Miniaturized antenna and transponder based wireless sensors for internet of things in healthcare

Future medical and healthcare systems will be largely improved by the wide-spreading of internet of things (IoTs). One of the crucial challenges of IoTs for healthcare is at the wireless sensors. Miniaturization of sensor node profile, minimizing power consumption as well as lowering down design/production cost of antenna, RF circuits and sensor modules have become the key issues for realizing more exciting applications in medical and healthcare fields that never seemed to be possible before. In this dissertation work, we first focus on electrically small antenna (ESA) design and fabrication for medical telemetry. A comprehensive analysis of the radiation properties of a novel electrically small folded ellipsoidal ESA is presented, showing its ability to self-resonate and impedance match without external components. It will benefit various size-restricted applications especially with wireless medical implants. The second focus is on healthcare sensors using ESA as the sensing agent, which saves the power and cost by eliminating the need of extra sensing modules. Specifically, miniaturized helix ESAs are integrated with drug reservoirs to function as wireless transponder sensors for real-time drug dosage monitoring. We also introduce a system level innovation of a passive wireless harmonic transponder/harmonic sniffer/frequency hopped interrogator based sensing system. The μL- liquid level resolution and absolute-accuracy passive sensing is demonstrated in the presence of strong direct coupling, background scatters, distance variance as well as near-filed human body movement interference. Furthermore, we investigate how modern ubiquitous wireless sensor networks could take advantage of sensitive nanostructure materials for enhanced performance. Here we propose a new paradigm of chemically-gated mixed modulation on a single homogeneous graphene device in which the chemical exposure directly modulates an electrical carrier signal. To make the device ubiquitously reusable, a method of precisely tuning the charge neutrality point (Vcnp) is introduced by electrochemical calibration with gate voltage pulse sequence. Such chemically gated graphene modulator can be potentially used in a harmonic transponder as a passive ubiquitous sensor node for chemical and bio sensing applications. Overall the research work presented in the dissertation will help enable cost and power-efficient wireless sensor networks in future healthcare IoTs.Electrical and Computer Engineerin

A limit law for the maximum of subcritical DG-model on a hierarchical lattice

We study the extremal properties of the "integer-valued Gaussian" a.k.a. DG-model on the hierarchical lattice $\Lambda_n:=\{1,\dots,b\}^n$ (with $b\ge2$) of depth $n$. This is a law on $\varphi\in\mathbb Z^{\Lambda_n}$ proportional to $e^{\frac12\beta(\varphi,\Delta_n\varphi)}\prod_{x\in\Lambda_n}\#(d\varphi_x)$, where $\Delta_n$ is the hierarchical Laplacian, $\beta$ is the inverse temperature and $\#$ is the counting measure on $\mathbb Z$. Denoting $\beta_c:=2\pi^2/\log b$ and $m_n:=\beta^{-1/2}[(2\log b)^{1/2}n-\frac32(2\log b)^{-1/2}\log n]$, for $0<\beta<\beta_c$ we prove that, along increasing sequences of $n$ such that the fractional part of $m_{n}$ converges to an $s\in[0,1)$, the centered maximum $\max_{x\in\Lambda_n}\varphi_x-\lfloor m_n\rfloor$ tends (as $n\to\infty$) in law to a discrete variant of a randomly shifted Gumbel law with the shift depending non-trivially on $s$. The convergence extends to the extremal process whose law tends to a decorated Poisson point process with a random intensity measure. The proofs rely on renormalization-group analysis which enables a tight coupling of the DG-model to a Gaussian Free Field. The interval $(0,\beta_c]$ marks the full range of values of $\beta$ for which the renormalization-group iterations tend to a "trivial" fixed point.Comment: 46 pages, preliminary versio

Interactive internet banking system

With the popularity of the Internet, client/server software systems have been under tremendous growth. The banking system is one of the most important application domains that are naturally adopting the client/server solution. Currently available banking systems are based on human-machine (between bank customers and application server) interaction model, which can only accomplish simple bank transactions. Interactive Internet Banking System (IIBS) is an interactive client/server application, which allows bank customers to access traditional bank services and interact with bank representatives through the Internet. The system is implemented using distributed objects paradigm with CORBA/Java as client/server middleware. This report gives a detailed description of the background, design, and implementation of the system

