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6G will likely be the first generation of mobile communication that will feature tight integration of localization and sensing with communication functionalities. Among several worldwide initiatives, the Hexa-X flagship project stands out as it brings together 25 key players from adjacent industries and academia, and has among its explicit goals to research fundamentally new radio access technologies and high-resolution localization and sensing. Such features will not only enable novel use cases requiring extreme localization performance, but also provide a means to support and improve communication functionalities. This paper provides an overview of the Hexa-X vision alongside the envisioned use cases. To close the required performance gap of these use cases with respect to 5G, several technical enablers will be discussed, together with the associated research challenges for the coming years.

© 2017 IEEE. Monitoring of respiration patterns allows the early detection of various breathing disorders and may better identify those at risk for adverse acute outcomes in a variety of clinical settings. In this paper, we report on the use of SleepMinder (SM), a bedside non-contact Doppler-based biomotion recording sensor, to monitor remotely the nocturnal respiration patterns of 50 patients with systolic Heart failure (HF) while undergoing a lab based Polysomnography (PSG) test. A new respiration rate (RR) monitoring algorithm was developed based on the collected overnight radar signals. Two schemes of RR scoring were utilized: respiratory rate count (RRC) and instantaneous respiratory rates (IRR). Analysis of SM vs. PSG revealed that the mean/median IRR scored by SM is highly correlated with that scored on the nasal flow/effort signals from the corresponding PSG studies on all patients, with a significant correlation coefficient of 0.98 (average absolute difference of 0.31 breaths/min), and 0.97 (p<0.01, average absolute difference of 0.38 breaths/min) for the median and mean of RR respectively. Our experimental results also show that the difference between the RR estimations from IRR and RRC schemes can be utilized to identify central sleep apnea (CSA)/Cheyne-Stokes respiration (CSR) sections without additional apnea detection modules. As a result, with a sensitivity and specificity of 71% and 88% respectively, and an accuracy of 86%, our CSA/CSR screener, plugged with our RR estimation, can play an important role in the remote management of HF patients.

© 2016 The Authors. ESC Heart Failure published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology. Aims: At least 50% of patients with heart failure (HF) may have sleep-disordered breathing (SDB). Overnight in-hospital polysomnography (PSG) is considered the gold standard for diagnosis, but a lack of access to such testing contributes to under-diagnosis of SDB. Therefore, there is a need for simple and reliable validated methods to aid diagnosis in patients with HF. The aim of this study was to investigate the accuracy of a non-contact type IV screening device, SleepMinderTM (SM), compared with in-hospital PSG for detecting SDB in patients with HF. Methods and results: The study included 75 adult patients with systolic HF and suspected SDB who underwent simultaneous PSG and SM recordings. An algorithm was developed from the SM signals, using digital signal processing and pattern recognition techniques to calculate the SM apnoea-hypopnoea index (AHI). This was then compared with expert-scored PSGAHI. The SM algorithm had 70% sensitivity and 89% specificity for identifying patients with clinically significant SDB (AHI ≥ 15/h). At this threshold, it had a positive likelihood ratio of 6.3 and a negative likelihood ratio of 0.16. The overall accuracy of the SMAHI algorithm was 85.8% as shown by the area under a receiver operator characteristic curve. The mean AHI with SM was 3.8/h (95% confidence interval 0.5–7.1) lower than that with PSG. Conclusions: The accuracy of the non-contact type IV screening device SM is good for clinically significant SDB in patients with systolic HF and could be considered as a simple first step in the diagnostic pathway.

Strength and function of autogenic and xenogenic reconstruction of digital extensor tendons was examined in an ovine model. In this study, tendon-graft junctions were formed by either suture augmented with a woven polyester tube (A), or augmented and shielded from surrounding tissues by chemically-treated bovine pericardium (S). By 12 wk, both A and S sheep had returned to full range of motion. Mechanical strength of both the autograft-host and xenograft-host repair sites was similar, with a pooled strength of 131 ± 25 N (n = 15). Similarly, the mid-portion xenograft strengths were constant at approximately 366 ± 97 N (n = 7). In contrast, mid-portion autograft strengths decreased from 380 ± 110 N (N = 4) to 120 ± 66 N (n = 4) if shielding was omitted. The loss in autograft strength was attributed to loss of function associated with adhesions. The use of the augmentation device coupled with an adhesion barrier gives higher initial reconstruction strength and improved function during the host repair period up to 12 wk. © 1995.

Two forms of bovine pericardium (BPC) were assessed as hernia repair materials: non-cross-linked (lyophilized) and cross-linked through treatment with glutaraldehyde (GA). These were compared with polypropylene mesh (Marlex®) in a rabbit model. Over 52 wk implantation, the GA BPC grafts developed a strong, stable, fibrous tissue replacement with good incorporation into the abdominal muscle wall. The lyophilized BPC grafts were substantially resorbed within 12 wk of implantation, however the thin, fibrous replacement tissue was inadequate for abdominal wall support. Marlex® grafts provided sufficient abdominal support, however these grafts were associated with extensive adhesion formation and, in this model, fat deposition around the perimeter of the graft. Control (ungrafted) rabbit abdominal muscle in the transverse orientation had an ultimate tensile load (UTL) of 11.4 ± 5.1 N (x ± s.d.) and a strain at UTL of 35 ± 12% (n = 169). At 52 weeks the UTL of the repair sites was 7.3 ± 4.5 N (n = 6), 5.1 ± 3.5 N (n = 6) and 5.6 ± 2.7N (n = 6) for GA BPC, lypophilized BPC and Marlex® grafts, respectively. © 1991.

The reported ultimate tensile stress of the anterior cruciate ligament varies greatly, ranging from 13 to 147 MPa. This study shows that the orientation and degree of flexion of the bone-ligament-bone complex significantly alter the apparent ultimate tensile properties (ultimate tensile stress ranging from 60 ± 3 to 123 ± 15 MPa, ultimate specific extension from 37 ± 7 to 93 ± 20%), whilst the method chosen for measuring extension also affects the calculated specific extension of the bone-ligament-bone complex. It is suggested that, for considerations of prosthesis design and evaluation, the mechanical properties of the bone-ligament-bone complex should be measured in anterior draw and extension measured using points as close as possible to the positions of the ligamentous attachment sites. © 1990.