Microwave sensing for neurodegenerative diseases

The rapidly increasing rate of the ageing population has led to a higher rate in people suffering from neurodegenerative diseases. Neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, are characterised by the progressive loss of brain cells, which leads to a decline in a person’s cognitive abilities, and eventually leads to death. The alarming increase in people suffering from these diseases has created a global socioeconomic burden that affects caregivers, nurses, and family members, just as much as the patient themselves. Due to the critical nature of these diseases, it is paramount that systems and devices can detect and monitor neurodegenerative diseases as early as possible, so that the right treatment can be provided to hinder its progression. Existing technologies have provided key results in the detection and monitoring of neurodegenerative diseases. However, they are limited by their bulky size, high costs, and inconvenient or invasive approach. Meanwhile, microwave sensing technology has generated promising results in several medical applications, such as cancer and stroke detection. The ability to fabricate components easily and integrate them into a wearable prototype makes microwave sensing a promising non-invasive, cost-effective, and portable or wearable solution for medical diagnostics. This work proposes the use of microwave sensing as an inexpensive, non-invasive, reliable, accurate, efficient, and wearable tool for monitoring the progression of neurodegenerative diseases. For evaluation, models were created to emulate symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease to demonstrate the technology. It is observed that microwave sensing was able to detect brain atrophy and lateral ventricle enlargement with a minimum change of 5%. In addition, microwave sensing could non-invasively detect and image regions of the brain affected by Alzheimer’s disease pathology, providing a transformational and major improvement compared to PET scans that rely on biomarkers. Moreover, microwave sensing could detect Alzheimer’s disease at one of its earliest stages: mild cognitive impairment. This work provides a promising and transformative approach for wearable and non-invasive neurodegenerative disease monitoring

Plasma diagnostics package. Volume 2: Spacelab 2 section. Part B: Thesis projects

This volume (2), which consists of two parts (A and B), of the Plasma Diagnostics Package (PDP) Final Science Report contains a summary of all of the data reduction and scientific analyses which were performed using PDP data obtained on STS-51F as a part of the Spacelab 2 (SL-2) payload. This work was performed during the period of launch, July 29, 1985, through June 30, 1988. During this period the primary data reduction effort consisted of processing summary plots of the data received by 12 of the 14 instruments located on the PDP and submitting these data to the National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC). Three Master's and three Ph.D. theses were written using PDP instrumentation data. These theses are listed in Volume 2, Part B

Investigations on some compact wideband fractal antennas

Today’s small handheld and other portable devices challenge antenna designers for ultrathin, and high performances that have the ability to meet multi standards. In the context, fractal geometries have significant role for antenna applications with varying degree of success in improving antenna characteristics. In this thesis, we have investigated several wideband fractal monopole antennas. This work starts with design and implementation of Koch fractal, hybrid fractal, sectoral fractal, semi-circle fractal monopole antennas with discussion, covering their operations, electrical behavior and performances. The performances of these designs have been studied using standard simulation tools used in industry/academia and are experimentally verified. Frequency reconfigurable Koch snowflake fractal monopole antenna is also introduced. The present antenna can be used as an array element and has a wideband frequency of operation. A square Sierpinski monopole antenna has been designed, which is suitable for use in indoor UWB radio system and outdoor base station communication systems. Technique for obtaining a band stop function in the 5-6 GHz frequency band is numerically and experimentally presented. In addition to examining the performance of UWB system, the transfer function and waveform distortion are discussed. Finally, fractal antenna for array with MIMO environment is developed for mobile communication devices. Aim of this work is to achieve the acceptable performances in terms of isolation, envelope correlation coefficient, capacity loss, radiation patterns and efficiency. Furthermore, a wideband feed network prototype based on a modified Wilkinson power divider is designed. The designed feed network has been used in constructing 2-element and 4-element linear antenna arrays for high gain. This research work has addressed the effectiveness of fractal geometries in antenna and to bring-out the true advantages of their in antenna engineering

Concepts for 18/30 GHz satellite communication system, volume 1

Concepts for 18/30 GHz satellite communication systems are presented. Major terminal trunking as well as direct-to-user configurations were evaluated. Critical technologies in support of millimeter wave satellite communications were determined

