Multivariable sensor data to early detect lameness in sheep

Al-Rubaye, Z., Al-Sherbaz, A., McCormick, W. D., Turner, S. J. and Ghendir, S (2016) The use of multivariable sensor data to early detect lameness in sheep. Paper presented to: Sensors in Food and Agriculture, Møller Centre, Churchill College, University of Cambridge, 29-30 November 2016.

Abstract

Lameness is a clinical symptom referring to locomotion changes that widely differ from normal gait or posture. Lameness has a negative impact on both farm productivity and sheep welfare. The annual loss to the British sheep industry, because of the footrot only ;which is one of the common lameness causes, is estimated by £10 for each ewe. 

Since lameness is often an infectious disease that can be easily spread¬ within the flock, the prior detection of the lame sheep will be expected to decrease the prevalence of lameness and enabling the shepherd to react quickly to the better treatment. 

The prototype sensor has been developed primarily to conduct this research, offering an automatic monitoring of individual sheep to collect behavioural data measurements from a precise sensor that mounted within a neck collar. The sensor variables include 3-axis acceleration, 3-axis Gyroscope, (Roll, Pitch, Heading) angles, longitude, latitude and time. 

The sensor parameters were be used as inputs to data analysis algorithms. The preliminary results from applying pre-existing classification algorithms gave a positive indication for earlier lameness detection, however; the next experiments aim to simplify the process of lameness detection by eliminating the least effective parameters

All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with. Twitter: @scottturneruon

WiMAX-WiFi techniques for baseband convergence and routing protocols

Al-Sherbaz, A. (2010)
 WiMAX-WiFi techniques for baseband convergence and routing protocols. 
Doctoral thesis. The University of Buckingham.

Abstract
The focus of this study was to investigate solutions that, when implemented in any heterogeneous wireless network, shall enhance the existing standard and routing protocol connectivity without impacting the standard or changing the wireless transceiver’s functions. Thus achieving efficient interoperability at much reduced overheads. The techniques proposed in this research are centred on the lower layers. This because of the facts that WiMax and WiFi standards have not addressed the backward compatibility of the two technologies at the MAC and PHY layers, for both the baseband functions as well as the routing IP addresses. This thesis describes two innovate techniques submitted for a PhD degree. The first technique is to combine WiMax and WiFi signals so to utilise the same "baseband implementation chain" to handle both of these technologies, thus insuring ubiquitous data communication. WiMax-WiFi Baseband Convergence (W2BC) implementation is proposed to offer an optimum configurable solution targeted at combining the 802.16d WiMax and the 802.11a WiFi technologies. This approach provides a fertile ground for future work into combining more OFDM based wireless technologies. Based on analysis and simulation, the W2BC can achieve saving in device cost, size, power consumption and implementation complexity when compared to current side-by-side implementations for these two technologies. The second technique, called "Prime-IP", can be implemented with, and enhance, any routing protocol. During the route discovery process, Prime-IP enables any node on a wireless mesh network (WMN) to dynamically select the best available route on the network. Prime-IP proposes a novel recursive process, based on prime numbers addressing, to accumulate knowledge for nodes beyond the “neighbouring nodes”, and to determine the sequence of all the “intermediate nodes” used to form the route.

To read the thesis go to: http://nectar.northampton.ac.uk/4241/1/AlSherbaz20104241.pdf
Contact Ali.Al-Sherbaz@northampton.ac.uk


All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with. Twitter: @scottturneruon

What have the computing PhD students been up to Jan-Jun 2016?

Here is a collection of outputs from the University of Northampton PhD students during January- June 2016 - they have been a busy bunch.

1. Abbas, R., Al-Sherbaz, A., Bennecer, A. and Picton, P. (2016) Development of scheduling process for the M2M communications system in smart cites. Panel Presentation presented to: School of Science and Technology Annual Research Conference, Newton Building, The University of Northampton, 02 March 2016.
2. Al-Dabbagh, M., Al-Sherbaz, A. and Turner, S. J. (2016) Development [of] a real-time ITS using VANETs: a case study for Northampton Town. In: SAI Intelligent Systems Conference 2016. IEEE. (Accepted)
3. Al-Rubaye, Z. (2016) Lameness detection in sheep through behavioural sensor data analysis. Poster presented to: Graduate School 11th Annual Poster Competition, The University of Northampton, 18 May 2016.
4. Al-Rubaye, Z., Al-Sherbaz, A., McCormick, W. D. and Turner, S. J. (2016) The use of multivariable wireless sensor data to early detect lameness in sheep. Workshop presented to: School of Science and Technology Annual Research Conference, Newton Building, The University of Northampton, 02 March 2016.
5. Al-Sadi, A., Al-Sherbaz, A., Turner, S. J. and Xue, J. (2016) The management of distributed software defined networks in smart cities. Workshop presented to: School of Science and Technology Annual Research Conference, Newton Building, The University of Northampton, 02 March 2016.
6. Al-Sadi, A., Al-Sherbaz, A., Xue, J. and Turner, S. J. (2016) Routing algorithm optimization for Software Defined Network WAN.In: Al-Sadeq International Conference on Multidisciplinary in IT and Communication Science and Applications (AIC-MITCSA) - IRAQ (9-10) May. Baghdad, Iraq: IEEE. 
7. Edan, N. M., Turner, S. J., Al-Sherbaz, A. and Ajit, S. (2016) Performance evaluation of QoS using SIP & IAX2 VVoIP protocols with CODECS. In: SAI Computing Conference 2016. London: IEEE. 9781467384605. (Accepted)
8. Oakes, J., Johnson, M., Xue, J. and Turner, S. J. (2016) Simplified deployment of virtual machines using an intelligent design engine. In: Proceedings of Science and Information (SAI) Conference 2016. London: IEEE. 9781467384605. (Accepted)
9. Olajubu, O., Ajit, S., Johnson, M., Turner, S. J., Thomson, S. and Edwards, M. (2016) A textual language for requirement modelling. Workshop presented to: School of Science and Technology Annual Research Conference, Newton Building, The University of Northampton, 02 March 2016.
10. Rose, T. J. and Bakaoukas, A. G. (2016) Algorithms and approaches for procedural terrain generation. In: Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Virtual Worlds and Games for Serious Applications. Barcelona, Spain: Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers. (Accepted)

If you'd like to find out more about Computing at the University of Northampton go to: www.computing.northampton.ac.uk. All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with

Optimization of Routing Protocols for Wireless Mesh Networks

A poster presented at the 3rd Annual Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, India. The Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing India is presented by the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology and ACM India.

Dravid R and Al-Sherbaz, A (2012) 

"Optimization of Routing Protocols for Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) to Achieve Higher Quality of Service for Real-Time Applications" 

3rd Annual Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, 

Bangalore, India, 

December 12-14 2012