Capable Device Research Articles

Opportunistic CR-NOMA Transmissions for Zero-Energy Devices: A DRL-Driven Optimization Strategy

To efficiently accommodate RF energy-harvesting (EH) capable device in a wireless network with prescheduled devices, this letter designs the deep reinforcement learning (DRL)-driven energy-efficient transmission strategy. The transmission strategy handles the EH-device uplink transmissions opportunistically using cognitive radio-inspired non-orthogonal multiple access (CR-NOMA) scheme while maximizing energy efficiency (EE). In this respect, firstly, we formulate the EE optimization problem of the EH-device while considering its RF circuit power consumption. Secondly, we divide the original, non-convex problem into a two-layer optimization problem, and solve it sequentially as i) we theoretically derive the optimal transmit power and time-sharing coefficient parameters from the first layer, and ii) using the derived parameters in the second layer, we solve the one-dimensional continuous space optimization problem through a DRL technique, recognized as a combined experience replay deep deterministic policy gradient (CER-DDPG). Finally, the numerical results show that, under different operational scenarios, the proposed approach outperforms benchmark DDPG and Stochastic algorithms in terms of EE.

PO-03-078 IS BLUETOOTH HOME MONITORING REALLY THE BEST OPTION FOR AN URBAN POPULATION?

CIED companies are developing Bluetooth (BT) technology for remote monitoring & are advertising adherence rate as high as 95%. For Medtronic (MDT) BT compatible CIEDs, the patient has the option of choosing BT or traditional RF monitor. For Abbott (ABT) BT devices the patient must use a BT monitor- either their own or an ABT provided smart phone. Describe remote monitoring compliance in a real world urban population. Patients implanted with MDT or ABT CIED between 8/1/2020 and 6/1/2022 were reviewed. Demographics, remote follow-up compliance, & device specific information was collected. Categorical variables were compared using Chi-squared test, continuous variable using student T-test. We excluded patients who did not receive a monitor due to supply chain issues. Data is presented in Figure 1. Pairing and providing a traditional monitor at the time of implant had the highest compliance, as is done with ABT CIEDs (ABT PM 95.8% & ABT ICD 93.2% transmissions received). Patients implanted with CIEDs that require BT (ABT ICD) using either their own or company provided smart device had the second-best compliance 86.2%. When the only option is BT, data showed older and non-English speaking patients had lower compliance. Patients with a CIED capable of either BT or traditional monitor (MDT PMs & ICDs), who are given a traditional monitor had follow up 76% PM and 81.6% ICD, & BT had follow up 85% PM and 72.7% ICD. When patients are given the opportunity to decide which type of monitor they are more comfortable with, the compliance was better with BT. Older & non-English speaking patients were less likely to have BT capabilities. With the increasing prevalence of smart phones, many patients already own a BT capable device. BT monitoring, however, requires Wi-Fi or cellular data access in order to transmit; as opposed to traditional monitors that use cellular network. BT must remain on at all times & the app must remain open, resulting in battery depletion. If the monitoring app is closed or BT/Wi-Fi turned off transmissions will not be sent. In our urban clinic many patients do not have access to a smart phone or iPad with BT technology. Even if the company provides a BT enabled monitor, some patients are uncomfortable, hesitant, or fear the device will be stolen. Our data showed pairing & providing a traditional monitor at implant or allowing the patient to decide monitor type based on their existing capability results in the improved remote monitoring compliance.

The Use of the Multisensor HeartLogic Algorithm for Heart Failure Remote Monitoring in Patients With Left Ventricular Assist Devices.

The Use of the Multisensor HeartLogic Algorithm for Heart Failure Remote Monitoring in Patients With Left Ventricular Assist Devices.

