The impact of exercise capacity in the atherosclerotic patient: Keep on walking!

__Abstract__ Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is a manifestation of systemic arteriosclerosis. It is a common disease affecting millions of people. Depending on the age of the investigated population prevalences between 4% to 29% has been reported. It is alarming that the prevalence is expected to rise in the following decades due to the aging of the western population and the increase of risk factors such as diabetes mellitus, obesity and lack of exercise. Patients with PAD are of an increased risk of cardiovascular events and mortality. In addition, they may also experience signifi cant limitations in their physical functioning and impairment in their quality of life. It is important to diagnose patients with PAD early in the course of the disease to provide them optimal treatment as soon as possible in attempting to lower the complication rates, improve morbidity, mortality and subsequent their quality of life. However, symptoms of PAD are diverse. The classical symptoms are intermittent claudication consisted of calf pain provoked by walking and declining at rest. Earlier investigations, on the other hand, have demonstrated a large range of symptoms ranging from no pain at all till pain at rest . A major problem is that between 20% till 50% of the patients are asymptomatic . Commonly, to identify patients with PAD the resting ankle brachial index (ABI) is used. This is the ratio between the ankle’s systolic blood pressure, measured at the dorsalis pedis or posterial tibial arterie using a Doppler ultrasonic instrument, and the systolic blood pressure at the arm. An ABI below 0.90 is associated with angiographic stenosis of more than 50% . According to the guidelines a resting ABI of < 0.90 is defi ned as PAD. Several studies have found that an ABI of < 0.90 is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases and mortality. Moreover it can also be used for prognostic risk stratifi cation

An energy efficient position based Adaptive real-time routing protocol for WSNs

Devices for Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) are limited by power and thus routing protocols should be designed with this constrain in mind. This paper presents and evaluates an Energy Efficient Position Based Adaptive Real-Time Routing protocol (EFPBARP) as a novel, real-time, position based and energy efficient routing protocol. EFPBARP is a lightweight protocol that reduces the number of nodes which receive the RF signal using a novel Parent Forwarding Region (PFR) algorithm. EFPBARP as a Geographical Routing Protocol (GRP) reduces the number of forwarding nodes and thus the traffic and packet collision in the network. A series of performance evaluations through Matlab and Omnet++ simulations show significant improvements in network performance parameters and total energy consumption over CTP and Directed Flooding Routing Protocol (DFRP)

An Analysis of Routing Protocol Metrics in Wireless Mesh Networks

Wireless Mesh Networks (WMN)s play an important role in todays communication and they are expected to increase in proliferation in the field of wireless communication in the near future. Researchers in the area of WMNs address some issues like low throughput and high latency. Routing Protocols in WMNs have a vital role in data communication and the key parameter in all routing protocols is link metrics. In this paper the majority of link metrics in WMNs are studied in different categories. Link-quality and traffic-aware metrics account for most of the metrics, however multi channel network and cognitive radio systems are also considered in detail. In each section, by reviewing the metrics and its performance in detail, summary and comparison tables of link quality metrics are also provided to enable better understanding of this topic

RCTP: An Enhanced Routing Protocol Based on Collection Tree Protocol

Due to implementation of routing protocols in limited power supply devices in wireless sensor networks (WSNs), this paper presents and evaluates Rainbow Collection Tree Protocol (RCTP) as an enhanced version of Collection Tree Protocol (CTP). CTP is a lightweight, efficient, robust, and also reliable routing protocol for WSNs. CTP as a cross layer routing protocol is also a platform-independent protocol. It uses Trickle Algorithm to optimize the overhead cost and also makes it quickly adaptable to changes in topology. The basic foundation of CTP is on link quality identification and it uses expected transmission count (ETX). ETX is not stable during the time in real environments and ETX fluctuations cause the routing protocols to not work in optimum level. RCTP uses average expected transmission count (AETX) as link quality metric that has shown it is more stable than ETX. It also uses a new mechanism in parent selection to make it more accurate. Rainbow mechanism is used in RCTP to detect and route around connectivity nodes and avoid route through dead end paths. The Omnet++ has been used as a simulator and the results show RCTP performs more efficiently than CTP in dynamic and crowded environments

