The master thesis is a prototyping project of a wireless body area network (WBANs) for patient monitoring in hospitals. The goal of this project was to study various technologies suitable for wireless body area networks, complete a requirement analysis, design a WBAN suitable to achieve the requirements and to test and evaluate the system against the requirements. Seven sensor end nodes are chosen to monitor seven vital signs for patient monitoring. After studying different technologies suitable for WBANs, IEEE 802.15.4j was chosen because it communicates in a special allocation of medical spectrum of 2360 to 2400MHz. A coordinator or master will be the center of the network using a star topology. Due to certain limitations in the firmware of the NXP FRDMKW40Z, IEEE 802.15.4j had to be dropped and IEEE 802.15.4 was the final chosen technology because the only difference between IEEE 802.15.4j and IEEE802.15.4 is the difference in the physical layer, while the developed application remains the same, making the shift back to IEEE802.15.4j, in the future, simple. There have been several projects working on the same idea with IEEE 802.15.4, but they do not combine multiple sensors to form a network and the total throughput requirements for this thesis project are much higher. The beacon mode and the non-beacon mode of IEEE 802.15.4 are studied. Non beacon mode is unpredictable due to the use of carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA) to access the medium. When multiple end nodes compete to get access to the medium, unreliability is introduced into the system. In the beacon mode, because of the slotted CSMA access of sixteen equally spaced time slots for communication, there is a restriction of the size of a time slot and thus, the high throughput requirement of the system is not met. The solution proposed in the thesis project is to develop a custom time slot system in the non-beacon mode, where each end node is granted a reserved time slot of a specific length as required by the end node. There is a timer mechanism which makes sure that the time slots for each device maintain the time limit on the time slot, on the side of the main master/coordinator of the network and on the side of the end node. The protocol for an end node to join a personal area network (PAN) is called as the association process. The association process enables the end node to be a part of a PAN to exchange its sensor data. Traditionally, in IEEE 802.15.4, the end nodes scan the sixteen IEEE 802.15.4 channels and when an appropriate coordinator is found, the end node initiates the association process with the coordinator. The solution proposed for the formation of the network by the association process is to use two different technologies. The end nodes and the coordinator exchange information using near field communication (NFC) technology by a simple tapping mechanism. The end node has an active NFC tag while the coordinator has an NFC reader. During the tap between the two devices, first the coordinator reads the end node data from the active tag. This data is required to form the custom time slot. Next the coordinator writes all association information into the active tag. After the NFC data exchange is done, the end node initiates the traditional IEEE 802.15.4 association protocol to join the coordinator’s PAN. Similarly after seven end nodes are associated to the coordinator, the network begins to function. All the end nodes communicate their data to the coordinator. The coordinator collects all the sensor data from the seven end nodes and may send the cumulative sensor data to the backend database servers which may be viewed by the medical authorities, this part is not included in the current version of the project. Several tests are run on this system to evaluate the requirements of latency, throughput and quality of service with two different ranges of 20cm and 250cm. The latency of association between the coordinator and end node is 632ms. The required throughput is met by the network. The packet delivery rate of the system is always above 99%. The graphs for packet delivery rates for all the sensors with a range of 20cm and 250 cm are shown in the appendices. The probabilities for the packet delivery rates greater than 90%, 99%, 99.9% and 99.99% are also graphically shown using a normal distribution in the appendices.