Supporting Telemental Health for Rural Disabled Veterans: Bringing Rehabilitation Expertise to Rural Mental Health Providers

<h3>Research Objectives</h3> To explore the unique challenges of using video telehealth for mental health care for rural veterans with complex disabilities for the purpose of developing resources for mental health providers serving rural veterans with complex disabilities. <h3>Design</h3> This is a sub-project of an ongoing study aiming to improve access to mental healthcare for veterans with disabilities. We collected insights from mental health providers during an online educational seminar, using discussion questions and chat transcripts to gather information on their experiences using telehealth. Thematic and content analysis were used to analyze responses. <h3>Setting</h3> Mental health service lines within VA Community-Based Outpatient Clinics (CBOC). <h3>Participants</h3> The online seminar consisted of mental health providers working in CBOCs, was held twice, and had 48 unique respondents across these sessions. <h3>Interventions</h3> Not applicable. <h3>Main Outcome Measures</h3> Participants discussed 1) considerations when recommending telehealth, 2) challenges encountered, and 3) resources needed to support initiating telehealth with a disabled veteran. <h3>Results</h3> Main themes that emerged include: Travel burden (e.g. high service utilization, travel distance, and transportation challenges) and access to tech (high-speed internet and video capable device) were most common considerations when recommending telehealth. Challenges reported included privacy concerns, limited familiarity with technology, and limited experience working with Veterans with complex disabilities. Desired resources included tailored training, educational materials, and systematic early intervention when a veteran becomes disabled. <h3>Conclusions</h3> Rural Veterans with disabilities face unique challenges to accessing mental health care. Video telehealth can bridge the gap, but Veterans with complex disabilities sometimes require more support in getting started. Because decisions to use telehealth are frequently provider driven, non-rehabilitation providers benefit from training and resources to facilitate working with Veterans who have complex disabilities. Further work is needed to address this topic. <h3>Author(s) Disclosures</h3> This work was supported by The Office of Rural Health and the Veterans Rural Health Resource Center in Salt Lake City.

Epidemic Contact Tracing With Campus WiFi Network and Smartphone-Based Pedestrian Dead Reckoning

Due to the rapid spreading of infectious disease COVID-19, numerous campus students are increasingly exposed to the dilemma and thus the provisioning of a safe environment becomes of vital importance. As a well-established approach, contact tracing could contain epidemic diseases spread. Since WiFi network could cover almost the whole campus and each student carries at least one WiFi capable device (i.e., smartphone), in this work, an epidemic contact tracing with campus WiFi network and smartphone-based pedestrian dead reckoning (PDR) is proposed, involving not only coarse-grained duration, but also fine-grained distance between students. First, students' location distribution and duration are captured by non-perception WiFi network logs with highly flexibility. Then, the convolutional neural network (CNN) model is utilized to real-time recognize landmarks in PDR positioning trajectory, followed by the particle filter algorithm to fuse both the PDR positioning results and detected landmarks, thereby calibrating PDR cumulative error and calculating the social distance between students. Next, we analyze the contact degree between students by integrating duration and social distance. Finally, in a campus environment with an coverage of about 600m <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> , we simulate a COVID-19 case study to validate proposed approach, showing that the average positioning error is reduced from 3.23m to 2.77m.

A measurement of various length of the stack on a standing wave thermoacoustic refrigerator

A thermoacoustic refrigerator is a capable device to produce temperature differences with acoustic work (sound waves) as the source. The advantage of these machines is that the working gas medium used is air, so it doesn’t produce much pollution and of course, it is environmentally friendly. This paper describes the measurement of stack length variations ranging from 4 cm to 7 cm on the performance of the standing wave thermoacoustic refrigerator. This study aimed to find the optimum stack length in a thermoacoustic machine with a resonator pipe length of 80 cm. Operation time is carried out for 30 minutes. The main components of a thermoacoustic device consist of a regenerator, resonator pipe, and a loudspeaker. The regenerator has a big role, namely as a place for energy conversion to occur. The results obtained are a temperature decrease, a temperature increase, and a temperature difference. The results showed that the temperature decrease and the temperature difference on the stack length of 7 cm were the decrease in temperature and the maximum temperature difference with the results of 4.6°C and 9.3°C, respectively. Therefore a standing wave thermoacoustic refrigerator with various lengths of the stack has been experimentally studied.

Voice-controlled quantum chemistry.

Over the past decade, artificial intelligence has been propelled forward by advances in machine learning algorithms and computational hardware, opening up myriads of new avenues for scientific research. Nevertheless, virtual assistants and voice control have yet to be widely used in the natural sciences. Here, we present ChemVox, an interactive Amazon Alexa skill that uses speech recognition to perform quantum chemistry calculations. This new application interfaces Alexa with cloud computing and returns the results through a capable device. ChemVox paves the way to making computational chemistry routinely accessible to the wider community.

