Thesis (M.S.)--Marquette University, 2009. / Richie James, Juan Luglio, Advisors.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Louisville, 2005. / Department of Mechanical Engineering. Vita. "May 2005." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 152-158).

<p> Over the past few decades, wireless communication systems have experienced rapid advances that demand continuous improvements in wireless transceiver architecture, efficiency and power capabilities. Since the most power consuming block in a transceiver is the power amplifier, it is considered one of the most challenging blocks to design, and thus, it has attracted considerable research interests. However, very little work has addressed low-power designs since most previous research work focused on higher power applications. Short-range transceivers are increasingly gaining interest with the emerging low-power wireless applications that have very strict requirements on the size, weight and power consumption of the system. </p> <p> This thesis deals with designing fully-integrated RF power amplifiers with low output power levels as a first step to improving the efficiency of RF transceivers in a 0.18 J.Lm standard CMOS technology. Two switch-mode power amplifiers, one operating at a frequency of 650 MHz and the other at a frequency of 2.4 GHz, are presented in this work using a class-E output stage with a class-F driver stage. The work presented here represents the first use of class-E power amplifiers for low-power applications. The measurement results of the 650 MHz design show a maximum drain efficiency of 15 % and a maximum gain of 11.5 dB. When operated from a 0.65 V supply, the power amplifier delivers an output power of 750 J.LW with a maximum power-added efficiency (PAE) of 10 %. As for the 2.4 GHz design, three layouts were fabricated. The first two designs have a filtered and a non-filtered output to show the effects of using on-chip filtering in low-power designs. Special attention was given to optimize the layout and minimize the parasitic effects. Measurement results show a maximum drain efficiency of 38 % and a maximum gain of 17 dB. When operating from a 1.2 V supply, the power amplifier delivers an output power of9 mW with a PAE of33 %. The supply voltage can go down to 0.6 V with an output power of2 mW and a PAE of25 %. The improvements in the layout show an increase in drain efficiency from 8 % to 35 %. The third design uses a 2 ~m thick top-metal layer of low-resistivity, with the same circuit component values as the first two designs. Measurement results show a maximum drain efficiency of 53 % and a maximum gain of 22 dB. When operating from a 1.2 V supply, the power amplifier delivers an output power of 14.5 mW with a PAE of 51 %. The supply voltage can go down to 0.6 V with an output power of 3.5 mW and a PAE of 43 %. </p> <p> Also, a novel mode-locking power amplifier design is presented in two fullyintegrated, differential superharmonic injection-locked power amplifiers (ILP A) operating at a frequency of 2.4 GHz and at a frequency of 400 MHz. Measurement results of the 2.4 GHz design and the 400 MHz design show that the fabricated power amplifiers have a maximum gain of 31 dB from only one stage that occupies a chip area of only 0.6 mm2 and 0.9 mm2 respectively, with all components fully integrated. </p> <p> Finally, two fully-integrated, single block baseband direct-modulation transmitters operating at a frequency of 2.4 GHz and at a frequency of 400 MHz are also presented in this work. Measurement results of the 2.4 GHz transmitter show a drain efficiency of 27 %. When operating from a 1.5 V supply, the transmitter delivers an output power of 8 dBm with a low phase noise of -122 dBc/Hz at a 1 MHz offset. </p> / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

