Donald Broadbent : 12th annual Broadbent lecture

In the 12th annual Broadbent Lecture at the Annual Conference Dianne Berry outlined Broadbent’s explicit and implicit influences on psychological science and scientists.

Megnin re-analysed: the case of the newborn baby girl, Paris, 1878

This paper analyses acarological evidence from a 130-year-old forensic investigation. It was the first case in forensic acarology, i.e., the first case where mites provided substantial information to estimate the post-mortem interval (PMI). In 1878, the mites found in the mummified body of a newborn baby girl in Paris, France, were studied by acarologist and forensic entomologist Jean Pierre M,gnin. M,gnin estimated around 2.4 million mites in the skull and identified them as Tyroglyphus longior (Gervais), a junior synonym of Tyrophagus longior. He suggested that the arrival of these mites at the corpse would have occurred by phoresy on carrier insects, roughly 5 months before the autopsy. There is no doubt about the identification of the mites, M,gnin was a highly respected acarologist. However, two main factors affecting the biology of Tyrophagus mites were not included in the original analysis. First, M,gnin stated that the mites were phoretic. However, he probably did not have access to information about the natural history of the species, because as a rule Tyrophagus mites are non-phoretic. Considering the omnipresence of Tyrophagus mites in soil, most likely the mites will have arrived almost immediately after death. Second, temperature was not taken into account during the estimations of the mite population growth rate. The new analysis is based on current knowledge of Tyrophagus biology and includes temperature, estimated following a handful of weather reports of the years 1877 and 1878. The new projections indicate that non-phoretic mites may have colonised the body just after death and the colony would have built up over 8 months, contrary to the 5 months proposed by M,gnin. This new lapse of time agrees with the PMI proposed by Brouardel: on 15 January 1878 he postulated the death of the newborn to have occurred some 8 months before the autopsy.

Offering 802.11 MAC frame transport over multiband OFDM for consumer devices

A method to map all the variants of the IEEE 802.11 MAC frames into the Multiband OFDM based ECMA-368 Physical standard is proposed, without contravening the standard. The transportation of IEEE 802.11 MAC frames over ECMA-368 allows for the migration current of Wireless LAN applications towards a Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN) solution. This system benefits the Consumer Electronics Market as the high data-rate WPAN is capable of transporting broadcast-quality video while the same system can also transport existing applications available today, maintaining existing effort, products and backward-compatibility(1).

Modelling energy consumption of relay-enabled MAC protocols in ad hoc networks

To enhance the throughput of ad hoc networks, dual-hop relay-enabled transmission schemes have recently been proposed. Since in ad hoc networks throughput is normally related to their energy consumption, it is important to examine the impact of using relay-enabled transmissions on energy consumption. In this paper, we present an analytical energy consumption model for dual-hop relay-enabled medium access control (MAC) protocols. Based on the recently reported relay-enabled distributed coordination function (rDCF), we have shown the efficacy of the proposed analytical model. This is a generalized model and can be used to predict energy consumption in saturated relay-enabled ad hoc networks via energy decomposition. This is helpful in designing MAC protocols for cooperative communications and it is shown that using a relay results not only in a better throughput but also better energy efficiency.

Modeling energy consumption of dual-hop relay based MAC protocols in ad hoc networks

Given that the next and current generation networks will coexist for a considerable period of time, it is important to improve the performance of existing networks. One such improvement recently proposed is to enhance the throughput of ad hoc networks by using dual-hop relay-based transmission schemes. Since in ad hoc networks throughput is normally related to their energy consumption, it is important to examine the impact of using relay-based transmissions on energy consumption. In this paper, we present an analytical energy consumption model for dual-hop relay-based medium access control (MAC) protocols. Based on the recently reported relay-enabled Distributed Coordination Function (rDCF), we have shown the efficacy of the proposed analytical model. This is a generalized model and can be used to predict energy consumption in saturated relay-based ad hoc networks. This model can predict energy consumption in ideal environment and with transmission errors. It is shown that using a relay results in not only better throughput but also better energy efficiency. Copyright (C) 2009 Rizwan Ahmad et al.

Mutamenti politico-istituzionali nella Venezia Giulia e a Trieste tra Tito e gli americani alla luce delle nuove testimonianze documentarie da Washington, 1944-1954

