Abstract
A Biomedical Wireless Sensor Network (BWSN) is a special Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) with a small number of nodes designed for medical applications. These networks must ensure that medical data is delivered reliably and efficiently, M order to fulfil a sel of pre-established Quality of Service (QoS) requirements, In this way, the research community have been proposing new solutions to improve QoS in WSN, namely in routing protocols and power consumption efficiency. However, there slid a need for appropriate QoS guaranties ha BWSN. In this paper, possible QoS requirements of BWSN are discussed, together with a framework to automatically evaluate the performance of such QoS techniques. That framework was used together with simulators and operating systems appropriate for WSN, COOJA and Contiki OS, and proved to be a valuable tool for a proper evaluation of QoS parameters and metrics.

Abstract
Endoleaks are one of the major concerns in the long-term follow-up of endovascular aneurysm repair treatment (EVAR). Therefore, periodic monitoring is required to detect eventual damages in an implanted stent-graft. A monitoring system for post EVAR procedure based on inductive-coupling which avoids the need to resorting to more complex biomedical imaging systems is presented here. Endoleaks are detected with capacitive pressure sensors placed in the stent-graft and monitored externally after the measure of the oscillation frequency provided by the LC circuit created by sensors and inductive coupling.

Abstract
The use of textile yarns as data transmission media enables the design of non-obtrusive well-fitting garments as wearable systems. However, textile conductive yarns show impedances higher than those presented by common metal conductors and these values can change with the textile condition and level of stretching, affecting the integrity of the transmitted signal. This work proposes a built-in self-test methodology to test textile yarn interconnections for conventional stuck-at, open and short faults, as well as to verify signal integrity. The test procedure being proposed relies on sampling to generate a digital signal that results from comparing the received signal with pre-defined voltage levels. The obtained signature allows to verify signal integrity parameters: VLmax, VHmin and rise and fall times. Simulation results confirm the validity of the methodology being proposed. © 2012 IEEE.

Abstract
A new inductive coupling based wireless system is being developed to monitor the condition status of aortic stent-grafts. It relies on the measure of the stent-graft's outer pressure using a capacitive sensor placed in a LC resonant circuit. The work presented herein addresses the testing of the LC sensor circuit to diagnose whether observed pressure deviations are due to defects occurring in the sensor's inductor and capacitor or to an actual degradation of the stent-graft. © 2012 IEEE.

Abstract
Statistics show an aging trend in the world population, which will progressively overload existing health systems. Therefore, we believe that ubiquitous computing will play an important role in domicile settings, coping with the growing need for automated home healthcare support, especially for the sick and elderly. The integration of independently developed off-the-shelf systems (e.g., health-monitoring, entertainment, communications, home automation, etc.) may cause unplanned interactions between them (cf. feature interactions). This is a major concern since the correct/expected behavior of an isolated system may not be the same when deployed in conjunction with other systems, causing interferences, i.e., unexpected outcomes or misbehaviors. The Safe Home Care project tackles this problem to pursuit the safe deployment and reconfiguration of home healthcare smart-spaces. We propose the use of state graphs to represent off-the-shelf systems and predict the occurrence of intra-system's feature interactions. We use pre-deployment simulations to forecast feature interactions before deployment. We assess the applicability and correctness of this approach through a set of simulated home assisted living scenarios. © 2012 IEEE.

Abstract
Off-the-shelf smart devices and applications are expected to be pivotal in the coming need for massive home care. Deployment and integration of these systems in the same household may result in unplanned interactions involving users and entertainment, communication, and health-related devices. These unplanned interactions are a major concern when, for example, communication or entertainment applications interfere with the behavior of health-related devices. This paper presents a novel graph-based approach for representing the expected behavior of off-the-shelf smart devices and applications, their interactions, and for detecting interference in home care settings. A set of home care scenarios is used to assess the applicability of our approach. Our graph-based interference detection approach is integrated in the Safe Home Care reflective platform, which allows reifying the state of off-the-shelf systems and simulating home care scenarios. © 2012 IEEE.