Energy efficiency comparison between 2.1 GHz and 28 GHz based communication networks

Mobile communications have revolutionized the way we communicate around the globe, making communication easier, faster and cheaper. In the first three generations of mobile networks, the primary focus was on voice calls, and as such, the traffic on the networks was not as heavy as it currently is. Towards the fourth generation however, there was an explosive increase in mobile data traffic, driven in part by the heavy use of smart phones, tablets and cloud services, that is in turn increasing heavy energy consumption by the mobile networks to meet increased demand. Addition of power conditioning equipment adds on to the overall energy consumption of the base stations, necessitating deployment of energy efficient solutions to deal with the impacts and costs of heavy energy consumption. This thesis investigates the energy efficiency performance of mobile networks in various scenarios in a dense urban environment. Consideration is given to the future deployment of 5G networks, and simulations are carried out at 2.1 GHz and 28 GHz frequencies with a channel bandwidth of 20 MHz in the 2.1 GHz simulation and 20 MHz in 28 GHz scenario. The channel bandwidth of the 28 GHz system is then increased ten-fold and another system performance evaluation is then done. Parameters used for evaluating the system performance include the received signal strength, signal-to-interference-plus-noise-ratio, spectral efficiency and power efficiency are also considered. The results suggest that deployment of networks using mmWave frequencies with the same parameters as the 2.1 GHz does not improve the overall performance of the system but improves the throughput when a bandwidth of 200 MHz band is allocated. The use of antenna masking with down tilting improves the gains of the system in all three systems. The conclusion drawn is that if all factors are the same, mmWave systems can be installed in the same site locations as 2.1 GHz systems. However, to achieve better performance, some significant modifications would need to be considered, like the use of antenna arrays and beam steering techniques. This simulation has considered outdoor users only, with indoor users eliminated. The parameters in a real network deployment might differ and the results could change, which in turn could change the performance of the system

Mobile network design : Orange UK 2G to 3G mobile backhaul evolution

The research presented in this thesis is focused on the evolution of a GSM/GPRS (2G) cellular mobile network to UMTS (3G) and then subsequently, HSDPA. The particular technical area of research relates to the mobile backhaul network which provides the connectivity between radio cell sites which support the wide area radio coverage, and the mobile network operator’s core network. Due to the evolution of UMTS with HSDPA, the research covers the initial UMTS network rollout and then addresses the evolution of this infrastructure to support mobile broadband communications, through the introduction of HSDPA as a network upgrade. The two research questions being addressed are therefore: •How is it possible to evolve a GSM/GPRS mobile backhaul network to support a converged GSM/GPRS and UMTS cellular mobile service? •How is it possible to ensure scalability of the converged backhaul network given the introduction of HSDPA and associated mobile broadband data growth? The starting point of the research is an established GSM and GPRS commercial network in the UK and the study is based on the design of the Orange network and focused on the period 2000 to 2010. During this period the author was working as Principal Network Designer within Orange and had overall responsibility for the strategy, architecture and design of the UK mobile backhaul network. The thesis provides a detailed explanation of the novel network design that was adopted and how it was evolved throughout the ten year period covered by the research. The research proves that the original static TDM approach was not suitable for UMTS and therefore the outcome was the introduction of an ATM network with optimisation based on traffic class rt-VBR over protected STM-1 transmission links. HSDPA drove further traffic growth and resulted in an evolution of the solution to ensure massive scalability was supported through the migration to Carrier Ethernet and implementation of pseudo-wires. In addition, to providing a technical description of the network design, the thesis also aims to provide a historical record of the technologies and equipment used during this period of rapid change within the UKs mobile networks

Research and technology highlights, 1993

This report contains highlights of the major accomplishments and applications that have been made by Langley researchers and by our university and industry colleagues during the past year. The highlights illustrate both the broad range of the research and technology activities supported by NASA Langley Research Center and the contributions of this work toward maintaining United States leadership in aeronautics and space research. This report also describes some of the Center's most important research and testing facilities

Survival in the e-conomy: 2nd Australian information warfare & security conference 2001

This is an international conference for academics and industry specialists in information warfare, security, and other related fields. The conference has drawn participants from national and international organisations