Driver's warning notifications by using FM RDS technology

International audienceIn this paper, the use of Software Defined Radio (SDR) transceivers for broadcasting drivers' warning notifications is tackled. More precisely, by employing the Radio Data System (RDS) protocol of a local Frequency Modulation (FM) transmission, road traffic's dangerous areas (rail crossing, unmarked crossroads, etc.) are announced. The code of a warning message is broadcasted in the close vicinity of the dangerous area and, at the receiver side, a corresponding image is displayed on the car's tablet PC. In order to study the coexistence of such kind of transmissions with the regional or national ones, the performance in terms of bit error rate (BER) with respect to the difference between the two received power levels is studied. Then, based on a simplified channel model, this paper gives a method to estimate the local FM transmission range, able to cover the dangerous area without transmission errors on the RDS part

OSTEOPENIA LA COPIII CU SINDROAME DE MALABSORBŢIE

Introducere. Sindroamele de malabsorbţie au drept consecinţă perturbarea dezvoltării şi funcţiei normale a sistemului osos. Obiective. Aprecierea densităţii osoase la copiii cu sindroame de malabsorbţie. Analiza factorilor de risc pentru osteopenie. Evaluarea corelaţiilor între osteopenie, markerii nutriţionali şi markerii metabolismului osos. Material şi metodă. 118 copii cu sindrom de malabsorbţie de diverse etiologii, în principal boală celiacă (41 cazuri) şi fibroză chistică (14 cazuri). Densitatea osoasă a fost evaluată prin Ultrasonografie cantitativă (QUS) utilizând un Osteodensitometru Sunlight Omnisense Ultrasonometer 7000P. QUS a fost efectuată la radius (86 de cazuri) şi tibie (78 de cazuri). 25 hidroxivitamina D a fost evaluată la 10 cazuri prin metoda RIA. Analiza statistică a fost realizată utilizând SPSS for Windows. Rezultate. Osteopenia a fost prezentă la 32% dintre cazuri. Scăderea densităţii osoase la radius a fost asociată cu sindromul celiachiform. Osteopenia la tibie s-a asociat cu fibroza chistică. Osteopenia a fost mai frecventă la fete. Osteopenia s-a asociat cu durata bolii. Osteopenia nu s-a corelat cu BMI. Scorul Z la radius s-a corelat pozitiv cu nivelele fosfatazei alcaline, iar scorul Z la tibie cu colesterolemia. Scorul Z la tibie şi radius s-a corelat negativ cu valorile markerilor inflamatori. La copiii cu boală celiacă, valoarea anticorpilor anti-transglutaminază s-a corelat negativ cu scorul Z la radius şi tibie. Nivelele 25(OH) vitaminei D au fost deficiente la 8 copii şi insuficiente la 2, dar valorile sale nu s-au corelat cu scorul Z la radius şi tibie. Semne clinice, biologice şi radiologice de rahitism au fost prezente la 35% dintre bolnavii cu osteopenie. Concluzii. Osteopenia a fost prezentă la 1/3 din bolnavii cu sindrom de malabsorbţie din lotul studiat. 30% dintre bolnavi au avut semne clinice, biologice şi radiologice de rahitism. Valorile 25(OH) vitaminei D nu s-au corelat cu scorul Z. S-a observat o corelaţie negativă între parametrii osoşi şi markerii inflamaţiei şi anticorpii anti-transglutaminază

New ELIN Systems Using CMOS Transistors in Weak Inversion Operation

In this paper new ELIN systems implemented by using CMOS transistors in weak inversion operation are presented. The proposed systems exploit the exponential-law characteristics of the subthreshold CMOS transistors. New operational transconductance amplifiers in CMOS technology, providing elementary tanh and sinh/cosh functions with high accuracy are proposed. These elementary cells are used to design first order CMOS ELIN filters. For a bias current of 1�A, the dynamic range of the predistorted input voltage is 220mVpp and the current consumption is about 20uA from a 3.3V supply voltage. The simulations performed in 0.18um CMOS technology confirm the theoretically obtained results