Barriers to telehealth: The patient perspective.

266 Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for telehealth has come to the forefront of healthcare. In the right clinical context, telehealth is an easy and effective way for providers to deliver high quality care, while also taking away barriers to care access such as clinic inconvenience, distance traveled, financial toxicity, etc. An abundance of data exists regarding the benefits and potential of telehealth, but most data is from the perspective of the provider. Unfortunately, there is little information regarding the patient’s perspective and satisfaction; and even less regarding accessibility issues in terms of technology and cultural perception of telehealth. We postulate that there is a need for individualized grass root level understanding of the population being served to make sure telehealth adoption is sustained and equitable. We are studying this using a rapid cycle improvement project using a Plan Do Study Act format (PDSA), with a cohort of veterans in a medical oncology clinic in Birmingham, AL. Methods: We spoke with a pilot cohort of 67 patients in the medical oncology clinic at the VA Medical Center in Birmingham, AL. Surveys were done on all patients prior to their initial telehealth visit. Patients first agreed to participate, and then answered a 6-question survey regarding their perception of telehealth, their willingness to participate, and their perceived barriers to participation. We then identified barriers to intervene upon, with the plan to engage senior VA Leadership for the same. Results: 67 medical oncology patients in the Birmingham VA between May 1 and May 31, 2020, agreed to participate in a survey prior to their first telehealth appointment. We found that of the 67 patients surveyed, only 48 (71.6%) had a video capable phone and only 41 (61.2%) had high-speed internet or data to support that call. Interestingly 25 patients (37%) did not feel they could access the video on their own phone. While this presented one barrier to telehealth, we also found that 11 patients (16.4%) would not want to participate in telehealth even if they had a video capable device. Conclusions: This data, while not exhaustive, clearly captures some unique barriers to telehealth that may not have been previously studied or understood. Hearing the voice of the patient is critical in developing culturally competent forms of telehealth delivery. We will use this data to implement interventions that not only provide access of technology for our patients but will also make sure to specifically address the cultural/socioeconomic barriers to this form of healthcare distribution and how to overcome those barriers.

Investigation of a Magnetic-Type Waterproof Oil Spill Stop Device for Ships

If a ship’s hull or tank breaks, the ship may sink, or oil spills can cause enormous damage to the environment. If the ship is equipped with a capable, cost-effective oil or liquid flow stop emergency device, casualties and marine pollution could be reduced. Many magnetic-type liquid spill stop emergency devices developed since 1904 have limitations, such as difficulties with installation and impossibility of use during sailing. This study demonstrated the applicability of a magnetic-type liquid spill stop emergency device through tests for water pressure and leakage, attachment, magnetic fields, and the generation of sparks. Results showed that the device can be applied to the ship’s side hull and bottom with a specified minimum diameter at a pressure depth of 1.0 kg/cm2 while sailing at a speed of 18 kts (9.26 m/s). If the distance from the device was at least approximately 750 mm, the magnetic field had no effect, and there was no risk of explosion due to sparks. A cost–benefit analysis based on the International Maritime Organization-approved guidelines for formal safety assessment confirmed the cost effectiveness of the device. This experimental study confirmed that the magnetic liquid stop emergency device is generally applicable to a ship’s hull.

Consolidating Multi-Criteria Visible-light Personal Network Coordinator Selection Process in Attocells

Visible Light Communication (IEEE 802.15.7) implements a centralized topology using a visible-light personal network coordinator (VPNC) for network access and data sharing. A VPNC is a user-device (UD) that is dynamically selected based on several parameters ranking its ability as the most capable device in the attocell network. Theoretical performance bounds of attocell networks based on the use of a coordinator have not been significantly explored in the literature. We investigate how various UD capabilities such as device lifetime, network stability, optical power receiving ability and coverage area to accommodate the maximum possible number of associated devices, can contribute towards the enhancement of the IEEE Std 802.15.7 VPNC selection criteria, and develop an enhanced process with new information elements (IEs) added to the VPNC selection criteria. The selection process is extended to use a greedy approach. Simulation results, supported by theoretical modelling, verify a 61% reduction in VPNC handovers, a 30% improved throughput and up to 40% reduction in power consumption when compared with the VPAN (Visible-light Personal Area Network) standard. The proposed enhancement features backward compatibility to the current standard.

