While variation at a coarser domain level such as between newswire and biomedical text is well-studied and known to affect the portability of NLP systems, we are the first to conduct an extensive investigation into more fine-grained levels of variation. Results Using the large OpenPMC text corpus, which spans the many subdomains of biomedicine, we investigate variation across a number of lexical, syntactic, semantic and discourse-related dimensions. These dimensions are chosen for their relevance to the performance of NLP systems. We use clustering techniques to analyse commonalities and distinctions among the subdomains. Conclusions We find that while patterns of inter-subdomain variation differ somewhat from one feature set to another, robust clusters can be identified that correspond to intuitive distinctions such as that between clinical and laboratory subjects. In particular, subdomains relating to genetics and molecular biology, which are the most common sources of material for training and evaluating biomedical NLP tools, are not representative of all biomedical subdomains. We conclude that an awareness of subdomain variation is important when considering the practical use of language processing applications by biomedical researchers.

Outcomes from a postgraduate biomedical technology innovation training program: the first 12 years of Stanford Biodesign.

Science.gov (United States)

Brinton, Todd J; Kurihara, Christine Q; Camarillo, David B; Pietzsch, Jan B; Gorodsky, Julian; Zenios, Stefanos A; Doshi, Rajiv; Shen, Christopher; Kumar, Uday N; Mairal, Anurag; Watkins, Jay; Popp, Richard L; Wang, Paul J; Makower, Josh; Krummel, Thomas M; Yock, Paul G

2013-09-01

The Stanford Biodesign Program began in 2001 with a mission of helping to train leaders in biomedical technology innovation. A key feature of the program is a full-time postgraduate fellowship where multidisciplinary teams undergo a process of sourcing clinical needs, inventing solutions and planning for implementation of a business strategy. The program places a priority on needs identification, a formal process of selecting, researching and characterizing needs before beginning the process of inventing. Fellows and students from the program have gone on to careers that emphasize technology innovation across industry and academia. Biodesign trainees have started 26 companies within the program that have raised over $200 million and led to the creation of over 500 new jobs. More importantly, although most of these technologies are still at a very early stage, several projects have received regulatory approval and so far more than 150,000 patients have been treated by technologies invented by our trainees. This paper reviews the initial outcomes of the program and discusses lessons learned and future directions in terms of training priorities.

ICNBME-2011: International Conference on Nanotechnologies and Biomedical Engineering; German-Moldovan Workshop on Novel Nanomaterials for Electronic, Photonic and Biomedical Applications. Proceedings

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tiginyanu, Ion; Sontea, Victor

2011-01-01

This book includes articles which cover a vast range of subjects, such as: nano technologies and nano materials, micro- and nano-objects, nanostructured and highly integrated systems, biophysics, biomedical instrumentation and devices, biomaterials, medical imaging, information technologies for health care, tele medicine, etc.

A low-frequency versatile wireless power transfer technology for biomedical implants.

Science.gov (United States)

Jiang, Hao; Zhang, Junmin; Lan, Di; Chao; Liou, Shyshenq; Shahnasser, Hamid; Fechter, Richard; Hirose, Shinjiro; Harrison, Michael; Roy, Shuvo

2013-08-01

Implantable biomedical sensors and actuators are highly desired in modern medicine. In many cases, the implant's electrical power source profoundly determines its overall size and performance . The inductively coupled coil pair operating at the radio-frequency (RF) has been the primary method for wirelessly delivering electrical power to implants for the last three decades . Recent designs significantly improve the power delivery efficiency by optimizing the operating frequency, coil size and coil distance . However, RF radiation hazard and tissue absorption are the concerns in the RF wireless power transfer technology (RF-WPTT) , . Also, it requires an accurate impedance matching network that is sensitive to operating environments between the receiving coil and the load for efficient power delivery . In this paper, a novel low-frequency wireless power transfer technology (LF-WPTT) using rotating rare-earth permanent magnets is demonstrated. The LF-WPTT is able to deliver 2.967 W power at  ∼ 180 Hz to an 117.1 Ω resistor over 1 cm distance with 50% overall efficiency. Because of the low operating frequency, RF radiation hazard and tissue absorption are largely avoided, and the power delivery efficiency from the receiving coil to the load is independent of the operating environment. Also, there is little power loss observed in the LF-WPTT when the receiving coil is enclosed by non-magnetic implant-grade stainless steel.

The economics of biomedical waste irradiation: key issues influencing total cost

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wilson, B.K.

1993-01-01

Each application of gamma irradiation technology is different in one or more significant respects. Disinfection of biomedical wastes presents similar technical challenges to sterilization of medical supplies, but the economic issues are dramatically different. Regulatory requirements, site and technology approvals, waste separation/mixing, transportation, irradiator utilization, economies of scale, and end-product disposal can each have a prohibitive or enabling effect on whether irradiation of biomedical wastes makes good financial sense in a particular situation. This paper discusses each of these issues. (author)

Inorganic nanolayers: structure, preparation, and biomedical applications.

Science.gov (United States)

Saifullah, Bullo; Hussein, Mohd Zobir B

2015-01-01

Hydrotalcite-like compounds are two-dimensional inorganic nanolayers also known as clay minerals or anionic clays or layered double hydroxides/layered hydroxy salts, and have emerged as a single type of material with numerous biomedical applications, such as drug delivery, gene delivery, cosmetics, and biosensing. Inorganic nanolayers are promising materials due to their fascinating properties, such as ease of preparation, ability to intercalate different type of anions (inorganic, organic, biomolecules, and even genes), high thermal stability, delivery of intercalated anions in a sustained manner, high biocompatibility, and easy biodegradation. Inorganic nanolayers have been the focus for researchers over the last decade, resulting in widening application horizons, especially in the field of biomedical science. These nanolayers have been widely applied in drug and gene delivery. They have also been applied in biosensing technology, and most recently in bioimaging science. The suitability of inorganic nanolayers for application in drug delivery, gene delivery, biosensing technology, and bioimaging science makes them ideal materials to be applied for theranostic purposes. In this paper, we review the structure, methods of preparation, and latest advances made by inorganic nanolayers in such biomedical applications as drug delivery, gene delivery, biosensing, and bioimaging.

The fully integrated biomedical engineering programme at Eindhoven University of Technology.

Science.gov (United States)

Slaaf, D W; van Genderen, M H P

2009-05-01

The development of a fully integrated biomedical engineering programme (life sciences included from the start) is described. Details are provided about background, implementation, and didactic concept: design centred learning combined with courses. The curriculum has developed into a bachelor-master's programme with two different master's degrees: Master's Degree in Biomedical Engineering and Master's Degree in Medical Engineering. Recently, the programme has adopted semester programming, has included a major and minor in the bachelor's degree phase, and a true bachelor's degree final project. Details about the programme and data about where graduates find jobs are provided in this paper.

Developing biomedical devices design, innovation and protection

CERN Document Server

Andreoni, Giuseppe; Colombo, Barbara

2013-01-01

During the past two decades incredible progress has been achieved in the instruments and devices used in the biomedical field. This progress stems from continuous scientific research that has taken advantage of many findings and advances in technology made available by universities and industry. Innovation is the key word, and in this context legal protection and intellectual property rights (IPR) are of crucial importance. This book provides students and practitioners with the fundamentals for designing biomedical devices and explains basic design principles. Furthermore, as an aid to the dev

ICNBME-2013: 2. international conference on nanotechnologies and biomedical engineering; German-Moldovan workshop on novel nanomaterials for electronic, photonic and biomedical applications. Proceedings

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tiginyanu, Ion; Sontea, Victor

2013-01-01

This book includes articles which cover a vast range of subjects, such as: nano technologies and nano materials, micro- and nano-objects, nanostructured and highly integrated systems, biophysics, biomedical instrumentation and devices, biomaterials, medical imaging, information technologies for health care, tele medicine, etc.

DNA-encoded libraries - an efficient small molecule discovery technology for the biomedical sciences.

Science.gov (United States)

Kunig, Verena; Potowski, Marco; Gohla, Anne; Brunschweiger, Andreas

2018-06-27

DNA-encoded compound libraries are a highly attractive technology for the discovery of small molecule protein ligands. These compound collections consist of small molecules covalently connected to individual DNA sequences carrying readable information about the compound structure. DNA-tagging allows for efficient synthesis, handling and interrogation of vast numbers of chemically synthesized, drug-like compounds. They are screened on proteins by an efficient, generic assay based on Darwinian principles of selection. To date, selection of DNA-encoded libraries allowed for the identification of numerous bioactive compounds. Some of these compounds uncovered hitherto unknown allosteric binding sites on target proteins; several compounds proved their value as chemical biology probes unraveling complex biology; and the first examples of clinical candidates that trace their ancestry to a DNA-encoded library were reported. Thus, DNA-encoded libraries proved their value for the biomedical sciences as a generic technology for the identification of bioactive drug-like molecules numerous times. However, large scale experiments showed that even the selection of billions of compounds failed to deliver bioactive compounds for the majority of proteins in an unbiased panel of target proteins. This raises the question of compound library design.

The importance of Zebrafish in biomedical research.

Science.gov (United States)

Tavares, Bárbara; Santos Lopes, Susana

2013-01-01

Zebrafish (Danio rerio) is an ideal model organism for the study of vertebrate development. This is due to the large clutches that each couple produces, with up to 200 embryos every 7 days, and to the fact that the embryos and larvae are small, transparent and undergo rapid external development. Using scientific literature research tools available online and the keywords Zebrafish, biomedical research, human disease, and drug screening, we reviewed original studies and reviews indexed in PubMed. In this review we summarized work conducted with this model for the advancement of our knowledge related to several human diseases. We also focused on the biomedical research being performed in Portugal with the zebrafish model. Powerful live imaging and genetic tools are currently available for zebrafish making it a valuable model in biomedical research. The combination of these properties with the optimization of automated systems for drug screening has transformed the zebrafish into "a top model" in biomedical research, drug discovery and toxicity testing. Furthermore, with the optimization of xenografts technology it will be possible to use zebrafish to aide in the choice of the best therapy for each patient. Zebrafish is an excellent model organism in biomedical research, drug development and in clinical therapy.

New roles & responsibilities of hospital biomedical engineering.

Science.gov (United States)

Frisch, P H; Stone, B; Booth, P; Lui, W

2014-01-01

Over the last decade the changing healthcare environment has required hospitals and specifically Biomedical Engineering to critically evaluate, optimize and adapt their operations. The focus is now on new technologies, changes to the environment of care, support requirements and financial constraints. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), an NIH-designated comprehensive cancer center, has been transitioning to an increasing outpatient care environment. This transition is driving an increase in-patient acuity coupled with the need for added urgency of support and response time. New technologies, regulatory requirements and financial constraints have impacted operating budgets and in some cases, resulted in a reduction in staffing. Specific initiatives, such as the Joint Commission's National Patient Safety Goals, requirements for an electronic medical record, meaningful use and ICD10 have caused institutions to reevaluate their operations and processes including requiring Biomedical Engineering to manage new technologies, integrations and changes in the electromagnetic environment, while optimizing operational workflow and resource utilization. This paper addresses the new and expanding responsibilities and approach of Biomedical Engineering organizations, specifically at MSKCC. It is suggested that our experience may be a template for other organizations facing similar problems. Increasing support is necessary for Medical Software - Medical Device Data Systems in the evolving wireless environment, including RTLS and RFID. It will be necessary to evaluate the potential impact on the growing electromagnetic environment, on connectivity resulting in the need for dynamic and interactive testing and the growing demand to establish new and needed operational synergies with Information Technology operations and other operational groups within the institution, such as nursing, facilities management, central supply, and the user departments.

Livestock in biomedical research: history, current status and future prospective.

Science.gov (United States)

Polejaeva, Irina A; Rutigliano, Heloisa M; Wells, Kevin D

2016-01-01

Livestock models have contributed significantly to biomedical and surgical advances. Their contribution is particularly prominent in the areas of physiology and assisted reproductive technologies, including understanding developmental processes and disorders, from ancient to modern times. Over the past 25 years, biomedical research that traditionally embraced a diverse species approach shifted to a small number of model species (e.g. mice and rats). The initial reasons for focusing the main efforts on the mouse were the availability of murine embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and genome sequence data. This powerful combination allowed for precise manipulation of the mouse genome (knockouts, knockins, transcriptional switches etc.) leading to ground-breaking discoveries on gene functions and regulation, and their role in health and disease. Despite the enormous contribution to biomedical research, mouse models have some major limitations. Their substantial differences compared with humans in body and organ size, lifespan and inbreeding result in pronounced metabolic, physiological and behavioural differences. Comparative studies of strategically chosen domestic species can complement mouse research and yield more rigorous findings. Because genome sequence and gene manipulation tools are now available for farm animals (cattle, pigs, sheep and goats), a larger number of livestock genetically engineered (GE) models will be accessible for biomedical research. This paper discusses the use of cattle, goats, sheep and pigs in biomedical research, provides an overview of transgenic technology in farm animals and highlights some of the beneficial characteristics of large animal models of human disease compared with the mouse. In addition, status and origin of current regulation of GE biomedical models is also reviewed.

Rapid prototyping of multi-scale biomedical microdevices by combining additive manufacturing technologies.

Science.gov (United States)

Hengsbach, Stefan; Lantada, Andrés Díaz

2014-08-01

The possibility of designing and manufacturing biomedical microdevices with multiple length-scale geometries can help to promote special interactions both with their environment and with surrounding biological systems. These interactions aim to enhance biocompatibility and overall performance by using biomimetic approaches. In this paper, we present a design and manufacturing procedure for obtaining multi-scale biomedical microsystems based on the combination of two additive manufacturing processes: a conventional laser writer to manufacture the overall device structure, and a direct-laser writer based on two-photon polymerization to yield finer details. The process excels for its versatility, accuracy and manufacturing speed and allows for the manufacture of microsystems and implants with overall sizes up to several millimeters and with details down to sub-micrometric structures. As an application example we have focused on manufacturing a biomedical microsystem to analyze the impact of microtextured surfaces on cell motility. This process yielded a relevant increase in precision and manufacturing speed when compared with more conventional rapid prototyping procedures.

Finding and accessing diagrams in biomedical publications.

Science.gov (United States)

Kuhn, Tobias; Luong, ThaiBinh; Krauthammer, Michael

2012-01-01

Complex relationships in biomedical publications are often communicated by diagrams such as bar and line charts, which are a very effective way of summarizing and communicating multi-faceted data sets. Given the ever-increasing amount of published data, we argue that the precise retrieval of such diagrams is of great value for answering specific and otherwise hard-to-meet information needs. To this end, we demonstrate the use of advanced image processing and classification for identifying bar and line charts by the shape and relative location of the different image elements that make up the charts. With recall and precisions of close to 90% for the detection of relevant figures, we discuss the use of this technology in an existing biomedical image search engine, and outline how it enables new forms of literature queries over biomedical relationships that are represented in these charts.

Selected Topics in MicroNano-robotics for Biomedical Applications

CERN Document Server

2013-01-01

Selected Topics in Micro/Nano-robotics for Biomedical Applications features a system approach and incorporates modern methodologies in autonomous mobile robots for programmable and controllable micro/nano-robots aiming at biomedical applications. The book provides chapters of instructional materials and cutting-edge research results in micro/nanorobotics for biomedical applications. The book presents new sensing technology on nanofibers, new power supply techniques including miniature fuel cells and energy harvesting devices, and manipulation techniques including AFM-based nano-robotic manipulation, robot-aided optical tweezers, and robot-assisted catheter surgery systems. It also contains case studies on using micro/nano-robots in biomedical environments and in biomedicine, as well as a design example to conceptually develop a Vitamin-pill sized robot to enter human’s gastrointestinal tract. Each chapter covers a different topic of the highly interdisciplinary area. Bring together the selected topics into ...

Biomedical engineering: A platform for research and innovation in ultrasound

Science.gov (United States)

Holland, Christy K.

2004-05-01

An undergraduate or graduate degree in biomedical engineering prepares students to solve problems at the interface between engineering and medicine. Biomedical engineering encompasses evolving areas such as advanced medical imaging for diagnosis and treatment of disease, tissue engineering for designing and manufacturing biological implants for damaged or diseased tissues and organs, and bioinformatics for determining which genes play a major role in health and disease. Biomedical engineering academic programs produce graduates with the ability to pursue successful careers in the biomedical device industry or to obtain advanced degrees leading to careers in biomedical engineering research, medicine, law or business. Biomedical engineering majors take courses in biology, anatomy, physics, chemistry, engineering, mathematics and medical product design and value life-long learning. Students learn to work effectively in interdisciplinary teams comprised of individuals with diverse social, cultural and technical backgrounds. Biomedical engineering is becoming increasingly important in imaging and image-guided research. Some examples of innovative ultrasound technology under development are ultrasound devices to accelerate the dissolution of blood clots, advanced surgical instruments with ultrasound guidance and ultrasound contrast agents for targeted drug delivery. Biomedical engineering is a great career choice for technically minded individuals who endeavor to work on applied problems that are medically relevant.

Reaching for the cloud: on the lessons learned from grid computing technology transfer process to the biomedical community.

Science.gov (United States)

Mohammed, Yassene; Dickmann, Frank; Sax, Ulrich; von Voigt, Gabriele; Smith, Matthew; Rienhoff, Otto

2010-01-01

Natural scientists such as physicists pioneered the sharing of computing resources, which led to the creation of the Grid. The inter domain transfer process of this technology has hitherto been an intuitive process without in depth analysis. Some difficulties facing the life science community in this transfer can be understood using the Bozeman's "Effectiveness Model of Technology Transfer". Bozeman's and classical technology transfer approaches deal with technologies which have achieved certain stability. Grid and Cloud solutions are technologies, which are still in flux. We show how Grid computing creates new difficulties in the transfer process that are not considered in Bozeman's model. We show why the success of healthgrids should be measured by the qualified scientific human capital and the opportunities created, and not primarily by the market impact. We conclude with recommendations that can help improve the adoption of Grid and Cloud solutions into the biomedical community. These results give a more concise explanation of the difficulties many life science IT projects are facing in the late funding periods, and show leveraging steps that can help overcoming the "vale of tears".

Biomedical Big Data Training Collaborative (BBDTC): An effort to bridge the talent gap in biomedical science and research.

Science.gov (United States)

Purawat, Shweta; Cowart, Charles; Amaro, Rommie E; Altintas, Ilkay

2017-05-01

The BBDTC (https://biobigdata.ucsd.edu) is a community-oriented platform to encourage high-quality knowledge dissemination with the aim of growing a well-informed biomedical big data community through collaborative efforts on training and education. The BBDTC is an e-learning platform that empowers the biomedical community to develop, launch and share open training materials. It deploys hands-on software training toolboxes through virtualization technologies such as Amazon EC2 and Virtualbox. The BBDTC facilitates migration of courses across other course management platforms. The framework encourages knowledge sharing and content personalization through the playlist functionality that enables unique learning experiences and accelerates information dissemination to a wider community.

Biomedical engineering and society: policy and ethics.

Science.gov (United States)

Flexman, J A; Lazareck, L

2007-01-01

Biomedical engineering impacts health care and contributes to fundamental knowledge in medicine and biology. Policy, such as through regulation and research funding, has the potential to dramatically affect biomedical engineering research and commercialization. New developments, in turn, may affect society in new ways. The intersection of biomedical engineering and society and related policy issues must be discussed between scientists and engineers, policy-makers and the public. As a student, there are many ways to become engaged in the issues surrounding science and technology policy. At the University of Washington in Seattle, the Forum on Science Ethics and Policy (FOSEP, www.fosep.org) was started by graduate students and post-doctoral fellows interested in improving the dialogue between scientists, policymakers and the public and has received support from upper-level administration. This is just one example of how students can start thinking about science policy and ethics early in their careers.

Emerging Biomedical Applications of Nano-Chitins and Nano-Chitosans Obtained via Advanced Eco-Friendly Technologies from Marine Resources

Science.gov (United States)

Muzzarelli, Riccardo A. A.; El Mehtedi, Mohamad; Mattioli-Belmonte, Monica

2014-01-01

The present review article is intended to direct attention to the technological advances made in the 2010–2014 quinquennium for the isolation and manufacture of nanofibrillar chitin and chitosan. Otherwise called nanocrystals or whiskers, n-chitin and n-chitosan are obtained either by mechanical chitin disassembly and fibrillation optionally assisted by sonication, or by e-spinning of solutions of polysaccharides often accompanied by poly(ethylene oxide) or poly(caprolactone). The biomedical areas where n-chitin may find applications include hemostasis and wound healing, regeneration of tissues such as joints and bones, cell culture, antimicrobial agents, and dermal protection. The biomedical applications of n-chitosan include epithelial tissue regeneration, bone and dental tissue regeneration, as well as protection against bacteria, fungi and viruses. It has been found that the nano size enhances the performances of chitins and chitosans in all cases considered, with no exceptions. Biotechnological approaches will boost the applications of the said safe, eco-friendly and benign nanomaterials not only in these fields, but also for biosensors and in targeted drug delivery areas. PMID:25415349

Biomedical Use of Aerospace Personal Cooling Garments

Science.gov (United States)

Webbon, Bruce W.; Montgomery, Leslie D.; Callaway, Robert K.

1994-01-01

Personal thermoregulatory systems are required during extravehicular activity (EVA) to remove the metabolic heat generated by the suited astronaut. The Extravehicular and Protective Systems (STE) Branch of NASA Ames Research Center has developed advanced concepts or liquid cooling garments for both industrial and biomedical applications for the past 25 years. Examples of this work include: (1) liquid cooled helmets for helicopter pilots and race car drivers; (2) vests for fire and mine rescue personnel; (3) bras to increase the definition of tumors during thermography; (4) lower body garments for young women with erythomelaigia; and (5) whole body garments used by patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). The benefits of the biomedical application of artificial thermoregulation received national attention through two recent events: (1) the liquid-cooled garment technology was inducted into the United States Space Foundation's Space Technology Hall of Fame (1993); and (2) NASA has signed a joint Memorandum of Understanding with the Multiple Sclerosis Association (1994) to share this technology for use with MS patient treatment. The STE Branch is currently pursuing a program to refine thermoregulatory design in light of recent technology developments that might be applicable for use by several medical patient populations. Projects have been initiated to apply thermoregulatory technology for the treatment and/or rehabilitation of patients with spinal cord injuries, multiple sclerosis, migraine headaches, and to help prevent the loss of hair during chemotherapy.

Biomedical photonics handbook

CERN Document Server

Vo-Dinh, Tuan

2003-01-01

1.Biomedical Photonics: A Revolution at the Interface of Science and Technology, T. Vo-DinhPHOTONICS AND TISSUE OPTICS2.Optical Properties of Tissues, J. Mobley and T. Vo-Dinh3.Light-Tissue Interactions, V.V. Tuchin 4.Theoretical Models and Algorithms in Optical Diffusion Tomography, S.J. Norton and T. Vo-DinhPHOTONIC DEVICES5.Laser Light in Biomedicine and the Life Sciences: From the Present to the Future, V.S. Letokhov6.Basic Instrumentation in Photonics, T. Vo-Dinh7.Optical Fibers and Waveguides for Medical Applications, I. Gannot and

Improve Biomedical Information Retrieval using Modified Learning to Rank Methods.

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Bo; Lin, Hongfei; Lin, Yuan; Ma, Yunlong; Yang, Liang; Wang, Jian; Yang, Zhihao

2016-06-14

In these years, the number of biomedical articles has increased exponentially, which becomes a problem for biologists to capture all the needed information manually. Information retrieval technologies, as the core of search engines, can deal with the problem automatically, providing users with the needed information. However, it is a great challenge to apply these technologies directly for biomedical retrieval, because of the abundance of domain specific terminologies. To enhance biomedical retrieval, we propose a novel framework based on learning to rank. Learning to rank is a series of state-of-the-art information retrieval techniques, and has been proved effective in many information retrieval tasks. In the proposed framework, we attempt to tackle the problem of the abundance of terminologies by constructing ranking models, which focus on not only retrieving the most relevant documents, but also diversifying the searching results to increase the completeness of the resulting list for a given query. In the model training, we propose two novel document labeling strategies, and combine several traditional retrieval models as learning features. Besides, we also investigate the usefulness of different learning to rank approaches in our framework. Experimental results on TREC Genomics datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of our framework for biomedical information retrieval.

Inorganic nanolayers: structure, preparation, and biomedical applications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Saifullah B

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Bullo Saifullah, Mohd Zobir B HusseinMaterials Synthesis and Characterization Laboratory, Institute of Advanced Technology (ITMA, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, MalaysiaAbstract: Hydrotalcite-like compounds are two-dimensional inorganic nanolayers also known as clay minerals or anionic clays or layered double hydroxides/layered hydroxy salts, and have emerged as a single type of material with numerous biomedical applications, such as drug delivery, gene delivery, cosmetics, and biosensing. Inorganic nanolayers are promising materials due to their fascinating properties, such as ease of preparation, ability to intercalate different type of anions (inorganic, organic, biomolecules, and even genes, high thermal stability, delivery of intercalated anions in a sustained manner, high biocompatibility, and easy biodegradation. Inorganic nanolayers have been the focus for researchers over the last decade, resulting in widening application horizons, especially in the field of biomedical science. These nanolayers have been widely applied in drug and gene delivery. They have also been applied in biosensing technology, and most recently in bioimaging science. The suitability of inorganic nanolayers for application in drug delivery, gene delivery, biosensing technology, and bioimaging science makes them ideal materials to be applied for theranostic purposes. In this paper, we review the structure, methods of preparation, and latest advances made by inorganic nanolayers in such biomedical applications as drug delivery, gene delivery, biosensing, and bioimaging.Keywords: inorganic nanolayers, layered double hydroxides, layered hydroxy salts, drug delivery, biosensors, bioimaging

Biomedical semantics in the Semantic Web.

Science.gov (United States)

Splendiani, Andrea; Burger, Albert; Paschke, Adrian; Romano, Paolo; Marshall, M Scott

2011-03-07

The Semantic Web offers an ideal platform for representing and linking biomedical information, which is a prerequisite for the development and application of analytical tools to address problems in data-intensive areas such as systems biology and translational medicine. As for any new paradigm, the adoption of the Semantic Web offers opportunities and poses questions and challenges to the life sciences scientific community: which technologies in the Semantic Web stack will be more beneficial for the life sciences? Is biomedical information too complex to benefit from simple interlinked representations? What are the implications of adopting a new paradigm for knowledge representation? What are the incentives for the adoption of the Semantic Web, and who are the facilitators? Is there going to be a Semantic Web revolution in the life sciences?We report here a few reflections on these questions, following discussions at the SWAT4LS (Semantic Web Applications and Tools for Life Sciences) workshop series, of which this Journal of Biomedical Semantics special issue presents selected papers from the 2009 edition, held in Amsterdam on November 20th.

Harnessing supramolecular peptide nanotechnology in biomedical applications

OpenAIRE

Chan, Kiat Hwa; Lee, Wei Hao; Zhuo, Shuangmu; Ni, Ming

2017-01-01

Kiat Hwa Chan,1 Wei Hao Lee,2 Shuangmu Zhuo,3 Ming Ni3 1Division of Science, Yale-NUS College, Singapore; 2Department of Chemistry, Krieger School of Arts & Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA; 3Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory for Photonics Technology, Key Laboratory of OptoElectronic Science and Technology for Medicine of Ministry of Education, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou, People’s Republic of China Abstract: The harnessing of peptides in biomedic...

BiOSS: A system for biomedical ontology selection.

Science.gov (United States)

Martínez-Romero, Marcos; Vázquez-Naya, José M; Pereira, Javier; Pazos, Alejandro

2014-04-01

In biomedical informatics, ontologies are considered a key technology for annotating, retrieving and sharing the huge volume of publicly available data. Due to the increasing amount, complexity and variety of existing biomedical ontologies, choosing the ones to be used in a semantic annotation problem or to design a specific application is a difficult task. As a consequence, the design of approaches and tools addressed to facilitate the selection of biomedical ontologies is becoming a priority. In this paper we present BiOSS, a novel system for the selection of biomedical ontologies. BiOSS evaluates the adequacy of an ontology to a given domain according to three different criteria: (1) the extent to which the ontology covers the domain; (2) the semantic richness of the ontology in the domain; (3) the popularity of the ontology in the biomedical community. BiOSS has been applied to 5 representative problems of ontology selection. It also has been compared to existing methods and tools. Results are promising and show the usefulness of BiOSS to solve real-world ontology selection problems. BiOSS is openly available both as a web tool and a web service. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Biomedical sensing analyzer (BSA) for mobile-health (mHealth)-LTE.

Science.gov (United States)

Adibi, Sasan

2014-01-01

The rapid expansion of mobile-based systems, the capabilities of smartphone devices, as well as the radio access and cellular network technologies are the wind beneath the wing of mobile health (mHealth). In this paper, the concept of biomedical sensing analyzer (BSA) is presented, which is a novel framework, devised for sensor-based mHealth applications. The BSA is capable of formulating the Quality of Service (QoS) measurements in an end-to-end sense, covering the entire communication path (wearable sensors, link-technology, smartphone, cell-towers, mobile-cloud, and the end-users). The characterization and formulation of BSA depend on a number of factors, including the deployment of application-specific biomedical sensors, generic link-technologies, collection, aggregation, and prioritization of mHealth data, cellular network based on the Long-Term Evolution (LTE) access technology, and extensive multidimensional delay analyses. The results are studied and analyzed in a LabView 8.5 programming environment.

Biomedical research applications of electromagnetically separated enriched stable isotopes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lambrecht, R.M.

1982-01-01

The current and projected annual requirements through 1985 for stable isotopes enriched by electromagnetic separation methods were reviewed for applications in various types of biomedical research: (1) medical radiosotope production, labeled compounds, and potential radiopharmaceuticals; (2) nutrition, food science, and pharmacology; (3) metallobiochemistry and environmental toxicology; (4) nuclear magnetic resonance, electron paramagnetic resonance, and Moessbauer spectroscopy in biochemical, biophysical, and biomedical research; and (5) miscellaneous advances in radioactive and non-radioactive tracer technology. Radioisotopes available from commercial sources or routinely used in clinical nuclear medicine were excluded. Priorities and summaries are based on statements in the references and from answers to a survey conducted in the fall of 1981. Current requirements for enriched stable isotopes in biomedical research are not being satisfied. Severe shortages exist for 26 Mg, 43 Ca, 70 Zn, 76 Se, 78 Se, 102 Pd, 111 Cd, 113 Cd, and 190 Os. Many interesting and potentially important investigations in biomedical research require small quantities of specific elements at high isotopic enrichments

Sol-gel technology for biomedical engineering

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Podbielska, H.; Ulatowska-Jarza, A.

2005-01-01

Sol-gel derived silica possess many promising features, including low-temperature preparation procedure, porosity, chemical and physical stability. Applications exploiting porous materials to encapsulate sensor molecules, enzymes and many other compounds, are developing rapidly. In this paper some potential applications, with emphasis on biomedical and environmental ones, are reviewed. The material preparation procedure is described and practical remarks on silica-based sol-gels are included. It is reported that sol-gels with entrapped various molecules may be used in construction of implants and coatings with bioactive properties. It is shown how to exploit the sol-gel production route for construction of sol-gel coated fiberoptic applicators for laser therapy. The applications of bioactive materials are discussed, as well. It is demonstrated that it is possible to immobilize photosensitive compounds in sol-gel matrix without loosing their photoactivity. Some examples of sol-gel based biosensors are demonstrated, as well, showing their potential for detecting various gases, toxic substances, acidity, humidity, enzymes and biologically active agents. (authors)

Personalized biomedical devices & systems for healthcare applications

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, I.-Ming; Phee, Soo Jay; Luo, Zhiqiang; Lim, Chee Kian

2011-03-01

With the advancement in micro- and nanotechnology, electromechanical components and systems are getting smaller and smaller and gradually can be applied to the human as portable, mobile and even wearable devices. Healthcare industry have started to benefit from this technology trend by providing more and more miniature biomedical devices for personalized medical treatments in order to obtain better and more accurate outcome. This article introduces some recent development in non-intrusive and intrusive biomedical devices resulted from the advancement of niche miniature sensors and actuators, namely, wearable biomedical sensors, wearable haptic devices, and ingestible medical capsules. The development of these devices requires carful integration of knowledge and people from many different disciplines like medicine, electronics, mechanics, and design. Furthermore, designing affordable devices and systems to benefit all mankind is a great challenge ahead. The multi-disciplinary nature of the R&D effort in this area provides a new perspective for the future mechanical engineers.

Nano technologies, technologies converging and potential biomedical applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Capuano, V.

2005-01-01

The applications of nano technology to biology and medicine appear really promising for diagnostics, for various therapeutic approaches and in medical instrumentations. The growing synergism among nano technology, biotechnology, information technology and cognitive sciences, their convergence (NBIC) from the nano scale, could involve on next decades great changes in medicine, from a reactive to a predictive and preventive approach. It is expected that NBIC converging technologies could achieve tremendous improvements in human abilities and enhance societal achievement of related social and ethical implications, in the framework of a constant dialogue between science and society [it

Resource for the Development of Biomedical Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Turteltaub, K. W. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Bench, G. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Buchholz, B. A. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Enright, H. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Kulp, K. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); McCartt, A. D. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Malfatti, M. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Ognibene, T. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Loots, G. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Stewart, B. J. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)

2016-04-08

The NIH Research Resource for Biomedical AMS was originally funded at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in 1999 to develop and apply the technology of accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) in broad- based biomedical research. The Resource’s niche is to fill needs for ultra high sensitivity quantitation when isotope-labeled agents are used. The Research Resource’s Technology Research and Development (TR&D) efforts will focus on the needs of the biomedical research community in the context of seven Driving Biomedical Projects (DBPs) that will drive the Center’s technical capabilities through three core TR&Ds. We will expand our present capabilities by developing a fully integrated HPLC AMS to increase our capabilities for metabolic measurements, we will develop methods to understand cellular processes and we will develop and validate methods for the application of AMS in human studies, which is a growing area of demand by collaborators and service users. In addition, we will continue to support new and ongoing collaborative and service projects that require the capabilities of the Resource. The Center will continue to train researchers in the use of the AMS capabilities being developed, and the results of all efforts will be widely disseminated to advance progress in biomedical research. Towards these goals, our specific aims are to:1.) Increase the value and information content of AMS measurements by combining molecular speciation with quantitation of defined macromolecular isolates. Specifically, develop and validate methods for macromolecule labeling, characterization and quantitation.2.) Develop and validate methods and strategies to enable AMS to become more broadly used in human studies. Specifically, demonstrate robust methods for conducting pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamics studies in humans and model systems.3.) Increase the accessibility of AMS to the Biomedical research community and the throughput of AMS through direct coupling to separatory

Resource for the Development of Biomedical Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tuerteltaub, K. W. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Bench, G. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Buchholz, B. A. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Enright, H. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Kulp, K. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Loots, G. G. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); McCartt, A. D. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Malfatti, M. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Ognibene, T. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Stewart, B. J. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)

2017-03-21

The NIH Research Resource for Biomedical AMS was originally funded at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in 1999 to develop and apply the technology of accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) in broad- based biomedical research. The Resource’s niche is to fill needs for ultra high sensitivity quantitation when isotope-labeled agents are used. The Research Resource’s Technology Research and Development (TR&D) efforts will focus on the needs of the biomedical research community in the context of seven Driving Biomedical Projects (DBPs) that will drive the Center’s technical capabilities through three core TR&Ds. We will expand our present capabilities by developing a fully integrated HPLC AMS to increase our capabilities for metabolic measurements, we will develop methods to understand cellular processes and we will develop and validate methods for the application of AMS in human studies, which is a growing area of demand by collaborators and service users. In addition, we will continue to support new and ongoing collaborative and service projects that require the capabilities of the Resource. The Center will continue to train researchers in the use of the AMS capabilities being developed, and the results of all efforts will be widely disseminated to advance progress in biomedical research. Towards these goals, our specific aims are to:1.) Increase the value and information content of AMS measurements by combining molecular speciation with quantitation of defined macromolecular isolates. Specifically, develop and validate methods for macromolecule labeling, characterization and quantitation.2.) Develop and validate methods and strategies to enable AMS to become more broadly used in human studies. Specifically, demonstrate robust methods for conducting pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamics studies in humans and model systems.3.) Increase the accessibility of AMS to the Biomedical research community and the throughput of AMS through direct coupling to separatory

Optical coherence tomography-current technology and applications in clinical and biomedical research.

Science.gov (United States)

Marschall, Sebastian; Sander, Birgit; Mogensen, Mette; Jørgensen, Thomas M; Andersen, Peter E

2011-07-01

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a noninvasive imaging technique that provides real-time two- and three-dimensional images of scattering samples with micrometer resolution. By mapping the local reflectivity, OCT visualizes the morphology of the sample. In addition, functional properties such as birefringence, motion, or the distributions of certain substances can be detected with high spatial resolution. Its main field of application is biomedical imaging and diagnostics. In ophthalmology, OCT is accepted as a clinical standard for diagnosing and monitoring the treatment of a number of retinal diseases, and OCT is becoming an important instrument for clinical cardiology. New applications are emerging in various medical fields, such as early-stage cancer detection, surgical guidance, and the early diagnosis of musculoskeletal diseases. OCT has also proven its value as a tool for developmental biology. The number of companies involved in manufacturing OCT systems has increased substantially during the last few years (especially due to its success in opthalmology), and this technology can be expected to continue to spread into various fields of application.

Enabling Large-Scale Biomedical Analysis in the Cloud

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ying-Chih Lin

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Recent progress in high-throughput instrumentations has led to an astonishing growth in both volume and complexity of biomedical data collected from various sources. The planet-size data brings serious challenges to the storage and computing technologies. Cloud computing is an alternative to crack the nut because it gives concurrent consideration to enable storage and high-performance computing on large-scale data. This work briefly introduces the data intensive computing system and summarizes existing cloud-based resources in bioinformatics. These developments and applications would facilitate biomedical research to make the vast amount of diversification data meaningful and usable.

Eleven quick tips for architecting biomedical informatics workflows with cloud computing

Science.gov (United States)

Moore, Jason H.

2018-01-01

Cloud computing has revolutionized the development and operations of hardware and software across diverse technological arenas, yet academic biomedical research has lagged behind despite the numerous and weighty advantages that cloud computing offers. Biomedical researchers who embrace cloud computing can reap rewards in cost reduction, decreased development and maintenance workload, increased reproducibility, ease of sharing data and software, enhanced security, horizontal and vertical scalability, high availability, a thriving technology partner ecosystem, and much more. Despite these advantages that cloud-based workflows offer, the majority of scientific software developed in academia does not utilize cloud computing and must be migrated to the cloud by the user. In this article, we present 11 quick tips for architecting biomedical informatics workflows on compute clouds, distilling knowledge gained from experience developing, operating, maintaining, and distributing software and virtualized appliances on the world’s largest cloud. Researchers who follow these tips stand to benefit immediately by migrating their workflows to cloud computing and embracing the paradigm of abstraction. PMID:29596416

Eleven quick tips for architecting biomedical informatics workflows with cloud computing.

Science.gov (United States)

Cole, Brian S; Moore, Jason H

2018-03-01

Cloud computing has revolutionized the development and operations of hardware and software across diverse technological arenas, yet academic biomedical research has lagged behind despite the numerous and weighty advantages that cloud computing offers. Biomedical researchers who embrace cloud computing can reap rewards in cost reduction, decreased development and maintenance workload, increased reproducibility, ease of sharing data and software, enhanced security, horizontal and vertical scalability, high availability, a thriving technology partner ecosystem, and much more. Despite these advantages that cloud-based workflows offer, the majority of scientific software developed in academia does not utilize cloud computing and must be migrated to the cloud by the user. In this article, we present 11 quick tips for architecting biomedical informatics workflows on compute clouds, distilling knowledge gained from experience developing, operating, maintaining, and distributing software and virtualized appliances on the world's largest cloud. Researchers who follow these tips stand to benefit immediately by migrating their workflows to cloud computing and embracing the paradigm of abstraction.

Eleven quick tips for architecting biomedical informatics workflows with cloud computing.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Brian S Cole

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Cloud computing has revolutionized the development and operations of hardware and software across diverse technological arenas, yet academic biomedical research has lagged behind despite the numerous and weighty advantages that cloud computing offers. Biomedical researchers who embrace cloud computing can reap rewards in cost reduction, decreased development and maintenance workload, increased reproducibility, ease of sharing data and software, enhanced security, horizontal and vertical scalability, high availability, a thriving technology partner ecosystem, and much more. Despite these advantages that cloud-based workflows offer, the majority of scientific software developed in academia does not utilize cloud computing and must be migrated to the cloud by the user. In this article, we present 11 quick tips for architecting biomedical informatics workflows on compute clouds, distilling knowledge gained from experience developing, operating, maintaining, and distributing software and virtualized appliances on the world's largest cloud. Researchers who follow these tips stand to benefit immediately by migrating their workflows to cloud computing and embracing the paradigm of abstraction.

Biomedical engineering principles

CERN Document Server

Ritter, Arthur B; Valdevit, Antonio; Ascione, Alfred N

2011-01-01

Introduction: Modeling of Physiological ProcessesCell Physiology and TransportPrinciples and Biomedical Applications of HemodynamicsA Systems Approach to PhysiologyThe Cardiovascular SystemBiomedical Signal ProcessingSignal Acquisition and ProcessingTechniques for Physiological Signal ProcessingExamples of Physiological Signal ProcessingPrinciples of BiomechanicsPractical Applications of BiomechanicsBiomaterialsPrinciples of Biomedical Capstone DesignUnmet Clinical NeedsEntrepreneurship: Reasons why Most Good Designs Never Get to MarketAn Engineering Solution in Search of a Biomedical Problem

Terahertz Imaging for Biomedical Applications Pattern Recognition and Tomographic Reconstruction

CERN Document Server

Yin, Xiaoxia; Abbott, Derek

2012-01-01

Terahertz Imaging for Biomedical Applications: Pattern Recognition and Tomographic Reconstruction presents the necessary algorithms needed to assist screening, diagnosis, and treatment, and these algorithms will play a critical role in the accurate detection of abnormalities present in biomedical imaging. Terahertz biomedical imaging has become an area of interest due to its ability to simultaneously acquire both image and spectral information. Terahertz imaging systems are being commercialized with an increasing number of trials performed in a biomedical setting. Terahertz tomographic imaging and detection technology contributes to the ability to identify opaque objects with clear boundaries,and would be useful to both in vivo and ex vivo environments. This book also: Introduces terahertz radiation techniques and provides a number of topical examples of signal and image processing, as well as machine learning Presents the most recent developments in an emerging field, terahertz radiation Utilizes new methods...

The fully integrated biomedical engineering programme at Eindhoven University of Technology

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Slaaf, D.W.; Genderen, van M.H.P.

2009-01-01

The development of a fully integrated biomedical engineering programme (life sciences included from the start) is described. Details are provided about background, implementation, and didactic concept: design centred learning combined with courses. The curriculum has developed into a

Student engagement in biomedical courses : studies in technology-enhanced seminar learning

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bouwmeester, RAM

2016-01-01

Academic medical and biomedical curricula are designed to educate future academics contributing to new developments in science, clinical practice and society. During undergraduate programs student training is typically focused on acquisition of knowledge and understanding of these interdisciplinary

Biomedical Big Data Training Collaborative (BBDTC): An effort to bridge the talent gap in biomedical science and research.

Science.gov (United States)

Purawat, Shweta; Cowart, Charles; Amaro, Rommie E; Altintas, Ilkay

2016-06-01

The BBDTC (https://biobigdata.ucsd.edu) is a community-oriented platform to encourage high-quality knowledge dissemination with the aim of growing a well-informed biomedical big data community through collaborative efforts on training and education. The BBDTC collaborative is an e-learning platform that supports the biomedical community to access, develop and deploy open training materials. The BBDTC supports Big Data skill training for biomedical scientists at all levels, and from varied backgrounds. The natural hierarchy of courses allows them to be broken into and handled as modules . Modules can be reused in the context of multiple courses and reshuffled, producing a new and different, dynamic course called a playlist . Users may create playlists to suit their learning requirements and share it with individual users or the wider public. BBDTC leverages the maturity and design of the HUBzero content-management platform for delivering educational content. To facilitate the migration of existing content, the BBDTC supports importing and exporting course material from the edX platform. Migration tools will be extended in the future to support other platforms. Hands-on training software packages, i.e., toolboxes , are supported through Amazon EC2 and Virtualbox virtualization technologies, and they are available as: ( i ) downloadable lightweight Virtualbox Images providing a standardized software tool environment with software packages and test data on their personal machines, and ( ii ) remotely accessible Amazon EC2 Virtual Machines for accessing biomedical big data tools and scalable big data experiments. At the moment, the BBDTC site contains three open Biomedical big data training courses with lecture contents, videos and hands-on training utilizing VM toolboxes, covering diverse topics. The courses have enhanced the hands-on learning environment by providing structured content that users can use at their own pace. A four course biomedical big data series is

Photoreconfigurable polymers for biomedical applications: chemistry and macromolecular engineering.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhu, Congcong; Ninh, Chi; Bettinger, Christopher J

2014-10-13

Stimuli-responsive polymers play an important role in many biomedical technologies. Light responsive polymers are particularly desirable because the parameters of irradiated light and diverse photoactive chemistries produce a large number of combinations between functional materials and associated stimuli. This Review summarizes recent advances in utilizing photoactive chemistries in macromolecules for prospective use in biomedical applications. Special focus is granted to selection criterion when choosing photofunctional groups. Synthetic strategies to incorporate these functionalities into polymers and networks with different topologies are also highlighted herein. Prospective applications of these materials are discussed including programmable matrices for controlled release, dynamic scaffolds for tissue engineering, and functional coatings for medical devices. The article concludes by summarizing the state of the art in photoresponsive polymers for biomedical applications including current challenges and future opportunities.

Balanced program plan. Volume 10. Fusion: analysis for biomedical and environmental research

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hungate, F.P.

