Evaluation of Multiple-Valued Packet Multiplexing Scheme for Network-on-Chip Architecture

科研費報告書収録論文(課題番号:17300009/研究代表者:亀山充隆/システムインテグレーション理論に基づく高安全知能自動車用VLSIの最適設計

e-ESAS: Evolution of a Participatory Design-based Solution for Breast Cancer (BC) Patients in Rural Bangladesh

Healthcare facility is scarce for rural women in the developing world. The situation is worse for patients who are suffering from diseases that require long-term feedback-oriented monitoring such as breast cancer. Lack of motivation to go to the health centers on patients’ side due to sociocultural barriers, financial restrictions and transportation hazards results in inadequate data for proper assessment. Fortunately, mobile phones have penetrated the masses even in rural communities of the developing countries. In this scenario, a mobile phone-based remote symptom monitoring system (RSMS) with inspirational videos can serve the purpose of both patients and doctors. Here, we present the findings of our field study conducted on 39 breast cancer patients in rural Bangladesh. Based on the results of extensive field studies, we have categorized the challenges faced by patients in different phases of the treatment process. As a solution, we have designed, developed and deployed e-ESAS—the first mobile-based RSMS in rural context. Along with the detail need assessment of such a system, we describe the evolution of e-ESAS and the deployment results. We have included the unique and useful design lessons that we learned as e-ESAS evolved through participatory design process. The findings show how e-ESAS addresses several challenges faced by patients and doctors and positively impact their lives

PryGuard: A Secure Distributed Authentication Protocol for Pervasive Computing Environment

Handheld devices have become so commonplace nowadays that they are an integral part of our everyday life. Proliferation of these mobile handheld devices equipped with wide range of capabilities has bolstered widespread popularity of pervasive computing applications. In such applications many devices interact with each other by forming ad hoc wireless networks. The necessity of such unavoidable inter-device dependency along with volatile nature of connectivity and the lack of a fixed infrastructure for authentication and authorization, devices are susceptible and vulnerable to malicious active and passive snoopers. If a device registers a malicious device as its valid neighbor, the security and privacy of entire system might be jeopardized. Such sensitivity to malevolent activity necessitates the need for a robust mechanism to maintain a list of valid devices that will help to prevent malicious devices from authenticating successfully. In this paper, we present the feasibility of using a decentralized protocol in order to prevent malicious devices from participating illicitly into the ad hoc networks

Transparent Lightweight Device Discovery Model (TLDDM) support for Ubiquitous Computing Middleware and Applications

Handheld devices have become so commonplace now-a-days that in future these will get mixed with our day to day life seamlessly. To communicate between these devices a number of protocols have been developed – Bluetooth and IEEE 802.11 being two dominating protocols. For developing applications on these mobile devices, we need good support for device discovery and at the same time protocol independent consistent application programming interface (API) which will make the job of application developers easier. Keeping application developers free from worrying about underlying communication protocols and at the same time ensuring application portability across protocols is a major design issue in current generation middleware for ubiquitous computing. In this paper, we present a device discovery service in the middleware for ubiquitous computing– MARKS, that also provides a consistent API for application development hiding the underlying communication protocols from application developers

Transparent Lightweight Device Discovery Model (TLDDM) support for Ubiquitous Computing Middleware and Applications

Abstract. Handheld devices have become so commonplace now-a-days that in future these will get mixed with our day to day life seamlessly. To communicate between these devices a number of protocols have been developed – Bluetooth and IEEE 802.11 being two dominating protocols. For developing applications on these mobile devices, we need good support for device discovery and at the same time protocol independent consistent application programming interface (API) which will make the job of application developers easier. Keeping application developers free from worrying about underlying communication protocols and at the same time ensuring application portability across protocols is a major design issue in current generation middleware for ubiquitous computing. In this paper, we present a device discovery service in the middleware for ubiquitous computing – MARKS, that also provides a consistent API for application development hiding the underlying communication protocols from application developers. Keywords: Device discovery API for ubiquitous applications, MARKS, Interoperability, Middleware for Ubiquitous computing, IEEE 802.11, Bluetooth and middleware services

IRENE: Context Aware Mood Sharing for Social Network

Social networking sites like Facebook, twitter, and myspace are becoming overwhelmingly powerful media in today\u27s world. Facebook has 500 million active users and twitter has 190 million visitors per month and increasing each second. On the other hand number of smart phone users has crossed 45 millions. Now we are focusing on building an application that will connect these two revolutionary spheres of modern science that has huge potential in different sectors. IRENE a facial expression based mood detection model has been developed by capturing images while the users use webcam supported laptops or mobile phones. This image will be analyzed to classify one of several moods. This mood information will be shared in the user profile of Facebook according to privacy settings of the user. Several activities and events will also be generated based on the identified mood

