Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Technologies and systems'
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Braungardt, Sibylle. "Complex systems for quantum technologies." Doctoral thesis, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/35871.
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Sharma, Gunjana. "Heterogeneous Technologies for Microfluidic Systems." Doctoral thesis, Uppsala universitet, Mikrosystemteknik, 2010. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-131109.
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In this thesis, conventional and unconventional technologies have been studied and combined in order to make heterogeneous microfluidics with potential advantages, especially in biological applications. Many conventional materials, like silicon, glass, thermoplastic polymers, polyimide and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) have been combined in building heterogeneous microfluidic devices or demonstrators. Aside from these materials, unconventional materials for microfluidics such as stainless steel and the fluoroelastomer Viton have been explored. The advantages of the heterogeneous technologies presented were demonstrated in several examples: (1) For instance, in cell biology, surface properties play an important role. Different functions were achieved by combining microengineering and surface modification. Two examples were made by depositing a Teflon-like film: a) a non-textured surface was made hydrophobic to allow higher pressures for cell migration studies and b) a surface textured by ion track technology was even made super-hydrophobic. (2) In microfluidics, microactuators used for fluid handling are important, e.g. in valves and pumps. Here, microactuators that can handle high-pressures were presented, which may allow miniaturization of high performance bioanalyses that until now have been restricted to larger instruments. (3) In some applications the elastomer PDMS cannot be used due to its high permeability and poor solvent resistivity. Viton can be a good replacement when elasticity is needed, like in the demonstrated paraffin actuated membrane.(4) Sensing of bio-molecules in aquatic solutions has potential in diagnostics on-site. A proof-of-principle demonstration of a potentially highly sensitive biosensor was made by integrating a robust solidly mounted resonator in a PDMS based microfluidic system. It is concluded that heterogeneous technologies are important for microfluidic systems like micro total analysis systems (µTAS) and lab-on-chip (LOC) devices.
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Fartaria, Luís Alberto Jorge. "Energy systems for transportation technologies." Master's thesis, Universidade de Aveiro, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10773/8726.
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Mestrado em Engenharia MecânicaThe objective of the work developed in this master thesis is to implement in one system for the transport people in underdeveloped mountainous regions in Nepal. This is based on the idea of Asso. Prof. of Physics Lok Bahadur Baral from Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu (Nepal), who started to develop a gravitational potential energy for transportation. His work was conducted under supervision of Prof. Kartnig at the Department of Engineering Design for Transport and Conveying Systems at Vienna University of Technology in collaboration with Tribhuvan University. This part of the project is to develop the power supply for the infrastructure created by David Guerrero in his bachelor thesis. The infrastructure is already designed to receive one engine that will give the power necessary for this to be successfully accomplished. For the engine to work we have to have some energy supply in our system, that energy requirement will originate from a variation of renewable energy technologies.
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Apentiik, Rowland. "Bulsa technologies and systems of thought." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1997. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp04/mq24571.pdf.
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Haase, Peter. "Semantic technologies for distributed information systems." Karlsruhe : Univ.-Verl. Karlsruhe, 2006. http://www.uvka.de/univerlag/volltexte/2007/195/.
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Smith, Colin Frederick. "Jellyfish Inspired Underwater Systems and Technologies." Thesis, Virginia Tech, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/76896.
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Unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) have long been in use but increasingly there has been a wave of biomimetic robots taking over the duties and functions of traditional vehicles. A robotic jellyfish, inspired by the species Aurelia aurita was developed and characterized. In addition to the body of the main robotic vehicle, supporting technologies were developed including polymeric artificial muscles, hydrogel-based artificial mesoglea, and an inclinometer inspired by the jellyfish statocyst organ. Through multiple versions, the vehicle was able to attain an order of magnitude increase in proficiency from 0.022 s?? to 0.21 s?? and robustness not found in initial prototypes. A polyvinyl alcohol hydrogel reinforced with ferritin nanoparticles was found to accurately mimic the stress and strain characteristics of natural Aurelia mesoglea while maintaining a high water content similar to the animal. In addition, the optical properties were shown to be controlled by water to DMSO ratio. A five layer PPy-Au-PVDF-Au-PPy actuator stored in 0.5M KCl solution actuated at 4 VDC potential and produced an impressive 90% tip deflection. In addition, the rate of change was extremely high at 50% deflection of initial actuator length per second. The artificial jellyfish statocyst was found to produce the required highly linear voltage divider output. This sensor will provide the vehicle with biomimetic self-awareness of its own body position. Future directions are proposed for the biomimetic robotic jellyfish such as on-board power and computing, multi-material mesoglea with a dermal layer, a MEMS-based statocyst, and polymeric muscles with increased force production and time response.Master of Science
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Wang, Jennifer Y. "Migration of aerospace technologies to adjacent markets." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/105302.
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Thesis: S.M. in Engineering and Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2014.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 51-56).
Shrinking government budgets due to economic woes has aerospace and defense contractors scrambling to sustain their business and minimize the effects of budget sequestration. Given the global economic climate and the level of federal debt, government budget spending is unlikely to recover in the near future to previous levels, where aerospace and defense contractors had enjoyed an abundance of million and billion dollar cost-reimbursable contracts. In current business conditions, company leadership has put a new focus on finding and developing business in adjacent markets, where core competencies can be utilized to generate alternative streams of revenue. In order to provide insight into potential adjacent markets for aerospace technologies and entry strategies that increase chances of success, this thesis analyzes cases of technologies originally developed for an aerospace application that were eventually adopted for use in another (non-aerospace) industry. Analysis of metrics and 35 cases compiled from NASA's Spinoff and Technology Databases reinforce several observations that have been generalized in other literature: 1) a wide variety of industries could be considered adjacent markets, 2) entering established industries may offer the highest technology adoption rate, 3) partnership with an existing firm or organization with knowledge of the adjacent market has played a key role in the successful adoption of the technology in the adjacent market, and 4) building-block technologies at the subsystem, component and base material level most often traversed market boundaries. However, a handful of cases prove that systems can traverse market boundaries in whole under certain conditions. Most importantly, the role of the aerospace industry as advanced analog lead users is a unique advantage that aerospace firms should leverage.
by Jennifer Y. Wang.
S.M. in Engineering and Management
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Collins, Travis Fredrick. "Enabling 5G Technologies." Digital WPI, 2017. https://digitalcommons.wpi.edu/etd-dissertations/35.
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The increasing demand for connectivity and broadband wireless access is leading to the fifth generation (5G) of cellular networks. The overall scope of 5G is greater in client width and diversity than in previous generations, requiring substantial changes to network topologies and air interfaces. This divergence from existing network designs is prompting a massive growth in research, with the U.S. government alone investing $400 million in advanced wireless technologies. 5G is projected to enable the connectivity of 20 billion devices by 2020, and dominate such areas as vehicular networking and the Internet of Things. However, many challenges exist to enable large scale deployment and general adoption of the cellular industries. In this dissertation, we propose three new additions to the literature to further the progression 5G development. These additions approach 5G from top down and bottom up perspectives considering interference modeling and physical layer prototyping. Heterogeneous deployments are considered from a purely analytical perspective, modeling co-channel interference between and among both macrocell and femtocell tiers. We further enhance these models with parameterized directional antennas and integrate them into a novel mixed point process study of the network. At the air interface, we examine Software-Defined Radio (SDR) development of physical link level simulations. First, we introduce a new algorithm acceleration framework for MATLAB, enabling real-time and concurrent applications. Extensible beyond SDR alone, this dataflow framework can provide application speedup for stream-based or data dependent processing. Furthermore, using SDRs we develop a localization testbed for dense deployments of 5G smallcells. Providing real-time tracking of targets using foundational direction of arrival estimation techniques, including a new OFDM based correlation implementation.
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Gautam, Sanjay Kumar S. M. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "Healthcare market outlook and emerging technologies in India." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/100375.
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Thesis: S.M. in Engineering and Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, System Design and Management Program, February 2015.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (page 77).
Usage in information technology (IT) have improved efficiency and quality in many industries. Healthcare has not been one of them. Although some administrative IT systems, such as those for billing, scheduling, and inventory management, are already in place in the healthcare industry, little adoption of clinical IT, such as Electronic Medical Record Systems (EMR-S) and Clinical Decision Support tools, has occurred. India's healthcare information technology market is slow with technology adoption but there is little traction shown in last couple of years. This growth is expected to hit US $1.45 billion in 2018, more than three times the US $381.3 million reached in 2012. The increase in adoption of electronic health records, mHealth, telemedicine, and Web-based services has made electronic patient data expand, necessitating the implementation of robust IT systems in Indian healthcare institutions. Information technology (IT) has the potential to improve the quality, safety, and efficiency of health care. Diffusion of IT in health care is generally low (varying, however, with the application and setting) but surveys indicate that providers plan to increase their investments. Drivers of investment in IT include the promise of quality and efficiency gains. Barriers include the cost and complexity of IT implementation, which often necessitates significant work process and cultural changes. Given IT's potential, both the private and public sectors have engaged in numerous efforts to promote its use within and across health care settings. Delivering quality health care requires providers and patients to integrate complex information from many different sources. Thus, increasing the ability of physicians, nurses, clinical technicians, and others to readily access and use the right information about their patients should improve care. The purpose of this thesis is to assess the current state of healthcare in India and specifically look into the emerging technology trends in healthcare IT. During analysis secondary data has been used. Various articles and research papers published in national and international journals are used. India is hub of IT and its use is increasing in health sector.
by Sanjay Kumar Gautam.
