Meandered-slot antennas for sensor-RFID tags

This letter introduces a planar antenna layout suited to Sensor-RFID fabrication. The geometry is based on a meandered-slot profile on a suspended patch and permits to host sensors and electronics in a small space. The available geometrical parameters are optimized by means of a Genetic Algorithm (GA) procedure aimed to maximize the antenna realized gain. The antenna performances are discussed through examples and prototypes

Multiport sensor RFIDs for wireless passive sensing of objects - Basic theory and early results

A new family of passive sensor radio-frequency identification devices is here proposed for applications in the context of wireless sensor networks. The new tags, working in the ultra-high frequency band, are able to detect the value or the change of some features of the tagged body without using any specific sensor. Such tags are provided with multiple chips embedded either within a cluster of cooperating antennas or in a single multiport antenna, and exploit the natural mismatch of the antenna input impedance caused by the change of the tagged object. A basic theory of multiport sensor tags is formulated with the purpose to describe the possible classification and detection performances in a unitary context. Some numerical examples and a first experiment corroborate the feasibility of the idea

Score Fusion by Maximizing the Area under the ROC Curve

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-02172-5_61Information fusion is currently a very active research topic aimed at improving the performance of biometric systems. This paper proposes a novel method for optimizing the parameters of a score fusion model based on maximizing an index related to the Area Under the ROC Curve. This approach has the convenience that the fusion parameters are learned without having to specify the client and impostor priors or the costs for the different errors. Empirical results on several datasets show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.Work supported by the Spanish projects DPI2006-15542-C04 and TIN2008-04571 and the Generalitat Valenciana - Consellería d’Educació under an FPI scholarship.Villegas Santamaría, M.; Paredes Palacios, R. (2009). Score Fusion by Maximizing the Area under the ROC Curve. En Pattern Recognition and Image Analysis: 4th Iberian Conference, IbPRIA 2009 Póvoa de Varzim, Portugal, June 10-12, 2009 Proceedings. Springer Verlag (Germany). 473-480. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-02172-5_61S473480Toh, K.A., Kim, J., Lee, S.: Biometric scores fusion based on total error rate minimization. Pattern Recognition 41(3), 1066–1082 (2008)Jain, A., Nandakumar, K., Ross, A.: Score normalization in multimodal biometric systems. Pattern Recognition 38(12), 2270–2285 (2005)Gutschoven, B., Verlinde, P.: Multi-modal identity verification using support vector machines (svm). In: Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Information Fusion. FUSION 2000, vol. 2, pp. THB3/3–THB3/8 (July 2000)Ma, Y., Cukic, B., Singh, H.: A classification approach to multi-biometric score fusion. In: Kanade, T., Jain, A., Ratha, N.K. (eds.) AVBPA 2005. LNCS, vol. 3546, pp. 484–493. Springer, Heidelberg (2005)Maurer, D.E., Baker, J.P.: Fusing multimodal biometrics with quality estimates via a bayesian belief network. Pattern Recogn. 41(3), 821–832 (2008)Ling, C.X., Huang, J., Zhang, H.: Auc: a statistically consistent and more discriminating measure than accuracy. In: Proc. of IJCAI 2003, pp. 519–524 (2003)Yan, L., Dodier, R.H., Mozer, M., Wolniewicz, R.H.: Optimizing classifier performance via an approximation to the wilcoxon-mann-whitney statistic. In: Machine Learning, Proceedings of the Twentieth International Conference (ICML 2003), Washington, DC, USA, pp. 848–855. AAAI Press, Menlo Park (2003)Marrocco, C., Molinara, M., Tortorella, F.: Exploiting auc for optimal linear combinations of dichotomizers. Pattern Recogn. Lett. 27(8), 900–907 (2006)Marrocco, C., Duin, R.P.W., Tortorella, F.: Maximizing the area under the roc curve by pairwise feature combination. Pattern Recogn. 41(6), 1961–1974 (2008)Paredes, R., Vidal, E.: Learning prototypes and distances: a prototype reduction technique based on nearest neighbor error minimization. Pattern Recognition 39(2), 180–188 (2006)Villegas, M., Paredes, R.: Simultaneous learning of a discriminative projection and prototypes for nearest-neighbor classification. In: IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition. CVPR 2008, pp. 1–8 (2008)Nandakumar, K., Chen, Y., Dass, S.C., Jain, A.: Likelihood ratio-based biometric score fusion. IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence 30(2), 342–347 (2008)Poh, N., Bengio, S.: A score-level fusion benchmark database for biometric authentication. In: Kanade, T., Jain, A., Ratha, N.K. (eds.) AVBPA 2005. LNCS, vol. 3546, pp. 1059–1070. Springer, Heidelberg (2005)National Institute of Standards and Technology: NIST Biometric Scores Set - Release 1 (BSSR1) (2004), http://www.itl.nist.gov/iad/894.03/biometricscores/Bengio, S., Mariéthoz, J., Keller, M.: The expected performance curve. In: Proceedings of the Second Workshop on ROC Analysis in ML, pp. 9–16 (2005

