Electrical and Electronic Engineering - Research Publications
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ItemSource-Based Jamming for Physical-Layer Security on Untrusted Full-Duplex Relay(IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC, 2019-05-01)We address the problem of secure wireless communications over an untrusted full-duplex (FD) relay based on the source jamming scheme. The optimal power allocation between the confidential signal and the jamming signal is derived to maximize the secrecy rate. Then, the corresponding secrecy outage probability (SOP) and the average secrecy rate (ASR) are analyzed. A tight approximation and an asymptotic result are further obtained for the single-antenna destination case both in simple forms. The large-antenna destination case is also analyzed rigorously. Further discussion reveals that transmit-power dependent self-interference has significant negative impact on the secrecy performance.
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ItemNo Preview AvailablePhysical-Layer Security in Full-Duplex Multi-Hop Multi-User Wireless Network With Relay Selection(IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC, 2019-02-01)This paper investigates the relay selection (RS) problem for multi-hop full-duplex relay networks where multiple source-destination (SD) pairs compete for the same pool of relays, under the attack of multiple eavesdroppers. To enhance the physical-layer security, within a given coherence time, our objective is to jointly assign the available relays at each hop to different SD pairs to maximize the minimum secrecy rate among all pairs. Two RS schemes, optimal RS and suboptimal RS (SRS), are proposed for two-hop networks based on global channel state information (CSI) and only SD pairs CSI, respectively. Since all users can communicate within the same coherence time, our joint RS schemes are important for the user-fairness and ultra-reliable low-latency communications. To evaluate the performance, the exact secrecy outage probability of the SRS scheme is derived under two residual self-interference models. The asymptotic analysis shows that the SRS scheme achieves full diversity. A relay-based jamming scheme is also proposed by using unassigned relays for user communications. Finally, the two-hop RS schemes and the analysis are extended to the general multi-hop network with multiple eavesdroppers. The numerical results reveal interesting fundamental trends where the proposed schemes can significantly enhance the secrecy performance.
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ItemImplementation of marker training exercises to improve marking reliability and consistency(Australasian Association for Engineering Education, 2018)CONTEXT: One of the challenges present in teaching a large engineering subject is that of achieving marking consistency of assessments across multiple markers. Several measures of standardising markers exist, such as calibrated review, and are commonly used in the humanities, particularly for assessments that could be prone to a wide variation in marks such as essays. The application of such methods, in an engineering context, is somewhat less documented but of particular importance in the case of reflective writing. This study contrasts the implementation of several different methods of using marker training exercises prior to the actual assessment marking and provides an analysis of the results in order to minimise the effect of multiple marker irregularities and to provide effective high-quality formative feedback on a piece of reflective writing. PURPOSE: This paper presents several different methods of marker training exercises, run prior to the actual assessment marking, and provides analyses to determine the effect of each in terms of minimising marking inconsistency among multiple markers on a piece of reflective writing. APPROACH: In all three marker training exercises, markers are given samples of a piece of reflective writing, of differing quality, along with a rubric outlining the marking criteria for the piece of writing and exemplars for indicative marking standards. Each of the methods employed differ in how the reference standard was set and how feedback was delivered to the markers. Statistics comparing the marking results across markers from before the introduction of the training exercises and between each of the three training methods were analysed to investigate marking reliability and consistency. RESULTS: A significant reduction in the spread of the marker means has been achieved through the introduction of the marker training, indicating an improvement in consistency. Some differences in results between the alternative methods employed has also been observed. CONCLUSIONS: Marking consistency can be improved with the introduction of a marker training exercise prior to the actual assessment marking. Different methods of implementing the marking training exercise, and how the feedback is provided, can have an effect of the amount of improvement in terms of consistency and reliability.
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ItemClinical profiles, comorbidities and complications of type 2 diabetes mellitus in patients from United Arab Emirates.(BMJ, 2017)OBJECTIVE: To assess clinical profiles of patients with type 2 diabetes in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), including patterns, frequencies, and risk factors of microvascular and macrovascular complications. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Four hundred and ninety patients with type 2 diabetes were enrolled from two major hospitals in Abu Dhabi. The presence of microvascular and macrovascular complications was assessed using logistic regression, and demographic, clinical and laboratory data were collected. Significance was set at p<0.05. RESULTS: Hypertension (83.40%), obesity (90.49%) and dyslipidemia (93.43%) were common type 2 diabetes comorbidities. Most of the patients had relatively poor glycemic control and presented with multiple complications (83.47% of patients had one or more complication), with frequent renal involvement. The most frequent complication was retinopathy (13.26%). However, the pattern of complications varied based on age, where in patients <65 years, a single pattern presented, usually retinopathy, while multiple complications was typically seen in patients >65 years old. Low estimated glomerular filtration rate in combination with disease duration was the most significant risk factor in the development of a diabetic-associated complication especially for coronary artery disease, whereas age, lipid values and waist circumference were significantly associated with the development of diabetic retinopathy. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus in the UAE frequently present with comorbidities and complications. Renal disease was found to be the most common comorbidity, while retinopathy was noted as the most common diabetic complication. This emphasizes the need for screening and prevention program toward early, asymptomatic identification of comorbidities and commence treatment, especially for longer disease duration.