S.M. in Engineering and Management
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Arvidson, Martin, and Markus Carlbark. "Intrusion Detection Systems : Technologies, Weaknesses and Trends." Thesis, Linköping University, Department of Electrical Engineering, 2003. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-1614.
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Traditionally, firewalls and access control have been the most important components used in order to secure servers, hosts and computer networks. Today, intrusion detection systems (IDSs) are gaining attention and the usage of these systems is increasing. This thesis covers commercial IDSs and the future direction of these systems. A model and taxonomy for IDSs and the technologies behind intrusion detection is presented.
Today, many problems exist that cripple the usage of intrusion detection systems. The decreasing confidence in the alerts generated by IDSs is directly related to serious problems like false positives. By studying IDS technologies and analyzing interviews conducted with security departments at Swedish banks, this thesis identifies the major problems within IDSs today. The identified problems, together with recent IDS research reports published at the RAID 2002 symposium, are used to recommend the future direction of commercial intrusion detection systems.
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Moss, Jonathan G. O. "Spread spectrum technologies for future communications systems." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1998. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.285021.
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Perez, Javier Andreu. "Evolving intelligent systems for ubiquitous computing technologies." Thesis, Lancaster University, 2012. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.660113.
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Ubiquitous Computing (UC) is a new paradigm of research aiming at creating new autonomous systems that involve humans in practical real-life situations and applications. Human behaviour follows a stochastic process and raises a high level of uncertainty. In this context, Evolving Intelligent Systems (EIS) form a new machine learning · concept for developing adaptive algorithms that work on-line and are therefore reliable in real -time applications, with a very low complexity. Their adaptation properties make this type of algorithms very suitable to address the problems of stochastic behaviours and high uncertainty. In this thesis, the theory behind EIS is explained in detail, including fuzzy rule-based inference and densitybased models. In addition, key contributions that ease their application to UC systems are highlighted. Two types of evolving classifiers, eClassO and eClassl, are proposed as well as their simplified version called Simpl_eClass. Feature processing and novel dimensionally reduction methods are proposed when necessary. The purpose is this way to address the design and computational challenges of four key subfields of UC, namely Human Activity Recognition, Mobile Computing, Scene Recognition and Ubiquitous Robots. The first entails the recognition of human activities by using pervasive wearable sensors. The second implies the implementation of the proposed algorithm in a mobile platform to detect novelties inside a video sequence and recover pictorial memories. The third consists in an image processing experiment for classifying entire images into categorical classes. Finally, the fourth introduces the development of an autonomous robotic leader-follower platform. The model settings for each experiment are detailed. Successful performance values and pattern recognition rates were achieved for the different challenges addressed. For example, classification rates ranged between 71% and 80% in the online human activity recognition case, 80% for the scene categorization problem, and 98% for the leader status recognition. Unsupervised recognition of novelties was also successfully evaluated through a user validation test. The experiments showed in all cases very good times of response and resource awareness. It is concluded that the use of EIS with on-line computation and fuzzy logic inference offers valuable assets to be exploited in future UC developments.
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Ingham, Jonathan David. "Technologies for multimode-fibre optical communication systems." Thesis, University of Bristol, 2004. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.406971.
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Khandekar, Rahul M. "Advanced wavefront manipulation technologies in optical systems." Diss., Online access via UMI:, 2008.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science, Department of Electrical Engineering, 2008.Includes bibliographical references.
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Devic, Florian. "Securing embedded systems based on FPGA technologies." Thesis, Montpellier 2, 2012. http://www.theses.fr/2012MON20107.
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Les systèmes embarqués peuvent contenir des données sensibles. Elles sont généralement échangées en clair entre le système sur puces et la mémoire, mais aussi en interne. Cela constitue un point faible: un attaquant peut observer cet échange et récupérer des informations ou insérer du code malveillant. L'objectif de la thèse est de fournir une solution dédiée et adaptée à ces problèmes en considérant l'intégralité de la durée de vie du système embarqué (démarrage, mises à jour et exécution) et l'intégralité des données (bitstream du FPGA, noyau du système d'exploitation, code et données critiques). En outre, il est nécessaire d'optimiser les performances des mécanismes matériels de sécurité introduits afin de correspondre aux attentes des systèmes embarqués. Cette thèse se distingue en proposant des solutions innovantes et adaptées au monde des FPGAsEmbedded systems may contain sensitive data. They are usually exchanged in plaintext between the system on chips and the memory, but also internally. This is a weakness: an attacker can spy this exchange and retrieve information or insert malicious code. The aim of the thesis is to provide a dedicated and suitable solution for these problems by considering the entire lifecycle of the embedded system (boot, updates and execution) and all the data (FPGA bitstream, operating system kernel, critical data and code). Furthermore, it is necessary to optimize the performance of hardware security mechanisms introduced to match the expectations of embedded systems. This thesis is distinguished by offering innovative and suitable solutions for the world of FPGAs
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Gomez, Hernandez Maria del Carmen. "Information system for environmental technologies." ScholarWorks@UNO, 2005. http://louisdl.louislibraries.org/u?/NOD,210.
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Thesis (M.S.)--University of New Orleans, 2005.Title from electronic submission form. "A thesis ... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Computer Science"--Thesis t.p. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.
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Piper, Victor L. (Victor Lawrence). "Akamai technologies : an analysis of product and platform growth strategies." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/90700.
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Thesis: S.M. in Engineering and Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, System Design and Management Program, 2013.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 105-108).
Akamai Technologies has achieved market leadership in content delivery and application acceleration services and is pursuing aggressive growth. Akamai has advised the market that growth to $5B by 2020 is achievable by exploiting opportunity within its key markets. However, the internal consensus is that Akamai's legacy business practices are incapable of scaling at the rate of market growth. What must Akamai do to execute on its revenue goals and, more broadly, how can Akamai maintain a leadership position within a dynamic and rapidly expanding market? The goal of this thesis is to discover the elements of Akamai's legacy and emerging growth strategies and to identify strategic options that Akamai may pursue. To gain perspective into evolution of the business and the rationale for current strategic initiatives, a series of interviews with Akamai managers was conducted and a review of an Akamai case study and corporate quarterly earnings was completed. This information yielded insights on the challenges of growth, actions for overcoming these challenges, and motivations for selecting those actions. To gain insight into best practices in growth strategy, a survey of the business strategy literature and case studies of successful technology platform companies was conducted. The literature differentiated between product-based business strategies and platform-based business strategies. Analysis of the differences between these strategies provided insights into Akamai's current challenges.
by Victor L. Piper.
S.M. in Engineering and Management
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Elmasry, Sarah Khalil. "Integration Patterns of Learning Technologies." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/29070.
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This research proposes sets of design patterns of learning environments as an innovative approach towards an intelligent architectural design process. These patterns are based on teachers’ spatial and pedagogical use of their learning environments.
The study is based in the desired condition that learning environments are expected to host learning technologies efficiently, to adapt to the fact that its life span is much longer than that of any technology within it, and to accommodate a variation of teaching modes and learning styles. In an effort to address these issues; calls for designing flexible learning spaces have emerged, as well as recommendations for alternative layouts. Yet, more challenging questions emerge; how efficiently do these technologies integrate with other systems in the classroom space? What should architects and facility planners consider for a successful systems’ integration which incorporates learning technologies in the design of the classroom space? And how can these spaces support variations in pedagogical practice. This study attempts to answer these questions by developing a pattern language to support the early design phases of a technology-rich learning environment.
The study is qualitative in nature, and based on interviews with a sample of teachers at academic year Governor’s science and technology schools in Virginia. The researcher attempts to capture problems and challenges related to occupants’ performance within the physical boundaries of the classroom when learning technologies are in use. The variation of teaching-learning modes is taken into consideration.
In this process, the researcher focuses on integration patterns of learning technologies with the envelope and the interior systems. The findings are then translated into the design language in the form of a pattern language at the building systems scale.Ph. D.
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Edwards, Morgan Rae. "Greenhouse gas equivalency metrics for evaluating energy technologies." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/112052.
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Thesis: Ph. D. in Engineering Systems, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Engineering, Institute for Data, Systems, and Society, 2017.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 127-137).