Twin Grid-array as 3.6 GHz Epidermal Antenna for Potential Backscattering 5G Communication

Emerging 5G infrastructures can boost innovative paradigms for future wearable and epidermal devices exploiting low-power (even passive) wireless backscattering-based communication. To compensate high body- and path-losses, and to extend the read range, array configurations are required. This work proposes a flexible monolithic epidermal layout, based on Krauss array concept, that operates at 3.6 GHz and it is suitable to be directly attached to the human body. The antenna involves a dual grid configuration with a main radiating grid backed by a grid reflector placed in touch with the skin. Overall, the amount of conductor an dielectric substrate are minimized with benefit to breathability. The antenna is suitable to surface feeding and produces a broadside radiation. Parametric analysis are performed and an optimal configuration of four-cells grid is derived and experimentally demonstrated to provide a maximum gain of more than 6 dBi

Tattoo Antenna Temporary Transfers Operating On-Skin (TATTOOS)

This paper discusses the development of RFID logo antennas based on the logos of Loughborough University and the University of Kent which can be tattooed directly onto the skin’s surface. Hence, this paper uses aesthetic principles to create functional wearable technology. Simulations of possible designs for the tattoo tags have been carried out to optimize their performance. Prototypes of the tag designs were fabricated and read range measurements with the transfer tattoos on a volunteers arm were carried out to test the performance. Measured Read ranges of approximately 0.5 m have been achieved with the antenna 10 µm from the body

UVA-1 phototherapy as adjuvant treatment for eosinophilic fasciitis: in vitro and in vivo functional characterization

Introduction: Eosinophilic fasciitis (EF) is a rare autoimmune disease causing progressive induration of dermal, hypodermal, and muscularis fascia. The exact pathogenesis is yet to be fully understood, and a validated therapy protocol still lacks. We here aimed to realize a clinical–functional characterization of these patients. Materials and methods: A total of eight patients (five males, 45 years average) were treated with adjuvant high-dose UVA-1 phototherapy (90 J/cm), after having received the standard systemic immunosuppressive protocol (oral methylprednisolone switched to methotrexate). Body lesion mapping, Localized Scleroderma Assessment Tool (LoSCAT), Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI), High-Resolution Ultrasound (HRUS) (13-17MHz), and ultra HRUS (55–70 MHz) were performed at each examination time taking specific anatomical points. Gene expression analysis at a molecular level and in vitro UVA-1 irradiation was realized on lesional fibroblasts primary cultures. Results: The LoSCAT and the DLQI showed to decrease significantly starting from the last UVA-1 session. A significant reduction in muscularis fascia thickness (−50% on average) was estimated starting from 3 months after the last UVA-1 session and maintained up to 12 months follow-up. Tissues was detected by HRUS. The UVA-1 in vitro irradiation of lesional skin sites cells appeared not to affect their viability. Molecular genes analysis revealed a significant reduction of IL-1ß and of TGF-ß genes after phototherapy, while MMPs 1,2,9 gene expression was enhanced. Comment: These preliminary in vivo and in vitro findings suggest that UVA-1 phototherapy is a safe and useful adjuvant therapy able to elicit anti-inflammatory effects and stimulate tissue matrix digestion and remodeling at lesional sites

Allele-specific editing ameliorates dominant retinitis pigmentosa in a transgenic mouse model

Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is a group of progressive retinal degenerations of mostly monogenic inheritance, which cause blindness in about 1:3,500 individuals worldwide. Heterozygous variants in the rhodopsin (RHO) gene are the most common cause of autosomal dominant RP (adRP). Among these, missense variants at C-terminal proline 347, such as p.Pro347Ser, cause severe adRP recurrently in European affected individuals. Here, for the first time, we use CRISPR/Cas9 to selectively target the p.Pro347Ser variant while preserving the wild-type RHO allele in vitro and in a mouse model of adRP. Detailed in vitro, genomic, and biochemical characterization of the rhodopsin C-terminal editing demonstrates a safe downregulation of p.Pro347Ser expression leading to partial recovery of photoreceptor function in a transgenic mouse model treated with adeno-associated viral vectors. This study supports the safety and efficacy of CRISPR/Cas9-mediated allele-specific editing and paves the way for a permanent and precise correction of heterozygous variants in dominantly inherited retinal diseases