Underwater Wireless Sensor Network (UWSN) communication at high frequencies is extremely challenging. The intricacies presented by the underwater environment are far more compared to the terrestrial environment. The prime reason for such intricacies are the physical characteristics of the underwater environment that have a big impact on electromagnetic (EM) signals. Acoustics signals are by far the most preferred choice for underwater wireless communication. Because high frequency signals have the luxury of large bandwidth (BW) at shorter distances, high frequency EM signals cannot penetrate and propagate deep in underwater environments. The EM properties of water tend to resist their propagation and cause severe attenuation. Accordingly, there are two questions that need to be addressed for underwater environment, first what happens when high frequency EM signals operating at 2.4 GHz are used for communication, and second which factors affect the most to high frequency EM signals. To answer these questions, we present real-time experiments conducted at 2.4 GHz in terrestrial and underwater (fresh water) environments. The obtained results helped in studying the physical characteristics (i.e., EM properties, propagation and absorption loss) of underwater environments. It is observed that high frequency EM signals can propagate in fresh water at a shallow depth only and can be considered for a specific class of applications such as water sports. Furthermore, path loss, velocity of propagation, absorption loss and the rate of signal loss in different underwater environments are also calculated and presented in order to understand why EM signals cannot propagate in sea water and oceanic water environments. An optimal solk6ution for underwater communication in terms of coverage distance, bandwidth and nature of communication is presented, along with possible underwater applications of UWSNs at 2.4 GHz.

Background Chorioamnionitis (CA) is associated with premature delivery and bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD). We hypothesize that preterm infants exposed to CA have reduced suppressive regulatory T cells (Treg) and increased non-regulatory T cell pro-inflammatory cytokines, increasing risk for BPD. Objective To evaluate cord blood CD4+ T cell regulatory phenotype and pro-inflammatory cytokine production in CA and BPD groups. Study Design Cord blood mononuclear cells from infants (GA ≤32 weeks), with or without placental histological evidence of CA (hChorio), were analyzed by flow cytometry. Clinical information was collected by retrospective chart review. Numbers of putative Treg (CD4+FoxP3+CD25+CD127Dim), CD4+ non-Tregs, and CD4+ T cell intracellular cytokine content following in vitro stimulation were compared with CA status and oxygen requirement at 36 weeks postmenstrual age. Result Absolute Treg numbers were not different in CA and non-CA exposed samples. However, the infants who developed BPD had a significant decrease in Treg and non-regulatory T cell numbers. Greater IL-6 production was observed in hCA group. Conclusion A pro-inflammatory CD4+ T cell status is noted in CA and BPD but the later disease is also associated with decrease in Tregs, suggesting that the development of BPD is marked by distinct inflammatory changes from those of CA exposed infants.

Choroidal neovascularization (CNV) is a common manifestation of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). It is characterized by the growth of abnormal blood vessels in the choroidal layer causing blurring and deterioration of the vision. In late stages, these abnormal vessels can rupture the retinal layers causing complete loss of vision at the affected regions. Determining the CNV size and type in fluorescein angiograms is required for proper treatment and prognosis of the disease. Computer-aided methods for CNV segmentation is needed not only to reduce the burden of manual segmentation but also to reduce inter- and intraobserver variability. In this paper, we present a framework for segmenting CNV lesions based on parametric modeling of the intensity variation in fundus fluorescein angiograms. First, a novel model is proposed to describe the temporal intensity variation at each pixel in image sequences acquired by fluorescein angiography. The set of model parameters at each pixel are used to segment the image into regions of homogeneous parameters. Preliminary results on datasets from 21 patients with Wet-AMD show the potential of the method to segment CNV lesions in close agreement with the manual segmentation.