This thesis addresses a long-standing question about how to compare energy technologies that emit different types of climate forcers during their life cycles. This problem is challenging because these forcers have dissimilar lifetimes in the atmosphere, ranging from days (black carbon) to decades (methane, CH 4) to centuries or more (carbon dioxide, CO2 ). Efforts to reduce the climate impacts of energy use may involve a tradeoff between these short-and long-lived emissions. Equivalency metrics, which express emissions of one forcer (e.g., CH4 ) in units of another (typically CO2), are widely-used tools for comparing the climate impacts of emissions. These metrics allow climate impacts to be expressed on a single scale, but they require assigning a relative value to short- versus long-lived climate forcing. The equivalency metric approach is used in a large variety of applications, from technology evaluation to emissions trading. These applications almost universally rely on a single metric, developed as a placeholder over twenty-five years ago. This metric, the global warming potential (GWP), compares gases based on their radiative forcing impacts over a fixed time horizon (usually 100 years). The design of the GWP, including critically the time horizon over which emissions are compared, is largely arbitrary, yet it has enormous implications for comparing the climate impacts of energy technologies and other emissions sources. Despite the practical and political importance of equivalency metrics, the scientific literature has not produced a consensus on how to design or choose these metrics. To address this gap in the literature, this thesis develops a new conceptual and quantitative modeling approach to link equivalency metric design to global climate policy goals. This procedure involves (a) formulating a set of goal-inspired equivalency metrics, (b) testing metrics by simulating the results when they are applied in real-world contexts, and (c) selecting metrics based on multiple performance criteria. We highlight two dimensions of metric performance: climate performance (i.e., whether metric-based decisions meet climate policy goals) and energy performance (i.e., whether these decisions support energy use, for example during a technology transition). No metric performs optimally across all criteria, and this approach allows us to quantify these performance tradeoffs. The central result of the thesis is that climate policy goals can be used to inspire equivalency metric design, and these goal-inspired metrics address key shortcomings of the GWP(100). Specifically, under a policy to limit global temperature change to 2°C (where radiative forcing levels stabilize around mid-century), a shorter time horizon is essential. We find that applying the GWP(100) in this policy context can lead to radiative forcing overshoots in excess of two thirds of the remaining budget. One set of goal-inspired metrics addresses this concern by reducing the time horizon over which emissions are compared as a radiative forcing limit is approached (Chapter 2). These metrics increase the impact value placed on short-lived CH4 (relative to long-lived CO2 ) over time. We find that this design reduces the risks of overshooting radiative forcing limits, despite inherent uncertainty in the timeline for reaching these limits (Chapter 3). Relative to other metrics that lead to similar peak radiative forcing outcomes, these goal-inspired metrics allow more energy use early on, which can help enable technology transitions (Chapter 4). Applying these goal-inspired metrics to evaluate natural gas suggests that the mitigation benefits of this high-CH 4-emitting fuel will decrease significantly in the coming years. For example, under a radiative forcing limit consistent with a 2°C temperature change policy, the climate impact of natural gas electricity increases from 50% that of coal to 80% by mid-century (Chapter 2). Similar results apply to transportation fuels with high CH4 (or black carbon) emissions (Chapter 2, Chapter 5). This result draws into question large investments in technologies and long-lived infrastructure with high life cycle CH4 emissions - and provides a quantitative basis for calculating timelines to reduce the CH4 intensity of these technologies or transition to lower-emitting technologies. A bridging strategy, where technologies with high CH4 emissions are followed by those with lower emissions, permits greater overall energy consumption while meeting climate policy targets (Chapter 5).
by Morgan R. Edwards.
Ph. D. in Engineering Systems
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Ayed, Ines. "Interactive therapeutic systems for fallprevention using computervision technologies." Doctoral thesis, Universitat de les Illes Balears, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/671219.
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[spa] . Introducción
En los últimos años, las tecnologías basadas en la visión han ganado mucho interés entre los investigadores y los profesionales de la salud. Por ejemplo, el uso de dispositivos interactivos y de bajo coste como Microsoft Kinect se ha hecho cada vez más popular en contextos de rehabilitación y terapia física. Gran parte de este interés se ha dirigido a la población de edad avanzada, ya que son más propensos a perder el equilibrio y caer, lo que a su vez provoca grandes costes sociales y de salud. Sin embargo, el uso de estas tecnologías sin una validación previa puede no considerarse seguro y efectivo para estas personas, ya que la mayoría de las aplicaciones disponibles en el mercado no están diseñadas ellas.
Por lo tanto, esta tesis pretende proponer y validar sistemas interactivos que usan tecnologías basadas en la visión para mejorar el equilibrio y prevenir caídas entre las personas mayores.
. Contenido de la investigación
Al principio, realizamos una extensa revisión sistemática de la literatura sobre juegos serios y sistemas de realidad virtual basados en la visión y utilizados para la rehabilitación motora. La búsqueda se basa en las pautas de Kitchenham y responde a preguntas de investigación bien definidas para cubrir adecuadamente las características principales de este campo. Como resultado, proporcionamos las principales cifras, tendencias, tecnologías y participantes, entre otros detalles que los investigadores han abordado. Adicionalmente, proponemos una metodología de investigación para asistir a los ingenieros en el diseño y la presentación de sus estudios clínicos ya que estos aspectos no se han tenido en cuenta en muchos estudios de investigación.
A continuación, diseñamos y desarrollamos un conjunto de prototipos de juegos para la rehabilitación del equilibrio. Para lograrlo, seguimos características de diseño específicas que se ocupan del desarrollo de juegos serios para la rehabilitación. Además, colaboramos estrechamente con fisioterapeutas a lo largo de nuestro proceso de trabajo con respecto a la naturaleza multidisciplinaria de este campo. Para evaluar objetivamente la viabilidad y la eficacia de nuestros juegos, realizamos un estudio de un caso en el que dos mujeres mayores se someten a un programa de intervención de 5 semanas en una casa de ancianos en Túnez.
Los resultados son prometedores, lo que sugiere que la rehabilitación basada en juegos serios puede ser útil para mejorar el equilibrio en personas mayores y puede incorporarse a un programa de prevención de caídas.
Finalmente, desarrollamos un sistema para medir la prueba de alcance funcional (FRT); una de las herramientas clínicas más utilizadas para evaluar el equilibrio en adultos mayores. De hecho, se recomienda evaluar las capacidades del usuario o medir los resultados de una terapia utilizando pruebas clínicas confiables para seleccionar o adaptar adecuadamente una terapia. Para ello, realizamos dos experimentos para validar el uso del dispositivo Microsoft Kinect para medir el FRT. Comparamos las medidas de FRT calculadas por nuestro sistema utilizando Kinect con las obtenidas por el método estándar, es decir, manualmente. Los resultados preliminares sugieren que Microsoft Kinect es confiable y adecuado para calcular esta prueba de equilibrio.
. Conclusión
En conclusión, los resultados de esta tesis sugieren que las tecnologías de visión por computador se pueden utilizar en la prevención de caídas y la mejora del equilibrio de las personas mayores. Sin embargo, se deben investigar sus efectos a largo plazo para garantizar un despliegue seguro y efectivo de estas tecnologías. Finalmente, vale la pena señalar que el sensor Kinect ha sido descontinuado, pero la tecnología en sí todavía existe en otros productos comerciales. Los algoritmos y aplicaciones desarrollados con Kinect siguen siendo efectivos y válidos, ya que los nuevos dispositivos siguen apareciendo en el mercado y reemplazando a los antiguos.[eng] . Introduction In late years, vision-based technologies gained much interest among researchers and health- care practitioners. For instance, the use of low cost and interactive devices such as Microsoft Kinect became increasingly popular in rehabilitation and physical therapy contexts. Much of this interest has been directed toward elderly population since they are more prone to loss of balance and falls that induce in its turn substantial social and healthcare costs. However, the use of these technologies without previous validation may not be considered safe and effective for this particular category since most of the applications in the market are not primarily designed for them. Therefore, this thesis aims to propose and validate interactive systems based on vision- based technologies for improving balance and preventing falls among elderly people. . Research content At the beginning, we conduct an extensive systematic literature review about vision-based serious games and virtual reality systems used for motor rehabilitation. The search is based on Kitchenham guidelines and answers defined research questions in an effort to properly cover the main features of this field. As a result, we provide the main figures, trends, technologies, and target groups, among other details addressed by researchers. Additionally, we propose a research methodology to assist engineers in the design and report of their clinical studies since these aspects were disregarded in many research studies. Next, we design and develop a set of prototype games for balance rehabilitation. To achieve that, we follow specific framework and design features that deal with the development of serious games for rehabilitation. Moreover, we closely collaborate with physiotherapists along our work process regarding the multidisciplinary nature of this field. To objectively evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of our games, we conduct a case study where two older women undergo a 5-week intervention program in a Tunisian elderly house. Results are promising suggesting that game-based rehabilitation can be useful for improving balance in elderly people and can be incorporated in a fall prevention program. At the end, we develop a system for measuring the Functional Reach Test (FRT); one of the most used clinical tools to assess the balance of older adults. In fact, it is recommended to assess the capabilities of the user or measure the outcomes of a therapy using reliable clinical tests to properly select or adapt a therapy. For that purpose, we conduct two experiments to validate the use of Microsoft Kinect for measuring the FRT. We compare the FRT measures computed by our system using Kinect with those obtained by the standard method i.e. manually. Findings suggest that Microsoft Kinect is reliable and adequate to calculate this balance test.
