This thesis deals with design and realization of acoustic camera for sound source location. The essence of the device is microphone field listening for acoustic impulses which are processed in real-time in order to locate the source. Found location is displayed on LCD together with images from regular video camera. FPGA is used as a computational unit.

Octapharma tillverkar Octagam, en lösning innehållande humant immunglobulin för intravenös administrering, vars huvudkomponent är immunglobulin G (IgG). Aggregerade IgG förknippas med aktivering av komplementsystemet i frånvaro av antigen. Denna ospecifika aktivering av komplement har tidigare rapporterats orsaka biverkningar hos patienter. För att undvika detta använder Octapharmas laboratorium för kvalitetskontroll en metod som kallas test av antikomplementär aktivitet, för kontroll av batcher av Octagam innan de släpps ut på marknaden. Denna metod har flera problem, t.ex. låg tillgänglighet av viktiga reagens. Syftet med detta projekt var därför att undersöka om en alternativ metod, CIC-C1q ELISA, kunde mäta aktiveringen av komplementsystemet på immunglobuliner genom att testa olika batcher av IgG och värmebehandlade IgG-prover för att bedöma om det fanns en korrelation mellan resultaten från de två metoderna. Resultaten visade att det inte fanns någon korrelation mellan ACA-testet och CIC-C1q ELISA. Varken normala IgG-batcher eller värmebehandlade prover uppvisade någon tydlig korrelation. Den enda fördelen som C1q kan ha är att den gav ett högt resultat för en batch som tidigare har rapporterats orsaka biverkningar hos patienter, medan svaret i ACA-testet var relativt normalt. CIC-C1q ELISA metoden har dock visat sig ha sina egna problem eftersom standardprover ger inkonsekventa värden och mer tester behöver utföras för att hitta spädnings-linjäritet. / Octapharma manufactures Octagam, a liquid preparation of highly purified human immunoglobulin for intravenous administration, the main component of which is immunoglobulin G (IgG). Aggregated IgG is associated with activation of the complement system in the absence of antigen. This non-specific activation of complement has been reported to cause adverse reactions in patients. To avoid this, Octapharma's quality control laboratory uses a method called the determination of anti-complementary activity (ACA) in Immunoglobulin, for control of all batches of Octagam before release. This method has several problems, such as low availability of critical reagents. Therefore, the aim of this project was to investigate whether an alternative method, CIC-C1q ELISA, could measure the activation of the complement system on immunoglobulins by testing different batches of IgG and heat-treated IgG samples to assess whether there is a correlation between the results of the two methods. The results showed that there was no correlation between the ACA test and the CIC-C1q ELISA. Neither normal IgG batches nor heat-treated samples showed a clear correlation. The only advantage the C1q may have is that it gives a high response for a batch that has been reported to cause adverse reactions in patients, while the response in the ACA test was relatively normal. If this can be demonstrated by testing similar batches, it may be beneficial to continue testing the C1q ELISA. However, this method has also been shown to have its own problems, such as the standard sample giving inconsistent values, and more work is needed to find the linearity of the dilution.

Synthetic aperture sonar (SAS) is a wide-beam sonar technique commonly used for mapping the seafloor at high resolution. The Acoustics Research Group at the University of Canterbury operates a towed SAS system known as KiwiSAS-IV. This is currently being redesigned with the aim of reducing the weight, size and power requirements of the system. The long term goal is to make it capable of being mounted on an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) so that mapping of remote and/or dangerous waters can be accomplished without human interaction. This thesis presents the design of the front-end electronics used to drive the 36 transducers to produce the acoustic beam and receive the returning signals after they have reflected off a target. To achieve sufficient range, the transducers are driven with a 200 Vₚ₋ₚ signal with a maximum frequency of 110 kHz. This design uses class D switching amplifiers to generate these waveforms. The AD9271 integrated circuit, which can handle eight transducers simultaneously, is used to amplify the incoming signals and sample them at up to 50 MHz. This high sampling rate multiplied by all 36 transducers results in an amount of data which is too great for a conventional microprocessor-based system to handle. Instead, an FPGA is used to receive this data, decimate it using multiplier-free cascaded integrator-comb (CIC) filters, and then pass it to the back-end system for further processing and storage. A prototype circuit was created to test the theory developed in this thesis. This showed that the system is capable of generating the necessary waveforms and amplifying, capturing, and decimating the returning signals. However, further refinement is required before it is able to be used in the sonar system.

Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Administrativas / Seminario para optar al grado de Ingeniero Comercial, Mención Administración / En la carrera de Ingeniería Comercial de la Universidad de Chile aprendemos mucha teoría que nos intentan explicar de una manera relativamente simple como se comportan ciertos fenómenos de nuestra vida cotidiana y sus reacciones ante movimiento de otros factores que los determinan. Pero estas teorías están basadas en una serie de supuestos, que son alejados de la realidad y la práctica. En los últimos años, y sobre todo en nuestra escuela de negocios de la universidad, se ha venido incorporando un sistema que intenta explicar la realidad usando casos para su desarrollo. Este sistema de resolución de casos consiste en que el profesor orienta a los alumnos y los insta a participar de la discusión ellos. Explicando luego el cómo se resolvió por alguna empresa en particular el problema ya fuese financiero, económico, o de cualquier otra naturaleza. Es debido a esta razón y orientado por mi profesor guía, quien posee una vasta experiencia en la publicación de casos, que he desarrollado dos temas: el primero se trata de la quiebra del Banco del Progreso ecuatoriano, el cual se debió a los distintos conflictos de interés existentes en los agentes económicos que participaron en el proceso y por supuesto de la falta de control de las entidades regulatorias ecuatorianas correspondientes. En segundo lugar el caso de CIC S.A., una empresa fabricantes de muebles para el hogar, que esta acarreando una crisis financiera desde el año 1998. Esto es producto de la crisis económica y la caída de la demanda de bienes durables de la economía nacional.

Clinical studies reported side effects of muscular spasms and muscle stiffness following the administration of clofibrate, a drug once used to treat hyperlipidaemia in patients. Experiments with clofibrate and its analogues in animal models showed it produced these myotonic symptoms in muscle by reducing the chloride conductance of the muscle membrane. The effects of 2-(4-chlorophenoxy)propionic acid, an analogue of clofibric acid, was assessed on the rat ClC-1 channel (rClC-1). Racemic 2-(4-chlorophenoxy)propionic acid shifted the voltage dependence of rClC-1 activation to more depolarising potentials, a mechanism accounting for myotonic symptoms previously reported. Experiments with resolved enantiomers revealed that the effects recorded were due exclusively to S-(–) 2-(4- chlorophenoxy)propionic acid. The R-(+) enantiomer was ineffective at the concentrations tested. Further experiments with the compound at differing Cl- concentrations in the extracellular solution suggested that S-(–) 2-(4-chlorophenoxy)propionic acid altered the gating of ClC-1 by decreasing the affinity of the binding site where Cl- normally acts to ‘gate’ the channel. Similarities in the effects reported for most dominant mutations in the CLCN1 gene that lead to myotonia congenita and 2-(4-chlorophenoxy)propionic acid prompted experiments that introduced these point mutations in the human ClC-1 (hClC-1) gene to compare their mode of action to that of the drug. These mutations, F307S and A313T, predominantly altered the slow, or common, gate of the channel. Conversely, the effect of 2-(4-chlorophenoxy)propionic acid was predominantly on the fast gating process of hClC-1. A macroscopically similar effect therefore, can be produced by two different modes of action. Results suggested that both drug and mutations exert their action by affecting the transition of the channel from its closed to open state subsequent to Cl- binding. Investigation of the interaction between rClC-1 gating and a further 25 compounds structurally related to clofibric acid identified a number of compounds effective at shifting the open probability of fast gating to depolarising potentials. Fewer were identified that influence slow gating. Some compounds affected both gating processes, however, none were identified which influenced slow gating alone. Ability to displace the voltage dependent activation of the fast gate appeared to depend largely on the lipophilicity of the molecules tested, indicating the importance of hydrophobic interactions between drug and channel protein. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1474724 / Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Molecular and Biomedical Science, 2009

