Model-based development of neural prostheses for movement

Neural prostheses for restoration of limb movement in paralyzed and amputee patients tend to be complex systems. Subjective intuition and trial-and-error approaches have been applied to the design and clinical fitting of simple systems with limited functionality. These approaches are time consuming, difficult to apply in larger scale, and not applicable to limbs under development with more anthropomorphic motion and actuation. The field of neural prosthetics is in need of more systematic methods, including tools that will allow users to develop accurate models of neural prostheses and simulate their behavior under various conditions before actual manufacturing or clinical application. Such virtual prototyping would provide an efficient and safe test-bed for narrowing the design choices and tuning the control parameters before actual clinical application. We describe a software environment that we have developed to facilitate the construction and modification of accurate mathematical models of paralyzed and prosthetic limbs and simulate their movement under various neural control strategies. These simulations can be run in real time with a stereoscopic display to enable design engineers and prospective users to evaluate a candidate neural prosthetic system and learn to operate it before actually receiving it.     

十亿晶体管级芯片系统集成面临的挑战与机遇

概述了半导体工业的发展趋势 ,讨论了 1 0亿晶体管级芯片系统所面临的挑战 ,并提出了若干研究课题以获得即将来临的纳米时代的发展机遇。     

Challenges and opportunities in advanced Ge pMOSFETs

This paper aims at reviewing the state-of-the art of Ge pMOSFETs for future high-performance CMOS devices. Key in the development is the integration of a Ge channel on a silicon platform and the passivation of the interface between the high-k gate stack and the substrate. The different routes will be critically discussed in view of optimizing the on-current related to a high low-field hole mobility and reducing the off-current and the short-channel effects. Finally, an outlook on future technology developments will be formulated.     

A new means of transcutaneous coupling for neural prostheses

Neural prostheses are electronic stimulators that activate nerves to restore sensory or motor functions. Implanted neural prostheses receive command signals and in some cases energy to recharge their batteries through the skin by telemetry. Here, we describe a new approach that eliminates the implanted stimulator. Stimulus pulse trains are passed between two surface electrodes placed on the skin. An insulated lead with conductive terminals at each end is implanted inside the body. One terminal is located under the cathodal surface electrode and the other is attached to a nerve targeted for stimulation. A fraction (10%-15%) of the current flowing between the surface electrodes is routed through the implanted lead. The nerve is stimulated when the amount of routed current is sufficient. The aims of this study were to establish some basic electrical properties of the system and test long-term stability in chronic implants. Stimulation of the nerve innervating the ankle flexors produced graded force over the full physiological range at amplitudes below threshold for evoking muscle contractions under the surface electrodes. Implants remained stable for over 8 mo. The findings provide the basis for a new family of neural prostheses.     

Digital broadcasting – Challenges and opportunities for European community radio broadcasters

Access to broadcast infrastructure is vital for community radio services, however the switch-over from analogue to digital, as envisaged by European policy-makers, creates challenges for such stations. In this article, we will set out the general environment within which the transition to digital is occurring, illustrate the current state of the digital migration debate, identify potential difficulties for community radios, but also highlight opportunities that digital technologies may provide.     

Challenges and opportunities toward fully automated analog layout design

Realizing the layouts of analog/mixed-signal (AMS) integrated circuits (ICs) is a complicated task due to the high design flexibility and sensitive circuit performance. Compared with the advancements of digital IC layout automation, analog IC layout design is still heavily manual, which leads to a more time-consuming and error-prone process. In recent years, significant progress has been made in automated analog layout design with emerging of several open-source frameworks. This paper firstly reviews the existing state-of-the art AMS layout synthesis frameworks with focus on the different approaches and their individual challenges. We then present recent research trends and opportunities in the field. Finally, we summaries the paper with open questions and future directions for fully-automating the analog IC layout.     

Challenges and opportunities of delivering IP-based residential television services

This article describes the main challenges of implementing an end-to-end architecture for delivery of high-quality, IP-based residential TV services to residential customers. The IP-based approach can be implemented with an IP multicast overlay network with traditional routers or use IP-multicast-aware ATM switching systems. Both approaches use IP multicast to transport MPEG-2 broadcast video and can work on any access architecture, especially on copper-based architectures (xDSL) such as ASDL and VDSL. The main challenges met while implementing the IP-based architecture are competitive positioning relative to traditional CATV architectures, overall architecture, head-end architecture and quality issues, traffic engineering for stringent QoS requirements, IP multicast requirements, and business case considerations. The IP-based approach described leverages Internet technology advancements and capitalizes on the impacts of Internet on interactive entertainment. Video channel manipulation at the head-end is dependent on access bandwidth and affects video quality. Video traffic management to meet stringent QoS requirements is challenging at the IP layer. High-capacity, responsive IP multicasting is essential to achieving high service quality. Cost-effective IP multicasting is a critical component of the business case.     

