A comprehensive survey of wireless body area networks on PHY, MAC, and network layers solutions

Recent advances in microelectronics and integrated circuits, system-on-chip design, wireless communication and intelligent low-power sensors have allowed the realization of a Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN). A WBAN is a collection of low-power, miniaturized, invasive/non-invasive lightweight wireless sensor nodes that monitor the human body functions and the surrounding environment. In addition, it supports a number of innovative and interesting applications such as ubiquitous healthcare, entertainment, interactive gaming, and military applications. In this paper, the fundamental mechanisms of WBAN including architecture and topology, wireless implant communication, low-power Medium Access Control (MAC) and routing protocols are reviewed. A comprehensive study of the proposed technologies for WBAN at Physical (PHY), MAC, and Network layers is presented and many useful solutions are discussed for each layer. Finally, numerous WBAN applications are highlighted

Laser operation of Ga(NAsP) lattice-matched to (001) silicon substrate

The lattice-matched growth of the direct band gap material Ga(NAsP) is a seminal concept for the monolithic integration of III/V laser on a silicon substrate. Here, we report on the growth, characterization, and lasing properties of Ga(NAsP)/(BGa)(AsP) multi quantum well heterostructures embedded in (BGa)P cladding layers which were deposited on an exactly oriented (001) Si substrate. Structural investigations confirm a high crystal quality without any indication for misfit or threading dislocation formation. Laser operation between 800 nm and 900 nm of these broad area device structures was achieved under optical pumping as well as electrical injection for temperatures up to 150 K. This “proof of principle” points to the enormous potential of Ga(NAsP) as an optical complement to Si microelectronics

Wearable Electronics for Neurological Applications: a Review of Undergraduate Engineering Programmes

Neuroscientists accept that we are indeed faced with an overwhelming challenge in understanding how the brain works. A better understanding of the brain will ultimately enable us to appreciate how well our students have grasped their learning materials. It will also enable us to diagnose and treat neurological disorders more effectively. Designing and developing the next generation of wearable devices is an important steppingstone towards this endeavor. Consequently, interdisciplinary efforts are required in co-creating educational materials that enable future neuro-engineers to develop these new devices. The aim of this article is to present a review of current undergraduate programmes that deal with this issue. Moreover, we provide recommendations for how new programmes in this field can be organized and delivered to ensure effective benefit for transnational students

Feedforward, I. A. Richards, cybernetics and Marshall McLuhan

I. A. Richards’ development of feedforward is reviewed. The impact of feedforward on the work of Marshall McLuhan is then surveyed and shown to have influenced his use of figure/ground, the user as content, the content of a new medium is some older medium, the use of the probe, effects preceding cause, avoidance of a point of view and roles versus jobs

Logic gates operated by bipolar photoelectrochemical water splitting

International audienceA new approach for the design of logic gates that do not involve chemical inputs is presented here. This concept is based on the polarization of a light-sensitive interface. AND and OR logic gates, working with cheap reactants, which locally triggered water splitting half reactions, were designed and operated

Technology Use Attitudes of Teachers in the Field of Special Education

Information and communication technologies are extremely effective in the education of children with autism, that is, in special education, just as they are a part of our lives and affect all areas of our lives. This study was made to determine the attitudes of the teachers in the field of special education towards these technologies. 124 teachers among the teachers in the field of special education working in İzmir province participated in the study voluntarily. In the study, “Personal Information Form” and “Information and Communication Technologies Attitude Scale” developed by Günbatar (2014) to determine the level of information and communication technologies use of teachers in the field of special education were used. The data obtained were evaluated in the SPSS 23 package program. In analyzing the data, ANOVA and t-test were used for the general scale among the “Mann Whitney U” and “Kruskal Wallis 1 Way ANOVA” tests. In addition, in cases where significant differences exist, the scales at which the differences occur were determined by using “Dunn’s Nonparametric Comparison” for subscales and “Tukey Post Hoc” test for general scale. As a result of the findings obtained, there is a significant difference as the age of teachers changes and according to that they have special students do sports, sports are effective on special students according to their gender, there is no significant difference according to the persistence of the knowledge that special students want to be taught while playing games, and according to their status of finding technological opportunities sufficient. As a result, we can say that as teachers’ attitudes towards technology are positive, students with or without disabilities can learn information in a short time

Optimal homotopy asymptotic method to large post-buckling deformation of MEMS

In the present paper, the post-buckling response of an axially stressed clamped-clamped actuator, modeled as a beam and subjected to a symmetric electrostatic field is analyzed. An analytical approximate method, namely the Optimal Homotopy Asymptotic Method (OHAM) is applied to the governing nonlinear integro-differential equation. The analytical results obtained through the proposed procedure show excellent agreement with numerical solution, proving the validity of the proposed procedure, which is simple and easy to use

Shallow Etch Recipe Design using DOE for Silicon Waveguides

Integrated Photonics has revolutionized the semiconductor industry. Silicon waveguides are now compatible with CMOS transistors on the same wafer and these circuits are known as optical integrated circuits. This thesis is a small part of the integrated photonics project, which has an objective of fabrication and characterization of silicon photonic devices at RIT. The objective of this project was to make a new shallow etch recipe with etch rate of 100 nm/min with STS etcher tool for silicon waveguide fabrication. This shallow etch recipe will be used to develop a waveguide demonstration platform for education in integrated photonics fabrication at RIT. The pseudo bosch process was used to etch the six inch patterned silicon wafers in the ICP/RIE based tool. To control the chamber parameters recipes were designed using the different DOE approaches. The results were analyzed using the SEM (Scanning Electron Microscopy). An etch rate of 100 nm/min giving straight smooth sidewall patterns were observed using the designed etch recipe with RF power (725W), platen power (10W) C4F8 (60sccm), SF6 (19sccm), O2 (10sccm), Argon (40sccm) and a manual APC Mode with 80% pressure, 5mTorr base pressure and 94mTorr pressure trip. Clean recipe is run with O2 (30sccm) for 20 min with 800W RF power and 20W platen at 10Torr pressure. And after it season recipe is run with C4F8(0sccm), SF6(130sccm) O2 (20sccm) and Ar (20sccm) gas flow rates) at 600W RF power and 16W platen power with pressure conditions same as shallow etch recipe for 17min. These runs are needed after every three shallow etch recipe runs to maintain the chamber conditions same. This shallow etch recipe can be used to make waveguides with low losses