Distance Aware Relaying Energy-efficient: DARE to Monitor Patients in Multi-hop Body Area Sensor Networks

In recent years, interests in the applications of Wireless Body Area Sensor Network (WBASN) is noticeably developed. WBASN is playing a significant role to get the real time and precise data with reduced level of energy consumption. It comprises of tiny, lightweight and energy restricted sensors, placed in/on the human body, to monitor any ambiguity in body organs and measure various biomedical parameters. In this study, a protocol named Distance Aware Relaying Energy-efficient (DARE) to monitor patients in multi-hop Body Area Sensor Networks (BASNs) is proposed. The protocol operates by investigating the ward of a hospital comprising of eight patients, under different topologies by positioning the sink at different locations or making it static or mobile. Seven sensors are attached to each patient, measuring different parameters of Electrocardiogram (ECG), pulse rate, heart rate, temperature level, glucose level, toxins level and motion. To reduce the energy consumption, these sensors communicate with the sink via an on-body relay, affixed on the chest of each patient. The body relay possesses higher energy resources as compared to the body sensors as, they perform aggregation and relaying of data to the sink node. A comparison is also conducted conducted with another protocol of BAN named, Mobility-supporting Adaptive Threshold-based Thermal-aware Energy-efficient Multi-hop ProTocol (M-ATTEMPT). The simulation results show that, the proposed protocol achieves increased network lifetime and efficiently reduces the energy consumption, in relative to M-ATTEMPT protocol.Comment: IEEE 8th International Conference on Broadband and Wireless Computing, Communication and Applications (BWCCA'13), Compiegne, Franc

Histomorphological changes of surri mouse thyroid gland following long term administration of morphine

. زمینه و هدف: گزارشات ضد و نقیضی در مورد اثرات مرفین بر غده تیروئید وجود دارد. این مطالعه با هدف بررسی تاثیر استفاده طولانی مدت مرفین بر وزن بدن، وزن غده تیروئید و تغییرات هیستومورفولوژیک غده تیروئید موش سوری در مراحل مختلف رشد طراحی و اجرا شده است. روش بررسی: در این مطالعه تجربی 150 سر موش سوری ماده نژاد Balb/c با سن دو هفته، به صورت تصادفی به سه گروه مساوی و در مرحله بعد موش ها در هر گروه به چهار زیر گروه تقسیم شدند. زیر گروه اول (زیر گروه شاهد 5 =n) فقط آب، زیر گروه دوم (زیر گروه شم 5=n) آب و mg/ml5 شکر، زیر گروه سوم (زیر گروه تجربی یک 20 =n) mg/ml04/0 مرفین و mg/ml5 شکر و زیر گروه چهارم (زیر گروه تجربی دو 20 =n) mg/ml 4/0 مرفین و mg/ml5 شکر به صورت خوراکی دریافت کردند. گروه اول و دوم 21 روز و گروه سوم 63 روز مرفین مصرف کردند. داده ها با استفاده از آزمون آماری ANOVA و تست تعقیبی Tukey در نرم افزار SPSS مورد تجزیه و تحلیل آماری قرار گرفتند. یافته ها: مصرف مزمن مرفین در هر دو غلظت باعث کاهش چشمگیر وزن بدن موش ها در زیر گروه های دوم و سوم و همچنین وزن تیروئید در زیر گروه های اول و دوم شد (05/0>P). مطالعات هیستومرفولوژیک آشکار کرد که مصرف مزمن مرفین باعث افزایش اندازه و شکل سلول های فولیکولی در تیروئید شده است؛ افزون بر این شکل فولیکول های غده در زیر گروه های تجربی تغییر کرده و حاوی مقادیر کمی کلوئید در مقایسه با زیر گروه های شم و شاهد شده است. نتیجه گیری: مصرف مزمن مرفین می تواند علاوه بر وزن بدن و وزن تیروئید، ساختمان و فعالیت تیروئید را نیز تحت تأثیر قرار دهد

The Long Term Impact of Health on Economic Growth in Pakistan

The paper investigates the impacts of different health indicators on economic growth in Pakistan. Cointegration and Error Correction techniques have been applied on the time series data of Pakistan for the period of 1972-2006. We find that per capita GDP is positively influenced by health indicators in the long run and health indicators cause per capita GDP. However, in short run the health indicators fail to put significant impact on per capita GDP. It reveals that health indicators have a long run impact on economic growth. It also suggests that impact of health is only a long run phenomenon and in the short run there is no significant relationship exists between health variables and economic growth. The major policy implication of the study is that if we desire high levels of per capita income, we can achieve it by increasing and improving stock of health human capital, especially when current stocks are at lower end. Moreover, study also points out a rather diminutive role of public health expenditure in determining the per capita GDP.Health Human Capital; Economic Growth; Cointegration, Error Correction

Performance of ultrawideband wireless tags for on-body radio channel characterisation

