Methods for Interference Management in Medical Wireless Sensor Networks

Emerging Medical Body Area Networks (MBANs) require new, protected spectrum for clinical applications. This may mean uncoordinated and autonomous operation of multiple MBANs, within the new candidate bands. The question is that how will MBANs coexist as a secondary service with other radio systems? Clinical environment requires balance of robust and efficient wireless techniques to enable coexistence of MBANs and other radio devices where low transmission power MBANs as secondary systems may be vulnerable to interference from incumbent devices transceivers. Physical separation between the MBANs and incumbent radio devices and avoiding the transmission in the same frequency bands among the wireless techniques may be considered. In this paper, we propose interferencemanagement techniques considering such coexistencebetween the MBANs and other radio systems and deal withthe issue of co-existence with primary systems by proposing novel methods for a gateway-to-gateway coordination, to assist the methods described in the first and second part of this paper. Result is improved reliability and Quality of Service for MBANs. These would lead to multiple clinical benefits, including better patient mobility, more monitoring flexibility and extension of monitoring into care areas that are currently unmonitored. Reduced clinical errors and reduced overall monitoring costs are other results

Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN): A Survey on Reliability, Fault Tolerance, and Technologies Coexistence

Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) has been a key element in e-health to monitor bodies. This technology enables new applications under the umbrella of different domains, including the medical field, the entertainment and ambient intelligence areas. This survey paper places substantial emphasis on the concept and key features of the WBAN technology. First, the WBAN concept is introduced and a review of key applications facilitated by this networking technology is provided. The study then explores a wide variety of communication standards and methods deployed in this technology. Due to the sensitivity and criticality of the data carried and handled by WBAN, fault tolerance is a critical issue and widely discussed in this paper. Hence, this survey investigates thoroughly the reliability and fault tolerance paradigms suggested for WBANs. Open research and challenging issues pertaining to fault tolerance, coexistence and interference management and power consumption are also discussed along with some suggested trends in these aspect

Crisis in Nicaraguan Microfinance: Between the Scylla of Business for Profit and the Charybdis of Clientelism

From the being a poster child of microfinance development, Nicaragua became one of the nightmares for the industry. The negative influence on the countries' repayment culture of the Non-Payment Movement, ambiguously related to the new Sandinista government, is typically blamed for the crisis. A closer analysis, however, reveals that features of the mainstream microfinance policies in Nicaragua are possibly more to blame for the crisis than the political turmoil, which opportunistically seems to have taken advantage of the underlying problems. Overfunding of regulated MFI-banks and promotion of excessive competition, in particular of these banks with the non-regulated MFIs, led to reckless lending and created over-indebtedness. Gradual professionalization and conventionalization also led to the erosion of social embeddedness –once at the core of the Microfinance revolution- and left MFI weak in the face of political challenges. And the obsession with profitability and 'finance only' implied higher interest rates and left many poorer clients with little or negative impact, lending credibility to the accusation of usury. While the Non-Payment Movement could be understood as a Polanyian countermovement to the problems created by market development, its ultimate political objectives however seem to offer only dubious perspectives for future inclusive economic development.

Characterization of dynamic wireless body area network channels during walking

In this work, finite-difference time-domain was used for the investigation of dynamic wireless body area network channel characteristics during walking, thus accounting for dynamic aspects and body postures. This involves the study of on-body, off-body, and body-to-body communication in an empty environment, at the center frequency of 2.45 GHz. The channels were investigated in terms of fade variation and their corresponding amplitude distributions. For on-body channels, the fade variation was found to be periodic, with larger fade variations for the channels involving the nodes at the hand and thigh. For off-body and body-to-body channels, channels with the absence of line of sight experienced constructive and destructive interference as the distance between the end nodes changes, resulting in larger fade variations. For the amplitude distribution of the channels, a multivariate normal distribution was considered. The distribution has the capability of modeling channels jointly which makes it easier for network analysis and was considered because of the significant correlation between the channels. The resulting estimated multivariate distributions fit well with the simulated data, for on-body, off-body, and body-to-body channels

