Knowledge-based modelling applied to synucleinopathies

The adoption of telemedicine technologies has enabled collaborative programs involving a variety of links among distributed medical structures and health officials and professionals. The use for telemedicine for transmission of medical data and the possibility for several distant physicians to share their knowledge on given medical cases provides clear benefits, but also raises several unsolved conceptual and technical challenges. The seamless exchange and access of medical information between medical structures, health professionals, and patients is a prerequisite for the harmonious development of this new medical practice. This paper proposes a new approach of semantic interoperability for enabling mutual understanding of terminologies and concepts used. The proposed semantic interoperability approach is based on conceptual graph to support collaborative activities by describing how different health specialists can apply appropriate strategies to eliminate differential medical diagnosis. Intelligent analysis strategies are used to narrow down and pinpoint medical disorders. The model proposed is fully verified by a case study in the context of elderly patients and specifically dealing with synucleinopathies, a group of neurodegenerative diseases that include Parkinson's disease (PD), dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), pure autonomic failure (PAF) and multiple system atrophy (MSA)

Design and performance analysis of pure and hybrid WDM optical networks

In optical networking, information-bearing electrical signals are transported by up-converting the signals into the optical domain and then transmitting them over high-capacity low-loss optical fiber links. Furthermore, optical switching nodes with a large throughput can be used to alleviate the contention for fibers, route the optical signals and avoid failed fiber links. This guarantees a robust always-on service for entities transporting their signals via the optical network. Based on those merits, optical networking technologies are now being increasingly adapted in most operational medium and long range networks. Of the existing technologies, wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) transmission is ubiquitous due to its ability to multiply the capacity of the installed fiber base and to enhance the flexibility of provisioning of the fiber capacity by utilizing the wavelength degree of freedom in an intelligent optical layer. This thesis focuses on flexibility improvement techniques that enable dynamic provision of bandwidth available in optical networks within acceptable cost bounds. The aforementioned nodes for optical connection provisioning are studied in detail. From the study, novel node architectures are proposed with improved scalability for handling more connections and reduced signal impairment for increased transmission range. The thesis proposes techniques for incorporating dependability enhancement during initial node design stage and the gradual node scaling after deployment by optimizing the allocation of redundant modules. Analytical comparison based on example dependability-enhanced nodes indicate significant improvements compared to corresponding nodes without redundancy. Hybrid WDM networks utilize an extra optical degree of freedom in addition to signal wavelength. The virtues of hybrid WDM as an optical layer grooming method are investigated. To that end, the thesis pays particular attention to hybrid OCDM (optical code-division multiplexing) / WDM transmission. The connection acceptance improvement due to OCDM/WDM transmission is analysed and the possible limitations of various light-path schemes are noted. The potential application of hybrid WDM for radio-over-fiber systems is explored for an urban-wide hierarchical metropolitan network. In that case, the more complex hybrid WDM scheme showed significant improvement in utilization of optical resources compared to conventional WDM implementation. Semi-hybrid WDM is proposed as a compromise solution between pure and hybrid WDM implementations. Furthermore, a 60 GHz radio-over-fiber OCDM/WDM system is proposed and guidelines are presented for possible performance improvement.reviewe

Coordinated multi-point transmission for relaxation of self-backhauling bottlenecks in heterogeneous networks

The heterogeneous deployment of high-power macro cells and low-power nodes (LPNs) is now widely acknowledged as an essential requirement towards meeting the continued demand for mobile data capacity. The selection of the optimum backhaul solution for the LPNs obliges operators to consider not only the capacity of the backhaul but also other key factors so as to fully leverage the benefits provided by LPNs: the cost of the backhauling may limit the density of LPN deployments and the backhaul configuration requirements impact on the flexibility of LPN deployment. To that end, self-backhauling of LPNs via the existing macro radio access network (RAN) provides an attractive solution, particularly for deployment scenarios that are very cost-sensitive and/or require high flexibility. However, use of self-backhauling usually makes backhaul as a bottleneck due to the a) limited bandwidth allocated for legacy macro RAN, b) the need to share resources with macro user equipment (UE), and c) the high-intercell interference particularly in the macro cell edge. In this paper, we provide an overview of self-backhauled LPNs and investigate possible performance enhancements through the use of coordinated multi-point (CoMP) transmission to relax the downlink backhaul capacity bottleneck for self-backhauled LPNs. To that end, we carry out analytical studies for a practical limited-feedback CoMP technique and numerically verify the derived capacity outage expressions. Furthermore, we implement a simulation study for an exemplary heterogeneous network deployment in a realistic radio propagation environment. The results of the studies demonstrate that significant spectral efficiency and throughput gains for the LPN backhaul are achievable through the use of selected CoMP technique under realizable feedback overhead, even under feedback bit error. The achieved relaxation in the backhaul bottleneck is observed providing improved performance for the UEs served by the LPNs. Furthermore, more resources will be available for macro UEs leading to overall performance gains compared to the case without CoMP.Peer reviewe

A Data-Driven Multiobjective Optimization Framework for Hyperdense 5G Network Planning

The trials and rollout of the fifth generation (5G) network technologies are gradually intensifying as 5G is positioned as a platform that not only accommodates exploding data traffic but also unlocks a multitude use cases, services and deployment scenarios. However, the need for hyperdense 5G deployments is revealing some of the limitations of planning approaches that hitherto proved adequate for pre-5G systems. The hyperdensification envisioned in 5G networks not only adds complexity to network planning and optimization problems, but underlines need for more realistic data-driven approaches that consider cost, varying demands and other contextual attributes to produce feasible topologies. Furthermore, the quest for network programmability and automation including the 5G radio access network (RAN), as manifested by network slicing technologies and more flexible RAN architectures, are also among other factors that influence planning and optimization frameworks. Collectively, these deployment trends, technological developments and evolving (and diverse) service demands point towards the need for more holistic frameworks. This article proposes a data-driven multiobjective optimization framework for hyperdense 5G network planning with practical case studies used to illustrate added value compared to contemporary network planning and optimization approaches. Comparative results from the case study with real network data reveal potential performance and cost improvements of hyperdense optimized networks produced by the proposed framework due to increased use of contextual data of planning area and focus on objectives that target demand satisfaction.Peer reviewe