Software & Security Assurance Metrics and methods for Software Certification

Our life has been affected by information technology. Software is used in most of our life even in some critical parts such as air traffic control or power plane to control very sensitive functions. Any misfunctionality or bugs in unreliable software could hide and it may cause problem and make cost even takes lives. Connectivity and complexity are common in software production today and these factors make assuring and certifying software big challenge that needs more money and time. In this paper, security and software certification and assurance have been considered and metrics which are used in this subject will cover and some techniques that reduce the effort of software evaluation will consider more

Software &amp; Security Assurance Metrics and methods for software certification

Abstract Our life has been affected by information technology. Software is used in most of our life even in some critical parts such as air traffic control or power plane to control very sensitive functions. Any misfunctionality or bugs in unreliable software could hide and it may cause problem and make cost even takes lives. Connectivity and complexity are common in software production today and these factors make assuring and certifying software big challenge that needs more money and time. In this paper, security and software certification and assurance have been considered and metrics which are used in this subject will cover and some techniques that reduce the effort of software evaluation will consider more

Electronic disabled person parking permit

The abuse of disabled parking permit is growing during the last years and controlling the current system is too difficult. As the current disabled parking permit (blue badge) does not have any mechanism to recognize the blue badge holder, then anybody else could use it. Any chance for police or authorized officer to find someone who abuses the system are when they are leavening the car or when they are returning to the vehicle. The solution is a digital blue badge that is similar to the current blue badge but it is digital and it could recognized the blue badge holder with a finger print scanner that scan the finger print of the blue badge holder and it is necessary that the blue badge holder be in the vehicle when it is going to be activated and it also has a digital clock and a digital timer that shows how long the blue badge is activated

Link-quality based routing framework for wireless sensor networks

Intelligence is the power which makes the owner capable of making a decision defined by reasoning. When traditional solutions and approaches, such as First Principal Modelling or Statistical Modelling, are not feasible or able to effectively address complex real- world problems, then Computational Intelligence with some nature-inspired computational techniques and methodologies is employed. For transferring data between two non-directly connected devices when some other devices are in-between, a set of rules are used by routers which are devices between sender and receiver, to determine the most appropriate paths into which routers should forward data toward the intended destination. This set of rules is called routing protocol. Researchers use some computational itelligence techniques to design network routing protocols. Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) play an important role in today's data communication systems and researchers are expected to proliferate in the field of wireless communication in the near future. The deployment of wireless sensor networks offer several advantages in comparison to traditional infrastructure-based networks, such as fully distributed mobile operation, the easy discovery of joining wireless devices, and instant and low cost network setup. Designing an effective routing protocol is one of the main challenges in the ad-hoc networking paradigm and the utilisation of an adequate link-cost metric is essential. WSN researchers address issues such as low throughput and high latency in wireless sensor data communication. Routing Protocols in WSNs play a key role in data communication and the main parameter in all routing protocols is data communications link-cost. This research delivers two surveys on existing routing protocols and link-quality metrocs for wireless sensor networks. Most of the routing protocols in this area are considered in different groups. The majority of link-quality metrics in WSNs are studied in different categories. Link-quality and traffic-aware metrics account for most of the metrics, as well as metrics in multi-channel networks and cognitive radio systems, which are also considered in detail. Metrics are reviewed in detail in terms of their performance; summary and comparison tables of link-quality metrics are provided to enable better comparison and show a brief overview of their appearance to get a clearer picture. Routing-metrics are important is determining paths and maintaining quality of service in routing protocols. The most efficient metrics need to send packets to maintain link-quality measurement by using the Radi Frequency (RF) module. In this study, a set of statistical analyses is done on some link-quality metrics to select the best metric for energy-aware scenarios. Two prominent link-quality metrics; Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI) and Link-Quality Indication (LQI), are described in detail. The symmetry of RSSI and LQI in two directions is studied, and relations with the Expected Transmission Count (ETX), RSSI, and LQI as link-quality metrics are analysed. The evaluation in this research is based on a series of WSN test-beds in real scenarios. Due to implementation of routing protocols in limited power supply devices in WSNs, one novel link-quality metric and also some routing protocols for wireless sensor networks are proposed in this research to obtain better performance in different scenarios. Rainbow Collection Tree Protocol (RCTP) is presented and evaluated as an enhanced version of Collection Tree Protocol (CTP). It uses the Trickle algorithm to optimise overhead cost and the algorithm also makes RCTP quickly adaptable to changes in topology. The Rainbow mechanism is used in RCTP to detect and route around connectivity nodes and avoid routes through dead-end paths. Energy-efficient Rainbow Collection Tree Routing Protocol (ERCRP) is presented and evaluated as a novel, real-time, position-based and energy-efficient routing protocol in this research. ERCRP is a lightweight protocol that reduced the number of nodes which receive the RF signal using a novel Parent Forwarding Region (PFR) algorithm. ERCRP as a Geographical Routing Protocol (GRP) reduced the number of forwarding nodes and thus decreases traffic and packet collision in the network. WSNs are used in three-dimension (3D) scenarios such as sea or land surfaces with different levels of height. Three-Dimension Position-Based Adaptive Real-Time Routing Protocol (3DPBARP) is presented and evaluated as a novel, real-time, position-based and energy-efficient routing protocol for WSNs in this research. 3DPBARP is a lightweight protocol that reduces the number of nodes which received the RF signal using a novel PFR algorithm. 3DPBARP as a GRP decreases the number of nodes which participate in packet forwarding and thus shrink the traffic and collision in the network

