SeaMo plus : a virtual real-time multimedia service framework on handhelds to enable remote real-time patient monitoring for mobile doctors

The key requirements for enabling real-time remote healthcare service on a mobile platform, in the present day heterogeneous wireless access network environment, are uninterrupted and continuous access to the online patient vital medical data, monitor the physical condition of the patient through video streaming, and so on. For an application, this continuity has to be sufficiently transparent both from a performance perspective as well as a Quality of Experience (QoE) perspective. While mobility protocols (MIPv6, HIP, SCTP, DSMIP, PMIP, and SIP) strive to provide both and do so, limited or non-availability (deployment) of these protocols on provider networks and server side infrastructure has impeded adoption of mobility on end user platforms. Add to this, the cumbersome OS configuration procedures required to enable mobility protocol support on end user devices and the user's enthusiasm to add this support is lost. Considering the lack of proper mobility implementations that meet the remote healthcare requirements above, we propose SeaMo+ that comprises a light-weight application layer framework, termed as the Virtual Real-time Multimedia Service (VRMS) for mobile devices to provide an uninterrupted real-time multimedia information access to the mobile user. VRMS is easy to configure, platform independent, and does not require additional network infrastructure unlike other existing schemes. We illustrate the working of SeaMo+ in two realistic remote patient monitoring application scenarios.

Flow cytometry analysis of human fetal osteoblast fate processes on spark plasma sintered hydroxyapatite-titanium biocomposites

Hydroxyapatite (HA)-based biocomposites have been widely investigated for a multitude of applications and these studies have been largely driven to improve mechanical properties (toughness and strength) without compromising cytocompatibility properties. Apart from routine cell viability/proliferation analysis, limited efforts have been made to quantify the fate processes (cell proliferation, cell cycle, and cell apoptosis) of human fetal osteoblast (hFOB) cells on HA-based composites, in vitro. In this work, the osteoblast cell fate process has been studied on a model hydroxyapatite-titanium (HA-Ti) system using the flow cytometry. In order to retain both HA and Ti, the novel processing technique, that is, spark plasma sintering, was suitably adopted. The cell fate processes of hFOBs, as evaluated using a flow cytometry, revealed statistically insignificant differences among HA-10 wt % Ti and HA and control (tissue culture polystyrene surface) in terms of osteoblast apoptosis, proliferation index as well as division index. For the first time, we provide quantified flow cytometry results to demonstrate that 10 wt % Ti additions to HA do not have any significant influence on the fate processes of human osteoblast-like cells, in vitro.

Real time monitoring of petroleum leakage detection using etched fiber Bragg grating

Detection of petroleum leakages in pipelines and storage tanks is a very important as it may lead to significant pollution of the environment, accidental hazards, and also it is a very important fuel resource. Petroleum leakage detection sensor based on fiber optics was fabricated by etching the fiber Bragg grating (FBG) to a region where the total internal reflection is affected. The experiment shows that the reflected Bragg's wavelength and intensity goes to zero when etched FBG is in air and recovers Bragg's wavelength and intensity when it is comes in contact with petroleum or any external fluid. This acts as high sensitive, fast response fluid optical switch in liquid level sensing, petroleum leakage detection etc. In this paper we present our results on using this technique in petroleum leakage detection.

Compositional hierarchical monitoring automaton construction for LTL

In this paper we give a compositional (or inductive) construction of monitoring automata for LTL formulas. Our construction is similar in spirit to the compositional construction of Kesten and Pnueli [5]. We introduce the notion of hierarchical Büchi automata and phrase our constructions in the framework of these automata. We give detailed constructions for all the principal LTL operators including past operators, along with proofs of correctness of the constructions.

Resource usage monitoring for KVM based virtual machines

Realization of cloud computing has been possible due to availability of virtualization technologies on commodity platforms. Measuring resource usage on the virtualized servers is difficult because of the fact that the performance counters used for resource accounting are not virtualized. Hence, many of the prevalent virtualization technologies like Xen, VMware, KVM etc., use host specific CPU usage monitoring, which is coarse grained. In this paper, we present a performance monitoring tool for KVM based virtualized machines, which measures the CPU overhead incurred by the hypervisor on behalf of the virtual machine along-with the CPU usage of virtual machine itself. This fine-grained resource usage information, provided by the above tool, can be used for diverse situations like resource provisioning to support performance associated QoS requirements, identification of bottlenecks during VM placements, resource profiling of applications in cloud environments, etc. We demonstrate a use case of this tool by measuring the performance of web-servers hosted on a KVM based virtualized server.

