1,721,006 research outputs found
Directional Transmissions and Receptions for High-throughput Bulk Forwarding in Wireless Sensor Networks
Full text linkWe present DPT: a wireless sensor network protocol for bulk traffic that uniquely leverages electronically switchable directional (ESD) antennas. Bulk traffic is found in several scenarios and supporting protocols based on standard antenna technology abound. ESD antennas may improve performance in these scenarios; for example, by reducing channel contention as the antenna can steer the radiated energy only towards the intended receivers, and by extending the communication range at no additional energy cost. The corresponding protocol support, however, is largely missing. DPT addresses precisely this issue. First, while the network is quiescent, we collect link metrics across all possible antenna configurations. We use this information to formulate a constraint satisfaction problem (CSP) that allows us to find two multi-hop disjoint paths connecting source and sink, along with the corresponding antenna configurations. Domain-specific heuristics we conceive ameliorate the processing demands in solving the CSP, improving scalability. Second, the routing configuration we obtain is injected back into the network. During the actual bulk transfer, the source funnels data through the two paths by quickly alternating between them. Packet forwarding occurs deterministically at every hop. This allows the source to implicitly "clock" the entire pipeline, sparing the need of proactively synchronizing the transmissions across the two paths. Our results, obtained in a real testbed using 802.15.4-compliant radios and custom ESD antennas we built, indicate that DPT approaches the maximum throughput supported by the link layer, peaking at 214 kbit/s in the settings we test
Battery-free VisibleLight Sensing
Full text linkWe present the design of the first Visible Light Sensing (VLS) system that consumes only tens of Î1⁄4Ws of power to sense and communicate. Unlike most existing VLS systems, we require no modification to the existing light infrastructure since we use unmodulated light as a sensing medium. We achieve this by designing a novel mechanism that uses solar cells to achieve a sub-Î1⁄4W power consumption for sensing. Further, we devise an ultra-low power transmission mechanism that backscatters sensor readings and avoids the processing and computational overhead of existing sensor systems. Our initial results show the ability to detect and transmit hand gestures or presence of people up to distances of 330m, at a peak power of 20 Î1⁄4Ws. Further, we demonstrate that our system can operate in diverse light conditions (100 lx to 80 klx) where existing VLS designs fail due to saturation of the transimpedance amplifier (TIA)
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Enabling Sustainable Networked Embedded Systems
No full textNetworked Embedded Systems (NES) are small energy-constrained devices typically with sensors, radio and some form of energy storage. The past several years have seen a rapid growth of applications of NES, with several predictions stating billions of devices deployed in the near future. As NES are deployed at large scale, a growing challenge is to support NES for long periods of time without negatively impacting their physical or the radio environment, i.e., in a sustainable manner. In this dissertation, we identify intertwined challenges that affect the sustainability of NES systems: co-existence on the shared wireless spectrum; energy consumption; and the cost of the deployment and maintenance. We identify research directions to overcome these challenges and address them through the six research papers. Firstly, NES have to co-exist with other wireless devices that operate on the shared wireless spectrum. A growing number of devices contending for the spectrum is challenging and leads to increased interference among them. To enable NES to co-exist with other wireless devices, we investigate the use of electronically steerable directional antennas (ESD). ESD antennas allow software-based control of the direction of maximum antenna gain on a per-packet basis and can operate within the severe energy constraints of NES. In the dissertation, we demonstrate that ESD antennas allow solutions that outperform the state-of-the-art in sensing and communication in wireless sensor networks while supporting operations on a single wireless channel reducing the contention on the shared wireless spectrum. Secondly, we explore the emerging area of visible light sensing and communication to avoid the crowded radio frequency spectrum. Visible light can be an alternative or a complement to radio frequency for sensing and communication. We make two contributions in the dissertation to make the visible light communication a viable option for NES. We design a novel visible light sensing architecture that supports sensing and communication at tens of microwatts of power. An ultra-low power consumption can make visible light sensing systems pervasive. Our second contribution brings high-speed visible light communication to energy-constrained NES. We design a novel visible light receiver that adapts to the dynamics of changing light conditions, and the energy constraints of the host device while supporting a throughput comparable to radio frequency standards for NES. Through our contribution, we take a significant step to enable visible light-based sustainable NES. Finally, replacing batteries on sensor nodes significantly affects the sustainability of NES. Battery-free sensors that harvest small amounts of energy from the ambient environment have a great potential to enable pervasive deployment of NES. To support wide-area deployments of battery-free sensors, we develop an ultra-low power and long-range communication mechanism. We demonstrate the ability to communicate to distances as long as a few kilometres while consuming tens of microwatts at the sensor device. Our contributions pave the way for a wide-area deployment of battery-free sustainable NES. Through the contributions made in the dissertation, we take a significant step towards the broader goal of sustainable NES. The work included in the dissertation significantly improves the state-of-the-art in NES, in some case by orders of magnitude
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
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