ZigBee Healthcare Monitoring System for Ambient Assisted Living Environments

Healthcare Monitoring Systems (HMSs) are promising to monitor patients in hospitals and elderly people living in Ambient Assisted Living environments using Wireless Sensor Networks. HMSs assist in monitoring chronic diseases such as Heart Attacks, High Blood Pressure and other cardiovascular diseases. Wearable and implanted devices are types of Body sensors that collect human health related data. Collected data is sent over Personal Area Networks (PANs). However, PANs are facing the challenge of increasing network traffic due to the increased number of IP-enabled devices connected in Healthcare Monitoring Systems to assist patients. ZigBee technology is an IEEE 802.15.4 standard designed to address network traffic issues in PANs. To route traffic, ZigBee network use ZigBee Tree Routing (ZTR) protocol. ZTR however suffers a challenge of network latency caused by end to end delay during packet forwarding. This paper is proposing a New Tree Routing Protocol (NTRP) for Healthcare Monitoring Systems to collect Heart Rate signals. NTRP uses Kruskal’s minimum spanning tree to find shortest routes on a ZigBee network which improves ZTR. Neighbor tables are implemented in NTRP instead of parent–child mechanism implemented in ZTR. To reduce end to end delay, NTRP groups’ nodes into clusters and the cluster heads use neighbor tables to forward heart rate data to the destination node. NS-2 simulation tool is used to evaluate NTRP performance

Estimating Equatorial F-Region Daytime Vertical E X B Drift Velocities from Ground-Based Magnetometer Measurements in the Philippine Longitude Sector

Ionospheric disturbances can severely impact Department of Defense (DoD) systems, such as radar. satellite. and navigation technologies. Forecasting disturbances and describing the Earth\u27s ionosphere, in turn, relies upon innovative computer-based models that gather input parameters from ground and space-borne observations and empirical models for ionospheric drivers. Equatorial E x B drift velocities are significant input parameters that go into many ionospheric models, because they help describe vertical plasma motions near the magnetic equator. Previous work by Anderson, et al 2002 has demonstrated the ability to derive Peruvian longitude sector, daytime vertical E x B drifts from ground-based magnetometer data. The present research extends these results to the Philippines using 56 days of magnetometer data from two stations in 2002. For each day of magnetometer data, corresponding Global Ultraviolet Imager (GUVI) 1356A airglow emission data from the evening equatorial anomaly were used to estimate the average E x B drift velocities Anderson, private communication, 2003. These drift values were then compared statistically to the horizontal component of the Philippine magnetometer data for all 56 days. In this process, data were grouped according to F1O.7 values. Overall, the best regression relation resulted from the ascending, April 2002 sample of 13 days of data (correlation coefficient of 0.63). Previous research does not conclusively predict how our Apri1 2002 Philippine slope should compare against the corresponding Peruvian result. Specifically. Richmond 1973 predicts the two slopes should be approximately equal. However, Forbes 1981 suggests the Philippine regression slope should be 30 percent smaller than the corresponding Peruvian slope

Reaction-Based Probes for Imaging Mobile Zinc in Live Cells and Tissues

Chelatable, or mobile, forms of zinc play critical signaling roles in numerous biological processes. Elucidating the action of mobile Zn(II) in complex biological environments requires sensitive tools for visualizing, tracking, and manipulating Zn(II) ions. A large toolbox of synthetic photoinduced electron transfer (PET)-based fluorescent Zn(II) sensors are available, but the applicability of many of these probes is limited by poor zinc sensitivity and low dynamic ranges owing to proton interference. We present here a general approach for acetylating PET-based probes containing a variety of fluorophores and zinc-binding units. The new sensors provide substantially improved zinc sensitivity and allow for incubation of live cells and tissue slices with nM probe concentrations, a significant improvement compared to the μM concentrations that are typically required for a measurable fluorescence signal. Acetylation effectively reduces or completely quenches background fluorescence in the metal-free sensor. Binding of Zn(II) selectively and quickly mediates hydrolytic cleavage of the acetyl groups, providing a large fluorescence response. An acetylated blue coumarin-based sensor was used to carry out detailed analyses of metal binding and metal-promoted acetyl hydrolysis. Acetylated benzoresorufin-based red-emitting probes with different zinc-binding sites are effective for sensing Zn(II) ions in live cells when applied at low concentrations (∼50–100 nM). We used green diacetylated Zinpyr1 (DA-ZP1) to image endogenous mobile Zn(II) in the molecular layer of mouse dorsal cochlear nucleus (DCN), confirming that acetylation is a suitable approach for preparing sensors that are highly specific and sensitive to mobile zinc in biological systems.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (NIH grant GM065519)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (NIH grant R01-DC007905)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (NIH Fellowship (F32- EB019243))National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (NIH Fellowship (T32-DC011499))National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (NIH Fellowship (F32-DC013734)