Scalar Interactions in the Mekong River Basin: Dam Incentives and Outcomes

The Mekong River plays an intricate and dynamic role in the environmental, social, economic, and cultural systems of the 70 million people throughout its basin and the more than 300 million people in the six Mekong nations. The river is both a necessity for millions of individuals with livelihoods centered on its resources and, in the eyes of large-scale actors, a tool for regional development and industrialization. Policies throughout the Mekong River Basin have long dealt with international issues and often center on large-scale outcomes, such as the promotion of regional economic development and intergovernmental cooperation, but have neglected to account for inter-scalar relationships and the impacts of hydro-development on small-scale actors and processes. The continued promotion of dams throughout the Mekong River Basin is exemplary of the emphasis on transboundary issues at the expense of small-scale actors. Paper prepared for the Environmental Studies Senior Seminar/Geography Capstone

Scheduling heuristic for reduced complexity of coordinated beamforming in large multi-carrier heterogeneous wireless networks

The research and development of wireless communication systems is often based on relatively simple models of the network topology, the radio channel and the radio propagation. This is considered to be mostly appropriate, as only under these conditions the complex technical problems in this field can be fully solved to their theoretical boundaries. However, it can also be the case that algorithms or concepts created under simplified assumptions perform in a significantly different way, when they are applied in more realistic scenarios. This Thesis presents research work which can be seen as a step towards extending the existing research on Coordinated Beamforming to a complex network scenario, i.e. to a large-scale heterogeneous multi-carrier network. For this purpose, a complex simulation framework has been developed. This is used to analyse the significant implications the conditions in a complex network can have on the achievable performance gains. In more detail, the out of cluster interference and the number of mobile stations are identified as factors which heavily influence the performance. This knowledge is then used to design a novel scheduling heuristic, designed to be able to adapt to the particular network scenarios and to estimate the extent of the achievable performance gains. Our simulation results show that the new heuristic achieves significant performance gains for a low number of mobile stations (by applying zero forcing precoding) as well as for a high number of mobile stations (by a coordinated resource assignment that intelligently pairs mobile stations when applying maximum ratio transmission). The Thesis also demonstrates that the effect of the out of cluster interference can cause the reduction of the achievable gains. Due to the knowledge of performance limiting factors, the scheduling heuristic is in addition able to realize a trade-off between complexity and performance by excluding transmission parameters from the scheduling process which are not expected to be beneficial

Solid Waste Management (SWM) at a University Campus (Part 2/10): Review on Legal Framework and Background to SWM, in-Kenya

This-review is a-second-piece, in-a-series of 10. It-is focused on SWM, at a-Kenyan-context, and it is the-most-comprehensive and up-to-date-coverage (currently-available) on Legal-Foundation/framework, to-SWM, in-Kenya (proving chronological-account for the-last 70 years), and including: Codes, Acts, Regulations, Rules, Policies, Bills, Action-Plans, the-Constitution, Flagship-projects, and a-Product-Ban. This-review have justified, that Kenya, indeed, has made substantial-efforts, at-the-policy-arena, to-oversee, regulate, and promote good-practices, in-SWM. The-relevant-efforts, manifested by Kenya, as: (1) being a-signatory, or a-party-to, the-main-International-Conventions and Treaties; (2) enacting numerous-laws and by-laws; and (3) creating institutions and systems, at-different-levels of governance. The-problem, however, is in the-proper-implementation/enforcement of the-laws. Logically, even most- progressive-laws, are worth absolutely-nothing, and remained-good, only on-paper, if not implemented. The-task, therefore, remains, for the-national and local-governments, as-well-as other-SWM-stakeholders, to-make-every possible-effort strictly implementing the-existing-laws and regulations. To-achieve this-task the-capacity development in, and financial-sustainability of, MSWM, is necessary. This-study have also-exposed multi-dimensional and complex-nature of the-existent challenge of MSWM, in-the-country. To-achieve the-SDGs and the-Kenya-Vision-2030, Kenya should focus (as a-long-time objective) on a-complete transformation, of the-current unsatisfactory-MWM-system, to sustainable-waste and resource- management. Ambitious-target of 100% waste-collection, to all-urban-citizens (regardless of income-level, and including: informal-settlements, slums, and peri-urban areas), should-be focused-on. An-innovative Results-Based Financing-model, of SWM; Upgrading of the-current waste-dumping-sites to designed-sanitary-landfills; and Change of habits, and cultural-perceptions, towards waste, was also proposed. Keywords: Environmental law, local government, good governance, Waste hierarchy, ISWM, capacity development