Bakgrund och problemdiskussion: Det råder en allmän oro rörande den fysiska butikens framtid. Ett paradigmskifte inom detaljhandeln innebär att den fysiska butiken, för att upprätthålla effektiva och lönsamma affärer, inte längre kan förlita sig på historiskt framgångsrika affärsmodeller och praxis. Istället anses teknik tillsammans med exceptionell service vara två av de viktigaste strategiska faktorerna, vilka kan komma att rädda den fysiska butikens existens. De företag som framgångsrikt lyckas konkurrera via tekniskt levererad service, kommer också långsiktigt att möta efterfrågan hos den digitala kunden. Syfte: Denna masteruppsats syftar till att undersöka vilken effekt som integrering av digitala tekniker i fysisk butik har på kundens upplevelse av butik. Studien ämnar även undersöka vilka faktorer som påverkar förhållandet mellan kundens upplevelse av butik och digital teknik. Metod: Syftet uppfylls genom att studera en faktisk butik, där en digital teknik, Near Field Communication (NFC), integrerats. Studien är i den bemärkelsen en fallstudie. Vidare har en experimentell forskningsdesign av kvalitativ karaktär anammats, där den empiriska datan huvudsakligen grundar sig i semistrukturerade konsumentintervjuer. Slutsats: En stor majoritet av respondenterna ansåg att den testade tekniken kunde få dem att handla i fysisk butik oftare. Följaktligen påvisar integrering av digital teknik i fysisk butik en positiv effekt på kundens upplevelse av butik, där integrering och användning av NFC-tekniken möjliggör en höjning av kundens upplevelse. Resultatet påvisar vidare att faktorer som flexibilitet, effektivitet, tillgänglighet, valmöjligheter, bekvämlighet, upplevd tid och energi samt generationstillhörighet påverkar förhållandet mellan kundens upplevelse av butik och digital teknik. / Background and problem discussion: There is a general concern about the future of the physical store. A paradigm shift in retail means that the physical store, in order to maintain efficient and profitable business, can no longer rely on historically successful business models and practices. Instead, technology together with exceptional service is considered to be two of the most important strategic factors, which may save the physical store's existence. Purpose: This master thesis aims to investigate the effect that integration of digital technologies in the physical store have on the customer’s experience of the store. The study also aims to investigate which factors affect the relationship between the customer's experience of the store and digital technology. Method: The purpose is fulfilled by studying one actual store, where one digital technology, Near Field Communication (NFC), has been integrated. In this sense, the study is a case study. Furthermore, an experimental research design of a qualitative nature has been adopted, where the empirical data is mainly based on semi-structured consumer interviews. Conclusion: A large majority of respondents felt that the tested technology could make them shop in a physical store more often. Consequently, the integration of digital technology into the physical store demonstrates a positive effect on the customer's experience of the store, where integration and use of the NFC technology enables an increase in the customer's experience. The result also shows that factors such as flexibility, efficiency, availability, IV choice, convenience, perceived time and energy and generation affiliation affect the relationship between the customer's experience and digital technology.

Die zunehmende Nutzung [1] persönlicher mobiler Geräte durch immer mehr Fahrgäste des öffentlichen Personenverkehrs (ÖPV) begünstigt die Entwicklung neuer Applikationen, die den allgegenwärtigen Zugriff auf domänenspezifische Inhalte und Echtzeitdaten über variable Schnittstellen und Informationskanäle realisieren. Near Field Communication (NFC) gilt in diesem Zusammenhang als eine vielversprechende Technologie, die neben kontaktloser Datenübertragung auch Bezahlvorgänge direkt über das mobile Endgerät ermöglicht. Mit Blick auf die unterschiedlichen Einsatzmöglichkeiten von NFC in der mobilen Reisebegleitung wird in diesem Beitrag eine ikonografische Klassifikation für die visualisierte Analyse von Anwendungsszenarien vorgestellt, welche zur Planung ubiquitärer Applikationen im ÖPV eingesetzt werden kann.

Die zunehmende Nutzung [1] persönlicher mobiler Geräte durch immer mehr Fahrgäste des öffentlichen Personenverkehrs (ÖPV) begünstigt die Entwicklung neuer Applikationen, die den allgegenwärtigen Zugriff auf domänenspezifische Inhalte und Echtzeitdaten über variable Schnittstellen und Informationskanäle realisieren. Near Field Communication (NFC) gilt in diesem Zusammenhang als eine vielversprechende Technologie, die neben kontaktloser Datenübertragung auch Bezahlvorgänge direkt über das mobile Endgerät ermöglicht. Mit Blick auf die unterschiedlichen Einsatzmöglichkeiten von NFC in der mobilen Reisebegleitung wird in diesem Beitrag eine ikonografische Klassifikation für die visualisierte Analyse von Anwendungsszenarien vorgestellt, welche zur Planung ubiquitärer Applikationen im ÖPV eingesetzt werden kann.