1976-06-01

Development of the Balanced Program Plan for analysis for biomedical and environmental research was initiated in the spring of 1975. The goal was a redefinition of research efforts and priorities to meet ERDA's requirements for a program of health and environmental research to support the development and commercialization of energy technologies. As part of the Balanced Program planning effort the major ERDA-supported multidisciplinary laboratories were assigned responsibility for analyzing the research needs of each of nine energy technologies and describing a research program to meet these needs. The staff of the Division of Biomedical and Environmental Research was assigned the task of defining a research program addressed to each of five biomedical and environmental research categories (characterization, measurement and monitoring; physical and chemical processes and effects; health effects; ecological effects; and integrated assessment and socioeconomic processes and effects) applicable to all energy technologies. The first drafts of these documents were available for a work-shop in June 1975 at which the DBER staff and scientists from the laboratories developed a comprehensive set of program recommendations. Pacific Northwest Laboratory was assigned responsibility for defining research needs and a recommended research program for fusion and fission technologies. This report, Volume 10, presents the input for fusion

Biomedical engineering fundamentals

CERN Document Server

Bronzino, Joseph D

2014-01-01

Known as the bible of biomedical engineering, The Biomedical Engineering Handbook, Fourth Edition, sets the standard against which all other references of this nature are measured. As such, it has served as a major resource for both skilled professionals and novices to biomedical engineering.Biomedical Engineering Fundamentals, the first volume of the handbook, presents material from respected scientists with diverse backgrounds in physiological systems, biomechanics, biomaterials, bioelectric phenomena, and neuroengineering. More than three dozen specific topics are examined, including cardia

Nigerian Journal of Health and Biomedical Sciences

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The Nigerian Journal of Health and Biomedical Sciences is a multidisciplinary and peer-reviewed journal. This journal was established to meet the challenges of health care delivery in the 21st century in Nigeria and other countries with similar setting in the ever-changing world of science and technology. The health care ...

Cloud Based Metalearning System for Predictive Modeling of Biomedical Data

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Milan Vukićević

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Rapid growth and storage of biomedical data enabled many opportunities for predictive modeling and improvement of healthcare processes. On the other side analysis of such large amounts of data is a difficult and computationally intensive task for most existing data mining algorithms. This problem is addressed by proposing a cloud based system that integrates metalearning framework for ranking and selection of best predictive algorithms for data at hand and open source big data technologies for analysis of biomedical data.

Advances in biomedical engineering

CERN Document Server

Brown, J H U

1973-01-01

Advances in Biomedical Engineering, Volume 2, is a collection of papers that discusses the basic sciences, the applied sciences of engineering, the medical sciences, and the delivery of health services. One paper discusses the models of adrenal cortical control, including the secretion and metabolism of cortisol (the controlled process), as well as the initiation and modulation of secretion of ACTH (the controller). Another paper discusses hospital computer systems-application problems, objective evaluation of technology, and multiple pathways for future hospital computer applications. The pos

CDIO Experiences in Biomedical Engineering: Preparing Spanish Students for the Future of Medicine and Medical Device Technology

OpenAIRE

Díaz Lantada, Andrés; Serrano Olmedo, José Javier; Ros Felip, Antonio; Jiménez Fernández, Javier; Muñoz García, Julio; Claramunt Alonso, Rafael; Carpio Huertas, Jaime

2016-01-01

Biomedical engineering is one of the more recent fields of engineering, aimed at the application of engineering principles, methods and design concepts to medicine and biology for healthcare purposes, mainly as a support for preventive, diagnostic or therapeutic tasks. Biomedical engineering professionals are expected to achieve, during their studies and professional practice, considerable knowledge of both health sciences and engineering. Studying biomedical engineering programmes, or combin...

BioN∅T: A searchable database of biomedical negated sentences

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Agarwal Shashank

2011-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Negated biomedical events are often ignored by text-mining applications; however, such events carry scientific significance. We report on the development of BioN∅T, a database of negated sentences that can be used to extract such negated events. Description Currently BioN∅T incorporates ≈32 million negated sentences, extracted from over 336 million biomedical sentences from three resources: ≈2 million full-text biomedical articles in Elsevier and the PubMed Central, as well as ≈20 million abstracts in PubMed. We evaluated BioN∅T on three important genetic disorders: autism, Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease, and found that BioN∅T is able to capture negated events that may be ignored by experts. Conclusions The BioN∅T database can be a useful resource for biomedical researchers. BioN∅T is freely available at http://bionot.askhermes.org/. In future work, we will develop semantic web related technologies to enrich BioN∅T.

Acquisition and manipulation of computed tomography images of the maxillofacial region for biomedical prototyping

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Meurer, Maria Ines; Silva, Jorge Vicente Lopes da; Santa Barbara, Ailton; Nobre, Luiz Felipe; Oliveira, Marilia Gerhardt de; Silva, Daniela Nascimento

2008-01-01

Biomedical prototyping has resulted from a merger of rapid prototyping and imaging diagnosis technologies. However, this process is complex, considering the necessity of interaction between biomedical sciences and engineering. Good results are highly dependent on the acquisition of computed tomography images and their subsequent manipulation by means of specific software. The present study describes the experience of a multidisciplinary group of researchers in the acquisition and manipulation of computed tomography images of the maxillofacial region aiming at biomedical prototyping for surgical purposes. (author)

Biomedical signal acquisition, processing and transmission using smartphone

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Roncagliolo, Pablo; Arredondo, Luis; Gonzalez, AgustIn

2007-01-01

This article describes technical aspects involved in the programming of a system of acquisition, processing and transmission of biomedical signals by using mobile devices. This task is aligned with the permanent development of new technologies for the diagnosis and sickness treatment, based on the feasibility of measuring continuously different variables as electrocardiographic signals, blood pressure, oxygen concentration, pulse or simply temperature. The contribution of this technology is settled on its portability and low cost, which allows its massive use. Specifically this work analyzes the feasibility of acquisition and the processing of signals from a standard smartphone. Work results allow to state that nowadays these equipments have enough processing capacity to execute signals acquisition systems. These systems along with external servers make it possible to imagine a near future where the possibility of making continuous measures of biomedical variables will not be restricted only to hospitals but will also begin to be more frequently used in the daily life and at home

Biomedical signal acquisition, processing and transmission using smartphone

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Roncagliolo, Pablo [Department of Electronics, Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria, Casilla 110-V, ValparaIso (Chile); Arredondo, Luis [Department of Biomedical Engineering, Universidad de ValparaIso, Casilla 123-V, ValparaIso (Chile); Gonzalez, AgustIn [Department of Electronics, Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa MarIa, Casilla 110-V, ValparaIso (Chile)

2007-11-15

This article describes technical aspects involved in the programming of a system of acquisition, processing and transmission of biomedical signals by using mobile devices. This task is aligned with the permanent development of new technologies for the diagnosis and sickness treatment, based on the feasibility of measuring continuously different variables as electrocardiographic signals, blood pressure, oxygen concentration, pulse or simply temperature. The contribution of this technology is settled on its portability and low cost, which allows its massive use. Specifically this work analyzes the feasibility of acquisition and the processing of signals from a standard smartphone. Work results allow to state that nowadays these equipments have enough processing capacity to execute signals acquisition systems. These systems along with external servers make it possible to imagine a near future where the possibility of making continuous measures of biomedical variables will not be restricted only to hospitals but will also begin to be more frequently used in the daily life and at home.

Biomedical signal acquisition, processing and transmission using smartphone

Science.gov (United States)

Roncagliolo, Pablo; Arredondo, Luis; González, Agustín

2007-11-01

This article describes technical aspects involved in the programming of a system of acquisition, processing and transmission of biomedical signals by using mobile devices. This task is aligned with the permanent development of new technologies for the diagnosis and sickness treatment, based on the feasibility of measuring continuously different variables as electrocardiographic signals, blood pressure, oxygen concentration, pulse or simply temperature. The contribution of this technology is settled on its portability and low cost, which allows its massive use. Specifically this work analyzes the feasibility of acquisition and the processing of signals from a standard smartphone. Work results allow to state that nowadays these equipments have enough processing capacity to execute signals acquisition systems. These systems along with external servers make it possible to imagine a near future where the possibility of making continuous measures of biomedical variables will not be restricted only to hospitals but will also begin to be more frequently used in the daily life and at home.

Publications in biomedical and environmental sciences programs, 1981

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Moody, J.B. (comp.)

1982-07-01

This bibliography contains 698 references to articles in journals, books, and reports published in the subject area of biomedical and environmental sciences during 1981. There are 520 references to articles published in journals and books and 178 references to reports. Staff members in the Biomedical and Environmental Sciences divisions have other publications not included in this bibliography; for example, theses, book reviews, abstracts published in journals or symposia proceedings, pending journal publications and reports such as monthly, bimonthly, and quarterly progress reports, contractor reports, and reports for internal distribution. This document is sorted by the division, and then alphabetically by author. The sorting by divisions separates the references by subject area in a simple way. The divisions represented in the order that they appear in the bibliography are Analytical Chemistry, Biology, Chemical Technology, Information R and D, Health and Safety Research, Instrumentation and Controls, Computer Sciences, Energy, Engineering Technology, Solid State, Central Management, Operations, and Environmental Sciences. Indexes are provided by author, title, and journal reference.

Publications in biomedical and environmental sciences programs, 1981

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Moody, J.B.

1982-07-01

This bibliography contains 698 references to articles in journals, books, and reports published in the subject area of biomedical and environmental sciences during 1981. There are 520 references to articles published in journals and books and 178 references to reports. Staff members in the Biomedical and Environmental Sciences divisions have other publications not included in this bibliography; for example, theses, book reviews, abstracts published in journals or symposia proceedings, pending journal publications and reports such as monthly, bimonthly, and quarterly progress reports, contractor reports, and reports for internal distribution. This document is sorted by the division, and then alphabetically by author. The sorting by divisions separates the references by subject area in a simple way. The divisions represented in the order that they appear in the bibliography are Analytical Chemistry, Biology, Chemical Technology, Information R and D, Health and Safety Research, Instrumentation and Controls, Computer Sciences, Energy, Engineering Technology, Solid State, Central Management, Operations, and Environmental Sciences. Indexes are provided by author, title, and journal reference

Elastomeric networks based on trimethylene carbonate polymers for biomedical applications : physical properties and degradation behaviour

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bat, E.

2010-01-01

The number of applications for biomedical technologies is ever-increasing, and there is a need to develop new materials with properties that can conform to the requirements of a specific application. Synthetic polymers are of great importance in the biomedical field as they can be designed to

[Dendrimers in biomedical sciences and nanotechnology].

Science.gov (United States)

Sekowski, Szymon; Miłowska, Katarzyna; Gabryelak, Teresa

2008-12-30

Dendrimers are relatively new, hyper-branched polymers that have many interesting abilities. Dendrimers could be used, for example, as drug or gene carriers, contrast agents, sensors for different metal ions, and in developing innovation technology. These spherical polymers are also characterized by pharmacological activity against different bacterial and viral diseases. Dendrimers are currently being intensively investigated as anti-prion and anti-amyloid fibril agents. They can be used to build specific dendrimer films to be applied in modern technology. This review describes different uses of dendrimer particles in biomedical sciences and nanotechnology and shows advantages of their application.

Emerging applications of nanoparticles: Biomedical and environmental

Science.gov (United States)

Gulati, Shivani; Sachdeva, M.; Bhasin, K. K.

2018-05-01

Nanotechnology finds a wide range of applications from energy production to industrial fabrication processes to biomedical applications. Nanoparticles (NPs) can be engineered to possess unique compositions and functionalities to empower novel tools and techniques that have not existed previously in biomedical research. The unique size and shape dependent physicochemical properties along with their unique spectral and optical properties have prompted the development of a wide variety of potential applications in the field of diagnostics and medicines. In the plethora of scientific and technological fields, environmental safety is also a big concern. For this purpose, nanomaterials have been functionalized to cope up the existing pollution, improving manufacturing methods to reduce the generation of new pollution, and making alternative and more cost effective energy sources.

Examining the need & potential for biomedical engineering to strengthen health care delivery for displaced populations & victims of conflict.

Science.gov (United States)

Nadkarni, Devika; Elhajj, Imad; Dawy, Zaher; Ghattas, Hala; Zaman, Muhammad H

2017-01-01

Conflict and the subsequent displacement of populations creates unique challenges in the delivery of quality health care to the affected population. Equitable access to quality care demands a multi-pronged strategy with a growing need, and role, for technological innovation to address these challenges. While there have been significant contributions towards alleviating the burden of conflict via data informatics and analytics, communication technology, and geographic information systems, little has been done within biomedical engineering. This article elaborates on the causes for gaps in biomedical innovation for refugee populations affected by conflict, tackles preconceived notions, takes stock of recent developments in promising technologies to address these challenges, and identifies tangible action items to create a stronger and sustainable pipeline for biomedical technological innovation to improve the health and well-being of an increasing group of vulnerable people around the world.

Introduction to biomedical engineering

CERN Document Server

Enderle, John D; Blanchard, Susan M

2005-01-01

Under the direction of John Enderle, Susan Blanchard and Joe Bronzino, leaders in the field have contributed chapters on the most relevant subjects for biomedical engineering students. These chapters coincide with courses offered in all biomedical engineering programs so that it can be used at different levels for a variety of courses of this evolving field. Introduction to Biomedical Engineering, Second Edition provides a historical perspective of the major developments in the biomedical field. Also contained within are the fundamental principles underlying biomedical engineering design, analysis, and modeling procedures. The numerous examples, drill problems and exercises are used to reinforce concepts and develop problem-solving skills making this book an invaluable tool for all biomedical students and engineers. New to this edition: Computational Biology, Medical Imaging, Genomics and Bioinformatics. * 60% update from first edition to reflect the developing field of biomedical engineering * New chapters o...

Pacific Northwest Laboratory annual report for 1983 to the DOE Office of Energy Research. Part 1. Biomedical sciences

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Drucker, H.

1983-02-01

Biomedical and health effects research conducted at PNL in 1982 on the evaluation of risk to man from existing and/or developing energy-related technologies are described. Most of the studies described in this report relate to activities for three major energy technologies: nuclear fuel cycle; fossil fuel cycle (oil, gas, and coal process technologies, mining, and utilization; synfuel development), and fudion (biomagnetic effects). The report is organized under these technologies. In addition, research reports are included on the application of nuclear energy to biomedical problems. Individual projects are indexed separately.

Pacific Northwest Laboratory annual report for 1983 to the DOE Office of Energy Research. Part 1. Biomedical sciences

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Drucker, H.

1983-02-01

Biomedical and health effects research conducted at PNL in 1982 on the evaluation of risk to man from existing and/or developing energy-related technologies are described. Most of the studies described in this report relate to activities for three major energy technologies: nuclear fuel cycle; fossil fuel cycle (oil, gas, and coal process technologies, mining, and utilization; synfuel development), and fudion (biomagnetic effects). The report is organized under these technologies. In addition, research reports are included on the application of nuclear energy to biomedical problems. Individual projects are indexed separately

Scientific Programs and Funding Opportunities at the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering

Science.gov (United States)

Baird, Richard

2006-03-01

The mission of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) is to improve human health by promoting the development and translation of emerging technologies in biomedical imaging and bioengineering. To this end, NIBIB supports a coordinated agenda of research programs in advanced imaging technologies and engineering methods that enable fundamental biomedical discoveries across a broad spectrum of biological processes, disorders, and diseases and have significant potential for direct medical application. These research programs dramatically advance the Nation's healthcare by improving the detection, management and, ultimately, the prevention of disease. The research promoted and supported by NIBIB also is strongly synergistic with other NIH Institutes and Centers as well as across government agencies. This presentation will provide an overview of the scientific programs and funding opportunities supported by NIBIB, highlighting those that are of particular important to the field of medical physics.

[Research Progress and Development Prospect of Biomedical Plate].

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Xiao; Liu, Jing; Wu, Qiang; Wang, Yanjie; Xiao, Tao; Liu, Lihong; Yu, Shu

2016-12-01

Different generations of biomedical materials are analyzed in this paper.The current clinical uses of plates made of metals,polymers or composite materials are evaluated,and nano hydroxyapatite/polylactic acid composites and carbon/carbon composite plates are introduced as emphasis.It is pointed out that the carbon/carbon composites are of great feasibility and advantage as a new generation of biomedical materials,especially in the field of bone plate.Compared to other biomaterials,carbon/carbon composites have a good biocompatibility and mechanical compatibility because they have similar elastic modulus,porosity and density to that of human bones.With the development of the technology in knitting and material preparation,carbon/carbon composite plates have a good application prospect.

International Conference on Bio-Medical Instrumentation and related Engineering and Physical Sciences (BIOMEP 2015)

Science.gov (United States)

2015-09-01

The International Conference on Bio-Medical Instrumentation and related Engineering and Physical Sciences (BIOMEP 2015) took place in the Technological Educational Institute (TEI) of Athens, Greece on June 18-20, 2015 and was organized by the Department of Biomedical Engineering. The scope of the conference was to provide a forum on the latest developments in Biomedical Instrumentation and related principles of Physical and Engineering sciences. Scientists and engineers from academic, industrial and health disciplines were invited to participate in the Conference and to contribute both in the promotion and dissemination of the scientific knowledge.

Additive Manufacturing of Biomedical Constructs with Biomimetic Structural Organizations.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Xiao; He, Jiankang; Zhang, Weijie; Jiang, Nan; Li, Dichen

2016-11-09

Additive manufacturing (AM), sometimes called three-dimensional (3D) printing, has attracted a lot of research interest and is presenting unprecedented opportunities in biomedical fields, because this technology enables the fabrication of biomedical constructs with great freedom and in high precision. An important strategy in AM of biomedical constructs is to mimic the structural organizations of natural biological organisms. This can be done by directly depositing cells and biomaterials, depositing biomaterial structures before seeding cells, or fabricating molds before casting biomaterials and cells. This review organizes the research advances of AM-based biomimetic biomedical constructs into three major directions: 3D constructs that mimic tubular and branched networks of vasculatures; 3D constructs that contains gradient interfaces between different tissues; and 3D constructs that have different cells positioned to create multicellular systems. Other recent advances are also highlighted, regarding the applications of AM for organs-on-chips, AM-based micro/nanostructures, and functional nanomaterials. Under this theme, multiple aspects of AM including imaging/characterization, material selection, design, and printing techniques are discussed. The outlook at the end of this review points out several possible research directions for the future.

The HIPAA Security Rule: implications for biomedical devices.

Science.gov (United States)

2004-11-01

The HIPAA Security Rule, with which hospitals must become compliant by April 2005, is broad in scope. Some aspect of this rule will affect virtually every function and department within a healthcare organization. The functions and departments that deal with biomedical technologies face special challenges due to the great diversity of technologies, the variety of data maintained and transmitted, and the risks associated with compromises to data security--combined with the presence of older technology and the absence of integrated expertise. It is essential that hospitals recognize this challenge and initiate steps now to implement appropriate information security management.

Three-dimensional biomedical imaging

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Robb, R.A.

1985-01-01

Scientists in biomedical imaging provide researchers, physicians, and academicians with an understanding of the fundamental theories and practical applications of three-dimensional biomedical imaging methodologies. Succinct descriptions of each imaging modality are supported by numerous diagrams and illustrations which clarify important concepts and demonstrate system performance in a variety of applications. Comparison of the different functional attributes, relative advantages and limitations, complementary capabilities, and future directions of three-dimensional biomedical imaging modalities are given. Volume 1: Introductions to Three-Dimensional Biomedical Imaging Photoelectronic-Digital Imaging for Diagnostic Radiology. X-Ray Computed Tomography - Basic Principles. X-Ray Computed Tomography - Implementation and Applications. X-Ray Computed Tomography: Advanced Systems and Applications in Biomedical Research and Diagnosis. Volume II: Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography. Position Emission Tomography (PET). Computerized Ultrasound Tomography. Fundamentals of NMR Imaging. Display of Multi-Dimensional Biomedical Image Information. Summary and Prognostications

Overview of the biomedical and environmental programs at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pfuderer, H.A.; Moody, J.B.

1981-07-01

Separate abstracts were prepared for each of the 6 chapters presented by the six divisions involved in the Biomedical and Environmental Sciences Program at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The introduction is not covered by an abstract and deals with the environmental, health and safety considerations of energy technology decisions, the major initiatives now being taken by these 6 divisions, and recent major accomplishments in the biomedical and environmental science program

Biomedical Signals and Sensors I Linking Physiological Phenomena and Biosignals

CERN Document Server

Kaniusas, Eugenijus

2012-01-01

This two-volume set focuses on the interface between physiologic mechanisms and diagnostic human engineering. Today numerous biomedical sensors are commonplace in clinical practice. The registered biosignals reflect mostly vital physiologic phenomena. In order to adequately apply biomedical sensors and reasonably interpret the corresponding biosignals, a proper understanding of the involved physiologic phenomena, their influence on the registered biosignals, and the technology behind the sensors is necessary. The first volume is devoted to the interface between physiologic mechanisms and arising biosignals, whereas the second volume is focussed on the interface between biosignals and biomedical sensors. The physiologic mechanisms behind the biosignals are described from the basic cellular level up to their advanced mutual coordination level during sleep. The arising biosignals are discussed within the scope of vital physiologic phenomena to foster their understanding and comprehensive analysis.

An overview on characterization, utilization and leachate analysis of biomedical waste incinerator ash.

Science.gov (United States)

Rajor, Anita; Xaxa, Monika; Mehta, Ratika; Kunal

2012-10-15

Solid waste management is one of the major global environmental issues, as there is continuous increase in industrial globalization and generation of waste. Solid wastes encompass the heterogeneous mass of throwaways from the urban community as well as the homogeneous accumulations of agricultural, industrial and mineral wastes. Biomedical waste pose a significant impact on health and environment. A proper waste management system should be required to dispose hazardous biomedical waste and incineration should be the best available technology to reduce the volume of this hazardous waste. The incineration process destroys pathogens and reduces the waste volume and weight but leaves a solid material called biomedical waste ash as residue which increases the levels of heavy metals, inorganic salts and organic compounds in the environment. Disposal of biomedical waste ash in landfill may cause contamination of groundwater as metals are not destroyed during incineration. The limited space and the high cost for land disposal led to the development of recycling technologies and the reuse of ash in different systems. In order to minimize leaching of its hazardous components into the environment several studies confirmed the successful utilization of biomedical waste ash in agriculture and construction sector. This paper presents the overview on the beneficial use of ash in agriculture and construction materials and its leachate characteristics. This review also stressed on the need to further evaluate the leachate studies of the ashes and slag for their proper disposal and utilization. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A theoretical-experimental methodology for assessing the sensitivity of biomedical spectral imaging platforms, assays, and analysis methods.

Science.gov (United States)

Leavesley, Silas J; Sweat, Brenner; Abbott, Caitlyn; Favreau, Peter; Rich, Thomas C

2018-01-01

Spectral imaging technologies have been used for many years by the remote sensing community. More recently, these approaches have been applied to biomedical problems, where they have shown great promise. However, biomedical spectral imaging has been complicated by the high variance of biological data and the reduced ability to construct test scenarios with fixed ground truths. Hence, it has been difficult to objectively assess and compare biomedical spectral imaging assays and technologies. Here, we present a standardized methodology that allows assessment of the performance of biomedical spectral imaging equipment, assays, and analysis algorithms. This methodology incorporates real experimental data and a theoretical sensitivity analysis, preserving the variability present in biomedical image data. We demonstrate that this approach can be applied in several ways: to compare the effectiveness of spectral analysis algorithms, to compare the response of different imaging platforms, and to assess the level of target signature required to achieve a desired performance. Results indicate that it is possible to compare even very different hardware platforms using this methodology. Future applications could include a range of optimization tasks, such as maximizing detection sensitivity or acquisition speed, providing high utility for investigators ranging from design engineers to biomedical scientists. © 2017 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

A low-cost biomedical signal transceiver based on a Bluetooth wireless system.

Science.gov (United States)

Fazel-Rezai, Reza; Pauls, Mark; Slawinski, David

2007-01-01

Most current wireless biomedical signal transceivers use range-limiting communication. This work presents a low-cost biomedical signal transceiver that uses Bluetooth wireless technology. The design is implemented in a modular form to be adaptable to different types of biomedical signals. The signal front end obtains and processes incoming signals, which are then transmitted via a microcontroller and wireless module. Near real-time receive software in LabVIEW was developed to demonstrate the system capability. The completed transmitter prototype successfully transmits ECG signals, and is able to simultaneously send multiple signals. The sampling rate of the transmitter is fast enough to send up to thirteen ECG signals simultaneously, with an error rate below 0.1% for transmission exceeding 65 meters. A low-cost wireless biomedical transceiver has many applications, such as real-time monitoring of patients with a known condition in non-clinical settings.

Luminescent nanodiamonds for biomedical applications.

Science.gov (United States)

Say, Jana M; van Vreden, Caryn; Reilly, David J; Brown, Louise J; Rabeau, James R; King, Nicholas J C

2011-12-01

In recent years, nanodiamonds have emerged from primarily an industrial and mechanical applications base, to potentially underpinning sophisticated new technologies in biomedical and quantum science. Nanodiamonds are relatively inexpensive, biocompatible, easy to surface functionalise and optically stable. This combination of physical properties are ideally suited to biological applications, including intracellular labelling and tracking, extracellular drug delivery and adsorptive detection of bioactive molecules. Here we describe some of the methods and challenges for processing nanodiamond materials, detection schemes and some of the leading applications currently under investigation.

[Big Data: the great opportunities and challenges to microbiome and other biomedical research].

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Zhenjiang

2015-02-01

With the development of high-throughput technologies, biomedical data has been increasing exponentially in an explosive manner. This brings enormous opportunities and challenges to biomedical researchers on how to effectively utilize big data. Big data is different from traditional data in many ways, described as 3Vs - volume, variety and velocity. From the perspective of biomedical research, here I introduced the characteristics of big data, such as its messiness, re-usage and openness. Focusing on microbiome research of meta-analysis, the author discussed the prospective principles in data collection, challenges of privacy protection in data management, and the scalable tools in data analysis with examples from real life.

Fundamental of biomedical engineering

CERN Document Server

Sawhney, GS

2007-01-01

About the Book: A well set out textbook explains the fundamentals of biomedical engineering in the areas of biomechanics, biofluid flow, biomaterials, bioinstrumentation and use of computing in biomedical engineering. All these subjects form a basic part of an engineer''s education. The text is admirably suited to meet the needs of the students of mechanical engineering, opting for the elective of Biomedical Engineering. Coverage of bioinstrumentation, biomaterials and computing for biomedical engineers can meet the needs of the students of Electronic & Communication, Electronic & Instrumenta

Semantic reasoning with XML-based biomedical information models.

Science.gov (United States)

O'Connor, Martin J; Das, Amar

2010-01-01

The Extensible Markup Language (XML) is increasingly being used for biomedical data exchange. The parallel growth in the use of ontologies in biomedicine presents opportunities for combining the two technologies to leverage the semantic reasoning services provided by ontology-based tools. There are currently no standardized approaches for taking XML-encoded biomedical information models and representing and reasoning with them using ontologies. To address this shortcoming, we have developed a workflow and a suite of tools for transforming XML-based information models into domain ontologies encoded using OWL. In this study, we applied semantics reasoning methods to these ontologies to automatically generate domain-level inferences. We successfully used these methods to develop semantic reasoning methods for information models in the HIV and radiological image domains.

Biomedical Engineering 2008. New methods for cancer treatment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vanninen, J.; Koskelainen, A.; Ilmoniemi, R.J.

2008-01-01

The report consists of 11 student papers presented in 2008 at the Seminar on Biomedical Engineering at Helsinki University of Technology (Finland). The topics of the seminar included: cancer risk factors and diagnosis, radiation therapy, boron neutron capture treatment (BNCT), chemotherapy, cooling and heating therapy, immunotherapy, angiogenesis inhibition approaches, gene therapy and ablation therapy of liver cancer

Biomedical hydrogels biochemistry, manufacture and medical applications

CERN Document Server

Rimmer, Steve

2011-01-01

Hydrogels are very important for biomedical applications because they can be chemically manipulated to alter and control the hydrogel's interaction with cells and tissues. Their flexibility and high water content is similar to that of natural tissue, making them extremely suitable for biomaterials applications. Biomedical hydrogels explores the diverse range and use of hydrogels, focusing on processing methods and novel applications in the field of implants and prostheses. Part one of this book concentrates on the processing of hydrogels, covering hydrogel swelling behaviour, superabsorbent cellulose-based hydrogels and regulation of novel hydrogel products, as well as chapters focusing on the structure and properties of hydrogels and different fabrication technologies. Part two covers existing and novel applications of hydrogels, including chapters on spinal disc and cartilage replacement implants, hydrogels for ophthalmic prostheses and hydrogels for wound healing applications. The role of hydrogels in imag...

Multi-scale biomedical systems: measurement challenges

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Summers, R

2016-01-01

Multi-scale biomedical systems are those that represent interactions in materials, sensors, and systems from a holistic perspective. It is possible to view such multi-scale activity using measurement of spatial scale or time scale, though in this paper only the former is considered. The biomedical application paradigm comprises interactions that range from quantum biological phenomena at scales of 10-12 for one individual to epidemiological studies of disease spread in populations that in a pandemic lead to measurement at a scale of 10+7. It is clear that there are measurement challenges at either end of this spatial scale, but those challenges that relate to the use of new technologies that deal with big data and health service delivery at the point of care are also considered. The measurement challenges lead to the use, in many cases, of model-based measurement and the adoption of virtual engineering. It is these measurement challenges that will be uncovered in this paper. (paper)

Biomedical signals, imaging, and informatics

CERN Document Server

Bronzino, Joseph D

2014-01-01

Known as the bible of biomedical engineering, The Biomedical Engineering Handbook, Fourth Edition, sets the standard against which all other references of this nature are measured. As such, it has served as a major resource for both skilled professionals and novices to biomedical engineering.Biomedical Signals, Imaging, and Informatics, the third volume of the handbook, presents material from respected scientists with diverse backgrounds in biosignal processing, medical imaging, infrared imaging, and medical informatics.More than three dozen specific topics are examined, including biomedical s

Optical coherence tomography—current technology and applications in clinical and biomedical research

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Marschall, Sebastian; Sander, Birgit; Mogensen, Mette

2011-01-01

such as birefringence, motion, or the distributions of certain substances can be detected with high spatial resolution. Its main field of application is biomedical imaging and diagnostics. In ophthalmology, OCT is accepted as a clinical standard for diagnosing and monitoring the treatment of a number of retinal...

The BioIntelligence Framework: a new computational platform for biomedical knowledge computing.

Science.gov (United States)

Farley, Toni; Kiefer, Jeff; Lee, Preston; Von Hoff, Daniel; Trent, Jeffrey M; Colbourn, Charles; Mousses, Spyro

2013-01-01

Breakthroughs in molecular profiling technologies are enabling a new data-intensive approach to biomedical research, with the potential to revolutionize how we study, manage, and treat complex diseases. The next great challenge for clinical applications of these innovations will be to create scalable computational solutions for intelligently linking complex biomedical patient data to clinically actionable knowledge. Traditional database management systems (DBMS) are not well suited to representing complex syntactic and semantic relationships in unstructured biomedical information, introducing barriers to realizing such solutions. We propose a scalable computational framework for addressing this need, which leverages a hypergraph-based data model and query language that may be better suited for representing complex multi-lateral, multi-scalar, and multi-dimensional relationships. We also discuss how this framework can be used to create rapid learning knowledge base systems to intelligently capture and relate complex patient data to biomedical knowledge in order to automate the recovery of clinically actionable information.

Integration of extracellular RNA profiling data using metadata, biomedical ontologies and Linked Data technologies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sai Lakshmi Subramanian

2015-08-01

Full Text Available The large diversity and volume of extracellular RNA (exRNA data that will form the basis of the exRNA Atlas generated by the Extracellular RNA Communication Consortium pose a substantial data integration challenge. We here present the strategy that is being implemented by the exRNA Data Management and Resource Repository, which employs metadata, biomedical ontologies and Linked Data technologies, such as Resource Description Framework to integrate a diverse set of exRNA profiles into an exRNA Atlas and enable integrative exRNA analysis. We focus on the following three specific data integration tasks: (a selection of samples from a virtual biorepository for exRNA profiling and for inclusion in the exRNA Atlas; (b retrieval of a data slice from the exRNA Atlas for integrative analysis and (c interpretation of exRNA analysis results in the context of pathways and networks. As exRNA profiling gains wide adoption in the research community, we anticipate that the strategies discussed here will increasingly be required to enable data reuse and to facilitate integrative analysis of exRNA data.

Integration of extracellular RNA profiling data using metadata, biomedical ontologies and Linked Data technologies.

Science.gov (United States)

Subramanian, Sai Lakshmi; Kitchen, Robert R; Alexander, Roger; Carter, Bob S; Cheung, Kei-Hoi; Laurent, Louise C; Pico, Alexander; Roberts, Lewis R; Roth, Matthew E; Rozowsky, Joel S; Su, Andrew I; Gerstein, Mark B; Milosavljevic, Aleksandar

2015-01-01

The large diversity and volume of extracellular RNA (exRNA) data that will form the basis of the exRNA Atlas generated by the Extracellular RNA Communication Consortium pose a substantial data integration challenge. We here present the strategy that is being implemented by the exRNA Data Management and Resource Repository, which employs metadata, biomedical ontologies and Linked Data technologies, such as Resource Description Framework to integrate a diverse set of exRNA profiles into an exRNA Atlas and enable integrative exRNA analysis. We focus on the following three specific data integration tasks: (a) selection of samples from a virtual biorepository for exRNA profiling and for inclusion in the exRNA Atlas; (b) retrieval of a data slice from the exRNA Atlas for integrative analysis and (c) interpretation of exRNA analysis results in the context of pathways and networks. As exRNA profiling gains wide adoption in the research community, we anticipate that the strategies discussed here will increasingly be required to enable data reuse and to facilitate integrative analysis of exRNA data.

Conference on medical physics and biomedical engineering

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2013-01-01

Due to the rapid technological development in the world today, the role of physics in modern medicine is of great importance. The frequent use of equipment that produces ionizing radiation further increases the need for radiation protection, complicated equipment requires technical support, the diagnostic and therapeutic methods impose the highest professionals in the field of medical physics. Thus, medical physics and biomedical engineering have become an inseparable part of everyday medical practice. There are a certain number of highly qualified and dedicated professionals in medical physics in Macedonia who committed themselves to work towards resolving medical physics issues. In 2000 they established the first and still only professional Association for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering (AMPBE) in Macedonia; a one competent to cope with problems in the fields of medicine, which applies methods of physics and biomedical engineering to medical procedures in order to develop tools essential to the physicians that will ultimately lead to improve the quality of medical practice in general. The First National Conference on Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering was organized by the AMPBE in 2007. The idea was to gather all the professionals working in medical physics and biomedical engineering in one place in order to present their work and increase the collaboration among them. Other involved professions such as medical doctors, radiation technologists, engineers and professors of physics at the University also took part and contributed to the success of the conference. As a result, the Proceedings were published in Macedonian, with summaries in English. In order to further promote the medical physics amongst the scientific community in Macedonia, our society decided to organize The Second Conference on Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering in November 2010. Unlike the first, this one was with international participation. This was very suitable

Study designs for identifying risk compensation behavior among users of biomedical HIV prevention technologies: balancing methodological rigor and research ethics.

Science.gov (United States)

Underhill, Kristen

2013-10-01

The growing evidence base for biomedical HIV prevention interventions - such as oral pre-exposure prophylaxis, microbicides, male circumcision, treatment as prevention, and eventually prevention vaccines - has given rise to concerns about the ways in which users of these biomedical products may adjust their HIV risk behaviors based on the perception that they are prevented from infection. Known as risk compensation, this behavioral adjustment draws on the theory of "risk homeostasis," which has previously been applied to phenomena as diverse as Lyme disease vaccination, insurance mandates, and automobile safety. Little rigorous evidence exists to answer risk compensation concerns in the biomedical HIV prevention literature, in part because the field has not systematically evaluated the study designs available for testing these behaviors. The goals of this Commentary are to explain the origins of risk compensation behavior in risk homeostasis theory, to reframe risk compensation as a testable response to the perception of reduced risk, and to assess the methodological rigor and ethical justification of study designs aiming to isolate risk compensation responses. Although the most rigorous methodological designs for assessing risk compensation behavior may be unavailable due to ethical flaws, several strategies can help investigators identify potential risk compensation behavior during Phase II, Phase III, and Phase IV testing of new technologies. Where concerns arise regarding risk compensation behavior, empirical evidence about the incidence, types, and extent of these behavioral changes can illuminate opportunities to better support the users of new HIV prevention strategies. This Commentary concludes by suggesting a new way to conceptualize risk compensation behavior in the HIV prevention context. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Biomedical photoacoustics: fundamentals, instrumentation and perspectives on nanomedicine.

Science.gov (United States)

Zou, Chunpeng; Wu, Beibei; Dong, Yanyan; Song, Zhangwei; Zhao, Yaping; Ni, Xianwei; Yang, Yan; Liu, Zhe

Photoacoustic imaging (PAI) is an integrated biomedical imaging modality which combines the advantages of acoustic deep penetration and optical high sensitivity. It can provide functional and structural images with satisfactory resolution and contrast which could provide abundant pathological information for disease-oriented diagnosis. Therefore, it has found vast applications so far and become a powerful tool of precision nanomedicine. However, the investigation of PAI-based imaging nanomaterials is still in its infancy. This perspective article aims to summarize the developments in photoacoustic technologies and instrumentations in the past years, and more importantly, present a bright outlook for advanced PAI-based imaging nanomaterials as well as their emerging biomedical applications in nanomedicine. Current challenges and bottleneck issues have also been discussed and elucidated in this article to bring them to the attention of the readership.

Exploring and linking biomedical resources through multidimensional semantic spaces.

Science.gov (United States)

Berlanga, Rafael; Jiménez-Ruiz, Ernesto; Nebot, Victoria

2012-01-25

The semantic integration of biomedical resources is still a challenging issue which is required for effective information processing and data analysis. The availability of comprehensive knowledge resources such as biomedical ontologies and integrated thesauri greatly facilitates this integration effort by means of semantic annotation, which allows disparate data formats and contents to be expressed under a common semantic space. In this paper, we propose a multidimensional representation for such a semantic space, where dimensions regard the different perspectives in biomedical research (e.g., population, disease, anatomy and protein/genes). This paper presents a novel method for building multidimensional semantic spaces from semantically annotated biomedical data collections. This method consists of two main processes: knowledge and data normalization. The former one arranges the concepts provided by a reference knowledge resource (e.g., biomedical ontologies and thesauri) into a set of hierarchical dimensions for analysis purposes. The latter one reduces the annotation set associated to each collection item into a set of points of the multidimensional space. Additionally, we have developed a visual tool, called 3D-Browser, which implements OLAP-like operators over the generated multidimensional space. The method and the tool have been tested and evaluated in the context of the Health-e-Child (HeC) project. Automatic semantic annotation was applied to tag three collections of abstracts taken from PubMed, one for each target disease of the project, the Uniprot database, and the HeC patient record database. We adopted the UMLS Meta-thesaurus 2010AA as the reference knowledge resource. Current knowledge resources and semantic-aware technology make possible the integration of biomedical resources. Such an integration is performed through semantic annotation of the intended biomedical data resources. This paper shows how these annotations can be exploited for

Analyser-based x-ray imaging for biomedical research

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Suortti, Pekka; Keyriläinen, Jani; Thomlinson, William

2013-01-01

Analyser-based imaging (ABI) is one of the several phase-contrast x-ray imaging techniques being pursued at synchrotron radiation facilities. With advancements in compact source technology, there is a possibility that ABI will become a clinical imaging modality. This paper presents the history of ABI as it has developed from its laboratory source to synchrotron imaging. The fundamental physics of phase-contrast imaging is presented both in a general sense and specifically for ABI. The technology is dependent on the use of perfect crystal monochromator optics. The theory of the x-ray optics is developed and presented in a way that will allow optimization of the imaging for specific biomedical systems. The advancement of analytical algorithms to produce separate images of the sample absorption, refraction angle map and small-angle x-ray scattering is detailed. Several detailed applications to biomedical imaging are presented to illustrate the broad range of systems and body sites studied preclinically to date: breast, cartilage and bone, soft tissue and organs. Ultimately, the application of ABI in clinical imaging will depend partly on the availability of compact sources with sufficient x-ray intensity comparable with that of the current synchrotron environment. (paper)

Biomedical ontologies: toward scientific debate.

Science.gov (United States)

Maojo, V; Crespo, J; García-Remesal, M; de la Iglesia, D; Perez-Rey, D; Kulikowski, C

2011-01-01

Biomedical ontologies have been very successful in structuring knowledge for many different applications, receiving widespread praise for their utility and potential. Yet, the role of computational ontologies in scientific research, as opposed to knowledge management applications, has not been extensively discussed. We aim to stimulate further discussion on the advantages and challenges presented by biomedical ontologies from a scientific perspective. We review various aspects of biomedical ontologies going beyond their practical successes, and focus on some key scientific questions in two ways. First, we analyze and discuss current approaches to improve biomedical ontologies that are based largely on classical, Aristotelian ontological models of reality. Second, we raise various open questions about biomedical ontologies that require further research, analyzing in more detail those related to visual reasoning and spatial ontologies. We outline significant scientific issues that biomedical ontologies should consider, beyond current efforts of building practical consensus between them. For spatial ontologies, we suggest an approach for building "morphospatial" taxonomies, as an example that could stimulate research on fundamental open issues for biomedical ontologies. Analysis of a large number of problems with biomedical ontologies suggests that the field is very much open to alternative interpretations of current work, and in need of scientific debate and discussion that can lead to new ideas and research directions.

Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering in Clinical Environment and Legal Surrounding

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Medvedec, M.

2013-01-01

An application of radiation in medicine is essentially associated with medical physics and biomedical engineering. The purpose of this study is to analyze the perception and the status of clinical medical physicists and biomedical engineers within the current international and Croatian legal framework. The International Labour Organization (ILO) in its International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO-08) notes that medical physicists and biomedical engineers are an integral part of the health workforce, alongside those occupations classified as health professionals. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in its basic safety standards for radiation protection and safety of radiation sources also defines medical physicists as health professional. The World Health Organization (WHO) urges member states to include biomedical engineers in assessment, planning, procurement, implementation and management of health technologies, in particular biomedical devices. The Council of the European Union (EU) in its directives defines qualified professionals, especially experts in medical physics, as workers who carry out physical, technical and radiochemical work in regard to dosimetry, radiation protection, quality assurance and quality control, equipment management, etc. According to the U.S. Office of Labor Statistics, biomedical engineer is an occupation with the third-fastest growth rate in the economy, as projected for the period 2010-2020. It is expected that the role and the importance of medical physics and biomedical engineering profession in Croatia, a member state of ILO, WHO, IAEA and EU, will be soon fully regulated in a way comparable to the career paths of other health professionals within a clinical environment, primarily for the benefit of patients and hospital staff, healthcare facilities and healthcare system in general.(author)

Biomedical infertility care in Sub-Saharan Africa: what is going on?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gerrits, G.J.E.; Slager, E.

2011-01-01

Infertility treatments, including the use of advanced reproductive technologies (ARTs), are nowadays provided at several places in sub-Saharan Africa. This article, which is based on a review of (scarce) social science studies, gives insight into the way biomedical infertility care is provided,

A unified architecture for biomedical search engines based on semantic web technologies.

Science.gov (United States)

Jalali, Vahid; Matash Borujerdi, Mohammad Reza

2011-04-01

There is a huge growth in the volume of published biomedical research in recent years. Many medical search engines are designed and developed to address the over growing information needs of biomedical experts and curators. Significant progress has been made in utilizing the knowledge embedded in medical ontologies and controlled vocabularies to assist these engines. However, the lack of common architecture for utilized ontologies and overall retrieval process, hampers evaluating different search engines and interoperability between them under unified conditions. In this paper, a unified architecture for medical search engines is introduced. Proposed model contains standard schemas declared in semantic web languages for ontologies and documents used by search engines. Unified models for annotation and retrieval processes are other parts of introduced architecture. A sample search engine is also designed and implemented based on the proposed architecture in this paper. The search engine is evaluated using two test collections and results are reported in terms of precision vs. recall and mean average precision for different approaches used by this search engine.

Additive manufacturing techniques and their biomedical applications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yujing Liu

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Additive manufacturing (AM, also known as three-dimensional (3D printing, is gaining increasing attention in medical fields, especially in dental and implant areas. Because AM technologies have many advantages in comparison with traditional technologies, such as the ability to manufacture patient-specific complex components, high material utilization, support of tissue growth, and a unique customized service for individual patients, AM is considered to have a large potential market in medical fields. This brief review presents the recent progress of 3D-printed biomedical materials for bone applications, mainly for metallic materials, including multifunctional alloys with high strength and low Young’s modulus, shape memory alloys, and their 3D fabrication by AM technologies. It describes the potential of 3D printing techniques in precision medicine and community health.

International biomedical law in search for its normative status.

Science.gov (United States)

Krajewska, Atina

2012-01-01

The broad and multifaceted problem of global health law and global health governance has been attracting increasing attention in the last few decades. The global community has failed to establish international legal regime that deals comprehensively with the 'technological revolution'. The latter has posed complex questions to regions of the world with widely differing cultural perspectives. At the same time, an increasing number of governmental and non-state actors have become significantly involved in the sector. They use legal, political, and other forms of decision-making that result in regulatory instruments of contrasting normative status. Law created in this heterogeneous environment has been said to be fragmented, inconsistent, and exacerbating uncertainties. Therefore, claims have been made that a centralised and institutionalised system would help address the problems of transparency, legitimacy and efficiency. Nevertheless, little scholarly consideration is paid to the normative status of international biomedical law. This paper explores whether formalisation and "constitutionalisation" of biomedical law are indeed inevitable for its establishment as a separate regulatory regime. It does so by analysing the proliferation of biomedical law in light of two the theory of fragmentation and the theory of global legal pluralism. Investigating the problem in this way helps determine the theoretical framework and methodology of future studies of biomedical law at the international level. This in turn should help its future development in a more consistent and harmonised manner.

Multiscale integration of -omic, imaging, and clinical data in biomedical informatics.

