5G-enabled Mobile Operating Hospital and Emergency Care Service

Critical care has frequently been fatal for trauma patients suffering from hemorrhage. The pre-hospital communication gap between the paramedics and the doctors contributes most towards this. This paper discusses a system model of a 5G-enabled communication architecture among the major trauma centres in the Greater Manchester. An Internet of sensors acquires and wirelessly communicates biosignals from the patient in real time, using 5G. These signals are then displayed as parameters to the closest trauma care management centres. This paper proposes a connectivity model that supports such a system by assessing and identifying the most optimal path for signal transmittance. A system-level 5G network modelling and simulation findings reveal that a signal-to-noise ratio of over 2dB is achieved for two base stations between the incident site and the nearest emergency medical centre. This value decreases by over 5 dB as the number of base station doubles. Hence, reconfigurable 5G base stations connectivity subsystems are required for critical vertical use cases of the radio standard

Systematic analysis of a RF-choke enabled 2-bit reconfigurable digitally-coded metasurface for 5G/6G beam-steering applications

A radio frequency (RF) choke-enabled 2-bit reflecting metasurface unit cell has been proposed with a highly improved reflection efficiency for all four possible diode states (‘00’, ‘01’, ‘10’, and ‘11’) with almost equi-spaced reflection phase responses (‘121o’, ‘42o’, ‘-47o’, and ‘-125o’). Different reflection phase responses can be achieved from the same unit-cell using the switching mechanism of ON-OFF states of the two SMP1340_079 pin-diodes. RF-Choke circuit is added as part of the biasing network of the meta-atom to achieve approximately 92% reflection efficiency. The reconfigurable metasurface is implemented with a 12×12 array of the proposed unit cell and illuminated with a horn antenna, keeping the f/d ratio of 0.8. The scattered field by the metasurface with changing phase gradients using various coding patterns, is predicted by a semi analytical method for different target angles (-600, -300, 00, +300, +600) for 5G beam steering application

Design and modeling of slotted substrate integrated waveguide array antennas

A 1×8 millimetre-wave slotted substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) array antenna is proposed and analyzed through different statistical distributions in this paper. For each statistically distributed offset position, an arithmetically progressive (AP) angular rotation has been applied to each radiating slots. A customized mathematical relationship has been modeled to make a cross-correlated non-linear mapping between each basis vector of controlling and SIW antenna parameters. A modified Expo-gaussian probability density function (PDF) has been proposed to achieve -20 dB sidelobe level reduction and 11.5° half-power bandwidth

Design of a 3.8-GHz Microstrip Patch Antenna for Sub-6 GHz 5G Applications

This paper presents a design of a centre-fed Rectangular Microstrip Patch Antenna (RMSA) that resonates at exactly 3.8 GHz. The effect of the dielectric material’s choice, substrate height, dielectric constant, and the substrate material is on the RMSA for a constant resonant frequency while maintaining signal integrity and reducing signal loss. The antenna’s gain and input return loss are improved by adjusting the upper and lower bounds of the height of the dielectric substrate. Results show that a maximum bandwidth of 350 MHz, a gain of 7.77 dBi, and input return loss (S11) of below–33 dB were obtained. Furthermore, a smaller dielectric constant below 2.5 and a Voltage Standing Wave Ratio (VSWR) below 2 dB will conveniently provide a wider bandwidth (BW) of over 250 MHz which is convenient to meet frequency range 1 (FR1) bandwidth expectation

Adaptation of the Wound Healing Questionnaire universal-reporter outcome measure for use in global surgery trials (TALON-1 study): mixed-methods study and Rasch analysis

BackgroundThe Bluebelle Wound Healing Questionnaire (WHQ) is a universal-reporter outcome measure developed in the UK for remote detection of surgical-site infection after abdominal surgery. This study aimed to explore cross-cultural equivalence, acceptability, and content validity of the WHQ for use across low- and middle-income countries, and to make recommendations for its adaptation.MethodsThis was a mixed-methods study within a trial (SWAT) embedded in an international randomized trial, conducted according to best practice guidelines, and co-produced with community and patient partners (TALON-1). Structured interviews and focus groups were used to gather data regarding cross-cultural, cross-contextual equivalence of the individual items and scale, and conduct a translatability assessment. Translation was completed into five languages in accordance with Mapi recommendations. Next, data from a prospective cohort (SWAT) were interpreted using Rasch analysis to explore scaling and measurement properties of the WHQ. Finally, qualitative and quantitative data were triangulated using a modified, exploratory, instrumental design model.ResultsIn the qualitative phase, 10 structured interviews and six focus groups took place with a total of 47 investigators across six countries. Themes related to comprehension, response mapping, retrieval, and judgement were identified with rich cross-cultural insights. In the quantitative phase, an exploratory Rasch model was fitted to data from 537 patients (369 excluding extremes). Owing to the number of extreme (floor) values, the overall level of power was low. The single WHQ scale satisfied tests of unidimensionality, indicating validity of the ordinal total WHQ score. There was significant overall model misfit of five items (5, 9, 14, 15, 16) and local dependency in 11 item pairs. The person separation index was estimated as 0.48 suggesting weak discrimination between classes, whereas Cronbach's α was high at 0.86. Triangulation of qualitative data with the Rasch analysis supported recommendations for cross-cultural adaptation of the WHQ items 1 (redness), 3 (clear fluid), 7 (deep wound opening), 10 (pain), 11 (fever), 15 (antibiotics), 16 (debridement), 18 (drainage), and 19 (reoperation). Changes to three item response categories (1, not at all; 2, a little; 3, a lot) were adopted for symptom items 1 to 10, and two categories (0, no; 1, yes) for item 11 (fever).ConclusionThis study made recommendations for cross-cultural adaptation of the WHQ for use in global surgical research and practice, using co-produced mixed-methods data from three continents. Translations are now available for implementation into remote wound assessment pathways