Empirical RF Propagation Modeling of Human Body Motions for Activity Classification

Many current and future medical devices are wearable, using the human body as a conduit for wireless communication, which implies that human body serves as a crucial part of the transmission medium in body area networks (BANs). Implantable medical devices such as Pacemaker and Cardiac Defibrillators are designed to provide patients with timely monitoring and treatment. Endoscopy capsules, pH Monitors and blood pressure sensors are used as clinical diagnostic tools to detect physiological abnormalities and replace traditional wired medical devices. Body-mounted sensors need to be investigated for use in providing a ubiquitous monitoring environment. In order to better design these medical devices, it is important to understand the propagation characteristics of channels for in-body and on- body wireless communication in BANs. The IEEE 802.15.6 Task Group 6 is officially working on the standardization of Body Area Network, including the channel modeling and communication protocol design. This thesis is focused on the propagation characteristics of human body movements. Specifically, standing, walking and jogging motions are measured, evaluated and analyzed using an empirical approach. Using a network analyzer, probabilistic models are derived for the communication links in the medical implant communication service band (MICS), the industrial scientific medical band (ISM) and the ultra- wideband (UWB) band. Statistical distributions of the received signal strength and second order statistics are presented to evaluate the link quality and outage performance for on-body to on- body communications at different antenna separations. The Normal distribution, Gamma distribution, Rayleigh distribution, Weibull distribution, Nakagami-m distribution, and Lognormal distribution are considered as potential models to describe the observed variation of received signal strength. Doppler spread in the frequency domain and coherence time in the time domain from temporal variations is analyzed to characterize the stability of the channels induced by human body movements. The shape of the Doppler spread spectrum is also investigated to describe the relationship of the power and frequency in the frequency domain. All these channel characteristics could be used in the design of communication protocols in BANs, as well as providing features to classify different human body activities. Realistic data extracted from built-in sensors in smart devices were used to assist in modeling and classification of human body movements along with the RF sensors. Variance, energy and frequency domain entropy of the data collected from accelerometer and orientation sensors are pre- processed as features to be used in machine learning algorithms. Activity classifiers with Backpropagation Network, Probabilistic Neural Network, k-Nearest Neighbor algorithm and Support Vector Machine are discussed and evaluated as means to discriminate human body motions. The detection accuracy can be improved with both RF and inertial sensors

An Intelligent Weighing System based on Editable Formula and Alterable Resolution

This paper is to design an intelligent weighing system to solve the problems in enterprises, such as incompatibility with hardware and software environment in different enterprise scenarios, the fixed interface layout and the dilemma that a single-way computational formulas can not fit the workflow of complementation of weighing system flexibly . A self-defining formula method is proposed to meet different demands from variable enterprises, which is solved by infix expression algorithm. The interface layout is screen self-adaptation by using an alterable resolution algorithm. The result of the experimental study reveals that the intelligent weighing system is more flexible in self-adaptation of environment than the traditional weighing system

A hardware platform for performance evaluation of in-body sensors

Abstract — Body area network is expected to be the next breakthrough invention with great potential due to miniaturization of wireless communication devices. One of the major challenges for design of sensor devices for wireless communications inside human body is the accessibility of the medium for performance evaluation. It is practically impossible to install a development module for a sensor inside the human body and when the sensor designed we need expensive procedure with physician supervisions to examine the performance of the sensors. In this paper, we introduce an interference controllable, repeatable real-time hardware platform for performance evaluation of a typical in-body sensor chipset used in most implant applications (Zarlink ZL70101 ADK operating at 402-405 MHz) utilizing an existing multipath channel emulator (Elektrobit PROPSimT

A Human Intestinal Infection Caused by a Novel Non-O1/O139 Vibrio cholerae Genotype and Its Dissemination Along the River

Non-O1/O139 Vibrio cholerae is increasingly reported in the clinical settings. However, intestinal infections via the consumption of non-O1/O139 V. cholerae-carrying seafood are rarely documented in China. In this study, we reported a case of mild watery diarrhea in a young male, caused by non-O1/O139 V. cholerae in the downstream of Liaohe River. Epidemiological investigation showed that this intestinal infection potentially associated with the raw consumption of mollusc. Prior to this finding, we conducted a 6-month pathogen surveillance of three locations along the Liaohe River and identified three environmental non-O1/O139 V. cholerae strains. To confirm the epidemiological links between clinical and environmental strains, high-resolution genomic typing was employed and revealed that V. cholerae isolated from human stool sample was genomically related to the one found in local mollusc and shared a common ancestor with other environmental strains obtained in the upstream sites of the Liaohe River. This fact suggests that the river is a natural reservoir for non-O1/O139 V. cholerae which poses a potential threat to the public health. In summary, our results deepened the insights on the transmission of non-pandemic V. cholerae strains and underscored the significance of genomic surveillance for drinking water along the river sites

