New electrical plethysmograph monitors cardiac output

Four-electrode impedance plethysmograph measures ventricular stroke volume of cardiac output of humans. The instrument is automatic, operates with only one recording channel, and minimizes patient discomfort

Development and evaluation of an impedance cardiographic system to measure cardiac output and other cardiac parameters Final progress report 1 Jul. 1969 - 31 Dec. 1970

Performance of impedance cardiograph for measuring heart rate and body fluid

Development and Evaluation of an Impedance Cardiographic System to Measure Cardiac Output and Other Cardiac Parameters, 1 July 1968 - 30 June 1969

Impedance cardiographic system to measure cardiac output and cardiovascular function

Three Dimensional Electrical Impedance Tomography

The electrical resistivity of mammalian tissues varies widely and is correlated with physiological function. Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) can be used to probe such variations in vivo, and offers a non-invasive means of imaging the internal conductivity distribution of the human body. But the computational complexity of EIT has severe practical limitations, and previous work has been restricted to considering image reconstruction as an essentially two-dimensional problem. This simplification can limit significantly the imaging capabilities of EIT, as the electric currents used to determine the conductivity variations will not in general be confined to a two-dimensional plane. A few studies have attempted three-dimensional EIT image reconstruction, but have not yet succeeded in generating images of a quality suitable for clinical applications. Here we report the development of a three-dimensional EIT system with greatly improved imaging capabilities, which combines our 64-electrode data-collection apparatus with customized matrix inversion techniques. Our results demonstrate the practical potential of EIT for clinical applications, such as lung or brain imaging and diagnostic screening

Waiting for the state: gender, citizenship and everyday encounters with bureaucracy in India

This article focuses on practices and meanings of time and waiting experienced by poor, low-class Dalits and Muslims in their routine encounters with the state in India. Drawing on ethnographic research from Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh, it presents experiences of waiting around queuing and applying for paperwork, cards, and welfare schemes, in order to examine the role of temporal processes in the production of citizenship and citizen agency. An analysis of various forms of waiting – ‘on the day’, ‘to and fro’, and ‘chronic’ waiting – reveals how temporal processes operate as mechanisms of power and control through which state actors and other mediators produce differentiated forms of citizenship and citizens. Temporal processes and their material outcomes, we argue, are shaped by class, caste and religion, while also drawing on – and reproducing – gendered identities and inequalities. However, rather than being ‘passive’ patients of the state, we show how ordinary people draw on money, patronage networks and various performative acts in an attempt to secure their rights as citizens of India

Why Indians vote: reflections on rights, citizenship and democracy from a Tamil Nadu village

This paper contributes to an empirical and theoretical understanding of democracy and political participation in India through an ethnographic study of the meanings attached to voting in rural Tamil Nadu. Based on a study of voting in a rural constituency during the 2009 national elections, the paper explores the variety of motivations that compel people to vote. It explores how voting is informed by popular understandings of rights and duties as citizens, programmatic policies and their local implementation, commitment to caste and party loyalties, and authority of charismatic leaders. The paper explores the roots of the political consciousness and rights awareness that underpin high levels of electoral participation. It suggests that elections form unique moments that allow ordinary people to experience an individual sense of citizenship and of democracy itself while at the same time allowing them to pursue projects of recognition, respect and assertion as members of communities. It is precisely this dual feature that makes voting so enduringly attractive to India's contemporary electorate

Development and evaluation of an impedance cardiographic system to measure cardiac output and other cardiac parameters, July 1, 1967 - June 30, 1968

Impedance cardiograph for monitoring heart functions, and program for computing stroke volume and cardiac output from thoracic impedance changes during cardiac cycl

Variability in EIT Images of Lung Ventilation as a Function of Electrode Planes and Body Positions

This study is aimed at investigating the variability in resistivity changes in the lung region as a function of air volume, electrode plane and body position. Six normal subjects (33.8 ± 4.7 years, range from 26 to 37 years) were studied using the Sheffield Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT) portable system. Three transverse planes at the level of second intercostal space, the level of the xiphisternal joint, and midway between upper and lower locations were chosen for measurements. For each plane, sixteen electrodes were uniformly positioned around the thorax. Data were collected with the breath held at end expiration and after inspiring 0.5, 1.0, or 1.5 liters of air from end expiration, with the subject in both the supine and sitting position. The average resistivity change in five regions, two 8x8 pixel local regions in the right lung, entire right, entire left and total lung regions, were calculated. The results show the resistivity change averaged over electrode positions and subject positions was 7-9% per liter of air, with a slightly larger resistivity change of 10 % per liter air in the lower electrode plane. There was no significant difference (p\u3e0.05) between supine and sitting. The two 8x8 regions show a larger inter individual variability (coefficient of variation, CV, is from 30% to 382%) compared to the entire left, entire right and total lung (CV is from 11% to 51%). The results for the global regions are more consistent. The large inter individual variability appears to be a problem for clinical applications of EIT, such as regional ventilation. The variability may be mitigated by choosing appropriate electrode plane, body position and region of interest for the analysis

Paperwork, patronage and citizenship: the materiality of everyday interactions with bureaucracy in Tamil Nadu, India

This article explores the material practices through which lower‐caste and poor villagers engage with bureaucracy in contemporary India. We take documents and paperwork – such as ration cards and community certificates – as a ‘lens’ through which to explore how paper materiality is infused with the politics of power, patronage, and identity. The article brings ethnography from rural Tamil Nadu, South India, in conversation with two bodies of literature: one on the materiality of bureaucracy and one on the nature of political mediation in contemporary India. We demonstrate how everyday engagements with paperwork as well as processes of applying, form filling, and securing recommendations are constitutive of social and political relationships and, ultimately, of citizenship itself. Political mediation around paperwork and bureaucracy generates a hierarchy of citizens rather than equal citizenship for all, yet ordinary villagers transpire as anything but passive. Drawing on patronage networks, engaging in affective performances, and navigating a politics of identity, they actively negotiate access to the state in an attempt to claim their rights as citizens

State incapacity by design : understanding the Bihar story

governed particularly badly between 1990 and 2005, and has since experienced something of a ‘governance miracle’. How can we account for the 1990–2005 deterioration? The answer lies in the interaction of three factors. The first was the type of leadership exercised by Lalu Prasad Yadav, who was Chief Minister throughout most of this period – even when his wife formally occupied the post. The second lies in electoral politics: the need to maintain the enthusiasm and morale of an electoral coalition that Yadav had constructed from a number of poorer and historically oppressed groups. Such was the scale of poverty among this core electoral coalition that Yadav had limited prospects of maintaining its cohesion and allegiance through the normal processes of promising ‘development’ and using networks of political patronage to distribute material resources to supporters. More important, that strategy would have involved a high level of dependence on the government apparatus, that was dominated by people from a number of historically-dominant upper castes. That is our third factor. Yadav preferred to mobilise his supporters on the basis of continual confrontation with this historically oppressive elite. He kept public sector jobs vacant rather than appoint qualified people – who were mainly from the upper cases. He tried to micro-manage the state apparatus from the Chief Minister’s office. He denuded the public service of staff. He was then unable to use it to deliver ‘development’. We show that, among other things, the Bihar state government sacrificed large potential fiscal transfers from the Government of India designed for anti-poverty programmes because it was unable to complete the relevant bureaucratic procedures. Yadav knowingly undermined the capacity of the state apparatus. There are parallels in many other parts of the world. Low state capacity is often a political choice. Keywords: India; Bihar; politics; capacity building; state capacity; governance