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Kanne, Carl-Christian. "Core technologies for native XML database management systems." [S.l. : s.n.], 2003. http://www.bsz-bw.de/cgi-bin/xvms.cgi?SWB10605041.
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Collier, Christopher Michael. "Microfluidic and terahertz technologies for integrated spectroscopic systems." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/58434.
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The terahertz (THz) spectrum, being approximately 0.1-10 THz, is the region of the electromagnetic spectrum that lies beyond the reach of electronic and optical devices. Because of this unique spectral region, THz radiation has found its place in many contemporary applications. In particular, THz radiation has been used in biochemical analyses, via THz spectroscopy. Terahertz spectroscopy is sensitive to vibrational and rotational modes of organic species, and this functionality can be enhanced by integrating THz spectroscopy within lab-on-a-chip platforms. Such platforms can enable high-sensitivity and rapid interrogation of biochemical species via THz spectroscopy. However, the integration of THz spectroscopy in lab-on-a-chip platforms has not yet been achieved. This is due to unresolved (and fundamental) challenges on the underlying structures and materials being used for microfluidic actuation and THz emission. This thesis addresses these challenges through enhancements towards a digital-microfluidic- (DMF)-based THz-time-domain-spectroscopy (TDS) system. For microfluidic actuation, this work focuses on the development of DMF structures having practical addressability and microfluidic actuation with independent two-dimensional control. Three such structures, the square electrode, cross-referenced, and multiplexer grid, are explored. It is found that the multiplexer grid is the only DMF structure that provides practical addressability and independent two-dimensional control. For THz emission, a variety of photoconductive materials are investigated to realize effective THz emission with minimal Joule heating flux. This is a key point for the integration of THz spectroscopy within lab-on-a-chip platforms, as it becomes necessary to avoid evaporation of the biochemical species. Materials exhibiting transient mobility (such as GaP) and surface-enhanced recombination (such as semiconductor nanocomposites and textured InP) are explored. It is found that photoconductive THz emitters made with textured InP materials provide similar THz emission characteristics to their bulk counterparts but have an order of magnitude lower Joule heating flux. Terahertz spectroscopy is ultimately performed on a variety of vapour, liquid, and solid samples to develop and test the THz spectroscopy analysis method, to propose dimensions and THz-compatible-materials for the DMF-based THz-TDS system, and to demonstrate THz-TDS on biochemical species. The findings of this work lay the groundwork for the development of future DMF-based THz-TDS systems.Applied Science, Faculty of
Engineering, School of (Okanagan)
Graduate
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Sutton, S. A., and C. S. Yu. "Integrated Media Technologies for Satellite Decision Support Systems." International Foundation for Telemetering, 1992. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/611966.
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International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 26-29, 1992 / Town and Country Hotel and Convention Center, San Diego, CaliforniaWithin the Aerospace industry, the operational community is facing staff reductions, reduced skill levels, and greater complexity of space assets and space missions. This combination requires that techniques be developed that more efficiently interface a human operator with a complex computer system. Operational support of complex space systems will be greatly facilitated by better presentation of information. The presentation and distribution of complex data must evolve towards formats that are easily and naturally embraced by our sensory systems. Some of the information technologies/techniques that facilitate the presentation of complex dynamic graphical data fall into a category called integrated media. The cost of implementing integrated media (IM) architectures has decreased substantially within in the past five years. While implementation costs continue to recede, the quality and value of information that can be presented using IM technologies continues to improve. Today's IM architect can select a variety of components including digital interactive video, 3D Navigable Worlds, Multimedia Authoring Systems, standardized compressors for IM data, low cost high volume storage systems, and operating system extensions for temporal data management. Together, these components form a solid foundation for the development of a variety of compelling IM architectures. Existing satellite support and mission data processing architectures typically present tabular data for assessment. Some "advanced" systems include 2D graphical projections of the data. System experts are generally trained to correlate relationships between tabular data items. The training required to "learn" these complex relationships is tedious and time consuming. This complexity impedes productivity and as space systems increase in sophistication, these techniques for data assessment are quickly becoming antiquated. The development of a prototype decision support system explores the utility of an integrated media documentation system as part of a full-featured decision support architecture for satellite operations.
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Dragone, Maria Vincenza Anna. "Programmable systems and new technologies for chemical syntheses." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2015. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/6682/.
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The work presented in this thesis explores the investigation and development of programmable modular synthesis. A computer-controlled system has been used to navigate through a network of organic reactions. In particular, this decision making system was developed in order to navigate reaction networks according to the reaction diversity. Finally, the potentiality of increasing the versatility of this platform is demonstrated by developing novel flow architectures including in-line analytics, which exploits three-dimensional (3D) printing technologies.
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Westensee, Dirk Karl. "Post-treatment technologies for integrated algal pond systems." Thesis, Rhodes University, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1018180.
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Integrated Algae Pond Systems (IAPS) are a derivation of the Oswald designed Algal Integrated Wastewater Pond Systems (AIWPS®) and combine the use of anaerobic and aerobic bioprocesses to effect wastewater treatment. IAPS technology was introduced to South Africa in 1996 and a pilot plant designed and commissioned at the Belmont Valley WWTW in Grahamstown. The system has been in continual use since implementation and affords a secondarily treated water for reclamation according to its design specifications which most closely resemble those of the AIWPS® Advanced Secondary Process developed by Oswald. As a consequence, and as might be expected, while the technology performed well and delivered a final effluent superior to most pond systems deployed in South Africa it was unable to meet The Department of Water Affairs General Standard for nutrient removal and effluent discharge. The work described in this thesis involved the design, construction, and evaluation of several tertiary treatment units (TTU') for incorporation into the IAPS process design. Included were; Maturation Ponds (MP), Slow Sand Filter (SSF) and Rock Filters (RF). Three MP's were constructed in series with a 12 day retention time and operated in parallel with a two-layered SSF and a three-stage RF. Water quality of the effluent emerging from each of these TTU's was monitored over a 10 month period. Significant decreases in the chemical oxygen demand (COD), ammonium-N, phosphate-P, nitrate-N, faecal coliforms (FC) and total coliforms (TC) were achieved by these TTU's. On average, throughout the testing period, water quality was within the statutory limit for discharge to a water course that is not a listed water course, with the exception of the total suspended solids (TSS). The RF was determined as the most suitable TTU for commercial use due to production of a better quality water, smaller footprint, lower construction costs and less maintenance required. From the results of this investigation it is concluded that commercial deployment of IAPS for the treatment of municipal sewage requires the inclusion of a suitable TTU. Furthermore, and based on the findings presented, RF appears most appropriate to ensure that quality of the final effluent meets the standard for discharge.
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Croft, Neil John. "Secure interoperation of wireless technologies." Diss., Pretoria : [s.n.], 2003. http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-12072004-082613.
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Shevchuk, N. (Nataliya). "Application of persuasive systems design for adopting green information systems and technologies." Doctoral thesis, Oulun yliopisto, 2019. http://urn.fi/urn:isbn:9789526223780.
