Electrical impedance of biological matter is known as electrical bio-impedance or simply as bio-impedance. Bio-impedance devices are of great value for monitoring the pathological and physiological status of biological tissues in clinical and home environments. The technological progress in instrumentation has significantly contributed to the progress that has been observed during the last past decades in impedance spectroscopy and electrical impedance cardiograph. Although bio-impedance is not a physiological parameter, the method enables tissue characterization and functional monitoring and can contribute to the monitoring of the health status of a person. In this paper an inexpensive portable multi frequency impedance cardiograph device based on impedance spectroscopy technique has been developed. By means of this system the basic thoracic impedance range and the heart-action-caused changes of impedance can be measured and the hemodynamic parameters of the heart function can be determined. This system has small size and low current consumption. The impedance cardiograph signals of the electrodes configuration by Sramek, Penney and Qu in this work was measured; compared and summarized. The differences of the measuring method, the schematic circuit diagram, the measurement results and area of application between impedance cardiograph and impedance spectroscopy were discussed and compared. The performance of this sensor-system was evaluated.

Electrical impedance of biological matter is known as electrical bio-impedance or simply as bio-impedance. Bio-impedance devices are of great value for monitoring the pathological and physiological status of biological tissues in clinical and home environments. The technological progress in instrumentation has significantly contributed to the progress that has been observed during the last past decades in impedance spectroscopy and electrical impedance cardiograph. Although bio-impedance is not a physiological parameter, the method enables tissue characterization and functional monitoring and can contribute to the monitoring of the health status of a person. In this paper an inexpensive portable multi frequency impedance cardiograph device based on impedance spectroscopy technique has been developed. By means of this system the basic thoracic impedance range and the heart-action-caused changes of impedance can be measured and the hemodynamic parameters of the heart function can be determined. This system has small size and low current consumption. The impedance cardiograph signals of the electrodes configuration by Sramek, Penney and Qu in this work was measured; compared and summarized. The differences of the measuring method, the schematic circuit diagram, the measurement results and area of application between impedance cardiograph and impedance spectroscopy were discussed and compared. The performance of this sensor-system was evaluated.

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Functional garments for physiological sensing purposes have been utilized in several disciplinesi.e. sports, firefighting, military and medical. In most of the cases textile electrodes (Textrodes)embedded in the garment are employed to monitor vital signs and other physiologicalmeasurements. Electrical Bioimpedance (EBI) is a non-invasive and effective technology that canbe used for detection and supervision of different health conditions. In some specific applicationssuch as body composition assessment EBIS has shown encouraging results proving good degreeof effectiveness and reliability. In a similar way Impedance Cardiography (ICG) is anothermodality of EBI primarily concerned with the determination of Stroke Volume SV, indices ofcontractility, and other aspects of hemodynamics.EBI technology in the previously mentioned modalities can benefit from a integration with agarment; however, a successful implementation of EBI technology depends on the goodperformance of textile electrodes. The main weakness of Textrodes is a deficient skin-electrodeinterface which produces a high degree of sensitivity to signal disturbances. This sensitivity canbe reduced with a suitable selection of the electrode material and an intelligent and ergonomicgarment design that ensures an effective skin-electrode contact area.This research work studies the performance of textile electrodes and garments for EBIspectroscopy for Total Body Assessment and Transthoracic Electrical Bioimpedance (TEB) forcardio monitoring. Their performance is analyzed based on impedance spectra, estimation ofparameters, influence of electrode polarization impedance Zep and quality of the signals using asreference Ag/AgCl electrodes. The study includes the analysis of some characteristics of thetextile electrodes such as conductive material, skin-electrode contact area size and fabricconstruction.The results obtained in this research work present evidence that textile garments with a dry skinelectrodeinterface like the ones used in research produce reliable EBI measurements in bothmodalities: BIS for Total Body Assessment and TEB for Impedance Cardiography. Textiletechnology, if successfully integrated, may enable the utilization of EBI in both modalities andconsequently implementing wearable applications for home and personal health monitoring. / <p>QC 20121213</p>