ImFace++: A Sophisticated Nonlinear 3D Morphable Face Model with Implicit Neural Representations

Accurate representations of 3D faces are of paramount importance in various computer vision and graphics applications. However, the challenges persist due to the limitations imposed by data discretization and model linearity, which hinder the precise capture of identity and expression clues in current studies. This paper presents a novel 3D morphable face model, named ImFace++, to learn a sophisticated and continuous space with implicit neural representations. ImFace++ first constructs two explicitly disentangled deformation fields to model complex shapes associated with identities and expressions, respectively, which simultaneously facilitate the automatic learning of correspondences across diverse facial shapes. To capture more sophisticated facial details, a refinement displacement field within the template space is further incorporated, enabling a fine-grained learning of individual-specific facial details. Furthermore, a Neural Blend-Field is designed to reinforce the representation capabilities through adaptive blending of an array of local fields. In addition to ImFace++, we have devised an improved learning strategy to extend expression embeddings, allowing for a broader range of expression variations. Comprehensive qualitative and quantitative evaluations demonstrate that ImFace++ significantly advances the state-of-the-art in terms of both face reconstruction fidelity and correspondence accuracy.Comment: Project page: https://github.com/MingwuZheng/ImFace/tree/imface%2B%2B. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2203.1451

Advanced Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing Technologies for the Internet of Things

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Regulatory Pressure, Blockholders, and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Disclosures in China

Purpose - This paper investigates the relationship between external regulation pressure and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reporting decision and comprehensiveness, and the relationship between block ownership and CSR in China. Design/methodology/approach - This paper provides descriptive statistics of the current state of CSR reporting in China. In addition, regression models are utilized to analyze the behavior of CSR reporting of a sample of 5,334 listed firms in China. Findings - Our paper records a significant increase of CSR reporting in the period of 2008-2010. Using a sample of 5,334 listed firms in China, we find a positive yet weak association between centrally controlled State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) and CSR reports. Moreover, we find that firms with more concentrated block ownership are less likely to issue CSR reports. Research limitations/implications - Taken as a whole, our analyses suggest that the entrenchment effect from blockholders seems to dominate the incentive effect and this depresses the quality of CSR reports. Practical implications - Despite the well known effect of economic factors on CSR decision, corporate governance such as ownership structure could complicate the final results. Furthermore, the institutional background of the country and its implications for corporate governance should be considered jointly and concurrently. Social implications - The positive effect from regulatory pressure on centrally owned SOEs suggests that regulation remains an effective tool to encourage CSR reporting in emerging markets. Originality/value - First, our study confirms prior research that CSR disclosure decision is primarily driven by economic and strategic considerations. Moreover, our results suggest that a country's institutional background, in addition to economic and strategic considerations, influences the decision and quality of CSR disclosures. Second, we extend the literature on ownership structure, particularly with respect to blockholders. Third, our research design addresses a weakness in earlier studies which are biased exclusively on state ownership to the exclusion of all other blockholders

Monitoring the progression of metastatic breast cancer on nanoporous silica chips

Breast cancer accounted for 15 per cent of total cancer deaths in female patients in 2010. Although significant progress has been made in treating early-stage breast cancer patients, there is still no effective therapy targeting late-stage metastatic breast cancers except for the conventional chemotherapy interventions. Until effective therapy for later-stage cancers emerges, the identification of biomarkers for the early detection of tumour metastasis continues to hold the key to successful management of breast cancer therapy. Our study concentrated on the low molecular weight (LMW) region of the serum protein and the information it contains for identifying biomarkers that could reflect the ongoing physiological state of all tissues. Owing to technical difficulties in harvesting LMW species, studying these proteins/peptides has been challenging until now. In our study, we have recently developed nanoporous chip-based technologies to separate small proteins/peptides from the large proteins in serum. We used nanoporous silica chips, with a highly periodic nanostructure and uniform pore size distribution, to isolate LMW proteins and peptides from the serum of nude mice with MDA-MB-231 human breast cancer lung metastasis. By matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry and biostatistical analysis, we were able to identify protein signatures unique to different stages of cancer development. The approach and results reported in this study possess a significant potential for the discovery of proteomic biomarkers that may significantly enhance personalized medicine targeted at metastatic breast cancer

