On the continuous processing of health data in edge-fog-cloud computing by using micro/nanoservice composition

The edge, the fog, the cloud, and even the end-user's devices play a key role in the management of the health sensitive content/data lifecycle. However, the creation and management of solutions including multiple applications executed by multiple users in multiple environments (edge, the fog, and the cloud) to process multiple health repositories that, at the same time, fulfilling non-functional requirements (NFRs) represents a complex challenge for health care organizations. This paper presents the design, development, and implementation of an architectural model to create, on-demand, edge-fog-cloud processing structures to continuously handle big health data and, at the same time, to execute services for fulfilling NFRs. In this model, constructive and modular $blocks$ , implemented as microservices and nanoservices, are recursively interconnected to create edge-fog-cloud processing structures as ¿This work was supported in part by the Council for Science and Technology of Mexico (CONACYT) through the Basic Scientific Research under Grant 2016-01-285276, and in part by the Project CABAHLA-CM: Convergencia Big data-Hpc: de los sensores a las Aplicaciones from Madrid Regional Government under Grant S2018/TCS-4423

Reliable Multihop Broadcast Protocol with a Low-Overhead Link Quality Assessment for ITS Based on VANETs in Highway Scenarios

Vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) have been identified as a key technology to enable intelligent transport systems (ITS), which are aimed to radically improve the safety, comfort, and greenness of the vehicles in the road. However, in order to fully exploit VANETs potential, several issues must be addressed. Because of the high dynamic of VANETs and the impairments in the wireless channel, one key issue arising when working with VANETs is the multihop dissemination of broadcast packets for safety and infotainment applications. In this paper a reliable low-overhead multihop broadcast (RLMB) protocol is proposed to address the well-known broadcast storm problem. The proposed RLMB takes advantage of the hello messages exchanged between the vehicles and it processes such information to intelligently select a relay set and reduce the redundant broadcast. Additionally, to reduce the hello messages rate dependency, RLMB uses a point-to-zone link evaluation approach. RLMB performance is compared with one of the leading multihop broadcast protocols existing to date. Performance metrics show that our RLMB solution outperforms the leading protocol in terms of important metrics such as packet dissemination ratio, overhead, and delay

DISEÑO, IMPLEMENTACIÓN Y EVALUACIÓN DE UN OXÍMETRO DE PULSO INALÁMBRICO LP-WA PARA EL INTERNET DE LAS COSAS MÉDICAS (IoMT) (DESIGN, IMPLEMENTATION, AND EVALUATION OF A LP-WA WIRELESS PULSE OXIMETER FOR THE INTERNET OF MEDICAL THINGS (IoMT))

Resumen En este trabajo se presenta el desarrollo del prototipo de un oxímetro de pulso inalámbrico de largo alcance y bajo consumo de energía (LP-WA). El prototipo propuesto fue diseñado para adquirir, procesar y transmitir señales fisiológicas y de geolocalización de una persona realizando actividades cotidianas en ambiente de exteriores. Además, se presenta un análisis detallado del consumo de energía del prototipo para calcular su tiempo de vida útil. Por último, se presentan los resultados de una evaluación experimental del rendimiento del prototipo analizando la tasa de entrega de paquetes (PDR) y el indicador de intensidad de señal recibida (RSSI) en diferentes esquemas de transmisión. Estos resultados permitieron validar el bajo consumo de corriente del dispositivo y el correcto funcionamiento del dispositivo en el proceso de transmisión de paquetes hacia la estación base LP-WA. Palabras Clave: Dispositivo médico, Internet de las cosas, LoRa, Oxímetro de pulso inalámbrico. Abstract In this paper the development of a long range and low power (LP-WA) wireless pulse oximeter prototype is presented. The prototype proposed was designed to acquire, process and transmit physiological and geolocation signals from people in outdoor environments. In addition, a detailed energy consumption analysis of the prototype is given in order to calculate its lifetime. Finally, results of an experimental performance evaluation of the prototype in terms of received strength signal indicator (RSSI) and packet delivery rate (PDR) are presented. These results allowed to validate the low power consumption of the device and its appropriate operation in the packet transmission process to LP-WA base station. Keywords: Internet of Things, LoRa, Medical device, wireless pulse oximeter

Country-level gender inequality is associated with structural differences in the brains of women and men