Deep Brain Magnetic Stimulation Promotes Neurogenesis and Restores Cholinergic Activity in a Transgenic Mouse Model of Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is characterized by progressive decline of memory and cognitive functions. Deep magnetic stimulation (DMS), a noninvasive and nonpharmacological brain stimulation, has been reported to alleviate stress-related cognitive impairment in neuropsychiatric disorders. Our previous study also discovered the preventive effect of DMS on cognitive decline in an AD mouse model. However, the underlying mechanism must be explored further. In this study, we investigated the effect of DMS on spatial learning and memory functions, neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus (DG), as well as expression and activity of the cholinergic system in a transgenic mouse model of AD (5XFAD). Administration of DMS effectively improved performance in spatial learning and memory of 5XFAD mice. Furthermore, neurogenesis in the hippocampal DG of DMS-treated 5XFAD mice was clearly enhanced. In addition, DMS significantly raised the level of acetylcholine and prevented the increase in acetylcholinesterase activity as well as the decrease in acetyltransferase activity in the hippocampus of 5XFAD mice. These findings indicate that DMS may be a promising noninvasive tool for treatment and prevention of AD cognitive impairment by promoting neurogenesis and enhancing cholinergic system function

III-V-on-silicon photonic devices for optical communication and sensing

In the paper, we review our work on heterogeneous III-V-on-silicon photonic components and circuits for applications in optical communication and sensing. We elaborate on the integration strategy and describe a broad range of devices realized on this platform covering a wavelength range from 850 nm to 3.85 μm

Curing hemophilia A by NHEJ-mediated ectopic F8 insertion in the mouse

BACKGROUND: Hemophilia A, a bleeding disorder resulting from F8 mutations, can only be cured by gene therapy. A promising strategy is CRISPR-Cas9-mediated precise insertion of F8 in hepatocytes at highly expressed gene loci, such as albumin (Alb). Unfortunately, the precise in vivo integration efficiency of a long insert is very low (~ 0.1%). RESULTS: We report that the use of a double-cut donor leads to a 10- to 20-fold increase in liver editing efficiency, thereby completely reconstituting serum F8 activity in a mouse model of hemophilia A after hydrodynamic injection of Cas9-sgAlb and B domain-deleted (BDD) F8 donor plasmids. We find that the integration of a double-cut donor at the Alb locus in mouse liver is mainly through non-homologous end joining (NHEJ)-mediated knock-in. We then target BDDF8 to multiple sites on introns 11 and 13 and find that NHEJ-mediated insertion of BDDF8 restores hemostasis. Finally, using 3 AAV8 vectors to deliver genome editing components, including Cas9, sgRNA, and BDDF8 donor, we observe the same therapeutic effects. A follow-up of 100 mice over 1 year shows no adverse effects. CONCLUSIONS: These findings lay the foundation for curing hemophilia A by NHEJ knock-in of BDDF8 at Alb introns after AAV-mediated delivery of editing components

cryptanalysis of an efficient three-party key exchange protocol

In a three party authenticated key exchange protocol, two clients intend to establish a session key with the help of the trusted server, during which the authentication is realized by messages exchange about password which is shared between each client and the trusted server. In 2009, Huang proposed an efficient three party authenticated key exchange for mobile communications without the server's public key and stated that it can resist various attacks and receive high efficiency. However, this paper demonstrates that Huang's protocol is vulnerable to undetectable online password guessing attacks and off-line password guessing attacks. © 2012 IEEE.In a three party authenticated key exchange protocol, two clients intend to establish a session key with the help of the trusted server, during which the authentication is realized by messages exchange about password which is shared between each client and the trusted server. In 2009, Huang proposed an efficient three party authenticated key exchange for mobile communications without the server's public key and stated that it can resist various attacks and receive high efficiency. However, this paper demonstrates that Huang's protocol is vulnerable to undetectable online password guessing attacks and off-line password guessing attacks. © 2012 IEEE

ETC technology and its Application in the Campus Intelligent Vehicle Management System

In order to solve the problem that the vehicles within the university campus are increasing steadily and a large number of outside vehicles drive through the campus arbitrarily and park disorderly. In this paper, a campus intelligent vehicle management system based on ETC is designed, and the ETC technology is introduced. On the basis of analyzing the system’s hardware architecture and workflow, a design model of lane is given. Finally, it discusses the communication theory of Winsock, customs a format of data frame and proposes a Winsock-based intelligent data synchronization algorithm. The daily traffic volume has been decreased by 65% since the system is put into operation in a university