ICD-VAD Compatibility, Could You End up with a Deaf ICD after VAD Implantation?

Most heart failure patients undergoing ventricular assist device (VAD) implantation are managed with guideline-based therapy including the implantation of defibrillation capable device (ICD). Prior to surgery, programming allowing therapy with lower threshold could be lifesaving. After surgery, the defibrillator should be reprogrammed to protect the patient against painful, unnecessary shocks, as the circulation will be supported even in ventricular fibrillation. Difficulties in interrogation of ICD in patients with both HeartMate-II and HeartMate3 devices have been previously reported, related to the VAD-produced electromagnetic interference. Most cases result in a problem of communication between the ICD and the corresponding interrogating console. An electronic search was performed to identify all articles and abstracts published on the topic until July 2019. To the list, we added one case from our clinical experience as well as manufacturer described cases of incompatibility. We identified 473 publications. Fourteen publications were ultimately included. Those publications described 22 patients with device interrogation issues post VAD implantation. To regain control of the device complete replacement of the ICD/CRT/PM was performed in 10 patients, and in one the implantation side was changed. In 11 cases a shielding technique was successfully utilized. From the data, we can extract the names of 14 devices with a documented communication problem. There were no reported cases of adverse interaction between HeartWare and ICDs. Given the reported VAD-associated EMI interaction with ICD interrogation due to interruption of the handshake-signal to initiate ICD interrogation, it is likely all the variants of one specific ICD (1 lead, 2 lead, CRT) will also suffer from the same problem. More ex-vivo research is needed to better understand the phenomenon, and clinicians and patients with the listed ICDs need to be aware of the potential loss of ICD control with HM2 or HM3.

L0TP+: the Upgrade of the NA62 Level-0 Trigger Processor

The L0TP+ initiative is aimed at the upgrade of the FPGA-based Level-0 Trigger Processor (L0TP) of the NA62 experiment at CERN for the post-LS2 data taking, which is expected to happen at 100% of design beam intensity, corresponding to about 3.3 × 1012 protons per pulse on the beryllium target used to produce the kaons beam. Although tests performed at the end of 2018 showed a substantial robustness of the L0TP system also at full beam intensity, there are several reasons to motivate such an upgrade: i) avoid FPGA platform obsolescence, ii) make room for improvements in the firmware design leveraging a more capable FPGA device, iii) add new functionalities, iv) support the 4 beam intensity increase foreseen in future experiment upgrades. We singled out the Xilinx Virtex UltraScale+ VCU118 development board as the ideal platform for the project. L0TP+ seamless integration into the current NA62 TDAQ system and exact matching of L0TP functionalities represent the main requirements and focus of the project; nevertheless, the final design will include additional features, such as a PCIe RDMA engine to enable processing on CPU and GPU accelerators, and the partial reconfiguration of trigger firmware starting from a high level language description (C/C++). The latter capability is enabled by modern High Level Synthesis (HLS) tools, but to what extent this methodology can be applied to perform complex tasks in the L0 trigger, with its stringent latency requirements and the limits imposed by single FPGA resources, is currently being investigated. As a test case for this scenario we considered the online reconstruction of the RICH detector rings on an HLS generated module, using a dedicated primitives data stream with PM hits IDs. Besides, the chosen platform supports the Virtex Ultrascale+ FPGA wide I/O capabilities, allowing for straightforward integration of primitive streams from additional sub-detectors in order to improve the performance of the trigger.

IoT Architecture for Enhancing Rural Societal Services in Sub-Saharan Africa

The potential of IoT in contributing towards sustainable economic development in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) through digital transformation and effective service delivery is widely accepted. However, the unreliability/unavailability of connectivity and power grid infrastructure as well as the unaffordability of the overall system hinders the implementation of a multi-layered IoT architecture for rural societal services in SSA. In this work, affordable IoT architecture that operates without reliance on broadband connectivity and power grid is developed. The architecture employs energy harvesting system and performs data processing, actuation decisions and network management locally by integrating a customized low-cost computationally capable device with the gateway. The sharing of this device among the water resource and quality management, healthcare and agriculture applications further reduces the overall system cost. The evaluation of LPWAN technologies reveals that LoRaWAN has lower cost with added benefits of adaptive data rate and largest community support while providing comparable performance and communication range with the other technologies. The relevant results of the analysis is communicated to end-users’ mobile device via 2G/3G GPRS. Hence, the proposed IoT architecture enables the implementation of IoT systems for improving efficiency in three key application areas at low cost.