Science.gov (United States)

Phan, John H; Quo, Chang F; Cheng, Chihwen; Wang, May Dongmei

2012-01-01

This paper reviews challenges and opportunities in multiscale data integration for biomedical informatics. Biomedical data can come from different biological origins, data acquisition technologies, and clinical applications. Integrating such data across multiple scales (e.g., molecular, cellular/tissue, and patient) can lead to more informed decisions for personalized, predictive, and preventive medicine. However, data heterogeneity, community standards in data acquisition, and computational complexity are big challenges for such decision making. This review describes genomic and proteomic (i.e., molecular), histopathological imaging (i.e., cellular/tissue), and clinical (i.e., patient) data; it includes case studies for single-scale (e.g., combining genomic or histopathological image data), multiscale (e.g., combining histopathological image and clinical data), and multiscale and multiplatform (e.g., the Human Protein Atlas and The Cancer Genome Atlas) data integration. Numerous opportunities exist in biomedical informatics research focusing on integration of multiscale and multiplatform data.

Overview of the biomedical and environmental programs at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. [Lead abstract

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pfuderer, H.A.; Moody, J.B. (comps.)

1981-07-01

Separate abstracts were prepared for each of the 6 chapters presented by the six divisions involved in the Biomedical and Environmental Sciences Program at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The introduction is not covered by an abstract and deals with the environmental, health and safety considerations of energy technology decisions, the major initiatives now being taken by these 6 divisions, and recent major accomplishments in the biomedical and environmental science program. (KRM)

Nanogels for Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Applications and Their Fabrication Using 3D Printing Technologies

Science.gov (United States)

Cho, Hyunah; Jammalamadaka, Udayabhanu

2018-01-01

Nanogels are hydrogels formed by connecting nanoscopic micelles dispersed in an aqueous medium, which give an opportunity for incorporating hydrophilic payloads to the exterior of the micellar networks and hydrophobic payloads in the core of the micelles. Biomedical and pharmaceutical applications of nanogels have been explored for tissue regeneration, wound healing, surgical device, implantation, and peroral, rectal, vaginal, ocular, and transdermal drug delivery. Although it is still in the early stages of development, due to the increasing demands of precise nanogel production to be utilized for personalized medicine, biomedical applications, and specialized drug delivery, 3D printing has been explored in the past few years and is believed to be one of the most precise, efficient, inexpensive, customizable, and convenient manufacturing techniques for nanogel production. PMID:29462901

[The system of biomedical scientific information of Serbia].

Science.gov (United States)

Dacić, M

1995-09-01

Building of the System of biomedical scientific information of Yugoslavia (SBMSI YU) began, by the end of 1980, and the system became operative officially in 1986. After the political disintegration of former Yugoslavia SBMSI of Serbia was formed. SBMSI is developed according to the policy of developing of the System of scientific technologic information of Serbia (SSTI S), and with technical support of SSTI S. Reconstruction of the System is done by using former SBMSI YU as a model. Unlike the former SBMSI YU, SBMSI S owns besides the database Biomedicina Serbica, three important databases: database of doctoral dissertations promoted at University Medical School in Belgrade in the period from 1955-1993, database of Master's theses promoted at the University School of Medicine in Belgrade from 1965-1993; A database of foreign biomedical periodicals in libraries of Serbia.

Recent advances of cerium oxide nanoparticles in synthesis, luminescence and biomedical studies：a review

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

何立莹; 苏玉民; 蒋兰宏; 石士考

2015-01-01

Nanostructured cerium oxide (CeO2) commonly known as nanoceria is a rare earth metal oxide, which plays a technologi-cally important role due to its versatile applications as automobile exhaust catalysts, oxide ion conductors in solid oxide fuel cells, electrode materials for gas sensors, ultraviolet absorbents and glass-polishing materials. However, nanoceria has little or weak lumi-nescence, and therefore its uses in high-performance luminescent devices and biomedical areas are limited. In this review, we present the recent advances of nanoceria in the aspects of synthesis, luminescence and biomedical studies. The CeO2 nanoparticles can be synthesized by solution-based methods including co-precipitation, hydrothermal, microemulsion process, sol-gel techniques, combus-tion reaction and so on. Achieving controlled morphologies and enhanced luminescence efficiency of nanoceria particles are quite es-sential for its potential energy- and environment-related applications. Additionally, a new frontier for nanoceria particles in biomedi-cal research has also been opened, which involves low toxicity, retinopathy, biosensors and cancer therapy aspects. Finally, the sum-mary and outlook on the challenges and perspectives of the nanoceria particles are proposed.

Using in situ nanocellulose-coating technology based on dynamic bacterial cultures for upgrading conventional biomedical materials and reinforcing nanocellulose hydrogels.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Peng; Chen, Lin; Zhang, Qingsong; Jönsson, Leif J; Hong, Feng F

2016-07-08

Bacterial nanocellulose (BNC) is a microbial nanofibrillar hydrogel with many potential applications. Its use is largely restricted by insufficient strength when in a highly swollen state and by inefficient production using static cultivation. In this study, an in situ nanocellulose-coating technology created a fabric-frame reinforced nanocomposite of BNC hydrogel with superior strength but retained BNC native attributes. By using the proposed technology, production time could be reduced from 10 to 3 days to obtain a desirable hydrogel sheet with approximately the same thickness. This novel technology is easier to scale up and is more suitable for industrial-scale manufacture. The mechanical properties (tensile strength, suture retention strength) and gel characteristics (water holding, absorption and wicking ability) of the fabric-reinforced BNC hydrogel were investigated and compared with those of ordinary BNC hydrogel sheets. The results reveal that the fabric-reinforced BNC hydrogel was equivalent with regard to gel characteristics, and exhibited a qualitative improvement with regard to its mechanical properties. For more advanced applications, coating technology via dynamic bacterial cultures could be used to upgrade conventional biomedical fabrics, i.e. medical cotton gauze or other mesh materials, with nanocellulose. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 32:1077-1084, 2016. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers.

Biomedical engineering undergraduate education in Latin America

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Allende, R; Morales, D; Avendano, G; Chabert, S

2007-01-01

As in other parts of the World, in recent times there has been an increasing interest on Biomedical Engineering (BME) in Latin America (LA). This interest grows from the need for a larger number of such specialists, originated in a spreading use of health technologies. Indeed, at many universities, biomedical engineering departments have been created, which also brought along discussions on strategies to achieve the best education possible for both undergraduate and graduate programs. In these settings, different positions were taken as regards which subject to emphasize. In such a context, this work aimed to make a survey on the 'state-of-the-art' of undergraduate BME education in LA, and to analyze the observed differences. Broadly speaking, similar education profiles are perceived in the entire continent, with main emphasis on electronics and bioinstrumentation, biology and informatics respectively. Much less relevance is given to biomechanics and biomaterials. This tendency is similar in Departments with many decades of experience or in newly opened ones

Nanodiamonds of Laser Synthesis for Biomedical Applications.

Science.gov (United States)

Perevedentseva, E; Peer, D; Uvarov, V; Zousman, B; Levinson, O

2015-02-01

In recent decade detonation nanodiamonds (DND), discovered 50 years ago and used in diverse technological processes, have been actively applied in biomedical research as a drug and gene delivery carrier, a contrast agent for bio-imaging and diagnostics and an adsorbent for protein separation and purification. In this work we report about nanodiamonds of high purity produced by laser assisted technique, compare them with DND and consider the prospect and advantages of their use in the said applications.

Innovations in biomedical nanoengineering: nanowell array biosensor

Science.gov (United States)

Seo, YoungTae; Jeong, Sunil; Lee, JuKyung; Choi, Hak Soo; Kim, Jonghan; Lee, HeaYeon

2018-04-01

Nanostructured biosensors have pioneered biomedical engineering by providing highly sensitive analyses of biomolecules. The nanowell array (NWA)-based biosensing platform is particularly innovative, where the small size of NWs within the array permits extremely profound sensing of a small quantity of biomolecules. Undoubtedly, the NWA geometry of a gently-sloped vertical wall is critical for selective docking of specific proteins without capillary resistances, and nanoprocessing has contributed to the fabrication of NWA electrodes on gold substrate such as molding process, e-beam lithography, and krypton-fluoride (KrF) stepper semiconductor method. The Lee group at the Mara Nanotech has established this NW-based biosensing technology during the past two decades by engineering highly sensitive electrochemical sensors and providing a broad range of detection methods from large molecules (e.g., cells or proteins) to small molecules (e.g., DNA and RNA). Nanosized gold dots in the NWA enhance the detection of electrochemical biosensing to the range of zeptomoles in precision against the complementary target DNA molecules. In this review, we discuss recent innovations in biomedical nanoengineering with a specific focus on novel NWA-based biosensors. We also describe our continuous efforts in achieving a label-free detection without non-specific binding while maintaining the activity and stability of immobilized biomolecules. This research can lay the foundation of a new platform for biomedical nanoengineering systems.

Advanced Methods of Biomedical Signal Processing

CERN Document Server

Cerutti, Sergio

2011-01-01

This book grew out of the IEEE-EMBS Summer Schools on Biomedical Signal Processing, which have been held annually since 2002 to provide the participants state-of-the-art knowledge on emerging areas in biomedical engineering. Prominent experts in the areas of biomedical signal processing, biomedical data treatment, medicine, signal processing, system biology, and applied physiology introduce novel techniques and algorithms as well as their clinical or physiological applications. The book provides an overview of a compelling group of advanced biomedical signal processing techniques, such as mult

Challenges facing academic research in commercializing event-detector implantable devices for an in-vivo biomedical subcutaneous device for biomedical analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Juanola-Feliu, E.; Colomer-Farrarons, J.; Miribel-Català, P.; Samitier, J.; Valls-Pasola, J.

2011-05-01

It is widely recognized that the welfare of the most advanced economies is at risk, and that the only way to tackle this situation is by controlling the knowledge economies and dealing with. To achieve this ambitious goal, we need to improve the performance of each dimension in the "knowledge triangle": education, research and innovation. Indeed, recent findings point to the importance of strategies of adding-value and marketing during R+D processes so as to bridge the gap between the laboratory and the market and so ensure the successful commercialization of new technology-based products. Moreover, in a global economy in which conventional manufacturing is dominated by developing economies, the future of industry in the most advanced economies must rely on its ability to innovate in those high-tech activities that can offer a differential added-value, rather than on improving existing technologies and products. It seems quite clear, therefore, that the combination of health (medicine) and nanotechnology in a new biomedical device is very capable of meeting these requisites. This work propose a generic CMOS Front-End Self-Powered In-Vivo Implantable Biomedical Device, based on a threeelectrode amperometric biosensor approach, capable of detecting threshold values for targeted concentrations of pathogens, ions, oxygen concentration, etc. Given the speed with which diabetes can spread, as diabetes is the fastest growing disease in the world, the nano-enabled implantable device for in-vivo biomedical analysis needs to be introduced into the global diabetes care devices market. In the case of glucose monitoring, the detection of a threshold decrease in the glucose level it is mandatory to avoid critic situations like the hypoglycemia. Although the case study reported in this paper is complex because it involves multiple organizations and sources of data, it contributes to extend experience to the best practices and models on nanotechnology applications and

Electrical aspects of argon micro-cell plasma with applications in bio-medical technology

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Horiuchi, Y.; Dijk, van J.; Makabe, T.

2003-01-01

Argon micro-cell plasma (MCP) is believed to be a viable tool for performing micro-surgery. The non-thermal nature of the discharge allows an effective treatment of pathological tissue without causing thermal damage to its surroundings. This bio-medical application imposes a number of design

The Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications.

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, K A

1994-09-01

On August 3, 1968, the Joint Resolution of the Congress established the program and construction of the Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications. The facility dedicated in 1980 contains the latest in computer and communications technologies. The history, program requirements, construction management, and general planning are discussed including technical issues regarding cabling, systems functions, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system (HVAC), fire suppression, research and development laboratories, among others.

Handbook of biomedical optics

CERN Document Server

Boas, David A

2011-01-01

Biomedical optics holds tremendous promise to deliver effective, safe, non- or minimally invasive diagnostics and targeted, customizable therapeutics. Handbook of Biomedical Optics provides an in-depth treatment of the field, including coverage of applications for biomedical research, diagnosis, and therapy. It introduces the theory and fundamentals of each subject, ensuring accessibility to a wide multidisciplinary readership. It also offers a view of the state of the art and discusses advantages and disadvantages of various techniques.Organized into six sections, this handbook: Contains intr

Technological Innovations from NASA

Science.gov (United States)

Pellis, Neal R.

2006-01-01

The challenge of human space exploration places demands on technology that push concepts and development to the leading edge. In biotechnology and biomedical equipment development, NASA science has been the seed for numerous innovations, many of which are in the commercial arena. The biotechnology effort has led to rational drug design, analytical equipment, and cell culture and tissue engineering strategies. Biomedical research and development has resulted in medical devices that enable diagnosis and treatment advances. NASA Biomedical developments are exemplified in the new laser light scattering analysis for cataracts, the axial flow left ventricular-assist device, non contact electrocardiography, and the guidance system for LASIK surgery. Many more developments are in progress. NASA will continue to advance technologies, incorporating new approaches from basic and applied research, nanotechnology, computational modeling, and database analyses.

SOA-BD: Service Oriented Architecture for Biomedical Devices

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

João Marcos Teixeira Lacerda

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Introduction: The communication of information systems with biomedical devices has become complex not only due to the existence of several private communication protocols, but also to the immutable way that software is embedded into these devices. In this sense, this paper proposes a service-oriented architecture to access biomedical devices as a way to abstract the mechanisms of writing and reading data from these devices, thus contributing to enable the focus of the development team of biomedical software to be intended for its functional requirements, i.e. business rules relevant to the problem domain. Methods The SOA-BD architecture consists of five main components: A Web Service for transport and conversion of the device data, Communication Protocols to access the devices, Data Parsers to preprocess data, a Device Repository to store data and transmitted information and Error handling, for error handling of these information. For the development of SOA-BD, technologies such as the XML language and the Java programming language were used. Besides, Software Engineering concepts such as Design Patterns were also used. For the validation of this work, data has been collected from vital sign monitors in an Intensive Care Unit using HL7 standards. Results The tests obtained a difference of about only 1 second in terms of response time with the use of SOA-BD. Conclusion SOA-BD achieves important results such as the reduction on the access protocol complexity, the opportunity for treating patients over long distances, allowing easier development of monitoring applications and interoperability with biomedical devices from diverse manufacturers.

Nanogels for Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Applications and Their Fabrication Using 3D Printing Technologies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hyunah Cho

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Nanogels are hydrogels formed by connecting nanoscopic micelles dispersed in an aqueous medium, which give an opportunity for incorporating hydrophilic payloads to the exterior of the micellar networks and hydrophobic payloads in the core of the micelles. Biomedical and pharmaceutical applications of nanogels have been explored for tissue regeneration, wound healing, surgical device, implantation, and peroral, rectal, vaginal, ocular, and transdermal drug delivery. Although it is still in the early stages of development, due to the increasing demands of precise nanogel production to be utilized for personalized medicine, biomedical applications, and specialized drug delivery, 3D printing has been explored in the past few years and is believed to be one of the most precise, efficient, inexpensive, customizable, and convenient manufacturing techniques for nanogel production.

Harnessing supramolecular peptide nanotechnology in biomedical applications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chan KH

2017-02-01

Full Text Available Kiat Hwa Chan,1 Wei Hao Lee,2 Shuangmu Zhuo,3 Ming Ni3 1Division of Science, Yale-NUS College, Singapore; 2Department of Chemistry, Krieger School of Arts & Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA; 3Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory for Photonics Technology, Key Laboratory of OptoElectronic Science and Technology for Medicine of Ministry of Education, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou, People’s Republic of China Abstract: The harnessing of peptides in biomedical applications is a recent hot topic. This arises mainly from the general biocompatibility of peptides, as well as from the ease of tunability of peptide structure to engineer desired properties. The ease of progression from laboratory testing to clinical trials is evident from the plethora of examples available. In this review, we compare and contrast how three distinct self-assembled peptide nanostructures possess different functions. We have 1 nanofibrils in biomaterials that can interact with cells, 2 nanoparticles that can traverse the bloodstream to deliver its payload and also be bioimaged, and 3 nanotubes that can serve as cross-membrane conduits and as a template for nanowire formation. Through this review, we aim to illustrate how various peptides, in their various self-assembled nanostructures, possess great promise in a wide range of biomedical applications and what more can be expected. Keywords: peptides, self-assembly, nanotechnology

The National Center for Biomedical Ontology: Advancing Biomedicinethrough Structured Organization of Scientific Knowledge

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rubin, Daniel L.; Lewis, Suzanna E.; Mungall, Chris J.; Misra,Sima; Westerfield, Monte; Ashburner, Michael; Sim, Ida; Chute,Christopher G.; Solbrig, Harold; Storey, Margaret-Anne; Smith, Barry; Day-Richter, John; Noy, Natalya F.; Musen, Mark A.

2006-01-23

The National Center for Biomedical Ontology (http://bioontology.org) is a consortium that comprises leading informaticians, biologists, clinicians, and ontologists funded by the NIH Roadmap to develop innovative technology and methods that allow scientists to record, manage, and disseminate biomedical information and knowledge in machine-processable form. The goals of the Center are: (1) to help unify the divergent and isolated efforts in ontology development by promoting high quality open-source, standards-based tools to create, manage, and use ontologies, (2) to create new software tools so that scientists can use ontologies to annotate and analyze biomedical data, (3) to provide a national resource for the ongoing evaluation, integration, and evolution of biomedical ontologies and associated tools and theories in the context of driving biomedical projects (DBPs), and (4) to disseminate the tools and resources of the Center and to identify, evaluate, and communicate best practices of ontology development to the biomedical community. The Center is working toward these objectives by providing tools to develop ontologies and to annotate experimental data, and by developing resources to integrate and relate existing ontologies as well as by creating repositories of biomedical data that are annotated using those ontologies. The Center is providing training workshops in ontology design, development, and usage, and is also pursuing research in ontology evaluation, quality, and use of ontologies to promote scientific discovery. Through the research activities within the Center, collaborations with the DBPs, and interactions with the biomedical community, our goal is to help scientists to work more effectively in the e-science paradigm, enhancing experiment design, experiment execution, data analysis, information synthesis, hypothesis generation and testing, and understand human disease.

Text mining patents for biomedical knowledge.

Science.gov (United States)

Rodriguez-Esteban, Raul; Bundschus, Markus

2016-06-01

Biomedical text mining of scientific knowledge bases, such as Medline, has received much attention in recent years. Given that text mining is able to automatically extract biomedical facts that revolve around entities such as genes, proteins, and drugs, from unstructured text sources, it is seen as a major enabler to foster biomedical research and drug discovery. In contrast to the biomedical literature, research into the mining of biomedical patents has not reached the same level of maturity. Here, we review existing work and highlight the associated technical challenges that emerge from automatically extracting facts from patents. We conclude by outlining potential future directions in this domain that could help drive biomedical research and drug discovery. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Semiconductor quantum dots: synthesis and water-solubilization for biomedical applications.

Science.gov (United States)

Yu, William W

2008-10-01

Quantum dots (QDs) are generally nanosized inorganic particles. They have distinctive size-dependent optical properties due to their very small size (mostly semiconductor QDs (mainly metal-chalcogenide compounds) and forming biocompatible structures for biomedical applications are discussed in this paper. This information may facilitate the research to create new materials/technologies for future clinical applications.

Journal of Biomedical Investigation: Editorial Policies

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Journal of Biomedical Investigation: Editorial Policies. Journal Home ... The focus of the Journal of Biomedical Research is to promote interdisciplinary research across all Biomedical Sciences. It publishes ... Business editor – Sam Meludu.

Converging blockchain and next-generation artificial intelligence technologies to decentralize and accelerate biomedical research and healthcare

Science.gov (United States)

Mamoshina, Polina; Ojomoko, Lucy; Yanovich, Yury; Ostrovski, Alex; Botezatu, Alex; Prikhodko, Pavel; Izumchenko, Eugene; Aliper, Alexander; Romantsov, Konstantin; Zhebrak, Alexander; Ogu, Iraneus Obioma; Zhavoronkov, Alex

2018-01-01

The increased availability of data and recent advancements in artificial intelligence present the unprecedented opportunities in healthcare and major challenges for the patients, developers, providers and regulators. The novel deep learning and transfer learning techniques are turning any data about the person into medical data transforming simple facial pictures and videos into powerful sources of data for predictive analytics. Presently, the patients do not have control over the access privileges to their medical records and remain unaware of the true value of the data they have. In this paper, we provide an overview of the next-generation artificial intelligence and blockchain technologies and present innovative solutions that may be used to accelerate the biomedical research and enable patients with new tools to control and profit from their personal data as well with the incentives to undergo constant health monitoring. We introduce new concepts to appraise and evaluate personal records, including the combination-, time- and relationship-value of the data. We also present a roadmap for a blockchain-enabled decentralized personal health data ecosystem to enable novel approaches for drug discovery, biomarker development, and preventative healthcare. A secure and transparent distributed personal data marketplace utilizing blockchain and deep learning technologies may be able to resolve the challenges faced by the regulators and return the control over personal data including medical records back to the individuals. PMID:29464026

Converging blockchain and next-generation artificial intelligence technologies to decentralize and accelerate biomedical research and healthcare.

Science.gov (United States)

Mamoshina, Polina; Ojomoko, Lucy; Yanovich, Yury; Ostrovski, Alex; Botezatu, Alex; Prikhodko, Pavel; Izumchenko, Eugene; Aliper, Alexander; Romantsov, Konstantin; Zhebrak, Alexander; Ogu, Iraneus Obioma; Zhavoronkov, Alex

2018-01-19

The increased availability of data and recent advancements in artificial intelligence present the unprecedented opportunities in healthcare and major challenges for the patients, developers, providers and regulators. The novel deep learning and transfer learning techniques are turning any data about the person into medical data transforming simple facial pictures and videos into powerful sources of data for predictive analytics. Presently, the patients do not have control over the access privileges to their medical records and remain unaware of the true value of the data they have. In this paper, we provide an overview of the next-generation artificial intelligence and blockchain technologies and present innovative solutions that may be used to accelerate the biomedical research and enable patients with new tools to control and profit from their personal data as well with the incentives to undergo constant health monitoring. We introduce new concepts to appraise and evaluate personal records, including the combination-, time- and relationship-value of the data. We also present a roadmap for a blockchain-enabled decentralized personal health data ecosystem to enable novel approaches for drug discovery, biomarker development, and preventative healthcare. A secure and transparent distributed personal data marketplace utilizing blockchain and deep learning technologies may be able to resolve the challenges faced by the regulators and return the control over personal data including medical records back to the individuals.

Publications in biomedical and environmental sciences programs, 1980

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pfuderer, H.A.; Moody, J.B.

1981-07-01

This bibliography contains 690 references to articles in journals, books, and reports published in the subject area of biomedical and environmental sciences during 1980. There are 529 references to articles published in journals and books and 161 references to reports. Staff members in the Biomedical and Environmental Sciences divisions have other publications not included in this bibliography; for example, theses, book reviews, abstracts published in journals or symposia proceedings, pending journal publications and reports such as monthly and bimonthly progress reports, contractor reports, and reports for internal distribution. This document is sorted by the division, and then alphabetically by author. The sorting by divisions separates the references by subject area in a simple way. The divisions represented in the order that they appear in the bibliography are Analytical Chemistry, Biology, Chemical Technology, Information R and D, Health and Safety Research, Energy, Environmental Sciences, and Computer Sciences.

Publications in biomedical and environmental sciences programs, 1980

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pfuderer, H.A.; Moody, J.B.

1981-07-01

This bibliography contains 690 references to articles in journals, books, and reports published in the subject area of biomedical and environmental sciences during 1980. There are 529 references to articles published in journals and books and 161 references to reports. Staff members in the Biomedical and Environmental Sciences divisions have other publications not included in this bibliography; for example, theses, book reviews, abstracts published in journals or symposia proceedings, pending journal publications and reports such as monthly and bimonthly progress reports, contractor reports, and reports for internal distribution. This document is sorted by the division, and then alphabetically by author. The sorting by divisions separates the references by subject area in a simple way. The divisions represented in the order that they appear in the bibliography are Analytical Chemistry, Biology, Chemical Technology, Information R and D, Health and Safety Research, Energy, Environmental Sciences, and Computer Sciences

Moving forward in plant food safety and security through NanoBioSensors: Adopt or adapt biomedical technologies?

Science.gov (United States)

Sharma, Tarun K; Ramanathan, Rajesh; Rakwal, Randeep; Agrawal, Ganesh K; Bansal, Vipul

2015-05-01

Plant-based foods are integral part of our day-to-day diet. Increasing world population has put forth an ever increasing demand for plant-based foods, and food security remains a major concern. Similarly, biological, chemical, and physical threats to our food and increasing regulatory demands to control the presence of foreign species in food products have made food safety a growing issue. Nanotechnology has already established its roots in diverse disciplines. However, the food industry is yet to harness the full potential of the unique capabilities offered by this next-generation technology. While there might be safety concerns in regards to integration of nanoproducts with our food products, an aspect of nanotechnology that can make remarkable contribution to different elements of the food chain is the use of nanobiosensors and diagnostic platforms for monitoring food traceability, quality, safety, and nutritional value. This brings us to an important question that whether existing diagnostic platforms that have already been well developed for biomedical and clinical application are suitable for food industry or whether the demands of the food industry are altogether different that may not allow adoption/adaptation of the existing technology. This review is an effort to raise this important "uncomfortable" yet "timely" question. © 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Biomedical applications of polymers

CERN Document Server

Gebelein, C G

1991-01-01

The biomedical applications of polymers span an extremely wide spectrum of uses, including artificial organs, skin and soft tissue replacements, orthopaedic applications, dental applications, and controlled release of medications. No single, short review can possibly cover all these items in detail, and dozens of books andhundreds of reviews exist on biomedical polymers. Only a few relatively recent examples will be cited here;additional reviews are listed under most of the major topics in this book. We will consider each of the majorclassifications of biomedical polymers to some extent, inclu

Biomedical Engineering Desk Reference

CERN Document Server

Ratner, Buddy D; Schoen, Frederick J; Lemons, Jack E; Dyro, Joseph; Martinsen, Orjan G; Kyle, Richard; Preim, Bernhard; Bartz, Dirk; Grimnes, Sverre; Vallero, Daniel; Semmlow, John; Murray, W Bosseau; Perez, Reinaldo; Bankman, Isaac; Dunn, Stanley; Ikada, Yoshito; Moghe, Prabhas V; Constantinides, Alkis

2009-01-01

A one-stop Desk Reference, for Biomedical Engineers involved in the ever expanding and very fast moving area; this is a book that will not gather dust on the shelf. It brings together the essential professional reference content from leading international contributors in the biomedical engineering field. Material covers a broad range of topics including: Biomechanics and Biomaterials; Tissue Engineering; and Biosignal Processing* A hard-working desk reference providing all the essential material needed by biomedical and clinical engineers on a day-to-day basis * Fundamentals, key techniques,

Blended learning as an effective pedagogical paradigm for biomedical science

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Perry Hartfield

2013-11-01

Full Text Available Blended learning combines face-to-face class based and online teaching and learning delivery in order to increase flexibility in how, when, and where students study and learn. The development, integration, and promotion of blended learning in frameworks of curriculum design can optimize the opportunities afforded by information and communication technologies and, concomitantly, accommodate a broad range of student learning styles. This study critically reviews the potential benefits of blended learning as a progressive educative paradigm for the teaching of biomedical science and evaluates the opportunities that blended learning offers for the delivery of accessible, flexible and sustainable teaching and learning experiences. A central tenet of biomedical science education at the tertiary level is the development of comprehensive hands-on practical competencies and technical skills (many of which require laboratory-based learning environments, and it is advanced that a blended learning model, which combines face-to-face synchronous teaching and learning activities with asynchronous online teaching and learning activities, effectively creates an authentic, enriching, and student-centred learning environment for biomedical science. Lastly, a blending learning design for introductory biochemistry will be described as an effective example of integrating face-to-face and online teaching, learning and assessment activities within the teaching domain of biomedical science.   DOI: 10.18870/hlrc.v3i4.169

Pathophysiologic mechanisms of biomedical nanomaterials

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang, Liming; Chen, Chunying

2016-01-01

Nanomaterials (NMs) have been widespread used in biomedical fields, daily consuming, and even food industry. It is crucial to understand the safety and biomedical efficacy of NMs. In this review, we summarized the recent progress about the physiological and pathological effects of NMs from several levels: protein-nano interface, NM-subcellular structures, and cell–cell interaction. We focused on the detailed information of nano-bio interaction, especially about protein adsorption, intracellular trafficking, biological barriers, and signaling pathways as well as the associated mechanism mediated by nanomaterials. We also introduced related analytical methods that are meaningful and helpful for biomedical effect studies in the future. We believe that knowledge about pathophysiologic effects of NMs is not only significant for rational design of medical NMs but also helps predict their safety and further improve their applications in the future. - Highlights: • Rapid protein adsorption onto nanomaterials that affects biomedical effects • Nanomaterials and their interaction with biological membrane, intracellular trafficking and specific cellular effects • Nanomaterials and their interaction with biological barriers • The signaling pathways mediated by nanomaterials and related biomedical effects • Novel techniques for studying translocation and biomedical effects of NMs

Pathophysiologic mechanisms of biomedical nanomaterials

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wang, Liming, E-mail: wangliming@ihep.ac.cn; Chen, Chunying, E-mail: chenchy@nanoctr.cn

2016-05-15

Nanomaterials (NMs) have been widespread used in biomedical fields, daily consuming, and even food industry. It is crucial to understand the safety and biomedical efficacy of NMs. In this review, we summarized the recent progress about the physiological and pathological effects of NMs from several levels: protein-nano interface, NM-subcellular structures, and cell–cell interaction. We focused on the detailed information of nano-bio interaction, especially about protein adsorption, intracellular trafficking, biological barriers, and signaling pathways as well as the associated mechanism mediated by nanomaterials. We also introduced related analytical methods that are meaningful and helpful for biomedical effect studies in the future. We believe that knowledge about pathophysiologic effects of NMs is not only significant for rational design of medical NMs but also helps predict their safety and further improve their applications in the future. - Highlights: • Rapid protein adsorption onto nanomaterials that affects biomedical effects • Nanomaterials and their interaction with biological membrane, intracellular trafficking and specific cellular effects • Nanomaterials and their interaction with biological barriers • The signaling pathways mediated by nanomaterials and related biomedical effects • Novel techniques for studying translocation and biomedical effects of NMs.

Biomedical signal analysis

CERN Document Server

Rangayyan, Rangaraj M

2015-01-01

The book will help assist a reader in the development of techniques for analysis of biomedical signals and computer aided diagnoses with a pedagogical examination of basic and advanced topics accompanied by over 350 figures and illustrations. Wide range of filtering techniques presented to address various applications. 800 mathematical expressions and equations. Practical questions, problems and laboratory exercises. Includes fractals and chaos theory with biomedical applications.

Biomedical informatics and translational medicine

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sarkar Indra

2010-02-01

Full Text Available Abstract Biomedical informatics involves a core set of methodologies that can provide a foundation for crossing the "translational barriers" associated with translational medicine. To this end, the fundamental aspects of biomedical informatics (e.g., bioinformatics, imaging informatics, clinical informatics, and public health informatics may be essential in helping improve the ability to bring basic research findings to the bedside, evaluate the efficacy of interventions across communities, and enable the assessment of the eventual impact of translational medicine innovations on health policies. Here, a brief description is provided for a selection of key biomedical informatics topics (Decision Support, Natural Language Processing, Standards, Information Retrieval, and Electronic Health Records and their relevance to translational medicine. Based on contributions and advancements in each of these topic areas, the article proposes that biomedical informatics practitioners ("biomedical informaticians" can be essential members of translational medicine teams.

A roadmap for caGrid, an enterprise Grid architecture for biomedical research.

Science.gov (United States)

Saltz, Joel; Hastings, Shannon; Langella, Stephen; Oster, Scott; Kurc, Tahsin; Payne, Philip; Ferreira, Renato; Plale, Beth; Goble, Carole; Ervin, David; Sharma, Ashish; Pan, Tony; Permar, Justin; Brezany, Peter; Siebenlist, Frank; Madduri, Ravi; Foster, Ian; Shanbhag, Krishnakant; Mead, Charlie; Chue Hong, Neil

2008-01-01

caGrid is a middleware system which combines the Grid computing, the service oriented architecture, and the model driven architecture paradigms to support development of interoperable data and analytical resources and federation of such resources in a Grid environment. The functionality provided by caGrid is an essential and integral component of the cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid (caBIG) program. This program is established by the National Cancer Institute as a nationwide effort to develop enabling informatics technologies for collaborative, multi-institutional biomedical research with the overarching goal of accelerating translational cancer research. Although the main application domain for caGrid is cancer research, the infrastructure provides a generic framework that can be employed in other biomedical research and healthcare domains. The development of caGrid is an ongoing effort, adding new functionality and improvements based on feedback and use cases from the community. This paper provides an overview of potential future architecture and tooling directions and areas of improvement for caGrid and caGrid-like systems. This summary is based on discussions at a roadmap workshop held in February with participants from biomedical research, Grid computing, and high performance computing communities.

Use of systematic review to inform the infection risk for biomedical engineers and technicians servicing biomedical devices

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Smith, Anne-Louise

2011-01-01

Full text: Many microorganisms responsible for hospital acquired infections are able to stay viable on surfaces with no visible sign of contamination, in dry conditions and on non-porous surfaces. The infection risk to biomedical staff when servicing biomedical devices is not documented. An indirect approach has been used to examine the different aspects that will affect the risk of infection including a systematic review of microbial contamination and transmission relating to biomedical devices. A systematic review found 58% of biomedical devices have microbial contamination with 13% having at least one pathogenic organism. These microbes can persist for some months. Occupational-infections of biomedical service staff are low compared to other healthcare workers. A biomedical device with contaminated surface or dust was identified as the source of patient outbreaks in 13 papers. The cleaning agent most tested for removal of micro-organisms from devices was alcohol swabs, but sterile water swabs were also effective. However, manufacturers mainly recommend (74%) cleaning devices with water and detergent. Biomedical engineers and technicians have a small risk of being exposed to dangerous micro-organisms on most biomedical devices, but without skin breakage, this exposure is unlikely to cause ill-health. It is recommended that biomedical staff follow good infection control practices, wipe devices with detergent, sterile water or alcohol swabs as recommended by the manufacturer before working on them, and keep alcohol hand rubs accessible at all benches. (author)

Electroactive polymers for healthcare and biomedical applications

Science.gov (United States)

Bauer, Siegfried

2017-04-01

Electroactivity was noticed early in biological substances, including proteins, polynucleotides and enzymes, even piezoand pyroelectricity were found in wool, hair, wood, bone and tendon. Recently, ferroelectricity has been identified in a surprisingly large number of biologically relevant materials, including hydroxyapatite, aortic walls and elastin. Inspired by the variety of natural electroactive materials, a wealth of new elastomers and polymers were designed recently, including an all organic elastomer electret and self-healing dielectric elastomers. Let's further draw inspiration from nature and widen the utilization of electroactive polymers towards (mobile) healthcare and biomedical applications. Ferroelectrets, internally charged polymer foams with a strong piezoelectric thickness coefficient are employed in biomedical sensing, for example as blood pressure and pulse sensor, as vital signs monitor or for the detection of tonicclonic seizures. Piezo- and pyroelectric polymers are booming in printed electronics research. They provide electronic skin the ability to "feel" pressure and temperature changes, or to generate electrical energy from vibrations and motions, even from contractile and relaxation motions of the heart and lung. Dielectric elastomers are pioneered by StretchSense as wearable motion capture sensors, monitoring pressure, stretch, bend and shear, quantifying comfort in sports and healthcare. On the cellular level, electroactive polymer arrays are used to study mechanotransduction of individual cells. Ionic electroactive polymers show potential to be used in implantable electroactive biomedical devices. Already with the currently available science and technology, we are at the verge of witnessing the demonstration of truly complex bionic systems.

Biomedical engineering - A means to add new dimension to medicine and research

Science.gov (United States)

Doerr, D. F.

1992-01-01

Biomedical engineering is an evolving science that seeks to insert technically oriented and trained personnel to assist medical professionals in solving technological problems in the pursuit of innovations in the delivery of health care. Consequently, engineering solutions are brought to bear on problems that previously were outside the training of physicians and beyond the understanding or appreciation of the conventionally educated electrical or mechanical engineers. This physician/scientist/engineer team has a capability to extend medicine and research far beyond the capability of a single entity operating alone. How biomedical engineering has added a new dimension to medical science at the Kennedy Space Center is described.

Synergies and Distinctions between Computational Disciplines in Biomedical Research: Perspective from the Clinical and Translational Science Award Programs

Science.gov (United States)

Bernstam, Elmer V.; Hersh, William R.; Johnson, Stephen B.; Chute, Christopher G.; Nguyen, Hien; Sim, Ida; Nahm, Meredith; Weiner, Mark; Miller, Perry; DiLaura, Robert P.; Overcash, Marc; Lehmann, Harold P.; Eichmann, David; Athey, Brian D.; Scheuermann, Richard H.; Anderson, Nick; Starren, Justin B.; Harris, Paul A.; Smith, Jack W.; Barbour, Ed; Silverstein, Jonathan C.; Krusch, David A.; Nagarajan, Rakesh; Becich, Michael J.

2010-01-01

Clinical and translational research increasingly requires computation. Projects may involve multiple computationally-oriented groups including information technology (IT) professionals, computer scientists and biomedical informaticians. However, many biomedical researchers are not aware of the distinctions among these complementary groups, leading to confusion, delays and sub-optimal results. Although written from the perspective of clinical and translational science award (CTSA) programs within academic medical centers, the paper addresses issues that extend beyond clinical and translational research. The authors describe the complementary but distinct roles of operational IT, research IT, computer science and biomedical informatics using a clinical data warehouse as a running example. In general, IT professionals focus on technology. The authors distinguish between two types of IT groups within academic medical centers: central or administrative IT (supporting the administrative computing needs of large organizations) and research IT (supporting the computing needs of researchers). Computer scientists focus on general issues of computation such as designing faster computers or more efficient algorithms, rather than specific applications. In contrast, informaticians are concerned with data, information and knowledge. Biomedical informaticians draw on a variety of tools, including but not limited to computers, to solve information problems in health care and biomedicine. The paper concludes with recommendations regarding administrative structures that can help to maximize the benefit of computation to biomedical research within academic health centers. PMID:19550198

A service-oriented distributed semantic mediator: integrating multiscale biomedical information.

Science.gov (United States)

Mora, Oscar; Engelbrecht, Gerhard; Bisbal, Jesus

2012-11-01

Biomedical research continuously generates large amounts of heterogeneous and multimodal data spread over multiple data sources. These data, if appropriately shared and exploited, could dramatically improve the research practice itself, and ultimately the quality of health care delivered. This paper presents DISMED (DIstributed Semantic MEDiator), an open source semantic mediator that provides a unified view of a federated environment of multiscale biomedical data sources. DISMED is a Web-based software application to query and retrieve information distributed over a set of registered data sources, using semantic technologies. It also offers a userfriendly interface specifically designed to simplify the usage of these technologies by non-expert users. Although the architecture of the software mediator is generic and domain independent, in the context of this paper, DISMED has been evaluated for managing biomedical environments and facilitating research with respect to the handling of scientific data distributed in multiple heterogeneous data sources. As part of this contribution, a quantitative evaluation framework has been developed. It consist of a benchmarking scenario and the definition of five realistic use-cases. This framework, created entirely with public datasets, has been used to compare the performance of DISMED against other available mediators. It is also available to the scientific community in order to evaluate progress in the domain of semantic mediation, in a systematic and comparable manner. The results show an average improvement in the execution time by DISMED of 55% compared to the second best alternative in four out of the five use-cases of the experimental evaluation.

Silicon Valley Meets Biomedical Research in the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

Science.gov (United States)

Crow, Diana

2017-05-18

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the philanthropy launched by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, drew attention with its stated goal of helping to "cure, manage, or treat all diseases" by the end of the century. They intend to do it through funding basic research and addressing gaps in biomedical technology. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Astonishing advances in mouse genetic tools for biomedical research.

Science.gov (United States)

Kaczmarczyk, Lech; Jackson, Walker S

2015-01-01

The humble house mouse has long been a workhorse model system in biomedical research. The technology for introducing site-specific genome modifications led to Nobel Prizes for its pioneers and opened a new era of mouse genetics. However, this technology was very time-consuming and technically demanding. As a result, many investigators continued to employ easier genome manipulation methods, though resulting models can suffer from overlooked or underestimated consequences. Another breakthrough, invaluable for the molecular dissection of disease mechanisms, was the invention of high-throughput methods to measure the expression of a plethora of genes in parallel. However, the use of samples containing material from multiple cell types could obfuscate data, and thus interpretations. In this review we highlight some important issues in experimental approaches using mouse models for biomedical research. We then discuss recent technological advances in mouse genetics that are revolutionising human disease research. Mouse genomes are now easily manipulated at precise locations thanks to guided endonucleases, such as transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs) or the CRISPR/Cas9 system, both also having the potential to turn the dream of human gene therapy into reality. Newly developed methods of cell type-specific isolation of transcriptomes from crude tissue homogenates, followed by detection with next generation sequencing (NGS), are vastly improving gene regulation studies. Taken together, these amazing tools simplify the creation of much more accurate mouse models of human disease, and enable the extraction of hitherto unobtainable data.

Research on pressure sensors for biomedical instruments

Science.gov (United States)

Angell, J. B.

1975-01-01

The development of a piezo-resistive pressure transducer is discussed suitable for recording pressures typically encountered in biomedical applications. The pressure transducer consists of a thin silicon diaphragm containing four strain-sensitive resistors, and is fabricated using silicon monolithic integrated-circuit technology. The pressure transducers can be as small as 0.7 mm outer diameter, and are, as a result, suitable for mounting at the tip of a catheter. Pressure-induced stress in the diaphragm is sensed by the resistors, which are interconnected to form a Wheatstone bridge.

Technology | FNLCR

Science.gov (United States)

The Frederick National Laboratory develops and applies advanced, next-generation technologies to solve basic and applied problems in the biomedical sciences, and serves as a national resource of shared high-tech facilities.

A Semantic Web management model for integrative biomedical informatics.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Helena F Deus

2008-08-01

Full Text Available Data, data everywhere. The diversity and magnitude of the data generated in the Life Sciences defies automated articulation among complementary efforts. The additional need in this field for managing property and access permissions compounds the difficulty very significantly. This is particularly the case when the integration involves multiple domains and disciplines, even more so when it includes clinical and high throughput molecular data.The emergence of Semantic Web technologies brings the promise of meaningful interoperation between data and analysis resources. In this report we identify a core model for biomedical Knowledge Engineering applications and demonstrate how this new technology can be used to weave a management model where multiple intertwined data structures can be hosted and managed by multiple authorities in a distributed management infrastructure. Specifically, the demonstration is performed by linking data sources associated with the Lung Cancer SPORE awarded to The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center at Houston and the Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. A software prototype, available with open source at www.s3db.org, was developed and its proposed design has been made publicly available as an open source instrument for shared, distributed data management.The Semantic Web technologies have the potential to addresses the need for distributed and evolvable representations that are critical for systems Biology and translational biomedical research. As this technology is incorporated into application development we can expect that both general purpose productivity software and domain specific software installed on our personal computers will become increasingly integrated with the relevant remote resources. In this scenario, the acquisition of a new dataset should automatically trigger the delegation of its analysis.

Private Data Analytics on Biomedical Sensing Data via Distributed Computation.

Science.gov (United States)

Gong, Yanmin; Fang, Yuguang; Guo, Yuanxiong

2016-01-01

Advances in biomedical sensors and mobile communication technologies have fostered the rapid growth of mobile health (mHealth) applications in the past years. Users generate a high volume of biomedical data during health monitoring, which can be used by the mHealth server for training predictive models for disease diagnosis and treatment. However, the biomedical sensing data raise serious privacy concerns because they reveal sensitive information such as health status and lifestyles of the sensed subjects. This paper proposes and experimentally studies a scheme that keeps the training samples private while enabling accurate construction of predictive models. We specifically consider logistic regression models which are widely used for predicting dichotomous outcomes in healthcare, and decompose the logistic regression problem into small subproblems over two types of distributed sensing data, i.e., horizontally partitioned data and vertically partitioned data. The subproblems are solved using individual private data, and thus mHealth users can keep their private data locally and only upload (encrypted) intermediate results to the mHealth server for model training. Experimental results based on real datasets show that our scheme is highly efficient and scalable to a large number of mHealth users.

Frontiers in biomedical engineering and biotechnology.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Feng; Goodarzi, Ali; Wang, Haifeng; Stasiak, Joanna; Sun, Jianbo; Zhou, Yu

2014-01-01

The 2nd International Conference on Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology (iCBEB 2013), held in Wuhan on 11–13 October 2013, is an annual conference that aims at providing an opportunity for international and national researchers and practitioners to present the most recent advances and future challenges in the fields of Biomedical Information, Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology. The papers published by this issue are selected from this conference, which witnesses the frontier in the field of Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology, which particularly has helped improving the level of clinical diagnosis in medical work.

Computational Biomechanics Theoretical Background and BiologicalBiomedical Problems

CERN Document Server

Tanaka, Masao; Nakamura, Masanori

2012-01-01

Rapid developments have taken place in biological/biomedical measurement and imaging technologies as well as in computer analysis and information technologies. The increase in data obtained with such technologies invites the reader into a virtual world that represents realistic biological tissue or organ structures in digital form and allows for simulation and what is called “in silico medicine.” This volume is the third in a textbook series and covers both the basics of continuum mechanics of biosolids and biofluids and the theoretical core of computational methods for continuum mechanics analyses. Several biomechanics problems are provided for better understanding of computational modeling and analysis. Topics include the mechanics of solid and fluid bodies, fundamental characteristics of biosolids and biofluids, computational methods in biomechanics analysis/simulation, practical problems in orthopedic biomechanics, dental biomechanics, ophthalmic biomechanics, cardiovascular biomechanics, hemodynamics...

Education of biomedical engineering in Taiwan.

