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Abstract-Visible light communications (VLC) has the potential to play a major part in future smart home and next generation communication networks. There is significant ongoing work to increase the achievable data rates using VLC, to standardize it and integrate it within existing network infrastructures.The future of VLC systems depends on the ability to fabricate low cost transceiver components and to realize the promise of high data rates. This paper reports the design and fabrication of integrated transmitter and receiver components. The transmitter uses a two dimensional individually addressable array of micro light emitting diodes (µLEDs) and the receiver uses an integrated photodiode array fabricated in a CMOS technology. A preliminary result of a MIMO system implementation operating at a data rate of ~1Gbps is demonstrated. This paper also highlights the challenges in achieving highly parallel data communication along with the possible bottlenecks in integrated approaches. IndexTerms-Visible light communications, Optical communication system design, multiple input multiple output, optical wireless communications, link budget analysis, integrated optical system design.

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Reliable data transmissions and offering better mobility to the end user can be achieved by integrating different communication systems. In this paper, we investigate the performance of a cascaded indoor power line communication (PLC)/visible light communication (VLC) system with the presence of an amplify-and-forward (AF) relay. Using the pre-installed infrastructure of electricity wiring networks gives the advantage to use PLC as a backbone for VLCs. The performance of the proposed hybrid system is discussed in terms of the average capacity. A mathematical method is developed for this network to formulate the capacity by exploiting the statistical properties of both the PLC and VLC channels. The derived analytical expressions are validated by Monte Carlo simulations. The results showed that there is a considerable improvement in the performance of the hybrid system as the relay gain increases whereas it deteriorates with increasing the end-to-end distance. A comparison between the performance of a parallel hybrid/PLC and hybrid systems is also provided. It is found that the hybrid/PLC system outperforms the hybrid one. However, the user mobility offered by the latter system remains the main advantage over the former approach.Index Terms-Amplify-and-forward, optical wireless communications, power-line communications, signal-to-noise ratio, visible-light communications, .

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Visible Light Communication (VLC) is a short-range optical wireless communication technology that has been gaining attention due to its potential to offload heavy data traffic from the congested radio wireless spectrum. At the same time, wireless communications are becoming crucial to smart manufacturing within the scope of Industry 4.0. Industry 4.0 is a developing trend of high-speed data exchange in automation for manufacturing technologies and is referred to as the fourth industrial revolution. This trend requires fast, reliable, low-latency, and cost-effective data transmissions with fast synchronizations to ensure smooth operations for various processes. VLC is capable of providing reliable, low-latency, and secure connections that do not penetrate walls and is immune to electromagnetic interference. As such, this paper aims to show the potential of VLC for industrial wireless applications by examining the latest research work in VLC systems. This work also highlights and classifies challenges that might arise with the applicability of VLC and visible light positioning (VLP) systems in these settings. Given the previous work performed in these areas, and the major ongoing experimental projects looking into the use of VLC systems for industrial applications, the use of VLC and VLP systems for industrial applications shows promising potential.

Objective: This study intends to evaluate the knowledge, attitude and awareness of medical doctors toward influenza vaccination and the reasons for not getting vaccinated.Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out among medical doctors in three major tertiary care health settings in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Pakistan. A web-based, pre-tested questionnaire was used for data collection.Results: A total of (n = 300) medical doctors were invited, however only (n = 215) participated in the study with a response rate of 71.7%. Among the participants, 95.3% (n = 205) were males with a mean age of 28.67 ± 3.89 years. By designation, 121(56.3%) were trainee medical officers and 40 (18.6%) were house officers. The majority 102(47.4%) had a job experience of 1–2 years. Of the total sample, 38 (17.7%) doctors reported having received some kind of vaccination, whereas only 19 (8.84%) were vaccinated against influenza. The results identified that the major barriers toward influenza vaccinations included (1) Unfamiliarity with Influenza vaccination availability (Relative Importance Index RII = 0.830), (2) Unavailability of Influenza vaccines due to lack of proper storage area in the institution (RII = 0.634), (3) Cost of vaccine (RII = 0.608), and (4) insufficient staff to administer vaccine (RII = 0.589). Additionally, 156 (72.6%) of doctors were not aware of the influenza immunization recommendation and guidelines published by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Physicians obtained a high score (8.27 ± 1.61) of knowledge and understanding regarding influenza and its vaccination followed by medical officers (8.06 ± 1.37). Linear Regression analysis revealed that gender was significantly associated with the knowledge score with males having a higher score (8.0± 1.39) than females (6.80 ± 1.61 β = −1.254 and CI [−2.152 to −0.355], p = 0.006).Conclusion: A very low proportion of doctors were vaccinated against influenza, despite the published guidelines and recommendations. Strategies that address multiple aspects like increasing awareness and the importance of the influenza vaccine, the international recommendations and enhancing access and availability of the vaccine are needed to improve its coverage and health outcomes.