无线电频谱利用面临的问题、机遇与对策

针对日益严重的无线电频谱资源利用问题,重新审视了频谱概念和频谱稀缺性问题.分析表明,只要采用合适的频谱管理策略和高效频谱利用技术,频谱资源可以满足无线电业务高速增长的需求.结束频谱资源紧缺局面的根本途径是开发高效频谱利用技术,而多无线电系统动态频谱分配与共享技术最具潜力.同时,无线电频谱政策必须作相应的调整,使之适应技术发展和市场业务需求,充分发挥高效频谱利用技术的潜力.通过对多无线电系统动态频谱分配与共享技术的分析,结合国际频谱政策变化特点和改革实践,给出了我国频谱政策改革的几点建议.     

Bandwidth-reservation scheme based on road information for next-generation cellular networks

Channel-reservation techniques have been widely studied in cellular networks in order to meet the desired quality-of-service requirements. In this paper, a distributed predictive channel-reservation scheme, called the road-map-based channel-reservation scheme (RMCR), and a call-admission-control algorithm are proposed. The goal is to reduce the handoff-dropping probability and to improve the bandwidth utilization. In the RMCR scheme, we assume that base stations (BSs) are equipped with road-map information and that mobile stations (MSs) are equipped with global positioning systems (GPS) devices. MSs periodically report their GPS location information to their BSs. Based on the location information of the MSs at two consecutive epochs, the BSs estimate the speed and moving direction of the MSs. Furthermore, the BSs estimate the probability that the MSs will enter the neighboring cells based on their velocity and the road-map information stored in the BSs. The BSs then compute the amount of bandwidth to be reserved, based on such estimation. With the road-map information, the BSs can make a more-accurate prediction on the user's mobility and, hence, reduce unnecessary bandwidth reservation. Simulation results show that RMCR is capable of keeping the handoff-dropping probability low and allocating bandwidth to new/handoff calls efficiently. We also show that RMCR is robust with respect to system parameters such as user's speed, the density of roads, the accuracy of mobility measurement, and so on.     

Video streaming over P2P networks: Challenges and opportunities

A robust real-time video communication service over the Internet in a distributed manner is an important challenge, as it influences not only the current Internet structure but also the future Internet evolution. In this context, Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networks are playing an imperative position for providing efficient video transmission over the Internet. Recently, several P2P video transmission systems have been proposed for live video streaming services or video-on-demand services over the Internet. In this paper, we describe and discuss existing video streaming systems over P2P. Efficient (delay tolerant and intolerant) data sharing mechanisms in P2P and current video coding trends are elaborated in detail. Moreover, video streaming solutions (live and on-demand) over P2P from the perspective of tree-based and mesh-based systems are explained. Finally, the conclusion is drawn with key challenges and open issues related to video streaming over P2P.     

Millimeter wave wireless interconnects in deep submicron chips: Challenges and opportunities

On-chip wireless links offer the most promising solution to improve performance over traditional Networks-on-Chip (NoCs). Though, significant advancements are being made to support intra-chip wireless communication, a complete understanding of on-chip wireless channel, that facilitates design optimization of transceivers and antennas is still lacking. In this work, we derive on-chip wireless channel characteristics, taking into account antenna implementation, near field and multipath propagation effects. These observations are then used to study impact on wireless NoC performance, packet energy, delay and bandwidth. The study provides crucial insights for circuit designers to tune transceiver and antenna specifications to achieve desired network performance.     