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Abstract Critical environmental situation requires academics and practitioners of various disciplines join efforts at planning sustainable development of the society. In information systems research, Green Information Systems and Technologies domain is the one that directly contributes to strengthening environmental values of individuals, communities, and organizations. Abundance of technology influences people most of the time. Although this influence is not always positive, research on persuasive technologies and behavior change support systems searches for the beneficial ways to utilize the impact of information systems on the daily activities of individuals. Ability to assist with encouraging certain behaviors is a defining characteristic of many contemporary systems and devices. Building on the knowledge obtained from the health domain, this dissertation investigates using persuasive technologies for fostering pro-environmental behavior change. Theoretical frameworks of the articles included in the dissertation are based primarily on the Persuasive Systems Design (PSD) model, accompanied by the other prominent socio-psychological theories commonly utilized in information systems research. This dissertation focuses on finding out how to encourage people to adopt and continue using mobile applications designed to assist with acquiring sustainable habits and behaviors. The dissertation is composed of the historical analysis, systematic literature review, and four experimental studies that explore different aspects of persuasive Green IS/IT. Besides analyzing existing research using PSD model as a tool for evaluation, new empirical studies provide fresh insights on Green IS/IT designed for behavior change. Addressed topics include technology adoption and continuance intention, perceived persuasiveness, self-disclosure and risk, endogenous motivations, gamification, and cognitive absorption. Conducted statistical analyses investigate relationships among PSD constructs and other related concepts to discover factors that can convince people initiate and continue using Green IS/IT to develop or maintain environmentally sound practices. Overall, the results reveal a high potential of the PSD model to become a vehicle for enhancement of the existing Green IS/IT. The dissertation provides implications for both academics and practitioners as well as suggestions for the future evolvement of persuasive Green IS/IT researchTiivistelmä Ympäristön ja ilmaston vakava tilanne vaatii kaikilta osapuolilta kestävää kehitystä tukevaa toimintaa. Niin sanotut ‘vihreät’ tietojärjestelmät ja informaatioteknologiat pyrkivät vaikuttamaan ihmisten käyttäytymiseen vahvistamalla yksilöiden, yhteisöjen ja organisaatioiden ympäristöarvoja ja niiden mukaista käyttäytymistä. Yltäkylläinen teknologiatarjonta vaikuttaa käyttäytymiseemme koko ajan. Vaikka tämä vaikutus ei aina olekaan positiivista, vakuuttavien ja suostuttelevien teknologioiden sekä käyttäytymisen muutosta tukevien järjestelmien tutkimus pyrkii etsimään niitä hyödyllisiä keinoja, joilla tietojärjestelmien avulla voidaan vaikuttaa myönteisesti jokapäiväiseen elämäämme. Monien nykyaikaisten järjestelmien ja laitteiden perusominaisuutena voidaankin nykyään pitää niiden kykyä rohkaista ja kannustaa käyttäjiä myönteiseen kohdekäyttäytymiseen. Tämä väitöskirja rakentuu erityisesti terveystoimialalta omaksuttuun suostuttelevia teknologioita koskevaan tutkimustietoon ja pyrkii soveltamaan tätä ympäristöystävällisen käyttäytymisen vahvistamiseen. Tämän väitöstutkimuksen johtavana teoreettisena viitekehityksenä toimii Persuasive Systems Design -malli (PSD). Sen lisäksi hyödynnetään joitakin muita tietojärjestelmätutkimuksessa hyödynnettyjä sosiaalipsykologian teorioita. Väitöskirja keskittyy tarkastelemaan, miten voidaan kannustaa ottamaan käyttöön mobiilisovelluksia, jotka on jo alun perin suunniteltu tukemaan kestävän kehityksen kannalta myönteistä käyttäytymistä ja käyttäytymisen muutosta, sekä jatkamaan niiden käyttöä. Väitöskirja koostuu aihealueen historiallisesta analyysistä ja systemaattisesta kirjallisuuskatsauksesta sekä neljästä kokeellisesta tutkimuksesta, jotka tutkivat ’vihreiden’ tietojärjestelmien ja informaatioteknologioiden vakuuttavia ja suostuttelevia ohjelmisto-ominaisuuksia. Sen lisäksi että olemassa olevaa kirjallisuutta on analysoitu PSD-mallia käyttäen, samaan malliin pohjautuvat empiiriset tutkimukset tuottavat tuoreita oivalluksia käyttäytymisen muutosta tukevaan suunnitteluun liittyen. Tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan teknologian käyttöönottoa, aikomuksia jatkaa teknologian käyttöä, koettua vakuuttavuutta ja suostuttelevuutta, sensitiivisten tietojen jakamista ja siihen liittyviä riskejä, sisäsyntyistä motivaatiota, pelillistämistä sekä kognitiivista absorptiota. Tilastollisten analyysien avulla tarkastellaan PSD-mallin ydinkäsitteiden ja muiden konstruktien välisiä suhteita, jotta tunnistettaisiin niitä tekijöitä, joiden avulla voidaan vaikuttaa hyödyllisten ‘vihreiden’ tietojärjestelmien ja informaatioteknologioiden käyttöönottoon ja käytön jatkamiseen, ja yleisemmin kannustamaan ympäristöystävällisiin käytänteisiin. Tutkimustulokset osoittavat PSD-mallin merkityksen kestävää kehitystä tukeville tietojärjestelmille ja informaatioteknologioille. Suoritetun tutkimuksen perusteella ehdotetaan teemoja jatkotutkimusta varten. Väitöstutkimuksen tuloksilla on merkitystä sekä tieteenharjoittajille että käytännön soveltajille
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Johansson, Marcus, and Lukas Olsson. "Comparative evaluation of virtualization technologies in the cloud." Thesis, Mälardalens högskola, Akademin för innovation, design och teknik, 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-49242.
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The cloud has over the years become a staple of the IT industry, not only for storage purposes, but for services, platforms and infrastructures. A key component of the cloud is virtualization and the fluidity it makes possible, allowing resources to be utilized more efficiently and services to be relocated more easily when needed. Virtual machine technology, consisting of a hypervisor managing several guest systems has been the method for achieving this virtualization, but container technology, a lightweight virtualization method running directly on the host without a classic hypervisor, has been making headway in recent years. This report investigates the differences between VM’s (Virtual Machines) and containers, comparing the two in relevant areas. The software chosen for this comparison are KVM as VM hypervisor, and Docker as container platform, both run on Linux as the underlying host system. The work conducted for this report compares efficiency in common use areas through experimental evidence, and also evaluates differences in design through study of relevant literature. The results are then discussed and weighed to provide a conclusion. The results of this work shows that Docker has the capability to potentially take over the role as the main virtualization technology in the coming years, providing some of its current shortcomings are addressed and improved upon.
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Xu, Jingjiang, and 许景江. "Development of advanced label-free optical bioimaging technologies." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10722/206437.
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Today label-free bioimaging has been leading to widespread and fast-growing applications, which demands for a more efficient way to keep up such momentum. To this end, the research in this thesis will study the techniques of efficiency improvement for advanced label-free bioimaging, including the time efficiency, cost efficiency and information efficiency.
Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is one of the most valuable label-free bioimaging modalities to provide noninvasive cross-sectional assessment of biological tissue. In many occasions, these applications demand for three dimensional (3D) imaging at video-rate in order to perform real-time diagnoses, which can be overcome by MHz-OCT. Here we demonstrate inertia-free all-optical ultrahigh-speed swept-source optical coherence tomography (OCT) based on amplified optical time-stretch (AOT). More importantly, the key significance of AOT-OCT is its broadband amplification stage, which greatly enhances the detection sensitivity compared with the prior attempts to employ optical time-stretch to OCT. We report an AOT-OCT system which is operated at an A-scan rate of multi-megahertz with high sensitivity (>80 dB) and perform time-stretch-based OCT of biological tissue in vivo. Moreover, using a more stable and coherent mode-locked fiber laser, we can achieve better performance without the compromise of averaging for supercontinuum-generation-based AOT-OCT system. It represents a major step forward in utilizing AOT as an alternative for achieving practical time-efficient OCT imaging at multi-MHz speed.
For the further development of this ultrahigh-speed OCT, we present a theoretical analysis of the AOT-OCT system. The spectral resolution, coherence length and sensitivity of AOT-OCT system have been discussed in detail. By theoretical model of the noise sources based on Raman amplifier, we also quantify how the input signal, amplifier gain, A-scan rate affect the sensitivity of AOT-OCT imaging. These simulation results are expected to be valuable for optimizing the design of AOT-OCT.
We also investigate in cost-effective implementation to realize efficient optical time-stretch process based on dispersive fiber. We explore and demonstrate the feasibility of using the standard telecommunication single-mode fibers as few-mode fibers (FMFs) for optical time-stretch confocal microscopy in the 1m range. It can provide sufficiently high dispersion-to-loss ratios for practical time-stretch imaging at 1 m, without the needs for high-cost specialty 1 m single mode fiber.
In addition, Coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) microscopy is another attractive efficient tool for label-free biochemical-specific imaging, which can bypass laborious steps of preparing and staining in routine standard histopathology. Here we further explore ultrabroadband hyperspectral multiplex (HM-CARS) to perform chemoselective histological imaging with efficient information in fingerprint region. In order to unravel the congested CARS spectra, we employ phase-retrieval algorithm based on Kramers–Kronig (KK) transform and principal component analysis (PCA) to display the key cellular structures with components distribution.
All these research efforts are aiming at improving the efficiency, from theory to implementation, for label-free bioimaging technology such as OCT and CARS. These schemes demonstrate great potential to realize powerful label-free bioimaging with high efficiency, including ultrafast 3D OCT imaging at video-rate, cost-effective optical time-stretch imaging and HM-CARS imaging with richness of biological fingerprint information.published_or_final_version
Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Doctoral
Doctor of Philosophy
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Chan, Man-hing. "An holistic approach to selecting advanced manufacturing technologies /." Hong Kong : University of Hong Kong, 1999. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkuto/record.jsp?B21841500.
