This book constitutes the refereed post-conference proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Body Area Networks, BodyNets 2021, held in October 2021. The conference was held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 21 papers presented were selected from 44 submissions and issue new technologies to provide trustable measuring and communications mechanisms from the data source to medical health databases. Wireless body area networks (WBAN) are one major element in this process. Not only on-body devices but also technologies providing information from inside a body are in the focus of this conference. Dependable communications combined with accurate localization and behavior analysis will benefit WBAN technology and make the healthcare processes more effective.

Body centric wireless networking and communications is an emerging 4G technology for short (1-5 m) and very short (below 1 m) range communications systems, used to connect devices worn on (or in) the body, or between two people in close proximity. It has great potential for applications in healthcare delivery, entertainment, surveillance, and emergency services. This book brings together contributions from a multidisciplinary team of researchers in the field of wireless and mobile communications, signal processing and medical measurements to present the underlying theory, implementation challenges and applications of this exciting new technology. Topics covered include: diversity and cooperative communications in body area networks; ultra wideband radio channel characterisation for body-centric wireless communication; sparse characterisation of body-centric radio channels; antenna / human body interactions in the 60 GHz band; antennas for ingestible capsule telemetry; in vivo wireless channel modelling; diversity and MIMO for efficient front-end design of body-centric wireless communications devices; on-body antennas and radio channels for GPS applications; textile substrate integrated waveguide technology for the next-generation wearable microwave systems; ultra wideband body-centric networks for localisation and motion capture application; down scaling to the nano-scale in body-centric nano-networks; and the road ahead for body-centric wireless communication and networks.

Public officials are seen as the peoples' representatives or trustees and answerable before the public by explaining, justifying and rectifying their actions. Accountability can be carried out effectively through the institutions which are constitutionally protected, structurally independent, functionally autonomous and behaviourally impartial. Whereas accountability mechanisms refer to the institutionalized processes of holding the public authorities to account that traditional mechanisms of accountability include the elections, legislative scrutiny, courts and government audit. Institution of the ombudsman is a newer and specialized mechanism for holding the public services accountable. Elections and legislative scrutiny mechanisms of accountability do not make the public officials directly accountable. Process of seeking redress and holding public officials to account through courts is costly laborious and time consuming due to which need for the simple, accessible and cheaper avenue of public redress becomes inevitable. Institution of the ombudsman may not possess the entire components of the effective accountability.