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ItemA Hybrid EMD-Kurtosis Method for Estimating Fetal Heart Rate from Continuous Doppler Signals.(Frontiers Media SA, 2017)Monitoring of fetal heart rate (FHR) is an important measure of fetal wellbeing during the months of pregnancy. Previous works on estimating FHR variability from Doppler ultrasound (DUS) signal mainly through autocorrelation analysis showed low accuracy when compared with heart rate variability (HRV) computed from fetal electrocardiography (fECG). In this work, we proposed a method based on empirical mode decomposition (EMD) and the kurtosis statistics to estimate FHR and its variability from DUS. Comparison between estimated beat-to-beat intervals using the proposed method and the autocorrelation function (AF) with respect to RR intervals computed from fECG as the ground truth was done on DUS signals from 44 pregnant mothers in the early (20 cases) and late (24 cases) gestational weeks. The new EMD-kurtosis method showed significant lower error in estimating the number of beats in the early group (EMD-kurtosis: 2.2% vs. AF: 8.5%, p < 0.01, root mean squared error) and the late group (EMD-kurtosis: 2.9% vs. AF: 6.2%). The EMD-kurtosis method was also found to be better in estimating mean beat-to-beat with an average difference of 1.6 ms from true mean RR compared to 19.3 ms by using the AF method. However, the EMD-kurtosis performed worse than AF in estimating SNDD and RMSSD. The proposed EMD-kurtosis method is more robust than AF in low signal-to-noise ratio cases and can be used in a hybrid system to estimate beat-to-beat intervals from DUS. Further analysis to reduce the estimated beat-to-beat variability from the EMD-kurtosis method is needed.
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ItemFetal Cardiac Doppler Signal Processing Techniques: Challenges and Future Research Directions.(Frontiers Media SA, 2017)The fetal Doppler Ultrasound (DUS) is commonly used for monitoring fetal heart rate and can also be used for identifying the event timings of fetal cardiac valve motions. In early-stage fetuses, the detected Doppler signal suffers from noise and signal loss due to the fetal movements and changing fetal location during the measurement procedure. The fetal cardiac intervals, which can be estimated by measuring the fetal cardiac event timings, are the most important markers of fetal development and well-being. To advance DUS-based fetal monitoring methods, several powerful and well-advanced signal processing and machine learning methods have recently been developed. This review provides an overview of the existing techniques used in fetal cardiac activity monitoring and a comprehensive survey on fetal cardiac Doppler signal processing frameworks. The review is structured with a focus on their shortcomings and advantages, which helps in understanding fetal Doppler cardiogram signal processing methods and the related Doppler signal analysis procedures by providing valuable clinical information. Finally, a set of recommendations are suggested for future research directions and the use of fetal cardiac Doppler signal analysis, processing, and modeling to address the underlying challenges.
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ItemEnhanced inter-subject brain computer interface with associative sensorimotor oscillations.(Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), 2017-02)Electroencephalography (EEG) captures electrophysiological signatures of cortical events from the scalp with high-dimensional electrode montages. Usually, excessive sources produce outliers and potentially affect the actual event related sources. Besides, EEG manifests inherent inter-subject variability of the brain dynamics, at the resting state and/or under the performance of task(s), caused probably due to the instantaneous fluctuation of psychophysiological states. A wavelet coherence (WC) analysis for optimally selecting associative inter-subject channels is proposed here and is being used to boost performances of motor imagery (MI)-based inter-subject brain computer interface (BCI). The underlying hypothesis is that optimally associative inter-subject channels can reduce the effects of outliers and, thus, eliminate dissimilar cortical patterns. The proposed approach has been tested on the dataset IVa from BCI competition III, including EEG data acquired from five healthy subjects who were given visual cues to perform 280 trials of MI for the right hand and right foot. Experimental results have shown increased classification accuracy (81.79%) using the WC-based selected 16 channels compared to the one (56.79%) achieved using all the available 118 channels. The associative channels lie mostly around the sensorimotor regions of the brain, reinforced by the previous literature, describing spatial brain dynamics during sensorimotor oscillations. Apparently, the proposed approach paves the way for optimised EEG channel selection that could boost further the efficiency and real-time performance of BCI systems.
