Over the past decade, there has been an increasing interest in the real-time monitoring of ambulatory vital signs such as heart rate (HR) and arterial blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) using wearable medical sensors during field operations. These measurements can convey valuable information regarding the state of health and allow first responders and front-line medics to better monitor and prioritize medical intervention of military combatants, firefighters, miners and mountaineers in case of medical emergencies. However, the primary challenge encountered when using these sensors in a non-clinical environment has been the presence of persistent motion artifacts (MA) embedded in the acquired physiological signal. These artifacts are caused by the random displacement of the sensor from the skin and lead to erroneous output readings. Several signal processing techniques, such as time and frequency domain segmentation, signal reconstruction techniques and adaptive noise cancellation (ANC), have been previously developed in an offline environment to address MA in photoplethysmography (PPG) with varying degrees of success. However, the performance of these algorithms in a spasmodic noise environment usually associated with basic day to day ambulatory activities has still not been fully investigated. Therefore, the focus of this research has been to develop novel MA algorithms to combat the effects of these artifacts. The specific aim of this thesis was to design two novel motion artifact (MA) algorithms using a combination of higher order statistical tools namely Kurtosis (K) for classifying 10 s PPG data segments, as either ‘clean’ or ‘corrupt’ and then extracting the aforementioned vital parameters. To overcome the effects of MA, the first algorithm (termed ‘MNA’) processes these ‘corrupt’ PPG data segments by identifying abnormal amplitudes changes. The second algorithm (termed ‘MNAC’), filters these ‘corrupt’ data segments using a 16th order normalized least mean square (NLMS) ANC filter and then extracts HR and SpO2.

A coleção de oito volumes, em comemoração aos 20 anos do início do programa, torna público em sua íntegra os \'Subsídios para o estudo comparado dos artefatos resgatados: referência AF.IR.020, projeto B.C. BYTE, 1995-2015\'. Em 1995, a exposição inédita de onze objetos arqueológicos simultaneamente à divulgação de descobertas recentes de artefatos similares pouco estudados e que permaneciam esquecidos em acervos dos departamentos de arqueologia das universidades, museus e instituições afins, propiciou a elaboração deste projeto para a reavaliação e reestudo extensivo a uma série de peças consideradas de menor relevância, exumadas em seis sítios arqueológicos ao longo de quase 90 anos. O projeto efetuou o resgate de grande parte da documentação histórica para a localização das descobertas destes objetos e a avaliação apurada deles, utilizando tecnologias de última geração. Os novos métodos de identificação possibilitaram a elaboração de novas hipóteses para uma interpretação contextualizada. O programa proporcionou também o reexame dos locais das escavações de cinco sítios arqueológicos onde parte dos referidos objetos encontravam-se depositados. À partir de uma recolha e organização dos dados disponíveis para o trabalho de campo das expedições (prospecção e escavação), a noção pré-existente foi alterada, suscitando novas descobertas, análises e interpretações. / The eight-volume collection, celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the beginnings of the program made public in its entirety through \'Subsidies for the comparative study of the artifacts rescued, reference AF.IR.020: project B.C. BYTE, 1995-2015\'. In 1995, an unprecedented exhibition of eleven archaeological objects simultaneously with the disclosure of recent discoveries of similar and less studied artifacts, remained forgotten in collections of archeology departments of universities, museums and related institutions, which led to the development of this project for review and extensive re-study of a number of considerably less relevant parts exhumed from six archaeological sites for almost ninety years. The project rescued much of the historical documentation on the location of these discovered objects and provided precise evaluation using the latest technology. These new identification methods made possible the development of new hypotheses for its contextualized interpretation. The program also provided the review of five archaeological sites of excavations where some of these objects found themselves deposited. From the collection and organization of the data available for the field work expeditions (prospecting and excavation), its initial image was changed, raising new findings, analyzes and interpretations.