Le caramel liquide, obtenu par le traitement thermique des sucres, est couramment utilisé pour modifier le goût ou la couleur des produits agroalimentaires.Parmi les promoteurs de caramélisation autorisés, l’ammoniaque (pour les caramels colorants de classe III) et les sels d’ammonium (pour ceux de classe IV) sont source de composés néoformés indésirables (CNI) comme le 2-acétyl-4-(1,2,3,4-tétrahydroxybutyl)imidazole (THI), immunosuppresseur, et le 4-méthylimidazole (4MeI), agent convulsif. Ces molécules ont des teneurs limitées par la réglementation Européenne à 10 et 250 ppm respectivement. Pour améliorer la connaissance de la chimie du caramel et la qualité des caramels colorants en contrôlant la formation des CNI, il est nécessaire de développer des méthodes analytiques fiables, rapides et faciles à mettre en œuvre. Ce travail de thèse présente le développement de nouvelles méthodes basées sur la chromatographie en phase liquide à deux-dimensions (LC-LC). Ces méthodes très sélectives permettent de minimiser le temps d’analyse puisque la préparation de l’échantillon se réduit à une simple dilution dans l’eau et les deux séparations chromatographiques en cascade sont réalisées sur un système totalement automatisé. La validation des méthodes par les profils d’exactitude a permis d’assurer que 90 % des résultats sont à moins de 20 % de la valeur vraie dans le domaine de concentration 10 à 50 ppm pour le THI, 20 à 500 ppm pour le 4MeI, 200 à 2500 ppm pour le fructose, saccharose, lactose, maltose et maltotriose et 500 à 2500 ppm pour le glucose.Ces méthodes sont enfin appliquées au suivi de la réaction de caramélisation et au contrôle qualité des produits finis. / Caramel liquid, obtained by heat treatment of sugars, is commonly used to alter the taste or colour of food products.Among promoters of caramelization allowed, ammonia (for caramel colours of class III) and ammonium salts (for those of class IV) are a source of neoformed contaminants (NFC) such as 2-acetyl-4-(1,2,3,4-tetrahydroxybutyl)imidazole (THI), immunosuppressive agent, and 4-methylimidazole (4MeI), convulsive agent. These molecules have contents limited by the European regulations to 10 and 250 ppm, respectively.To improve knowledge of the chemistry of caramel and quality of caramel colours by controlling the formation of NFC, it is necessary to develop analytical methods that are both reliable, fast and easy to implement. This thesis presents the development and validation of new methods based on two-dimensional liquid chromatography (LC-LC). These very selective methods can minimize analysis time since sample preparation is reduced to a simple dilution with water and the two consecutive chromatographic separations are performed on a fully automated system. The method validation by the accuracy profiles allowed to show that 90 % of obtained results correspond to the agreement value more or less 20 %, in the field of concentration 10 to 50 ppm for THI, 20 to 500 ppm for 4MeI, 200 to 2500 ppm for fructose, sucrose, lactose, maltose and maltotriose and 500 to 2500 ppm for glucose.These methods are finally applied to monitor the reaction of caramelization and to control the quality of finished products.