On-farm assessment of cattle health, behaviour and welfare is often a logistical challenge but necessary for ensuring high standards of welfare and production. Recently, technological advances in engineering have allowed the mass manufacture of biotelemetry systems for use in research and industry. A commercial dairy farm may now have many different systems recording information about each individual animal in the herd. One such biotelemetry system is the collection of activity data via activity monitors. These devices were initially used by farmers to detect oestrus bouts through the resulting rise in activity and over the years have been improved to collect highly accurate and specific data about lying, standing and steps recorded over long periods of time. Long term, unobtrusive recording of individual cattle activity patterns is now becoming a reality on several farms. This raises the possibility of utilising sensors to remotely quantify aspects of cattle behaviour and welfare across different farms relatively quickly, allowing for the improvement of management and breeding strategies. Before this can be achieved, there needs to be a solid understanding of how behaviour affects activity patterns and how such data should be handled. In this project, the IceTag (IceRobotics Ltd., South Queensferry, UK), was used as a biotelemetry system for recording the activity of cattle. The IceTag is a tri-axial accelerometer activity monitor with a sample rate of 16Hz which has been shown to be sensitive (i.e. few false negatives) and specific (i.e. few false positives) when recording lying and standing behaviour on adult cattle. Cattle’s individual variation in behaviour was used as a case study to investigate the usage of this type of biotelemetry system. There were two phases to the study. In the first phase, the capabilities and limitations of the IceTag sensor were investigated. This involved assessing the extent of behavioural reactions to the IceTag in cattle. The behaviour of 28 lactating dairy cattle at the SRUC Dairy Research Centre was assessed for an adverse behavioural effect of the tags. The results of this study recommended a period of 48 hours from attachment before cattle grew accustomed to wearing the tag. Following this, the capabilities of the tags were assessed. Activity traits calculated directly from the tag and derived from tag data were analysed with respect to performance in four short term tests of temperament in 67 beef steers at the SRUC Beef Unit. From this work, the good repeatability of activity traits including average bout length, daily MotionIndex and daily step count encouraged their further usage. Steers which responded fearfully in a temperament test had higher MotionIndex in the home pen (rs = 0.35, P = 0.004) and steers which were more capable of displacing other steers at feeding stations also had longer average standing bouts (rs = 0.26, P = 0.036) and were more variable in their total daily standing duration (rs = 0.27, P = 0.030). This suggested that fear and sociability related behaviours can be detected through analysis of activity patterns. This work was continued at Wageningen University’s Dairy Research Centre where activity was recorded in over 100 dairy cattle. Activity recorded over a forty day period could explain some of the variation in behaviours seen during a subsequent fear test, but not in a social motivation test. The trait ‘neophobia’ was associated with more lying bouts and a greater variation in lying bout duration in dairy cows (R2 adj = 0.15, F3,75 = 5.32, P = 0.002) and bold cows also showed less variation in their lying bout durations (R2 adj = 0.11, F2,75 = 5.63, P = 0.005). In conclusion, remote sensors are a useful addition to the ethologist’s toolbox, enabling researchers to gain some insight into how fearfully a cow may react without assessing this through on-farm behavioural testing. Moreover, this work has found that the effects of personality which can be observed in behavioural testing can also be observed in spontaneous behaviour in the home pen away from testing environments. Biotelemetry systems can be utilised as a welfare assessment tool as they record repeatable activity traits which relate to underlying behavioural dimensions linked to the cow’s behavioural response to stimuli.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 2008. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Auburn University. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1967. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Texas at Dallas, 2008. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 162-172)

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 26-29, 1992 / Town and Country Hotel and Convention Center, San Diego, California / This paper describes a biotelemetric application whereby information of tooth contact pressure from within the mouth of a human subject is transmitted to a bedside receiver where it is processed and used in the biofeedback treatment of nocturnal bruxism (grinding of the teeth). Bruxing information is encoded on a pulse width modulated 313 MHZ carrier. Issues that are addressed include miniaturization of the transmitter, minimization of power requirements, stabilization of carrier frequency, receiver selection, and the various problems associated with getting a radio frequency signal out of the mouth.

The purposes of this study were (1) to determine the effects of specific structured classroom activities and events on the cardiac rates of students in the classroom, (2) to determine whether or not there was a detectable difference in the cardiac rates of students involved in structured classroom activities and events and cardiac rates of students not so involved, and (3) to determine the effects on the cardiac rates of students involved in two techniques of attaining student involvement and attention to a classroom discussion or topic.