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Kang-Ping; Kao, Tsair; Wang, Jia-Jung; Chen, Mei-Jung; Su, Fong-Chin

2014-01-01

Biomedical Engineers (BME) play an important role in medical and healthcare society. Well educational programs are important to support the healthcare systems including hospitals, long term care organizations, manufacture industries of medical devices/instrumentations/systems, and sales/services companies of medical devices/instrumentations/system. In past 30 more years, biomedical engineering society has accumulated thousands people hold a biomedical engineering degree, and work as a biomedical engineer in Taiwan. Most of BME students can be trained in biomedical engineering departments with at least one of specialties in bioelectronics, bio-information, biomaterials or biomechanics. Students are required to have internship trainings in related institutions out of campus for 320 hours before graduating. Almost all the biomedical engineering departments are certified by IEET (Institute of Engineering Education Taiwan), and met the IEET requirement in which required mathematics and fundamental engineering courses. For BMEs after graduation, Taiwanese Society of Biomedical Engineering (TSBME) provides many continue-learning programs and certificates for all members who expect to hold the certification as a professional credit in his working place. In current status, many engineering departments in university are continuously asked to provide joint programs with BME department to train much better quality students. BME is one of growing fields in Taiwan.

Recent progress and challenges in nanotechnology for biomedical applications: an insight into the analysis of neurotransmitters.

Science.gov (United States)

Shankaran, Dhesingh Ravi; Miura, Norio

2007-01-01

Nanotechnology offers exciting opportunities and unprecedented compatibilities in manipulating chemical and biological materials at the atomic or molecular scale for the development of novel functional materials with enhanced capabilities. It plays a central role in the recent technological advances in biomedical technology, especially in the areas of disease diagnosis, drug design and drug delivery. In this review, we present the recent trend and challenges in the development of nanomaterials for biomedical applications with a special emphasis on the analysis of neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters are the chemical messengers which transform information and signals all over the body. They play prime role in functioning of the central nervous system (CNS) and governs most of the metabolic functions including movement, pleasure, pain, mood, emotion, thinking, digestion, sleep, addiction, fear, anxiety and depression. Thus, development of high-performance and user-friendly analytical methods for ultra-sensitive detection of neurotransmitters remain a major challenge in modern biomedical analysis. Nanostructured materials are emerging as a powerful mean for diagnosis of CNS disorders because of their unique optical, size and surface characteristics. This review provides a brief outline on the basic concepts and recent advancements of nanotechnology for biomedical applications, especially in the analysis of neurotransmitters. A brief introduction to the nanomaterials, bionanotechnology and neurotransmitters is also included along with discussions on most of the patents published in these areas.

Engineering excellence in breakthrough biomedical technologies: bioengineering at the University of California, Riverside.

Science.gov (United States)

Schultz, Jane S; Rodgers, V G J

2012-07-01

The Department of Bioengineering at the University of California, Riverside (UCR), was established in 2006 and is the youngest department in the Bourns College of Engineering. It is an interdisciplinary research engine that builds strength from highly recognized experts in biochemistry, biophysics, biology, and engineering, focusing on common critical themes. The range of faculty research interests is notable for its diversity, from the basic cell biology through cell function to the physiology of the whole organism, each directed at breakthroughs in biomedical devices for measurement and therapy. The department forges future leaders in bioengineering, mirroring the field in being energetic, interdisciplinary, and fast moving at the frontiers of biomedical discoveries. Our educational programs combine a solid foundation in bio logical sciences and engineering, diverse communication skills, and training in the most advanced quantitative bioengineering research. Bioengineering at UCR also includes the Bioengineering Interdepartmental Graduate (BIG) program. With its slogan Start-Grow-Be-BIG, it is already recognized for its many accomplishments, including being third in the nation in 2011 for bioengineering students receiving National Science Foundation graduate research fellowships as well as being one of the most ethnically inclusive programs in the nation.

Environmental/Biomedical Terminology Index

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Huffstetler, J.K.; Dailey, N.S.; Rickert, L.W.; Chilton, B.D.

1976-12-01

The Information Center Complex (ICC), a centrally administered group of information centers, provides information support to environmental and biomedical research groups and others within and outside Oak Ridge National Laboratory. In-house data base building and development of specialized document collections are important elements of the ongoing activities of these centers. ICC groups must be concerned with language which will adequately classify and insure retrievability of document records. Language control problems are compounded when the complexity of modern scientific problem solving demands an interdisciplinary approach. Although there are several word lists, indexes, and thesauri specific to various scientific disciplines usually grouped as Environmental Sciences, no single generally recognized authority can be used as a guide to the terminology of all environmental science. If biomedical terminology for the description of research on environmental effects is also needed, the problem becomes even more complex. The building of a word list which can be used as a general guide to the environmental/biomedical sciences has been a continuing activity of the Information Center Complex. This activity resulted in the publication of the Environmental Biomedical Terminology Index

Accelerator mass spectrometry in biomedical research

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vogel, J.S.; Turteltaub, K.W.

1993-01-01

Biological effects occur in natural systems at chemical concentrations of parts per billion (1:10 9 ) or less. Affected biomolecules may be separable in only milligram or microgram quantities. Quantification at attomole sensitivity is needed to study these interactions. AMS measures isotope concentrations to parts per 10 13--15 on milligram-sized samples and is ideal for quantifying long-lived radioisotopic labels that are commonly used to trace biochemical pathways in natural systems. 14 C-AMS has now been coupled to a variety of organic separation and definition technologies. The primary research investigates pharmacokinetics and genotoxicities of toxins and drugs at very low doses. Human subject research using AMS includes nutrition, toxicity and elemental balance studies. 3 H, 41 Ca and 26 Al are also traced by AMS for fundamental biochemical kinetic research. Expansion of biomedical AMS awaits further development of biochemical and accelerator technologies designed specifically for these applications

Biomedical Engineering in Modern Society

Science.gov (United States)

Attinger, E. O.

1971-01-01

Considers definition of biomedical engineering (BME) and how biomedical engineers should be trained. State of the art descriptions of BME and BME education are followed by a brief look at the future of BME. (TS)

Engineering and Application of Zinc Finger Proteins and TALEs for Biomedical Research.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Moon-Soo; Kini, Anu Ganesh

2017-08-01

Engineered DNA-binding domains provide a powerful technology for numerous biomedical studies due to their ability to recognize specific DNA sequences. Zinc fingers (ZF) are one of the most common DNA-binding domains and have been extensively studied for a variety of applications, such as gene regulation, genome engineering and diagnostics. Another novel DNA-binding domain known as a transcriptional activator-like effector (TALE) has been more recently discovered, which has a previously undescribed DNA-binding mode. Due to their modular architecture and flexibility, TALEs have been rapidly developed into artificial gene targeting reagents. Here, we describe the methods used to design these DNA-binding proteins and their key applications in biomedical research.

Telemedicine optoelectronic biomedical data processing system

Science.gov (United States)

Prosolovska, Vita V.

2010-08-01

The telemedicine optoelectronic biomedical data processing system is created to share medical information for the control of health rights and timely and rapid response to crisis. The system includes the main blocks: bioprocessor, analog-digital converter biomedical images, optoelectronic module for image processing, optoelectronic module for parallel recording and storage of biomedical imaging and matrix screen display of biomedical images. Rated temporal characteristics of the blocks defined by a particular triggering optoelectronic couple in analog-digital converters and time imaging for matrix screen. The element base for hardware implementation of the developed matrix screen is integrated optoelectronic couples produced by selective epitaxy.

Simulation study of a high power density rectenna array for biomedical implantable devices

Science.gov (United States)

Day, John; Yoon, Hargsoon; Kim, Jaehwan; Choi, Sang H.; Song, Kyo D.

2016-04-01

The integration of wireless power transmission devices using microwaves into the biomedical field is close to a practical reality. Implanted biomedical devices need a long lasting power source or continuous power supply. Recent development of high efficiency rectenna technology enables continuous power supply to these implanted devices. Due to the size limit of most of medical devices, it is imperative to minimize the rectenna as well. The research reported in this paper reviews the effects of close packing the rectenna elements which show the potential of directly empowering the implanted devices, especially within a confined area. The rectenna array is tested in the X band frequency range.

Endovascular Device Testing with Particle Image Velocimetry Enhances Undergraduate Biomedical Engineering Education

Science.gov (United States)

Nair, Priya; Ankeny, Casey J.; Ryan, Justin; Okcay, Murat; Frakes, David H.

2016-01-01

We investigated the use of a new system, HemoFlow™, which utilizes state of the art technologies such as particle image velocimetry to test endovascular devices as part of an undergraduate biomedical engineering curriculum. Students deployed an endovascular stent into an anatomical model of a cerebral aneurysm and measured intra-aneurysmal flow…

Selective laser sintering in biomedical engineering.

Science.gov (United States)

Mazzoli, Alida

2013-03-01

Selective laser sintering (SLS) is a solid freeform fabrication technique, developed by Carl Deckard for his master's thesis at the University of Texas, patented in 1989. SLS manufacturing is a technique that produces physical models through a selective solidification of a variety of fine powders. SLS technology is getting a great amount of attention in the clinical field. In this paper the characteristics features of SLS and the materials that have been developed for are reviewed together with a discussion on the principles of the above-mentioned manufacturing technique. The applications of SLS in tissue engineering, and at-large in the biomedical field, are reviewed and discussed.

The biomedical discourse relation bank

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joshi Aravind

2011-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Identification of discourse relations, such as causal and contrastive relations, between situations mentioned in text is an important task for biomedical text-mining. A biomedical text corpus annotated with discourse relations would be very useful for developing and evaluating methods for biomedical discourse processing. However, little effort has been made to develop such an annotated resource. Results We have developed the Biomedical Discourse Relation Bank (BioDRB, in which we have annotated explicit and implicit discourse relations in 24 open-access full-text biomedical articles from the GENIA corpus. Guidelines for the annotation were adapted from the Penn Discourse TreeBank (PDTB, which has discourse relations annotated over open-domain news articles. We introduced new conventions and modifications to the sense classification. We report reliable inter-annotator agreement of over 80% for all sub-tasks. Experiments for identifying the sense of explicit discourse connectives show the connective itself as a highly reliable indicator for coarse sense classification (accuracy 90.9% and F1 score 0.89. These results are comparable to results obtained with the same classifier on the PDTB data. With more refined sense classification, there is degradation in performance (accuracy 69.2% and F1 score 0.28, mainly due to sparsity in the data. The size of the corpus was found to be sufficient for identifying the sense of explicit connectives, with classifier performance stabilizing at about 1900 training instances. Finally, the classifier performs poorly when trained on PDTB and tested on BioDRB (accuracy 54.5% and F1 score 0.57. Conclusion Our work shows that discourse relations can be reliably annotated in biomedical text. Coarse sense disambiguation of explicit connectives can be done with high reliability by using just the connective as a feature, but more refined sense classification requires either richer features or more

Biomedical Science Technologists in Lagos Universities: Meeting ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Biomedical Science Technologists in Lagos Universities: Meeting Modern Standards ... like to see in biomedical science in Nigeria; 5) their knowledge of ten state-of-the-arts ... KEY WORDS: biomedical science, state-of-the-arts, technical staff ...

EVALUATION OF BIOMEDICAL WASTE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN MULTI-SPECIALITY TERTIARY HOSPITAL

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shalini Srivastav

2010-06-01

Full Text Available Background: Biomedical Waste (BMW, collection and proper disposal has become a significant concern for both the medical and the general community The scientific “Hospital waste Management “is of vital importance as its improper management poses risks to the health care workers ,waste handlers patients, community in general and largely the environment. Objectives: (i To assess current practices of Bio-medical Waste management including generation, collection, transportation storage, treatment and disposal technologies in tertiary health care center. (ii To assess health andsafetypracticesfor the health care personnel involved in Bio-Medical waste Management. Materials and Methods: Waste management practices in tertiary care-centre was studied during May 2010 June 2010. The information/data regarding Bio-Medical Waste Management practices and safety was collected by way of semi structured interview, proforma being the one used for WASTE AUDITING QUESTIONNAIRE. The information collected was verified by personal observations of waste management practices in each ward of hospital. Results : SRMS-IMS generates 1. 25Kgs waste per bed per day and maximum waste is generated in wards. The institute has got separate color coded bins in each ward for collection of waste but segregation practices needs to be more refined. The safety measures taken by health care workers was not satisfactory it was not due to unavailability of Personal protective measures but because of un-awareness of health hazards which may occur due to improper waste management practices. Thus it is concluded that there should be strict implementation of a waste management policy set up in the institute, training and motivation must be given paramount importance to meet the current needs and standard of bio-medical waste management.

Publishing priorities of biomedical research funders

Science.gov (United States)

Collins, Ellen

2013-01-01

Objectives To understand the publishing priorities, especially in relation to open access, of 10 UK biomedical research funders. Design Semistructured interviews. Setting 10 UK biomedical research funders. Participants 12 employees with responsibility for research management at 10 UK biomedical research funders; a purposive sample to represent a range of backgrounds and organisation types. Conclusions Publicly funded and large biomedical research funders are committed to open access publishing and are pleased with recent developments which have stimulated growth in this area. Smaller charitable funders are supportive of the aims of open access, but are concerned about the practical implications for their budgets and their funded researchers. Across the board, biomedical research funders are turning their attention to other priorities for sharing research outputs, including data, protocols and negative results. Further work is required to understand how smaller funders, including charitable funders, can support open access. PMID:24154520

CRISPR Editing in Biological and Biomedical Investigation.

Science.gov (United States)

Ju, Xing-Da; Xu, Jing; Sun, Zhong Sheng

2018-01-01

The CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat)-Cas (CRISPR-associated protein) system, a prokaryotic RNA-based adaptive immune system against viral infection, is emerging as a powerful genome editing tool in broad research areas. To further improve and expand its functionality, various CRISPR delivery strategies have been tested and optimized, and key CRISPR system components such as Cas protein have been engineered with different purposes. Benefiting from more in-depth understanding and further development of CRISPR, versatile CRISPR-based platforms for genome editing have been rapidly developed to advance investigations in biology and biomedicine. In biological research area, CRISPR has been widely adopted in both fundamental and applied research fields, such as genomic and epigenomic modification, genome-wide screening, cell and animal research, agriculture transforming, livestock breeding, food manufacture, industrial biotechnology, and gene drives in disease agents control. In biomedical research area, CRISPR has also shown its extensive applicability in the establishment of animal models for genetic disorders, generation of tissue donors, implementation of antimicrobial and antiviral studies, identification and assessment of new drugs, and even treatment for clinical diseases. However, there are still several problems to consider, and the biggest concerns are the off-target effects and ethical issues of this technology. In this prospect article, after highlighting recent development of CRISPR systems, we outline different applications and current limitations of CRISPR in biological and biomedical investigation. Finally, we provide a perspective on future development and potential risks of this multifunctional technology. J. Cell. Biochem. 119: 52-61, 2018. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Basics of biomedical ultrasound for engineers

CERN Document Server

Azhari, Haim

2010-01-01

"Basics of Biomedical Ultrasound for Engineers is a structured textbook for university engineering courses in biomedical ultrasound and for researchers in the field. This book offers a tool for building a solid understanding of biomedical ultrasound, and leads the novice through the field in a step-by-step manner. The book begins with the most basic definitions of waves, proceeds to ultrasounds in fluids, and then delves into solid ultrasounds, the most complicated kind of ultrasound. It encompasses a wide range of topics within biomedical ultrasound, from conceptual definitions of waves to the intricacies of focusing devices, transducers, and acoustic fields"--Provided by publisher.

Big Data Application in Biomedical Research and Health Care: A Literature Review.

Science.gov (United States)

Luo, Jake; Wu, Min; Gopukumar, Deepika; Zhao, Yiqing

2016-01-01

Big data technologies are increasingly used for biomedical and health-care informatics research. Large amounts of biological and clinical data have been generated and collected at an unprecedented speed and scale. For example, the new generation of sequencing technologies enables the processing of billions of DNA sequence data per day, and the application of electronic health records (EHRs) is documenting large amounts of patient data. The cost of acquiring and analyzing biomedical data is expected to decrease dramatically with the help of technology upgrades, such as the emergence of new sequencing machines, the development of novel hardware and software for parallel computing, and the extensive expansion of EHRs. Big data applications present new opportunities to discover new knowledge and create novel methods to improve the quality of health care. The application of big data in health care is a fast-growing field, with many new discoveries and methodologies published in the last five years. In this paper, we review and discuss big data application in four major biomedical subdisciplines: (1) bioinformatics, (2) clinical informatics, (3) imaging informatics, and (4) public health informatics. Specifically, in bioinformatics, high-throughput experiments facilitate the research of new genome-wide association studies of diseases, and with clinical informatics, the clinical field benefits from the vast amount of collected patient data for making intelligent decisions. Imaging informatics is now more rapidly integrated with cloud platforms to share medical image data and workflows, and public health informatics leverages big data techniques for predicting and monitoring infectious disease outbreaks, such as Ebola. In this paper, we review the recent progress and breakthroughs of big data applications in these health-care domains and summarize the challenges, gaps, and opportunities to improve and advance big data applications in health care.

Teaching biomedical technology innovation as a discipline.

Science.gov (United States)

Yock, Paul G; Brinton, Todd J; Zenios, Stefanos A

2011-07-20

Recently, universities in the United States and abroad have developed dedicated educational programs in life science technology innovation. Here, we discuss the two major streams of educational theory and practice that have informed these programs: design thinking and entrepreneurship education. We make the case that the process of innovation for new medical technologies (medtech) is different from that for biopharmaceuticals and outline the challenges and opportunities associated with developing a discipline of medtech innovation.

Environmental/Biomedical Terminology Index

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Huffstetler, J.K.; Dailey, N.S.; Rickert, L.W.; Chilton, B.D.

1976-12-01

The Information Center Complex (ICC), a centrally administered group of information centers, provides information support to environmental and biomedical research groups and others within and outside Oak Ridge National Laboratory. In-house data base building and development of specialized document collections are important elements of the ongoing activities of these centers. ICC groups must be concerned with language which will adequately classify and insure retrievability of document records. Language control problems are compounded when the complexity of modern scientific problem solving demands an interdisciplinary approach. Although there are several word lists, indexes, and thesauri specific to various scientific disciplines usually grouped as Environmental Sciences, no single generally recognized authority can be used as a guide to the terminology of all environmental science. If biomedical terminology for the description of research on environmental effects is also needed, the problem becomes even more complex. The building of a word list which can be used as a general guide to the environmental/biomedical sciences has been a continuing activity of the Information Center Complex. This activity resulted in the publication of the Environmental Biomedical Terminology Index (EBTI).

The role of a creative "joint assignment" project in biomedical engineering bachelor degree education.

Science.gov (United States)

Jiehui Jiang; Yuting Zhang; Mi Zhou; Xiaosong Zheng; Zhuangzhi Yan

2017-07-01

Biomedical Engineering (BME) bachelor education aims to train qualified engineers who devote themselves to addressing biological and medical problems by integrating the technological, medical and biological knowledge. Design thinking and teamwork with other disciplines are necessary for biomedical engineers. In the current biomedical engineering education system of Shanghai University (SHU), however, such design thinking and teamwork through a practical project is lacking. This paper describes a creative "joint assignment" project in Shanghai University, China, which has provided BME bachelor students a two-year practical experience to work with students from multidisciplinary departments including sociology, mechanics, computer sciences, business and art, etc. To test the feasibility of this project, a twenty-month pilot project has been carried out from May 2015 to December 2016. The results showed that this pilot project obviously enhanced competitive power of BME students in Shanghai University, both in the capabilities of design thinking and teamwork.

Functionalized carbon nanotubes: biomedical applications

Science.gov (United States)

Vardharajula, Sandhya; Ali, Sk Z; Tiwari, Pooja M; Eroğlu, Erdal; Vig, Komal; Dennis, Vida A; Singh, Shree R

2012-01-01

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are emerging as novel nanomaterials for various biomedical applications. CNTs can be used to deliver a variety of therapeutic agents, including biomolecules, to the target disease sites. In addition, their unparalleled optical and electrical properties make them excellent candidates for bioimaging and other biomedical applications. However, the high cytotoxicity of CNTs limits their use in humans and many biological systems. The biocompatibility and low cytotoxicity of CNTs are attributed to size, dose, duration, testing systems, and surface functionalization. The functionalization of CNTs improves their solubility and biocompatibility and alters their cellular interaction pathways, resulting in much-reduced cytotoxic effects. Functionalized CNTs are promising novel materials for a variety of biomedical applications. These potential applications are particularly enhanced by their ability to penetrate biological membranes with relatively low cytotoxicity. This review is directed towards the overview of CNTs and their functionalization for biomedical applications with minimal cytotoxicity. PMID:23091380

Biomedical research, a tool to address the health issues that affect African populations

Science.gov (United States)

2013-01-01

Traditionally, biomedical research endeavors in low to middle resources countries have focused on communicable diseases. However, data collected over the past 20 years by the World Health Organization (WHO) show a significant increase in the number of people suffering from non-communicable diseases (e.g. heart disease, diabetes, cancer and pulmonary diseases). Within the coming years, WHO predicts significant decreases in communicable diseases while non-communicable diseases are expected to double in low and middle income countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The predicted increase in the non-communicable diseases population could be economically burdensome for the basic healthcare infrastructure of countries that lack resources to address this emerging disease burden. Biomedical research could stimulate development of healthcare and biomedical infrastructure. If this development is sustainable, it provides an opportunity to alleviate the burden of both communicable and non-communicable diseases through diagnosis, prevention and treatment. In this paper, we discuss how research using biomedical technology, especially genomics, has produced data that enhances the understanding and treatment of both communicable and non-communicable diseases in sub-Saharan Africa. We further discuss how scientific development can provide opportunities to pursue research areas responsive to the African populations. We limit our discussion to biomedical research in the areas of genomics due to its substantial impact on the scientific community in recent years however, we also recognize that targeted investments in other scientific disciplines could also foster further development in African countries. PMID:24143865

International symposium on Biomedical Data Infrastructure (BDI 2013)

CERN Document Server

Dhillon, Sarinder; Advances in biomedical infrastructure 2013

2013-01-01

Current Biomedical Databases are independently administered in geographically distinct locations, lending them almost ideally to adoption of intelligent data management approaches. This book focuses on research issues, problems and opportunities in Biomedical Data Infrastructure identifying new issues and directions for future research in Biomedical Data and Information Retrieval, Semantics in Biomedicine, and Biomedical Data Modeling and Analysis. The book will be a useful guide for researchers, practitioners, and graduate-level students interested in learning state-of-the-art development in biomedical data management.

Professional Identification for Biomedical Engineers

Science.gov (United States)

Long, Francis M.

1973-01-01

Discusses four methods of professional identification in biomedical engineering including registration, certification, accreditation, and possible membership qualification of the societies. Indicates that the destiny of the biomedical engineer may be under the control of a new profession, neither the medical nor the engineering. (CC)

Egyptian Journal of Biomedical Sciences

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The Egyptian Journal of Biomedical Sciences publishes in all aspects of biomedical research sciences. Both basic and clinical research papers are welcomed. Vol 23 (2007). DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT Open Access DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT Subscription or Fee Access. Table of Contents. Articles. Phytochemical And ...

An exploration of the biomedical optics course construction of undergraduate biomedical engineering program in medical colleges

Science.gov (United States)

Guo, Shijun; Lyu, Jie; Zhang, Peiming

2017-08-01

In this paper, the teaching goals, teaching contents and teaching methods in biomedical optics course construction are discussed. From the dimension of teaching goals, students should master the principle of optical inspection on the human body, diagnosis and treatment of methodology and instruments, through the study of the theory and practice of this course, and can utilize biomedical optics methods to solve practical problems in the clinical medical engineering practice. From the dimension of teaching contents, based on the characteristics of biomedical engineering in medical colleges, the organic integration of engineering aspects, medical optical instruments, and biomedical aspects dispersed in human anatomy, human physiology, clinical medicine fundamental related to the biomedical optics is build. Noninvasive measurement of the human body composition and noninvasive optical imaging of the human body were taken as actual problems in biomedical optics fields. Typical medical applications such as eye optics and laser medicine were also integrated into the theory and practice teaching. From the dimension of teaching methods, referencing to organ-system based medical teaching mode, optical principle and instrument principle were taught by teachers from school of medical instruments, and the histological characteristics and clinical actual need in areas such as digestive diseases and urinary surgery were taught by teachers from school of basic medicine or clinical medicine of medical colleges. Furthermore, clinical application guidance would be provided by physician and surgeons in hospitals.

CNN-based ranking for biomedical entity normalization.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Haodi; Chen, Qingcai; Tang, Buzhou; Wang, Xiaolong; Xu, Hua; Wang, Baohua; Huang, Dong

2017-10-03

Most state-of-the-art biomedical entity normalization systems, such as rule-based systems, merely rely on morphological information of entity mentions, but rarely consider their semantic information. In this paper, we introduce a novel convolutional neural network (CNN) architecture that regards biomedical entity normalization as a ranking problem and benefits from semantic information of biomedical entities. The CNN-based ranking method first generates candidates using handcrafted rules, and then ranks the candidates according to their semantic information modeled by CNN as well as their morphological information. Experiments on two benchmark datasets for biomedical entity normalization show that our proposed CNN-based ranking method outperforms traditional rule-based method with state-of-the-art performance. We propose a CNN architecture that regards biomedical entity normalization as a ranking problem. Comparison results show that semantic information is beneficial to biomedical entity normalization and can be well combined with morphological information in our CNN architecture for further improvement.

Technology | FNLCR Staging

Science.gov (United States)

The Frederick National Lab develops and applies advanced, next-generation technologies to solve basic and applied problems in the biomedical sciences, and serves as a national resource of shared high-tech facilities.

COEUS: "semantic web in a box" for biomedical applications.

Science.gov (United States)

Lopes, Pedro; Oliveira, José Luís

2012-12-17

As the "omics" revolution unfolds, the growth in data quantity and diversity is bringing about the need for pioneering bioinformatics software, capable of significantly improving the research workflow. To cope with these computer science demands, biomedical software engineers are adopting emerging semantic web technologies that better suit the life sciences domain. The latter's complex relationships are easily mapped into semantic web graphs, enabling a superior understanding of collected knowledge. Despite increased awareness of semantic web technologies in bioinformatics, their use is still limited. COEUS is a new semantic web framework, aiming at a streamlined application development cycle and following a "semantic web in a box" approach. The framework provides a single package including advanced data integration and triplification tools, base ontologies, a web-oriented engine and a flexible exploration API. Resources can be integrated from heterogeneous sources, including CSV and XML files or SQL and SPARQL query results, and mapped directly to one or more ontologies. Advanced interoperability features include REST services, a SPARQL endpoint and LinkedData publication. These enable the creation of multiple applications for web, desktop or mobile environments, and empower a new knowledge federation layer. The platform, targeted at biomedical application developers, provides a complete skeleton ready for rapid application deployment, enhancing the creation of new semantic information systems. COEUS is available as open source at http://bioinformatics.ua.pt/coeus/.

Rapid prototyping for biomedical engineering: current capabilities and challenges.

Science.gov (United States)

Lantada, Andrés Díaz; Morgado, Pilar Lafont

2012-01-01

A new set of manufacturing technologies has emerged in the past decades to address market requirements in a customized way and to provide support for research tasks that require prototypes. These new techniques and technologies are usually referred to as rapid prototyping and manufacturing technologies, and they allow prototypes to be produced in a wide range of materials with remarkable precision in a couple of hours. Although they have been rapidly incorporated into product development methodologies, they are still under development, and their applications in bioengineering are continuously evolving. Rapid prototyping and manufacturing technologies can be of assistance in every stage of the development process of novel biodevices, to address various problems that can arise in the devices' interactions with biological systems and the fact that the design decisions must be tested carefully. This review focuses on the main fields of application for rapid prototyping in biomedical engineering and health sciences, as well as on the most remarkable challenges and research trends.

African Journal of Biomedical Research

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The African Journal of biomedical Research was founded in 1998 as a joint project ... of the journal led to the formation of a group (Biomedical Communications Group, ... analysis of multidrug resistant aerobic gram-negative clinical isolates from a ... Dental formula and dental abnormalities observed in the Eidolon helvum ...

An overview of weapons technologies used to improve US healthcare

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fahrenholtz, J.; Kovarik, T.L.

1995-01-01

At Sandia National Laboratories the Biomedical Engineering Program uses existing weapons-related technology in medical applications in order to reduce health care costs, improve diagnoses, and promote efficient health care delivery. This paper describes several projects which use Sandia technologies to solve biomedical problems. Specific technical capabilities that are important to this program include sensor data interpretation, robotics, lasers and optics, microelectronics, image processing and materials

A Study of the Information Literacy of Biomedical Graduate Students: Based on the Thesis Topic Discovery Process in Molecular Biology Research

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jhao-Yen Huang

2014-06-01

Full Text Available The biomedical information environment is in a state of constant and rapid change due to the increase in research data and rapid technological advances. In Taiwan, few research has investigated the information literacy of biomedical graduate students. This exploratory study examined the information literacy abilities and training of biomedical graduate students in Taiwan. Semi-structured interviews based on the Association of College and Research Libraries Information Literacy Competency Standards for Science and Engineering/Technology were conducted with 20 molecular biological graduate students. The interview inquired about their information-seeking channels and information literacy education. The findings show that the biomedical graduate students developed a workable thesis topic with their advisors. Through various information-seeking channels and retrieval strategies, they obtained and critically evaluated information to address different information needs for their thesis research. Through seminars, annual conferences and papers, the interviewees were informed of current developments in their field. Subsequently, through written or oral communications, they were able to integrate and exchange the information. Most interviewees cared about the social, economic, legal, and ethical issues surrounding the use of information. College courses and labs were the main information literacy education environment for them to learn about research skills and knowledge. The study concludes four areas to address for the information literacy of biomedical graduate students, i.e., using professional information, using the current information, efficiency in assessing the domain information, and utilization of diverse information channels. Currently, the interviewees showed rather low usage of library resources, which is a concern for biomedical educators and libraries. [Article content in Chinese

A System for Information Management in BioMedical Studies—SIMBioMS

Science.gov (United States)

Krestyaninova, Maria; Zarins, Andris; Viksna, Juris; Kurbatova, Natalja; Rucevskis, Peteris; Neogi, Sudeshna Guha; Gostev, Mike; Perheentupa, Teemu; Knuuttila, Juha; Barrett, Amy; Lappalainen, Ilkka; Rung, Johan; Podnieks, Karlis; Sarkans, Ugis; McCarthy, Mark I; Brazma, Alvis

2009-01-01

Summary: SIMBioMS is a web-based open source software system for managing data and information in biomedical studies. It provides a solution for the collection, storage, management and retrieval of information about research subjects and biomedical samples, as well as experimental data obtained using a range of high-throughput technologies, including gene expression, genotyping, proteomics and metabonomics. The system can easily be customized and has proven to be successful in several large-scale multi-site collaborative projects. It is compatible with emerging functional genomics data standards and provides data import and export in accepted standard formats. Protocols for transferring data to durable archives at the European Bioinformatics Institute have been implemented. Availability: The source code, documentation and initialization scripts are available at http://simbioms.org. Contact: support@simbioms.org; mariak@ebi.ac.uk PMID:19633095

Nanotechnologies, technologies converging and potential biomedical applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Capuano, Vincenzo

2005-01-01

The applications of nanotechnology to biology and medicine appear really promising far diagnostics, for various therapeutic approaches and in medical instrumentations. The growing synergism among nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology and cognitive sciences, their convergence (NBIC) from the nano scale, could involve on next decades great changes in medicine, from a reactive to a predictive and preventive approach. It is expected that NBIC converging technologies could achieve tremendous improvements in human abilities and enhance societal achievements. It appears therefore necessary a careful assessment of related social and ethical implications, in the framework of a constant dialogue between science and society [it

Research evaluation support services in biomedical libraries

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Karen Elizabeth Gutzman

2018-01-01

Conclusions: Libraries can leverage a variety of evaluation support services as an opportunity to successfully meet an array of challenges confronting the biomedical research community, including robust efforts to report and demonstrate tangible and meaningful outcomes of biomedical research and clinical care. These services represent a transformative direction that can be emulated by other biomedical and research libraries.

Biomedical nanomaterials from design to implementation

CERN Document Server

Webster, Thomas

2016-01-01

Biomedical Nanomaterials brings together the engineering applications and challenges of using nanostructured surfaces and nanomaterials in healthcare in a single source. Each chapter covers important and new information in the biomedical applications of nanomaterials.

qPortal: A platform for data-driven biomedical research.

Science.gov (United States)

Mohr, Christopher; Friedrich, Andreas; Wojnar, David; Kenar, Erhan; Polatkan, Aydin Can; Codrea, Marius Cosmin; Czemmel, Stefan; Kohlbacher, Oliver; Nahnsen, Sven

2018-01-01

Modern biomedical research aims at drawing biological conclusions from large, highly complex biological datasets. It has become common practice to make extensive use of high-throughput technologies that produce big amounts of heterogeneous data. In addition to the ever-improving accuracy, methods are getting faster and cheaper, resulting in a steadily increasing need for scalable data management and easily accessible means of analysis. We present qPortal, a platform providing users with an intuitive way to manage and analyze quantitative biological data. The backend leverages a variety of concepts and technologies, such as relational databases, data stores, data models and means of data transfer, as well as front-end solutions to give users access to data management and easy-to-use analysis options. Users are empowered to conduct their experiments from the experimental design to the visualization of their results through the platform. Here, we illustrate the feature-rich portal by simulating a biomedical study based on publically available data. We demonstrate the software's strength in supporting the entire project life cycle. The software supports the project design and registration, empowers users to do all-digital project management and finally provides means to perform analysis. We compare our approach to Galaxy, one of the most widely used scientific workflow and analysis platforms in computational biology. Application of both systems to a small case study shows the differences between a data-driven approach (qPortal) and a workflow-driven approach (Galaxy). qPortal, a one-stop-shop solution for biomedical projects offers up-to-date analysis pipelines, quality control workflows, and visualization tools. Through intensive user interactions, appropriate data models have been developed. These models build the foundation of our biological data management system and provide possibilities to annotate data, query metadata for statistics and future re-analysis on

Organization of Biomedical Data for Collaborative Scientific Research: A Research Information Management System.

Science.gov (United States)

Myneni, Sahiti; Patel, Vimla L

2010-06-01

Biomedical researchers often work with massive, detailed and heterogeneous datasets. These datasets raise new challenges of information organization and management for scientific interpretation, as they demand much of the researchers' time and attention. The current study investigated the nature of the problems that researchers face when dealing with such data. Four major problems identified with existing biomedical scientific information management methods were related to data organization, data sharing, collaboration, and publications. Therefore, there is a compelling need to develop an efficient and user-friendly information management system to handle the biomedical research data. This study evaluated the implementation of an information management system, which was introduced as part of the collaborative research to increase scientific productivity in a research laboratory. Laboratory members seemed to exhibit frustration during the implementation process. However, empirical findings revealed that they gained new knowledge and completed specified tasks while working together with the new system. Hence, researchers are urged to persist and persevere when dealing with any new technology, including an information management system in a research laboratory environment.

A novel end-to-end classifier using domain transferred deep convolutional neural networks for biomedical images.

Science.gov (United States)

Pang, Shuchao; Yu, Zhezhou; Orgun, Mehmet A

2017-03-01

Highly accurate classification of biomedical images is an essential task in the clinical diagnosis of numerous medical diseases identified from those images. Traditional image classification methods combined with hand-crafted image feature descriptors and various classifiers are not able to effectively improve the accuracy rate and meet the high requirements of classification of biomedical images. The same also holds true for artificial neural network models directly trained with limited biomedical images used as training data or directly used as a black box to extract the deep features based on another distant dataset. In this study, we propose a highly reliable and accurate end-to-end classifier for all kinds of biomedical images via deep learning and transfer learning. We first apply domain transferred deep convolutional neural network for building a deep model; and then develop an overall deep learning architecture based on the raw pixels of original biomedical images using supervised training. In our model, we do not need the manual design of the feature space, seek an effective feature vector classifier or segment specific detection object and image patches, which are the main technological difficulties in the adoption of traditional image classification methods. Moreover, we do not need to be concerned with whether there are large training sets of annotated biomedical images, affordable parallel computing resources featuring GPUs or long times to wait for training a perfect deep model, which are the main problems to train deep neural networks for biomedical image classification as observed in recent works. With the utilization of a simple data augmentation method and fast convergence speed, our algorithm can achieve the best accuracy rate and outstanding classification ability for biomedical images. We have evaluated our classifier on several well-known public biomedical datasets and compared it with several state-of-the-art approaches. We propose a robust

Small animal PET and its applications in biomedical research

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Qiu Feichan

2004-01-01

Positron emission tomography (PET) is a nuclear medical imaging technique that permits the use of positron-labeled molecular imaging probes for non-invasive assays of biochemical processes. As the leading technology in nuclear medicine, PET has extended its applications from the clinical field to the study of small laboratory animals. In recent years, the development of new detector technology has dramatically improved the spatial resolution and image quality of small animal PET scanner, which is being used increasingly as a basic tool in modern biomedical research. In particular, small animal PET will play an important role in drug discovery and development, in the study of small animal models of human diseases, in characterizing gene expression and in many other ways. (authors)

New routes to the functionalization patterning and manufacture of graphene-based materials for biomedical applications.

Science.gov (United States)

De Sanctis, A; Russo, S; Craciun, M F; Alexeev, A; Barnes, M D; Nagareddy, V K; Wright, C D

2018-06-06

Graphene-based materials are being widely explored for a range of biomedical applications, from targeted drug delivery to biosensing, bioimaging and use for antibacterial treatments, to name but a few. In many such applications, it is not graphene itself that is used as the active agent, but one of its chemically functionalized forms. The type of chemical species used for functionalization will play a key role in determining the utility of any graphene-based device in any particular biomedical application, because this determines to a large part its physical, chemical, electrical and optical interactions. However, other factors will also be important in determining the eventual uptake of graphene-based biomedical technologies, in particular the ease and cost of manufacture of proposed device and system designs. In this work, we describe three novel routes for the chemical functionalization of graphene using oxygen, iron chloride and fluorine. We also introduce novel in situ methods for controlling and patterning such functionalization on the micro- and nanoscales. Our approaches are readily transferable to large-scale manufacturing, potentially paving the way for the eventual cost-effective production of functionalized graphene-based materials, devices and systems for a range of important biomedical applications.

Maximising value from a United Kingdom Biomedical Research Centre: study protocol

OpenAIRE

Greenhalgh, Trisha; Ovseiko, Pavel V.; Fahy, Nick; Shaw, Sara; Kerr, Polly; Rushforth, Alexander D.; Channon, Keith M.; Kiparoglou, Vasiliki

2017-01-01

Background Biomedical Research Centres (BRCs) are partnerships between healthcare organisations and universities in England. Their mission is to generate novel treatments, technologies, diagnostics and other interventions that increase the country’s international competitiveness, to rapidly translate these innovations into benefits for patients, and to improve efficiency and reduce waste in healthcare. As NIHR Oxford BRC (Oxford BRC) enters its third 5-year funding period, we seek to (1) a...

Biomedical devices engineered based on the control of the surface wettability

OpenAIRE

Oliveira, Nuno Miguel Ribeiro de

2017-01-01

Tese de Doutoramento em Engenharia de Tecidos, Medicina Regenerativa e Células Estaminais The wettability control has been showed as an important parameter for several systems and applications on the biomedical field. Once the surface wettability has crucial influence in protein adsorption and cell adhesion. Here, the focus was on the technology development based on the advanced control of wettability in surfaces, tuning directly the surface characteristics or modifying surface...

The community FabLab platform: applications and implications in biomedical engineering.

Science.gov (United States)

Stephenson, Makeda K; Dow, Douglas E

2014-01-01

Skill development in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education present one of the most formidable challenges of modern society. The Community FabLab platform presents a viable solution. Each FabLab contains a suite of modern computer numerical control (CNC) equipment, electronics and computing hardware and design, programming, computer aided design (CAD) and computer aided machining (CAM) software. FabLabs are community and educational resources and open to the public. Development of STEM based workforce skills such as digital fabrication and advanced manufacturing can be enhanced using this platform. Particularly notable is the potential of the FabLab platform in STEM education. The active learning environment engages and supports a diversity of learners, while the iterative learning that is supported by the FabLab rapid prototyping platform facilitates depth of understanding, creativity, innovation and mastery. The product and project based learning that occurs in FabLabs develops in the student a personal sense of accomplishment, self-awareness, command of the material and technology. This helps build the interest and confidence necessary to excel in STEM and throughout life. Finally the introduction and use of relevant technologies at every stage of the education process ensures technical familiarity and a broad knowledge base needed for work in STEM based fields. Biomedical engineering education strives to cultivate broad technical adeptness, creativity, interdisciplinary thought, and an ability to form deep conceptual understanding of complex systems. The FabLab platform is well designed to enhance biomedical engineering education.

Ultra-wideband and 60 GHz communications for biomedical applications

CERN Document Server

Yuce, Mehmet R

2013-01-01

This book investigates the design of devices, systems, and circuits for medical applications using the two recently established frequency bands: ultra-wideband (3.1-10.6 GHz) and 60 GHz ISM band. These two bands provide the largest bandwidths available for communication technologies and present many attractive opportunities for medical applications. The applications of these bands in healthcare are wireless body area network (WBAN), medical imaging, biomedical sensing, wearable and implantable devices, fast medical device connectivity, video data transmission, and vital signs monitoring. The r

For 481 biomedical open access journals, articles are not searchable in the Directory of Open Access Journals nor in conventional biomedical databases.

Science.gov (United States)

Liljekvist, Mads Svane; Andresen, Kristoffer; Pommergaard, Hans-Christian; Rosenberg, Jacob

2015-01-01

Background. Open access (OA) journals allows access to research papers free of charge to the reader. Traditionally, biomedical researchers use databases like MEDLINE and EMBASE to discover new advances. However, biomedical OA journals might not fulfill such databases' criteria, hindering dissemination. The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) is a database exclusively listing OA journals. The aim of this study was to investigate DOAJ's coverage of biomedical OA journals compared with the conventional biomedical databases. Methods. Information on all journals listed in four conventional biomedical databases (MEDLINE, PubMed Central, EMBASE and SCOPUS) and DOAJ were gathered. Journals were included if they were (1) actively publishing, (2) full OA, (3) prospectively indexed in one or more database, and (4) of biomedical subject. Impact factor and journal language were also collected. DOAJ was compared with conventional databases regarding the proportion of journals covered, along with their impact factor and publishing language. The proportion of journals with articles indexed by DOAJ was determined. Results. In total, 3,236 biomedical OA journals were included in the study. Of the included journals, 86.7% were listed in DOAJ. Combined, the conventional biomedical databases listed 75.0% of the journals; 18.7% in MEDLINE; 36.5% in PubMed Central; 51.5% in SCOPUS and 50.6% in EMBASE. Of the journals in DOAJ, 88.7% published in English and 20.6% had received impact factor for 2012 compared with 93.5% and 26.0%, respectively, for journals in the conventional biomedical databases. A subset of 51.1% and 48.5% of the journals in DOAJ had articles indexed from 2012 and 2013, respectively. Of journals exclusively listed in DOAJ, one journal had received an impact factor for 2012, and 59.6% of the journals had no content from 2013 indexed in DOAJ. Conclusions. DOAJ is the most complete registry of biomedical OA journals compared with five conventional biomedical databases

Specificity of Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) for Biomedical Cell Products.

Science.gov (United States)

Tulina, M A; Pyatigorskaya, N V

2018-03-01

The article describes special aspects of Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) for biomedical cell products (BMCP) that imply high standards of aseptics throughout the entire productio process, strict requirements to donors and to the procedure of biomaterial isolation, guaranty of tracing BMCP products, defining processing procedures which allow to identify BMCP as minimally manipulated; continuous quality control and automation of the control process at all stages of manufacturing, which will ensure product release simultaneously with completion of technological operations.

Grating-based X-ray phase contrast for biomedical imaging applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pfeiffer, Franz; Willner, Marian; Chabior, Michael; Herzen, Julia; Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht, Geesthacht; Auweter, Sigrid; Reiser, Maximilian; Bamberg, Fabian

2013-01-01

In this review article we describe the development of grating-based X-ray phase-contrast imaging, with particular emphasis on potential biomedical applications of the technology. We review the basics of image formation in grating-based phase-contrast and dark-field radiography and present some exemplary multimodal radiography results obtained with laboratory X-ray sources. Furthermore, we discuss the theoretical concepts to extend grating-based multimodal radiography to quantitative transmission, phase-contrast, and dark-field scattering computed tomography. (orig.)

Proof of concept: concept-based biomedical information retrieval

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Trieschnigg, Rudolf Berend

2010-01-01

In this thesis we investigate the possibility to integrate domain-specific knowledge into biomedical information retrieval (IR). Recent decades have shown a fast growing interest in biomedical research, reflected by an exponential growth in scientific literature. An important problem for biomedical

[Integration of fundamental and applied medical and technical research made at the department of the biomedical systems, Moscow State Institute of Electronic Engineering].

Science.gov (United States)

Selishchev, S V

2004-01-01

The integration results of fundamental and applied medical-and-technical research made at the chair of biomedical systems, Moscow state institute of electronic engineering (technical university--MSIEE), are described in the paper. The chair is guided in its research activity by the traditions of higher education in Russia in the field of biomedical electronics and biomedical engineering. Its activities are based on the extrapolation of methods of electronic tools, computer technologies, physics, biology and medicine with due respect being paid to the requirements of practical medicine and to topical issues of research and design.

Designing a mobile augmented reality tool for the locative visualisation of biomedical knowledge.

Science.gov (United States)

Kilby, Jess; Gray, Kathleen; Elliott, Kristine; Waycott, Jenny; Sanchez, Fernando Martin; Dave, Bharat

2013-01-01

Mobile augmented reality (MAR) may offer new and engaging ways to support consumer participation in health. We report on design-based research into a MAR application for smartphones and tablets, intended to improve public engagement with biomedical research in a specific urban precinct. Following a review of technical capabilities and organizational and locative design considerations, we worked with staff of four research institutes to elicit their ideas about information and interaction functionalities of a shared MAR app. The results were promising, supporting the development of a prototype and initial field testing with these staff. Evidence from this project may point the way toward user-centred design of MAR services that will enable more widespread adoption of the technology in other healthcare and biomedical research contexts.