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Martyniuk, Mariusz. "Low-temperature micro-opto-electro-mechanical technologies for temperature sensitive substrates." University of Western Australia. School of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering, 2006. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2007.0042.
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[Truncated abstract] The salient feature of next generation infrared (IR) on-chip integrated sensors is likely to be sensitivity in a narrow wavelength band that is tuneable over a selected range of the IR spectrum. It is proposed that this can be achieved by the integration of present-day HgCdTe IR detectors with thin-film based microelectro- mechanical systems (MEMS) optical mirror technology. Narrow-band sensitivity is obtained by optical resonance phenomena within a Fabry-Perot (FP) cavity, that is created by two Bragg reflectors and is monolithically integrated with an HgCdTe IR detector. Electrostatic actuation of the thin-film membrane supported Bragg reflector is the means of providing wavelength discrimination of the incident IR photons which, for example, could be used for target discrimination or detection of various chemical/biological species via identification of narrow spectral features . . . The outcomes from this thesis have been incorporated into a monolithic integrated technology comprising low-temperature MEMS and HgCdTe IR detector technology. The integrated technology has been shown to be viable, and successful prototypes have been fabricated. Structural properties of the SiNx, SiOx, and Ge layers encompassed in the suspended IR reflector have allowed for IR photon detection in a narrow wavelength band with full-width at halfmaximum of ∼100nm that is tunable over a wavelength range from 2.2 to 1.85μm using a maximum tuning voltage of only 7.5V. Although the thesis objectives have been focused on a specific application related to multi-spectral IR detection technology as a demonstration vehicle, the findings of this thesis are directly applicable to any MEMS technologies that are to be merged with temperaturesensitive substrates/materials.
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Monga, Pavinder. "A System Dynamics Model of the Development of New Technologies for Ship Systems." Thesis, Virginia Tech, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/35258.
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System Dynamics has been applied to various fields in the natural and social sciences. There still remain countless problems and issues where understanding is lacking and the dominant theories are event-oriented rather than dynamic in nature. One such research area is the application of the traditional systems engineering process in new technology development. The Navy has been experiencing large cost overruns in projects dealing with the implementation of new technologies on complex ship systems. We believe that there is a lack of understanding of the dynamic nature of the technology development process undertaken by aircraft-carrier builders and planners. Our research effort is to better understand the dynamics prevalent in the new technology development process and we use a dynamic modeling technique, namely, System Dynamics in our study.
We provide a comprehensive knowledge elicitation process in which members from the Newport News Shipbuilding, the Naval Sea Command Cost Estimating Group, and the Virginia Tech System Performance Laboratory take part in a group model building exercise. We build a System Dynamics model based on the information and data obtained from the experts. Our investigation of the dynamics yields two dominant behaviors that characterize the technology development process. These two dynamic behaviors are damped oscillation and goal seeking. Furthermore, we propose and investigate four dynamic hypotheses in the system. For the current structure of the model, we see that an increase in the complexity of new technologies leads to an increase in the total costs, whereas a increase in the technology maturity leads to a decrease in the total costs in the technology development process. Another interesting insight is that an increase in training leads to a decrease in total costs.
Master of Science
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Damle, Pushkar Hari. "A system dynamics model of the integration of new technologies for ship systems." Thesis, Virginia Tech, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/35216.
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System dynamics has been used to better understand the dynamics within complex natural and social systems. This understanding enables us to make decisions and define strategies that help to resolve the problematic behaviors associated within these systems. For example within an operating environment such as the US Navy, decisions taken today can have long lasting impact on system performance. The Navy has experienced large cost overruns during the new technology implementation process on ship systems that can also have an impact on total life cycle performance. The integration phase of the implementation process represents most of the cost overruns experienced in the overall new technology life cycle (development, integration, and operation/support/disposal). We have observed a general concern that there is a lack of understanding for the dynamic behavior of those processes which comprise the integration phase, among ship-builders and planners. One of the goals of our research effort has been to better understand the dynamic behavior of the new technology integration processes, using a dynamic modeling technique known as System Dynamics.
Our approach has also been to provide a comprehensive knowledge elicitation process in which members from the shipbuilding industry, the US Navy, and the Virginia Tech System Performance Laboratory take part in group model building exercises. The system dynamics model that is developed in this manner is based on data obtained from the experts. An investigation of these dynamics yields a dominant cost behavior that characterizes the technology integration processes. This behavior is S-shaped growth.
The following two dynamic hypotheses relative to lifecycle cost and performance of the inserted new technology were confirmed: (1) For the current structure of the model we observe the more the complexity of the new technology, the less affordable a technology becomes; (2) Integration of immature (less developed) technologies is associated with higher costs. Another interesting insight is that cost is very sensitive to the material procurement.
Future research can be addressed to a more detailed level of abstraction for various activities included in the technology integration phase, such as testing and evaluation, cost of rework and risks associated with inadequate testing etc. This will add to our evolving understanding of the behavior of individual activities in the technology integration process.Master of Science
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Owen, Thomas. "Mobile technologies for chronic condition management." Thesis, Swansea University, 2015. https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa42665.
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The management of long term chronic conditions is a complex and challenging task. The process relies on individuals engaging in regular recording of factors that affect their health. Yet currently, the mobile tools that people carry with them are not being fully utilised to assist in this process. This Thesis reports on research that has been completed to understand the role that mobile technologies can have in supporting people with chronic conditions. An individual engaging in personal monitoring is concerned with the data they collect, not the process used to capture the data. The results of the research conducted contribute to an advancement of knowledge around how mobile technologies can assist in personal reflection on health information to provide greater understanding of chronic disease management This understanding of the role of reflection in chronic condition management can then be used as a platform to improve the mobile interventions in future implementations. These findings are arrived at by conducting an initial investigation into the usage of existing health monitoring devices and an evaluation of these devices is detailed. The results of this early work suggests there exists a gap between real practice and the role that mobile technologies can play in assisting with the process. A deeper understanding of the management practices of people with diabetes is then achieved through a set of interviews with individuals with diabetes. The findings then define a model of chronic disease management, named the 'Diabetes Management Cycle.' Following the definition of the cycle, a mobile application was implemented and deployed during a four week evaluation with individuals with type 1 diabetes. This system was designed to support existing management practices and implemented simple methods of information capture. A second application was then developed to enable increased monitoring and subsequent reflection amongst individuals with cardiovascular conditions. The application was deployed in a six week in-situ evaluation and it was discovered a personalised 'tagging' mechanism allowed for the discovery of patterns affecting health. Based on the findings of the studies, the Thesis concludes by presenting definitions of ready- to-hand in the short- and long-term contexts of mobile health management. These ready-to-hand guidelines provide a platform for future research projects to build upon.
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Nworie, Grace A. "Systems integration and analysis of advanced life support technologies." [College Station, Tex. : Texas A&M University, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/ETD-TAMU-1756.
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Kozlov, Alex. "Augmented Reality technologies for the visualisation of SLAM systems." Thesis, University of Auckland, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/2292/10633.
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Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping (SLAM) is a popular and important autonomous mapping and navigation technique in mobile robotics. Due to the probabilistic nature and the real world uncertainties in which the robot operates, SLAM development and testing is challenging. The difficulty exists because of a lack of perceptual and cognitive overlap between the robot and the human developer, i.e. understanding what the robot is seeing and processing. The most promising way of achieving this overlap is through the use of visualisations, because the human visual system is highly perceptive with advanced pattern recognition abilities. The research presented in this thesis investigates the application of Augmented Reality (AR) for SLAM visualisations, with the goal of assisting SLAM development and testing. AR is well suited for this application as it provides a real world view of the robot and its physical environment. A literature survey in SLAM, visualisation and AR showed that while SLAM visualisations are lacking AR has been applied in other areas of mobile robotics. An anonymous web based survey of SLAM developers confirmed that SLAM development is challenging and that graphical visualisations of SLAM are essential but lacking. SLAM algorithms were analysed in order to identify parameters needing to be visualised for error detection and correction, and visualisation requirements were formulated from this analysis. An AR visualisation system for SLAM was developed and implemented, presenting novel visualisation techniques for the Extended Kalman Filter SLAM and the Rao-Blackwellized Particle Filter FastSLAM. An evaluation was designed and carried out, investigating the effectiveness of the AR visualisation system in assisting SLAM debugging, and its performance and registration accuracy characteristics. The findings show that the existing state of the art visualisations are more effective, and should be used, for detecting fault effects. The findings further show that the novel feature correlation and data association AR visualisations are more effective and more preferred, and thus should be used, for detecting fault causes. Fault correction findings seem to indicate that the novel feature correlations and colour-mapping AR visualisations are more effective and more preferred. Qualitative user feedback showed that the novel AR visualisations are useful for SLAM debugging. Overall, the usability evaluation findings illustrate that the best approach is to utilise a combination of all of the visualisation methods. The findings also show that the overhead fixed camera hardware configuration possesses superior performance and registration accuracy characteristics compared to the Head Mounted Display configuration. Comparison with previous publications shows that the system compares well in terms of performance and registration accuracy, thus indicating that the system has sufficient attributes for the intended purpose of SLAM debugging.
