Atrial fibrillation (AFib) is one of the prominent causes of stroke, and its risk increases with age. We need to detect AFib correctly as early as possible to avoid medical disaster because it is likely to proceed into a more serious form in short time. If we can make a portable AFib monitoring system, it will be helpful to many old people because we cannot predict when a patient will have a spasm of AFib.
Company Description:
Rhythmia Medical, a venture-backed company designing an innovative system to treat cardiac arrhythmias, is targeting one of the fastest growing fields in medical devices.
The system includes state of the art signal processing, 3D imaging and catheter fabrication technologies. We are extremely selective in our hiring and employ a small team of super talented individuals whose aim is to have a major impact on developing a breakthrough life-saving technology.
Job Description:
The Biomedical Systems Integration Engineer will participate in the hardware and software development at the company and be involved in the test, design and development of the company’s bioinstrumentation platform.
Image via Wikipedia
The fourth heart sound is a low-pitched sound coincident with late diastolic filling of the ventricle due to atrial contraction. It thus occurs shortly before the first heart sound. Although it is also called the atrial sound, and its production requires an effective atrial contraction, the fourth heart sound is the result of vibrations generated within the ventricle. Commonly, its presence indicates increased resistance to filling of the left or right ventricle because of a reduction in ventricular wall compliance, and it is accompanied by a disproportionate rise in ventricular end-diastolic pressure. In patients with a fourth heart sound, its palpable correlate is often present: a concomitant brief presystolic outward movement of the chest wall.
Acoustic wave devices have been in commercial use for more than 60 years. The telecommunications industry is the largest consumer, accounting for ~3 billion acoustic wave filters annually, primarily in mobile cell phones and base stations.
These are typically surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices, and act as bandpass filters in both the radio frequency and intermediate frequency sections of the transceiver electronics. Several of the emerging applications for acoustic wave devices as sensors may eventually equal the demand of the telecommunications market.
Researchers have discovered the precise chemical chain reaction that could be the much-sought-after puberty trigger: The KiSS-1 gene, which produces a protein in the hypothalamus, a part of the brain, which regulates metabolic activity. When the protein connects with a receptor on another gene called GPR54, puberty is believed to begin. This knowledge may guide the development of better drugs for treating hormone disorders related to puberty.
PITTSBURGH–They’re politely called “the awkward years,” but anybody who can remember going through puberty knows “awkward” is an understatement. Now medical researchers believe they’re close to solving the puzzle of puberty.
Neuroscientists at the Mayo Clinic campus in Jacksonville, Fla., have demonstrated how brain waves can be used to type alphanumerical characters on a computer screen. By merely focusing on the “q” in a matrix of letters, for example, that “q” appears 
on the monitor.
Researchers say these findings, presented at the 2009 annual meeting of the American Epilepsy Society, represent concrete progress toward a mind-machine interface that may, one day, help people with a variety of disorders control devices, such as prosthetic arms and legs. These disorders include Lou Gehrig’s disease and spinal cord injuries, among many others.