Abstract-In this paper, a low-cost multiband printed-circuit-board (PCB) antenna that employs Koch fractal geometry and tunability is demonstrated. The antenna is fabricated on a 1.6 mm-thick FR4-epoxy substrate with dimensions 4 cm × 4.5 cm, is microstrip-line fed and has a partial ground plane flushed with the feed line. The proposed antenna is simulated using the Finite-Element Method for three different switching cases and the return loss is measured for each case. It is shown that the antenna can cover the bands of several applications including 3G, WiFi, WiMAX as well as a portion of the UWB range. The radiation patterns are satisfactorily omnidirectional across the antenna's operation bands.
Introduction: The electrocardiogram (ECG) plays an important role in the diagnosis of heart diseases. However, most patterns of diseases are based on old datasets and stepwise algorithms that provide limited accuracy. Improving diagnostic accuracy of the ECG can be done by applying machine learning algorithms. This requires taking existing scanned or printed ECGs of old cohorts and transforming the ECG signal to the raw digital (time (milliseconds), voltage (millivolts)) form. Objectives: We present a MATLABbased tool and algorithm that converts a printed or scanned format of the ECG into a digitized ECG signal. Methods: 30 ECG scanned curves are utilized in our study. An image processing method is first implemented for detecting the ECG regions of interest and extracting the ECG signals. It is followed by serial steps that digitize and validate the results. Results: The validation demonstrates very high correlation values of several standard ECG parameters: PR interval 0.984 +/− 0.021 (p-value < 0.001), QRS interval 1+/− SD (p-value < 0.001), QT interval 0.981 +/− 0.023 p-value <0.001, and RR interval 1 +/− 0.001 p-value <0.001. Conclusion: Digitized ECG signals from existing paper or scanned ECGs can be obtained with more than 95% of precision. This makes it possible to utilize historic ECG signals in machine learning algorithms to identify patterns of heart diseases and aid in the diagnostic and prognostic evaluation of patients with cardiovascular disease. INDEX TERMS Electrocardiogram, digitization, Matlab tool, image processing.
This paper presents a planar antenna for employment in overlay and underlay ultra-wideband cognitive radio (UWB-CR). The antenna can be operated as ultra-wideband, for underlay CR and for sensing in the overlay CR. When used in the overlay CR mode, the proposed antenna can selectively have one, two or three notches in the WLAN, WiMAX, and U-NII bands, to prevent interference to primary users operating in these bands. The band notches are induced using complementary split-ring resonators (CSRRs), and are controlled using three electronic switches mounted over the CSRRs. 1120 978-1-4244-9561-0/11/$26.00
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