Abstract
Complete optical characterization of biological tissue is desirable to develop clinical methods using optical technologies. Particularly, to develop optical clearing methods in biological tissues, it is necessary to know the composition of the tissue, the percentage of each constituent and corresponding refractive indexes. To obtain such information for rat muscle, we used a simple method to characterize tissue constituents for both content percentage and refractive index. The study consisted on measuring mass with a precision weighting scale and the refractive index with an Abbe refractometer during tissue dehydration. With the collected data, we used a theoretical model to calculate the refractive index and percentage for both interstitial fluid and solid part of the rat muscle. The results obtained are in good agreement with data published by other authors, and were considered of vital information for the optical clearing studies that we planned to perform.

Abstract
A procedure is proposed to estimate an analogue-to-digital converter's signal-to-noise plus distortion ratio using the histogram method. The procedure provides results that are in close agreement with the ones obtained with the spectral analysis and sinewave fitting methods. It is shown that the errors obtained by using former implementations of the histogram method are due to not considering the input stimulus probability density function, and it is shown how these errors can be rectified.

Abstract
Currently, the bandwidth utilization of residential broadband links is highly inefficient. Providing the means for sharing these links will increase the total bandwidth and reduce the fixed costs per client thus promoting the use of Internet services. This paper proposes a low cost communal residential gateway for sharing and remotely managing broadband access links. We first identify and characterize existing problems on residential asymmetric link sharing scenarios and then propose and evaluate the CommGate prototype that overcomes these problems. This solution contributes to an efficient broadband link sharing, a cost breakdown and an increasing Internet access dissemination, particularly in developing countries.

Abstract
With the increasing number of devices carried by users and the emergence of more dynamic network scenarios, new solutions have to be developed to support ubiquitous communications. The need for dynamic and transparent auto-configuration and adaptation of applications, devices and networks of devices to a wide variety of events is one of the major challenges. This paper presents a protocol to be used with notification systems, to support the registration, subscription and distribution of generic events among heterogeneous and independent entities, thus addressing the requirements of future communication scenarios.

Abstract
This paper proposes a new low profile dual band WLAN Planar inverted-F antenna (PIFA) by using Electromagnetic Band-Gap (EBG) material as ground plane. The total thickness of this antenna is only 4 mm, which is half of the height when a normal perfect electric conductor (PEC) ground plane is used. The backward radiation ratio is also reduced as the existence of EBG. Moreover, the bandwidth for the 5 GHz; band is increased by 10 times compared to the reference antenna. This EBG PIFA is built on the ground plane with size of 40x62 mm, which is suitable for most of the mobile devices.

Abstract
This work studies dual-band EBG structures used as an Artificial Magnetic Conductor (AMC) ground plane for WLAN co-planar antenna to achieve a low profile structure. From the simulation results, the EBG surface geometry with Jerusalem Cross (JCSS) slot has been chosen in this study. A dual band prototype operating at 2.4 and 5.2 GHz has been implemented and tested. The results show that the EBG antenna can work properly at desired frequency bands with improved gain and reduced back lobe. ©2008 IEEE.