BIG: a Grid Portal for Biomedical Data and Images

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Giovanni Aloisio

2004-06-01

Full Text Available Modern management of biomedical systems involves the use of many distributed resources, such as high performance computational resources to analyze biomedical data, mass storage systems to store them, medical instruments (microscopes, tomographs, etc., advanced visualization and rendering tools. Grids offer the computational power, security and availability needed by such novel applications. This paper presents BIG (Biomedical Imaging Grid, a Web-based Grid portal for management of biomedical information (data and images in a distributed environment. BIG is an interactive environment that deals with complex user's requests, regarding the acquisition of biomedical data, the "processing" and "delivering" of biomedical images, using the power and security of Computational Grids.

Enhancing biomedical design with design thinking.

Science.gov (United States)

Kemnitzer, Ronald; Dorsa, Ed

2009-01-01

The development of biomedical equipment is justifiably focused on making products that "work." However, this approach leaves many of the people affected by these designs (operators, patients, etc.) with little or no representation when it comes to the design of these products. Industrial design is a "user focused" profession which takes into account the needs of diverse groups when making design decisions. The authors propose that biomedical equipment design can be enhanced, made more user and patient "friendly" by adopting the industrial design approach to researching, analyzing, and ultimately designing biomedical products.

The development of biomedical engineering as experienced by one biomedical engineer.

Science.gov (United States)

Newell, Jonathan C

2012-12-12

This personal essay described the development of the field of Biomedical Engineering from its early days, from the perspective of one who lived through that development. It describes the making of a major invention using data that had been rejected by other scientists, the re-discovery of an obscure fact of physiology and its use in developing a major medical instrument, the development of a new medical imaging modality, and the near-death rescue of a research project. The essay concludes with comments about the development and present status of impedance imaging, and recent changes in the evolution of biomedical engineering as a field.

Biomedical Research Institute, Biomedical Research Foundation of Northwest Louisiana, Shreveport, Louisiana

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1992-01-01

Department of Energy (DOE) has prepared an Environmental Assessment (EA), DOE/EA-0789, evaluating the environmental impacts of construction and operation of a Biomedical Research Institute (BRI) at the Louisiana State University (LSU) Medical Center, Shreveport, Louisiana. The purpose of the BRI is to accelerate the development of biomedical research in cardiovascular disease, molecular biology, and neurobiology. Based on the analyses in the EA, DOE has determined that the proposed action does not constitute a major Federal action significantly affecting the quality of the human environment within the meaning of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA). Therefore, the preparation of an Environmental Impact Statement is not required

Sierra Leone Journal of Biomedical Research

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The Sierra Leone Journal of Biomedical Research publishes papers in all fields of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences including Basic Medical Sciences, Clinical Sciences, Dental Sciences, Behavioural Sciences, Biomedical Engineering, Molecular Biology, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Biotechnology in relation to Medicine, ...

Development of microfluidic devices for biomedical applications of synchrotron radiation infrared microspectroscopy

OpenAIRE

Birarda, Giovanni

2011-01-01

2009/2010 ABSTRACT DEVELOPMENT OF MICROFLUIDIC DEVICES FOR BIOMEDICAL APPLICATIONS OF SYNCHROTRON RADIATION INFRARED MICROSPECTROSCOPY by Birarda Giovanni The detection and measurement of biological processes in a complex living system is a discipline at the edge of Physics, Biology, and Engineering, with major scientific challenges, new technological applications and a great potential impact on dissection of phenomena occurring at tissue, cell, and sub cellular level. The ...

Advances in biomedical engineering

CERN Document Server

Brown, J H U

1976-01-01

Advances in Biomedical Engineering, Volume 5, is a collection of papers that deals with application of the principles and practices of engineering to basic and applied biomedical research, development, and the delivery of health care. The papers also describe breakthroughs in health improvements, as well as basic research that have been accomplished through clinical applications. One paper examines engineering principles and practices that can be applied in developing therapeutic systems by a controlled delivery system in drug dosage. Another paper examines the physiological and materials vari

Relational Databases and Biomedical Big Data.

Science.gov (United States)

de Silva, N H Nisansa D

2017-01-01

In various biomedical applications that collect, handle, and manipulate data, the amounts of data tend to build up and venture into the range identified as bigdata. In such occurrences, a design decision has to be taken as to what type of database would be used to handle this data. More often than not, the default and classical solution to this in the biomedical domain according to past research is relational databases. While this used to be the norm for a long while, it is evident that there is a trend to move away from relational databases in favor of other types and paradigms of databases. However, it still has paramount importance to understand the interrelation that exists between biomedical big data and relational databases. This chapter will review the pros and cons of using relational databases to store biomedical big data that previous researches have discussed and used.

VII Latin American Congress on Biomedical Engineering

CERN Document Server

Bustamante, John; Sierra, Daniel

2017-01-01

This volume presents the proceedings of the CLAIB 2016, held in Bucaramanga, Santander, Colombia, 26, 27 & 28 October 2016. The proceedings, presented by the Regional Council of Biomedical Engineering for Latin America (CORAL), offer research findings, experiences and activities between institutions and universities to develop Bioengineering, Biomedical Engineering and related sciences. The conferences of the American Congress of Biomedical Engineering are sponsored by the International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering (IFMBE), Society for Engineering in Biology and Medicine (EMBS) and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), among other organizations and international agencies to bring together scientists, academics and biomedical engineers in Latin America and other continents in an environment conducive to exchange and professional growth.

Proceedings of the 1. National Forum of Science and Technology on Health; 13. Brazilian Congress on Biomedical Engineering; 4. Brazilian Congress of Physicists on Medicine; Brazilian Meeting on Biology and Nuclear Medicine; Brazilian Meeting on Radiological Protection

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Costa, E.T.; Martins, H.L.; Muehlen, S.S.; Rockman, T.M.B.

1992-01-01

This 1. National Forum of Science and Technology on Health presents works of several scientific institutions, including topics on bioengineering; modelling and simulation; sensors and transducers; ultrasonic on medicine; instrumentation processing of signs and medical images; biomedical informatics and clinical software; engineering of rehabilitation; bio-materials and bio-mechanical; clinical engineering; in vivo and in vitro nuclear medicine; radioisotope production and utilization; radiology; radiology protection and dosimetry; radiotherapy; evaluation of technology on health and education. (C.G.C.)

Optimizing biomedical science learning in a veterinary curriculum: a review.

Science.gov (United States)

Warren, Amy L; Donnon, Tyrone

2013-01-01

As veterinary medical curricula evolve, the time dedicated to biomedical science teaching, as well as the role of biomedical science knowledge in veterinary education, has been scrutinized. Aside from being mandated by accrediting bodies, biomedical science knowledge plays an important role in developing clinical, diagnostic, and therapeutic reasoning skills in the application of clinical skills, in supporting evidence-based veterinary practice and life-long learning, and in advancing biomedical knowledge and comparative medicine. With an increasing volume and fast pace of change in biomedical knowledge, as well as increased demands on curricular time, there has been pressure to make biomedical science education efficient and relevant for veterinary medicine. This has lead to a shift in biomedical education from fact-based, teacher-centered and discipline-based teaching to applicable, student-centered, integrated teaching. This movement is supported by adult learning theories and is thought to enhance students' transference of biomedical science into their clinical practice. The importance of biomedical science in veterinary education and the theories of biomedical science learning will be discussed in this article. In addition, we will explore current advances in biomedical teaching methodologies that are aimed to maximize knowledge retention and application for clinical veterinary training and practice.

Biomedical signals and sensors II linking acoustic and optic biosignals and biomedical sensors

CERN Document Server

Kaniusas, Eugenijus

2015-01-01

The book set develops a bridge between physiologic mechanisms and diagnostic human engineering. While the first volume is focused on the interface between physiologic mechanisms and the resultant biosignals, this second volume is devoted to the interface between biosignals and biomedical sensors. That is, in the first volume, the physiologic mechanisms determining biosignals are described from the basic cellular level up to their advanced mutual coordination level. This second volume, considers the genesis of acoustic and optic biosignals and the associated sensing technology from a strategic point of view. As a novelty, this book discusses heterogeneous biosignals within a common frame. This frame comprises both the biosignal formation path from the biosignal source at the physiological level to biosignal propagation in the body, and the biosignal sensing path from the biosignal transmission in the sensor applied on the body up to its conversion to a, usually electric, signal. Some biosignals arise in the co...

Emerging Raman Applications and Techniques in Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Fields

CERN Document Server

Morris, Michael D

2010-01-01

The book presents the latest technological advances in Raman spectroscopy that are presently redrawing the landscape of many fields of biomedical and pharmaceutical R&D. Numerous examples are given to illustrate the application of the new methods and compared with established and related techniques. The book is suitable for both new researchers and practitioners in this area as well as for those familiar with the Raman technique but seeking to keep abreast of the latest dramatic advances in this field.

From Biomedical to Psychosomatic Reasoning: A Theoretical Framework

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alireza Monajemi

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Despite a general acceptance of the biopsychosocial model, medical education and patient care are still largely biomedical in focus, and physicians have many deficiencies in biopsychosocial formulations and care. Education in medical schools puts more emphasis on providing biomedical education (BM than biopsychosocial education (BPS; the initial knowledge formed in medical students is mainly with a biomedical approach. Therefore, it seems that psychosocial aspects play a minor role at this level and PSM knowledge will lag behind BM knowledge. However, it seems that the integration of biomedical and psychosocial-knowledge is crucial for a successful and efficient patient encounter. In this paper, based on the theory of medical expertise development, the steps through which biomedical reasoning transforms to psychosomatic reasoning will be discussed.

Risk disparities in the globalisation of assisted reproductive technology: the case of Asia.

Science.gov (United States)

Ha, Jung-Ok

2013-01-01

This paper analyses the disparities in risks associated with biomedical technology focusing on the results of assisted reproductive technology (ART). ART among biomedical technologies transferred to Asia is a representative case that reveals in its clinical use and related scientific research the global politics of technology. This study notes the global politics at work in the recognition of and reaction to such risks. While many Asian countries aggressively pursue technological development, weak legislative and administrative regulations have created various problems and controversial cases. This study asserts that risks associated with technology are characterised as social facts not natural ones or mere 'side effects', since technological development and risk are closely intertwined.

DTMiner: identification of potential disease targets through biomedical literature mining.

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Dong; Zhang, Meizhuo; Xie, Yanping; Wang, Fan; Chen, Ming; Zhu, Kenny Q; Wei, Jia

2016-12-01

Biomedical researchers often search through massive catalogues of literature to look for potential relationships between genes and diseases. Given the rapid growth of biomedical literature, automatic relation extraction, a crucial technology in biomedical literature mining, has shown great potential to support research of gene-related diseases. Existing work in this field has produced datasets that are limited both in scale and accuracy. In this study, we propose a reliable and efficient framework that takes large biomedical literature repositories as inputs, identifies credible relationships between diseases and genes, and presents possible genes related to a given disease and possible diseases related to a given gene. The framework incorporates name entity recognition (NER), which identifies occurrences of genes and diseases in texts, association detection whereby we extract and evaluate features from gene-disease pairs, and ranking algorithms that estimate how closely the pairs are related. The F1-score of the NER phase is 0.87, which is higher than existing studies. The association detection phase takes drastically less time than previous work while maintaining a comparable F1-score of 0.86. The end-to-end result achieves a 0.259 F1-score for the top 50 genes associated with a disease, which performs better than previous work. In addition, we released a web service for public use of the dataset. The implementation of the proposed algorithms is publicly available at http://gdr-web.rwebox.com/public_html/index.php?page=download.php The web service is available at http://gdr-web.rwebox.com/public_html/index.php CONTACT: jenny.wei@astrazeneca.com or kzhu@cs.sjtu.edu.cn Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press.

Industry careers for the biomedical engineer.

Science.gov (United States)

Munzner, Robert F

2004-01-01

This year's conference theme is "linkages for innovation in biomedicine." Biomedical engineers, especially those transitioning their career from academic study into medical device industry, will play a critical role in converting the fruits of scientific research into the reality of modern medical devices. This special session is organized to help biomedical engineers to achieve their career goals more effectively. Participants will have opportunities to hear from and interact with leading industrial experts on many issues. These may include but not limited to 1) career paths for biomedical engineers (industrial, academic, or federal; technical vs. managerial track; small start-up or large established companies); 2) unique design challenges and regulatory requirements in medical device development; 3) aspects of a successful biomedical engineering job candidate (such as resume, interview, follow-up). Suggestions for other topics are welcome and should be directed to xkong@ieee.org The distinguished panelists include: Xuan Kong, Ph.D., VP of Research, NEUROMetrix Inc, Waltham, MA Robert F. Munzner, Ph.D., Medical Device Consultant, Doctor Device, Herndon, VA Glen McLaughlin, Ph.D., VP of Engineering and CTO, Zonare Medical System Inc., Mountain View, CA Grace Bartoo, Ph.D., RAC, General Manager, Decus Biomedical LLC San Carlos, CA.

Simbody: multibody dynamics for biomedical research.

Science.gov (United States)

Sherman, Michael A; Seth, Ajay; Delp, Scott L

Multibody software designed for mechanical engineering has been successfully employed in biomedical research for many years. For real time operation some biomedical researchers have also adapted game physics engines. However, these tools were built for other purposes and do not fully address the needs of biomedical researchers using them to analyze the dynamics of biological structures and make clinically meaningful recommendations. We are addressing this problem through the development of an open source, extensible, high performance toolkit including a multibody mechanics library aimed at the needs of biomedical researchers. The resulting code, Simbody, supports research in a variety of fields including neuromuscular, prosthetic, and biomolecular simulation, and related research such as biologically-inspired design and control of humanoid robots and avatars. Simbody is the dynamics engine behind OpenSim, a widely used biomechanics simulation application. This article reviews issues that arise uniquely in biomedical research, and reports on the architecture, theory, and computational methods Simbody uses to address them. By addressing these needs explicitly Simbody provides a better match to the needs of researchers than can be obtained by adaptation of mechanical engineering or gaming codes. Simbody is a community resource, free for any purpose. We encourage wide adoption and invite contributions to the code base at https://simtk.org/home/simbody.

Advances in biomedical engineering

CERN Document Server

Brown, J H U

1976-01-01

Advances in Biomedical Engineering, Volume 6, is a collection of papers that discusses the role of integrated electronics in medical systems and the usage of biological mathematical models in biological systems. Other papers deal with the health care systems, the problems and methods of approach toward rehabilitation, as well as the future of biomedical engineering. One paper discusses the use of system identification as it applies to biological systems to estimate the values of a number of parameters (for example, resistance, diffusion coefficients) by indirect means. More particularly, the i

Archives of Medical and Biomedical Research

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Archives of Medical and Biomedical Research is the official journal of the International Association of Medical and Biomedical Researchers (IAMBR) and the Society for Free Radical Research Africa (SFRR-Africa). It is an internationally peer reviewed, open access and multidisciplinary journal aimed at publishing original ...

Savannah River Site Patented Technologies Summaries

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rabold, D.E.

1995-07-18

This information represents SRS`s contribution of the DOE technology information network, an internet service coordinated out of Los Alamos. The information provided is strictly DOE-SR-titled and-issued patented technologies including environmental remediation, robotics, sensors, materials science, biomedical applications, hydrogen, and consumer products.

KaBOB: ontology-based semantic integration of biomedical databases.

Science.gov (United States)

Livingston, Kevin M; Bada, Michael; Baumgartner, William A; Hunter, Lawrence E

2015-04-23

The ability to query many independent biological databases using a common ontology-based semantic model would facilitate deeper integration and more effective utilization of these diverse and rapidly growing resources. Despite ongoing work moving toward shared data formats and linked identifiers, significant problems persist in semantic data integration in order to establish shared identity and shared meaning across heterogeneous biomedical data sources. We present five processes for semantic data integration that, when applied collectively, solve seven key problems. These processes include making explicit the differences between biomedical concepts and database records, aggregating sets of identifiers denoting the same biomedical concepts across data sources, and using declaratively represented forward-chaining rules to take information that is variably represented in source databases and integrating it into a consistent biomedical representation. We demonstrate these processes and solutions by presenting KaBOB (the Knowledge Base Of Biomedicine), a knowledge base of semantically integrated data from 18 prominent biomedical databases using common representations grounded in Open Biomedical Ontologies. An instance of KaBOB with data about humans and seven major model organisms can be built using on the order of 500 million RDF triples. All source code for building KaBOB is available under an open-source license. KaBOB is an integrated knowledge base of biomedical data representationally based in prominent, actively maintained Open Biomedical Ontologies, thus enabling queries of the underlying data in terms of biomedical concepts (e.g., genes and gene products, interactions and processes) rather than features of source-specific data schemas or file formats. KaBOB resolves many of the issues that routinely plague biomedical researchers intending to work with data from multiple data sources and provides a platform for ongoing data integration and development and for

The Ethics of Biomedical Big Data : Brent Daniel Mittelstadt and Luciano Floridi, eds. 2016, Springer International Publishing (Cham, Switzerland, 978-3-319-33523-0, 480 pp.).

Science.gov (United States)

Mason, Paul H

2017-12-01

The availability of diverse sources of data related to health and illness from various types of modern communication technology presents the possibility of augmenting medical knowledge, clinical care, and the patient experience. New forms of data collection and analysis will undoubtedly transform epidemiology, public health, and clinical practice, but what ethical considerations come in to play? With a view to analysing the ethical and regulatory dimensions of burgeoning forms of biomedical big data, Brent Daniel Mittelstadt and Luciano Floridi have brought together thirty scholars in an edited volume that forms part of Springer's Law, Governance and Technology book series in a collection titled The Ethics of Biomedical Big Data. With eighteen chapters partitioned into six carefully devised sections, this volume engages with core theoretical, ethical, and regulatory challenges posed by biomedical big data.

Biomedical engineering for health research and development.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, X-Y

2015-01-01

Biomedical engineering is a new area of research in medicine and biology, providing new concepts and designs for the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of various diseases. There are several types of biomedical engineering, such as tissue, genetic, neural and stem cells, as well as chemical and clinical engineering for health care. Many electronic and magnetic methods and equipments are used for the biomedical engineering such as Computed Tomography (CT) scans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans, Electroencephalography (EEG), Ultrasound and regenerative medicine and stem cell cultures, preparations of artificial cells and organs, such as pancreas, urinary bladders, liver cells, and fibroblasts cells of foreskin and others. The principle of tissue engineering is described with various types of cells used for tissue engineering purposes. The use of several medical devices and bionics are mentioned with scaffold, cells and tissue cultures and various materials are used for biomedical engineering. The use of biomedical engineering methods is very important for the human health, and research and development of diseases. The bioreactors and preparations of artificial cells or tissues and organs are described here.

Digital fabrication of multi-material biomedical objects

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cheung, H H; Choi, S H, E-mail: shchoi@hku.h [Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road (Hong Kong)

2009-12-15

This paper describes a multi-material virtual prototyping (MMVP) system for modelling and digital fabrication of discrete and functionally graded multi-material objects for biomedical applications. The MMVP system consists of a DMMVP module, an FGMVP module and a virtual reality (VR) simulation module. The DMMVP module is used to model discrete multi-material (DMM) objects, while the FGMVP module is for functionally graded multi-material (FGM) objects. The VR simulation module integrates these two modules to perform digital fabrication of multi-material objects, which can be subsequently visualized and analysed in a virtual environment to optimize MMLM processes for fabrication of product prototypes. Using the MMVP system, two biomedical objects, including a DMM human spine and an FGM intervertebral disc spacer are modelled and digitally fabricated for visualization and analysis in a VR environment. These studies show that the MMVP system is a practical tool for modelling, visualization, and subsequent fabrication of biomedical objects of discrete and functionally graded multi-materials for biomedical applications. The system may be adapted to control MMLM machines with appropriate hardware for physical fabrication of biomedical objects.

Digital fabrication of multi-material biomedical objects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cheung, H H; Choi, S H

2009-01-01

This paper describes a multi-material virtual prototyping (MMVP) system for modelling and digital fabrication of discrete and functionally graded multi-material objects for biomedical applications. The MMVP system consists of a DMMVP module, an FGMVP module and a virtual reality (VR) simulation module. The DMMVP module is used to model discrete multi-material (DMM) objects, while the FGMVP module is for functionally graded multi-material (FGM) objects. The VR simulation module integrates these two modules to perform digital fabrication of multi-material objects, which can be subsequently visualized and analysed in a virtual environment to optimize MMLM processes for fabrication of product prototypes. Using the MMVP system, two biomedical objects, including a DMM human spine and an FGM intervertebral disc spacer are modelled and digitally fabricated for visualization and analysis in a VR environment. These studies show that the MMVP system is a practical tool for modelling, visualization, and subsequent fabrication of biomedical objects of discrete and functionally graded multi-materials for biomedical applications. The system may be adapted to control MMLM machines with appropriate hardware for physical fabrication of biomedical objects.

Archives: Journal of Medical and Biomedical Sciences

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Items 1 - 20 of 20 ... Archives: Journal of Medical and Biomedical Sciences. Journal Home > Archives: Journal of Medical and Biomedical Sciences. Log in or Register to get access to full text downloads.

Archives: Journal of Medicine and Biomedical Research

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Items 1 - 19 of 19 ... Archives: Journal of Medicine and Biomedical Research. Journal Home > Archives: Journal of Medicine and Biomedical Research. Log in or Register to get access to full text downloads.

Big data and biomedical informatics: a challenging opportunity.

Science.gov (United States)

Bellazzi, R

2014-05-22

Big data are receiving an increasing attention in biomedicine and healthcare. It is therefore important to understand the reason why big data are assuming a crucial role for the biomedical informatics community. The capability of handling big data is becoming an enabler to carry out unprecedented research studies and to implement new models of healthcare delivery. Therefore, it is first necessary to deeply understand the four elements that constitute big data, namely Volume, Variety, Velocity, and Veracity, and their meaning in practice. Then, it is mandatory to understand where big data are present, and where they can be beneficially collected. There are research fields, such as translational bioinformatics, which need to rely on big data technologies to withstand the shock wave of data that is generated every day. Other areas, ranging from epidemiology to clinical care, can benefit from the exploitation of the large amounts of data that are nowadays available, from personal monitoring to primary care. However, building big data-enabled systems carries on relevant implications in terms of reproducibility of research studies and management of privacy and data access; proper actions should be taken to deal with these issues. An interesting consequence of the big data scenario is the availability of new software, methods, and tools, such as map-reduce, cloud computing, and concept drift machine learning algorithms, which will not only contribute to big data research, but may be beneficial in many biomedical informatics applications. The way forward with the big data opportunity will require properly applied engineering principles to design studies and applications, to avoid preconceptions or over-enthusiasms, to fully exploit the available technologies, and to improve data processing and data management regulations.

Medical technologies: flows, frictions and new socialities

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hardon, A.; Moyer, E.

2014-01-01

While social scientists often highlight the way medical technologies mediate biomedical hegemony, this special issue focuses on the creative and often unexpected ways in which medical technologies are appropriated by diverse actors in homes, clinics and communities. The authors highlight key

Proceedings of the second conference on medical physics and biomedical engineering of R. Macedonia

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2010-07-01

In the 21st century many branches in medicine can not exist without physicists. Most recent methods in medicine, especially new technologies in cancer diagnostic and treatments, have resulted in a great need for medical physicists in growing number of institutions and hospitals. I There are a certain number of highly qualified and dedicated professionals in medical physics in Macedonia whose work is mainly performed in governmental institutions committed towards medical physics issues. The Association for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering (AMPBE) was established in 2000 as the first professional association in Macedonia competent to cope with problems in the fields of medicine, applying methods of physics and biomedical engineering to medical procedures in order to develop tools essential to the physicians that will improve medical care in general. Three years ago the First National Conference on Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering was organized by the Association. The idea was to gather all the professionals working in medical physics and biomedical engineering on one place in order to present their work and increase the collaboration among them. Other involved professions such as medical doctors, radiation technologists, engineers and physics professors from the University also took part and contributed to the success of the conference. As a result the Proceedings were published in Macedonian, with summaries in English.

Proceedings of the second conference on medical physics and biomedical engineering of R. Macedonia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2010-01-01

In the 21st century many branches in medicine can not exist without physicists. Most recent methods in medicine, especially new technologies in cancer diagnostic and treatments, have resulted in a great need for medical physicists in growing number of institutions and hospitals. I There are a certain number of highly qualified and dedicated professionals in medical physics in Macedonia whose work is mainly performed in governmental institutions committed towards medical physics issues. The Association for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering (AMPBE) was established in 2000 as the first professional association in Macedonia competent to cope with problems in the fields of medicine, applying methods of physics and biomedical engineering to medical procedures in order to develop tools essential to the physicians that will improve medical care in general. Three years ago the First National Conference on Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering was organized by the Association. The idea was to gather all the professionals working in medical physics and biomedical engineering on one place in order to present their work and increase the collaboration among them. Other involved professions such as medical doctors, radiation technologists, engineers and physics professors from the University also took part and contributed to the success of the conference. As a result the Proceedings were published in Macedonian, with summaries in English.

Engineering β-sheet peptide assemblies for biomedical applications.

Science.gov (United States)

Yu, Zhiqiang; Cai, Zheng; Chen, Qiling; Liu, Menghua; Ye, Ling; Ren, Jiaoyan; Liao, Wenzhen; Liu, Shuwen

2016-03-01

Hydrogels have been widely studied in various biomedical applications, such as tissue engineering, cell culture, immunotherapy and vaccines, and drug delivery. Peptide-based nanofibers represent a promising new strategy for current drug delivery approaches and cell carriers for tissue engineering. This review focuses on the recent advances in the use of self-assembling engineered β-sheet peptide assemblies for biomedical applications. The applications of peptide nanofibers in biomedical fields, such as drug delivery, tissue engineering, immunotherapy, and vaccines, are highlighted. The current challenges and future perspectives for self-assembling peptide nanofibers in biomedical applications are discussed.

Biomedical Engineering | Classification | College of Engineering & Applied

Science.gov (United States)

Engineering Concentration on Ergonomics M.S. Program in Computer Science Interdisciplinary Concentration on Energy Doctoral Programs in Engineering Non-Degree Candidate Departments Biomedical Engineering Biomedical Engineering Industry Advisory Council Civil & Environmental Engineering Civil &

Lignocellulosic Biomass Derived Functional Materials: Synthesis and Applications in Biomedical Engineering.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Lei; Peng, Xinwen; Zhong, Linxin; Chua, Weitian; Xiang, Zhihua; Sun, Runcang

2017-09-18

The pertinent issue of resources shortage arising from global climate change in the recent years has accentuated the importance of materials that are environmental friendly. Despite the merits of current material like cellulose as the most abundant natural polysaccharide on earth, the incorporation of lignocellulosic biomass has the potential to value-add the recent development of cellulose-derivatives in drug delivery systems. Lignocellulosic biomass, with a hierarchical structure, comprised of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. As an excellent substrate that is renewable, biodegradable, biocompatible and chemically accessible for modified materials, lignocellulosic biomass sets forth a myriad of applications. To date, materials derived from lignocellulosic biomass have been extensively explored for new technological development and applications, such as biomedical, green electronics and energy products. In this review, chemical constituents of lignocellulosic biomass are first discussed before we critically examine the potential alternatives in the field of biomedical application. In addition, the pretreatment methods for extracting cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin from lignocellulosic biomass as well as their biological applications including drug delivery, biosensor, tissue engineering etc will be reviewed. It is anticipated there will be an increasing interest and research findings in cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin from natural resources, which help provide important directions for the development in biomedical applications. Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.org.

Drawing lithography for microneedles: a review of fundamentals and biomedical applications.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Kwang; Jung, Hyungil

2012-10-01

A microneedle is a three-dimensional (3D) micromechanical structure and has been in the spotlight recently as a drug delivery system (DDS). Because a microneedle delivers the target drug after penetrating the skin barrier, the therapeutic effects of microneedles proceed from its 3D structural geometry. Various types of microneedles have been fabricated using subtractive micromanufacturing methods which are based on the inherently planar two-dimensional (2D) geometries. However, traditional subtractive processes are limited for flexible structural microneedles and makes functional biomedical applications for efficient drug delivery difficult. The authors of the present study propose drawing lithography as a unique additive process for the fabrication of a microneedle directly from 2D planar substrates, thus overcoming a subtractive process shortcoming. The present article provides the first overview of the principal drawing lithography technology: fundamentals and biomedical applications. The continuous drawing technique for an ultrahigh-aspect ratio (UHAR) hollow microneedle, stepwise controlled drawing technique for a dissolving microneedle, and drawing technique with antidromic isolation for a hybrid electro-microneedle (HEM) are reviewed, and efficient biomedical applications by drawing lithography-mediated microneedles as an innovative drug and gene delivery system are described. Drawing lithography herein can provide a great breakthrough in the development of materials science and biotechnology. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

From Mars to man - Biomedical research at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Science.gov (United States)

Beckenbach, E. S.

1984-01-01

In the course of the unmanned exploration of the solar system, which the California Institute of Technology's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has managed for NASA, major advances in computerized image processing, materials research, and miniature electronics design have been accomplished. This presentation shows some of the imaging results from space exploration missions, as well as biomedical research tasks based in these technologies. Among other topics, the use of polymeric microspheres in cancer therapy is discussed. Also included are ceramic applications to prosthesis development, laser applications in the treatment of coronary artery disease, multispectral imaging as used in the diagnosis of thermal burn injury, and some examples of telemetry systems as they can be involved in biological systems.

Hand-in-hand advances in biomedical engineering and sensorimotor restoration.

Science.gov (United States)

Pisotta, Iolanda; Perruchoud, David; Ionta, Silvio

2015-05-15

Living in a multisensory world entails the continuous sensory processing of environmental information in order to enact appropriate motor routines. The interaction between our body and our brain is the crucial factor for achieving such sensorimotor integration ability. Several clinical conditions dramatically affect the constant body-brain exchange, but the latest developments in biomedical engineering provide promising solutions for overcoming this communication breakdown. The ultimate technological developments succeeded in transforming neuronal electrical activity into computational input for robotic devices, giving birth to the era of the so-called brain-machine interfaces. Combining rehabilitation robotics and experimental neuroscience the rise of brain-machine interfaces into clinical protocols provided the technological solution for bypassing the neural disconnection and restore sensorimotor function. Based on these advances, the recovery of sensorimotor functionality is progressively becoming a concrete reality. However, despite the success of several recent techniques, some open issues still need to be addressed. Typical interventions for sensorimotor deficits include pharmaceutical treatments and manual/robotic assistance in passive movements. These procedures achieve symptoms relief but their applicability to more severe disconnection pathologies is limited (e.g. spinal cord injury or amputation). Here we review how state-of-the-art solutions in biomedical engineering are continuously increasing expectances in sensorimotor rehabilitation, as well as the current challenges especially with regards to the translation of the signals from brain-machine interfaces into sensory feedback and the incorporation of brain-machine interfaces into daily activities. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Utilization of pion production accelerators in biomedical applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rosen, L.

1979-01-01

A discussion is presented of biomedical applications of pion-producing accelerators in a number of areas, but with emphasis on pion therapy for treatment of solid, non-metastasized malignancies. The problem of cancer management is described from the standpoint of the physicist, magnitude of the problem, and its social and economic impact. Barriers to successful treatment are identified, mainly with regard to radiation therapy. The properties and characteristics of π mesons, first postulated on purely theoretical grounds by H. Yukawa are described. It is shown how they can be used to treat human cancer and why they appear to have dramatic advantages over conventional forms of radiation by virtue of the fact that they permit localization of energy deposition, preferentially, in the tumor volume. The Clinton P. Anderson Meson Physics Facility (LAMPF), and its operating characteristics, are briefly described, with emphasis on the biomedical channel. The design of a relatively inexpensive accelerator specifically for pion therapy is described as is also the status of clinical trials using the existing Clinton P. Anderson Meson Physics Facility. The advantages of proton over electron accelerator for the production of high quality, high intensity negative pion beams suitable for radiation therapy of malignancies is also addressed. Other current, medically related applications of LAMPF technology are also discussed

Fabricating biomedical origami: a state-of-the-art review.

Science.gov (United States)

Johnson, Meredith; Chen, Yue; Hovet, Sierra; Xu, Sheng; Wood, Bradford; Ren, Hongliang; Tokuda, Junichi; Tse, Zion Tsz Ho

2017-11-01

Origami-based biomedical device design is an emerging technology due to its ability to be deployed from a minimal foldable pattern to a larger volume. This paper aims to review state-of-the-art origami structures applied in the medical device field. Publications and reports of origami structure related to medical device design from the past 10 years are reviewed and categorized according to engineering specifications, including the application field, fabrication material, size/volume, deployment method, manufacturability, and advantages. This paper presents an overview of the biomedical applications of devices based on origami structures, including disposable sterilization covers, cardiac catheterization, stent grafts, encapsulation and microsurgery, gastrointestinal microsurgery, laparoscopic surgical grippers, microgrippers, microfluidic devices, and drug delivery. Challenges in terms of materials and fabrication, assembly, modeling and computation design, and clinical adoptability are discussed at the end of this paper to provide guidance for future origami-based design in the medical device field. Concepts from origami can be used to design and develop novel medical devices. Origami-based medical device design is currently progressing, with researchers improving design methods, materials, fabrication techniques, and folding efficiency.

World Congress on Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering

CERN Document Server

2015-01-01

This book presents the proceedings of the IUPESM World Biomedical Engineering and Medical Physics, a tri-annual high-level policy meeting dedicated exclusively to furthering the role of biomedical engineering and medical physics in medicine. The book offers papers about emerging issues related to the development and sustainability of the role and impact of medical physicists and biomedical engineers in medicine and healthcare. It provides a unique and important forum to secure a coordinated, multileveled global response to the need, demand, and importance of creating and supporting strong academic and clinical teams of biomedical engineers and medical physicists for the benefit of human health.

Writing intelligible English prose for biomedical journals.

Science.gov (United States)

Ludbrook, John

2007-01-01

1. I present a combination of semi-objective and subjective evidence that the quality of English prose in biomedical scientific writing is deteriorating. 2. I consider seven possible strategies for reversing this apparent trend. These refer to a greater emphasis on good writing by students in schools and by university students, consulting books on science writing, one-on-one mentoring, using 'scientific' measures to reveal lexical poverty, making use of freelance science editors and encouraging the editors of biomedical journals to pay more attention to the problem. 3. I conclude that a fruitful, long-term, strategy would be to encourage more biomedical scientists to embark on a career in science editing. This strategy requires a complementary initiative on the part of biomedical research institutions and universities to employ qualified science editors. 4. An immediately realisable strategy is to encourage postgraduate students in the biomedical sciences to undertake the service courses provided by many universities on writing English prose in general and scientific prose in particular. This strategy would require that heads of departments and supervisors urge their postgraduate students to attend such courses. 5. Two major publishers of biomedical journals, Blackwell Publications and Elsevier Science, now provide lists of commercial editing services on their web sites. I strongly recommend that authors intending to submit manuscripts to their journals (including Blackwell's Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology and Physiology) make use of these services. This recommendation applies especially to those for whom English is a second language.

Resolving complex research data management issues in biomedical laboratories: Qualitative study of an industry-academia collaboration.

Science.gov (United States)

Myneni, Sahiti; Patel, Vimla L; Bova, G Steven; Wang, Jian; Ackerman, Christopher F; Berlinicke, Cynthia A; Chen, Steve H; Lindvall, Mikael; Zack, Donald J

2016-04-01

This paper describes a distributed collaborative effort between industry and academia to systematize data management in an academic biomedical laboratory. Heterogeneous and voluminous nature of research data created in biomedical laboratories make information management difficult and research unproductive. One such collaborative effort was evaluated over a period of four years using data collection methods including ethnographic observations, semi-structured interviews, web-based surveys, progress reports, conference call summaries, and face-to-face group discussions. Data were analyzed using qualitative methods of data analysis to (1) characterize specific problems faced by biomedical researchers with traditional information management practices, (2) identify intervention areas to introduce a new research information management system called Labmatrix, and finally to (3) evaluate and delineate important general collaboration (intervention) characteristics that can optimize outcomes of an implementation process in biomedical laboratories. Results emphasize the importance of end user perseverance, human-centric interoperability evaluation, and demonstration of return on investment of effort and time of laboratory members and industry personnel for success of implementation process. In addition, there is an intrinsic learning component associated with the implementation process of an information management system. Technology transfer experience in a complex environment such as the biomedical laboratory can be eased with use of information systems that support human and cognitive interoperability. Such informatics features can also contribute to successful collaboration and hopefully to scientific productivity. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Science gateways for biomedical big data analysis

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Shahand, S.

2015-01-01

Biomedical researchers are facing data deluge challenges such as dealing with large volume of complex heterogeneous data and complex and computationally demanding data processing methods. Such scale and complexity of biomedical research requires multi-disciplinary collaboration between scientists

Electron transport calculations with biomedical and environmental applications: [Progress report, FY 1987

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1987-01-01

This project investigated radiation interactions with matter and radiation transport in bulk media, to generate basic radiological physics information. Applications include biomedical radiation dosimetry, the assessment of radiation hazards in nuclear technology, and modeling of biological radiation action. This work included the development of transport-theoretic methods, the compilation and critical evaluation of the underlying single-scattering cross sections, and the application of the transport methods to radiological physics problems. 7 refs

New frontiers in biomedical science and engineering during 2014-2015.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Feng; Lee, Dong-Hoon; Lagoa, Ricardo; Kumar, Sandeep

2015-01-01

The International Conference on Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology (ICBEB) is an international meeting held once a year. This, the fourth International Conference on Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology (ICBEB2015), will be held in Shanghai, China, during August 18th-21st, 2015. This annual conference intends to provide an opportunity for researchers and practitioners at home and abroad to present the most recent frontiers and future challenges in the fields of biomedical science, biomedical engineering, biomaterials, bioinformatics and computational biology, biomedical imaging and signal processing, biomechanical engineering and biotechnology, etc. The papers published in this issue are selected from this Conference, which witness the advances in biomedical engineering and biotechnology during 2014-2015.

Perspective: fostering biomedical literacy among America's youth: how medical simulation reshapes the strategy.

Science.gov (United States)

Gordon, James A; Oriol, Nancy E

2008-05-01

Medicine is a uniquely powerful platform for teaching science and ethics, technology and humanity, life and death. Yet, society has historically limited medical education to a select few, and only after an advanced course of premedical studies. In an era when biomedical literacy is increasingly viewed as a national imperative, the authors hypothesized that advanced instruction in medicine could be intellectually transformative among a broad range of young people. Using high-fidelity patient simulators, a group of college and high school students was immersed in a weeklong course designed to replicate the practice of modern medicine. On the basis of the students' reported experiences, the authors feel that patient simulation can foster forceful interest in the life sciences at an early age. Such efforts could catalyze a significant expansion of interest in biomedical science among students nationwide.

Employing WebGL to develop interactive stereoscopic 3D content for use in biomedical visualization

Science.gov (United States)

Johnston, Semay; Renambot, Luc; Sauter, Daniel

2013-03-01

Web Graphics Library (WebGL), the forthcoming web standard for rendering native 3D graphics in a browser, represents an important addition to the biomedical visualization toolset. It is projected to become a mainstream method of delivering 3D online content due to shrinking support for third-party plug-ins. Additionally, it provides a virtual reality (VR) experience to web users accommodated by the growing availability of stereoscopic displays (3D TV, desktop, and mobile). WebGL's value in biomedical visualization has been demonstrated by applications for interactive anatomical models, chemical and molecular visualization, and web-based volume rendering. However, a lack of instructional literature specific to the field prevents many from utilizing this technology. This project defines a WebGL design methodology for a target audience of biomedical artists with a basic understanding of web languages and 3D graphics. The methodology was informed by the development of an interactive web application depicting the anatomy and various pathologies of the human eye. The application supports several modes of stereoscopic displays for a better understanding of 3D anatomical structures.

A Ten-Year Assessment of a Biomedical Engineering Summer Research Internship within a Comprehensive Cancer Center

Science.gov (United States)

Wright, A. S.; Wu, X.; Frye, C. A.; Mathur, A. B.; Patrick, C. W., Jr.

2007-01-01

A Biomedical Engineering Internship Program conducted within a Comprehensive Cancer Center over a 10 year period was assessed and evaluated. Although this is a non-traditional location for an internship, it is an ideal site for a multidisciplinary training program for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) students. We made a…

Light Ion Biomedical Research Accelerator LIBRA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gough, R.A.

1987-01-01

LIBRA is a concept to place a light-ion, charged-particle facility in a hospital environment, and to dedicate it to applications in biology and medicine. There are two aspects of the program envisaged for LIBRA: a basic research effort coupled with a program in clinical applications of accelerated charged particles. The operational environment to be provided for LIBRA is one in which both of these components can coexist and flourish, and one that will promote the transfer of technology and knowledge from one to the other. In order to further investigate the prospects for a Light Ion Biomedical Research Accelerator (LIBRA), discussions are underway with the Merritt Peralta Medical Center MPMC) in Oakland CA, and the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF). In this paper, a brief discussion of the technical requirements for such a facility is given, together with an outline of the accelerator technology required. While still in a preliminary stage, it is possible nevertheless to develop an adequate working description of the type, size, performance and cost of the accelerator facilities required to meet the preliminary goals for LIBRA

Energy scavenging sources for biomedical sensors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Romero, E; Warrington, R O; Neuman, M R

2009-01-01

Energy scavenging has increasingly become an interesting option for powering electronic devices because of the almost infinite lifetime and the non-dependence on fuels for energy generation. Moreover, the rise of wireless technologies promises new applications in medical monitoring systems, but these still face limitations due to battery lifetime and size. A trade-off of these two factors has typically governed the size, useful life and capabilities of an autonomous system. Energy generation from sources such as motion, light and temperature gradients has been established as commercially viable alternatives to batteries for human-powered flashlights, solar calculators, radio receivers and thermal-powered wristwatches, among others. Research on energy harvesting from human activities has also addressed the feasibility of powering wearable or implantable systems. Biomedical sensors can take advantage of human-based activities as the energy source for energy scavengers. This review describes the state of the art of energy scavenging technologies for powering sensors and instrumentation of physiological variables. After a short description of the human power and the energy generation limits, the different transduction mechanisms, recent developments and challenges faced are reviewed and discussed. (topical review)

The use of AMS to the biomedical sciences

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vogel, J.S.

1991-04-01

The Center for Accelerator Mass Spectroscopy (AMS) began making AMS measurements in 1989. Biomedical experiments were originally limited by sample preparation techniques, but we expect the number of biomedical samples to increase five-fold. While many of the detailed techniques for making biomedical measurements resemble those used in other fields, biological tracer experiments differ substantially from the observational approaches of earth science investigators. The role of xenobiotius in initiating mutations in cells is of particular interest. One measure of the damage caused to the genetic material is obtained by counting the number of adducts formed by a chemical agent at a given dose. AMS allows direct measurement of the number of adducts through stoichiometric quantification of the 14 C label attached to the DNA after exposure to a labelled carcinogen. Other isotopes of interest include tritium, 36 Cl, 79 SE, 41 Ca, 26 Al and 129 I. Our experiments with low dose environmental carcinogens reflect the protocols which will become a common part of biomedical AMS. In biomedical experiments, the researcher defines the carbon to be analyzed through dissection and/or chemical purification; thus the sample is ''merely'' combusted and graphitized at the AMS facility. However, since biomedical samples can have a 14 C range of five orders of magnitude, preparation of graphite required construction of a special manifold to prevent cross-contamination. Additionally, a strain of 14 C-depleted C57BL/6 mice is being developed to further reduce background in biomedical experiments. AMS has a bright and diverse future in radioisotope tracing. Such work requires a dedicated amalgamation of AMS scientists and biomedical researchers who will redesign experimental protocols to maximize the AMS technique and minimize the danger of catastrophic contamination. 18 refs., 4 figs., 1 tab

A hybrid model based on neural networks for biomedical relation extraction.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Yijia; Lin, Hongfei; Yang, Zhihao; Wang, Jian; Zhang, Shaowu; Sun, Yuanyuan; Yang, Liang

2018-05-01

Biomedical relation extraction can automatically extract high-quality biomedical relations from biomedical texts, which is a vital step for the mining of biomedical knowledge hidden in the literature. Recurrent neural networks (RNNs) and convolutional neural networks (CNNs) are two major neural network models for biomedical relation extraction. Neural network-based methods for biomedical relation extraction typically focus on the sentence sequence and employ RNNs or CNNs to learn the latent features from sentence sequences separately. However, RNNs and CNNs have their own advantages for biomedical relation extraction. Combining RNNs and CNNs may improve biomedical relation extraction. In this paper, we present a hybrid model for the extraction of biomedical relations that combines RNNs and CNNs. First, the shortest dependency path (SDP) is generated based on the dependency graph of the candidate sentence. To make full use of the SDP, we divide the SDP into a dependency word sequence and a relation sequence. Then, RNNs and CNNs are employed to automatically learn the features from the sentence sequence and the dependency sequences, respectively. Finally, the output features of the RNNs and CNNs are combined to detect and extract biomedical relations. We evaluate our hybrid model using five public (protein-protein interaction) PPI corpora and a (drug-drug interaction) DDI corpus. The experimental results suggest that the advantages of RNNs and CNNs in biomedical relation extraction are complementary. Combining RNNs and CNNs can effectively boost biomedical relation extraction performance. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Hydroxyapatite coatings for biomedical applications

CERN Document Server

Zhang, Sam

2013-01-01

Hydroxyapatite coatings are of great importance in the biological and biomedical coatings fields, especially in the current era of nanotechnology and bioapplications. With a bonelike structure that promotes osseointegration, hydroxyapatite coating can be applied to otherwise bioinactive implants to make their surface bioactive, thus achieving faster healing and recovery. In addition to applications in orthopedic and dental implants, this coating can also be used in drug delivery. Hydroxyapatite Coatings for Biomedical Applications explores developments in the processing and property characteri

BOSS: context-enhanced search for biomedical objects

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Choi Jaehoon

2012-04-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background There exist many academic search solutions and most of them can be put on either ends of spectrum: general-purpose search and domain-specific "deep" search systems. The general-purpose search systems, such as PubMed, offer flexible query interface, but churn out a list of matching documents that users have to go through the results in order to find the answers to their queries. On the other hand, the "deep" search systems, such as PPI Finder and iHOP, return the precompiled results in a structured way. Their results, however, are often found only within some predefined contexts. In order to alleviate these problems, we introduce a new search engine, BOSS, Biomedical Object Search System. Methods Unlike the conventional search systems, BOSS indexes segments, rather than documents. A segment refers to a Maximal Coherent Semantic Unit (MCSU such as phrase, clause or sentence that is semantically coherent in the given context (e.g., biomedical objects or their relations. For a user query, BOSS finds all matching segments, identifies the objects appearing in those segments, and aggregates the segments for each object. Finally, it returns the ranked list of the objects along with their matching segments. Results The working prototype of BOSS is available at http://boss.korea.ac.kr. The current version of BOSS has indexed abstracts of more than 20 million articles published during last 16 years from 1996 to 2011 across all science disciplines. Conclusion BOSS fills the gap between either ends of the spectrum by allowing users to pose context-free queries and by returning a structured set of results. Furthermore, BOSS exhibits the characteristic of good scalability, just as with conventional document search engines, because it is designed to use a standard document-indexing model with minimal modifications. Considering the features, BOSS notches up the technological level of traditional solutions for search on biomedical information.