Submitted by William Justo Figueiro (williamjf) on 2015-07-10T21:37:30Z No. of bitstreams: 1 36b.pdf: 8321284 bytes, checksum: 5ec8d2ae2a04b68405d9caf30d342a3a (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-07-10T21:37:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 36b.pdf: 8321284 bytes, checksum: 5ec8d2ae2a04b68405d9caf30d342a3a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-08-19 / Nenhuma / O uso de dispositivos móveis como meio de pagamento vem crescendo ao longo dos últimos anos. Embora algumas implantações de carteiras digitais tenham sido bem sucedidas, ainda não existe um padrão a ser utilizado pelo mercado. Este trabalho tem como objetivo apresentar uma solução para pagamento móvel através da utilização de uma carteira digital. Esta solução deve ser heterogênea, sendo disponibilizada para o maior número possível de dispositivos móveis, como telefones celulares e tablets, e deve permitir o pagamento entre dois usuários sem a necessidade de conexão à internet. O trabalho também leva em consideração as informações de contexto do usuário, e busca oferecer uma solução diferenciada ao usuário final, através da interface da aplicação com um servidor de pedidos, a ser instalado no estabelecimento comercial. A segurança também é um item importante, e o modelo deve prever a utilização de um elemento seguro, garantindo a segurança das informações gravadas no dispositivo. Foi desenvolvido um protótipo da arquitetura proposta, denominado Unipag. O protótipo foi desenvolvido através da avaliação de quatro diferentes soluções de carteira digital, sendo duas soluções acadêmicas e duas soluções comerciais. O protótipo foi desenvolvido inicialmente para o sistema Android, e foram realizadas duas avaliações. A avaliação por cenários demonstrou a utilização com sucesso da aplicação em cenários de pagamento cotidianos. A avaliação de usabilidade demonstrou que o aplicativo é de fácil utilização, e 96% dos usuários utilizariam a aplicação se disponível. Os resultados encorajam o estudo e demonstram a viabilidade da solução. / The use of mobile devices as a payment device has been growing over the last few years. Although some deployments of digital wallets have been successful, there is still no standard to be used by market. This work aims to present a solution for mobile payment through the use of a digital wallet. This solution must be heterogeneous, being made available to the largest possible number of mobile devices such as mobile phones and tablets, and should allow payment between two users without internet connection. The solution also considers the context information of the user, and seeks to offer a different solution to the end user through the application interface with a server application to be installed on the premises. Safety is also an important item, and the model should provide for the use of a secure element, ensuring the security of information stored on the device. We developed a prototype of the proposed architecture, called Unipag. The prototype was developed by evaluating four different solutions digital wallet, two academic solutions and two commercial solutions. The prototype was initially developed for the Android system, and were assessed twice. The evaluation scenarios demonstrated the successful use of the application for daily payment scenarios. The usability evaluation demonstrated that the application is easy to use, and 96% of users would use the application if available. The results encourage the study and demonstrate the feasibility of the solution.

This work describes three alternative processes for producing microfibrillated cellulose (MFC; also referred to as cellulose nanofibrils, CNF) in which bleached pulp fibres are first pretreated and then homogenized using a high-pressure homogenizer. In one process, fibre cell wall delamination was facilitated by a combined enzymatic and mechanical pretreatment. In the two other processes, cell wall delamination was facilitated by pretreatments that introduced anionically charged groups into the fibre wall, by means of either a carboxymethylation reaction or irreversibly attaching carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) to the fibres. All three processes are industrially feasible and enable energy-efficient production of MFC. Using these processes, MFC can be produced with an energy consumption of 500–2300 kWh/tonne. These materials have been characterized in various ways and it has been demonstrated that the produced MFCs are approximately 5–30 nm wide and up to several microns long. The MFCs were also evaluated in a number of applications in paper. The carboxymethylated MFC was used to prepare strong free-standing barrier films and to coat wood-containing papers to improve the surface strength and reduce the linting propensity of the papers. MFC, produced with an enzymatic pretreatment, was also produced at pilot scale and was studied in a pilot-scale paper making trial as a strength agent added at the wet-end for highly filled papers. / <p>QC 20150126</p>