Energy Efficient Rainbow Collection Routing Protocol for Wireless Snesor Networks

Due to implementation of routing protocols in limited power supply devices in wireless sensor networks, this paper presents and evaluates Energy Eficient Rainbow Collection Tree Protocol (EFRCTP) as a novel, real-time, position based and energy efficient routing protocoli that is a new version of Rainbow Collection Tree Protocol (RCTP). RCTP is an enhanced version of Collection Tree Protocol (CTP) as a lightweight routing protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN)s. This paper analyses the impact of the Radio Frequency (RF) range to reducing the number of nodes which receive the signal by using a novel Parent Forwarding Region (PFR) technique. EFRCTP as a Geographical Routing Protocol (GRP) reduces the number of forwarding nodes and finally reduce the number of packets are sent and received and also to reduce collision in the network. A series of performance evaluations through Matlab and Omnet++ simulations show significant improvements in network performance parameters and total energy consumption over CTP and directed flooding routing protocols

An Analytic study on Link Quality metrics: RSSI, LQI and ETX in Wireless Sensor Network

Routing protocol plays an important role in data communication. Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is used in the scenarios that need to use efficient routing protocols. One issue in term of efficiency in routing protocols in WSNs is energy consumption. Radio Frequency (RF) modules consumed most of energy in wireless sensors and focusing on this part could make an impact of increasing system lifetime. Metrics is an important part in any routing protocol. Most efficient metrics need to send packets to maintain link quality measurement by using RF module. Link quality may be measured by receiving packets and then save energy. Using Received signal strength indication (RSSI) or Link Quality Indication (LQI) of received packets does not need to use RF module to send packets to measure the link quality. In this paper, symmetry of RSSI and LQI in two directions have been studied and also relation between Expected Transmission Count (ETX), RSSI and LQI as link quality metrics. The evaluation in this paper is based on a series of WSN testbeds in real scenarios. The collected data from testbed shows symmetry in RSSI in both directions and also a significant correlation between RSSI and distance that makes it a capable link quality metric to be employed in routing protocols for devices that work in limited resources scenarios