RoFnet – Reconfigurable Radio over Fiber Network Architecture Overview, Journal of Telecommunications and Information Technology, 2009, nr 1

This paper introduces the basic operational concepts of the RoFnet – reconfigurable radio over fiber network, which is a project supported by the Portuguese Foundation forScience and Technology. This project proposes an innovative radio over fiber optical access network architecture, which combines a low cost base station (BS) design, incorporating reflective semiconductor optical amplifiers, with fiber dispersion mitigation provided by optical single sideband modulation techniques. Optical wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) techniques are used to simplify the access network architecture allowing for different BSs to be fed by a common fiber. Different wavelength channels can be allocated to different BSs depending on user requirements. Additionally, in order to improve radio coverage within a cell, it is considered a sectorized antenna interface. The combination of subcarrier multiplexing with WDM, further simplifies the network architecture, by using a specific wavelength channel to feed an individual BS and different subcarriers to drive the individual antenna sectors within the BS

Hand grip strength and adductor pollicis muscle thickness in patients on palliative care for hepatocellular carcinoma

Summary: Background & aims: Malnutrition is a common condition of difficult diagnosis in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. The objective of this study was to evaluate the nutritional status of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma in palliative care through handgrip strength and adductor pollicis muscle thickness. Methods: Data on the severity of liver disease, and oncological and nutritional assessment data, including body mass index (BMI), hand grip strength (HGS), and adductor pollicis muscle thickness (APMT), were collected from the electronic medical records of patients in nutritional outpatient follow-up. Analyzes were performed with all patients in a single group or according to Child-Turcotte-Pugh classification. Associations were analyzed by the Pearson correlation coefficient, with a p value > 0.05 indicating significance. Results: Mean values of BMI and APMT increased while HGS decreased as disease severity increased according to the CHILD scale. According to the Performance Status evaluation by ECOG, the higher the severity of the disease assessed by the CHILD scale the worse the HGS and ECOG values. A correlation between HGS and CHILD B and C was found. Conclusions: Higher BMI values and lower HGS values may be associated with a greater disease severity. HGS may be an interesting resource as a predictor of lean body mass in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. Further studies are needed to evaluate the use of APMT in this group of patients. Keywords: Hepatocellular carcinoma, Nutritional status, Cirrhosis, Hand grip strength, Adductor pollicis muscle thicknes