Health Instruction Packages: Medical Technologies--EEG, Radiology, & Biomedical Photography.

Science.gov (United States)

Brittenham, Dorothea; And Others

Text, illustrations, and exercises are utilized in this set of four learning modules to instruct medical technology students in a variety of job-related skills. The first module, "EEG Technology: Measurement Technique of the 'International 10-20 System'" by Dorothea Brittenham, describes a procedure used by electroencephalograph…

Big Data and Biomedical Informatics: A Challenging Opportunity

Science.gov (United States)

2014-01-01

Summary Big data are receiving an increasing attention in biomedicine and healthcare. It is therefore important to understand the reason why big data are assuming a crucial role for the biomedical informatics community. The capability of handling big data is becoming an enabler to carry out unprecedented research studies and to implement new models of healthcare delivery. Therefore, it is first necessary to deeply understand the four elements that constitute big data, namely Volume, Variety, Velocity, and Veracity, and their meaning in practice. Then, it is mandatory to understand where big data are present, and where they can be beneficially collected. There are research fields, such as translational bioinformatics, which need to rely on big data technologies to withstand the shock wave of data that is generated every day. Other areas, ranging from epidemiology to clinical care, can benefit from the exploitation of the large amounts of data that are nowadays available, from personal monitoring to primary care. However, building big data-enabled systems carries on relevant implications in terms of reproducibility of research studies and management of privacy and data access; proper actions should be taken to deal with these issues. An interesting consequence of the big data scenario is the availability of new software, methods, and tools, such as map-reduce, cloud computing, and concept drift machine learning algorithms, which will not only contribute to big data research, but may be beneficial in many biomedical informatics applications. The way forward with the big data opportunity will require properly applied engineering principles to design studies and applications, to avoid preconceptions or over-enthusiasms, to fully exploit the available technologies, and to improve data processing and data management regulations. PMID:24853034

Biomedical Wireless Ambulatory Crew Monitor

Science.gov (United States)

Chmiel, Alan; Humphreys, Brad

2009-01-01

A compact, ambulatory biometric data acquisition system has been developed for space and commercial terrestrial use. BioWATCH (Bio medical Wireless and Ambulatory Telemetry for Crew Health) acquires signals from biomedical sensors using acquisition modules attached to a common data and power bus. Several slots allow the user to configure the unit by inserting sensor-specific modules. The data are then sent real-time from the unit over any commercially implemented wireless network including 802.11b/g, WCDMA, 3G. This system has a distributed computing hierarchy and has a common data controller on each sensor module. This allows for the modularity of the device along with the tailored ability to control the cards using a relatively small master processor. The distributed nature of this system affords the modularity, size, and power consumption that betters the current state of the art in medical ambulatory data acquisition. A new company was created to market this technology.

Signal and image analysis for biomedical and life sciences

CERN Document Server

Sun, Changming; Pham, Tuan D; Vallotton, Pascal; Wang, Dadong

2014-01-01

With an emphasis on applications of computational models for solving modern challenging problems in biomedical and life sciences, this book aims to bring collections of articles from biologists, medical/biomedical and health science researchers together with computational scientists to focus on problems at the frontier of biomedical and life sciences. The goals of this book are to build interactions of scientists across several disciplines and to help industrial users apply advanced computational techniques for solving practical biomedical and life science problems. This book is for users in t

Nano/micro-scale magnetophoretic devices for biomedical applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lim, Byeonghwa; Kim, CheolGi; Vavassori, Paolo; Sooryakumar, R

2017-01-01

In recent years there have been tremendous advances in the versatility of magnetic shuttle technology using nano/micro-scale magnets for digital magnetophoresis. While the technology has been used for a wide variety of single-cell manipulation tasks such as selection, capture, transport, encapsulation, transfection, or lysing of magnetically labeled and unlabeled cells, it has also expanded to include parallel actuation and study of multiple bio-entities. The use of nano/micro-patterned magnetic structures that enable remote control of the applied forces has greatly facilitated integration of the technology with microfluidics, thereby fostering applications in the biomedical arena. The basic design and fabrication of various scaled magnets for remote manipulation of individual and multiple beads/cells, and their associated energies and forces that underlie the broad functionalities of this approach, are presented. One of the most useful features enabled by such advanced integrated engineering is the capacity to remotely tune the magnetic field gradient and energy landscape, permitting such multipurpose shuttles to be implemented within lab-on-chip platforms for a wide range of applications at the intersection of cellular biology and biotechnology. (topical review)

Nano/micro-scale magnetophoretic devices for biomedical applications

Science.gov (United States)

Lim, Byeonghwa; Vavassori, Paolo; Sooryakumar, R.; Kim, CheolGi

2017-01-01

In recent years there have been tremendous advances in the versatility of magnetic shuttle technology using nano/micro-scale magnets for digital magnetophoresis. While the technology has been used for a wide variety of single-cell manipulation tasks such as selection, capture, transport, encapsulation, transfection, or lysing of magnetically labeled and unlabeled cells, it has also expanded to include parallel actuation and study of multiple bio-entities. The use of nano/micro-patterned magnetic structures that enable remote control of the applied forces has greatly facilitated integration of the technology with microfluidics, thereby fostering applications in the biomedical arena. The basic design and fabrication of various scaled magnets for remote manipulation of individual and multiple beads/cells, and their associated energies and forces that underlie the broad functionalities of this approach, are presented. One of the most useful features enabled by such advanced integrated engineering is the capacity to remotely tune the magnetic field gradient and energy landscape, permitting such multipurpose shuttles to be implemented within lab-on-chip platforms for a wide range of applications at the intersection of cellular biology and biotechnology.

[Biomedical research in Revista de Biologia Tropical].

Science.gov (United States)

Gutiérrez, José María

2002-01-01

The contributions published in Revista de Biología Tropical in the area of Biomedical Sciences are reviewed in terms of number of contributions and scope of research subjects. Biomedical Sciences, particularly Parasitology and Microbiology, constituted the predominant subject in the Revista during the first decade, reflecting the intense research environment at the School of Microbiology of the University of Costa Rica and at Hospital San Juan de Dios. The relative weight of Biomedicine in the following decades diminished, due to the outstanding increment in publications in Biological Sciences; however, the absolute number of contributions in Biomedical Sciences remained constant throughout the last decades, with around 80 contributions per decade. In spite of the predominance of Parasitology as the main biomedical subject, the last decades have witnessed the emergence of new areas of interest in the Revista, such as Pharmacology of natural products, Toxinology, especially related to snake venoms, and Human Genetics. This retrospective analysis evidences that Biomedical Sciences, particularly those related to Tropical Medicine, were a fundamental component during the first years of Revista de Biología Tropical, and have maintained a significant presence in the scientific output of this journal, the most relevant scientific publication in biological sciences in Central America.

Camera systems in human motion analysis for biomedical applications

Science.gov (United States)

Chin, Lim Chee; Basah, Shafriza Nisha; Yaacob, Sazali; Juan, Yeap Ewe; Kadir, Aida Khairunnisaa Ab.

2015-05-01

Human Motion Analysis (HMA) system has been one of the major interests among researchers in the field of computer vision, artificial intelligence and biomedical engineering and sciences. This is due to its wide and promising biomedical applications, namely, bio-instrumentation for human computer interfacing and surveillance system for monitoring human behaviour as well as analysis of biomedical signal and image processing for diagnosis and rehabilitation applications. This paper provides an extensive review of the camera system of HMA, its taxonomy, including camera types, camera calibration and camera configuration. The review focused on evaluating the camera system consideration of the HMA system specifically for biomedical applications. This review is important as it provides guidelines and recommendation for researchers and practitioners in selecting a camera system of the HMA system for biomedical applications.

A new educational program on biomedical engineering

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Alste, Jan A.

2000-01-01

At the University of Twente together with the Free University of Amsterdam a new educational program on Biomedical Engineering will be developed. The academic program with a five-year duration will start in September 2001. After a general, broad education in Biomedical Engineering in the first three

2011 Summer School on Healthcare Technology - HCT 2011

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, John Aasted; Bechmann, Henrik; Baden-Kristensen, Keld

2011-01-01

The aim of the course is introduction to biomedical, technological and health care application areas, which form the basis for the next generation of telemedicin systems. The course consists of lectures from the medical, technological and industrial areas related to telemedicine and supplemented ...

Biomedical Enhancement and Social Development: A Conservative Techno-Fix.

Science.gov (United States)

Sanyal, Sagar

2016-11-01

Allen Buchanan has argued for a linking of the ethics of human enhancement to the ethics of development more generally. The promise of the 'enhancement enterprise' is that it may help develop society, just as other technological advances have in the past. He proposes a framework of intellectual property rights, government action to ensure the poor can access the enhancements, an international organization to administer the diffusion of new enhancement technologies from the West to poor countries, and the diffusion within countries to the poorer populations. I take seriously his proposal of discussing biomedical enhancement in terms of the ethics of development. On these grounds of assessment, I argue that his proposal is politically conservative. To make the case, I distinguish conservatism in ethics from conservatism in politics; and I contextualize the proposal against the background of development economics and the neoliberal approach to development. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Practical radiation shielding for biomedical research

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Klein, R.C.; Reginatto, M.; Party, E.; Gershey, E.L.

1990-01-01

This paper reports on calculations which exist for estimating shielding required for radioactivity; however, they are often not applicable for the radionuclides and activities common in biomedical research. A variety of commercially available Lucite shields are being marketed to the biomedical community. Their advertisements may lead laboratory workers to expect better radiation protection than these shields can provide or to assume erroneously that very weak beta emitters require extensive shielding. The authors have conducted a series of shielding experiments designed to simulate exposures from the amounts of 32 P, 51 Cr and 125 I typically used in biomedical laboratories. For most routine work, ≥0.64 cm of Lucite covered with various thicknesses of lead will reduce whole-body occupational exposure rates of < 1mR/hr at the point of contact

Assessing the practice of biomedical ontology evaluation: Gaps and opportunities.

Science.gov (United States)

Amith, Muhammad; He, Zhe; Bian, Jiang; Lossio-Ventura, Juan Antonio; Tao, Cui

2018-04-01

With the proliferation of heterogeneous health care data in the last three decades, biomedical ontologies and controlled biomedical terminologies play a more and more important role in knowledge representation and management, data integration, natural language processing, as well as decision support for health information systems and biomedical research. Biomedical ontologies and controlled terminologies are intended to assure interoperability. Nevertheless, the quality of biomedical ontologies has hindered their applicability and subsequent adoption in real-world applications. Ontology evaluation is an integral part of ontology development and maintenance. In the biomedicine domain, ontology evaluation is often conducted by third parties as a quality assurance (or auditing) effort that focuses on identifying modeling errors and inconsistencies. In this work, we first organized four categorical schemes of ontology evaluation methods in the existing literature to create an integrated taxonomy. Further, to understand the ontology evaluation practice in the biomedicine domain, we reviewed a sample of 200 ontologies from the National Center for Biomedical Ontology (NCBO) BioPortal-the largest repository for biomedical ontologies-and observed that only 15 of these ontologies have documented evaluation in their corresponding inception papers. We then surveyed the recent quality assurance approaches for biomedical ontologies and their use. We also mapped these quality assurance approaches to the ontology evaluation criteria. It is our anticipation that ontology evaluation and quality assurance approaches will be more widely adopted in the development life cycle of biomedical ontologies. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Mathematics and physics of emerging biomedical imaging

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1996-01-01

Although the mathematical sciences were used in a general way for image processing, they were of little importance in biomedical work until the development in the 1970s of computed tomography (CT) for the imaging of x-rays and isotope emission tomography. In the 1980s, MRI eclipsed the other modalities in many ways as the most informative medical imaging methodology. Besides these well-established techniques, computer-based mathematical methods are being explored in applications to other well-known methods, such as ultrasound and electroencephalography, as well as new techniques of optical imaging, impedance tomography, and magnetic source imaging. It is worth pointing out that, while the final images of many of these techniques bear many similarities to each other, the technologies involved in each are completely different and the parameters represented in the images are very different in character as well as in medical usefulness. In each case, rather different mathematical or statistical models are used, with different equations. One common thread is the paradigm of reconstruction from indirect measurements--this is the unifying theme of this report. The imaging methods used in biomedical applications that this report discusses include: (1) x-ray projection imaging; (2) x-ray computed tomography (CT); (3) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and magnetic resonance spectroscopy; (4) single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT); (5) positron emission tomography (PET); (6) ultrasonics; (7) electrical source imaging (ESI); (8) electrical impedance tomography (EIT); (9) magnetic source imaging (MSI); and (10) medical optical imaging

Advances in biomedical engineering and biotechnology during 2013-2014.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Feng; Wang, Ying; Burkhart, Timothy A; González Penedo, Manuel Francisco; Ma, Shaodong

2014-01-01

The 3rd International Conference on Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology (iCBEB 2014), held in Beijing from the 25th to the 28th of September 2014, is an annual conference that intends to provide an opportunity for researchers and practitioners around the world to present the most recent advances and future challenges in the fields of biomedical engineering, biomaterials, bioinformatics and computational biology, biomedical imaging and signal processing, biomechanical engineering and biotechnology, amongst others. The papers published in this issue are selected from this conference, which witnesses the advances in biomedical engineering and biotechnology during 2013-2014.

Biomedical applications of magnetic particles

CERN Document Server

Mefford, Thompson

2018-01-01

Magnetic particles are increasingly being used in a wide variety of biomedical applications. Written by a team of internationally respected experts, this book provides an up-to-date authoritative reference for scientists and engineers. The first section presents the fundamentals of the field by explaining the theory of magnetism, describing techniques to synthesize magnetic particles, and detailing methods to characterize magnetic particles. The second section describes biomedical applications, including chemical sensors and cellular actuators, and diagnostic applications such as drug delivery, hyperthermia cancer treatment, and magnetic resonance imaging contrast.

Bio-Inspired Extreme Wetting Surfaces for Biomedical Applications

Science.gov (United States)

Shin, Sera; Seo, Jungmok; Han, Heetak; Kang, Subin; Kim, Hyunchul; Lee, Taeyoon

2016-01-01

Biological creatures with unique surface wettability have long served as a source of inspiration for scientists and engineers. More specifically, materials exhibiting extreme wetting properties, such as superhydrophilic and superhydrophobic surfaces, have attracted considerable attention because of their potential use in various applications, such as self-cleaning fabrics, anti-fog windows, anti-corrosive coatings, drag-reduction systems, and efficient water transportation. In particular, the engineering of surface wettability by manipulating chemical properties and structure opens emerging biomedical applications ranging from high-throughput cell culture platforms to biomedical devices. This review describes design and fabrication methods for artificial extreme wetting surfaces. Next, we introduce some of the newer and emerging biomedical applications using extreme wetting surfaces. Current challenges and future prospects of the surfaces for potential biomedical applications are also addressed. PMID:28787916

Biomedical Data Mining

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Peek, N.; Combi, C.; Tucker, A.

2009-01-01

Objective: To introduce the special topic of Methods of Information in Medicine on data mining in biomedicine, with selected papers from two workshops on Intelligent Data Analysis in bioMedicine (IDAMAP) held in Verona (2006) and Amsterdam (2007). Methods: Defining the field of biomedical data

High-dimensional data: p >> n in mathematical statistics and bio-medical applications

OpenAIRE

Van De Geer, Sara A.; Van Houwelingen, Hans C.

2004-01-01

The workshop 'High-dimensional data: p >> n in mathematical statistics and bio-medical applications' was held at the Lorentz Center in Leiden from 9 to 20 September 2002. This special issue of Bernoulli contains a selection of papers presented at that workshop. ¶ The introduction of high-throughput micro-array technology to measure gene-expression levels and the publication of the pioneering paper by Golub et al. (1999) has brought to life a whole new branch of data analysis under the name of...

Superhydrophobic Materials for Biomedical Applications

Science.gov (United States)

Colson, Yolonda L.; Grinstaff, Mark W.

2016-01-01

Superhydrophobic surfaces are actively studied across a wide range of applications and industries, and are now finding increased use in the biomedical arena as substrates to control protein adsorption, cellular interaction, and bacterial growth, as well as platforms for drug delivery devices and for diagnostic tools. The commonality in the design of these materials is to create a stable or metastable air state at the material surface, which lends itself to a number of unique properties. These activities are catalyzing the development of new materials, applications, and fabrication techniques, as well as collaborations across material science, chemistry, engineering, and medicine given the interdisciplinary nature of this work. The review begins with a discussion of superhydrophobicity, and then explores biomedical applications that are utilizing superhydrophobicity in depth including material selection characteristics, in vitro performance, and in vivo performance. General trends are offered for each application in addition to discussion of conflicting data in the literature, and the review concludes with the authors’ future perspectives on the utility of superhydrophobic surfaces for biomedical applications. PMID:27449946

Biomedical waste management in Ayurveda hospitals - current practices & future prospectives.

Science.gov (United States)

Rajan, Renju; Robin, Delvin T; M, Vandanarani

2018-03-16

Biomedical waste management is an integral part of traditional and contemporary system of health care. The paper focuses on the identification and classification of biomedical wastes in Ayurvedic hospitals, current practices of its management in Ayurveda hospitals and its future prospective. Databases like PubMed (1975-2017 Feb), Scopus (1960-2017), AYUSH Portal, DOAJ, DHARA and Google scholar were searched. We used the medical subject headings 'biomedical waste' and 'health care waste' for identification and classification. The terms 'biomedical waste management', 'health care waste management' alone and combined with 'Ayurveda' or 'Ayurvedic' for current practices and recent advances in the treatment of these wastes were used. We made a humble attempt to categorize the biomedical wastes from Ayurvedic hospitals as the available data about its grouping is very scarce. Proper biomedical waste management is the mainstay of hospital cleanliness, hospital hygiene and maintenance activities. Current disposal techniques adopted for Ayurveda biomedical wastes are - sewage/drains, incineration and land fill. But these methods are having some merits as well as demerits. Our review has identified a number of interesting areas for future research such as the logical application of bioremediation techniques in biomedical waste management and the usage of effective micro-organisms and solar energy in waste disposal. Copyright © 2017 Transdisciplinary University, Bangalore and World Ayurveda Foundation. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Characterization of the ODS MA 956 superalloy for biomedical surgical implants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Escudero, M.L.; Ruiz, J.; Gonzalez-Carrasco, J.L.; Chao, J.; Lopez, M.F.; Garcia-Alonso, M.C.; Canahua, H.; Adeva, P.; Coedo, A.G.; Dorado, M.T.; Rubio, J.C.; Martinez, M.E.; Munuera, L.; Agustin, D. de; Ruiz, J.

1998-01-01

Since the MA 956 was proposed as a possible new biomaterial due to its good corrosion resistance values in physiological fluids a long way, still not finished, has been done. An exhaustive characterization of this alloy at room temperature has been developed. The technological objectives are well established: the possible use of this material for biomedical as hip or knee prostheses and as dental implants. The study was performed comparing the results of this alloy with the materials used nowadays as surgical implants, i.e., titanium alloys and polyethylene. (Author) 5 refs

Semiconducting silicon nanowires for biomedical applications

CERN Document Server

Coffer, JL

2014-01-01

Biomedical applications have benefited greatly from the increasing interest and research into semiconducting silicon nanowires. Semiconducting Silicon Nanowires for Biomedical Applications reviews the fabrication, properties, and applications of this emerging material. The book begins by reviewing the basics, as well as the growth, characterization, biocompatibility, and surface modification, of semiconducting silicon nanowires. It goes on to focus on silicon nanowires for tissue engineering and delivery applications, including cellular binding and internalization, orthopedic tissue scaffol

Biomedical sensor design using analog compressed sensing

Science.gov (United States)

Balouchestani, Mohammadreza; Krishnan, Sridhar

2015-05-01

The main drawback of current healthcare systems is the location-specific nature of the system due to the use of fixed/wired biomedical sensors. Since biomedical sensors are usually driven by a battery, power consumption is the most important factor determining the life of a biomedical sensor. They are also restricted by size, cost, and transmission capacity. Therefore, it is important to reduce the load of sampling by merging the sampling and compression steps to reduce the storage usage, transmission times, and power consumption in order to expand the current healthcare systems to Wireless Healthcare Systems (WHSs). In this work, we present an implementation of a low-power biomedical sensor using analog Compressed Sensing (CS) framework for sparse biomedical signals that addresses both the energy and telemetry bandwidth constraints of wearable and wireless Body-Area Networks (BANs). This architecture enables continuous data acquisition and compression of biomedical signals that are suitable for a variety of diagnostic and treatment purposes. At the transmitter side, an analog-CS framework is applied at the sensing step before Analog to Digital Converter (ADC) in order to generate the compressed version of the input analog bio-signal. At the receiver side, a reconstruction algorithm based on Restricted Isometry Property (RIP) condition is applied in order to reconstruct the original bio-signals form the compressed bio-signals with high probability and enough accuracy. We examine the proposed algorithm with healthy and neuropathy surface Electromyography (sEMG) signals. The proposed algorithm achieves a good level for Average Recognition Rate (ARR) at 93% and reconstruction accuracy at 98.9%. In addition, The proposed architecture reduces total computation time from 32 to 11.5 seconds at sampling-rate=29 % of Nyquist rate, Percentage Residual Difference (PRD)=26 %, Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE)=3 %.

Biomedical Image Registration

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 8th International Workshop on Biomedical Image Registration, WBIR 2018, held in Leiden, The Netherlands, in June 2018. The 11 full and poster papers included in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 17 submitted papers. The pap...

Stimuli-responsive magnetic particles for biomedical applications.

Science.gov (United States)

Medeiros, S F; Santos, A M; Fessi, H; Elaissari, A

2011-01-17

In recent years, magnetic nanoparticles have been studied due to their potential applications as magnetic carriers in biomedical area. These materials have been increasingly exploited as efficient delivery vectors, leading to opportunities of use as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) agents, mediators of hyperthermia cancer treatment and in targeted therapies. Much attention has been also focused on "smart" polymers, which are able to respond to environmental changes, such as changes in the temperature and pH. In this context, this article reviews the state-of-the art in stimuli-responsive magnetic systems for biomedical applications. The paper describes different types of stimuli-sensitive systems, mainly temperature- and pH sensitive polymers, the combination of this characteristic with magnetic properties and, finally, it gives an account of their preparation methods. The article also discusses the main in vivo biomedical applications of such materials. A survey of the recent literature on various stimuli-responsive magnetic gels in biomedical applications is also included. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

[Biomedical waste management in five hospitals in Dakar, Senegal].

Science.gov (United States)

Ndiaye, M; El Metghari, L; Soumah, M M; Sow, M L

2012-10-01

Biomedical waste is currently a real health and environmental concern. In this regard, a study was conducted in 5 hospitals in Dakar to review their management of biomedical waste and to formulate recommendations. This is a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted from 1 April to 31 July 2010 in five major hospitals of Dakar. A questionnaire administered to hospital managers, heads of departments, residents and heads of hospital hygiene departments as well as interviews conducted with healthcare personnel and operators of waste incinerators made it possible to assess mechanisms and knowledge on biomedical waste management. Content analysis of interviews, observations and a data sheet allowed processing the data thus gathered. Of the 150 questionnaires distributed, 98 responses were obtained representing a response rate of 65.3%. An interview was conducted with 75 employees directly involved in the management of biomedical waste and observations were made on biomedical waste management in 86 hospital services. Sharps as well as blood and liquid waste were found in all services except in pharmacies, pharmaceutical waste in 66 services, infectious waste in 49 services and anatomical waste in 11 services. Sorting of biomedical waste was ill-adapted in 53.5% (N = 46) of services and the use of the colour-coding system effective in 31.4% (N = 27) of services. Containers for the safe disposal of sharps were available in 82.5% (N = 71) of services and were effectively utilized in 51.1% (N = 44) of these services. In most services, an illadapted packaging was observed with the use of plastic bottles and bins for waste collection and overfilled containers. With the exception of Hôpital Principal, the main storage area was in open air, unsecured, with biomedical waste littered on the floor and often mixed with waste similar to household refuse. The transfer of biomedical waste to the main storage area was done using trolleys or carts in 67.4% (N = 58) of services and

Translational Bioinformatics and Clinical Research (Biomedical) Informatics.

Science.gov (United States)

Sirintrapun, S Joseph; Zehir, Ahmet; Syed, Aijazuddin; Gao, JianJiong; Schultz, Nikolaus; Cheng, Donavan T

2015-06-01

Translational bioinformatics and clinical research (biomedical) informatics are the primary domains related to informatics activities that support translational research. Translational bioinformatics focuses on computational techniques in genetics, molecular biology, and systems biology. Clinical research (biomedical) informatics involves the use of informatics in discovery and management of new knowledge relating to health and disease. This article details 3 projects that are hybrid applications of translational bioinformatics and clinical research (biomedical) informatics: The Cancer Genome Atlas, the cBioPortal for Cancer Genomics, and the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center clinical variants and results database, all designed to facilitate insights into cancer biology and clinical/therapeutic correlations. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Statistics and Biomedical Informatics in Forensic Sciences

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Zvárová, Jana

2009-01-01

Roč. 20, č. 6 (2009), s. 743-750 ISSN 1180-4009. [TIES 2007. Annual Meeting of the International Environmental Society /18./. Mikulov, 16.08.2007-20.08.2007] Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z10300504 Keywords : biomedical informatics * biomedical statistics * genetic information * forensic dentistry Subject RIV: BB - Applied Statistics, Operational Research Impact factor: 1.000, year: 2009

Career and Technology Center Guides Students in Real-Life Careers | Poster

Science.gov (United States)

By Carolynne Keenan, Contributing Writer Frederick County Public School students have a unique opportunity—a chance to get a real-world, hands-on experience in biomedical science and biotechnology before they even graduate from high school, thanks to the Frederick County Career and Technology Center (CTC). Several years ago, the CTC established its biomedical sciences program

Figure text extraction in biomedical literature.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daehyun Kim

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Figures are ubiquitous in biomedical full-text articles, and they represent important biomedical knowledge. However, the sheer volume of biomedical publications has made it necessary to develop computational approaches for accessing figures. Therefore, we are developing the Biomedical Figure Search engine (http://figuresearch.askHERMES.org to allow bioscientists to access figures efficiently. Since text frequently appears in figures, automatically extracting such text may assist the task of mining information from figures. Little research, however, has been conducted exploring text extraction from biomedical figures.We first evaluated an off-the-shelf Optical Character Recognition (OCR tool on its ability to extract text from figures appearing in biomedical full-text articles. We then developed a Figure Text Extraction Tool (FigTExT to improve the performance of the OCR tool for figure text extraction through the use of three innovative components: image preprocessing, character recognition, and text correction. We first developed image preprocessing to enhance image quality and to improve text localization. Then we adapted the off-the-shelf OCR tool on the improved text localization for character recognition. Finally, we developed and evaluated a novel text correction framework by taking advantage of figure-specific lexicons.The evaluation on 382 figures (9,643 figure texts in total randomly selected from PubMed Central full-text articles shows that FigTExT performed with 84% precision, 98% recall, and 90% F1-score for text localization and with 62.5% precision, 51.0% recall and 56.2% F1-score for figure text extraction. When limiting figure texts to those judged by domain experts to be important content, FigTExT performed with 87.3% precision, 68.8% recall, and 77% F1-score. FigTExT significantly improved the performance of the off-the-shelf OCR tool we used, which on its own performed with 36.6% precision, 19.3% recall, and 25.3% F1-score for

International Symposium on Biomedical Engineering and Medical Physics

CERN Document Server

Katashev, Alexei; Lancere, Linda

2013-01-01

This volume presents the proceedings of the International Symposium on Biomedical Engineering and Medical Physics and is dedicated to the 150 anniversary of the Riga Technical University, Latvia. The content includes various hot topics in biomedical engineering and medical physics.

Facilitating biomedical researchers' interrogation of electronic health record data: Ideas from outside of biomedical informatics.

Science.gov (United States)

Hruby, Gregory W; Matsoukas, Konstantina; Cimino, James J; Weng, Chunhua

2016-04-01

Electronic health records (EHR) are a vital data resource for research uses, including cohort identification, phenotyping, pharmacovigilance, and public health surveillance. To realize the promise of EHR data for accelerating clinical research, it is imperative to enable efficient and autonomous EHR data interrogation by end users such as biomedical researchers. This paper surveys state-of-art approaches and key methodological considerations to this purpose. We adapted a previously published conceptual framework for interactive information retrieval, which defines three entities: user, channel, and source, by elaborating on channels for query formulation in the context of facilitating end users to interrogate EHR data. We show the current progress in biomedical informatics mainly lies in support for query execution and information modeling, primarily due to emphases on infrastructure development for data integration and data access via self-service query tools, but has neglected user support needed during iteratively query formulation processes, which can be costly and error-prone. In contrast, the information science literature has offered elaborate theories and methods for user modeling and query formulation support. The two bodies of literature are complementary, implying opportunities for cross-disciplinary idea exchange. On this basis, we outline the directions for future informatics research to improve our understanding of user needs and requirements for facilitating autonomous interrogation of EHR data by biomedical researchers. We suggest that cross-disciplinary translational research between biomedical informatics and information science can benefit our research in facilitating efficient data access in life sciences. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Wafer-scale integrated micro-supercapacitors on an ultrathin and highly flexible biomedical platform.

Science.gov (United States)

Maeng, Jimin; Meng, Chuizhou; Irazoqui, Pedro P

2015-02-01

We present wafer-scale integrated micro-supercapacitors on an ultrathin and highly flexible parylene platform, as progress toward sustainably powering biomedical microsystems suitable for implantable and wearable applications. All-solid-state, low-profile (supercapacitors are formed on an ultrathin (~20 μm) freestanding parylene film by a wafer-scale parylene packaging process in combination with a polyaniline (PANI) nanowire growth technique assisted by surface plasma treatment. These micro-supercapacitors are highly flexible and shown to be resilient toward flexural stress. Further, direct integration of micro-supercapacitors into a radio frequency (RF) rectifying circuit is achieved on a single parylene platform, yielding a complete RF energy harvesting microsystem. The system discharging rate is shown to improve by ~17 times in the presence of the integrated micro-supercapacitors. This result suggests that the integrated micro-supercapacitor technology described herein is a promising strategy for sustainably powering biomedical microsystems dedicated to implantable and wearable applications.

In vivo genome editing thrives with diversified CRISPR technologies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xun Ma

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Prokaryotic type II adaptive immune systems have been developed into the versatile CRISPR technology, which has been widely applied in site-specific genome editing and has revolutionized biomedical research due to its superior efficiency and flexibility. Recent studies have greatly diversified CRISPR technologies by coupling it with various DNA repair mechanisms and targeting strategies. These new advances have significantly expanded the generation of genetically modified animal models, either by including species in which targeted genetic modification could not be achieved previously, or through introducing complex genetic modifications that take multiple steps and cost years to achieve using traditional methods. Herein, we review the recent developments and applications of CRISPR-based technology in generating various animal models, and discuss the everlasting impact of this new progress on biomedical research.

Integrating systems biology models and biomedical ontologies.

Science.gov (United States)

Hoehndorf, Robert; Dumontier, Michel; Gennari, John H; Wimalaratne, Sarala; de Bono, Bernard; Cook, Daniel L; Gkoutos, Georgios V

2011-08-11

Systems biology is an approach to biology that emphasizes the structure and dynamic behavior of biological systems and the interactions that occur within them. To succeed, systems biology crucially depends on the accessibility and integration of data across domains and levels of granularity. Biomedical ontologies were developed to facilitate such an integration of data and are often used to annotate biosimulation models in systems biology. We provide a framework to integrate representations of in silico systems biology with those of in vivo biology as described by biomedical ontologies and demonstrate this framework using the Systems Biology Markup Language. We developed the SBML Harvester software that automatically converts annotated SBML models into OWL and we apply our software to those biosimulation models that are contained in the BioModels Database. We utilize the resulting knowledge base for complex biological queries that can bridge levels of granularity, verify models based on the biological phenomenon they represent and provide a means to establish a basic qualitative layer on which to express the semantics of biosimulation models. We establish an information flow between biomedical ontologies and biosimulation models and we demonstrate that the integration of annotated biosimulation models and biomedical ontologies enables the verification of models as well as expressive queries. Establishing a bi-directional information flow between systems biology and biomedical ontologies has the potential to enable large-scale analyses of biological systems that span levels of granularity from molecules to organisms.

As Technologies for Nucleotide Therapeutics Mature, Products Emerge.

Science.gov (United States)

Beierlein, Jennifer M; McNamee, Laura M; Ledley, Fred D

2017-12-15

The long path from initial research on oligonucleotide therapies to approval of antisense products is not unfamiliar. This lag resembles those encountered with monoclonal antibodies, gene therapies, and many biological targets and is consistent with studies of innovation showing that technology maturation is a critical determinant of product success. We previously described an analytical model for the maturation of biomedical research, demonstrating that the efficiency of targeted and biological development is connected to metrics of technology growth. The present work applies this model to characterize the advance of oligonucleotide therapeutics. We show that recent oligonucleotide product approvals incorporate technologies and targets that are past the established point of technology growth, as do most of the oligonucleotide products currently in phase 3. Less mature oligonucleotide technologies, such as miRNAs and some novel gene targets, have not passed the established point and have not yielded products. This analysis shows that oligonucleotide product development has followed largely predictable patterns of innovation. While technology maturation alone does not ensure success, these data show that many oligonucleotide technologies are sufficiently mature to be considered part of the arsenal for therapeutic development. These results demonstrate the importance of technology assessment in strategic management of biomedical technologies. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Light Ion Biomedical Research Accelerator (LIBRA)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gough, R.A.

1987-03-01

LIBRA is a concept to place a light-ion, charged-particle facility in a hospital environment, and to dedicate it to applications in biology and medicine. There are two aspects of the program envisaged for LIBRA: a basic research effort coupled with a program in clinical applications of accelerated charged particles. The operational environment to be provided for LIBRA is one in which both of these components can coexist and flourish, and one that will promote the transfer of technology and knowledge from one to the other. In order to further investigate the prospects for a Light Ion Biomedical Research Accelerator (LIBRA), discussions are underway with the Merritt Peralta Medical Center (MPMC) in Oakland, California, and the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF). In this paper, a brief discussion of the technical requirements for such a facility is given, together with an outline of the accelerator technology required. While still in a preliminary stage, it is possible nevertheless to develop an adequate working description of the type, size, performance and cost of the accelerator facilities required to meet the preliminary goals for LIBRA

Challenges and opportunities in clinical translation of biomedical optical spectroscopy and imaging

Science.gov (United States)

Wilson, Brian C.; Jermyn, Michael; Leblond, Frederic

2018-03-01

Medical devices face many hurdles before they enter routine clinical practice to address unmet clinical needs. This is also the case for biomedical optical spectroscopy and imaging systems that are used here to illustrate the opportunities and challenges involved. Following initial concept, stages in clinical translation include instrument development, preclinical testing, clinical prototyping, clinical trials, prototype-to-product conversion, regulatory approval, commercialization, and finally clinical adoption and dissemination, all in the face of potentially competing technologies. Optical technologies face additional challenges from their being extremely diverse, often targeting entirely different diseases and having orders-of-magnitude differences in resolution and tissue penetration. However, these technologies can potentially address a wide variety of unmet clinical needs since they provide rich intrinsic biochemical and structural information, have high sensitivity and specificity for disease detection and localization, and are practical, safe (minimally invasive, nonionizing), and relatively affordable.

Exploring the awareness level of biomedical waste management: Case of Indian healthcare

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rahul S. Mor

2017-10-01

Full Text Available This study aims to investigate the awareness level of Biomedical waste managements in healthcare facilities, and their perception among hospital waste management team, doctors, nurses, lab techni-cians and waste handlers in Northwest Delhi region in India. The study has been conducted through a questionnaire survey followed by the descriptive statistical analysis method. Question-naire contains of 38 questions, where the first section deals with the hospital waste management team, the second section is for doctors, nurses and lab technicians, and the third section is for the waste handlers. Out of 311 respondents, there were 16 hospital waste management teams, 81 doc-tors, 92 nurses, 49 lab technicians and 73 waste handlers. It was surprising that only 40% (n=10 hospitals had any kind of waste treatment & disposal facility onsite, only 10% hospitals were using the latest technology and 60% hospitals shred the Biomedical waste before disposal. It was good to see that none of the hospital waste managements disposed the waste with general waste, and 40% of them were exhausting through government agencies and the remaining 60% were using private agencies to dispose the waste. Finally, all the hospitals maintained the record of waste generated. It is concluded that there was a lack of awareness about the biomedical waste generation, legislation and management among healthcare personnel, and they all needed regular audits and training pro-grams at all levels, and a proper management starting from waste generation to its disposal at sites.

A Pilot Study of Biomedical Text Comprehension using an Attention-Based Deep Neural Reader: Design and Experimental Analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Seongsoon; Park, Donghyeon; Choi, Yonghwa; Lee, Kyubum; Kim, Byounggun; Jeon, Minji; Kim, Jihye; Tan, Aik Choon; Kang, Jaewoo

2018-01-05

With the development of artificial intelligence (AI) technology centered on deep-learning, the computer has evolved to a point where it can read a given text and answer a question based on the context of the text. Such a specific task is known as the task of machine comprehension. Existing machine comprehension tasks mostly use datasets of general texts, such as news articles or elementary school-level storybooks. However, no attempt has been made to determine whether an up-to-date deep learning-based machine comprehension model can also process scientific literature containing expert-level knowledge, especially in the biomedical domain. This study aims to investigate whether a machine comprehension model can process biomedical articles as well as general texts. Since there is no dataset for the biomedical literature comprehension task, our work includes generating a large-scale question answering dataset using PubMed and manually evaluating the generated dataset. We present an attention-based deep neural model tailored to the biomedical domain. To further enhance the performance of our model, we used a pretrained word vector and biomedical entity type embedding. We also developed an ensemble method of combining the results of several independent models to reduce the variance of the answers from the models. The experimental results showed that our proposed deep neural network model outperformed the baseline model by more than 7% on the new dataset. We also evaluated human performance on the new dataset. The human evaluation result showed that our deep neural model outperformed humans in comprehension by 22% on average. In this work, we introduced a new task of machine comprehension in the biomedical domain using a deep neural model. Since there was no large-scale dataset for training deep neural models in the biomedical domain, we created the new cloze-style datasets Biomedical Knowledge Comprehension Title (BMKC_T) and Biomedical Knowledge Comprehension Last

Design of Biomedical Robots for Phenotype Prediction Problems.

Science.gov (United States)

deAndrés-Galiana, Enrique J; Fernández-Martínez, Juan Luis; Sonis, Stephen T

2016-08-01

Genomics has been used with varying degrees of success in the context of drug discovery and in defining mechanisms of action for diseases like cancer and neurodegenerative and rare diseases in the quest for orphan drugs. To improve its utility, accuracy, and cost-effectiveness optimization of analytical methods, especially those that translate to clinically relevant outcomes, is critical. Here we define a novel tool for genomic analysis termed a biomedical robot in order to improve phenotype prediction, identifying disease pathogenesis and significantly defining therapeutic targets. Biomedical robot analytics differ from historical methods in that they are based on melding feature selection methods and ensemble learning techniques. The biomedical robot mathematically exploits the structure of the uncertainty space of any classification problem conceived as an ill-posed optimization problem. Given a classifier, there exist different equivalent small-scale genetic signatures that provide similar predictive accuracies. We perform the sensitivity analysis to noise of the biomedical robot concept using synthetic microarrays perturbed by different kinds of noises in expression and class assignment. Finally, we show the application of this concept to the analysis of different diseases, inferring the pathways and the correlation networks. The final aim of a biomedical robot is to improve knowledge discovery and provide decision systems to optimize diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis. This analysis shows that the biomedical robots are robust against different kinds of noises and particularly to a wrong class assignment of the samples. Assessing the uncertainty that is inherent to any phenotype prediction problem is the right way to address this kind of problem.

BEST: Next-Generation Biomedical Entity Search Tool for Knowledge Discovery from Biomedical Literature.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sunwon Lee

Full Text Available As the volume of publications rapidly increases, searching for relevant information from the literature becomes more challenging. To complement standard search engines such as PubMed, it is desirable to have an advanced search tool that directly returns relevant biomedical entities such as targets, drugs, and mutations rather than a long list of articles. Some existing tools submit a query to PubMed and process retrieved abstracts to extract information at query time, resulting in a slow response time and limited coverage of only a fraction of the PubMed corpus. Other tools preprocess the PubMed corpus to speed up the response time; however, they are not constantly updated, and thus produce outdated results. Further, most existing tools cannot process sophisticated queries such as searches for mutations that co-occur with query terms in the literature. To address these problems, we introduce BEST, a biomedical entity search tool. BEST returns, as a result, a list of 10 different types of biomedical entities including genes, diseases, drugs, targets, transcription factors, miRNAs, and mutations that are relevant to a user's query. To the best of our knowledge, BEST is the only system that processes free text queries and returns up-to-date results in real time including mutation information in the results. BEST is freely accessible at http://best.korea.ac.kr.

Optical Polarizationin Biomedical Applications

CERN Document Server

Tuchin, Valery V; Zimnyakov, Dmitry A

2006-01-01

Optical Polarization in Biomedical Applications introduces key developments in optical polarization methods for quantitative studies of tissues, while presenting the theory of polarization transfer in a random medium as a basis for the quantitative description of polarized light interaction with tissues. This theory uses the modified transfer equation for Stokes parameters and predicts the polarization structure of multiple scattered optical fields. The backscattering polarization matrices (Jones matrix and Mueller matrix) important for noninvasive medical diagnostic are introduced. The text also describes a number of diagnostic techniques such as CW polarization imaging and spectroscopy, polarization microscopy and cytometry. As a new tool for medical diagnosis, optical coherent polarization tomography is analyzed. The monograph also covers a range of biomedical applications, among them cataract and glaucoma diagnostics, glucose sensing, and the detection of bacteria.

Radiation protection in medical and biomedical research

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fuente Puch, A.E. de la

2013-01-01

The human exposure to ionizing radiation in the context of medical and biomedical research raises specific ethical challenges whose resolution approaches should be based on scientific, legal and procedural matters. Joint Resolution MINSAP CITMA-Regulation 'Basic Standards of Radiation Safety' of 30 November 2001 (hereafter NBS) provides for the first time in Cuba legislation specifically designed to protect patients and healthy people who participate in research programs medical and biomedical and exposed to radiation. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate the need to develop specific requirements for radiation protection in medical and biomedical research, as well as to identify all the institutions involved in this in order to establish the necessary cooperation to ensure the protection of persons participating in the investigation

Dynamic tables: an architecture for managing evolving, heterogeneous biomedical data in relational database management systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Corwin, John; Silberschatz, Avi; Miller, Perry L; Marenco, Luis

2007-01-01

Data sparsity and schema evolution issues affecting clinical informatics and bioinformatics communities have led to the adoption of vertical or object-attribute-value-based database schemas to overcome limitations posed when using conventional relational database technology. This paper explores these issues and discusses why biomedical data are difficult to model using conventional relational techniques. The authors propose a solution to these obstacles based on a relational database engine using a sparse, column-store architecture. The authors provide benchmarks comparing the performance of queries and schema-modification operations using three different strategies: (1) the standard conventional relational design; (2) past approaches used by biomedical informatics researchers; and (3) their sparse, column-store architecture. The performance results show that their architecture is a promising technique for storing and processing many types of data that are not handled well by the other two semantic data models.

Academic program models for undergraduate biomedical engineering.

Science.gov (United States)

Krishnan, Shankar M

2014-01-01

There is a proliferation of medical devices across the globe for the diagnosis and therapy of diseases. Biomedical engineering (BME) plays a significant role in healthcare and advancing medical technologies thus creating a substantial demand for biomedical engineers at undergraduate and graduate levels. There has been a surge in undergraduate programs due to increasing demands from the biomedical industries to cover many of their segments from bench to bedside. With the requirement of multidisciplinary training within allottable duration, it is indeed a challenge to design a comprehensive standardized undergraduate BME program to suit the needs of educators across the globe. This paper's objective is to describe three major models of undergraduate BME programs and their curricular requirements, with relevant recommendations to be applicable in institutions of higher education located in varied resource settings. Model 1 is based on programs to be offered in large research-intensive universities with multiple focus areas. The focus areas depend on the institution's research expertise and training mission. Model 2 has basic segments similar to those of Model 1, but the focus areas are limited due to resource constraints. In this model, co-op/internship in hospitals or medical companies is included which prepares the graduates for the work place. In Model 3, students are trained to earn an Associate Degree in the initial two years and they are trained for two more years to be BME's or BME Technologists. This model is well suited for the resource-poor countries. All three models must be designed to meet applicable accreditation requirements. The challenges in designing undergraduate BME programs include manpower, facility and funding resource requirements and time constraints. Each academic institution has to carefully analyze its short term and long term requirements. In conclusion, three models for BME programs are described based on large universities, colleges, and

Magnetic nanoparticles for biomedical applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Krustev, P.; Ruskov, T.

