Abstracts:This text is aimed at late sophomore- or early junior-level students,with a basic level of understanding of electrical circuits and signal processing. Some background in anatomy, the author writes, “would be useful.” Acknowledging J.G. Webster’s Medical Instrumentation: Application and Design as well as his edited Encyclopedia of Medical Devices and Instrumentation, Principles of Biomedical Instrumentation consists of nine chapters providing a concise overview of the subject. The book is liberally illustrated, and each chapter concludes with a reference section and a series of problem assignments. A solutions manual is available for instructors using the text. Although the author is from The Netherlands, the text is reasonably generic and could be useful worldwide. The book is liberally illustrated, and each chapter concludes with a reference section and a series of problem assignments.

Abstracts:A graph presents a comparison of a chalice to the female uterus. To start, observe the clear resemblance of both to an inverted pyramid shape. Let us now review the role of women in the ancient Jewish-Christian tradition. The Old Testament (OT), the first part of the Christian Bible, is based primarily on the Hebrew scriptures (or Tanakh). The New Testament collects later writings. In the OT, the book of Esther relates the story of a Hebrew woman in Persia who thwarted a genocide of her people, while the book of Ruth tells of a woman who married into an Israelite family and converted to Judaism. Ruth is the great-grandmother of King David and, hence, an ancestor of the Messiah.

Abstracts:What almost all students and many faculty members don’t realize is that engineering design/application solutions are rarely the best (or optimal). Indeed, most engineering solutions could probably be described as adequate. The best solutions are too costly, either in terms of the time required to develop them or resources expended. Adequate solutions meet the required specifications and not much more. There is certainly an element of creativity and intelligence involved in the engineering design process, but there also must be a certain amount of restraint.

Abstracts:With an aging population, the incidence and prevalence of wound problems is on the rise. Bedsores (also known as pressure ulcers or decubitus ulcers) are painful, take months to heal, and, for many patients, never do, leading to other health problems. The condition has become so acute that treating bedsores is now a significant burden on the healthcare system. An estimated 2.5 million pressure ulcers are treated in U.S. hospitals each year, adding US$11 billion annually to health care costs.

Abstracts:The first article of this series (see "About This Series") mentioned that, after the success of its new messaging standard for electronic health record (EHR) systems, Health Level 7 (HL7) found it difficult to develop and widely deploy a standard for the rich representation of clinical data for use in patient care. This was due, in large part, to the complexity of medicine and the resulting complexity of the clinical terminologies developed to represent it.

Abstracts:The idea is a compelling one: a device that looks and feels like an ordinary contact lens but that can continuously monitor a variety of health indicators. For a diabetic, such a lens might update blood glucose levels and, using a built-in flashing LED indicator light, signal when a condition needs attention. Diabetic patients might be saved from the need for repeated finger prick tests and could be monitored for longer periods of time and for a greater variety of parameters at once.

Abstracts:When an artery is blocked, stents are often the best way to open up the vessel. A mesh stent is tightly crimped over a tiny balloon and guided to the troubled spot; the balloon is inflated, expanding the stent, which forces the vessel open. Blood flow is restored.

Abstracts:Most genetic testing requires a doctor's prescription. In April 2017, however, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave genetics company 23andMe the go-ahead to sell DNA tests assessing the user's level of risk for ten health conditions, including Parkinson's disease and late-onset Alzheimer's disease. This was followed nearly a year later by approval to sell tests for three mutations in the genes BRCA1 and BRCA2 linked to increased breast cancer risk. These remain the only FDA-approved direct-to-consumer (DTC) tests for genetic risk of disease.

Abstracts:According to the National Cancer Institute, 4 million people die of cancer worldwide every year-almost 500 every hour. But the most shocking thing about that statistic is this: more than a third and possibly even the vast majority of those deaths could have been prevented through sufficiently early detection. Now, a new competition aims to turn that situation around.

Abstracts:For Ashley Zappia (Figure 1), getting her hands dirty was part of her job. Even though she always tried to remain as clean as possible, her work as a nursing aide at a Southern California hospital required a lot of diapering, changing, and other hands-on tasks. She was mostly in the ER, where physical contact with bodily fluids from sick patients was normal. She was careful to wash her hands frequently, even though she almost always wore gowns and gloves with all patients. Every time she left or entered a room, she lathered her hands in hand-sanitizer gel. Just 27 years old, she was young and healthy. On paper, she was at low risk for infection. That?s why, at first, she thought little of a urinary tract infection (UTI) that seemed to appear out of nowhere.