Experimental characterisation of on-body radio channel for ultrawideband (UWB) wireless active tags is reported in this paper. The aim of this study is to investigate the performance of the commercially available wireless tags on the UWB on-body radio channel characterisation. Measurement campaigns are performed in the chamber and in an indoor environment. Statistical path loss parameters of nine different on-body radio channels for static and dynamic cases are shown and analyzed. Results demonstrated that lognormal distribution provides the best fits for on-body propagation channels path loss model. The path loss was modeled as a function of distance for 34 different receiver locations for propagation along the front part of the body. A reduction of 11.46% path loss exponent is noticed in case of indoor environment as compared to anechoic chamber. In addition, path loss exponent is also extracted for different body parts (trunk, arms, and legs). Second-order channel parameters as fade probability (FP), level crossing rate (LCR), and average fade duration (AFD) are also investigated

THE-FAME: THreshold based Energy-efficient FAtigue MEasurment for Wireless Body Area Sensor Networks using Multiple Sinks

Wireless Body Area Sensor Network (WBASN) is a technology employed mainly for patient health monitoring. New research is being done to take the technology to the next level i.e. player's fatigue monitoring in sports. Muscle fatigue is the main cause of player's performance degradation. This type of fatigue can be measured by sensing the accumulation of lactic acid in muscles. Excess of lactic acid makes muscles feel lethargic. Keeping this in mind we propose a protocol \underline{TH}reshold based \underline{E}nergy-efficient \underline{FA}tigue \underline{ME}asurement (THE-FAME) for soccer players using WBASN. In THE-FAME protocol, a composite parameter has been used that consists of a threshold parameter for lactic acid accumulation and a parameter for measuring distance covered by a particular player. When any parameters's value in this composite parameter shows an increase beyond threshold, the players is declared to be in a fatigue state. The size of battery and sensor should be very small for the sake of players' best performance. These sensor nodes, implanted inside player's body, are made energy efficient by using multiple sinks instead of a single sink. Matlab simulation results show the effectiveness of THE-FAME.Comment: IEEE 8th International Conference on Broadband and Wireless Computing, Communication and Applications (BWCCA'13), Compiegne, Franc

The effect of primordial mass segregation on the size scale of globular clusters

We use direct $N$-body calculations to investigate the impact of primordial mass segregation on the size scale and mass-loss rate of star clusters in a galactic tidal field. We run a set of simulations of clusters with varying degrees of primordial mass segregation at various galactocentric radii and show that, in primordially segregated clusters, the early, impulsive mass-loss from stellar evolution of the most massive stars in the innermost regions of the cluster leads to a stronger expansion than for initially non-segregated clusters. Therefore, models in stronger tidal fields dissolve faster due to an enhanced flux of stars over the tidal boundary. Throughout their lifetimes, the segregated clusters are more extended by a factor of about 2, suggesting that (at least) some of the very extended globular clusters in the outer halo of the Milky Way may have been born with primordial mass segregation. We finally derive a relation between star-cluster dissolution time, $T_{diss}$, and galactocentric radius, $R_G$, and show how it depends on the degree of primordial mass segregation.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Human Gait Database for Normal Walk Collected by Smart Phone Accelerometer

The goal of this study is to introduce a comprehensive gait database of 93 human subjects who walked between two endpoints during two different sessions and record their gait data using two smartphones, one was attached to the right thigh and another one on the left side of the waist. This data is collected with the intention to be utilized by a deep learning-based method which requires enough time points. The metadata including age, gender, smoking, daily exercise time, height, and weight of an individual is recorded. this data set is publicly available

Genotypic distribution of rotavirus strains causing severe gastroenteritis in children under 5 years old in Borazjan, Iran

Objective This study was conducted to evaluate the prevalence of rotavirus disease and to investigate the genotypes of rotavirus strains causing acute gastroenteritis among children aged <5 years old in Marvdasht, Iran. Methods One hundred and forty-one children, aged 1 month to 5 years, afflicted with severe diarrhea were enrolled during January 2007 to December 2008. Their stool samples were studied with enzyme immunoassays (EIA) for group A rotaviruses. Rotavirus-positive specimens were genotyped by the Nested RT-PCR using different types of specific primers. Findings Out of total collected samples rotavirus infection was detected in 40 (28.37%). Of the rotavirus episodes, 72.91% occurred during the first 2 years of life (P=0.038). The highest prevalence of infection was identified in summer (52.50%) and the lowest in winter (7.50%). The most common clinical features included diarrhea (96.25%), vomiting (82.50%) and fever (45.0%). Mixed genotypes were the predominant G type (60.0%), followed by non-typeable (12.50%), G2 (12.50%), G4 (10.0%) and G1 (5.0%) genotypes. G3/G8 mixed infection is the first of these rotavirus genotypes to be reported in Iran. Conclusion Regarding high frequency of rotavirus infection, continuous surveillance is needed to inform diarrhea prevention programs as well as to provide information about the occurrence of new rotavirus strains. This will assist policy makers in decision making on rotavirus vaccine introduction. Keywords: Rotavirus, Gastroenteritis, Genotyping, Children, Epidemiolog