P5680One-year outcomes of heart failure patients undergoing cardiac resynchronization therapy using adaptivCRT algorithm

Abstract Background Adaptive cardiac resynchronization therapy (aCRT) algorithm provides synchronized left ventricular (LV) only pacing and ambulatory optimization of the intrinsic atrioventricular and interventricular conduction intervals. Studies reporting morbidity and mortality outcomes of aCRT carriers in daily clinical practice are lacking. Purpose To determine in a real-life setting, whether 1-year outcomes were different among CRT carriers undergoing aCRT pacing and those under conventional biventricular (biV) pacing. Methods Symptomatic heart failure (HF) patients with sinus rhythm undergoing first CRT-defibrillator implant were selected from the UMBRELLA nationwide registry (2012–2017). The primary endpoint was the composite of all-cause mortality or HF hospitalization at 12-month follow-up. HF admission was defined as hospitalization due to symptoms requiring intravenous diuretic treatment. Primary healthcare records were used to prospectively collect all data. Results Two hundred and six patients were collected (66.1±8.7 years; 73.3% male). Eighty-seven out of 206 patients were implanted with an aCRT capable device, but this algorithm was activated at implant and remained enabled at 1-year in 59 patients (aCRT group). The other 147 patients composed the non-aCRT group. At implant left bundle branch block was present in 93% of patients, 69.6% of population was in functional class III or IV and mean left ventricle ejection fraction was of 26.5±5.6%. Non-ischemic cardiomyopathy was present in 63.1% of patients and optimal medical treatment was achieved in majority of population (92% of patients with beta-blockers; angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitorsor angiotensin II receptor blockersin 89%). The percentage of ventricular pacing through 12 months was 96.1±9.4% in non-aCRT patients and 97.5±2.7% in aCRT patients (p=0.261). In aCRT patients, LV-only pacing accounted for a mean of 53.3±37.6% of all ventricular pacing. After 12-month follow-up period, 25 patients (12.1%) met the primary composite endpoint of death or HF hospitalization. Nine patients died and nineteen patients were admitted due to worsening HF. There was no difference in the risk of all-cause death or HF hospitalization between aCRT and non-aCRT patients (10.2% vs. 12.9% respectively; OR=0.76, CI: 0.29–2.01, p=0.585) Conclusions In this contemporary cohort of HF patients undergoing CRT with high percentages of ventricular pacing, clinical performance of aCRT algorithm was adequate. The risk of death or HF hospitalization was low and no differences were observed at one-year follow-up. Future randomized studies will clarify the role of this algorithm in CRT carriers. Acknowledgement/Funding None

Mobile Application Vs. Paper Pictorial Blood Assessment Chart to Track Menses in Young Women: A Randomized Cross-over Design

