Telemetry design of a vital sign recording system.

Blood pressure, respiratory rate, body temperature, and pulse rate are vital signs that under certain pathological conditions require continuous monitoring. In this paper we present a novel design of a system that embeds these signals into a single waveform that can be transmitted without the need for time or frequency division multiplexing. The system depends on changing the frequency of a square wave oscillator. One signal with low frequency contents controls the On-time of the oscillator while the Off-time is controlled by another signal. The third and the fourth signals are used to control voltage controlled oscillators. The voltage controlled oscillators outputs are used as fluctuations during the On-time and during the Off-time. The main advantage of this system is the reduction in circuit complexity in both transmitter and receiver with accurate recovery of the transmitted signals. The design of the proposed system is presented in this paper along with all the corresponding simulations.

Antibacterial efficacy of lytic bacteriophages against antibiotic-resistant Klebsiella species.

Bacterial resistance to antibiotics is a leading and highly prevalent problem in the treatment of infectious diseases. Bacteriophages (phages) appear to be effective and safe alternatives for the treatment of resistant infections because of their specificity for bacterial species and lack of infectivity in eukaryotic cells. The present study aimed to isolate bacteriophages against Klebsiella spp. and evaluate their efficacy against antibiotic-resistant species. Seventy-two antibiotic-resistant Klebsiella spp. were isolated from samples of patients who referred to the Ghaem Hospital (Mashhad, Iran). Lytic bacteriophages against Klebsiella spp. were isolated from wastewater of the septic tank of the same hospital. Bactericidal activity of phages against resistant Klebsiella spp. was tested in both liquid (tube method; after 1 and 24 h of incubation) and solid (double-layer agar plate method; after 24 h of incubation) phases. In each method, three different concentrations of bacteriophages (low: <10(4) PFU/mL, medium: 10(4)-10(7) PFU/mL, and high: >10(7) PFU/mL) were used. Bacteriophages showed promising bactericidal activity at all assessed concentrations, regardless of the test method and duration of incubation. Overall, bactericidal effects were augmented at higher concentrations. In the tube method, higher activity was observed after 24 h of incubation compared to the 1-h incubation. The bactericidal effects were also higher in the tube method compared to the double-layer agar plate method after 24 h of incubation. The findings of the present study suggest that bacteriophages possess effective bactericidal activity against resistant Klebsiella spp. These bactericidal activities are influenced by phage concentration, duration of incubation, and test method.

Wealth from Health: an incentive program for disease and population management: a 12-year project.

The future of healthcare is linked with its ability to face the challenges of consumerism. Disease and population management will represent the dominant style of healthcare delivery in the future. This article describes the Wealth from Health programs which utilize current and future technologies to help the healthcare system become a leader in healthcare delivery and to assist many communities at an affordable cost.