Load balancing routing with queue overflow prediction for WSNs

The ease of deployment of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) makes them very popular and useful for data collection applications. Nodes often use multihop communication to transmit data to a collector node. The next hop selection in order to reach the final destination is done following a routing policy based on a routing metric. The routing metric value is exchanged via control messages. Control messages transmission frequency can reduce the network bandwidth and affect data transmission. Some approaches like trickle algorithm have been proposed to optimize the network control messages transmission. In this paper, we propose a collaborative load balancing algorithm (CoLBA) with a prediction approach to reduce network overhead. CoLBA is a queuing delay based routing protocol that avoids packet queue overflow and uses a prediction approach to optimize control messages transmission. Simulation results on Cooja simulator show that CoLBA outperforms other existing protocols in terms of delivery ratio and queue overflow while maintaining a similar end-to-end delay.

     

Survey on Wireless Networks Coexistence: Resource Sharing in the 5G Era

Mobile Networks and Applications - The next generation of mobile-enabled wireless networks, known as 5G networks, is announced to be deployed by 2020. In the 5G framework, access technologies are...     

Macrocell corrosion of steel in concrete: Characterization of anodic behavior in relation to the chloride content

This study presents the determination of electrochemical properties of active steel in mortar, based on inverse numerical modeling that focuses on their dependency on chloride content. An experimental campaign, consisting of galvanic coupling tests between anode samples contaminated with different chloride concentrations and cathode samples without chlorides, was carried out. Cathode polarization tests allowed for directly determining passive steel electrochemical parameters. Anode polarization tests coupled with a numerical optimization were then performed for quantifying active steel parameters and focusing on chloride's effect on the iron anodic Tafel coefficient. Furthermore, the steel electrochemical properties were successfully used as input parameters to model the galvanic experiments.     

Enhancing the CSMA/CA of IEEE 802.15.4 for better coexistence with IEEE 802.11

Wireless Networks - Wireless technologies are very often used simultaneously for different applications in the same deployment area. This is more and more the case with the massive use of the...     

Primary choriocarcinoma of the cervix

We report a case of primary choriocarcinoma of the cervix in which the patient died 9 months later. The treatment consisted to administer 5 cycles of chemotherapy pre-operatively and a colpohysterectomy. The pathogeny is a cervical migration of trophoblastics cells after a normal or molar pregnancy which degenerate to choriocarcinoma.     

Quality control of coins mint using PIXE and RBS analysis

PIXE and RBS analysis is used to investigate the elemental content of modern Lebanese coins, in order to control their minting quality. The coins of interest were 100, 250 and 500 Lebanese Lira (LL), which are mainly bulky metals with or without coated layer. Using 3 MeV protons, proton induced X-ray emission PIXE identified and quantified elements while Rutherford backscattering spectrometry RBS checked the thickness of the coated layer. Indeed, the combination of PIXE and RBS provides a powerful tool to investigate the elemental composition of coins, either modern or ancient. In addition, the experimental protocol was checked by analyzing some other coins of known composition, such as 1-euro and 2-euro.     

Interest of Homodialkyl Neamine Derivatives against Resistant P. aeruginosa,E. coli,and β-Lactamases-Producing Bacteria—Effect of Alkyl Chain Length on the Interaction with LPS

Development of novel therapeutics to treat antibiotic-resistant infections, especially those caused by ESKAPE pathogens, is urgent. One of the most critical pathogens is P. aeruginosa, which is able to develop a large number of factors associated with antibiotic resistance, including high level of impermeability. Gram-negative bacteria are protected from the environment by an asymmetric Outer Membrane primarily composed of lipopolysaccharides (LPS) at the outer leaflet and phospholipids in the inner leaflet. Based on a large hemi-synthesis program focusing on amphiphilic aminoglycoside derivatives, we extend the antimicrobial activity of 3′,6-dinonyl neamine and its branched isomer, 3′,6-di(dimethyloctyl) neamine on clinical P. aeruginosa, ESBL, and carbapenemase strains. We also investigated the capacity of 3′,6-homodialkyl neamine derivatives carrying different alkyl chains (C7–C11) to interact with LPS and alter membrane permeability. 3′,6-Dinonyl neamine and its branched isomer, 3′,6-di(dimethyloctyl) neamine showed low MICs on clinical P. aeruginosa, ESBL, and carbapenemase strains with no MIC increase for long-duration incubation. In contrast from what was observed for membrane permeability, length of alkyl chains was critical for the capacity of 3′,6-homodialkyl neamine derivatives to bind to LPS. We demonstrated the high antibacterial potential of the amphiphilic neamine derivatives in the fight against ESKAPE pathogens and pointed out some particular characteristics making the 3′,6-dinonyl- and 3′,6-di(dimethyloctyl)-neamine derivatives the best candidates for further development.     

Exploring the performance of an augmented reality application for construction layout tasks

Multimedia Tools and Applications - While Building Information Modeling (BIM) adoption has increased in the industry, most office-to-site design communication still happens using 2D paper plans....     

Measurement of thermal properties of thin films up to high temperatures--pulsed photothermal radiometry system and Si-B-C-N films

A new arrangement of two-detector pulsed photothermal radiometry measurement system has been developed enabling temperature dependence measurement of thermal properties of thin films up to high temperatures. Only a few methods are available in this temperature range for thin films' thermal properties investigation, but there is a need for their knowledge in the fields of high-temperature electronics and high-speed machining. The present system enables simultaneous determination of the thin film effusivity, thermal conductivity, and volumetric specific heat in the temperature range from room temperature to 600?°C. The samples are placed in a vacuum chamber. The temperatures in the system were verified by an independent measurement and the system was tested on known bulk samples. Advantages and shortcomings of the method when used at higher temperatures and in the vacuum are described and discussed. Furthermore, Si-B-C-N thin films were studied. These amorphous ceramic materials possess an interesting set of mechanical and thermal properties. In particular, the films of the investigated chemical composition exhibit an excellent thermal stability at temperatures of up to 1700?°C. In the studied temperature range, from 20 to 600?°C, the thermal conductivity increased with increasing temperature from 1.72 to 1.89 W m(-1) K(-1) and volumetric specific heat increased from 2.65 to 3.76 × 10(6) J m(-3) K(-1).     

Implementation and performance evaluation of IEEE 802.15.4 unslotted CSMA/CA protocol on Contiki OS

In the wireless sensor networks domain, one of the most used standards is IEEE 802.15.4. This standard has been made available on many low power operating systems such as TinyOS and Contiki OS. It is crucial for the implementation to be compliant with the specifications of the standard. In the case of Contiki OS, the provided version of the main medium access algorithm, unslotted Carrier Sensing Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA), presents many flaws. In this paper, we discuss the implementation of the provided CSMA/CA algorithm and we point out to the parts that do not respect the standard specifications. We also propose and implement a compliant version of this algorithm and show through simulation the correctness of the implementation.