2007-01-01

In this paper we describe different biomedical application using magnetic nanoparticles. Over the past decade, a number of biomedical applications have begun to emerge for magnetic nanoparticles of differing sizes, shapes, and compositions. Areas under investigation include targeted drug delivery, ultra-sensitive disease detection, gene therapy, high throughput genetic screening, biochemical sensing, and rapid toxicity cleansing. Magnetic nanoparticles exhibit ferromagnetic or superparamagnetic behavior, magnetizing strongly under an applied field. In the second case (superparamagnetic nanoparticles) there is no permanent magnetism once the field is removed. The superparamagnetic nanoparticles are highly attractive as in vivo probes or in vitro tools to extract information on biochemical systems. The optical properties of magnetic metal nanoparticles are spectacular and, therefore, have promoted a great deal of excitement during the last few decades. Many applications as MRI imaging and hyperthermia rely on the use of iron oxide particles. Moreover magnetic nanoparticles conjugated with antibodies are also applied to hyperthermia and have enabled tumor specific contrast enhancement in MRI. Other promising biomedical applications are connected with tumor cells treated with magnetic nanoparticles with X-ray ionizing radiation, which employs magnetic nanoparticles as a complementary radiate source inside the tumor. (authors)

Biomedical applications of nanodiamond (Review)

Science.gov (United States)

Turcheniuk, K.; Mochalin, Vadym N.

2017-06-01

The interest in nanodiamond applications in biology and medicine is on the rise over recent years. This is due to the unique combination of properties that nanodiamond provides. Small size (∼5 nm), low cost, scalable production, negligible toxicity, chemical inertness of diamond core and rich chemistry of nanodiamond surface, as well as bright and robust fluorescence resistant to photobleaching are the distinct parameters that render nanodiamond superior to any other nanomaterial when it comes to biomedical applications. The most exciting recent results have been related to the use of nanodiamonds for drug delivery and diagnostics—two components of a quickly growing area of biomedical research dubbed theranostics. However, nanodiamond offers much more in addition: it can be used to produce biodegradable bone surgery devices, tissue engineering scaffolds, kill drug resistant microbes, help us to fight viruses, and deliver genetic material into cell nucleus. All these exciting opportunities require an in-depth understanding of nanodiamond. This review covers the recent progress as well as general trends in biomedical applications of nanodiamond, and underlines the importance of purification, characterization, and rational modification of this nanomaterial when designing nanodiamond based theranostic platforms.

National Biomedical Tracer Facility. Project definition study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schafer, R.

1995-01-01

We request a $25 million government-guaranteed, interest-free loan to be repaid over a 30-year period for construction and initial operations of a cyclotron-based National Biomedical Tracer Facility (NBTF) in North Central Texas. The NBTF will be co-located with a linear accelerator-based commercial radioisotope production facility, funded by the private sector at approximately $28 million. In addition, research radioisotope production by the NBTF will be coordinated through an association with an existing U.S. nuclear reactor center that will produce research and commercial radioisotopes through neutron reactions. The combined facilities will provide the full range of technology for radioisotope production and research: fast neutrons, thermal neutrons, and particle beams (H - , H + , and D + ). The proposed NBTF facility includes an 80 MeV, 1 mA H - cyclotron that will produce proton-induced (neutron deficient) research isotopes

Smart Fabrics Technology Development

Science.gov (United States)

Simon, Cory; Potter, Elliott; Potter, Elliott; McCabe, Mary; Baggerman, Clint

2010-01-01

Advances in Smart Fabrics technology are enabling an exciting array of new applications for NASA exploration missions, the biomedical community, and consumer electronics. This report summarizes the findings of a brief investigation into the state of the art and potential applications of smart fabrics to address challenges in human spaceflight.

Building the biomedical data science workforce.

Science.gov (United States)

Dunn, Michelle C; Bourne, Philip E

2017-07-01

This article describes efforts at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from 2013 to 2016 to train a national workforce in biomedical data science. We provide an analysis of the Big Data to Knowledge (BD2K) training program strengths and weaknesses with an eye toward future directions aimed at any funder and potential funding recipient worldwide. The focus is on extramurally funded programs that have a national or international impact rather than the training of NIH staff, which was addressed by the NIH's internal Data Science Workforce Development Center. From its inception, the major goal of BD2K was to narrow the gap between needed and existing biomedical data science skills. As biomedical research increasingly relies on computational, mathematical, and statistical thinking, supporting the training and education of the workforce of tomorrow requires new emphases on analytical skills. From 2013 to 2016, BD2K jump-started training in this area for all levels, from graduate students to senior researchers.

Building the biomedical data science workforce.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michelle C Dunn

2017-07-01

Full Text Available This article describes efforts at the National Institutes of Health (NIH from 2013 to 2016 to train a national workforce in biomedical data science. We provide an analysis of the Big Data to Knowledge (BD2K training program strengths and weaknesses with an eye toward future directions aimed at any funder and potential funding recipient worldwide. The focus is on extramurally funded programs that have a national or international impact rather than the training of NIH staff, which was addressed by the NIH's internal Data Science Workforce Development Center. From its inception, the major goal of BD2K was to narrow the gap between needed and existing biomedical data science skills. As biomedical research increasingly relies on computational, mathematical, and statistical thinking, supporting the training and education of the workforce of tomorrow requires new emphases on analytical skills. From 2013 to 2016, BD2K jump-started training in this area for all levels, from graduate students to senior researchers.

5th International Conference on Biomedical Engineering in Vietnam

CERN Document Server

Phuong, Tran

2015-01-01

This volume presents the proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on the Development of Biomedical Engineering in Vietnam which was held from June 16-18, 2014 in Ho Chi Minh City. The volume reflects the progress of Biomedical Engineering and discusses problems and solutions. I aims identifying new challenges, and shaping future directions for research in biomedical engineering fields including medical instrumentation, bioinformatics, biomechanics, medical imaging, drug delivery therapy, regenerative medicine and entrepreneurship in medical devices.

Informatics and Technology in Resident Education.

Science.gov (United States)

Niehaus, William

2017-05-01

Biomedical or clinical informatics is the transdisciplinary field that studies and develops effective uses of biomedical data, information technology innovations, and medical knowledge for scientific inquiry, problem solving, and decision making, with an emphasis on improving human health. Given the ongoing advances in information technology, the field of informatics is becoming important to clinical practice and to residency education. This article will discuss how informatics is specifically relevant to residency education and the different ways to incorporate informatics into residency education, and will highlight applications of current technology in the context of residency education. How informatics can optimize communication for residents, promote information technology use, refine documentation techniques, reduce medical errors, and improve clinical decision making will be reviewed. It is hoped that this article will increase faculty and trainees' knowledge of the field of informatics, awareness of available technology, and will assist practitioners to maximize their ability to provide quality care to their patients. This article will also introduce the idea of incorporating informatics specialists into residency programs to help practitioners deliver more evidenced-based care and to further improve their efficiency. Copyright © 2017 American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Benefits of object-oriented models and ModeliChart: modern tools and methods for the interdisciplinary research on smart biomedical technology.

Science.gov (United States)

Gesenhues, Jonas; Hein, Marc; Ketelhut, Maike; Habigt, Moriz; Rüschen, Daniel; Mechelinck, Mare; Albin, Thivaharan; Leonhardt, Steffen; Schmitz-Rode, Thomas; Rossaint, Rolf; Autschbach, Rüdiger; Abel, Dirk

2017-04-01

Computational models of biophysical systems generally constitute an essential component in the realization of smart biomedical technological applications. Typically, the development process of such models is characterized by a great extent of collaboration between different interdisciplinary parties. Furthermore, due to the fact that many underlying mechanisms and the necessary degree of abstraction of biophysical system models are unknown beforehand, the steps of the development process of the application are iteratively repeated when the model is refined. This paper presents some methods and tools to facilitate the development process. First, the principle of object-oriented (OO) modeling is presented and the advantages over classical signal-oriented modeling are emphasized. Second, our self-developed simulation tool ModeliChart is presented. ModeliChart was designed specifically for clinical users and allows independently performing in silico studies in real time including intuitive interaction with the model. Furthermore, ModeliChart is capable of interacting with hardware such as sensors and actuators. Finally, it is presented how optimal control methods in combination with OO models can be used to realize clinically motivated control applications. All methods presented are illustrated on an exemplary clinically oriented use case of the artificial perfusion of the systemic circulation.

The AIBS In Yugoslavia: Programs in Biomedical Engineering

Science.gov (United States)

Thompson, Mary-Frances

1978-01-01

Programs in biomedical engineering have been developing worldwide since World War II. This article describes a multidisciplinary program which operates in Yugoslavia through a cooperative effort between that county and the AIBS. A major problem has been the slowness with which hospitals accept the concept of biomedical engineering. (MA)

Europium enabled luminescent nanoparticles for biomedical applications

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Syamchand, S.S., E-mail: syamchand.ss@gmail.com; Sony, G., E-mail: emailtosony@gmail.com

2015-09-15

Lanthanide based nanoparticles are receiving great attention ought to their excellent luminescent and magnetic properties and find challenging biomedical applications. Among the luminescent lanthanide NPs, europium based NPs (Eu-NPs) are better candidates for immunoassay and imaging applications. The Eu-NPs have an edge over quantum dots (QDs) by means of their stable luminescence, long fluorescence lifetime, sharp emission peaks with narrow band width, lack of blinking and biocompatibility. This review surveys the synthesis and properties of a variety of Eu-NPs consolidated from different research articles, for their applications in medicine and biology. The exquisite luminescent properties of Eu-NPs are explored for developing biomedical applications such as immunoassay and bioimaging including multimodal imaging. The biomedical applications of Eu-NPs are mostly diagnostic in nature and mainly focus on various key analytes present in biological systems. The luminescent properties of europium enabled NPs are influenced by a number of factors such as the site symmetry, the metal nanoparticles, metal ions, quantum dots, surfactants, morphology of Eu-NPs, crystal defect, phenomena like antenna effect and physical parameters like temperature. Through this review we explore and assimilate all the factors which affect the luminescence in Eu-NPs and coil a new thread of parameters that control the luminescence in Eu-NPs, which would provide further insight in developing Eu-based nanoprobes for future biomedical prospects. - Highlights: • The review describes 14 major factors that influence the luminescence properties of europium enabled luminescent nanoparticles (Eu-NPs). • Surveys different types of europium containing nanoparticles that have been reported for their biomedical applications. • Eu-NPs are conveniently divided into four different categories, based on the type of the substrates involved. The four categories are (1) virgin Eu-substrate based NPs; (2

Europium enabled luminescent nanoparticles for biomedical applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Syamchand, S.S.; Sony, G.

2015-01-01

Lanthanide based nanoparticles are receiving great attention ought to their excellent luminescent and magnetic properties and find challenging biomedical applications. Among the luminescent lanthanide NPs, europium based NPs (Eu-NPs) are better candidates for immunoassay and imaging applications. The Eu-NPs have an edge over quantum dots (QDs) by means of their stable luminescence, long fluorescence lifetime, sharp emission peaks with narrow band width, lack of blinking and biocompatibility. This review surveys the synthesis and properties of a variety of Eu-NPs consolidated from different research articles, for their applications in medicine and biology. The exquisite luminescent properties of Eu-NPs are explored for developing biomedical applications such as immunoassay and bioimaging including multimodal imaging. The biomedical applications of Eu-NPs are mostly diagnostic in nature and mainly focus on various key analytes present in biological systems. The luminescent properties of europium enabled NPs are influenced by a number of factors such as the site symmetry, the metal nanoparticles, metal ions, quantum dots, surfactants, morphology of Eu-NPs, crystal defect, phenomena like antenna effect and physical parameters like temperature. Through this review we explore and assimilate all the factors which affect the luminescence in Eu-NPs and coil a new thread of parameters that control the luminescence in Eu-NPs, which would provide further insight in developing Eu-based nanoprobes for future biomedical prospects. - Highlights: • The review describes 14 major factors that influence the luminescence properties of europium enabled luminescent nanoparticles (Eu-NPs). • Surveys different types of europium containing nanoparticles that have been reported for their biomedical applications. • Eu-NPs are conveniently divided into four different categories, based on the type of the substrates involved. The four categories are (1) virgin Eu-substrate based NPs; (2

Canine as a biomedical research model: immunological, hematological, and oncological aspects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shifrine, M.; Wilson, F.D.

1980-01-01

The canine has been used as a biomedical research model in radiation studies by a number of laboratories supported primarily by the US Department of Energy and its predecessors. These studies were unique in that they covered the life spans of the canines and permitted the collection of data from birth to death under controlled conditions. Since these were multiparametric studies, an extensive data base has been established, not the least of which are normative values covering all biologic systems, including immunohematology. The canine model has also been extensively used by other groups, such as transplantation biologists. The virtues of the canine as a model in these and many other endeavors are becoming increasingly more apparent with the passing of time. One of the primary goals of this volume was to compile the knowledge and experience of researchers using the canine model and to focus their expertise on furthering the use of the canine for studies in immunology, hematology, and oncology. We have attempted to present some of the contemporary, diverse uses of the canine in biomedical research, emphasizing immunologic endpoints, and also to present in detail some of the latest technology used in such studies

Important skills for biomedical services: The perspectives of Malaysian employers and employees.

Science.gov (United States)

Buntat, Yahya; Saud, Muhammad Sukri; Mokhtar, Mahani; Kamin, Yusri; Feh, Lim Set

2016-10-17

Increase in the occurrence of existing diseases, continual emergence of new or exotic diseases and re-emergence of old diseases have placed increasing demands on biomedical services in Malaysia. Biomedical technicians play an important role in operating biomedical instruments. However, there are no clear specifications about characteristics and traits for these semi-professional employees. Employers in a few studies claimed that biomedical graduates are not ready to enter and face challenges in the job market. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to identify technical and generic skills for a biomedical technician from the perspectives of the biomedical technicians and their employers. A quantitative survey design was employed whereby data were obtained through the administration of an instrument developed by the researchers. The sample consisted of 20 hospital managers and 186 biomedical technicians who are currently working in Malaysian government hospitals. The findings show that there are no difference in the perceptions of hospital managers and biomedical technicians regarding technical and non-technical skills. These findings resulted in a checklist which can be used for institutions to produce future biomedical technician graduates in order to meet job demands. However, future research is needed to validate the findings and explore the variables in depth.

Laser coating of hafnium on Ti6Al4 for biomedical applications

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Phume, L

2012-12-01

Full Text Available Al4V FOR BIOMEDICAL APPLICATIONS Lerato Phume 1, 2, S.L. Pityana 1, 2, C. Meacock 1, A.P.I Popoola 2 1. National Laser Centre, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, P.O. Box 395, Pretoria, 0001, South Africa 2. Department of Chemical... and Metallurgical Engineering, Tshwane University of Technology, Private Bag X 680, Pretoria, 0001, South Africa (b) (c) (e) To investigate laser surface coating of Ti6Al4V with preplaced Hafnium powder, to determine the influence of the energy density...

Developments in the Transition From Animal Use to Simulation-Based Biomedical Education.

Science.gov (United States)

Pawlowski, John B; Feinstein, David M; Gala, Shalin G

2018-04-18

There has been a significant shift from the use of animals in biomedical training exercises toward simulation-based education methods. The transition has been driven by technological advances, empirical evidence of improved student outcomes, cost-effectiveness, and a growing concern for the welfare of animals. These factors have spurred policy changes worldwide in how medical and science curricula are delivered. We detail how some of these policy changes evolved and comment on the future direction of simulation-based education and its implications for healthcare providers, instructors, and the general public.

Polylactic acid (PLA) controlled delivery carriers for biomedical applications.

Science.gov (United States)

Tyler, Betty; Gullotti, David; Mangraviti, Antonella; Utsuki, Tadanobu; Brem, Henry

2016-12-15

Polylactic acid (PLA) and its copolymers have a long history of safety in humans and an extensive range of applications. PLA is biocompatible, biodegradable by hydrolysis and enzymatic activity, has a large range of mechanical and physical properties that can be engineered appropriately to suit multiple applications, and has low immunogenicity. Formulations containing PLA have also been Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved for multiple applications making PLA suitable for expedited clinical translatability. These biomaterials can be fashioned into sutures, scaffolds, cell carriers, drug delivery systems, and a myriad of fabrications. PLA has been the focus of a multitude of preclinical and clinical testing. Three-dimensional printing has expanded the possibilities of biomedical engineering and has enabled the fabrication of a myriad of platforms for an extensive variety of applications. PLA has been widely used as temporary extracellular matrices in tissue engineering. At the other end of the spectrum, PLA's application as drug-loaded nanoparticle drug carriers, such as liposomes, polymeric nanoparticles, dendrimers, and micelles, can encapsulate otherwise toxic hydrophobic anti-tumor drugs and evade systemic toxicities. The clinical translation of these technologies from preclinical experimental settings is an ever-evolving field with incremental advancements. In this review, some of the biomedical applications of PLA and its copolymers are highlighted and briefly summarized. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Drug knowledge bases and their applications in biomedical informatics research.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhu, Yongjun; Elemento, Olivier; Pathak, Jyotishman; Wang, Fei

2018-01-03

Recent advances in biomedical research have generated a large volume of drug-related data. To effectively handle this flood of data, many initiatives have been taken to help researchers make good use of them. As the results of these initiatives, many drug knowledge bases have been constructed. They range from simple ones with specific focuses to comprehensive ones that contain information on almost every aspect of a drug. These curated drug knowledge bases have made significant contributions to the development of efficient and effective health information technologies for better health-care service delivery. Understanding and comparing existing drug knowledge bases and how they are applied in various biomedical studies will help us recognize the state of the art and design better knowledge bases in the future. In addition, researchers can get insights on novel applications of the drug knowledge bases through a review of successful use cases. In this study, we provide a review of existing popular drug knowledge bases and their applications in drug-related studies. We discuss challenges in constructing and using drug knowledge bases as well as future research directions toward a better ecosystem of drug knowledge bases. © The Author(s) 2018. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

The preparation of metal–organic frameworks and their biomedical application

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Liu R

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Rong Liu,1,2 Tian Yu,1 Zheng Shi,1 Zhiyong Wang3 1School of Medicine and Nursing, Chengdu University, Chengdu, 2Antibiotics Research and Re-evaluation Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Sichuan Industrial Institute of Antibiotics, Chengdu University, Chengdu, 3Paul C. Lauterbur Research Center for Biomedical Imaging, Shenzhen Key Laboratory for MRI, Institute of Biomedical and Health Engineering, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, People’s Republic of China Abstract: The development of a safe and targetable drug carrier is a major challenge. An efficient delivery system should protect cargo from degradation and cleanup, and control of drug release in the target site. Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs, consisting of metal ions and a variety of organic ligands, have been applied for drug delivery due to their distinct structure. In this review, we summarized the synthesis strategies of MOFs, especially emphasizing the methods of pore creation in frameworks, which were based on recent literatures. Subsequently, the controlled size, biocompatibility, drug releasing performances, and imaging of MOFs were discussed, which would pave the road for the application in drug-delivery systems. Keywords: metal-organic frameworks, pore creation, the controlled size, biocompatibility, drug releasing performances, imaging

Proceedings of the international society for optical engineering biomedical image processing 2

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bovik, A.G.; Howard, V.

1991-01-01

This book contains the proceedings of biomedical image processing. Topics covered include: Filtering and reconstruction of biomedical images; analysis, classification and recognition of biomedical images; and 3-D microscopy

European virtual campus for biomedical engineering EVICAB.

Science.gov (United States)

Malmivuo, Jaakko A; Nousiainen, Juha O; Lindroos, Kari V

2007-01-01

European Commission has funded building a curriculum on Biomedical Engineering to the Internet for European universities under the project EVICAB. EVICAB forms a curriculum which will be free access and available free of charge. Therefore, in addition to the European universities, it will be available worldwide. EVICAB will make high quality education available for everyone, not only for the university students, and facilitate the development of the discipline of Biomedical Engineering.

Laser surface texturing of polymers for biomedical applications

Science.gov (United States)

Riveiro, Antonio; Maçon, Anthony L. B.; del Val, Jesus; Comesaña, Rafael; Pou, Juan

2018-02-01

Polymers are materials widely used in biomedical science because of their biocompatibility, and good mechanical properties (which, in some cases, are similar to those of human tissues); however, these materials are, in general, chemically and biologically inert. Surface characteristics, such as topography (at the macro-, micro, and nanoscale), surface chemistry, surface energy, charge or wettability are interrelated properties, and they cooperatively influence the biological performance of materials when used for biomedical applications. They regulate the biological response at the implant/tissue interface (e.g., influencing the cell adhesion, cell orientation, cell motility, etc.). Several surface processing techniques have been explored to modulate these properties for biomedical applications. Despite their potentials, these methods have limitations that prevent their applicability. In this regard, laser-based methods, in particular laser surface texturing (LST), can be an interesting alternative. Different works have showed the potentiality of this technique to control the surface properties of biomedical polymers and enhance their biological performance; however, more research is needed to obtain the desired biological response. This work provides a general overview of the basics and applications of LST for the surface modification of polymers currently used in the clinical practice (e.g. PEEK, UHMWPE, PP, etc.). The modification of roughness, wettability, and their impact on the biological response is addressed to offer new insights on the surface modification of biomedical polymers.

A comprehensive SWOT audit of the role of the biomedical physicist in the education of healthcare professionals in Europe.

Science.gov (United States)

Caruana, C J; Wasilewska-Radwanska, M; Aurengo, A; Dendy, P P; Karenauskaite, V; Malisan, M R; Meijer, J H; Mihov, D; Mornstein, V; Rokita, E; Vano, E; Weckstrom, M; Wucherer, M

2010-04-01

Although biomedical physicists provide educational services to the healthcare professions in the majority of universities in Europe, their precise role with respect to the education of the healthcare professions has not been studied systematically. To address this issue we are conducting a research project to produce a strategic development model for the role using the well-established SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) methodology. SWOT based strategic planning is a two-step process: one first carries out a SWOT position audit and then uses the identified SWOT themes to construct the strategic development model. This paper reports the results of a SWOT audit for the role of the biomedical physicist in the education of the healthcare professions in Europe. Internal Strengths and Weaknesses of the role were identified through a qualitative survey of biomedical physics departments and biomedical physics curricula delivered to healthcare professionals across Europe. External environmental Opportunities and Threats were identified through a systematic survey of the healthcare, healthcare professional education and higher education literature and categorized under standard PEST (Political, Economic, Social-Psychological, Technological-Scientific) categories. The paper includes an appendix of terminology. Defined terms are marked with an asterisk in the text. Copyright 2009 Associazione Italiana di Fisica Medica. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Contexts of vulnerability and the acceptability of new biomedical HIV prevention technologies among key populations in South Africa: A qualitative study.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Millicent Atujuna

Full Text Available New biomedical prevention technologies (NPTs may contribute to substantially reducing incident HIV infections globally. We explored acceptability and preferences for NPTs among key and other vulnerable populations in two South African townships.We conducted six focus groups and 12 in-depth interviews with adolescents, and adult heterosexual men, women, and men who have sex with men (MSM (n = 48, and eight in-depth interviews with key informant healthcare workers. The interview guide described pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP, vaginal rings, rectal microbicides and HIV vaccines, and explored acceptability and product preferences. Focus groups and in-depth interviews (45-80 minutes were conducted in Xhosa, audiotaped, and transcribed and translated into English. Data were coded and reviewed using framework analysis with NVivo software.Overall, initial enthusiasm and willingness to use NPTs evolved into concerns about how particular NPTs might affect or require alterations in one's everyday lifestyle and practices. Different product preferences and motivations emerged by population based on similarity to existing practices and contexts of vulnerability. Adult women and female adolescents preferred a vaginal ring and HIV vaccine, motivated by longer duration of protection to mitigate feared repercussions from male partners, including threats to their marriage and safety, and a context of ubiquitous rape. Male adolescents preferred an HIV vaccine, seen as protection in serodiscordant relationships and convenient in obviating the HIV stigma and cost involved in buying condoms. Adult men preferred PrEP, given familiarity with oral medications and mistrust of injections, seen as enabling serodiscordant couples to have a child. MSM preferred a rectal microbicide given familiarity with gel-based lubricants, with concerns about duration of protection in the context of unplanned consensual sex and rape.Biomedical interventions to prevent HIV transmission

Contexts of vulnerability and the acceptability of new biomedical HIV prevention technologies among key populations in South Africa: A qualitative study.

Science.gov (United States)

Atujuna, Millicent; Newman, Peter A; Wallace, Melissa; Eluhu, Megan; Rubincam, Clara; Brown, Ben; Bekker, Linda-Gail

2018-01-01

New biomedical prevention technologies (NPTs) may contribute to substantially reducing incident HIV infections globally. We explored acceptability and preferences for NPTs among key and other vulnerable populations in two South African townships. We conducted six focus groups and 12 in-depth interviews with adolescents, and adult heterosexual men, women, and men who have sex with men (MSM) (n = 48), and eight in-depth interviews with key informant healthcare workers. The interview guide described pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), vaginal rings, rectal microbicides and HIV vaccines, and explored acceptability and product preferences. Focus groups and in-depth interviews (45-80 minutes) were conducted in Xhosa, audiotaped, and transcribed and translated into English. Data were coded and reviewed using framework analysis with NVivo software. Overall, initial enthusiasm and willingness to use NPTs evolved into concerns about how particular NPTs might affect or require alterations in one's everyday lifestyle and practices. Different product preferences and motivations emerged by population based on similarity to existing practices and contexts of vulnerability. Adult women and female adolescents preferred a vaginal ring and HIV vaccine, motivated by longer duration of protection to mitigate feared repercussions from male partners, including threats to their marriage and safety, and a context of ubiquitous rape. Male adolescents preferred an HIV vaccine, seen as protection in serodiscordant relationships and convenient in obviating the HIV stigma and cost involved in buying condoms. Adult men preferred PrEP, given familiarity with oral medications and mistrust of injections, seen as enabling serodiscordant couples to have a child. MSM preferred a rectal microbicide given familiarity with gel-based lubricants, with concerns about duration of protection in the context of unplanned consensual sex and rape. Biomedical interventions to prevent HIV transmission, rather than

Improvement of medical content in the curriculum of biomedical engineering based on assessment of students outcomes.

Science.gov (United States)

Abdulhay, Enas; Khnouf, Ruba; Haddad, Shireen; Al-Bashir, Areen

2017-08-04

Improvement of medical content in Biomedical Engineering curricula based on a qualitative assessment process or on a comparison with another high-standard program has been approached by a number of studies. However, the quantitative assessment tools have not been emphasized. The quantitative assessment tools can be more accurate and robust in cases of challenging multidisciplinary fields like that of Biomedical Engineering which includes biomedicine elements mixed with technology aspects. The major limitations of the previous research are the high dependence on surveys or pure qualitative approaches as well as the absence of strong focus on medical outcomes without implicit confusion with the technical ones. The proposed work presents the development and evaluation of an accurate/robust quantitative approach to the improvement of the medical content in the challenging multidisciplinary BME curriculum. The work presents quantitative assessment tools and subsequent improvement of curriculum medical content applied, as example for explanation, to the ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, USA) accredited biomedical engineering BME department at Jordan University of Science and Technology. The quantitative results of assessment of curriculum/course, capstone, exit exam, course assessment by student (CAS) as well as of surveys filled by alumni, seniors, employers and training supervisors were, first, mapped to the expected students' outcomes related to the medical field (SOsM). The collected data were then analyzed and discussed to find curriculum weakness points by tracking shortcomings in every outcome degree of achievement. Finally, actions were taken to fill in the gaps of the curriculum. Actions were also mapped to the students' medical outcomes (SOsM). Weighted averages of obtained quantitative values, mapped to SOsM, indicated accurately the achievement levels of all outcomes as well as the necessary improvements to be performed in curriculum

Bio-medical CMOS ICs

CERN Document Server

Yoo, Hoi-Jun

2011-01-01

This book is based on a graduate course entitled, Ubiquitous Healthcare Circuits and Systems, that was given by one of the editors. It includes an introduction and overview to biomedical ICs and provides information on the current trends in research.

NDE in biomedical engineering

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bhagwat, Aditya; Kumar, Pradeep

2015-01-01

Biomedical Engineering (BME) is an interdisciplinary field, marking the conjunction of Medical and Engineering disciplines. It combines the design and problem solving skills of engineering with medical and biological sciences to advance health care treatment, including diagnosis, monitoring, and therapy

Low-level radioactive biomedical wastes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Casarett, G.W.

A summary of the management and hazards of low-level radioactive biomedical wastes is presented. The volume, disposal methods, current problems, regulatory agencies, and possible solutions to disposal problems are discussed. The benefits derived from using radioactivity in medicine are briefly described. Potential health risks are discussed. The radioactivity in most of the radioactive biomedical waste is a small fraction of that contained naturally in the human body or in the natural environment. Benefit-risk-cost considerations are presented. The cost of managing these wastes is getting so high that a new perspective for comparison of radioactivity (facts, risks, costs, benefits and trade-offs) and alternate approaches to minimize the risk and cost and maximize the benefits is suggested

Government Cloud Computing Policies: Potential Opportunities for Advancing Military Biomedical Research.

Science.gov (United States)

Lebeda, Frank J; Zalatoris, Jeffrey J; Scheerer, Julia B

2018-02-07

This position paper summarizes the development and the present status of Department of Defense (DoD) and other government policies and guidances regarding cloud computing services. Due to the heterogeneous and growing biomedical big datasets, cloud computing services offer an opportunity to mitigate the associated storage and analysis requirements. Having on-demand network access to a shared pool of flexible computing resources creates a consolidated system that should reduce potential duplications of effort in military biomedical research. Interactive, online literature searches were performed with Google, at the Defense Technical Information Center, and at two National Institutes of Health research portfolio information sites. References cited within some of the collected documents also served as literature resources. We gathered, selected, and reviewed DoD and other government cloud computing policies and guidances published from 2009 to 2017. These policies were intended to consolidate computer resources within the government and reduce costs by decreasing the number of federal data centers and by migrating electronic data to cloud systems. Initial White House Office of Management and Budget information technology guidelines were developed for cloud usage, followed by policies and other documents from the DoD, the Defense Health Agency, and the Armed Services. Security standards from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Government Services Administration, the DoD, and the Army were also developed. Government Services Administration and DoD Inspectors General monitored cloud usage by the DoD. A 2016 Government Accountability Office report characterized cloud computing as being economical, flexible and fast. A congressionally mandated independent study reported that the DoD was active in offering a wide selection of commercial cloud services in addition to its milCloud system. Our findings from the Department of Health and Human Services

Non-invasive biomedical research and diagnostics enabled by innovative compact lasers

Science.gov (United States)

Litvinova, Karina S.; Rafailov, Ilya E.; Dunaev, Andrey V.; Sokolovski, Sergei G.; Rafailov, Edik U.

2017-11-01

For over half a century, laser technology has undergone a technological revolution. These technologies, particularly semiconductor lasers, are employed in a myriad of fields. Optical medical diagnostics, one of the emerging areas of laser application, are on the forefront of application around the world. Optical methods of non- or minimally invasive bio-tissue investigation offer significant advantages over alternative methods, including rapid real-time measurement, non-invasiveness and high resolution (guaranteeing the safety of a patient). These advantages demonstrate the growing success of such techniques. In this review, we will outline the recent status of laser technology applied in the biomedical field, focusing on the various available approaches, particularly utilising compact semiconductor lasers. We will further consider the advancement and integration of several complimentary biophotonic techniques into single multimodal devices, the potential impact of such devices and their future applications. Based on our own studies, we will also cover the simultaneous collection of physiological data with the aid a multifunctional diagnostics system, concentrating on the optimisation of the new technology towards a clinical application. Such data is invaluable for developing algorithms capable of delivering consistent, reliable and meaningful diagnostic information, which can ultimately be employed for the early diagnosis of disease conditions in individuals from around the world.

Building a biomedical ontology recommender web service

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jonquet Clement

2010-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Researchers in biomedical informatics use ontologies and terminologies to annotate their data in order to facilitate data integration and translational discoveries. As the use of ontologies for annotation of biomedical datasets has risen, a common challenge is to identify ontologies that are best suited to annotating specific datasets. The number and variety of biomedical ontologies is large, and it is cumbersome for a researcher to figure out which ontology to use. Methods We present the Biomedical Ontology Recommender web service. The system uses textual metadata or a set of keywords describing a domain of interest and suggests appropriate ontologies for annotating or representing the data. The service makes a decision based on three criteria. The first one is coverage, or the ontologies that provide most terms covering the input text. The second is connectivity, or the ontologies that are most often mapped to by other ontologies. The final criterion is size, or the number of concepts in the ontologies. The service scores the ontologies as a function of scores of the annotations created using the National Center for Biomedical Ontology (NCBO Annotator web service. We used all the ontologies from the UMLS Metathesaurus and the NCBO BioPortal. Results We compare and contrast our Recommender by an exhaustive functional comparison to previously published efforts. We evaluate and discuss the results of several recommendation heuristics in the context of three real world use cases. The best recommendations heuristics, rated ‘very relevant’ by expert evaluators, are the ones based on coverage and connectivity criteria. The Recommender service (alpha version is available to the community and is embedded into BioPortal.

A robust approach to extract biomedical events from literature.

Science.gov (United States)

Bui, Quoc-Chinh; Sloot, Peter M A

2012-10-15

The abundance of biomedical literature has attracted significant interest in novel methods to automatically extract biomedical relations from the literature. Until recently, most research was focused on extracting binary relations such as protein-protein interactions and drug-disease relations. However, these binary relations cannot fully represent the original biomedical data. Therefore, there is a need for methods that can extract fine-grained and complex relations known as biomedical events. In this article we propose a novel method to extract biomedical events from text. Our method consists of two phases. In the first phase, training data are mapped into structured representations. Based on that, templates are used to extract rules automatically. In the second phase, extraction methods are developed to process the obtained rules. When evaluated against the Genia event extraction abstract and full-text test datasets (Task 1), we obtain results with F-scores of 52.34 and 53.34, respectively, which are comparable to the state-of-the-art systems. Furthermore, our system achieves superior performance in terms of computational efficiency. Our source code is available for academic use at http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10256952/BioEvent.zip.

Networked Biomedical System for Ubiquitous Health Monitoring

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Arjan Durresi

2008-01-01

Full Text Available We propose a distributed system that enables global and ubiquitous health monitoring of patients. The biomedical data will be collected by wearable health diagnostic devices, which will include various types of sensors and will be transmitted towards the corresponding Health Monitoring Centers. The permanent medical data of patients will be kept in the corresponding Home Data Bases, while the measured biomedical data will be sent to the Visitor Health Monitor Center and Visitor Data Base that serves the area of present location of the patient. By combining the measured biomedical data and the permanent medical data, Health Medical Centers will be able to coordinate the needed actions and help the local medical teams to make quickly the best decisions that could be crucial for the patient health, and that can reduce the cost of health service.

Statistics in biomedical research

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

González-Manteiga, Wenceslao

2007-06-01

Full Text Available The discipline of biostatistics is nowadays a fundamental scientific component of biomedical, public health and health services research. Traditional and emerging areas of application include clinical trials research, observational studies, physiology, imaging, and genomics. The present article reviews the current situation of biostatistics, considering the statistical methods traditionally used in biomedical research, as well as the ongoing development of new methods in response to the new problems arising in medicine. Clearly, the successful application of statistics in biomedical research requires appropriate training of biostatisticians. This training should aim to give due consideration to emerging new areas of statistics, while at the same time retaining full coverage of the fundamentals of statistical theory and methodology. In addition, it is important that students of biostatistics receive formal training in relevant biomedical disciplines, such as epidemiology, clinical trials, molecular biology, genetics, and neuroscience.La Bioestadística es hoy en día una componente científica fundamental de la investigación en Biomedicina, salud pública y servicios de salud. Las áreas tradicionales y emergentes de aplicación incluyen ensayos clínicos, estudios observacionales, fisología, imágenes, y genómica. Este artículo repasa la situación actual de la Bioestadística, considerando los métodos estadísticos usados tradicionalmente en investigación biomédica, así como los recientes desarrollos de nuevos métodos, para dar respuesta a los nuevos problemas que surgen en Medicina. Obviamente, la aplicación fructífera de la estadística en investigación biomédica exige una formación adecuada de los bioestadísticos, formación que debería tener en cuenta las áreas emergentes en estadística, cubriendo al mismo tiempo los fundamentos de la teoría estadística y su metodología. Es importante, además, que los estudiantes de

Physiology and the Biomedical Engineering Curriculum: Utilizing Emerging Instructional Technologies to Promote Development of Adaptive Expertise in Undergraduate Students

Science.gov (United States)

Nelson, Regina K.

2013-01-01

A mixed-methods research study was designed to test whether undergraduate engineering students were better prepared to learn advanced topics in biomedical engineering if they learned physiology via a quantitative, concept-based approach rather than a qualitative, system-based approach. Experiments were conducted with undergraduate engineering…

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS): an overview of recent progress and future potential for biomedical applications.

Science.gov (United States)

Rehse, S J; Salimnia, H; Miziolek, A W

2012-02-01

The recent progress made in developing laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) has transformed LIBS from an elemental analysis technique to one that can be applied for the reagentless analysis of molecularly complex biological materials or clinical specimens. Rapid advances in the LIBS technology have spawned a growing number of recently published articles in peer-reviewed journals which have consistently demonstrated the capability of LIBS to rapidly detect, biochemically characterize and analyse, and/or accurately identify various biological, biomedical or clinical samples. These analyses are inherently real-time, require no sample preparation, and offer high sensitivity and specificity. This overview of the biomedical applications of LIBS is meant to summarize the research that has been performed to date, as well as to suggest to health care providers several possible specific future applications which, if successfully implemented, would be significantly beneficial to humankind.

Molecular Biomedical Imaging Laboratory (MBIL)

Data.gov (United States)

Federal Laboratory Consortium — The Molecular Biomedical Imaging Laboratory (MBIL) is adjacent-a nd has access-to the Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences clinical imaging facilities. MBIL...

National Biomedical Tracer Facility. Project definition study

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Schafer, R.

1995-02-14

We request a $25 million government-guaranteed, interest-free loan to be repaid over a 30-year period for construction and initial operations of a cyclotron-based National Biomedical Tracer Facility (NBTF) in North Central Texas. The NBTF will be co-located with a linear accelerator-based commercial radioisotope production facility, funded by the private sector at approximately $28 million. In addition, research radioisotope production by the NBTF will be coordinated through an association with an existing U.S. nuclear reactor center that will produce research and commercial radioisotopes through neutron reactions. The combined facilities will provide the full range of technology for radioisotope production and research: fast neutrons, thermal neutrons, and particle beams (H{sup -}, H{sup +}, and D{sup +}). The proposed NBTF facility includes an 80 MeV, 1 mA H{sup -} cyclotron that will produce proton-induced (neutron deficient) research isotopes.

Convergence of Terahertz Sciences in Biomedical Systems

CERN Document Server

Kim, Yong; Han, Haewook; Han, Joon; Ahn, Jaewook; Son, Joo-Hiuk; Park, Woong-Yang; Jeong, Young

2012-01-01

Recent technological breakthrough in the field of Terahertz radiation has triggered new applications in biology and biomedicine. Particularly, biological applications are based on the specific spectroscopic fingerprints of biological matter in this spectral region. Historically with the discovery of new electromagnetic wave spectrum, we have always discovered new medical diagnostic imaging systems. The use of terahertz wave was not realized due to the absence of useful terahertz sources. Now after successful generation of THz waves, it is reported that a great potential for THz wave exists for its resonance with bio-molecules. There are many challenging issues such as development of THz passive and active instrumentations, understanding of THz-Bio interaction for THz spectroscopy, THz-Bio nonlinear phenomena and safety guideline, and THz imaging systems. Eventually the deeper understanding of THz-Bio interaction and novel THz systems enable us to develop powerful THz biomedical imaging systems which can contr...

Measurement of OH, NO, O and N atoms in helium plasma jet for ROS/RNS controlled biomedical processes

Science.gov (United States)

Yonemori, Seiya; Kamakura, Taku; Ono, Ryo

2014-10-01

Atmospheric-pressure plasmas are of emerging interest for new plasma applications such as cancer treatment, cell activation and sterilization. In those biomedical processes, reactive oxygen/nitrogen species (ROS/RNS) are said that they play significant role. It is though that active species give oxidative stress and induce biomedical reactions. In this study, we measured OH, NO, O and N atoms using laser induced fluorescence (LIF) measurement and found that voltage polarity affect particular ROS. When negative high voltage was applied to the plasma jet, O atom density was tripled compared to the case of positive applied voltage. In that case, O atom density was around 3 × 1015 [cm-3] at maximum. In contrast, OH and NO density did not change their density depending on the polarity of applied voltage, measured as in order of 1013 and 1014 [cm-3] at maximum, respectively. From ICCD imaging measurement, it could be seen that negative high voltage enhanced secondary emission in plasma bullet propagation and it can affect the effective production of particular ROS. Since ROS/RNS dose can be a quantitative criterion to control plasma biomedical application, those measurement results is able to be applied for in vivo and in vitro plasma biomedical experiments. This study is supported by the Grant-in-Aid for Science Research by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sport, Science and Technology.

Biomedical and environmental sciences programs at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Preston, E.L.; Getsi, J.A.

1982-07-01

A major objective of the biomedical and environmental sciences (BES) research at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is to provide information on environmental, health, and safety considerations that can be used in the formulation and implementation of energy technology decisions. Research is directed at securing information required for an understanding of both the short- and long-term consequences of the processes involved in new energy technologies. Investigation of the mechanisms responsible for biological and ecological damage caused by substances associated with energy production and of repair mechanisms is a necessary component of this research. The research is carried out by the staff of four divisions and one program: Biology Division, Environmental Sciences Division, Health and Safety Research Division, Information Division, and the Life Sciences Synthetic Fuels Program. Research programs underway in each of these divisions are discussed. Information on the following subjects is also included: interactions with universities; interactions with industry; technology transfer; recent accomplishments in the areas of program, publications, awards, and patents; and new initiatives

Biomedical and environmental sciences programs at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Preston, E.L.; Getsi, J.A. (comps.)

1982-07-01

A major objective of the biomedical and environmental sciences (BES) research at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is to provide information on environmental, health, and safety considerations that can be used in the formulation and implementation of energy technology decisions. Research is directed at securing information required for an understanding of both the short- and long-term consequences of the processes involved in new energy technologies. Investigation of the mechanisms responsible for biological and ecological damage caused by substances associated with energy production and of repair mechanisms is a necessary component of this research. The research is carried out by the staff of four divisions and one program: Biology Division, Environmental Sciences Division, Health and Safety Research Division, Information Division, and the Life Sciences Synthetic Fuels Program. Research programs underway in each of these divisions are discussed. Information on the following subjects is also included: interactions with universities; interactions with industry; technology transfer; recent accomplishments in the areas of program, publications, awards, and patents; and new initiatives. (JGB)

New Directions for Biomedical Engineering

Science.gov (United States)

Plonsey, Robert

1973-01-01

Discusses the definition of "biomedical engineering" and the development of educational programs in the field. Includes detailed descriptions of the roles of bioengineers, medical engineers, and chemical engineers. (CC)

Semantics-driven modelling of user preferences for information retrieval in the biomedical domain.

Science.gov (United States)

Gladun, Anatoly; Rogushina, Julia; Valencia-García, Rafael; Béjar, Rodrigo Martínez

2013-03-01

A large amount of biomedical and genomic data are currently available on the Internet. However, data are distributed into heterogeneous biological information sources, with little or even no organization. Semantic technologies provide a consistent and reliable basis with which to confront the challenges involved in the organization, manipulation and visualization of data and knowledge. One of the knowledge representation techniques used in semantic processing is the ontology, which is commonly defined as a formal and explicit specification of a shared conceptualization of a domain of interest. The work presented here introduces a set of interoperable algorithms that can use domain and ontological information to improve information-retrieval processes. This work presents an ontology-based information-retrieval system for the biomedical domain. This system, with which some experiments have been carried out that are described in this paper, is based on the use of domain ontologies for the creation and normalization of lightweight ontologies that represent user preferences in a determined domain in order to improve information-retrieval processes.

The normative dimensions of extending the human lifespan by age-related biomedical innovations.

Science.gov (United States)

Ehni, Hans-Joerg; Marckmann, Georg

2008-10-01

The current normative debate on age-related biomedical innovations and the extension of the human lifespan has important shortcomings. Mainly, the complexity of the different normative dimensions relevant for ethical and/or juridicial norms is not fully developed and the normative quality of teleological and deontological arguments is not properly distinguished. This article addresses some of these shortcomings and develops the outline of a more comprehensive normative framework covering all relevant dimensions. Such a frame necessarily has to include conceptions of a good life on the individual and societal levels. Furthermore, as a third dimension, a model for the access to and the just distribution of age-related biomedical innovations and technologies extending the human lifespan will be developed. It is argued that such a model has to include the different levels of the general philosophical theories of distributive justice, including social rights and theories of just health care. Furthermore, it has to show how these theories can be applied to the problem area of aging and extending the human lifespan.

Evaluating technology service options.

Science.gov (United States)

Blumberg, D F

1997-05-01

Four service and support options are available to healthcare organizations for maintaining their growth arsenals of medical and information technology. These options include maintaining and servicing all equipment using a facility-based biomedical engineering and MIS service department; using a combination of facility-based service and subcontracted service; expanding facility-based biomedical and MIS service departments to provide service to other healthcare organizations to achieve economies of scale; and outsourcing all maintenance, repair, and technical support services. Independent service companies and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are offering healthcare organizations a wider array of service and support capabilities than ever before. However, some health systems have successfully developed their own independent service organizations to take care of their own--and other healthcare organizations'--service and support needs.

Artificial Sight Basic Research, Biomedical Engineering, and Clinical Advances

CERN Document Server

Humayun, Mark S; Chader, Gerald; Greenbaum, Elias

2008-01-01

Artificial sight is a frontier area of modern ophthalmology combining the multidisciplinary skills of surgical ophthalmology, biomedical engineering, biological physics, and psychophysical testing. Many scientific, engineering, and surgical challenges must be surmounted before widespread practical applications can be realized. The goal of Artificial Sight is to summarize the state-of-the-art research in this exciting area, and to describe some of the current approaches and initiatives that may help patients in a clinical setting. The Editors are active researchers in the fields of artificial sight, biomedical engineering and biological physics. They have received numerous professional awards and recognition for their work. The artificial sight team at the Doheny Eye Institute, led by Dr. Mark Humayun, is a world leader in this area of biomedical engineering and clinical research. Key Features Introduces and assesses the state of the art for a broad audience of biomedical engineers, biophysicists, and clinical...

Polymer/metal nanocomposites for biomedical applications.

