Experimental demonstration of noncontact vital-sign measurement using pulse radar.

BACKGROUD: Recently, monitoring the vital-sign with the noncontact method is a popular technology. OBJECTIVE: In this work, we present a fully pulse radar system including front-end sensing and back-end data processing. A series of ultra-wide band sensing pulses is generated and radiated to detect the subject's chest vibration which in turn obtains the required vital-sign signals. METHODS: An artificial plywood with 3 centimeter thickness is placed between a transmitting/receiving antenna of the radar and subject to demonstrate the characteristic of noncontact sensing. The firmware and digital signal processing are also presented in this paper to optimize physiological data quality. RESULTS: The experimental results show that the continuous heart rate and breathing rate can be monitored by this customized system radar module. CONCLUSION: A fully customized ultra-wide band radar for vital-sign application is presented. The radar system plan with wall parameter is also incorporated into the design consideration to meet the FCC requirement and SNR.

The main factors affecting Taiwan's economic growth rate via dynamic grey relational analysis.

Ever since the grey system theory was proposed about 40 years ago, its characteristics such as small samples, few data, and uncertainty have been used for study in the literature with increasingly wider scope. Recent studies on grey relation analysis have included static data analyses, and most of them have adopted initial values with only a relational order. Under the same study conditions, if different data preprocessing methods are used, then the relational order will be ranked differently. This study took Taiwan as the object to explore seven economic indices (birth rate (%), Taiwan's total population (thousand people), unemployment rate (%), income per capita (USD), weighted average interest rate on deposits (%), Consumer Price Index (CPI), and national income (NI)) and how they affect the economic growth rate. The traditional static grey relational analysis treated the collected data with taking consideration of time effect which is irrational under some circumstance. An innovative dynamic grey relational analysis was carried out by shifting the raw data due to the time leading or lagging effect which is a mean to improve the capability of traditional grey relational analysis. The differences in analyses between static grey relational analysis and dynamic grey relational analysis via different data preprocessing methods were further discussed, finding that different data preprocessing methods generated a new set of relational orders through the latter. Finally, the prosperity index was used to identify the effects of all factors on economic growth (leading, synchronization, and lagging indices).

Genetic polymorphism of As3MT and delayed urinary DMA excretion after organic arsenic intake from oyster ingestion.

Organic arsenic intake from seafood is one of the major arsenic exposure routes among the general population. However, organic arsenic metabolism in the human body is not yet clear. The goal of this study was to explore the effects of genetic polymorphisms of human PNP, As3MT and GSTO1 on organic arsenic metabolism among study subjects after oyster ingestion. During the one-week dietary controlled study, fifty study subjects were provided all their daily meals without seafood, except for two designated amounts of oyster given on the fourth day. First morning voided urine samples were provided by the study subjects for 7 consecutive days and analyzed with HPLC-ICP-MS for As(3+), As(5+), monomethylarsonic acid, and dimethylarsinic acid (DMA). Blood samples were collected later for genetic polymorphisms analysis of PNP, As3MT and GSTO1. Study subjects were categorized into "fast-" (n = 32), "medium-" (n = 13) and "slow-metabolizing" (n = 5) groups based on the number of days after ingestion needed for each subject's urinary DMA level reaching peak. Allele frequencies of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) in intron 6 (G/C, p = 0.024) and in intron 10 (T/C, p = 0.039) of As3MT were significantly associated with the urinary DMA excretion. General estimating equation model analysis indicated that the variants of SNP (G>C) in intron 6 and SNP (T > C) in intron 10 of As3MT were respectively associated with higher or lower urinary DMA level by approximately 9 microg L(-1). As3MT was suggested to be one of the major factors affecting the metabolism of dietary organic arsenic in terms of urinary DMA level.