Tunability and adaptability for radio frequency (RF) front-ends are highly desirable because they not only enhance functionality and performance but also reduce the circuit size and cost. This thesis presents a number of novel design strategies in DC-DC converters, impedance networks and adaptive algorithms for tunable and adaptable RF based mobile telecommunication systems. Specifically, the studies are divided into three major directions: (a) high voltage switch controller based DC-DC converters for RF switch actuation; (b) impedance network designs for impedance transformation of RF switches; and (c) adaptive algorithms for determining the required impedance states at the RF switches. In the first stage, two-phase step-up switched-capacitor (SC) DC-DC converters are explored. The SC converter has a simple control method and a reduced physical volume. The research investigations started with the linear and the non-linear voltage gain topologies. The non-linear voltage gain topology provides a higher voltage gain in a smaller number of stages compared to the linear voltage gain topology. Amongst the non-linear voltage gain topologies, a Fibonacci SC converter has been identified as having lower losses and a higher conversion ratio compared to other topologies. However, the implementation of a high voltage (HV) gain Fibonacci SC converter is complex due to the requirement of widely different gate voltages for the transistors in the Fibonacci converter. Gate driving strategies have been proposed that only require a few auxiliary transistors in order to provide the required boosted voltages for switching the transistors on and off. This technique reduces the design complexity and increases the reliability of the HV Fibonacci SC converter. For the linear voltage gain topology, a high performance complementary-metaloxide- semiconductor (CMOS) based SC DC-DC converter has been proposed in this work. The HV SC DC-DC converter has been designed in low voltage (LV) transistors technology in order to achieve higher voltage gain. Adaptive biasing circuits have been proposed to eliminate the leakage current, hence avoiding latch-up which normally occurs with low voltage transistors when they are used in a high voltage design. Thus, the SC DC-DC converter achieves more than 25% higher boosted voltage compared to converters that use HV transistors. The proposed design provides a 40% power reduction through the charge recycling circuit that reduces the effect of non-ideality in integrated HV capacitors. Moreover, the SC DC-DC converter achieves a 45% smaller area than the conventional converter through optimising the design parameters. In the second stage, the impedance network designs for transforming the impedance of RF switches to the maximum achievable impedance tuning region are investigated. The maximum achievable tuning region is bounded by the fundamental properties of the selected impedance network topology and by the tunable values of the RF switches that are variable over a limited range. A novel design technique has been proposed in order to achieve the maximum impedance tuning region, through identifying the optimum electrical distance between the RF switches at the impedance network. By varying the electrical distance between the RF switches, high impedance tuning regions are achieved across multi frequency standards. This technique reduces the cost and the insertion loss of an impedance network as the required number of RF switches is reduced. The prototype demonstrates high impedance coverages at LTE (700MHz), GSM (900MHz) and GPS (1575MHz). Integration of a tunable impedance network with an antenna for frequency-agility at the RF front-end has also been discussed in this work. The integrated system enlarges the bandwidth of a patch antenna by four times the original bandwidth and also improves the antenna return loss. The prototype achieves frequency-agility from 700MHz to 3GHz. This work demonstrates that a single transceiver with multi frequency standards can be realised by using a tunable impedance network. In the final stage, improvement to an adaptive algorithm for determining the impedance states at the RF switches has been proposed. The work has resulted in one more novel design techniques which reduce the search time in the algorithm, thus minimising the risk of data loss during the impedance tuning process. The approach reduces the search time by more than an order of magnitude by exploiting the relationships among the mass spring’s coefficient values derived from the impedance network parameters, thereby significantly reducing the convergence time of the algorithm. The algorithm with the proposed technique converges in less than half of the computational time compared to the conventional approach, hence significantly improving the search time of the algorithm. The design strategies proposed in this work contribute towards the realisation of tunable and adaptable RF based mobile telecommunication systems.