“La questione di Trieste”, ovvero la questione del confine italo-yugoslavo all’indomani della seconda guerra mondiale costituisce da lungo tempo oggetto di attenzione e di esame da parte della storiografia italiana e straniera. Con alcune importanti eccezioni, la ricostruzione complessiva di quelle vicende ha visto il più delle volte il prevalere di un approccio storico-diplomatico che ha reso difficile comprendere con chiarezza i rapporti e le interdipendenze fra contesto locale, contesto nazionale e contesto internazionale. Attraverso la lettura incrociata dell’ampia documentazione proveniente dai fondi dei National Archives Records Administration (NARA) questo studio tenta una rilettura delle varie fasi di sviluppo della questione nel periodo compreso tra il giugno del 1945 e l’ottobre del 1954 secondo una duplice prospettiva: nella prima parte si concentra sulla politica americana a Trieste, guardando nello specifico a due aspetti interni tra loro strettamente correlati, la gestione dell’ordine pubblico e la “strategia” del consenso da realizzarsi mediante il controllo dell’informazione da un lato e la promozione di una politica culturale dall’altro. Sono aspetti entrambi riconducibili al modello del direct rule, che conferiva al governo militare alleato (GMA) piena ed esclusiva autorità di governo sulla zona A della Venezia Giulia, e che ci appaiono centrali anche per cogliere l’interazione fra istituzioni e soggetti sociali. Nella seconda parte, invece, il modificarsi della fonte d’archivio indica un cambiamento di priorità nella politica estera americana relativa a Trieste: a margine dei negoziati internazionali, i documenti del fondo Clare Boothe Luce nelle carte dell’Ambasciata mostrano soprattutto come la questione di Trieste venne proiettata verso l’esterno, verso l’Italia in particolare, e sfruttata – principalmente dall’ambasciatrice – nell’ottica bipolare della guerra fredda per rinforzare il sostegno interno alla politica atlantica. Il saggio, dunque, si sviluppa lungo due linee: dentro e fuori Trieste, dentro 1945-1952, fuori 1953-1954, perché dalle fonti consultate sono queste ad emergere come aree di priorità nei due periodi. Abstract - English The “Trieste question”, or the question regarding the Italian - Yugoslav border after the Second World War, has been the object of careful examination in both Italian and foreign historiography for a long time. With a few important exceptions, the overall reconstruction of these events has been based for the most part on historic and diplomatic approaches, which have sometimes made it rather difficult to understand clearly the relationships and interdependences at play between local, national and international contexts. Through a comparative analysis of a large body of documents from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), College Park MD, this essay attempts a second reading of the various phases in which the question developed between June 1945 and October 1954, following a twofold perspective: the first part focuses on American policy for Trieste, specifically looking at two internal and closely linked aspects, on the one hand, the management of ‘law and order’, as well as a ‘strategy’ of consent, to be achieved through the control of all the means of information , and, on the other, the promotion of a cultural policy. Both aspects can be traced back to the ‘direct rule’ model, which gave the Allied Military Government (AMG) full and exclusive governing authority over Venezia Giulia’s Zone A. These issues are also fundamental to a better understanding of the relationships between institutions and social subjects. In the second part of the essay , the change in archival sources clearly indicates a new set of priorities in American foreign policy regarding Trieste: outside any international negotiations for the settlement of the question, the Clare Boothe Luce papers held in the Embassy’s archives, show how the Trieste question was focused on external concerns, Italy in particular, and exploited – above all by the ambassador – within the bi-polar optic of the Cold War, in order to strengthen internal support for Atlantic policies. The essay therefore follows two main lines of inquiry: within and outside Trieste, within in 1945-1952, and outside 1953-1954, since, from the archival sources used, these emerge as priority areas in the two periods.

A cross layer protocol based on mac and routing protocols for healthcare applications using Wireless Sensor Networks

Using Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) in healthcare systems has had a lot of attention in recent years. In much of this research tasks like sensor data processing, health states decision making and emergency message sending are done by a remote server. Many patients with lots of sensor data consume a great deal of communication resources, bring a burden to the remote server and delay the decision time and notification time. A healthcare application for elderly people using WSN has been simulated in this paper. A WSN designed for the proposed healthcare application needs efficient MAC and routing protocols to provide a guarantee for the reliability of the data delivered from the patients to the medical centre. Based on these requirements, A cross layer based on the modified versions of APTEEN and GinMAC has been designed and implemented, with new features, such as a mobility module and routes discovery algorithms have been added. Simulation results show that the proposed cross layer based protocol can conserve energy for nodes and provide the required performance such as life time of the network, delay and reliability for the proposed healthcare application.

MAC protocols and mobility management module for healthcare applications using Wireless Sensor Networks

Using Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) in healthcare systems has had a lot of attention in recent years. In much of this research tasks like sensor data processing, health states decision making and emergency message sending are done by a remote server. Many patients with lots of sensor data consume a great deal of communication resources, bring a burden to the remote server and delay the decision time and notification time. A healthcare application for elderly people using WSN has been simulated in this paper. A WSN designed for the proposed healthcare application needs efficient Medium Access Control (MAC) and routing protocols to provide a guarantee for the reliability of the data delivered from the patients to the medical centre. Based on these requirements, the GinMAC protocol including a mobility module has been chosen, to provide the required performance such as reliability for data delivery and energy saving. Simulation results show that this modification to GinMAC can offer the required performance for the proposed healthcare application.

MAC protocols and mobility management module for healthcare applications using wireless sensor networks

Using Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) in healthcare systems has had a lot of attention in recent years. In much of this research tasks like sensor data processing, health states decision making and emergency message sending are done by a remote server. Many patients with lots of sensor data consume a great deal of communication resources, bring a burden to the remote server and delay the decision time and notification time. A healthcare application for elderly people using WSN has been simulated in this paper. A WSN designed for the proposed healthcare application needs efficient MAC and routing protocols to provide a guarantee for the reliability of the data delivered from the patients to the medical centre. Based on these requirements, the GinMAC protocol including a mobility module has been chosen, to provide the required performance such as reliability for data delivery and energy saving. Simulation results show that this modification to GinMAC can offer the required performance for the proposed healthcare application.