CORRECTION OF TRANSIENT SOLID-EMBEDDED THERMOCOUPLE DATA WITH APPLICATION TO INVERSE HEAT CONDUCTION

The current research investigates the use of solid-embedded thermocouples for determining accurate transient temperature measurements within a solid medium, with emphasis on measurements intended for use in inverse heat conduction problems. Metal casting experiments have been conducted to collect internal mold temperatures to be used, through inverse conduction methods, to estimate the heat exchange between a casting and mold. Inverse conduction methods require accurate temperature measurements for valid boundary estimates. Therefore, various sources of thermocouple measurement uncertainty are examined and some suggestions for uncertainty reduction are presented. Thermocouple installation induced bias uncertainties in experimental temperature data are dynamically corrected through the development and implementation of an embedded thermocouple correction (ETC) transfer function. Comparisons of experimental data to dynamically adjusted data, as well as the inverse conduction estimates for heat flux from each data set, are presented and discussed

Optimal Sensing and Actuation Policies for Networked Mobile Agents in a Class of Cyber-Physical Systems

The main purpose of this dissertation is to define and solve problems on optimal sensing and actuating policies in Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs). Cyber-physical system is a term that was introduced recently to define the increasing complexity of the interactions between computational hardwares and their physical environments. The problem of designing the ``cyber\u27\u27 part may not be trivial but can be solved from scratch. However, the ``physical\u27\u27 part, usually a natural physical process, is inherently given and has to be identified in order to propose an appropriate ``cyber\u27\u27 part to be adopted. Therefore, one of the first steps in designing a CPS is to identify its ``physical\u27\u27 part. The ``physical\u27\u27 part can belong to a large array of system classes. Among the possible candidates, we focus our interest on Distributed Parameter Systems (DPSs) whose dynamics can be modeled by Partial Differential Equations (PDE). DPSs are by nature very challenging to observe as their states are distributed throughout the spatial domain of interest. Therefore, systematic approaches have to be developed to obtain the optimal locations of sensors to optimally estimate the parameters of a given DPS. In this dissertation, we first review the recent methods from the literature as the foundations of our contributions. Then, we define new research problems within the above optimal parameter estimation framework. Two different yet important problems considered are the optimal mobile sensor trajectory planning and the accuracy effects and allocation of heterogeneous sensors. Under the remote sensing setting, we are able to determine the optimal trajectories of remote sensors. The problem of optimal robust estimation is then introduced and solved using an interlaced ``online\u27\u27 or ``real-time\u27\u27 scheme. Actuation policies are introduced into the framework to improve the estimation by providing the best stimulation of the DPS for optimal parameter identification, where trajectories of both sensors and actuators are optimized simultaneously. We also introduce a new methodology to solving fractional-order optimal control problems, with which we demonstrate that we can solve optimal sensing policy problems when sensors move in complex media, displaying fractional dynamics. We consider and solve the problem of optimal scale reconciliation using satellite imagery, ground measurements, and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV)-based personal remote sensing. Finally, to provide the reader with all the necessary background, the appendices contain important concepts and theorems from the literature as well as the Matlab codes used to numerically solve some of the described problems

Robust Ad-hoc Sensor Routing (RASeR) protocol for mobile wireless sensor networks

Robust Ad-hoc Sensor Routing (RASeR) is a novel protocol for data routing in mobile wireless sensor networks (MWSNs). It is designed to cope with the demanding requirements of emerging technologies, which require the reliable and low-latency delivery of packets in highly mobile conditions. RASeR uses blind forwarding, which is facilitated by a novel method of gradient maintenance. The problem of maintaining a gradient field in a changing topology, without flooding, is solved by using a global time division multiple access MAC. Furthermore, it is enhanced with the additional options of a supersede mode, to aid time-critical applications, reverse flooding, to allow sink-to-sensor commands and energy saving sleep cycles to reduce power consumption. Analytical expressions are derived and verified by simulation. RASeR is compared with the state-of-the-art MWSN routing protocols, PHASeR and MACRO, as well as the MANET protocols, AODV and OLSR. The results indicate that RASeR is a high performance protocol, which shows improvements over PHASeR, MACRO, AODV and OLSR. Tested over varying levels of mobility, scalability and traffic, the simulations yield near perfect PDR in many scenarios, as well as a low end-to-end delay, high throughput, low overhead and low energy consumption. The robustness of this protocol and its consistent reliability, low latency and additional features, makes it highly suitable to a wide number of applications. It is specifically applicable to highly mobile situations with a fixed number of nodes and small payloads