This thesis examines the evidence for iron production and use during the Scottish Iron Age, circa 800 BC to AD 800, and is the first attempt at synthesising this evidence for Scotland. The broad aim is to gain a better understanding of the development, organisation and scale of iron production throughout this period. Four regional case studies focussing on Orkney, Skye, the Lothians and the Moray Firth provide the opportunity to examine different aspects of this aim through analysing excavated ironworking debris, iron artefacts and their context. Proxy evidence is also examined, namely whetstones and toolmarks on bone/ antler assemblages, in order to fill in some of the gaps in the iron artefact record due to poor preservation or ancient recycling. Some 500kg of ironworking debris, over 1500 iron artefacts, around 200 whetstones and over 2000 worked bone/ antler artefacts from the four regions were examined. The regional case studies are followed by a Scotland-wide discussion will also place the Scottish evidence within its wider context. The research shows rare, sporadic early evidence for iron production and use from around 800BC in Scotland, with production sites and iron artefact assemblages noticeably increasing from around 400BC. The Moray Firth area provides evidence of several intensive ironworking sites, while the Lothians have produced scant evidence, demonstrating regional variation in iron production across Scotland. The long settlement sequences of Orkney allow chronological variations to be examined, revealing changes in iron production organisation from the Middle to Late Iron Ages. Some of the earliest iron artefacts in Scotland, from a ritual cave site on Skye, provide the opportunity to examine structured deposition of iron, with similar depositional patterns identified across Scotland. The use of proxy evidence fleshes out the picture, revealing common use of tools such as iron saws, which rarely survive archaeologically.

A coleção de oito volumes, em comemoração aos 20 anos do início do programa, torna público em sua íntegra os \'Subsídios para o estudo comparado dos artefatos resgatados: referência AF.IR.020, projeto B.C. BYTE, 1995-2015\'. Em 1995, a exposição inédita de onze objetos arqueológicos simultaneamente à divulgação de descobertas recentes de artefatos similares pouco estudados e que permaneciam esquecidos em acervos dos departamentos de arqueologia das universidades, museus e instituições afins, propiciou a elaboração deste projeto para a reavaliação e reestudo extensivo a uma série de peças consideradas de menor relevância, exumadas em seis sítios arqueológicos ao longo de quase 90 anos. O projeto efetuou o resgate de grande parte da documentação histórica para a localização das descobertas destes objetos e a avaliação apurada deles, utilizando tecnologias de última geração. Os novos métodos de identificação possibilitaram a elaboração de novas hipóteses para uma interpretação contextualizada. O programa proporcionou também o reexame dos locais das escavações de cinco sítios arqueológicos onde parte dos referidos objetos encontravam-se depositados. À partir de uma recolha e organização dos dados disponíveis para o trabalho de campo das expedições (prospecção e escavação), a noção pré-existente foi alterada, suscitando novas descobertas, análises e interpretações. / The eight-volume collection, celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the beginnings of the program made public in its entirety through \'Subsidies for the comparative study of the artifacts rescued, reference AF.IR.020: project B.C. BYTE, 1995-2015\'. In 1995, an unprecedented exhibition of eleven archaeological objects simultaneously with the disclosure of recent discoveries of similar and less studied artifacts, remained forgotten in collections of archeology departments of universities, museums and related institutions, which led to the development of this project for review and extensive re-study of a number of considerably less relevant parts exhumed from six archaeological sites for almost ninety years. The project rescued much of the historical documentation on the location of these discovered objects and provided precise evaluation using the latest technology. These new identification methods made possible the development of new hypotheses for its contextualized interpretation. The program also provided the review of five archaeological sites of excavations where some of these objects found themselves deposited. From the collection and organization of the data available for the field work expeditions (prospecting and excavation), its initial image was changed, raising new findings, analyzes and interpretations.

A cohesive organizational culture has been linked to positive outcomes in child-serving agencies, such as improved child-level outcomes and positive organizational climate (Glisson & Green, 2006; Glisson & Hemmelgarm, 1998; Glisson & James, 2002; Hemmelgarn, Glisson, & James, 2006). Although isolated studies of organizational culture have been conducted in individual agencies (child welfare and juvenile justice), no study has examined the organization culture of successful, holistic systems of care that involve the coordination of multiple agencies, such as child welfare, juvenile justice, mental health and education. Data collected from the three system-of-care sites selected for participation in Case Studies of System Implementation was analyzed for themes using the Atlas.ti qualitative software package. The analysis was conducted through the framework of Schein's model of organizational culture. For each site, examples of artifacts, values, and assumptions were identified. The artifacts at sites were closely related to the articulated values of the organizations. Findings also suggest that there are underlying components to the organizational culture of system of care, including system of care values and principles, collaboration, willingness to change, and leadership. Results also showed that local context affects organizational culture. Suggestions for future exploration into these hypotheses are provided.

Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) is widely used transform in many areas of the current information age. It is used in signal compression such as voice recognition, shape recognition and also in FBI finger prints. DCT is the standard compression system used in JPEG format. The DCT quality deteriorates at low-bit compression rate. The deterioration is due to the blocking artifact inherent in block DCT. One of the successful attempts to reduce these blocking artifacts was conversion of Block-DCT into Line-DCT. In this thesis we will explore the Line-DCT and introduce a new form of line-DCT called Bidirectional-DCT, which retains the properties of Line- DCT while improving computational efficiency. The results obtained in this thesis show significant reduction in processing time both in one dimensional and two dimensional DCT in comparison with the traditional Block-DCT. The quality analysis also shows that the least mean square error is considerably lower than the traditional Block-DCT which is a consequence of removing the blocking artifacts. Finally, unlike the traditional block DCT, the Bidirectional-DCT enables compression with very low bit rates and very low blocking artifacts.

In computed tomography (CT) there are many situations where reconstruction may need to be performed with sparse-view data. In sparse-view CT imaging, strong streak artifacts may appear in conventionally reconstructed images due to the limited sampling rate, compromising image quality. Compressed sensing (CS) algorithm has shown potential to accurately recover images from highly undersampled data. In the past few years, total variation (TV)-base compressed sensing algorithms have been proposed to suppress the streak artifact in CT image reconstruction. In this paper, we formulate the problem of CT imaging under transform sparsity and sparse-view constraints, and propose a novel compressed sensing-based algorithm for CT image reconstruction from few-view data, in which we simultaneously minimize the ℓ1 norm, total variation and a least square measure. The main feature of our algorithm is the use of two sparsity transforms: discrete wavelet transform and discrete gradient transform, both of which are proven to be powerful sparsity transforms. Experiments with simulated and real projections were performed to evaluate and validate the proposed algorithm. The reconstructions using the proposed approach have less streak artifacts and reconstruction errors than other conventional methods.

Despite having the numerous evolved heart rate measuring devices and progress in their development over the years, there always remain the challenges of modern signal processing implementation by a comparatively small size wearable device. This thesis paper presents a wearable reflectance photoplethysmography (PPG) sensor system for measuring the heart rate of a user both in steady and moving states. The size and, power consumption of the device are considered while developing, to ensure an easy deployment of the unit at the measuring site and the ability to power the entire unit with a battery .The selection of both the electronic circuits and signal processing techniques is based on their sensitivity to PPG signals, robustness against noise inducing artifacts and miniaturization of the entire measuring unit. The entire signal chain operates in the discrete-time, which allows the entire signal processing to be implemented in firmware on an embedded microprocessor. The PPG sensor system is implemented on a single PCB that consumes around 7.5mW of power. Benchmarking tests with standard heart rate measuring devices reveal that the developed measurement unit (combination of the PPG sensor system, and inertial measurement unit (IMU) developed in-house at Acreo Swedish ICT, and a battery) is comparable to the devices in detecting heart rate even in motion artifacts environment. This thesis work is carried out in Acreo Swedish ICT, Gothenburg, Sweden in collaboration with MidSweden University, Sundsvall, Department of Electronics Design. This report can be used as ground work for future development of wearable heart rate measuring units at Acreo Swedish ICT.

The aim of this two year master thesis is to study the knowledge production within the field of Textile Studies at Uppsala University, with special focus on the use of artifact documentation as a research method. With domain analysis as a theoretical framework, ontological and epistemological assumptions as well as historical and social aspects are studied in relation to the research process. Qualitative research methods are used, including interviews, observations and text analysis. In the analysis of the knowledge processes in the field, perspectives on tacit knowledge and the concept of documents, are used as a theoretical basis.   In the field of Textile Studies, the artifacts are used as one of the main objects of study, along with archival and pictorial sources. The main epistemological assumptions are that artifact analysis is dependent on a knowledge base, where technical handicraft skills, contextual knowledge and practical experience of object observation are the most important qualifications. The research process reflects these assumptions, where observation and documentation are used as methods of gaining knowledge.

Circular source and detector trajectories in cone-beam computed tomography (CT) are known to collect insufficient data for accurate object reconstruction. One model predicts that the lacking information corresponds to a shift-variant cone of missing spatial frequency components in the local Fourier domain. These predictions were experimentally verified by imaging small, localized objects and observing their Fourier transforms. Measurements indicated that the internal angle of the ‘missing cone’ varies as the angle of locally intersecting x rays with respect to the horizontal plane, as expected. Object recovery was also found to depend greatly on the distribution of the object’s frequency spectrum relative to the missing cone, as predicted. Findings agreed with more anatomically relevant phantoms, which showed preferential intensity discrepancies at gradients oriented within or near the missing cone. Methods for artefact correction are in general limited to approximation unless a priori information is incorporated.