BackgroundHeavy menstrual bleeding (HMB) is the most common symptom for women with bleeding disorders. Major barriers to performing research in this field are difficulties in quantifying and tracking changes in menstrual bleeding, particularly in adolescents. The Pictorial Blood Assessment Chart (PBAC) score is often used to quantify severity of menstrual bleeding1. However, the traditional paper diary PBAC score is fraught with recall bias and compliance issues in adolescents.Utilizing mobile applications (apps) has great potential for improving health by assisting with behavior modification and disease self-management. Additionally, mobile apps can serve as a valuable medical research tool by facilitating rapid reporting.ObjectivesWe developed a mobile app version of the PBAC score to enable adolescents to report and quantify menstrual bleeding. We evaluated patient satisfaction and compliance with mobile app reporting as compared to paper reporting. We hypothesized that adolescents would be compliant with mobile app reporting and would prefer this method over paper reporting.MethodsThis study was a randomized cross-over study of 25 post-menarchal females ages 13-21 years seen in the Hematology Clinics at Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, Ohio. Inclusion criteria included: history of regularly occurring menstrual cycle and possession of a mobile application capable device (smart phone) with continuous service expected. Non-English speaking patients and patients intending to start a hormonal agent that may fully suppress menstrual bleeding were excluded. Subjects agreed to track menstrual bleeding in two consecutive menstrual cycles and were randomized to using the PBAC paper diary or the PBAC mobile app format first. At the end of each cycle, a 10-point response scale satisfaction questionnaire and a system usability scale (mobile app only) assessed the acceptability of the format of the diary used. Weekly email reminders were sent in both groups. Mobile device notifications and reminders were used in the mobile app group. To compare the satisfaction survey results, the Hills and Armitage method for analyzing cross-over data was used which included evaluation of period effect, group effect, and their interaction using a series of independent t-tests.ResultsThe 25 subjects enrolled had a median age of 15 years (range 13-21 years). Eleven (44%) had identified bleeding disorders. Twenty-two (88%) could use phones in school. Subjects’ PBAC scores did not have significant variability between the paper diary (median PBAC=95) and the mobile app (median PBAC=114). There was a median number of 2 entry times per day in both groups. There was no significant difference in the number of app entries subjects reported to study staff and the actual number recorded in the app. For the mobile app, twenty subjects (80%) had high compliance for reporting bleeding symptoms (app entries for >80% of cycle duration). There were no subjects with low compliance (app entries for <50% of cycle duration). All paper diaries received by study staff met definition for high compliance. The most common reasons subjects listed for missing a daily entry were 1) forgetting to enter data or 2) app not working. Results of the cross-over analysis showed that subject satisfaction was significantly higher for mobile app (mean satisfaction score of 9.5/40 with 4/40 being most satisfied) than for the paper diary (mean satisfaction score of 17.8/40) (p <0.001). Twenty (80%) subjects preferred the mobile app over the paper diary. There was no significant period effect or group by period interaction.DiscussionThis study demonstrated that a PBAC mobile app as compared to the PBAC paper diary was the preferred method of recording menstrual bleeding in adolescents and demonstrated feasibility as a research data collection tool. The app received stronger satisfaction scores and overall compliance was high. A PBAC mobile app is unique compared to publicly available apps because it allows girls and women to quantify their heaviness of flow during menses. Most menstrual tracking apps only track length of cycles or use qualitative assessments of bleeding. In a clinical setting, data from the PBAC app can allow providers to see real-time bleeding symptoms allowing for adjustments in therapy.1Higham JM, O'Brien PM, Shaw RW. Assessment of menstrual blood loss using a pictorial chart. Br J Obstet Gynaecol 1990:97(8):734-739. DisclosuresNo relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Laryngeal Mask Airway Supreme in Children: A Retrospective Audit

Background: The laryngeal mask airway (LMA) Supreme (LMAS) is a sophisticated, second-generation supraglottic airway device, with an improved seal, and gastric access. It is a capable device for use in more complex procedures and in younger children. No study has been able to analyze a large pediatric sample of patients to assess how the LMAS is being utilized. In this retrospective audit, we evaluated the use of the LMAS in routine clinical practice. In addition to this, utilization of LMAS performance test was evaluated.Methods: A retrospective audit was performed of a major tertiary children's hospital's electronic medical record database to identify all children in whom the LMAS was utilized for airway management over a two-year period. In addition to demographic data, we collected the following LMAS data: size of the LMAS, the number of insertion attempts, volume of air injected into the cuff, the cuff pressure, and the oropharyngeal leak pressure. We also recorded the performance of tests for proper position and function, the mode of lung ventilation, the use of muscle relaxants and use of any alternative airway devices.Results: The LMAS was used in 418 children accounting for only 4% of all LMA usage and only 0.6% of all usage for general anesthesia. The first-attempt placement success rate was 96.4% (382/396). Five of 418 (1.2%) insertions were reported as failures. Mechanical ventilation was used in only 26% of cases with a vast majority (74%) breathing spontaneously. Cuff pressure was measured in 74/418 (18%) of cases. Oropharyngeal leak pressures were measured in 90/418 (21.5%) cases. Maneuvers performed to verify correct placement and performance of the LMAS were rarely performed. Use of the LMAS for invasive procedures occurred in only 5 cases (1.2%).Conclusions: This study shows the LMAS to be highly successful in the hands of various cadres of anesthesia providers at a major tertiary hospital and performs reliably well. Our data reveals many areas of potential improvement for use of the LMAS in the pediatric population, as a device capable for usage in more invasive surgical procedures, younger patients, and mechanical ventilation. Citation: Nobuyuki-Hai Tran, Patrick N. Olomu, Ashley Bocanegra, Asif Khan, John Cheyney, Alexandra Handy, et al. Laryngeal mask airway Supreme in children: a retrospective audit. J Anesth Perioper Med 2016; 3: 241-6. doi: 10.24015/JAPM.2016.0033This is an open-access article, published by Evidence Based Communications (EBC). This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format for any lawful purpose. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