男女間の不平等と脳の性差 --男女間の不平等は脳構造の性差と関連する--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2023-05-10.Gender inequality across the world has been associated with a higher risk to mental health problems and lower academic achievement in women compared to men. We also know that the brain is shaped by nurturing and adverse socio-environmental experiences. Therefore, unequal exposure to harsher conditions for women compared to men in gender-unequal countries might be reflected in differences in their brain structure, and this could be the neural mechanism partly explaining women’s worse outcomes in gender-unequal countries. We examined this through a random-effects meta-analysis on cortical thickness and surface area differences between adult healthy men and women, including a meta-regression in which country-level gender inequality acted as an explanatory variable for the observed differences. A total of 139 samples from 29 different countries, totaling 7, 876 MRI scans, were included. Thickness of the right hemisphere, and particularly the right caudal anterior cingulate, right medial orbitofrontal, and left lateral occipital cortex, presented no differences or even thicker regional cortices in women compared to men in gender-equal countries, reversing to thinner cortices in countries with greater gender inequality. These results point to the potentially hazardous effect of gender inequality on women’s brains and provide initial evidence for neuroscience-informed policies for gender equality

Country-level gender inequality is associated with structural differences in the brains of women and men

Gender inequality across the world has been associated with a higher risk to mental health problems and lower academic achievement in women compared to men. We also know that the brain is shaped by nurturing and adverse socio-environmental experiences. Therefore, unequal exposure to harsher conditions for women compared to men in gender-unequal countries might be reflected in differences in their brain structure, and this could be the neural mechanism partly explaining women's worse outcomes in gender-unequal countries. We examined this through a random-effects meta-analysis on cortical thickness and surface area differences between adult healthy men and women, including a meta-regression in which country-level gender inequality acted as an explanatory variable for the observed differences. A total of 139 samples from 29 different countries, totaling 7,876 MRI scans, were included. Thickness of the right hemisphere, and particularly the right caudal anterior cingulate, right medial orbitofrontal, and left lateral occipital cortex, presented no differences or even thicker regional cortices in women compared to men in gender-equal countries, reversing to thinner cortices in countries with greater gender inequality. These results point to the potentially hazardous effect of gender inequality on women's brains and provide initial evidence for neuroscience-informed policies for gender equality

Observation of gravitational waves from the coalescence of a 2.5–4.5 M ⊙ compact object and a neutron star

We report the observation of a coalescing compact binary with component masses 2.5–4.5 M ⊙ and 1.2–2.0 M ⊙ (all measurements quoted at the 90% credible level). The gravitational-wave signal GW230529_181500 was observed during the fourth observing run of the LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA detector network on 2023 May 29 by the LIGO Livingston observatory. The primary component of the source has a mass less than 5 M ⊙ at 99% credibility. We cannot definitively determine from gravitational-wave data alone whether either component of the source is a neutron star or a black hole. However, given existing estimates of the maximum neutron star mass, we find the most probable interpretation of the source to be the coalescence of a neutron star with a black hole that has a mass between the most massive neutron stars and the least massive black holes observed in the Galaxy. We provisionally estimate a merger rate density of 55−47+127Gpc−3yr−1 for compact binary coalescences with properties similar to the source of GW230529_181500; assuming that the source is a neutron star–black hole merger, GW230529_181500-like sources may make up the majority of neutron star–black hole coalescences. The discovery of this system implies an increase in the expected rate of neutron star–black hole mergers with electromagnetic counterparts and provides further evidence for compact objects existing within the purported lower mass gap

Convolutional coding schemes with conveient power spectral density characteristics

This thesis analyses the effects caused by the introduction of convolutional coding schemes over the power spectral density (PSD) of impulse radio (IR) based ultra wideband (UWB) communication systems. This is an important topic since UWB emissions are expected to comply with spectral masks imposed by various regulatory bodies.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Design of Optical-Wireless IR-UWBoF Systems with Spectral Line Suppression Capabilities

Impulse-Radio Ultra-Wide Band (IR-UWB) over Fiber (IR-UWBoF) has been proposed to interconnect IR-UWB-based deployments separated by hundreds of meters or even kilometers. IR-UWB transmissions must comply with spectral masks provided by radio spectrum regulatory agencies. The maximum transmit power of an IR-UWB signal is adversely affected by the presence of spectral lines in its Power Spectral Density (PSD). Thus, it is desirable that the PSD of signals generated by IR-UWBoF systems does not show spectral lines. Previous works have shown the feasibility of deploying of optical-wireless IR-UWBoF systems. However, most of these proposals report PSDs showing spectral lines. To the best of our knowledge, spectral line suppression has not been previously studied for optical-wireless IR-UWBoF systems. This work shows the design and implementation of optical-wireless IR-UWBoF systems generating signals with Spectral Line-Free (SLF) PSDs. The proposal considers the use the use of a specifically designed convolutional code combined with Binary Phase Shift Keying (BPSK) or Quaternary Biorthogonal Pulse Position Modulation (Q-BOPPM) to provide a SLF PSD in IR-UWBoF systems. A testbed consisting of 30 km of single-mode optical fiber (SMF) concatenated to a 20 cm wireless link was physically implemented. The results show that a SLF PSD is achieved for both the optical and the wireless transmissions, even when the binary data source feeding the system is not perfectly random