Flexible quality of service model for wireless body area sensor networks

Wireless body area sensor networks (WBASNs) are becoming an increasingly significant breakthrough technology for smart healthcare systems, enabling improved clinical decision-making in daily medical care. Recently, radio frequency (RF) ultra-wideband (UWB) technology has developed substantially for physiological signal monitoring due to its advantages such as low power consumption, high transmission data rate, and miniature antenna size. Applications of future ubiquitous healthcare systems offer the prospect of collecting human vital signs, early detection of abnormal medical conditions, real-time healthcare data transmission and remote telemedicine support. However, due to the technical constraints of sensor batteries, the supply of power is a major bottleneck for healthcare system design. Moreover, medium access control (MAC) needs to support reliable transmission links that allow sensors to transmit data safely and stably. In this letter, we provide a flexible quality of service (QoS) model for ad-hoc networks that can support fast data transmission, adaptive schedule MAC control, and energy efficient ubiquitous WBASN networks. Results show that the proposed multi-hop communication ad-hoc network model can balance information packet collisions and power consumption. Additionally, wireless communications link in WBASNs can effectively overcome multi-user interference and offer high transmission data rates for healthcare systems

System design and performance analysis of wireless body area networks

One key solution to provide affordable and proactive healthcare facilities to overcome the fast world population growth and a shortage of medical professionals is through health monitoring systems capable of early disease detection and real-time data transmission leading to considerable improvements in the quality of human life. Wireless body area networks (WBANs) are proposed as promising approaches to providing better mobility and flexibility experience than traditional wired medical systems by using low-power, miniaturised sensors inside, around, or off the human body and are employed to monitor physiological signals. However, the design of reliable and energy efficient in-body communication systems is still a major research challenge since implant devices are characterised by strict requirements on size, energy consumption and safety. Moreover, there is still no agreement regarding QoS support in WBANs. The first part of this work concentrates on the design and performance evaluation of WBAN communication systems involving the ‘in-body to in-body’ and ‘in-body to on-body’ scenarios. The essential step is to derive the statistical WBAN path loss (PL) models, which characterise the signal propagation energy loss transmitting via intra-body region. Moreover, from the point of view of human body safety evaluation, the obtained specific absorption rate (SAR) values are compared with the latest Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.15.6 Task Group technical standard and the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) safety guidelines. Link budget analysis is then presented using a range of energy-efficient modulation schemes, and the results are given including the transmission distance, data rate and transmitting power in individual sections. On the other hand, major quality of service (QoS) support challenges in WBANs are discussed and investigated. To achieve higher lifetime and lower network energy consumption, different data routing protocol methods, including incremental relaying and the two-relay based routing technique are taken into account. A set of key QoS metrics for linear mathematical models is given along with the related subjective functions. The incremental relaying routing protocol promises significant enhancements in in-body WBAN network lifetime by minimising the overall communication distance while the two-relay based routing method achieves better performance in terms of emergency data transmission and high traffic condition, QoS-aware WBANs design. Moreover, to handle real-time high data transmission applications such as capsule endoscope image transmission, a flexible QoS-aware wireless body area sensor networks (WBASNs) model is proposed and evaluated that can bring novel solutions for a realistic multi-user hospital environment regarding information packet collision probability, manageable numbers of sensor nodes and a wide range of data rates

Modeling EMI Resulting from a Signal Via Transition Through Power/Ground Layers

Signal transitioning through layers on vias are very common in multi-layer printed circuit board (PCB) design. For a signal via transitioning through the internal power and ground planes, the return current must switch from one reference plane to another reference plane. The discontinuity of the return current at the via excites the power and ground planes, and results in noise on the power bus that can lead to signal integrity, as well as EMI problems. Numerical methods, such as the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD), Moment of Methods (MoM), and partial element equivalent circuit (PEEC) method, were employed herein to study this problem. The modeled results are supported by measurements. In addition, a common EMI mitigation approach of adding a decoupling capacitor was investigated with the FDTD method

Known and novel members of the endolysosomal transportome/channelome as candidates to rescue lysosomal storage diseases (LSDs)