MLitB: machine learning in the browser

With few exceptions, the field of Machine Learning (ML) research has largely ignored the browser as a computational engine. Beyond an educational resource for ML, the browser has vast potential to not only improve the state-of-the-art in ML research, but also, inexpensively and on a massive scale, to bring sophisticated ML learning and prediction to the public at large. This paper introduces MLitB, a prototype ML framework written entirely in Javascript, capable of performing large-scale distributed computing with heterogeneous classes of devices. The development of MLitB has been driven by several underlying objectives whose aim is to make ML learning and usage ubiquitous (by using ubiquitous compute devices), cheap and effortlessly distributed, and collaborative. This is achieved by allowing every internet capable device to run training algorithms and predictive models with no software installation and by saving models in universally readable formats. Our prototype library is capable of training deep neural networks with synchronized, distributed stochastic gradient descent. MLitB offers several important opportunities for novel ML research, including: development of distributed learning algorithms, advancement of web GPU algorithms, novel field and mobile applications, privacy preserving computing, and green grid-computing. MLitB is available as open source software.

Service Environment for Smart Wireless Devices: An M2M Gateway Selection Scheme

Wireless standardization activities, such as the Bluetooth V4.x (Bluetooth smart), have led to an explosive growth in innovative short-range wireless devices capable of providing various services to assist everyday life. Allowing machine-to-machine (M2M) communication between these M2M devices also presents new commercial service opportunities. M2M service providers, including telecom carriers, may need to establish new networks to accommodate M2M interactions while identifying new business opportunities. Typically, M2M devices need another capable device, such as a smartphone, to act as a gateway to connect to the Internet to operate at their full potential. We propose a novel scheme in which any Internet-enabled device in the vicinity can act as an M2M gateway for M2M devices. This eliminates the need for the M2M device user to also own a smartphone or an Internet-enabled device to obtain services such as online-to-offline. This scheme faces new challenges, such as how to identify the best M2M gateway for a required service and the QoS. This paper proposes a method to select an M2M gateway from a large number of possibilities in order to increase service availability while also obtaining better signal strength for higher QoS. The methods presented are evaluated in terms of their performance, including energy consumption, and a service deployment guideline is derived using real-world data collected at an exhibition, which gave encouraging results.

Smart devices and spaces for pervasive computing

Applications and services for pervasive computing have been dramatically grown and have contributed extensively to our daily experiences in recent years. Smart systems, devices, and spaces are proactive for ubiquitous and pervasive computing. Smart information technology (IT) is also an outcome of the state of the art and novel mobile and ubiquitous computing technologies that include highly capable handheld device, pervasive and personal device, etc. This special issue will be a trigger for further related research and technology improvements in pervasive and ubiquitous computing using smart devices and services. This special issue called for original papers describing the latest developments, trends, and solutions of smart devices and spaces for pervasive computing including real-time operating systems (OS), tiny OS and middleware supports, mobile system performance, trustworthy Internet and communications, agents and mobile and pervasive services, among others. In particular, this special issue focuses on a remote control and media-sharing system, flash storage-based smart system, heterogeneous mobile OS, and prediction and auto-execution system for pervasive computing.

Online Expansion Technology for Dynamic Topology Changing ZigBee Wireless Sensor Networks

In ZigBee, the router capable devices have restriction to accept a number of devices as children devices. A router capable device can not allow any new device to join as a child device if it reaches to the maximum capacity of children or depth limit. According to ZigBee specification each device has