Challenges and opportunities in immersive vehicular sensing: Lessons from urban deployments

Vehicles provide an ideal platforms for a plethora of emerging applications such as networked gaming, multimedia content delivery and urban sensing. Cars have no power constraints and they can be instrumented with high end computational units and graphic devices. The deployment at scale of urban vehicular systems, however, requires a careful design able to consider challenges across several domains. Vehicular systems are arguably a prominent example of cyber-physical systems. The development of such systems requires a truly multidisciplinary approach and a close integration between the application, communication, and physical domains. Hardware and software mounted on vehicles will face a harsh physical and communication environment that will greatly affect all the system components. In this paper we report on the challenges and opportunities for multimedia vehicular urban sensing systems based on our field experiences in Macao (China) and Los Angels (USA). We designed and built the components for a pollution monitoring system able to support closed-loop optimization between pollution and traffic management. Our initial set of prototype vehicles are now running in the city of Macao and they are measuring the air parameters as well as the urban traffic. The paper aims at exposing some of the issues encountered, outlining the problems of a city wide deployment, and augmenting our in-field experience with the results from large scale simulation studies.     

Security and privacy issues of physical objects in the IoT: Challenges and opportunities

In the Internet of Things (IoT), security and privacy issues of physical objects are crucial to the related applications. In order to clarify the complicated security and privacy issues, the life cycle of a physical object is divided into three stages of pre-working, in-working, and post-working. On this basis, a physical object-based security architecture for the IoT is put forward. According to the security architecture, security and privacy requirements and related protecting technologies for physical objects in different working stages are analyzed in detail. Considering the development of IoT technologies, potential security and privacy challenges that IoT objects may face in the pervasive computing environment are summarized. At the same time, possible directions for dealing with these challenges are also pointed out.     

基于下一代互联网协议的网络安全

介绍了下一代网络协议TPv6及中国自研网络技术IPv9协议，探讨了IPv6及其在网络安全方面的技术要点。     

Model neural prostheses with integrated microfluidics: a potential intervention strategy for controlling reactive cell and tissue responses

Model silicon intracortical probes with microfluidic channels were fabricated and tested to examine the feasibility of using diffusion-mediated delivery to deliver therapeutic agents into the volume of tissue exhibiting reactive responses to implanted devices. Three-dimensional probe structures with microfluidic channels were fabricated using surface micromachining and deep reactive ion etching (DRIE) techniques. In vitro functional tests of devices were performed using fluorescence microscopy to record the transient release of Texas Red labeled transferrin (TR-transferrin) and dextran (TR-dextran) from the microchannels into 1% w/v agarose gel. In vivo performance was characterized by inserting devices loaded with TR-transferrin into the premotor cortex of adult male rats. Brain sections were imaged using confocal microscopy. Diffusion of TR-transferrin into the extracellular space and uptake by cells up to 400 microm from the implantation site was observed in brain slices taken 1 h postinsertion. The reactive tissue volume, as indicated by the presence of phosphorylated mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs), was characterized using immunohistochemistry and confocal microscopy. The reactive tissue volume extended 600, 800, and 400 microm radially from the implantation site at 1 h, 24 h, and 6 weeks following insertion, respectively. These results indicate that diffusion-mediated delivery can be part of an effective intervention strategy for the treatment of reactive tissue responses around chronically implanted intracortical probes.     

BFA based neural network for image compression

A novel Bacterial Foraging Algorithm （BFA） based neural network is presented for image compression. To improve the quality of the decompressed images, the concepts of reproduction, elimination and dispersal in BFA are firstly introduced into neural network in the proposed algorithm. Extensive experiments are conducted on standard testing images and the results show that the proposed method can improve the quality of the reconstructed images significantly.     

Adaptive neural network based controller for robots

A new Adaptive Neural Network (ANN) controller for robot trajectory trackingproblem is developed. A novel and efficient training algorithm for the proposed controller ispresented in this paper. The proposed training algorithm is based on updating the weights of thenetwork each step by minimizing the quadrant tracking errors and their derivatives.A simulation study is carried out on a polar robot manipulator to assure the effectivenessof the proposed trajectory tracking robot control system. The effects of the new controllerparameters and noisy external load disturbances on the control performance are studied. Thesimulation results of the proposed adaptive ANN controller are compared with those of aconventional ANN controller. The obtained results assured the robustness of the proposed ANNcontroller for: (i) uncertainties of the robot arm dynamic model and/or parameters, (ii) variousnoisy external load disturbances. Also, the simulation results assure the effectiveness of theproposed adaptive ANN controller against the conventional ANN one.     

Location management for next-generation personal communicationsnetworks

This article presents a survey on location management algorithms for next-generation personal communications networks. We first describe different static and dynamic location update algorithms. Then we discuss various selective paging strategies. We also present various modeling techniques that have been used for the performance analysis of location update and terminal paging. We conclude by stating a number of open problems that need to be addressed for the deployment of next-generation PCNs