Radio Communications

In the last decades the restless evolution of information and communication technologies (ICT) brought to a deep transformation of our habits. The growth of the Internet and the advances in hardware and software implementations modified our way to communicate and to share information. In this book, an overview of the major issues faced today by researchers in the field of radio communications is given through 35 high quality chapters written by specialists working in universities and research centers all over the world. Various aspects will be deeply discussed: channel modeling, beamforming, multiple antennas, cooperative networks, opportunistic scheduling, advanced admission control, handover management, systems performance assessment, routing issues in mobility conditions, localization, web security. Advanced techniques for the radio resource management will be discussed both in single and multiple radio technologies; either in infrastructure, mesh or ad hoc networks

NDM-523: USE OF AN UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE (UAV) TO ASSESS TRANSPORTATION INFRASTRUCTURE, IMMEDIATELY AFTER A CATASTROPHIC STORM EVENT

From September 29 to October 1, 2015 over 200 mm of rain deluged parts of southern New Brunswick. The catastrophic rain event washed away bridge size culverts and conventional bridges, including the surrounding soil and asphaltic concrete pavement. Also erosion encroached on the driving lane of road and highway embankments at over 100 locations. Several homes and businesses were left stranded. A fast and efficient means was required to assess the impact on infrastructure after the storm. This paper presents the procedure and outcomes of using digital imagery captured with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) for post-disaster assessment. The use of a UAV to gather site images, at hard to access locations, allowed for the timely prioritization of needs and allocation of limited resources to areas most urgently in demand of emergency repairs. High quality aerial images were processed using commercial software specifically designed for the creation of 3D models and orthomosaics from aerial photos. This information, along with ground-level panoramas communicated the current condition of assets and roads. It provided engineers with the ability to complete initial assessment, create 3D models for design, and provide highly qualitative evaluation records. The successful use of a UAV for this storm event was preceded by other uses of UAVs for asset management within the New Brunswick Department of Transportation and Infrastructure

Public health aspects of mental health care: implications and risks in a state owned southern Nigerian Psychiatric Hospital

Public health issues appear often ignored in hospital settings and lack of public health infrastructure like basic  hygiene facilities, being part of basic human requirement, affects the quality of life and patient’s physical and mental  health states and outcomes. This cross-sectional descriptive study examined the often-neglected public health  aspects of mental health care as exemplified by the risks associated with environmental health neglect in a state- owned psychiatric hospital in South-south Nigeria. Data was collected using the National Health Management  Information System-based Health Facility Daily Attendance Register (Version 2013), while Hospital In-patient  Facilities Checklist (for Psychiatric Units) was used for facility assessment and its compliance to standards. The data analysis was done using SPSS software Version 17. Results showed deficiencies in environmental health  infrastructure like absence of toilet facilities, window panes and mosquito nets and protocol/facilities for handling  sharps, as well as lack of bed-sheets or laundry facilities and inadequate beds; with many patients lying on the  ground. The common infections recorded in the hospital were malaria (13.5%), acute gastroenteritis (9.4%), and  those affecting the skin (8.5%). Thus, new policies that would favour good infrastructure and high standard of environmental hygiene in psychiatric hospitals are suggested to improve patient outcome. Keywords: Public, health risk, neglect, psychiatric hospita

REST on Routers? Preliminary Lessons for Language Designers, Framework Architects, and App Developers

In this position paper, we provide a preliminary assessment of hardware and software solution stack choices available to developers of resource-oriented web services on commodity embedded devices. As part of an ongoing interdisciplinary research project on air and water quality in a major urban ecosystem, we are developing an information infrastructure amounting to a role-based hierarchy of individually addressable, interconnected resources, ranging from sensors, analyzers, and other monitoring devices to aggregators and publishers. This infrastructure follows the Representational State Transfer (REST) architectural pattern and integrates non-networked or non-RESTful monitoring devices through RESTful proxy resources running on low-cost, low-energy, possibly wireless, always-on embedded servers. Commodity wireless routers running a suitable embedded Linux distribution are a good choice for this purpose, and we have started to survey the landscape of supported solution stacks, including programming languages and RESTful frameworks: Not only were our preferred, familiar choices unavailable for medium-end routers, but we had to develop our own lightweight REST layer for lower-end routers. Given the growing popularity of embedded Linux devices, however, we argue that language designers and framework architects should support them to a much greater extent than they do now. In addition, as the demand for green computing grows, we argue that memory- and processor-efficient languages and frameworks become increasingly important

Becta Review 2005. Evidence on the progress of ICT in education.

Drawing on Becta national surveys of ICT use and implementation within the education system, the Becta Review identified the ways in which ICT could be used to support the DfES 5 year strategy, to introduce greater efficiencies in educational provision and more choice/personalisation of content and delivery