15 research outputs found

    6G wireless communications networks: a comprehensive survey

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    The commercial fifth-generation (5G) wireless communications networks have already been deployed with the aim of providing high data rates. However, the rapid growth in the number of smart devices and the emergence of the Internet of Everything (IoE) applications, which require an ultra-reliable and low-latency communication, will result in a substantial burden on the 5G wireless networks. As such, the data rate that could be supplied by 5G networks will unlikely sustain the enormous ongoing data traffic explosion. This has motivated research into continuing to advance the existing wireless networks toward the future generation of cellular systems, known as sixth generation (6G). Therefore, it is essential to provide a prospective vision of the 6G and the key enabling technologies for realizing future networks. To this end, this paper presents a comprehensive review/survey of the future evolution of 6G networks. Specifically, the objective of the paper is to provide a comprehensive review/survey about the key enabling technologies for 6G networks, which include a discussion about the main operation principles of each technology, envisioned potential applications, current state-of-the-art research, and the related technical challenges. Overall, this paper provides useful information for industries and academic researchers and discusses the potentials for opening up new research directions

    Augmentation of Brain Function: Facts, Fiction and Controversy. Volume III: From Clinical Applications to Ethical Issues and Futuristic Ideas

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    The final volume in this tripartite series on Brain Augmentation is entitled “From Clinical Applications to Ethical Issues and Futuristic Ideas”. Many of the articles within this volume deal with translational efforts taking the results of experiments on laboratory animals and applying them to humans. In many cases, these interventions are intended to help people with disabilities in such a way so as to either restore or extend brain function. Traditionally, therapies in brain augmentation have included electrical and pharmacological techniques. In contrast, some of the techniques discussed in this volume add specificity by targeting select neural populations. This approach opens the door to where and how to promote the best interventions. Along the way, results have empowered the medical profession by expanding their understanding of brain function. Articles in this volume relate novel clinical solutions for a host of neurological and psychiatric conditions such as stroke, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, epilepsy, dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, autism spectrum disorders (ASD), traumatic brain injury, and disorders of consciousness. In disease, symptoms and signs denote a departure from normal function. Brain augmentation has now been used to target both the core symptoms that provide specificity in the diagnosis of a disease, as well as other constitutional symptoms that may greatly handicap the individual. The volume provides a report on the use of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) in ASD with reported improvements of core deficits (i.e., executive functions). TMS in this regard departs from the present-day trend towards symptomatic treatment that leaves unaltered the root cause of the condition. In diseases, such as schizophrenia, brain augmentation approaches hold promise to avoid lengthy pharmacological interventions that are usually riddled with side effects or those with limiting returns as in the case of Parkinson’s disease. Brain stimulation can also be used to treat auditory verbal hallucination, visuospatial (hemispatial) neglect, and pain in patients suffering from multiple sclerosis. The brain acts as a telecommunication transceiver wherein different bandwidth of frequencies (brainwave oscillations) transmit information. Their baseline levels correlate with certain behavioral states. The proper integration of brain oscillations provides for the phenomenon of binding and central coherence. Brain augmentation may foster the normalization of brain oscillations in nervous system disorders. These techniques hold the promise of being applied remotely (under the supervision of medical personnel), thus overcoming the obstacle of travel in order to obtain healthcare. At present, traditional thinking would argue the possibility of synergism among different modalities of brain augmentation as a way of increasing their overall effectiveness and improving therapeutic selectivity. Thinking outside of the box would also provide for the implementation of brain-to-brain interfaces where techniques, proper to artificial intelligence, could allow us to surpass the limits of natural selection or enable communications between several individual brains sharing memories, or even a global brain capable of self-organization. Not all brains are created equal. Brain stimulation studies suggest large individual variability in response that may affect overall recovery/treatment, or modify desired effects of a given intervention. The subject’s age, gender, hormonal levels may affect an individual’s cortical excitability. In addition, this volume discusses the role of social interactions in the operations of augmenting technologies. Finally, augmenting methods could be applied to modulate consciousness, even though its neural mechanisms are poorly understood. Finally, this volume should be taken as a debate on social, moral and ethical issues on neurotechnologies. Brain enhancement may transform the individual into someone or something else. These techniques bypass the usual routes of accommodation to environmental exigencies that exalted our personal fortitude: learning, exercising, and diet. This will allow humans to preselect desired characteristics and realize consequent rewards without having to overcome adversity through more laborious means. The concern is that humans may be playing God, and the possibility of an expanding gap in social equity where brain enhancements may be selectively available to the wealthier individuals. These issues are discussed by a number of articles in this volume. Also discussed are the relationship between the diminishment and enhancement following the application of brain-augmenting technologies, the problem of “mind control” with BMI technologies, free will the duty to use cognitive enhancers in high-responsibility professions, determining the population of people in need of brain enhancement, informed public policy, cognitive biases, and the hype caused by the development of brain- augmenting approaches