The project presented herein addresses our limited understanding of organellar pharmacology. Specifically, the work was conceived to elucidate the biological relevance of the endolysosomal cation channels (mucolipins/TRPMLs and two-pore channels/TPCs) using novel, selective pharmacological modulators. On one hand, we developed a first-in-field selective TRPML2 agonist, ML2-SA1, which activates the TRPML2 ion channel on early endosomes, recycling endosomes, and lysosomes. We demonstrate how TRPML2 accelerates endosomal traffic, enhancing chemokine secretion and macrophage chemoattraction. TRPML2 activity is particularly important in the rapidly recycling pathway, where it mediates cargo transit directly from sorting endosomes to the plasma membrane. This function is largely conferred by its unqiue activation by membrane stretching, a feature we have shown to rely on a single amino acid in the TRPML2 phosphoinositide binding-pocket (L314). Mutation of L314 into its TRPML1/TRPML3 counterpart (L314R) abrogates TRPML2 osmosensitivity, and impedes the rapidly recycling pathway. These findings provide biological and structural information about TRPML2 function, laying the foundation for future endeavors modulating immune cell response and inflammation through the immune cell-restricted, druggable ion channel. Our primary motivation for investigating the endolysosomal ion channels is development of new treatments for diseases currently lacking therapies. The lysosomal storage diseases (LSDs) represent one such family of diseases, where endolysosomal protein defects result in lysosomal dysfunction and (often) neurodegeneration. Mucolipidosis type IV (MLIV) is caused by dysfunction of the lysosomal TRPML1 ion channel, causing blindness and early-onset neurodegeneration. Aiming to treat LSDs such as MLIV, we investigated the related lysosomal ion channel TPC2. We characterized various TPC2 polymorphisms that increase its activity, and developed agonists for TPC2 that either facilitate high Ca2+ fluxes arresting endosomal motility or Na+ fluxes facilitating lysosomal exocytosis and enhancing autophagy. We used CRISPR/Cas9 to develop new induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) models for Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinosis (colloquially termed “childhood dementia“) and MLIV, differentiating these into cortical neurons. We used the diseased human neurons to investigate treatments for LSDs, finding the autophagic enhancer tamoxifen and the two-pore channel 2 agonist TPC2-A1-P to counteract LSD phenotypes. TPC2-A1-P restored excessive lysosomal proteolysis, storage defects, and trafficking abnormalities in human MLIV neurons and patient fibroblasts. Similarly, TPC2-A1-P ameliorated LSD phenotypes in Niemann-Pick Disease type C1 fibroblasts (NPC1, also known as childhood Alzheimer’s Disease), another LSD marked by impaired activity of lysosomal cation channels. We finally performed a proof-of-concept in vivo investigation, treating MLIV mice with TPC2-A1-P. While DMSO-treated MLIV mice exhibited gliosis of the cerebellum and hippocampus, TPC2-A1-P-injected mouse brains featured much fewer glial cells, akin to the wild-type controls. These findings demonstrate that pharmacological modulation of the endolysosomal system can restore physiology in a variety of lysosomal storage diseases in vitro and in vivo

Enhancing the efficiency of electricity utilization through home energy management systems within the smart grid framework

The concept behind smart grids is the aggregation of “intelligence” into the grid, whether through communication systems technologies that allow broadcast/data reception in real-time, or through monitoring and systems control in an autonomous way. With respect to the technological advancements, in recent years there has been a significant increment in devices and new strategies for the implementation of smart buildings/homes, due to the growing awareness of society in relation to environmental concerns and higher energy costs, so that energy efficiency improvements can provide real gains within modern society. In this perspective, the end-users are seen as active players with the ability to manage their energy resources, for example, microproduction units, domestic loads, electric vehicles and their participation in demand response events. This thesis is focused on identifying application areas where such technologies could bring benefits for their applicability, such as the case of wireless networks, considering the positive and negative points of each protocol available in the market. Moreover, this thesis provides an evaluation of dynamic prices of electricity and peak power, using as an example a system with electric vehicles and energy storage, supported by mixed-integer linear programming, within residential energy management. This thesis will also develop a power measuring prototype designed to process and determine the main electrical measurements and quantify the electrical load connected to a low voltage alternating current system. Finally, two cases studies are proposed regarding the application of model predictive control and thermal regulation for domestic applications with cooling requirements, allowing to minimize energy consumption, considering the restrictions of demand, load and acclimatization in the system

Serotonergic modulation of the ventral pallidum by 5HT1A, 5HT5A, 5HT7 AND 5HT2C receptors

Introduction: Serotonin's involvement in reward processing is controversial. The large number of serotonin receptor sub-types and their individual and unique contributions have been difficult to dissect out, yet understanding how specific serotonin receptor sub-types contribute to its effects on areas associated with reward processing is an essential step. Methods: The current study used multi-electrode arrays and acute slice preparations to examine the effects of serotonin on ventral pallidum (VP) neurons. Approach for statistical analysis: extracellular recordings were spike sorted using template matching and principal components analysis, Consecutive inter-spike intervals were then compared over periods of 1200 seconds for each treatment condition using a student’s t test. Results and conclusions: Our data suggests that excitatory responses to serotonin application are pre-synaptic in origin as blocking synaptic transmission with low-calcium aCSF abolished these responses. Our data also suggests that 5HT1a, 5HT5a and 5HT7 receptors contribute to this effect, potentially forming an oligomeric complex, as 5HT1a antagonists completely abolished excitatory responses to serotonin application, while 5HT5a and 5HT7 only reduced the magnitude of excitatory responses to serotonin. 5HT2c receptors were the only serotonin receptor sub-type tested that elicited inhibitory responses to serotonin application in the VP. These findings, combined with our previous data outlining the mechanisms underpinning dopamine's effects in the VP, provide key information, which will allow future research to fully examine the interplay between serotonin and dopamine in the VP. Investigation of dopamine and serotonins interaction may provide vital insights into our understanding of the VP's involvement in reward processing. It may also contribute to our understanding of how drugs of abuse, such as cocaine, may hijack these mechanisms in the VP resulting in sensitization to drugs of abuse

Optics in Our Time

Optics, Lasers, Photonics, Optical Devices; Quantum Optics; Popular Science in Physics; History and Philosophical Foundations of Physic

29th Annual Computational Neuroscience Meeting: CNS*2020

Meeting abstracts This publication was funded by OCNS. The Supplement Editors declare that they have no competing interests. Virtual | 18-22 July 202

Particle Swarm Optimization

Particle swarm optimization (PSO) is a population based stochastic optimization technique influenced by the social behavior of bird flocking or fish schooling.PSO shares many similarities with evolutionary computation techniques such as Genetic Algorithms (GA). The system is initialized with a population of random solutions and searches for optima by updating generations. However, unlike GA, PSO has no evolution operators such as crossover and mutation. In PSO, the potential solutions, called particles, fly through the problem space by following the current optimum particles. This book represents the contributions of the top researchers in this field and will serve as a valuable tool for professionals in this interdisciplinary field