Clinical Validation of a Wearable Respiratory Rate Device for Neonatal Monitoring.

Respiratory rate monitoring is of paramount importance in neonatal care. Manual counting of expansions and contractions of the abdomen or diaphragm of the neonate is still the widely accepted measure of respiratory rate in most clinical settings. A practical, affordable, easy-to-use technology to continuously measure respiratory rate in neonates is essential to recognize the signs and symptoms of respiratory disorders. Clinical validation of a system for continuous and long term respiratory rate monitoring of neonates, in a wearable form factor with the capability of remote monitoring is presented in this paper. The respiratory rate monitor was validated in clinical settings on 10 premature babies with various disease conditions and respiratory rates varying from 25 to 90 breaths per minute. Results show a high degree of correlation between the respiratory rate measured by the device and reference measurements. An intelligent algorithm which can remove motion corruption from the accelerometer data and provide reliable results is essential for large-scale adoption of the technology for both clinical as well as home monitoring. The technical details of implementation, results and analysis of the clinical study and observations made during clinical study regarding the feasibility of integrating the device in neonatal care are covered in this paper.

Bulk size crystal growth, spectroscopic, dielectric and surface studies of 4-N,N-dimethylamino-4-N'-methylstilbazolium m-nitrobenzenesulfonate (DSMNS): A potential THz crystal of stilbazolium family.

The synthesis and growth of a potentially useful and efficient nonlinear optical organic single crystal of 4-N,N-dimethylamino-4-N'-methylstilbazolium m-nitrobenzenesulfonate (DSMNS) is reported. The growth experiment involved the slope nucleation method coupled with slow cooling as well as slow solvent evaporation techniques. Single crystal X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), FT-Raman and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques have been employed to ascertain the structure and composition of the crystal. Second harmonic generation (SHG) efficiency of the sample has been examined by Kurtz and Perry powder test. Thermogravimetry (TG), differential thermal analysis (DTA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) techniques are employed to investigate the thermal behavior of the grown crystal. The frequency/temperature dependent dielectric properties of the organic crystal of DSMNS are studied. The surface features of the grown crystal are investigated by chemical etching study and atomic force microscopy (AFM).