This research was originally conceived under the auspices of the UK Government's Foresight Initiative, which aimed to translate the significant body of process tomography knowledge, residing in various British universities, towards applications of generic benefit to industry. In collaboration with the sponsoring life science company, Zeneca Ltd, a number of potential demonstrator projects were identified. Ultimately on-line imaging within pressure filtration was selected by virtue of its direct and broad benefit to the chemical sector and the opportunity to extrapolate the techniques developed towards other batch production processes. The research programme is centred around three empirical studies. These progress from an initial phase, where the early laboratory instrumentation was exposed to a constrained set of filtration conditions, through to the installation of a novel prototype industrial tomography system on to an existing large scale production unit, which was fabricated from an electrically conducting alloy and located in a potentially flammable atmosphere. During the course of these investigations electrical impedance tomography (EIT) was identified as the most viable modality for this class of application. The challenges associated with transferring the EIT technology into the manufacturing environment were addressed by taking advantage of the lenient frame rates acceptable within chemical batch monitoring to develop an instrument structure which was intrinsically safe, suitable for use with earthed metal vessels, tolerant to chemically aggressive media and amenable to three-dimensional image reconstruction via irregular, process compliant, electrode architectures. In the subject production filter a planar sensor array was exploited to provide a relatively uniform electrical field distribution within the process material, whilst not adversely affecting the normal operation of the plant item.

Exaggerated cardiovascular reactivity (CVR) to stress has been implicated in the increased risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) in individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), yet mixed results have been reported. The CVR research may have been confounded by underrepresentation of women, few studies using sophisticated cardiovascular measurement, and a lack of analyses of PTSD symptom clusters. The purpose of the present study was to examine if young civilian women (M ± SD = 29.89±7.33) with PTSD (n=17) demonstrate greater CVR than women with depression (n=12) or no mental illness controls (n=18), and to explore the relationships between CVR and PTSD symptom clusters. Participants were 56% Caucasian, 21% African American, 19% Hispanic, and 4% other. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP and DBP), heart rate (HR), and impedance cardiography derived cardiac output (CO) and total peripheral resistance (TPR) were utilized to examine CVR during speech preparation/delivery and math tasks. Between-group effects were observed during speech preparation - specifically, lower DBP reactivity for the PTSD group compared to the depression group (p < .05). Between-group effects were also evident during speech delivery, with a trend toward lower DBP reactivity for the PTSD group than the depression group (p <.08), higher CO reactivity for the PTSD group than controls (p <.01), and lower TPR reactivity for the PTSD group than the depression (p <.01) and control groups (p <.01). PTSD severity scores for DSM-IV-TR and DSM-5 were used as independent predictors of CVR in multiple regressions variables. The DSM-IV analysis did not provide significant associations. The DSM-5 yielded significant associations of avoidance and arousal clusters with SBP reactivity during math, a significant association avoidance with DBP reactivity during math, and significant associations of avoidance and arousal with HR reactivity during math. Further exploration of PTSD symptom clusters may provide a clearer picture of the relationship between PTSD/CVR. Higher reactivity and lower reactivity may both be associated with risk for CVD, albeit through separate mechanisms.

Nearly all modern software applications, from the simplest website user account system to the most complex, enterprise-level, completely-integrated infrastructure, utilize some sort of backend data storage and business logic that interacts with the backend. The ubiquitous nature of this backend/business dichotomy makes sense as the need to both store and manipulate data can be traced as far back as the Turing Machine in Computer Science. The most commonly used technologies for these two aspects are Relational Database Management Systems (RDBMS) for backend and Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) for business logic. However, these two methodologies are not immediately compatible and the inherent differences between data represented in RDBMS and data represented in OOP are not trivial. Taking a .NET developer’s perspective, this report aims to explore the RDBMS/OO dichotomy and its inherent issues. Schema management theory and algebra are discussed to gain better perspective of the domain and a survey of existing solutions for the .NET environment is explored. Additionally, methods outside the mainstream are discussed. The advantages and disadvantages of each are weighed and presented to the reader to help aid in design implementations in the future. / text