A method of developing an agent based ubiquitous node monitoring protocol

A ubiquitous network plays a critical role to provide rendered services to ubiquitous application running nodes. To provide appropriate resources the nodes are needed to be monitored continuously. Monitoring a node in ubiquitous network is challenging because of dynamicity and heterogeneity of the ubiquitous network. The network monitor has to monitor resource parameters, like data rate, delay and throughput, as well as events such as node failure, network failure and fault in the system to curb the system failure. In this paper, we propose a method to develop a ubiquitous system monitoring protocol using agents. Earlier works on network monitoring using agents consider that the agents are designed for particular network. While in our work the heterogeneity property of the network has been considered. We have shown that the nodes' behaviour can be easily monitored by using agents (both static and mobile agent). The past behavior of the application and network, and past history of the Unode and the predecessor are taken into consideration to help SA to take appropriate decision during the time of emergency situation like unavailability of resources at the local administration, and to predict the migration of the Unode based on the previous node history. The results obtained in the simulation reflects the effectiveness of the technique.

6PANview: Application performance conscious network monitoring for 6LoWPAN based WSNs

6PANview[1] is a Wireless Sensor Network(WSN) monitoring system for 6LoWPAN/RPL networks which we developed as an overlay network for a WSN application. A monitoring system, while performing its operations for maintaining the health of the monitored network, must also be conscious of its impact on the application performance, and must strive to minimize this impact. To this end, we propose a centralized scheduling algorithm within 6PANview which non-intrusively analyzes application traffic arrival patterns at the base station, identifies network idle periods and schedules monitoring activities. The proposed algorithm finds those periodic sequences which are likely to have given rise to the pattern of arrivals seen at the base station. Parts of those sequences are then extended to coarsely predict future traffic and find epochs where low traffic is predicted, in order to schedule monitoring traffic or other activities at these times. We present simulation results for the proposed prediction and scheduling algorithm and its implementation as part of 6PANview. As an enhancement, we briefly talk about using 6PANview's overlay network architecture for distributed scheduling.

Structural health monitoring of aerospace structural components using wave propagation based diagnostics

The paper discusses a wave propagation based method for identifying the damages in an aircraft built up structural component such as delamination and skin-stiffener debonding. First, a spectral finite element mode l (SFEM) is developed for modeling wave propagation in general built-up structures by using the concept of assembling 2D spectral plate elements. The developed numerical model is validated using conventional 2-D FEM. Studies are performed to capture the mode coupling,that is, the flexural-axial coupling present in the wave responses. Lastly, the damages in these built up structures are then identified using the developed SFEM model and the measured responses using the concept Damage Force Indicator (DFI) technique.

Acoustic emission techniques for NDE & structural health monitoring of advanced composite materials

Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) is an effective extension of NDE to reduce down time and cost of Inspection of structural components. On – line monitoring is an essential part of SHM. Acoustic Emission Techniques have most of the desirable requirements of an effective SHM tool. With the kind of advancement seen in the last couple of decades in the field of electronics, computers and signal processing technologies it can only be more helpful in obtaining better and meaningful quantitative results which can further enhance the potential of AET for the purpose. Advanced Composite materials owing to their specific high performance characteristics are finding a wide range of engineering applications. Testing and Evaluation of this category of materials and SHM of composite structures have been very challenging problems due to the very nature of these materials. Mechanical behaviour of fiber composite materials under different loading conditions is complex and involves different types of failure mechanisms. This is where the potential of AET can be exploited effectively. This paper presents an over view of some relevant studies where AET has been utilised to test, evaluate and monitor health of composite structures.

Monitoring of ultraviolet pulse rate dependent photomechanical actuation in carbon nanotubes using fiber Bragg gratings

In this Letter, we present a non-contact method of controlling and monitoring photomechanical actuation in carbon nanotubes (CNT) by exposing it to ultra-violet radiation at different pulse rates (10 to 200 Hz). This is accomplished by imparting a reversible photo induced strain (5-330 mu epsilon) on CNT coated fibre Bragg gratings; CNT undergoes an internal reversible structural change due to cyclic photon absorption that leads to the development of mechanical strain, which in turn allows reversible switching of the Bragg wavelength. The results also reveal an interesting pulse rate dependent rise and fall times of photomechanical actuation in CNT. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.

A Networked Control Systems Perspective for Wide-Area Monitoring Control of Smart Power Grids

This paper presents a networked control systems (NCS) framework for wide area monitoring control of smart power grids. We consider a scenario in which wide area measurements are transmitted to controllers at remote locations. We model the effects of delays and packet dropouts due to limited communication capabilities in the grid. We also design a robust networked controller to damp wide-area oscillations based on information obtained from Wide Area Monitoring Systems (WAMS), and analyze the improvement in system stability due to networked control. With communication integration being an important feature of the smart grid, detailed consideration of the effects of communication is essential in the control design for future power systems. We believe that this work is an essential step in this direction.

