Reliable multi-hop communication for structural health monitoring

Nagayama, Tomonori,Moinzadeh, Parya,Mechitov, Kirill,Ushita, Mitsushi,Makihata, Noritoshi,Ieiri, Masataka,Agha, Gul,Spencer, Billie F. Jr.,Fujino, Yozo,Seo, Ju-Won Techno-Press 2010 Smart Structures and Systems, An International Jou Vol.6 No.5

Wireless smart sensor networks (WSSNs) have been proposed by a number of researchers to evaluate the current condition of civil infrastructure, offering improved understanding of dynamic response through dense instrumentation. As focus moves from laboratory testing to full-scale implementation, the need for multi-hop communication to address issues associated with the large size of civil infrastructure and their limited radio power has become apparent. Multi-hop communication protocols allow sensors to cooperate to reliably deliver data between nodes outside of direct communication range. However, application specific requirements, such as high sampling rates, vast amounts of data to be collected, precise internodal synchronization, and reliable communication, are quite challenging to achieve with generic multi-hop communication protocols. This paper proposes two complementary reliable multi-hop communication solutions for monitoring of civil infrastructure. In the first approach, termed herein General Purpose Multi-hop (GPMH), the wide variety of communication patterns involved in structural health monitoring, particularly in decentralized implementations, are acknowledged to develop a flexible and adaptable any-to-any communication protocol. In the second approach, termed herein Single-Sink Multi-hop (SSMH), an efficient many-to-one protocol utilizing all available RF channels is designed to minimize the time required to collect the large amounts of data generated by dense arrays of sensor nodes. Both protocols adopt the Ad-hoc On-demand Distance Vector (AODV) routing protocol, which provides any-to-any routing and multi-cast capability, and supports a broad range of communication patterns. The proposed implementations refine the routing metric by considering the stability of links, exclude functionality unnecessary in mostly-static WSSNs, and integrate a reliable communication layer with the AODV protocol. These customizations have resulted in robust realizations of multi-hop reliable communication that meet the demands of structural health monitoring.

Differential Effects of FonF and FonFS on Learning English Lax Vowels in an EFL Context

Farhad Tabandeh,Ahmad Moinzadeh,Hossein Barati 아시아테플 2019 The Journal of Asia TEFL Vol.16 No.2

This study investigated the differential effects of focus-on-form (FonF: explicit instruction followed by focused tasks) and focus-on-forms (FonFS: explicit instruction followed by controlled exercises) on learning English lax vowels (i.e., /ɪ/, /ʊ/, /ʌ/) by Persian English as a foreign language (EFL) learners. To this end, 48 learners took a voluntary 6-hour course: the experimental group (n = 17) received FonF, the comparison group (n = 16) received FonFS, and the control group (n = 15) engaged in theme-based discussions with no focus on the target vowels. Learners’ pronunciations were elicited in controlled read-aloud and spontaneous picture description tasks and acoustically measured for phonetic accuracy based on tongue positions (i.e., formant 1 [F1] for the height and formant 2 [F2] for the backness of the tongue). Results revealed that whereas both instructional types significantly improved learners’ phonetic accuracy (i.e., adjusting F1/F2 values) in the controlled task, only the FonF methodology proved effective in the spontaneous task with large effects in the delayed posttest. The control group revealed no improvement in any tasks. Overall, the results show that FonF instruction may offer substantial benefits to EFL learners to have more accurate pronunciations in EFL speech. The paper concludes with the pedagogical implications of the findings.

Reliable multi-hop communication for structural health monitoring

Tomonori Nagayama,Parya Moinzadeh,Kirill Mechitov,Mitsushi Ushita,Noritoshi Makihata,Masataka Ieiri,Gul Agha,Billie F. Spencer, Jr.,Yozo Fujino,Ju-Won Seo 국제구조공학회 2010 Smart Structures and Systems, An International Jou Vol.6 No.5