Microneedles are a minimally invasive method for delivering drugs through the impermeable skin layers, and have been used to deliver a variety of compounds including macromolecules, vaccines, and naltrexone. Microneedles can be applied to the skin once, creating micropores that allow for drug delivery into the underlying circulation from a drug formulation. The utility of this technique, however, is blunted by rapid micropore closure. This research project sought to: 1) characterize micropore lifetime and re-sealing kinetics, and 2) prolong micropore lifetime via inhibition of the skin’s barrier restoration processes. Impedance spectroscopy was used as a surrogate technique in animals and humans to measure micropore formation and lifetime. A proof of concept study in humans, using impedance spectroscopy, demonstrated that diclofenac (a topical anti-inflammatory) applied to microporated skin resulted in slower re-sealing kinetics compared to placebo, in agreement with previous animal studies. The clinical feasibility of prolonging micropore lifetime with diclofenac was confirmed via 7-day delivery of naltrexone through microneedle treated skin in humans (compared to 72 hour delivery with placebo). Lastly, naltrexone gels with calcium salts were applied to microneedle treated skin (hairless guinea pigs) to restore the altered epidermal calcium gradient; this method did not significantly extend micropore lifetime.

Transmission lines are the basic building blocks of any RF and microwave circuits. The width of a microstripline increases as the characteristic impedance is lowered for a given substrate. Wide microstriplines suffer from spurious and higher order modes at higher frequencies and may not behave as transmission lines. This means the lower limitation for a realisable microstripline is about 10 ohm. In this project microstriplines with characteristic impedances of 7 ohm and 25 ohm at a frequency of 2 GHz were designed and realised using the artificial transmission lines (ATL) concept. Detailed theoretical analysis and circuit and EM simulations were used for the design and implementation of the ATLs. Taconic TLY-5 substrate was used for the PCB fabrication. The substrate thickness was 0.787 mm and the dielectric constant was 2.2. The measured results were de-embedded and compared with the simulation results. The detailed procedure of modelling and de-embedding of an SMA connector is also given. The 25 ohm ATL was realised using microstriplines only, where as microstriplines and chip capacitors were used in realising the 7 ohm ATL. The measured characteristic impedance of the 25 ohm ATL was 24.4 ohm and the measured electrical length of the 25 ohm ATL was 180 degrees at 2.1 GHz. To realise a 25 ohm ATL with 90 degrees electrical length, the half-wavelength 25 ohm ATL geometry was cut into half and one of the half geometries was EM simulated. The EM simulated electrical length of the 25 ohm ATL was 90 degrees at 1.9 GHz. The measured characteristic impedance of the 7 ohm ATL was 5.9 ohm and the measured electrical length of the 7 ohm ATL was 90 degrees at 1.8 GHz. The main advantage of an ATL is size reduction. A 25 ohm meandered microstrip line (substrate thickness = 0.787 mm, dielectric constant = 2.2) with 180 degrees electrical length at 2 GHz has a size of 34 mm x 15 mm. The 25 ohm ATL with 180 degrees electrical length at 2.1 GHz was realised in a size of 22 mm x 19 mm. The design of the 25 Ω ATL resulted in 18 percent reduction in area compared to the meander line. A 7 ohm conventional microstripline (substrate thickness = 0.787 mm, dielectric constant = 2.2) with 90 degrees electrical length at 1.8 GHz has a size of about 28 mm x 27 mm. The 7 ohm ATL with 90 degrees electrical length at 1.8 GHz was realised in a size of 7 mm x 8.4 mm which is only 8 percent of the conventional 7 ohm microstripline area. In general, a spacing of 3h where h is the substrate thickness is required between the adjacent microstriplines. In this project detailed investigations were done to see if the spacing can be reduced without any detrimental coupling affects and a spacing of 0.6 mm was used. This reduction in spacing has resulted in reduced size of the ATL. For an asymmetrical power splitter based on the Wilkinson topology, the power splitter output power split ratio depends on the square of the characteristic impedances of the quarter-wavelength arms. In this project an asymmetrical power splitter was designed and realised using a 7 ohm ATL and a 25 ohm ATL as the quarter-wavelength arms. The desired centre frequency of the power splitter was 2 GHz and the measured centre frequency was 1.6 GHz. At the centre frequency the phase difference between the output ports of the power splitter will be zero. The simulated power split ratio was 10.1 dB and the measured power split ratio was 13 dB. The power split ratio calculated using the measured characteristic impedances of the ATLs (24.4 ohm and 5.9 ohm) will be 12.4 dB which is very close to the measured power split ratio.