在各式各樣的銷售技巧中，誇張廠商建議價格是一種常見的手法，廠商漫天喊價誇大原始售價，無非是希望能讓消費覺得實際售價低廉且商品值得購買。但在廠商使用這樣的策略時，有些人會察覺到廠商操弄的意圖進而對廠商、商品產生負面的感覺。本研究認為消費者的認知需求程度是參考價格產生效果的重要調節變項，因此，本研究發展兩階段的實驗來探討消費者認知需求高低對其處理價格資訊的影響。研究方式與結果簡述如下： 在第一個階段中研究的是誇張的行銷訊息（誇張的廠商售價）對於認知需求程度不同的消費者的效果差異，以及廠商售價對於消費者的商品態度與購買意願的影響。研究結果發現，認知需求低者較易被廠商宣稱的誇張價格影響其對商品的推估價格，進而對商品產生較佳的態度與購買意願。 在第二個階段中，本研究設計讓已經受到廠商訂價影響的消費者接觸實際售價，探討消費者的認知需求程度對於其操弄意圖推論程度的影響及消費者操弄意圖推論程度對於其最終購買意願與商品態度產生的效果。結果發現，認知需求高的消費者其操弄意圖推論程度亦高，且消費者的操弄意圖推論程度愈高；對於消費者商品態度與購買意願負面的影響也愈大。 / One main concern regarding the use of reference prices in advertisements relates to the possibility of perceived deception due to consumers' reaction towards exaggerated or implausible price claims. This paper examines the moderating roles of an individual level variable-need for cognition (NFC), in influencing consumers’ evaluation of the reference prices in a two-stage experiment. The results support the hypothesized effects of need for cognition and demonstrate that, in the first stage, consumers with a high need for cognition assimilate a smaller portion of the external reference points (ERPs) into their existing internal reference point (IRPs). In addition, for consumers with a low need for cognition, the increasing level of reference price results in positive effects on value perception, brand attitudes and purchase intention. In the second stage, I introduced inferences of manipulative intent (IMI) as a dependant variable. The results suggest that for consumers with a high need for cognition, the greater the discrepancy between their estimated price and real price, the higher level of perceived manipulative intent of advertisers. This leads to negative attitudes toward the advertiser and results in negative effects on brand attitudes and purchase intention. Implications for research and practitioners are discussed.

Submitted by Daniele Santos (danielesantos.htl@gmail.com) on 2017-02-21T21:04:19Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Eduardo.pdf: 1544695 bytes, checksum: ad700b85bc86a6f4889a9f52275ab887 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Janete de Oliveira Feitosa (janete.feitosa@fgv.br) on 2017-02-23T17:38:59Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Eduardo.pdf: 1544695 bytes, checksum: ad700b85bc86a6f4889a9f52275ab887 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-03-02T13:43:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Eduardo.pdf: 1544695 bytes, checksum: ad700b85bc86a6f4889a9f52275ab887 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-11-10 / Today there exist a myriad of different types of physical access control systems (PACS) that use a smart card or mobile device as a key. The mobile device enabled smart locks, as they are often referred to, operate using either Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. This thesis has explored the use of a third emerging wireless technology called Near Field Communication (NFC) available in mobile devices such as smartphones. Near Field Communication (NFC) technology is a relatively new technology that is on the rise and is included in almost every new mobile device. By leveraging Near Field Communication (NFC) enabled mobile devices, a highly secure access control system can be achieved and developed taking advantage of the computational power of smartphones in comparison to traditional methods the business implications are huge, Several different authentication and encryption protocols, mobile operating systems and Near Field Communication (NFC) modes of operation where analyzed and evaluated. After considerations technical considerations the Secure Remote Password authentication protocol on top of Near Field Communication (NFC) card emulation (CE) scheme with the client application running on smartphones operating system (OS) was selected. This thesis shows that Near Field Communication (NFC) enables a mobile device to act as a key in a secure access control system (PACS) and as the user base for NFC grows larger so will the likelihood that we will come to see more of these types of systems in business and organizations.

Today more and more objects in our daily lives are getting connected to the Internet. This phenomenon is called the Internet of Things and is a way for physical things such as cars, buildings or even bus stations to get access and communicate with other objects using the Internet. The problem is that for every Internet of Things device, an application is often needed in order to communicate with these devices. Developing mobile applications in a separate programming language for each operating system can be an expensive and time consuming task. In this thesis, we implement and evaluate a cross-platform mobile solution for users to interact with smart things using the advantages of web technologies. To compare previous findings in this area, two literature reviews has been performed to find out which is the state of the art on cross-platform mobile development frameworks and smart-things technologies used for interacting with physical objects. The result is a mobile application developed using PhoneGap and jQuery Mobile that interacts with iBeacons, where students inside a university building can get directions and schedules for different rooms. The application received good results from a couple of usability studies, and performed well when measuring its performance. The outcome shows that web technologies that exist today are a viable solution to native mobile applications in terms of interacting with smart things such as tagging technologies.