Exploring the Potential Pharmacologic Mechanism of Heterophyllin B in the Treatment of Esophageal Cancer by Network Pharmacology

This study used the method of network pharmacology to preliminarily predict the mechanism of Heterophyllin B(HB) inhibiting Esophageal Cancer(EC). We found the HB targets in the TCMSP and PuChem databases, and searched all EC-related targets in the GeneCards database. Taken the intersection of HB and EC as potential targets for inhibiting EC, and used Cytoscape 3.7.1 software to perform topological analysis on potential targets to obtain core targets. Used the start Analysisi function in the DAVID database to analyzed the biological process of the core target, and visualized it with the the R language tool. As a result, 75 potential targets for inhibiting EC were obtained, of which MMP9, MMP2, CCND1, STAT3, CXCR4, BDKRB1and PTGS2 were the main core targets. HB inhibits the occurrence of EC through Pathways in cancer, TNF signaling pathway, Bladder cancer, Small cell lung cancer, Rheumatoid arthritis related pathways, mainly involving proteolysis, collagen catabolic process, extracellular matrix disassembly, positive regulation of cell proliferation, positive regulation of cytosolic calcium ion concentration biological processes. This study initially revealed the molecular mechanism of HB inhibiting EC, and provided a reference for HB to expand new indications

Analysis of Oxoglaucine in the Treatment of Breast Cancer Based on Network Pharmacology and Bioinformatics

To explore the potential molecular mechanism of Oxoglaucine(OG) in the treatment of Breast Cancer(BC) based on network pharmacology and bioinformatics. TCMSP and SwissTargetPrediction databases search for OG Related targets, and GeneCards database finds all BC-related targets. Take the intersection of OG and BC as all potential targets that inhibit BC. All potential targets are topologically analyzed by Cytoscape 3.7.1 software, and finally the core target is obtained. The start analysisi function in the DAVID database performs bioinformatics analysis on all core targets, and further visualizes them with the help of R language tools. As a result, 104 potential targets were obtained, of which SRC, PIK3CA, EGFR, MTOR, ESR1, MAPK1, PTGS2, AR, and NOS3 were the main core targets. OG inhibits the occurrence of BC through Pathways in cancer, PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, Proteoglycans in cancer, ErbB signaling pathway, HIF-1 signaling pathway related pathways, mainly involving signal transduction, protein phosphorylation, negative regulation of apoptotic process, positive regulation of transcription from RNA polymerase II promoter, phosphatidylinositol-mediated signaling biological processes. This study initially reveals the molecular mechanism of OG inhibiting BC, which provides a reference for further research

A Computational Drug-Target Network for Yuanhu Zhitong Prescription

Yuanhu Zhitong prescription (YZP) is a typical and relatively simple traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), widely used in the clinical treatment of headache, gastralgia, and dysmenorrhea. However, the underlying molecular mechanism of action of YZP is not clear. In this study, based on the previous chemical and metabolite analysis, a complex approach including the prediction of the structure of metabolite, high-throughput in silico screening, and network reconstruction and analysis was developed to obtain a computational drug-target network for YZP. This was followed by a functional and pathway analysis by ClueGO to determine some of the pharmacologic activities. Further, two new pharmacologic actions, antidepressant and antianxiety, of YZP were validated by animal experiments using zebrafish and mice models. The forced swimming test and the tail suspension test demonstrated that YZP at the doses of 4 mg/kg and 8 mg/kg had better antidepressive activity when compared with the control group. The anxiolytic activity experiment showed that YZP at the doses of 100 mg/L, 150 mg/L, and 200 mg/L had significant decrease in diving compared to controls. These results not only shed light on the better understanding of the molecular mechanisms of YZP for curing diseases, but also provide some evidence for exploring the classic TCM formulas for new clinical application