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ItemSuicidal Ideation Is Associated with Altered Variability of Fingertip Photo-Plethysmogram Signal in Depressed Patients.(Frontiers Media S.A., 2017-07-19)Physiological and psychological underpinnings of suicidal behavior remain ill-defined and lessen timely diagnostic identification of this subgroup of patients. Arterial stiffness is associated with autonomic dysregulation and may be linked to major depressive disorder (MDD). The aim of this study was to investigate the association between arterial stiffness by photo-plethysmogram (PPG) in MDD with and without suicidal ideation (SI) by applying multiscale tone entropy (T-E) variability analysis. Sixty-one 10-min PPG recordings were analyzed from 29 control, 16 MDD patients with (MDDSI+) and 16 patients without SI (MDDSI-). MDD was based on a psychiatric evaluation and the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI). Severity of depression was assessed using the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D). PPG features included peak (systole), trough (diastole), pulse wave amplitude (PWA), pulse transit time (PTT) and pulse wave velocity (PWV). Tone (Diastole) at all lags and Tone (PWA) at lags 8, 9, and 10 were found to be significantly different between the MDDSI+ and MDDSI- group. However, Tone (PWA) at all lags and Tone (PTT) at scales 3-10 were also significantly different between the MDDSI+ and CONT group. In contrast, Entropy (Systole), Entropy (Diastole) and Tone (Diastole) were significantly different between MDDSI- and CONT groups. The suicidal score was also positively correlated (r = 0.39 ~ 0.47; p < 0.05) with systolic and diastolic entropy values at lags 2-10. Multivariate logistic regression analysis and leave-one-out cross-validation were performed to study the effectiveness of multi-lag T-E features in predicting SI risk. The accuracy of predicting SI was 93.33% in classifying MDDSI+ and MDDSI- with diastolic T-E and lag between 2 and 10. After including anthropometric variables (Age, body mass index, and Waist Circumference), that accuracy increased to 96.67% for MDDSI+/- classification. Our findings suggest that tone-entropy based PPG variability can be used as an additional accurate diagnostic tool for patients with depression to identify SI.
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ItemA Comparative Study on Fetal Heart Rates Estimated from Fetal Phonography and Cardiotocography.(Frontiers Media S.A., 2017-10-17)The aim of this study is to investigate that fetal heart rates (fHR) extracted from fetal phonocardiography (fPCG) could convey similar information of fHR from cardiotocography (CTG). Four-channel fPCG sensors made of low cost (<$1) ceramic piezo vibration sensor within 3D-printed casings were used to collect abdominal phonogram signals from 20 pregnant mothers (>34 weeks of gestation). A novel multi-lag covariance matrix-based eigenvalue decomposition technique was used to separate maternal breathing, fetal heart sounds (fHS) and maternal heart sounds (mHS) from abdominal phonogram signals. Prior to the fHR estimation, the fPCG signals were denoised using a multi-resolution wavelet-based filter. The proposed source separation technique was first tested in separating sources from synthetically mixed signals and then on raw abdominal phonogram signals. fHR signals extracted from fPCG signals were validated using simultaneous recorded CTG-based fHR recordings.The experimental results have shown that the fHR derived from the acquired fPCG can be used to detect periods of acceleration and deceleration, which are critical indication of the fetus' well-being. Moreover, a comparative analysis demonstrated that fHRs from CTG and fPCG signals were in good agreement (Bland Altman plot has mean = -0.21 BPM and ±2 SD = ±3) with statistical significance (p < 0.001 and Spearman correlation coefficient ρ = 0.95). The study findings show that fHR estimated from fPCG could be a reliable substitute for fHR from the CTG, opening up the possibility of a low cost monitoring tool for fetal well-being.
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ItemGenetic Associations With Diabetic Retinopathy and Coronary Artery Disease in Emirati Patients With Type-2 Diabetes Mellitus.(Frontiers Media SA, 2019)Aim: Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) is associated with both microvascular complications such as diabetic retinopathy (DR), and macrovascular complications like coronary artery disease (CAD). Genetic risk factors have a role in the development of these complications. In the present case-control study, we investigated genetic variations associated with DR and CAD in T2DM patients from the United Arab Emirates. Methods: A total of 407 Emirati patients with T2DM were recruited. Categorization of the study population was performed based on the presence or absence of DR and CAD. Seventeen Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs), were selected for association analyses through search of publicly available databases, namely GWAS catalog, infinome genome interpretation platform and GWAS Central database. A multivariate logistic regression test was performed to evaluate the association between the 17 SNPs and DR, CAD, or both. To account for multiple testing, significance was set at p < 0.00294 using the Bonferroni correction. Results: The SNPs rs9362054 near the CEP162 gene and rs4462262 near the UBE2D1 gene were associated with DR (OR = 1.66, p = 0.001; OR = 1.37, p = 0.031; respectively), and rs12219125 near the PLXDC2 gene was associated (suggestive) with CAD (OR = 2.26, p = 0.034). Furthermore, rs9362054 near the CEP162 gene was significantly associated with both complications (OR = 2.27, p = 0.0021). The susceptibility genes for CAD (PLXDC2) and DR (UBE2D1) have a role in angiogenesis and neovascularization. Moreover, association between the ciliary gene CEP162 and DR was established in terms of retinal neural processing, confirming previous reports. Conclusions: The present study reports associations of different genetic loci with DR and CAD. We report new associations between CAD and PLXDC2, and DR with UBE2D1 using data from T2DM Emirati patients.