New Methods of Detecting Voluntary Blinking Used to Communicate with Disabled People

In this paper two new methods of detecting a voluntary blinking and neglecting involuntary blinks are comparatively presented. This technique is used to communicate with disabled people by using the EOG acquisition system. The proposed methods are based on Hilbert transform and envelope detection of the low frequency differential EOG signals. To safely detect voluntary blinking pulses, these methods use an adaptive threshold depending on the level of the low frequency EOG signal. The prototype of the proposed system has been designed, constructed and tested for different subjects from medical care centers, hospitals and treatment units. The experiments that we made with patients have confirmed the performing operation of the proposed EOG acquisition system

The Gut Microbiome and Its Implication in the Mucosal Digestive Disorders

The gastrointestinal (GI) tract is one of the most studied compartments of the human body as it hosts the largest microbial community including trillions of germs. The relationship between the human and its associated flora is complex, as the microbiome plays an important role in nutrition, metabolism and immune function. With a dynamic composition, influenced by many intrinsic and extrinsic factors, there is an equilibrium maintained in the composition of GI microbiota, translated as “eubiosis”. Any disruption of the microbiota leads to the development of different local and systemic diseases. This article reviews the human GI microbiome’s composition and function in healthy individuals as well as its involvement in the pathogenesis of different digestive disorders. It also highlights the possibility to consider flora manipulation a therapeutic option when treating GI diseases

Drivers’ Warning Application Through Personalized DSSS-CDMA Data Transmission by Using the FM Radio Broadcasting Infrastructure

International audienc

Drivers’ Warning Application Through Image Notifications on the FM Radio Broadcasting Infrastructure

International audienceIn this paper a new application for transmitting image notifications on the FM radio broadcasting infrastructure, dedicated to warn drivers about a significant road event and to increase the traffic safety is presented. The paper analyses different technical solutions suitable for transmitting and receiving real-time image notifications in different scenarios by using the software-defined radio concept. In the first scenario, the image notifications are QPSK modulated and transmitted with 8 kb/s bit-rate by using the mono FM radio channel. In order to increase the speed of data transmission, the second scenario uses the FM subcarrier channels dedicated for broadcasting alternate services. In this case, the speed of data transmission was 40 kb/s, 60 kb/s and 80 kb/s for QPSK, 8-PSK and 16-PSK modulations, respectively. A new software solution to perform the real-time carrier synchronization for 8-PSK/16-PSK modulation based on a decision-directed PLL and non-linear decision block is also presented. The functionality of the proposed application was demonstrated by simulations for both transmission scenarios. Moreover, the first scenario was tested experimentally by using a professional FM transmitter and a simple RTL-SDR dongle at the reception. The customized baseband modulating signal including audio, data (image notification) and RDS signals was generated by using a device built by the authors. The receiver provides the digital signal through a USB interface to a software program, running on a processing unit, for demodulation. An experimental method for plotting BER vs. Eb/N0 ratio, based on signal-to-noise ratio measured with a software spectrum analyzer has been proposed also. This method allows the characterization of the experimental setup and give hints about the QPSK signal power level compared to the other ones

RICKETS IN CHILDREN – A CONTINUOUS CHALLENGE

Rickets in children is a frequent nutritional disorder met even nowadays in clinical practice, with predominence of light and medium forms. Authors discuss the epidemiological and disease mechanisms' aspects, revealing specific risk factors for age groups along with hystological and pathogenical aspects. There are detailed descriptions of clinical and radiological aspects of disease and elements of positive and differential diagnosis. Prophylactic and curative treatment are issued after Bucharest ICMC, whose recommendations are an excellent guide. Finally, authors elaborate evolutive considerations in the absence of treatment and under specific therapy with vitamin