    Democratic Armament? US-Democracy and Military Innovation during Periods of Transition

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    This disseration provides an answer to the question what influence societal preferences have on US military innovation. For this purpose, it connects theoretical threads from Governmental Political and New Liberalism with the literature on military innovation and democratic peace. Four periods of military transition during which the incentive for military innovation is particularly strong are analysed based on a structured-focused comparison: The Post-World War II (1945-1949), the Korean War period (1959-1953), the Post-Cold War (1990-1998) and the War on Terror period (2001-2007). The findings of this study show that the domestic and international levels of US military policy increasingly follow conflicting logics which reduce the likelihood of innovation. The public majority's interest in innovation as a means to maintain efficient military forces in a changing world remains latent most of the time. In contrast, special interest groups' preferences for the benefitial domestic status quo result in a permanent push towards military stability. Only in cases of perceived failure, the public majority actively engages in military policy and triggers reform through elections

    IRISS (Increasing Resilience in Surveillance Societies) FP7 European Research Project, Deliverable 3.2: Surveillance Impact Report

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    External research report produced for the European Commission as part of the FP7 IRISS project: Increasing Resilience in Surveillance Socieities, containing European case studies on the varying formats of neighbourhood watch, including the cultural and historical factors which may influence the creation of neighbourhood watch groups in the first instance. Overview of neighbourhood watch in the United Kingdom and analysis of the changing role of the police in relation to community policing and the impact which this has had on the primary purpose of neighbourhood watch organisations.This deliverable was written as part of the IRISS project which received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under Grant Agreement No. 285593. Additional co-authors: Alessia Ceresa, Chiara Fonio, Walter Peissl, Robert Rothman, Jaro Sterbik Lamina, Ivan Szekely, Beatrix Vissy, Wolfgang Bonß, Daniel Fischer, Gemma Galdon Clavell, Reinhard Kreissl, Alexander Neumann, Nils Zurawsk

    The U.S. Army in the Iraq War – Volume 1: Invasion – Insurgency – Civil War, 2003-2006

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    The Iraq War has been the costliest U.S. conflict since the Vietnam War. To date, few official studies have been conducted to review what happened, why it happened, and what lessons should be drawn. The U.S. Army in the Iraq War is the Army\u27s initial operational level analysis of this conflict, written in narrative format, with assessments and lessons embedded throughout the work. This study reviews the conflict from a Landpower perspective and includes the contributions of coalition allies, the U.S. Marine Corps, and special operations forces. Presented principally from the point of view of the commanders in Baghdad, the narrative examines the interaction of the operational and strategic levels, as well as the creation of theater level strategy and its implementation at the tactical level. Volume 1 begins in the truce tent at Safwan Airfield in southern Iraq at the end of Operation DESERT STORM and briefly examines actions by U.S. and Iraqi forces during the interwar years. The narrative continues by examining the road to war, the initially successful invasion, and the rise of Iraqi insurgent groups before exploring the country\u27s slide toward civil war. This volume concludes with a review of the decision by the George W. Bush administration to “surge” additional forces to Iraq, placing the conduct of the “surge” and its aftermath in the second volume. This study was constructed over a span of 4 years and relied on nearly 30,000 pages of handpicked declassified documents, hundreds of hours of original interviews, and thousands of hours of previously unavailable interviews. Original interviews conducted by the team included President George W. Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Secretaries of Defense Leon Panetta and Robert Gates, Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and every theater commander for the war, among many others. With its release, this publication, The U.S. Army in the Iraq War, represents the U.S. Government\u27s longest and most detailed study of the Iraq conflict thus far.https://digitalcommons.usmalibrary.org/books/1018/thumbnail.jp
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