http://amir.eng.uci.edu/publications/15_Drought_Standardized_Index_AWR.pdf

A generalized framework for deriving nonparametric standardized drought indicators

Wireless body area sensor network is a sub-field of wireless sensor network. Wireless body area sensor network has come into existence after the development of wireless sensor network reached some ...

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1550147718768994

The state-of-the-art wireless body area sensor networks: A survey:

A multivariate approach for persistence-based drought prediction: Application to the 2010–2011 East Africa drought

Heartbeats based random binary sequences (RBSs) are the backbone for several security aspects in wireless body sensor networks (WBSNs). However, current heartbeats based methods require a lot of processing time (∼25–30 s) to generate 128-bit RBSs in real-time healthcare applications. In order to improve time efficiency, a biometric RBSs generation technique using interpulse intervals (IPIs) of heartbeats is developed in this study. The proposed technique incorporates a finite monotonic increasing sequences generation mechanism of IPIs and a cyclic block encoding procedure that extracts a high number of entropic bits from each IPI. To validate the proposed technique, 89 ECG recordings including 25 healthy individuals in a laboratory environment, 20 from MIT-BIH Arrhythmia Database, and 44 cardiac patients from the clinical environment are considered. By applying the proposed technique on the ECG signals, at most 16 random bits can be extracted from each heartbeat to generate 128-bit RBSs via concatenation of eight consecutive IPIs. And the randomness and distinctiveness of generated 128-bit RBSs are measured based on the National Institute of Standards and Technology statistical tests and hamming distance, respectively. From the experimental results, the generated 128-bit RBSs from both healthy subjects and patients can potentially be used as keys for encryption or entity identifiers to secure WBSNs. Moreover, the proposed approach is examined to be up to four times faster than the existing heartbeat-based RBSs generation schemes. Therefore, the developed technique necessitates less processing time (0–8 s) in real-time health monitoring scenarios to construct 128-bit RBSs in comparisons with current methods.

Heartbeats Based Biometric Random Binary Sequences Generation to Secure Wireless Body Sensor Networks

Cyber-Physical System (CPS), a new generation of digital system, mainly focuses on complex interdependencies and integration between cyberspace and physical world. A CPS is composed of highly-integrated computation, communication, control, and physical elements. CPS is currently of interest in academia, industry, and government. However, a systematic and extensive review of research on CPS is not available. As such, this paper conducts an expanded literature review on applications of CPS by examining existing literatures from 2012 to 2017 in Scopus database. Specifically, 77 papers studying applications of CPS are grouped into 10 categories and reviewed. The contents of the papers in each research category are summarized. The challenges and trends of research on CPS are illustrated as well.

Applications of Cyber-Physical System: A Literature Review

Body area sensor networks (BANs) utilize wireless communicating sensor nodes attached to a human body for convenience, safety, and health applications. Physiological characteristics of the body, such as the heart rate or Electrocardiogram (ECG) signals, are promising means to simplify the setup process and to improve security of BANs. This paper describes the design and implementation steps required to realize an ECG-based authentication protocol to identify sensor nodes attached to the same human body. Therefore, the first part of the paper addresses the design of a body-area sensor system, including the hardware setup, analogue and digital signal processing, and required ECG feature detection techniques. A model-based design flow is applied, and strengths and limitations of each design step are discussed. Real-world measured data originating from the implemented sensor system are then used to set up and parametrize a novel physiological authentication protocol for BANs. The authentication protocol utilizes statistical properties of expected and detected deviations to limit the number of false positive and false negative authentication attempts. The result of the described holistic design effort is the first practical implementation of biometric authentication in BANs that reflects timing and data uncertainties in the physical and cyber parts of the system.

/pdf/design-of-secure-ecg-based-biometric-authentication-in-body-1dni37jgp6.pdf

Design of Secure ECG-Based Biometric Authentication in Body Area Sensor Networks

Cyber Physical Systems (CPSs) integrate networked embedded computation systems with real-world physical installations. Programming of CPSs is not trivial, since CPSs combine traditional programming challenges and real-world timing, concurrency, and communication. This paper shows how a programming framework that allows students to implement and test CPS control programs in their Internet browsers, can improve both the students' learning experience and learning results. Students model and program a CPS application on a high abstraction level in a web page. This web page, provided by the instructor, invokes the student's code either together with the CPS as functional specification models in a virtual timing environment, or as component in a real-world system that interacts with a real remote physical implementation. Using the provided abstraction, students can incrementally design a CPS and experience challenges such as channel delays, model uncertainties, and real-time behavior, but without the need for complex low level programming or tools. For a CPS example system, we applied the framework in an embedded system design class. Our results show, the ability of a JavaScript-based programming and execution environment to design, program, and run CPSs on different levels of abstraction. Our results also indicate an increased approval from the students and a significantly improved understanding of modeling and programming in the class.

/pdf/from-the-browser-to-the-remote-physical-lab-programming-4x4zrok3ec.pdf

From the browser to the remote physical lab: Programming cyber-physical systems

Drought chokes ecosystems, strangles economies, and threatens human health [Wilhite, 2005]. In the United States, drought has recently forced states, including economic powerhouses like California and Texas, to declare a state of emergency. Complications such as an increase in fires, rising food prices, and water scarcity further compound the effects of drought [Pozzi et al., 2013; Hao et al., 2014].

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/2014EO220002

Toward a Drought Cyberinfrastructure System

Author(s): Momtaz, Farshad | Advisor(s): Givargis, Tony | Abstract: Body Area Sensor Networks (BANs) utilize wireless communicating sensor nodes attached to a human body for convenience, safety, and health applications.Physiological characteristics of the body, such as the heart rate or ECG signals, are promising means to simplify the setup process and to improve security of BANs.This thesis describes the design and implementation steps required to realize an ECG-based authentication protocol to identify sensor nodes attached to the same human body.This thesis starts by reviewing the latest literature in the filed of Body Area Network, and looks at possible applications, challenges, and overall architecture of BANs.It also addresses the design of a body-area sensor system, including the hardware setup, analogue and digital signal processing, and required ECG feature detection techniques.A model-based design flow is applied, and strengths and limitations of each design step are discussed.Real-world measured data originating from the implemented sensor system then are used to set up and parametrize a novel physiological authentication protocol for BANs. The authentication protocol utilizes statistical properties of expected and detected deviations to limit the number of false positive and false negative authentication attempts.The result of the described holistic design effort is the first practical implementation of biometric authentication in BANs that reflects timing and data uncertainties in the physical and cyber parts of the system.

/pdf/secure-ecg-based-biometric-authentication-in-body-area-5eubgpigvx.pdf

Secure ECG-Based Biometric Authentication in Body Area Sensor Networks

The invention provides an automated tool for predicting the effects of weather on labor productivity. Using the cumulative distribution function or a like probabilistic analysis, the impact of weather on work stoppages and labor productivity is determined using historical weather data. The tool can predict delays due to weather for a specific project site, and can be adapted to projects such as those in the fields of construction, agriculture, and transportation. The output of the tool is a probabilistic analysis that enables planners to determine the likelihood of different time-to-completion scenarios, based on historical weather.

Farshad Momtaz

Papers

Design of Secure ECG-Based Biometric Authentication in Body Area Sensor Networks

From the browser to the remote physical lab: Programming cyber-physical systems

Toward a Drought Cyberinfrastructure System

Secure ECG-Based Biometric Authentication in Body Area Sensor Networks

Weather Augmented Risk Determination System