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Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) Network Planning (RNP) is the problem of placing RFID readers in a working area where a tag is interrogated by at least one reader and at the same time satisfies some constraints such as minimum number of placed readers, minimal interference, and minimal outside coverage. The RNP optimization has been proven NP-hard; thus, natural-inspired approaches are often used to find the optimal solution. The paper proposes an energy-efficient RNP approach in which the positions of placed readers are optimized by a Hopfield network, and the energy efficiency is achieved through a placement area restriction technique. A mechanism of redundant reader elimination is also added to minimize the number of placed readers. Simulation results show that the Hopfield network-based energy-efficient RNP approach achieves the maximum tag coverage and energy efficiency by reducing interference, outside coverage, and the number of placed readers.

Leprosy is a debilitating infectious disease of human skin and nerves. Genetic factors of the host play an important role in the manifestation of disease susceptibility. The human NRAMP1 gene is a leprosy susceptibility candidate locus since its murine homologue Nramp1 (formerly Lsh/Ity/Bcg) controls innate resistance to Mycobacterium lepraemurium. In this study, 168 members of 20 multiplex leprosy families were genotyped for NRAMP1 alleles and 4 closely linked polymorphic markers. Highly informative haplotypes overlapping the NRAMP1 gene were constructed, and the haplotype segregation into leprosy-affected offspring was analyzed. It was observed that the segregation of NRAMP1 haplotypes into affected siblings was significantly nonrandom. This finding is consistent with the hypothesis that NRAMP1 itself is a leprosy susceptibility locus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]