Abstract-Base station (BS) sleeping in cellular networks has emerged as a promising solution for more energy efficient communications, concomitant with lowering the network carbon footprint. Switching off specific BS entirely however, can lead to coverage holes and severe performance degradation. To avoid coverage holes, the transmit power of neighbouring BS must be commensurately increased, which can cause higher interference to other cell users. Recently a BS-RS (relay station) switching model has been proposed where the BS changes operating mode to a RS during off-peak periods rather than being completely turned off. This paper presents a traffic-aware and traffic-andinterference aware switching strategy for both the BS sleeping and BS-RS switching paradigms, which dynamically establishes the conditions for a BS to alter its working mode. The switching is based upon a dynamic traffic threshold allied with the received BS interference level. Analysis corroborates both new algorithms significantly improve network energy efficiency, while upholding the requisite quality of service provision.

Background Diaphragm muscle atrophy during mechanical ventilation begins within 24 h and progresses rapidly with significant clinical consequences. Electrical stimulation of the phrenic nerves using invasive electrodes has shown promise in maintaining diaphragm condition by inducing intermittent diaphragm muscle contraction. However, the widespread application of these methods may be limited by their risks as well as the technical and environmental requirements of placement and care. Non‐invasive stimulation would offer a valuable alternative method to maintain diaphragm health while overcoming these limitations. Methods We applied non‐invasive electrical stimulation to the phrenic nerve in the neck in healthy volunteers. Respiratory pressure and flow, diaphragm electromyography and mechanomyography, and ultrasound visualization were used to assess the diaphragmatic response to stimulation. The electrode positions and stimulation parameters were systematically varied in order to investigate the influence of these parameters on the ability to induce diaphragm contraction with non‐invasive stimulation. Results We demonstrate that non‐invasive capture of the phrenic nerve is feasible using surface electrodes without the application of pressure, and characterize the stimulation parameters required to achieve therapeutic diaphragm contractions in healthy volunteers. We show that an optimal electrode position for phrenic nerve capture can be identified and that this position does not vary as head orientation is changed. The stimulation parameters required to produce a diaphragm response at this site are characterized and we show that burst stimulation above the activation threshold reliably produces diaphragm contractions sufficient to drive an inspired volume of over 600 ml, indicating the ability to produce significant diaphragmatic work using non‐invasive stimulation. Conclusion This opens the possibility of non‐invasive systems, requiring minimal specialist skills to set up, for maintaining diaphragm function in the intensive care setting.

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Abstract-Femtocell access points are inexpensive, plug and play home base stations designed to extend radio coverage and increase capacity within indoor environments. Their inherent uncoordinated and overlaid deployment however, means existing radio resource management (RRM) techniques are often ineffectual. Recent advances in dynamic RRM have emphasised the need for more efficient resource management strategies. While centralised resource management offers improved coordination and operator control giving better interference management, it is not scalable for increasing nodes. Distributed management techniques in contrast, do afford scaled deployment, but at higher node densities incur performance degradation in both system throughput and link-quality because of poor coordination. The level of spectrum sharing mandated by macro-femto deployment also impacts on system throughput and is scenario dependant. This paper presents a new hybrid resource management algorithm(HRMA) for down-links in orthogonal frequency division multiple access-based systems, with the model analysed for a range of macro-femto deployment scenarios. HRMA employs a dynamic fractional frequency reuse scheme for macro-cell deployment with frequency reuse defined for femto users depending on their location by making certain frequencies locally available based on macro-femto tier information sharing and efficient localised spectrum utilisation. Quantitative performance results confirm the efficacy of the HRMA strategy for various key system metrics including interference minimisation, outage probability and throughput.

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Accelerometers can be used to augment the control of powered prosthetic arms. They can detect the orientation of the joint and limb, and the controller can correct for the amount of torque required to move the limb. They can also be used to create a platform, with a fixed orientation relative to gravity for the object held in the hand. This paper describes three applications for this technology, in a powered wrist and powered arm. By adding sensors to the arm making these data available to the controller, the input from the user can be made simpler. The operator will not need to correct for changes in orientation of their body as they move. Two examples of the correction for orientation against gravity are described and an example of the system designed for use by a patient. The controller for all examples is a distributed set of microcontrollers, one node for each joint, linked with the control area network bus. The clinical arm uses a version of the Southampton adaptive manipulation scheme to control the arm and hand. In this control form, the user gives simpler input commands and leaves the detailed control of the arm to the controller.