An Efficient Void Aware Framework for Enabling Internet of Underwater Things

The Internet of Underwater Things (IoUT) is an emerging area in marine science and engineering. It has witnessed significant research and development attention from both academia and industries due to its growing underwater use cases in oceanographic data collection, pollution monitoring, seismic monitoring, tactical surveillance, and assisted navigation for waterway transport. Information dissemination in the underwater network environment is very critical considering network dynamism, unattainable nodes, and limited resources of the tiny IoUT devices. Existing techniques are majorly based on location-centric beacon messages, which results in higher energy consumption, and wastage of computing resources in tiny IoUT devices. Towards this end, this paper presents an efficient void aware (EVA) framework for information dissemination in IoUT environment. Network architecture is modeled considering potential void region identification in the underwater network environment. An efficient void aware (EVA) information dissemination framework is proposed focusing on detecting void network region, and intelligent void aware data forwarding. The comparative performance evaluation attests to the benefits of the proposed framework in terms of energy consumption, network lifetime, packet delivery ratio, and end-to-end delay for information dissemination in IoUT.

Application of a new percutaneous multi-function pedicle locator in minimally invasive spine surgery

In this study, a new percutaneous multi-function pedicle locator was designed for personalized three-dimensional positioning of a pedicle in minimally invasive spine surgery (MISS) without computer-assisted navigation technology. The proposed locator was used in a number of patients during MISS, and its advantages were analyzed. Based on the position of a pedicle determined by computed tomography (CT) and fluoroscopic images of a patient, 6 lines and 2 distances were used to determine the puncture point of a pedicle screw on skin, while 2 angles were used to indicate the direction of insertion of a pedicle guide needle from the patient's body surface. The results of the proposed locator were compared with those of the conventional freehand technique in MISS. The potential benefits of using the locator included enhanced surgical accuracy, reduced operation time, alleviation of the harmful intra-operative radiation exposure, lower costs, and shortened learning curve for young orthopedists.

Review on Vibration Isolation Method for Atomic Interference Gravimeter

The cold atomic interference absolute gravimeter is an ultra-precision instrument for measuring absolute gravity acceleration. At present, the highest measurement accuracy can reach the order of micro gamma. It has important application value and research significance in many disciplines, such as geophysics, resource exploration and assisted navigation. Because of its ultra-high precision, the ultra-low frequency micro-vibration noise on the ground has become one of the important factors affecting its accuracy, and it is also the bottleneck of the further development of gravimeter. Firstly, based on the theoretical and experimental results, this paper analyzes the vibration isolation requirements of atomic interference gravimeter. Secondly, it summarizes the research progress of atomic interference gravimeter isolation system and introduces three main isolation methods: passive vibration isolation, active vibration isolation and vibration compensation. Finally, the future development direction of atomic interference gravimeter isolation technology is analyzed and prospected.