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Zhao, Yueming. "Key Technologies in Low-cost Integrated Vehicle Navigation Systems." Doctoral thesis, KTH, Geodesi och geoinformatik, 2013. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-131420.
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Vehicle navigation systems incorporate on-board sensors/signal receivers and provide necessary positioning and guidance information for land, marine, airborne and space vehicles. Among different navigation solutions, the Global Positioning System (GPS) and an Inertial Navigation System (INS) are two basic navigation systems. Due to their complementary characters in many aspects, a GPS/INS integrated navigation system has been a hot research topic in recent decades. Both advantages and disadvantages of each individual system and their combination are analysed in this thesis. The Micro Electrical Mechanical Sensors (MEMS) successfully solved the problems of price, size and weight with traditional INS, and hence are widely applied in GPS/INS integrated systems. The main problem of MEMS is the large sensor errors, which rapidly degrade the navigation performance in an exponential speed. By means of different methods, such as autoregressive model, Gauss-Markov process, Power Spectral Density and Allan Variance, we analyse the stochastic errors within the MEMS sensors. The test results show that different methods give similar estimates of stochastic error sources. An equivalent model of coloured noise components (random walk, bias instability and ramp noise) is given. Three levels of GPS/IMU integration structures, i.e. loose, tight and ultra-tight GPS/IMU navigation, are introduced with a brief analysis of each character. The loose integration principles are presented with detailed equations as well as the INS navigation principles. The Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) is introduced as the data fusion algorithm, which is the core of the whole navigation system. Based on the system model, we show the propagation of position standard errors with the tight integration structure under different scenarios. Even less than 4 observable GNSS satellites can contribute to the integrated system, especially for the orientation errors. A real test with loose integration is carried out, and the EKF performance is analysed in detail. Since the GPS receivers are normally working with a digital map, the map matching principle and its link-choosing problem are briefly introduced. This problem is proposed to be solved by the lane detection from real-time images. The procedures for the lane detection based on image processing are presented. The test on high ways, city streets and pathways are successfully carried out, and analyses with possible solutions are given for some special failure situations. To solve the large error drift of the IMU, we propose to support the IMU orientation with camera motion estimation from image pairs. First the estimation theory and computer vision principles are briefly introduced. Then both point and line matches algorithms are given. Finally the L1-norm estimator with balanced adjustment is proposed to deal with possible mismatches (outliers). Tests and comparisons with the RANSAC algorithm are also presented. For the latest trend of MEMS chip sensors, their industry and market are introduced. To evaluate the MEMS navigation performance, we augment the EKF with an equivalent coloured noise model, and the basic observability analysis is given. A realistic simulated navigation test is carried out with single and multiple MEMS sensors, and a sensor array of 5-10 sensors are recommended according to the test results and analysis. Finally some suggestions for future research are proposed.QC 20131016
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Haase, Peter [Verfasser]. "Semantic technologies for distributed information systems / by Peter Haase." Karlsruhe : Univ.-Verl. Karlsruhe, 2007. http://d-nb.info/983197105/34.
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Patoli, Muhammad Zeeshan. "Content rendering and interaction technologies for digital heritage systems." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2011. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/6932/.
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Existing digital heritage systems accommodate a huge amount of digital repository information; however their content rendering and interaction components generally lack the more interesting functionality that allows better interaction with heritage contents. Many digital heritage libraries are simply collections of 2D images with associated metadata and textual content, i.e. little more than museum catalogues presented online. However, over the last few years, largely as a result of EU framework projects, some 3D representation of digital heritage objects are beginning to appear in a digital library context. In the cultural heritage domain, where researchers and museum visitors like to observe cultural objects as closely as possible and to feel their existence and use in the past, giving the user only 2D images along with textual descriptions significantly limits interaction and hence understanding of their heritage. The availability of powerful content rendering technologies, such as 3D authoring tools to create 3D objects and heritage scenes, grid tools for rendering complex 3D scenes, gaming engines to display 3D interactively, and recent advances in motion capture technologies for embodied immersion, allow the development of unique solutions for enhancing user experience and interaction with digital heritage resources and objects giving a higher level of understanding and greater benefit to the community. This thesis describes DISPLAYS (Digital Library Services for Playing with Shared Heritage Resources), which is a novel conceptual framework where five unique services are proposed for digital content: creation, archival, exposition, presentation and interaction services. These services or tools are designed to allow the heritage community to create, interpret, use and explore digital heritage resources organised as an online exhibition (or virtual museum). This thesis presents innovative solutions for two of these services or tools: content creation where a cost effective render grid is proposed; and an interaction service, where a heritage scenario is presented online using a real-time motion capture and digital puppeteer solution for the user to explore through embodied immersive interaction their digital heritage.
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Araujo, Maria S., Myron L. Moodie, Greg C. Willden, Ryan J. Thibodeaux, and Ben A. Abbott. "Integrating Wireless Sensor Technologies into Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems." International Foundation for Telemetering, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/605939.
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ITC/USA 2010 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Sixth Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 25-28, 2010 / Town and Country Resort & Convention Center, San Diego, CaliforniaRecent technological advancements in low-power, low-cost, small-footprint embedded processors, sensors, and radios are resulting in the very rapid growth of wireless sensor network deployments. Wireless sensor networks merge the scalability and distributed nature of networked systems with the size and energy constraints of remote embedded systems. With the ever increasing need to develop less intrusive, more scalable solutions for instrumentation systems, wireless sensor technologies present several benefits. They largely eliminate the need for power and network wiring, thus potentially reducing cost, weight, and deployment time; their modularity provides the flexibility to rapidly change instrumentation configurations and the capability to increase the coverage of an instrumentation system. While the benefits are exciting and varied, as with any emerging technology, many challenges need to be overcome before wireless sensor networks can be effectively and successfully deployed in instrumentation applications, including throughput, latency, power management, electromagnetic interference (EMI), and band utilization considerations. This paper describes some approaches to addressing these challenges and achieving a useful system.
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WANG, SHU. "THE APPLICATION OF SUBSPACE TECHNOLOGIES IN WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS." University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK, 2003. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1065704505.
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Giannelli, Luigi [Verfasser]. "Quantum Opto-Mechanical Systems for Quantum Technologies / Luigi Giannelli." Saarbrücken : Saarländische Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek, 2020. http://d-nb.info/1214640788/34.
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Paul, Sourav, and Saranik Sarkar. "Integration of Cryogenic Machining Technologies in Advance Manufacturing Systems." Thesis, KTH, Skolan för industriell teknik och management (ITM), 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-262225.
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Conventional cutting fluids are an absolute necessity in today’s manufacturing domain, butthey are a polluting and non-sustainable part of modern manufacturing processes. These conventional cutting fluids can be replaced by cryogenic cooling, which is an innovative and sustainable method which has been successfully implemented to produce aerospace products and have shown great success and great quality of finished products. But the implementation is the main obstruction as the volume of production in aerospace and automotive components is quite vast and implementation of cryogenic may pose an obstruction in maintaining the production flow. This leaves us with a large unexplored area for research specially in the implementation of the system in the existing system, which canhelp us get a seamless transition from conventional to cryogenic cooling. Some of the notable points that there is a need to investigate before one can go ahead with the implementationare factory layout, chip removal, raining of personal, safety, monitoring system, cost, time, implementation and integration, maintenance, source placement, mass scale supply and quality. In the first part of this work, a deep literature study has been done to know all the aspects of cryogenics and its implementation and factors that must be considered. In the second a discussion about the target industries has been made where use of cryogenic cooling has been considered. Also, a small discussion about the existing companies that provide this system has also been discussed. The room for improvisation is very large, and a lot of physical testing needs to be conducted before it can be successfully implemented.Konventionella skärvätskor är en absolut nödvändighet inom dagens tillverkningsdomän, men de är en förorenande och icke-hållbar del av moderna tillverkningsprocesser. Dessa konventionella skärvätskor kan ersättas med kryogen kylning, som är en innovativ och hållbar metod som framgångsrikt har implementerats för att producera flyg- och rymdprodukter och har gett stor framgång och hög kvalitet på färdiga produkter. Men implementeringen är den största utmaningen eftersom produktionsvolymen för flyg- och bilkomponenter är ganska stor och implementering av kryogen kan utgöra ett hinder för att bibehålla produktionsflödet. Detta ger oss ett stort outforskat område för forskning speciellt vid implementeringen av systemet i det befintliga systemet, vilket kan hjälpa oss att få en sömlös övergång från konventionell till kryogen kylning. Några av de viktige punkterna som man måste undersöka innan man går vidare med implementeringen är fabrikslayout, spånborttagning, utbildning av personal, säkerhet, övervakningssystem, kostnad, tid, implementering och integration, underhåll, källans placering, storskalig produktion och kvalitet. I den första delen av detta arbete har en omfattande litteraturstudie gjorts för att lära alla aspekter av kryogen kylning och dess genomförande och faktorer som måste beaktas. I den andra har en diskussion om målgruppen inom industrin genomförts där användning av kryogen kylning är relevant. Dessutom har en liten diskussion förts om de befintliga företagen som tillhandahåller dessa system. Möjligheten till improvisation är mycket stor och mycket testning måste genomföras innan tekniken kan implementeras framgångsrikt.