Science.gov (United States)

Zare, Yasser; Shabani, Iman

2016-03-01

Polymer/metal nanocomposites consisting of polymer as matrix and metal nanoparticles as nanofiller commonly show several attractive advantages such as electrical, mechanical and optical characteristics. Accordingly, many scientific and industrial communities have focused on polymer/metal nanocomposites in order to develop some new products or substitute the available materials. In the current paper, characteristics and applications of polymer/metal nanocomposites for biomedical applications are extensively explained in several categories including strong and stable materials, conductive devices, sensors and biomedical products. Moreover, some perspective utilizations are suggested for future studies. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Should biomedical research be like Airbnb?

Science.gov (United States)

Bonazzi, Vivien R; Bourne, Philip E

2017-04-01

The thesis presented here is that biomedical research is based on the trusted exchange of services. That exchange would be conducted more efficiently if the trusted software platforms to exchange those services, if they exist, were more integrated. While simpler and narrower in scope than the services governing biomedical research, comparison to existing internet-based platforms, like Airbnb, can be informative. We illustrate how the analogy to internet-based platforms works and does not work and introduce The Commons, under active development at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and elsewhere, as an example of the move towards platforms for research.

MARS Spectral Imaging: From High-Energy Physics to a Biomedical Business

CERN Multimedia

CERN. Geneva

2017-01-01

Abstract MARS spectral scanners provide colour X-Ray images. Current MARS pre-clinical scanners enable researchers and clinicians to measure biochemical and physiological processes in specimens, and animal models of disease. The scanners have developed from a 10 year scientific collaboration between New Zealand and CERN. In parallel a company, MARS Bioimaging Ltd, was founded to commercialise the technology by productising the scanner and selling it to biomedical users around the world. The New Zealand team is now more than 30 people including staff and students from the fields of physics, engineering, computing, maths, radiology, cardiology, biochemistry, oncology, and orthopaedics. Current work with pre-clinical scanners has concluded that the technology will be  useful in heart disease, stroke, arthritis, joint replacements, and cancer. In late 2014, the government announced funding for NZ to build a MARS scanner capable of imaging humans. Bio Professor Anthony Butler is a radiologist wit...

15th International Conference on Biomedical Engineering

CERN Document Server

2014-01-01

This volume presents the proceedings of the 15th ICMBE held from 4th to 7th December 2013, Singapore. Biomedical engineering is applied in most aspects of our healthcare ecosystem. From electronic health records to diagnostic tools to therapeutic, rehabilitative and regenerative treatments, the work of biomedical engineers is evident. Biomedical engineers work at the intersection of engineering, life sciences and healthcare. The engineers would use principles from applied science including mechanical, electrical, chemical and computer engineering together with physical sciences including physics, chemistry and mathematics to apply them to biology and medicine. Applying such concepts to the human body is very much the same concepts that go into building and programming a machine. The goal is to better understand, replace or fix a target system to ultimately improve the quality of healthcare. With this understanding, the conference proceedings offer a single platform for individuals and organisations working i...

Wire gaseous coordinate detectors and their applications in biomedical research

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Peshekhonov, V.D.

1986-01-01

Wire gaseous coordinate detectors continue to be a basic tool in experimental high-energy physics and are being intensively introduced into related areas of science and technology, particularly biomedical research. The constant evolution of these detectors allows broad application of their new modificatons: multistep chambers, low-pressure detectors, time-projection chambers, and so on, so that detector systems are enriched with new possibilities. In this review we give the operating principles and fundamental parameters of these detectors and discuss some examples of how they are used in experimental physics. We also explore some of the features of the use of these detectors for research in molecular biology and medical diagnostics for examples of existing and projected setups

Biomedical Engineering and its Relevance to Total Health Care ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Aim: To highlight the importance of biomedical engineering, with respect to the many basic amenities including adequate water supply, electricity, drugs and medical equipment necessary for the proper functioning of medical doctors which are totally lacking in most developing countries. Method: Review of biomedical ...

For 481 biomedical open access journals, articles are not searchable in the Directory of Open Access Journals nor in conventional biomedical databases

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Liljekvist, Mads Svane; Andresen, Kristoffer; Pommergaard, Hans-Christian

2015-01-01

biomedical databases (MEDLINE, PubMed Central, EMBASE and SCOPUS) and DOAJ were gathered. Journals were included if they were (1) actively publishing, (2) full OA, (3) prospectively indexed in one or more database, and (4) of biomedical subject. Impact factor and journal language were also collected. DOAJ...... journals, 86.7% were listed in DOAJ. Combined, the conventional biomedical databases listed 75.0% of the journals; 18.7% in MEDLINE; 36.5% in PubMed Central; 51.5% in SCOPUS and 50.6% in EMBASE. Of the journals in DOAJ, 88.7% published in English and 20.6% had received impact factor for 2012 compared...

JPRS Report, Science & Technology. Europe: Economic Competitiveness

Science.gov (United States)

1992-02-24

will be coordinated with other programmes such as " Agriculture and Agro-Industry" and "Industrial and Materials Technology (BRITE/EURAM [Bright...programme. Ethics Area 4: Research on Biomedical Ethics This will include legislation on bioethics and current ethics; the social impact of the...programme (i.e., any technological risks); assessing bioethical aspects of other EC R&D programmes; and establishing a European "ethical observatory

Rules and management of biomedical waste at Vivekananda Polyclinic: A case study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gupta, Saurabh; Boojh, Ram; Mishra, Ajai; Chandra, Hem

2009-01-01

Hospitals and other healthcare establishments have a 'duty of care' for the environment and for public health, and have particular responsibilities in relation to the waste they produce (i.e., biomedical waste). Negligence, in terms of biomedical waste management, significantly contributes to polluting the environment, affects the health of human beings, and depletes natural and financial resources. In India, in view of the serious situation of biomedical waste management, the Ministry of Environment and Forests, within the Government of India, ratified the Biomedical Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, in July 1998. The present paper provides a brief description of the biomedical waste (Management and Handling) Rules 1998, and the current biomedical waste management practices in one of the premier healthcare establishments of Lucknow, the Vivekananda Polyclinic. The objective in undertaking this study was to analyse the biomedical waste management system, including policy, practice (i.e., storage, collection, transportation and disposal), and compliance with the standards prescribed under the regulatory framework. The analysis consisted of interviews with medical authorities, doctors, and paramedical staff involved in the management of the biomedical wastes in the Polyclinic. Other important stakeholders that were consulted and interviewed included environmental engineers (looking after the Biomedical Waste Cell) of the State Pollution Control Board, and randomly selected patients and visitors to the Polyclinic. A general survey of the facilities of the Polyclinic was undertaken to ascertain the efficacy of the implemented measures. The waste was quantified based on random samples collected from each ward. It was found that, although the Polyclinic in general abides by the prescribed regulations for the treatment and disposal of biomedical waste, there is a need to further build the capacity of the Polyclinic and its staff in terms of providing state

Biomedical engineering and the whitaker foundation: a thirty-year partnership.

Science.gov (United States)

Katona, Peter G

2006-06-01

The Whitaker Foundation, established in 1976, will close in 2006. It will have made awards totaling 805 million US dollars, with over 710 million US dollars in biomedical engineering. Close to 1,500 faculty members received research grants to help them establish academic careers in biomedical engineering, and over 400 graduate students received fellowship support. The Foundation also supported the enhancement or establishment of educational programs in biomedical engineering, especially encouraging the formation of departments. The number of biomedical engineering departments almost tripled during the past 10 years, now numbering close to 75. Leveraging of grants enabled the construction of 13 new buildings. With the field firmly established, the grant program supporting new faculty members will be the one missed the most. New opportunities, however, are emerging as interdisciplinary research is being embraced by both public and private funding sources. The life sciences will be increasingly incorporated into all areas of engineering, and it is expected that such "biofication" will pose both opportunities and challenges to biomedical engineering.

Interdisciplinary innovations in biomedical and health informatics graduate education.

Science.gov (United States)

Demiris, G

2007-01-01

Biomedical and health informatics (BHI) is a rapidly growing domain that relies on the active collaboration with diverse disciplines and professions. Educational initiatives in BHI need to prepare students with skills and competencies that will allow them to function within and even facilitate interdisciplinary teams (IDT). This paper describes an interdisciplinary educational approach introduced into a BHI graduate curriculum that aims to prepare informatics researchers to lead IDT research. A case study of the "gerontechnology" research track is presented which highlights how the curriculum fosters collaboration with and understanding of the disciplines of Nursing, Engineering, Computer Science, and Health Administration. Gerontechnology is a new interdisciplinary field that focuses on the use of technology to support aging. Its aim is to explore innovative ways to use information technology and develop systems that support independency and increase quality of life for senior citizens. As a result of a large research group that explores "smart home" technologies and the use of information technology, we integrated this new domain into the curriculum providing a platform for computer scientists, engineers, nurses and physicians to explore challenges and opportunities with our informatics students and faculty. The interdisciplinary educational model provides an opportunity for health informatics students to acquire the skills for communication and collaboration with other disciplines. Numerous graduate and postgraduate students have already participated in this initiative. The evaluation model of this approach is presented. Interdisciplinary educational models are required for health informatics graduate education. Such models need to be innovative and reflect the needs and trends in the domains of health care and information technology.

Will Biomedical Enhancements Undermine Solidarity, Responsibility, Equality and Autonomy?

Science.gov (United States)

Lev, Ori

2009-01-01

Prominent thinkers such as Jurgen Habermas and Michael Sandel are warning that biomedical enhancements will undermine fundamental political values. Yet, whether biomedical enhancements will undermine such values depends on how biomedical enhancements will function, how they will be administered and to whom. Since only few enhancements are obtainable, it is difficult to tell whether their predictions are sound. Nevertheless, such warnings are extremely valuable. As a society we must, at the very least, be aware of developments that could have harmful consequences. Indeed, if important values would be jeopardized, we should take appropriate measures to protect them. This paper focuses on four central values: solidarity, personal responsibility, equality and autonomy. It delineates the conditions under which biomedical enhancements would undermine these values. It also details the circumstances under which these values would be unaffected by enhancements as well as those under which they would be promoted. Specifying these conditions is valuable; it would enable society to prepare appropriate ethical guidelines and policy responses in advance. PMID:20002073

Enhancing biomedical text summarization using semantic relation extraction.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yue Shang

Full Text Available Automatic text summarization for a biomedical concept can help researchers to get the key points of a certain topic from large amount of biomedical literature efficiently. In this paper, we present a method for generating text summary for a given biomedical concept, e.g., H1N1 disease, from multiple documents based on semantic relation extraction. Our approach includes three stages: 1 We extract semantic relations in each sentence using the semantic knowledge representation tool SemRep. 2 We develop a relation-level retrieval method to select the relations most relevant to each query concept and visualize them in a graphic representation. 3 For relations in the relevant set, we extract informative sentences that can interpret them from the document collection to generate text summary using an information retrieval based method. Our major focus in this work is to investigate the contribution of semantic relation extraction to the task of biomedical text summarization. The experimental results on summarization for a set of diseases show that the introduction of semantic knowledge improves the performance and our results are better than the MEAD system, a well-known tool for text summarization.

Enhancing biomedical text summarization using semantic relation extraction.

Science.gov (United States)

Shang, Yue; Li, Yanpeng; Lin, Hongfei; Yang, Zhihao

2011-01-01

Automatic text summarization for a biomedical concept can help researchers to get the key points of a certain topic from large amount of biomedical literature efficiently. In this paper, we present a method for generating text summary for a given biomedical concept, e.g., H1N1 disease, from multiple documents based on semantic relation extraction. Our approach includes three stages: 1) We extract semantic relations in each sentence using the semantic knowledge representation tool SemRep. 2) We develop a relation-level retrieval method to select the relations most relevant to each query concept and visualize them in a graphic representation. 3) For relations in the relevant set, we extract informative sentences that can interpret them from the document collection to generate text summary using an information retrieval based method. Our major focus in this work is to investigate the contribution of semantic relation extraction to the task of biomedical text summarization. The experimental results on summarization for a set of diseases show that the introduction of semantic knowledge improves the performance and our results are better than the MEAD system, a well-known tool for text summarization.

Technological and cost comparison of cytochrome P450 2B6 (516G ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

milcah

2013-05-08

May 8, 2013 ... 1African Institute of Biomedical Science and Technology, P.O. Box 2294, Harare, Zimbabwe. ..... The impact of next-generation sequencing technology ... Ward BA, Gorski JC, Jones DR, Hall SD, Flockhart DA, Desta Z (2003).

The Ontology for Biomedical Investigations.

Science.gov (United States)

Bandrowski, Anita; Brinkman, Ryan; Brochhausen, Mathias; Brush, Matthew H; Bug, Bill; Chibucos, Marcus C; Clancy, Kevin; Courtot, Mélanie; Derom, Dirk; Dumontier, Michel; Fan, Liju; Fostel, Jennifer; Fragoso, Gilberto; Gibson, Frank; Gonzalez-Beltran, Alejandra; Haendel, Melissa A; He, Yongqun; Heiskanen, Mervi; Hernandez-Boussard, Tina; Jensen, Mark; Lin, Yu; Lister, Allyson L; Lord, Phillip; Malone, James; Manduchi, Elisabetta; McGee, Monnie; Morrison, Norman; Overton, James A; Parkinson, Helen; Peters, Bjoern; Rocca-Serra, Philippe; Ruttenberg, Alan; Sansone, Susanna-Assunta; Scheuermann, Richard H; Schober, Daniel; Smith, Barry; Soldatova, Larisa N; Stoeckert, Christian J; Taylor, Chris F; Torniai, Carlo; Turner, Jessica A; Vita, Randi; Whetzel, Patricia L; Zheng, Jie

2016-01-01

The Ontology for Biomedical Investigations (OBI) is an ontology that provides terms with precisely defined meanings to describe all aspects of how investigations in the biological and medical domains are conducted. OBI re-uses ontologies that provide a representation of biomedical knowledge from the Open Biological and Biomedical Ontologies (OBO) project and adds the ability to describe how this knowledge was derived. We here describe the state of OBI and several applications that are using it, such as adding semantic expressivity to existing databases, building data entry forms, and enabling interoperability between knowledge resources. OBI covers all phases of the investigation process, such as planning, execution and reporting. It represents information and material entities that participate in these processes, as well as roles and functions. Prior to OBI, it was not possible to use a single internally consistent resource that could be applied to multiple types of experiments for these applications. OBI has made this possible by creating terms for entities involved in biological and medical investigations and by importing parts of other biomedical ontologies such as GO, Chemical Entities of Biological Interest (ChEBI) and Phenotype Attribute and Trait Ontology (PATO) without altering their meaning. OBI is being used in a wide range of projects covering genomics, multi-omics, immunology, and catalogs of services. OBI has also spawned other ontologies (Information Artifact Ontology) and methods for importing parts of ontologies (Minimum information to reference an external ontology term (MIREOT)). The OBI project is an open cross-disciplinary collaborative effort, encompassing multiple research communities from around the globe. To date, OBI has created 2366 classes and 40 relations along with textual and formal definitions. The OBI Consortium maintains a web resource (http://obi-ontology.org) providing details on the people, policies, and issues being addressed

Visualization and simulation of complex flows in biomedical engineering

CERN Document Server

Imai, Yohsuke; Ishikawa, Takuji; Oliveira, Mónica

2014-01-01

This book focuses on the most recent advances in the application of visualization and simulation methods to understand the flow behavior of complex fluids used in biomedical engineering and other related fields. It shows the physiological flow behavior in large arteries, microcirculation, respiratory systems and in biomedical microdevices.

Layer-by-layer assembly for biomedical applications in the last decade

Science.gov (United States)

Gentile, P.; Carmagnola, I.; Nardo, T.; Chiono, V.

2015-10-01

In the past two decades, the design and manufacture of nanostructured materials has been of tremendous interest to the scientific community for their application in the biomedical field. Among the available techniques, layer-by-layer (LBL) assembly has attracted considerable attention as a convenient method to fabricate functional coatings. Nowadays, more than 1000 scientific papers are published every year, tens of patents have been deposited and some commercial products based on LBL technology have become commercially available. LBL presents several advantages, such as (1): a precise control of the coating properties; (2) environmentally friendly, mild conditions and low-cost manufacturing; (3) versatility for coating all available surfaces; (4) obtainment of homogeneous film with controlled thickness; and (5) incorporation and controlled release of biomolecules/drugs. This paper critically reviews the scientific challenge of the last 10 years—functionalizing biomaterials by LBL to obtain appropriate properties for biomedical applications, in particular in tissue engineering (TE). The analysis of the state-of-the-art highlights the current techniques and the innovative materials for scaffold and medical device preparation that are opening the way for the preparation of LBL-functionalized substrates capable of modifying their surface properties for modulating cell interaction to improve substitution, repair or enhancement of tissue function.

Layer-by-layer assembly for biomedical applications in the last decade

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gentile, P; Carmagnola, I; Nardo, T; Chiono, V

2015-01-01

In the past two decades, the design and manufacture of nanostructured materials has been of tremendous interest to the scientific community for their application in the biomedical field. Among the available techniques, layer-by-layer (LBL) assembly has attracted considerable attention as a convenient method to fabricate functional coatings. Nowadays, more than 1000 scientific papers are published every year, tens of patents have been deposited and some commercial products based on LBL technology have become commercially available. LBL presents several advantages, such as (1): a precise control of the coating properties; (2) environmentally friendly, mild conditions and low-cost manufacturing; (3) versatility for coating all available surfaces; (4) obtainment of homogeneous film with controlled thickness; and (5) incorporation and controlled release of biomolecules/drugs. This paper critically reviews the scientific challenge of the last 10 years—functionalizing biomaterials by LBL to obtain appropriate properties for biomedical applications, in particular in tissue engineering (TE). The analysis of the state-of-the-art highlights the current techniques and the innovative materials for scaffold and medical device preparation that are opening the way for the preparation of LBL-functionalized substrates capable of modifying their surface properties for modulating cell interaction to improve substitution, repair or enhancement of tissue function. (topical review)

Layer-by-layer assembly for biomedical applications in the last decade.

Science.gov (United States)

Gentile, P; Carmagnola, I; Nardo, T; Chiono, V

2015-10-23

In the past two decades, the design and manufacture of nanostructured materials has been of tremendous interest to the scientific community for their application in the biomedical field. Among the available techniques, layer-by-layer (LBL) assembly has attracted considerable attention as a convenient method to fabricate functional coatings. Nowadays, more than 1000 scientific papers are published every year, tens of patents have been deposited and some commercial products based on LBL technology have become commercially available. LBL presents several advantages, such as (1): a precise control of the coating properties; (2) environmentally friendly, mild conditions and low-cost manufacturing; (3) versatility for coating all available surfaces; (4) obtainment of homogeneous film with controlled thickness; and (5) incorporation and controlled release of biomolecules/drugs. This paper critically reviews the scientific challenge of the last 10 years--functionalizing biomaterials by LBL to obtain appropriate properties for biomedical applications, in particular in tissue engineering (TE). The analysis of the state-of-the-art highlights the current techniques and the innovative materials for scaffold and medical device preparation that are opening the way for the preparation of LBL-functionalized substrates capable of modifying their surface properties for modulating cell interaction to improve substitution, repair or enhancement of tissue function.

Biomedical Monitoring by a Novel Noncontact Radio Frequency Technology

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The area of Space Health and Medicine is one of the NASA's Space Technology Grand Challenges. Space is an extreme environment which is not conducive to human life....

IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging.

Science.gov (United States)

2017-01-01

The IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging (ISBI) is a scientific conference dedicated to mathematical, algorithmic, and computational aspects of biological and biomedical imaging, across all scales of observation. It fosters knowledge transfer among different imaging communities and contributes to an integrative approach to biomedical imaging. ISBI is a joint initiative from the IEEE Signal Processing Society (SPS) and the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS). The 2018 meeting will include tutorials, and a scientific program composed of plenary talks, invited special sessions, challenges, as well as oral and poster presentations of peer-reviewed papers. High-quality papers are requested containing original contributions to the topics of interest including image formation and reconstruction, computational and statistical image processing and analysis, dynamic imaging, visualization, image quality assessment, and physical, biological, and statistical modeling. Accepted 4-page regular papers will be published in the symposium proceedings published by IEEE and included in IEEE Xplore. To encourage attendance by a broader audience of imaging scientists and offer additional presentation opportunities, ISBI 2018 will continue to have a second track featuring posters selected from 1-page abstract submissions without subsequent archival publication.

Biomedical Applications of Zinc Oxide Nanomaterials

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Yin; Nayak, Tapas R.; Hong, Hao; Cai, Weibo

2013-01-01

Nanotechnology has witnessed tremendous advancement over the last several decades. Zinc oxide (ZnO), which can exhibit a wide variety of nanostructures, possesses unique semiconducting, optical, and piezoelectric properties hence has been investigated for a wide variety of applications. One of the most important features of ZnO nanomaterials is low toxicity and biodegradability. Zn2+ is an indispensable trace element for adults (~10 mg of Zn2+ per day is recommended) and it is involved in various aspects of metabolism. Chemically, the surface of ZnO is rich in -OH groups, which can be readily functionalized by various surface decorating molecules. In this review article, we summarized the current status of the use of ZnO nanomaterials for biomedical applications, such as biomedical imaging (which includes fluorescence, magnetic resonance, positron emission tomography, as well as dual-modality imaging), drug delivery, gene delivery, and biosensing of a wide array of molecules of interest. Research in biomedical applications of ZnO nanomaterials will continue to flourish over the next decade, and much research effort will be needed to develop biocompatible/biodegradable ZnO nanoplatforms for potential clinical translation. PMID:24206130

Professional ethics in biomedical engineering practice and research.

Science.gov (United States)

Monzon, Jorge E; Monzon-Wyngaard, Alvaro

2008-01-01

This paper discusses some guidelines for use with the accepted fundamental canons of ethics for engineers. We present some rules of practice and professional obligations emerging from these canons. Basic recommendations for engineers dissenting on ethical grounds are also presented. Ethical issues relating to Biomedical Engineering research are illustrated. We mention some cases that could be used to further understanding the ethical implications of biomedical engineering practice.

Adolf Friedrich Fercher: a pioneer of biomedical optics.

Science.gov (United States)

Hitzenberger, Christoph K

2017-11-01

Adolf Friedrich Fercher, an outstanding pioneer of biomedical optics, passed away earlier this year. He was a brilliant and visionary researcher who pioneered various fields of biomedical optics, such as laser speckle flowgraphy, tissue interferometry, and optical coherence tomography (OCT). On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of OCT, this paper reviews and commemorates Fercher's pioneering work. (2017) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE).

A study to assess the knowledge and practice on bio-medical waste ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Background: The proper handling and disposal of bio-medical waste is very imperative. Unfortunately, laxity and lack of adequate knowledge and practice on bio-medical waste disposal leads to staid health and environment apprehension. Aim: To assess the knowledge and practice on bio-medical waste management ...

Wearable and Implantable Mechanical Energy Harvesters for Self-Powered Biomedical Systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Hinchet, Ronan; Kim, Sang-Woo

2015-08-25

In this issue of ACS Nano, Tang et al. investigate the ability of a triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) to self-power a low-level laser cure system for osteogenesis by studying the efficiency of a bone remodeling laser treatment that is powered by a skin-patch-like TENG instead of a battery. We outline this field by highlighting the motivations for self-powered biomedical systems and by discussing recent progress in nanogenerators. We note the overlap between biomedical devices and TENGs and their dawning synergy, and we highlight key prospects for future developments. Biomedical systems should be more autonomous. This advance could improve their body integration and fields of action, leading to new medical diagnostics and treatments. However, future self-powered biomedical systems will need to be more flexible, biocompatible, and biodegradable. These advances hold the promise of enabling new smart autonomous biomedical systems and contributing significantly to the Internet of Things.

Object-oriented biomedical system modelling--the language.

Science.gov (United States)

Hakman, M; Groth, T

1999-11-01

The paper describes a new object-oriented biomedical continuous system modelling language (OOBSML). It is fully object-oriented and supports model inheritance, encapsulation, and model component instantiation and behaviour polymorphism. Besides the traditional differential and algebraic equation expressions the language includes also formal expressions for documenting models and defining model quantity types and quantity units. It supports explicit definition of model input-, output- and state quantities, model components and component connections. The OOBSML model compiler produces self-contained, independent, executable model components that can be instantiated and used within other OOBSML models and/or stored within model and model component libraries. In this way complex models can be structured as multilevel, multi-component model hierarchies. Technically the model components produced by the OOBSML compiler are executable computer code objects based on distributed object and object request broker technology. This paper includes both the language tutorial and the formal language syntax and semantic description.

Design and implementation of a flipped classroom learning environment in the biomedical engineering context.

Science.gov (United States)

Corrias, Alberto; Cho Hong, James Goh

2015-01-01

The design and implementation of a learning environment that leverages on the use of various technologies is presented. The context is an undergraduate core engineering course within the biomedical engineering curriculum. The topic of the course is data analysis in biomedical engineering problems. One of the key ideas of this study is to confine the most mathematical and statistical aspects of data analysis in prerecorded video lectures. Students are asked to watch the video lectures before coming to class. Since the classroom session does not need to cover the mathematical theory, the time is spent on a selected real world scenario in the field of biomedical engineering that exposes students to an actual application of the theory. The weekly cycle is concluded with a hands-on tutorial session in the computer rooms. A potential problem would arise in such learning environment if the students do not follow the recommendation of watching the video lecture before coming to class. In an attempt to limit these occurrences, two key instruments were put in place: a set of online self-assessment questions that students are asked to take before the classroom session and a simple rewards system during the classroom session. Thanks to modern learning analytics tools, we were able to show that, on average, 57.9% of students followed the recommendation of watching the video lecture before class. The efficacy of the learning environment was assessed through various means. A survey was conducted among the students and the gathered data support the view that the learning environment was well received by the students. Attempts were made to quantify the impacts on learning of the proposed measures by taking into account the results of selected questions of the final examination of the course. Although the presence of confounding factors demands caution in the interpretation, these data seem to indicate a possible positive effect of the use of video lectures in this technologically

Should biomedical research be like Airbnb?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vivien R Bonazzi

2017-04-01

Full Text Available The thesis presented here is that biomedical research is based on the trusted exchange of services. That exchange would be conducted more efficiently if the trusted software platforms to exchange those services, if they exist, were more integrated. While simpler and narrower in scope than the services governing biomedical research, comparison to existing internet-based platforms, like Airbnb, can be informative. We illustrate how the analogy to internet-based platforms works and does not work and introduce The Commons, under active development at the National Institutes of Health (NIH and elsewhere, as an example of the move towards platforms for research.

Semantic relatedness and similarity of biomedical terms: examining the effects of recency, size, and section of biomedical publications on the performance of word2vec.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhu, Yongjun; Yan, Erjia; Wang, Fei

2017-07-03

Understanding semantic relatedness and similarity between biomedical terms has a great impact on a variety of applications such as biomedical information retrieval, information extraction, and recommender systems. The objective of this study is to examine word2vec's ability in deriving semantic relatedness and similarity between biomedical terms from large publication data. Specifically, we focus on the effects of recency, size, and section of biomedical publication data on the performance of word2vec. We download abstracts of 18,777,129 articles from PubMed and 766,326 full-text articles from PubMed Central (PMC). The datasets are preprocessed and grouped into subsets by recency, size, and section. Word2vec models are trained on these subtests. Cosine similarities between biomedical terms obtained from the word2vec models are compared against reference standards. Performance of models trained on different subsets are compared to examine recency, size, and section effects. Models trained on recent datasets did not boost the performance. Models trained on larger datasets identified more pairs of biomedical terms than models trained on smaller datasets in relatedness task (from 368 at the 10% level to 494 at the 100% level) and similarity task (from 374 at the 10% level to 491 at the 100% level). The model trained on abstracts produced results that have higher correlations with the reference standards than the one trained on article bodies (i.e., 0.65 vs. 0.62 in the similarity task and 0.66 vs. 0.59 in the relatedness task). However, the latter identified more pairs of biomedical terms than the former (i.e., 344 vs. 498 in the similarity task and 339 vs. 503 in the relatedness task). Increasing the size of dataset does not always enhance the performance. Increasing the size of datasets can result in the identification of more relations of biomedical terms even though it does not guarantee better precision. As summaries of research articles, compared with article

Technology Transfer and the Innovative Process in Biomedical ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

... de recherche, de même que les réunions et les conférences. Les scientifiques des pays en voie de développement sont, à différents niveaux, impliqués dans le processus de transfert de technologies. Au cours de l'exécution des activités dessus mentionnés, il peut y avoir l'un ou l'autre élément d'innovation qui intervient ...

Applying Nano technology to Human Health: Revolution in Biomedical Sciences

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shrivastava, S.; Dash, D.

2009-01-01

Recent research on bio systems at the nano scale has created one of the most dynamic science and technology domains at the confluence of physical sciences, molecular engineering, biology, biotechnology, and medicine. This domain includes better understanding of living and thinking systems, revolutionary biotechnology processes, synthesis of new drugs and their targeted delivery, regenerative medicine, necrophorum engineering, and developing a sustainable environment. Nano bio systems research is a priority in many countries and its relevance within nano technology is expected to increase in the future. The realisation that the nano scale has certain properties needed to solve important medical challenges and cater to unmet medical needs is driving nano medical research. The present review explores the significance of nano science and latest nano technologies for human health. Addressing the associated opportunities, the review also suggests how to manage far-reaching developments in these areas

Human factors design for the BMIT biomedical beamlines

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Miller, C Denise; Wysokinski, Tomasz W; Belev, George; Chapman, L Dean

2013-01-01

Operation of a biomedical beamline poses a unique set of operational and instrumentation challenges for a synchrotron facility. From proper handling and care of live animals and animal tissues, to a user community drawn primarily from the medical and veterinary realms, the work of a biomedical beamline is unique when compared to other beamlines. At the Biomedical Imaging and Therapy (BMIT) beamlines at Canadian Light Source (CLS), operation of the beamlines is geared towards our user community of medical personnel, in addition to basic science researchers. Human factors considerations have been incorporated wherever possible on BMIT, including in the design of software and hardware, as well as ease-of-use features of beamline control stations and experiment hutches. Feedback from users continues to drive usability improvements to beamline operations.

Biomedical engineering education through global engineering teams.

Science.gov (United States)

Scheffer, C; Blanckenberg, M; Garth-Davis, B; Eisenberg, M

2012-01-01

Most industrial projects require a team of engineers from a variety of disciplines. The team members are often culturally diverse and geographically dispersed. Many students do not acquire sufficient skills from typical university courses to function efficiently in such an environment. The Global Engineering Teams (GET) programme was designed to prepare students such a scenario in industry. This paper discusses five biomedical engineering themed projects completed by GET students. The benefits and success of the programme in educating students in the field of biomedical engineering are discussed.

A stimulus to define informatics and health information technology.

Science.gov (United States)

Hersh, William

2009-05-15

Despite the growing interest by leaders, policy makers, and others, the terminology of health information technology as well as biomedical and health informatics is poorly understood and not even agreed upon by academics and professionals in the field. The paper, presented as a Debate to encourage further discussion and disagreement, provides definitions of the major terminology used in biomedical and health informatics and health information technology. For informatics, it focuses on the words that modify the term as well as individuals who practice the discipline. Other categories of related terms are covered as well, from the associated disciplines of computer science, information technology and health information management to the major application categories of applications used. The discussion closes with a classification of individuals who work in the largest segment of the field, namely clinical informatics. The goal of presenting in Debate format is to provide a starting point for discussion to reach a documented consensus on the definition and use of these terms.

Information Retrieval in Biomedical Research: From Articles to Datasets

Science.gov (United States)

Wei, Wei

2017-01-01

Information retrieval techniques have been applied to biomedical research for a variety of purposes, such as textual document retrieval and molecular data retrieval. As biomedical research evolves over time, information retrieval is also constantly facing new challenges, including the growing number of available data, the emerging new data types,…

Design and implementation of efficient low complexity biomedical artifact canceller for nano devices

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Md Zia Ur RAHMAN

2016-07-01

Full Text Available In the current day scenario, with the rapid development of communication technology remote health care monitoring becomes as an intense research area. In remote health care monitoring, the primary aim is to facilitate the doctor with high resolution biomedical data. In order to cancel various artifacts in clinical environment in this paper we propose some efficient adaptive noise cancellation techniques. To obtain low computational complexity we combine clipping the data or error with Least Mean Square (LMS algorithm. This results sign regressor LMS (SRLMS, sign LMS (SLMS and sign LMS (SSLMS algorithms. Using these algorithms, we design Very-large-scale integration (VLSI architectures of various Biomedical Noise Cancellers (BNCs. In addition, the filtering capabilities of the proposed implementations are measured using real biomedical signals. Among the various BNCs tested, SRLMS based BNC is found to be better with reference to convergence speed, filtering capability and computational complexity. The main advantage of this technique is it needs only one multiplication to compute next weight. In this manner SRLMS based BNC is independent of filter length with reference to its computations. Whereas, the average signal to noise ratio achieved in the noise cancellation experiments are recorded as 7.1059dBs, 7.1776dBs, 6.2795dBs and 5.8847dBs for various BNCs based on LMS, SRLMS, SLMS and SSSLMS algorithms respectively. Based on the filtering characteristics, convergence and computational complexity, the proposed SRLMS based BNC architecture is well suited for nanotechnology applications.

An enhanced approach for biomedical image restoration using image fusion techniques

Science.gov (United States)

Karam, Ghada Sabah; Abbas, Fatma Ismail; Abood, Ziad M.; Kadhim, Kadhim K.; Karam, Nada S.

2018-05-01

Biomedical image is generally noisy and little blur due to the physical mechanisms of the acquisition process, so one of the common degradations in biomedical image is their noise and poor contrast. The idea of biomedical image enhancement is to improve the quality of the image for early diagnosis. In this paper we are using Wavelet Transformation to remove the Gaussian noise from biomedical images: Positron Emission Tomography (PET) image and Radiography (Radio) image, in different color spaces (RGB, HSV, YCbCr), and we perform the fusion of the denoised images resulting from the above denoising techniques using add image method. Then some quantive performance metrics such as signal -to -noise ratio (SNR), peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), and Mean Square Error (MSE), etc. are computed. Since this statistical measurement helps in the assessment of fidelity and image quality. The results showed that our approach can be applied of Image types of color spaces for biomedical images.

DNA nanotechnology and its applications in biomedical research.

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Lifan; Yu, Lu; Shen, Wanqiu

2014-09-01

DNA nanotechnology, which uses DNA as a material to self-assemble designed nanostructures, including DNA 2D arrays, 3D nanostructures, DNA nanotubes and DNA nanomechanical devices, has showed great promise in biomedical applications. Various DNA nanostructures have been used for protein characterization, enzyme assembly, biosensing, drug delivery and biomimetic assemblies. In this review, we will present recent advances of DNA nanotechnology and its applications in biomedical research field.

Multiscale computer modeling in biomechanics and biomedical engineering

CERN Document Server

2013-01-01

This book reviews the state-of-the-art in multiscale computer modeling, in terms of both accomplishments and challenges. The information in the book is particularly useful for biomedical engineers, medical physicists and researchers in systems biology, mathematical biology, micro-biomechanics and biomaterials who are interested in how to bridge between traditional biomedical engineering work at the organ and tissue scales, and the newer arenas of cellular and molecular bioengineering.

Towards precision medicine; a new biomedical cosmology.

Science.gov (United States)

Vegter, M W

2018-02-10

Precision Medicine has become a common label for data-intensive and patient-driven biomedical research. Its intended future is reflected in endeavours such as the Precision Medicine Initiative in the USA. This article addresses the question whether it is possible to discern a new 'medical cosmology' in Precision Medicine, a concept that was developed by Nicholas Jewson to describe comprehensive transformations involving various dimensions of biomedical knowledge and practice, such as vocabularies, the roles of patients and physicians and the conceptualisation of disease. Subsequently, I will elaborate my assessment of the features of Precision Medicine with the help of Michel Foucault, by exploring how precision medicine involves a transformation along three axes: the axis of biomedical knowledge, of biomedical power and of the patient as a self. Patients are encouraged to become the managers of their own health status, while the medical domain is reframed as a data-sharing community, characterised by changing power relationships between providers and patients, producers and consumers. While the emerging Precision Medicine cosmology may surpass existing knowledge frameworks; it obscures previous traditions and reduces research-subjects to mere data. This in turn, means that the individual is both subjected to the neoliberal demand to share personal information, and at the same time has acquired the positive 'right' to become a member of the data-sharing community. The subject has to constantly negotiate the meaning of his or her data, which can either enable self-expression, or function as a commanding Superego.

TERMA Framework for Biomedical Signal Analysis: An Economic-Inspired Approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohamed Elgendi

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Biomedical signals contain features that represent physiological events, and each of these events has peaks. The analysis of biomedical signals for monitoring or diagnosing diseases requires the detection of these peaks, making event detection a crucial step in biomedical signal processing. Many researchers have difficulty detecting these peaks to investigate, interpret and analyze their corresponding events. To date, there is no generic framework that captures these events in a robust, efficient and consistent manner. A new method referred to for the first time as two event-related moving averages (“TERMA” involves event-related moving averages and detects events in biomedical signals. The TERMA framework is flexible and universal and consists of six independent LEGO building bricks to achieve high accuracy detection of biomedical events. Results recommend that the window sizes for the two moving averages ( W 1 and W 2 have to follow the inequality ( 8 × W 1 ≥ W 2 ≥ ( 2 × W 1 . Moreover, TERMA is a simple yet efficient event detector that is suitable for wearable devices, point-of-care devices, fitness trackers and smart watches, compared to more complex machine learning solutions.

How to Learn Multidisciplinary Design: Biomedical Engineering in Cross Cultural Seminar

OpenAIRE

Shigehiro Hashimoto

2016-01-01

The way to learn multidisciplinary design has been discussed. "Biomedical engineering" is exemplified for multidisciplinary field. "Biomedical Engineering" makes the multidisciplinary research area, which includes biology, medicine, engineering, and others. The cross-cultural student seminars on biomedical engineering have been exemplified as the case studies. In the group work, students are divided into the small cross cultural groups. Each group finds a problem, methods to solve the problem...

Anatomy for Biomedical Engineers

Science.gov (United States)

Carmichael, Stephen W.; Robb, Richard A.

2008-01-01

There is a perceived need for anatomy instruction for graduate students enrolled in a biomedical engineering program. This appeared especially important for students interested in and using medical images. These students typically did not have a strong background in biology. The authors arranged for students to dissect regions of the body that…

Energy technology review, July--August 1991

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Johnson, K.C. (ed.)

1991-01-01

This issue of Energy Technology Review'' gives the annual review of the programs at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. This State of the Laboratory issue includes discussions of all major programs: Defense Systems; Laser Research; Magnetic Fusion Energy; Energy and Earth Sciences; Environmental Technology Program; Biomedical and Environmental Science; Engineering; Physics; Chemistry and Materials Science; Computations; and Administrative and Institutional Services. An index is also given of the 1991 achievements with contact names and telephone number.

Optimization and Data Analysis in Biomedical Informatics

CERN Document Server

Pardalos, Panos M; Xanthopoulos, Petros

2012-01-01

This volume covers some of the topics that are related to the rapidly growing field of biomedical informatics. In June 11-12, 2010 a workshop entitled 'Optimization and Data Analysis in Biomedical Informatics' was organized at The Fields Institute. Following this event invited contributions were gathered based on the talks presented at the workshop, and additional invited chapters were chosen from world's leading experts. In this publication, the authors share their expertise in the form of state-of-the-art research and review chapters, bringing together researchers from different disciplines

Frontiers in biomaterials the design, synthetic strategies and biocompatibility of polymer scaffolds for biomedical application

CERN Document Server

Cao, Shunsheng

2014-01-01

Frontiers in Biomaterials: The Design, Synthetic Strategies and Biocompatibility of Polymer Scaffolds for Biomedical Application, Volume 1" highlights the importance of biomaterials and their interaction with biological system. The need for the development of biomaterials as scaffold for tissue regeneration is driven by the increasing demands for materials that mimic functions of extracellular matrices of body tissues.This ebook covers the latest challenges on the biocompatibility of scaffold overtime after implantation and discusses the requirement of innovative technologies and strategies f

Biomedical signal and image processing.

Science.gov (United States)

Cerutti, Sergio; Baselli, Giuseppe; Bianchi, Anna; Caiani, Enrico; Contini, Davide; Cubeddu, Rinaldo; Dercole, Fabio; Rienzo, Luca; Liberati, Diego; Mainardi, Luca; Ravazzani, Paolo; Rinaldi, Sergio; Signorini, Maria; Torricelli, Alessandro

2011-01-01

Generally, physiological modeling and biomedical signal processing constitute two important paradigms of biomedical engineering (BME): their fundamental concepts are taught starting from undergraduate studies and are more completely dealt with in the last years of graduate curricula, as well as in Ph.D. courses. Traditionally, these two cultural aspects were separated, with the first one more oriented to physiological issues and how to model them and the second one more dedicated to the development of processing tools or algorithms to enhance useful information from clinical data. A practical consequence was that those who did models did not do signal processing and vice versa. However, in recent years,the need for closer integration between signal processing and modeling of the relevant biological systems emerged very clearly [1], [2]. This is not only true for training purposes(i.e., to properly prepare the new professional members of BME) but also for the development of newly conceived research projects in which the integration between biomedical signal and image processing (BSIP) and modeling plays a crucial role. Just to give simple examples, topics such as brain–computer machine or interfaces,neuroengineering, nonlinear dynamical analysis of the cardiovascular (CV) system,integration of sensory-motor characteristics aimed at the building of advanced prostheses and rehabilitation tools, and wearable devices for vital sign monitoring and others do require an intelligent fusion of modeling and signal processing competences that are certainly peculiar of our discipline of BME.

Biomedical technology

CERN Document Server

Wriggers, Peter

2015-01-01

During the last years computational methods lead to new approaches that can be applied within medical practice. Based on the tremendous advances in medical imaging and high-performance computing, virtual testing is able to help in medical decision processes or implant designs. Current challenges in medicine and engineering are related to the application of computational methods to clinical medicine and the study of biological systems at different scales. Additionally manufacturers will be able to use computational tools and methods to predict the performance of their medical devices in virtual patients. The physical and animal testing procedures could be reduced by virtual prototyping of medical devices. Here simulations can enhance the performance of alternate device designs for a range of virtual patients. This will lead to a refinement of designs and to safer products. This book summarizes different aspects of approaches to enhance function, production, initialization and complications of different types o...

A Relation Extraction Framework for Biomedical Text Using Hybrid Feature Set

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Abdul Wahab Muzaffar

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The information extraction from unstructured text segments is a complex task. Although manual information extraction often produces the best results, it is harder to manage biomedical data extraction manually because of the exponential increase in data size. Thus, there is a need for automatic tools and techniques for information extraction in biomedical text mining. Relation extraction is a significant area under biomedical information extraction that has gained much importance in the last two decades. A lot of work has been done on biomedical relation extraction focusing on rule-based and machine learning techniques. In the last decade, the focus has changed to hybrid approaches showing better results. This research presents a hybrid feature set for classification of relations between biomedical entities. The main contribution of this research is done in the semantic feature set where verb phrases are ranked using Unified Medical Language System (UMLS and a ranking algorithm. Support Vector Machine and Naïve Bayes, the two effective machine learning techniques, are used to classify these relations. Our approach has been validated on the standard biomedical text corpus obtained from MEDLINE 2001. Conclusively, it can be articulated that our framework outperforms all state-of-the-art approaches used for relation extraction on the same corpus.

Opal web services for biomedical applications.

Science.gov (United States)

Ren, Jingyuan; Williams, Nadya; Clementi, Luca; Krishnan, Sriram; Li, Wilfred W

2010-07-01

Biomedical applications have become increasingly complex, and they often require large-scale high-performance computing resources with a large number of processors and memory. The complexity of application deployment and the advances in cluster, grid and cloud computing require new modes of support for biomedical research. Scientific Software as a Service (sSaaS) enables scalable and transparent access to biomedical applications through simple standards-based Web interfaces. Towards this end, we built a production web server (http://ws.nbcr.net) in August 2007 to support the bioinformatics application called MEME. The server has grown since to include docking analysis with AutoDock and AutoDock Vina, electrostatic calculations using PDB2PQR and APBS, and off-target analysis using SMAP. All the applications on the servers are powered by Opal, a toolkit that allows users to wrap scientific applications easily as web services without any modification to the scientific codes, by writing simple XML configuration files. Opal allows both web forms-based access and programmatic access of all our applications. The Opal toolkit currently supports SOAP-based Web service access to a number of popular applications from the National Biomedical Computation Resource (NBCR) and affiliated collaborative and service projects. In addition, Opal's programmatic access capability allows our applications to be accessed through many workflow tools, including Vision, Kepler, Nimrod/K and VisTrails. From mid-August 2007 to the end of 2009, we have successfully executed 239,814 jobs. The number of successfully executed jobs more than doubled from 205 to 411 per day between 2008 and 2009. The Opal-enabled service model is useful for a wide range of applications. It provides for interoperation with other applications with Web Service interfaces, and allows application developers to focus on the scientific tool and workflow development. Web server availability: http://ws.nbcr.net.

PhysiomeSpace: digital library service for biomedical data.

Science.gov (United States)

Testi, Debora; Quadrani, Paolo; Viceconti, Marco

2010-06-28

Every research laboratory has a wealth of biomedical data locked up, which, if shared with other experts, could dramatically improve biomedical and healthcare research. With the PhysiomeSpace service, it is now possible with a few clicks to share with selected users biomedical data in an easy, controlled and safe way. The digital library service is managed using a client-server approach. The client application is used to import, fuse and enrich the data information according to the PhysiomeSpace resource ontology and upload/download the data to the library. The server services are hosted on the Biomed Town community portal, where through a web interface, the user can complete the metadata curation and share and/or publish the data resources. A search service capitalizes on the domain ontology and on the enrichment of metadata for each resource, providing a powerful discovery environment. Once the users have found the data resources they are interested in, they can add them to their basket, following a metaphor popular in e-commerce web sites. When all the necessary resources have been selected, the user can download the basket contents into the client application. The digital library service is now in beta and open to the biomedical research community.

Session Introduction: Challenges of Pattern Recognition in Biomedical Data.

Science.gov (United States)