Monitoring urbanization and its implications in a mega city from space: Spatiotemporal patterns and its indicators

Rapid and invasive urbanization has been associated with depletion of natural resources (vegetation and water resources), which in turn deteriorates the landscape structure and conditions in the local environment. Rapid increase in population due to the migration from rural areas is one of the critical issues of the urban growth. Urbanisation in India is drastically changing the land cover and often resulting in the sprawl. The sprawl regions often lack basic amenities such as treated water supply, sanitation, etc. This necessitates regular monitoring and understanding of the rate of urban development in order to ensure the sustenance of natural resources. Urban sprawl is the extent of urbanization which leads to the development of urban forms with the destruction of ecology and natural landforms. The rate of change of land use and extent of urban sprawl can be efficiently visualized and modelled with the help of geo-informatics. The knowledge of urban area, especially the growth magnitude, shape geometry, and spatial pattern is essential to understand the growth and characteristics of urbanization process. Urban pattern, shape and growth can be quantified using spatial metrics. This communication quantifies the urbanisation and associated growth pattern in Delhi. Spatial data of four decades were analysed to understand land over and land use dynamics. Further the region was divided into 4 zones and into circles of 1 km incrementing radius to understand and quantify the local spatial changes. Results of the landscape metrics indicate that the urban center was highly aggregated and the outskirts and the buffer regions were in the verge of aggregating urban patches. Shannon's Entropy index clearly depicted the outgrowth of sprawl areas in different zones of Delhi. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

CTFS-ForestGEO: a worldwide network monitoring forests in an era of global change

Global change is impacting forests worldwide, threatening biodiversity and ecosystem services including climate regulation. Understanding how forests respond is critical to forest conservation and climate protection. This review describes an international network of 59 long-term forest dynamics research sites (CTFS-ForestGEO) useful for characterizing forest responses to global change. Within very large plots (median size 25ha), all stems 1cm diameter are identified to species, mapped, and regularly recensused according to standardized protocols. CTFS-ForestGEO spans 25 degrees S-61 degrees N latitude, is generally representative of the range of bioclimatic, edaphic, and topographic conditions experienced by forests worldwide, and is the only forest monitoring network that applies a standardized protocol to each of the world's major forest biomes. Supplementary standardized measurements at subsets of the sites provide additional information on plants, animals, and ecosystem and environmental variables. CTFS-ForestGEO sites are experiencing multifaceted anthropogenic global change pressures including warming (average 0.61 degrees C), changes in precipitation (up to +/- 30% change), atmospheric deposition of nitrogen and sulfur compounds (up to 3.8g Nm(-2)yr(-1) and 3.1g Sm(-2)yr(-1)), and forest fragmentation in the surrounding landscape (up to 88% reduced tree cover within 5km). The broad suite of measurements made at CTFS-ForestGEO sites makes it possible to investigate the complex ways in which global change is impacting forest dynamics. Ongoing research across the CTFS-ForestGEO network is yielding insights into how and why the forests are changing, and continued monitoring will provide vital contributions to understanding worldwide forest diversity and dynamics in an era of global change.

A Time-based Low Voltage Body Temperature Monitoring Unit

A neonatal temperature monitoring system operating in subthreshold regime that utilizes time mode signal processing is presented. Resistance deviations in a thermistor due to temperature variations are converted to delay variations that are subsequently quantized by a Delay measurement unit (DMU). The DMU does away with the need for any analog circuitry and is synthesizable entirely from digital logic. An FPGA implementation of the system demonstrates the viability of employing time mode signal processing, and measured results show that temperature resolution better than 0.1 degrees C can be achieved using this approach.

An Optoelectronic Profiling and Ranging Sensor for Monitoring of Perimeters

Electronic monitoring of perimeters plays vital roles in homeland security, management of traffic and of humanwildlife conflict. This paper reports the design and development of an optical beam-interruption-based ranging and profiling sensor for monitoring perimeters. The developed sensor system can determine the distance of the object from the sensing units and its temporal height profile as the object crosses the system. Together, these quantities can also be used to classify the object and to determine its speed. The sensor is designed, fabricated, and evaluated. The design enables compact construction, high sensitivity, and low measurement crosstalk. The evaluation demonstrates accuracy better than 98.5% in the determination of height and over 94% in determination of the distance of an object from the sensing units. Finally, a strategy is proposed to classify the objects based on the obtained height profiles. The strategy is demonstrated to correctly classify the objects despite differences in their speed and the location at which they cross the system.