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Jonasse, Richard Jacob. "Making sense : geographic technologies, planning, and strategic action /." Diss., Connect to a 24 p. preview or request complete full text in PDF format. Access restricted to UC campuses, 2001. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/ucsd/fullcit?p3013700.
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陳文興 and Man-hing Chan. "An holistic approach to selecting advanced manufacturing technologies." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 1999. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B31222262.
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Schreiner, Scott (Scott W. ). "System interface challenges in combining mature technologies with rigid architectures." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/106264.
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Thesis: S.M. in Engineering and Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Engineering, System Design and Management Program, Engineering and Management Program, 2016.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 69-70).
This thesis examines the integration of mature technologies with rigid architectures through concepts from Systems Architecture, Systems Engineering, and Project Management. The research focuses on a project with John Deere to integrate large-scale GPS vehicle control for agricultural fertilizer sprayers into an existing platform for sports turf maintenance spraying via the John Deere ProGator with Select Spray sprayer attachment. Agricultural GPS control systems and the ProGator turf sprayer are long-running legacy products of differing scales for John Deere's product portfolio and their architectures are rigid. The architectures of these products are broken down using Operand-Process Methodology and Design Structure Matrices for component integration and mapping processes to stakeholder needs. Additionally, prototype development vehicles are used to gather stakeholder needs and generate product engineering requirements. The gathering, validation, and revision of these requirements along with the product development cycle is facilitated by Spiral Development to manage the project through iterations starting with mule concept machines through to full production release.
by Scott Schreiner.
S.M. in Engineering and Management
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Reddy, Harry 1963. "Financial supply chain dynamics : operational risk management and RFID technologies." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/33729.
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Thesis (M. Eng. in Logistics)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2005.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 81-83).
The banking industry is consolidating to streamline its operations through mergers and acquisitions, and is adopting new technologies to develop innovative products and services, thereby achieving both economies of scale and scope. Operational risk management has become a serious issue in the banking industry. Some reputed banks are either forced to close down their operations (eg., Citibank Private Bank in Japan) or faced cost overruns (eg., Barings Bank in England) due to poor operational risk management. In the supply chain industry, businesses are engaged in devising effective solutions using RFID technologies to locate and track the goods. We present the dynamics of banking industry in terms of operational risk management, innovation and business strategies. We also present the process mapping of RFID technology use in banking business areas to minimize operational risks. We further come-up with an effective operational risk management framework for banks to follow in improving their operational risk management.
by Harry Reddy.
M.Eng.in Logistics
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Mueller, Joshua M. (Joshua Michael) 1982. "Evaluating storage technologies for wind and solar energy." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/118224.
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Thesis: Ph. D. in Engineering Systems, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Engineering, Institute for Data, Systems, and Society, 2018.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 125-135).
Rapidly falling wind and solar energy costs over the past four decades have led to exponential growth in installation of these technologies. However, these intermittent renewables do not reliably produce power on demand. One possible mitigation strategy is the addition of energy storage technologies, which are able to shift generation to later periods of higher demand or price. In competitive markets, storage adoption to facilitate renewables penetration will depend on how much value storage can bring to a wind or solar power plant. Which of the diverse energy storage technologies are best suited to profitably perform this function? How do price and resource variability determine the preferred technologies? This thesis develops two novel methods of comparing storage technologies in hybrid wind-storage or solar-storage power plants. In the first, we evaluate technologies based on the increased value of a marginal hybrid plant under today's conditions. We further explain these results by finding the determinants of storage value under uncertainty. In the second, we find the least-cost hybrid plants able to meet predefined demand profiles. Through simulation, optimization, and statistical analysis, we address the following questions: 1) How can one compare candidate storage technologies? 2) What price and resource features determine storage value? 3) What are the cost targets for storage under different market conditions? To address question 1, we optimize storage operation and size for grid-scale energy arbitrage, and study the value of hybrid plants using different storage technologies. The value of the hybrid plant is found by comparing benefits to costs, and is estimated across locations and technologies. We show that at today's wind and solar generation costs, some storage technologies can provide value, but further cost improvement is needed, especially for electrochemical technologies, to facilitate widespread adoption. Finally, we determine both cost targets and the optimal direction of cost improvement for diverse storage technologies and locations. In order to answer question 2, we identify features of the electricity market and the renewables resource availability that determine value. Through simulations of an artificial price time series in which features of electricity price spikes are varied, we find that storage value is driven by the frequency and amplitude of price spikes and the availability of the energy resource. The durations of price spikes determine the relative value of one storage technology to another, because of differing technology cost structures. We demonstrate these results in historical data and explain the differences in storage value across locations. We also explore how uncertainty in future prices impacts storage value. We determine a new heuristic for storage operation and sizing absent perfect foresight. This approach is able to capture at least 80% of the expected value under perfect foresight and improves upon existing heuristics. In answering question 3, we determine the least-cost combination of wind and solar with storage that provides reliable, dispatchable, pre-determined outputs. This approach allows for the evaluation of storage technologies for a possible future with higher renewables penetration. Preferred technologies for this use context have very low energy capacity costs (< $50/kWh), enabling inexpensive installation of long duration storage. Long periods of low wind or solar availability determine storage requirements and can be mitigated by including both wind and solar in the generation portfolio. New cost targets are derived for storage development that would help enable higher levels of renewables adoption.
by Joshua Michael Mueller.
Ph. D. in Engineering Systems
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Rowell, Corbett Ray. "Mobile device antenna design & isolation technologies." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2013. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B50533897.
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Mobile device antenna design and isolation technologies are thoroughly investigated in this thesis. The antenna design parameters for mobile devices are quantified using practical restraints by analyzing almost 60 mobile handsets and the effect of materials, human tissue, manufacturing, and antenna type/placement on antenna design and then mapped into Wheeler-space that correlates the spherical wave modes with the antenna performance.
The isolation technologies with mutual coupling anti-resonances are unified by a single performance parameter to distinguish them from the more traditional isolation technologies. This unifying performance parameter is the group delay between two antennas where high group delay indicates the presence of a bandstop filter in the form of either a PCB or an antenna modification. This thesis analyzes both PCB and antenna modifications with high group-delay and demonstrates these types of antennas can be placed in close proximity without affecting other performance parameters. It is also shown that both the PCB and antenna modifications contain two isolation methods where each isolation method is a mirror complement of the other method.
Some antenna geometries can also increase the mutual coupling in order to improve the antenna performance using a phenomena called over-coupling. These over-coupled antenna systems can result in lower SAR for the cellular antennas and decreased array sizes for NFC/RFID/wireless-power antennas, resulting in better performance of antennas inside mobile devices.published_or_final_version
Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Doctoral
Doctor of Philosophy
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Botla, Purushotham (Purushotham Shriramulu). "Designing personal assistant software for task management using semantic web technologies and knowledge databases." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/90684.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis: S.M. in Engineering and Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, System Design and Management Program, 2013.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 100-102).
Adoption of social network sites and use of smart phones with number of sensors in them has digitized user's activities in real-time. Smart phone applications such as calendar, email, and notes contain lot of user information and provide a view into user's activities, while sensors such as GPS sensor can be used to passively find information about the user. In addition to this user and device data, these devices have access to the Internet that can be leveraged to build powerful applications. Personal assistant software (smart agent) can be used as an interface to the digital world to make the consumption of this information timely and efficient for the user's specific tasks. Goal of the thesis is to design personal assistant software that understands the semantics of the task, is able to decompose the task into multiple tasks within the context of the user and plan these tasks for the user. It will be designed using semantic web technologies and knowledge databases to understand the relations between the tasks. Agent will be integrated with online web-services to harvest the data available on-line with the data available on the device and help the user to manage his or her tasks. Two use cases are covered in this thesis document to explore automation capabilities and planning capabilities of the agent. Design of the agent using the two use cases helped in the design of sub-modules within the agent system, and also highlighted the requirements on external data and knowledge sources.
by Purushotham Botla.
S.M. in Engineering and Management