Wireless smart sensor networks (WSSNs) have been proposed by a number of researchers to evaluate the current condition of civil infrastructure, offering improved understanding of dynamic response through dense instrumentation. As focus moves from laboratory testing to full-scale implementation, the need for multi-hop communication to address issues associated with the large size of civil infrastructure and their limited radio power has become apparent. Multi-hop communication protocols allow sensors to cooperate to reliably deliver data between nodes outside of direct communication range. However, application specific requirements, such as high sampling rates, vast amounts of data to be collected, precise internodal synchronization, and reliable communication, are quite challenging to achieve with generic multi-hop communication protocols. This paper proposes two complementary reliable multi-hop communication solutions for monitoring of civil infrastructure. In the first approach, termed herein General Purpose Multi-hop (GPMH), the wide variety of communication patterns involved in structural health monitoring, particularly in decentralized implementations, are acknowledged to develop a flexible and adaptable any-to-any communication protocol. In the second approach, termed herein Single-Sink Multi-hop (SSMH), an efficient many-to-one protocol utilizing all available RF channels is designed to minimize the time required to collect the large amounts of data generated by dense arrays of sensor nodes. Both protocols adopt the Ad-hoc On-demand Distance Vector (AODV) routing protocol, which provides any-to-any routing and multi-cast capability, and supports a broad range of communication patterns. The proposed implementations refine the routing metric by considering the stability of links, exclude functionality unnecessary in mostly-static WSSNs, and integrate a reliable communication layer with the AODV protocol. These customizations have resulted in robust realizations of multi-hop reliable communication that meet the demands of structural health monitoring.

Effects of Massed vs. Distributed Implicit FonF on Receptive Acquisition of L2 Vocabulary Items

Mohammad Nowbakht,Ahmad Moinzadeh,Azizollah Dabaghi 아시아영어교육학회 2015 The Journal of Asia TEFL Vol.12 No.3

The present study investigated the comparative effects of massed vs. distributed implicit focus on form (FonF) on the students’ short-term and long-term receptive L2 vocabulary acquisition. The participants (n = 45) were selected out of a population of 153 according to the result of the placement test and were randomly assigned to three groups of massed FonF, distributed FonF, and control group. The massed group was taught three short passages in which 28 target words were made typographically salient. Subsequently, they answered the comprehension questions presented after each passage during one session. The distributed group received instruction during three consecutive days. During each session they answered only one third of the comprehension questions. The control group received the same passages in which no words were made salient. The results of the immediate and delayed post-tests revealed the following: (a) both massed and distributed groups outperformed the control group in the post-tests; (b) there was no difference between the massed and distributed group in short-term vocabulary acquisition; and (c) the distributed group outperformed the massed group in the delayed post-test. These findings provide empirical evidence that Implicit FonF is beneficial to vocabulary learning; however, distributed FonF is more successful in long-term acquisition than massed FonF.

Neuroblastoma in Iran: An Experience of 32 Years at a Referral Childrens Hospital

Mehdiabadi, Gholamreza Bahoush,Arab, Elaheh,Rafsanjani, Khadijeh Arjmandi,Ansari, Shahla,Moinzadeh, Amir Majid Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2013 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.14 No.5

Background: This survey aim was to evaluate the epidemiology and outcomes of neuroblastoma patients in one the most important children referral hospitals in Iran as a model from developing countries. Materials and Methods: This retrospective, non-randomized analytic study was conducted on 219 newly diagnosed neuroblastoma cases. Results: The age of patients ranged from 1-156 months with the average of $40.5{\pm}2.44$, with a male/female ratio of 1.9/1. Of the total, 172 (78.5%) were children and 47 (21.5%) were infants The adrenals were the most common primary site (60%). Stage 4 at diagnosis accounted for about 54% of all enrolled patients. Infants had significantly better cumulative survival ($85{\pm}8%$) than children ($33{\pm}7%$) during the follow up period and the survival rate improved from $33{\pm}7%$ in 1974-1994 to $58{\pm}9%$ in 1995-2005. Conclusions: This study indicates that our patient population with neuroblastomas tends to have more advanced disease, perhaps with poor biologic markers, but our analysis shows that the outcomes have improved over 32 years although the overall survival of Iranian neuroblastoma patients is still lower than developed countries. Late diagnosis, inability to determine risk group during the years of study and using single protocol for all enrolled patients can be the reasons of lower survival rate.