Findings of e-ESAS: A Mobile Based Symptom Monitoring System for Breast Cancer Patients in Rural Bangladesh

Breast cancer (BC) patients need traditional treatment as well as long term monitoring through an adaptive feedback-oriented treatment mechanism. Here, we present the findings of our 31-week long field study and deployment of e-ESAS – the first mobile-based remote symptom monitoring system (RSMS) developed for rural BC patients where patients are the prime users rather than just the source of data collection at some point of time. We have also shown how „motivation‟ and „automation‟ have been integrated in e-ESAS and creating a unique motivation-persuasion-motivation cycle where the motivated patients become proactive change agents by persuading others. Though in its early deployment stages (2 months), e-ESAS demonstrates the potential to positively impact the cancer care by (1) helping the doctors with graphical charts of long symptom history (automation), (2) facilitating timely interventions through alert generation (automation) and (3) improving three way communications (doctor-patient-attendant) for a better decision making process (motivation) and thereby improving the quality of life of BC patients

Effect of micronutrient powder supplementation for two and four months on hemoglobin level of children 6–23 months old in a slum in Dhaka: a community based observational study

BACKGROUND: Anemia is pervasive among children under the age of two years in Bangladesh. This study aimed to assess the effect of daily supplementation of multiple micronutrient powder (MNP) for 2 months and 4 months primarily on hemoglobin status of children aged 6–23 months living in a slum of Dhaka, Bangladesh. METHODS: It was a community-based observational study where a total of 402 children and 578 children were enrolled for 2 months and 4 months MNP supplementation respectively. Venous blood was collected at enrollment and 5 months later. Hemoglobin level was measured and morbidity episodes recorded from twice weekly home visits. RESULTS: At enrollment, hemoglobin levels were 10.57 ± 1.28 g/dl and 10.78 ± 1.35 g/dl across 2 months and 4 months MNP supplementation groups respectively, compared to 10.65 ± 1.36 g/dl and 11.14 ± 1.11 g/dl at the end-line after MNP supplementation. Plasma hemoglobin increased only after 4 months supplementation in difference-in-difference analysis and this was significantly more in younger children after adjusting the confounding variables (p = 0.03). Prevalence of anemia had improved for both at 2 months (p = 0.015) and 4 months (p = 0.004) of MNP supplementation. Incidence rate ratios (IRR) for diarrhea, cough and fever were comparable across the groups during the supplementation periods and IRR for acute lower respiratory tract infection was significantly lower in 4 months supplementation group with a IRR of 0.30 (95 % CI; 0.22, 0.42). CONCLUSION: Four months MNP supplementation was relatively more effective in improving hemoglobin level in children 6–24 months

Examining the relationship between blood lead level and stunting, wasting and underweight- A cross-sectional study of children under 2 years-of-age in a Bangladeshi slum

<div><p>Elevated blood lead level (BLL) is known to cause cardiac, immune, and cognitive damage but had not been thoroughly studied in relation to stunting among children under two years of age. We primarily aimed to assess the relationship between elevated BLL, the accumulation of concerned amount of the metal lead in blood and stunting and secondarily—wasting and underweight amongst Bangladeshi children less than two years of age. For this cross-sectional study, BLL measurements, anthropometric data, and socioeconomic indicator information were collected and analyzed for 729 children under two years of age upon enrollment in the MAL-ED study conducted in a Bangladeshi slum area. Univariate, bivariate and multivariate analyses were carried out to observe the proportion and mean and contribution of elevated BLL and other relevant variables in explaining the occurrence of stunting. Of the enrolled subjects, 39.0% were stunted [length-for-age z score (LAZ<-2)], 50.3% were male, and 86.6% had an elevated BLL (≥5μg/dL). Mean BLL of stunted children was 8.47 ± 3·37 μg/dL and 8.10 ± 3·80 μg/dL for non-stunted children. Proportion of children with elevated BLL was not significantly different between the stunted and non-stunted groups (p>0.05). When adjusted for other variables, elevated BLL was found to be a significant predictor of stunting and underweight (p<0.05) but not wasting (p>0.05). Elevated BLL (p<0·01), child’s gender and weight (p<0·001), maternal body mass index (BMI) (p<0.05) and severe household food insecurity (p<0·05) were all significantly associated with stunting in the multivariate model. Increased odds of stunting was also observed for increased BLL. The findings suggest that chronic lead poisoning is significantly associated with high level of stunting among child slum dwellers in Bangladesh. These findings strengthen the argument for improved lead reduction efforts in Bangladesh, where lead poisoning and stunting are both highly prevalent.</p></div