<p>The development of integrated circuit technology seen in the last decades has enabled a large variety of battery operated equipment to emerge, such as smallsensors and medical implants. These applications often has low requirements on sampling frequency but require a very low power consumption to achieve a longbattery life.</p><p>This thesis investigates one aspect of implementing a low power and low frequency analog to digital converter (ADC) using a technique called Sigma Delta-modulation.The Sigma Delta-ADC uses few analog components but instead it requires a digital filter to extract the wanted resolution. It is this filter which is under investigation in this work.</p><p>To investigate the power consumption under the presumption that the filter would be a custom circuit implemented on-chip, a simplistic approach has been taken. Based on a high-level algorithmic investigation and the fact that it is popularly used together with Sigma Delta-modulators the Cascaded Integrator Comb (CIC) filter was chosen for implementation.</p><p>The CIC-filter uses only adders and delay elements which is a great advantage when aiming at a low power consumption. The drawback is that this filter has a poor passband which can introduce distortion within the signal band. Using the Spectre simulator provided in the Cadence Virtuoso suite the lowest power consumption achieved was 16 nW, extracting 80 % of the theoretically available resolution.</p>

The development of integrated circuit technology seen in the last decades has enabled a large variety of battery operated equipment to emerge, such as smallsensors and medical implants. These applications often has low requirements on sampling frequency but require a very low power consumption to achieve a longbattery life. This thesis investigates one aspect of implementing a low power and low frequency analog to digital converter (ADC) using a technique called Sigma Delta-modulation.The Sigma Delta-ADC uses few analog components but instead it requires a digital filter to extract the wanted resolution. It is this filter which is under investigation in this work. To investigate the power consumption under the presumption that the filter would be a custom circuit implemented on-chip, a simplistic approach has been taken. Based on a high-level algorithmic investigation and the fact that it is popularly used together with Sigma Delta-modulators the Cascaded Integrator Comb (CIC) filter was chosen for implementation. The CIC-filter uses only adders and delay elements which is a great advantage when aiming at a low power consumption. The drawback is that this filter has a poor passband which can introduce distortion within the signal band. Using the Spectre simulator provided in the Cadence Virtuoso suite the lowest power consumption achieved was 16 nW, extracting 80 % of the theoretically available resolution.

The filter complexity in the multi-stage decimation system of a Δ-Σ ADC increases progressively as one moves to higher stages of decimation due to the fact that the input word length of the higher stages also increases progressively. The main motivation for this thesis comes from the idea of investigating a way, to reduce the input word length in the later filter stages of the decimation system which could reduce the filter complexity. To achieve this, we use a noise-shaping loop between the first and later stages so that the input word length for the later stages remains smaller than in the case where we do not use the noise-shaping loop. However, the performance (SNR/ Noise-level) level should remain the same in both cases. This thesis aims at analyzing the implications of using a noise-shaping loop in between the decimation stages of a Δ-Σ ADC and also finding the appropriate decimation filter types that could be used in such a decimation system. This thesis also tries to compare the complexity introduced by using the noise-shaping loop with the reduction achieved in the later decimation stages in terms of the input word length. Filter required in the system will also be optimized using minimax optimization technique.

The concept of a recursive function has been extensively studied using traditional tools of computability theory. However, with the development of category-theoretic methods it has become possible to study recursion in a more general (abstract) sense. The particular model this thesis is structured around is known as a Turing category. The structure within a Turing category models the notion of partiality as well as recursive computation, and equips us with the tools of category theory to study these concepts. The goal of this work is to build a formal language description of this computation model. Specifically, to use the Coq proof assistant to formulate informal definitions, propositions and proofs pertaining to Turing categories in the underlying formal language of Coq, the Calculus of Co-inductive Constructions (CIC). Furthermore, we have instantiated the more general Turing category formalism with a CIC description of the category which models the language of partial recursive functions exactly.

Network intrusion detection is a task aimed to identify malicious network traffic. Malicious networktraffic is generated when a perpetrator attacks a network or internet-connected device with the intent todisrupt, steal or destroy a service or information. Two approaches for this particular task is the rule-basedmethod and the use of machine learning. The purpose of this paper was to contribute with knowledgeon how to evaluate and build better network intrusion detection systems (NIDS). That was fulfilled bycomparing the detection ability of two machine learning models, a neural network and a random forestmodel, with a rule-based NIDS called Snort. The paper describes how the two models and Snort wereconstructed and how performance metrics were generated on a dataset called CIC-IDS2017. It also describes how we capture our own malicious network traffic and the models ability to classify that data. Thecomparisons shows that the neural network outperforms Snort and the Random forest. We also presentfour factors that may influence which method that should be used for intrusion detection. In addition weconclude that we see potential in using CIC-IDS2017 to build NIDS based on machine learning.