Location Based Services (LBS) are a relatively recent multidisciplinary field which brings together many aspects of the fields of hardware design, digital signal processing (DSP), digital image processing (DIP), algorithm design in mathematics, and systematic implementation. LBS provide indirect location information from a variety of sensors and present these in an understandable and intuitive way to users by employing theories of data science and deep learning. Indoor positioning, which is one of the sub-applications of LBS, has become increasingly important with the development of sensor techniques and smart algorithms. The aim of this thesis is to explore the utilisation of indoor positioning algorithms under complex Non-Line of sight (LOS) environments in order to meet the requirements of both commercial and civil indoor localisation services. This thesis presents specific designs and implementations of solutions for indoor positioning systems from signal processing to positioning algorithms. Recently, with the advent of the protocol for the Bluetooth 4.0 technique, which is also called Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), researchers have increasingly begun to focus on developing received signal strength (RSS) based indoor localisation systems, as BLE based indoor positioning systems boast the advantages of lower cost and easier deployment condition. At the meantime, information providers of indoor positioning systems are not limited by RSS based sensors. Accelerometer and magnetic field sensors may also being applied for providing positioning information by referring to the users' motion and orientation. With regards to this, both indoor localisation accuracy and positioning system stability can be increased by using hybrid positioning information sources in which these sensors are utilised in tandem. Whereas both RSS based sensors, such as BLE sensors, and other positioning information providers are limited by the fact that positioning information cannot be observed or acquired directly, which can be summarised into the Hidden Markov Mode (HMM). This work conducts a basic survey of indoor positioning systems, which include localisation platforms, using different hardware and different positioning algorithms based on these positioning platforms. By comparing the advantages of different hardware platforms and their corresponding algorithms, a Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) based positioning technique using BLE is selected as the main carrier of the proposed positioning systems in this research. The transmission characteristics of BLE signals are then introduced, and the basic theory of indoor transmission modes is detailed. Two filters, the smooth filter and the wavelet filter are utilised to de-noise the RSSI sequence in order to increase localisation accuracy. The theory behind these two filter types is introduced, and a set of experiments are conducted to compare the performance of these filters. The utilisation of two positioning systems is then introduced. A novel, off-set centroid core localisation algorithm is proposed firstly and the second one is a modified Monte Carlo localisation (MCL) algorithm based system. The first positioning algorithm utilises BLE as a positioning information provider and is implemented with a weighted framework for increasing localisation accuracy and system stability. The MCL algorithm is tailor-made in order to locate users' position in an indoor environment using BLE and data received by sensors locating user position in an indoor environment. The key features in these systems are summarised in the following: the capacity of BLE to compute user position and achieve good adaptability in different environmental conditions, and the compatibility of implementing different information sources into these systems is very high. The contributions of this thesis are as follows: Two different filters were tailor-made for de-nosing the RSSI sequence. By applying these two filters, the localisation error caused by small scale fading is reduced significantly. In addition, the implementation for the two proposed are described. By using the proposed centroid core positioning algorithm in combination with a weighted framework, localisation inaccuracy is no greater than 5 metres under most complex indoor environmental conditions. Furthermore, MCL is modified and tailored for use with BLE and other sensor readings in order to compute user positioning in complex indoor environments. By using sensor readings from BLE beacons and other sensors, the stability and accuracy of the MCL based indoor position system is increased further.

Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) hold the potential to revolutionize cardiac tissue engineering. Because of their ability to proliferate and differentiate into all cardiomyocyte subtypes they represent an opportunity to regenerate virtually any tissue lost from the over 1 million cardiac disease patients in the United States alone. Studies have shown, however, that hPSCs which are not terminally differentiated pose a variety of risks including teratoma formation and lack of appropriate cell engraftment. It is therefore important to ensure that only well characterized cardiac subtypes are implanted into patients or used for research purposes. Current differentiation protocols generate a mixture of cardiac subtypes, and research on cardiac subtype specification is hampered by the lack of a high throughput method to distinguish cardiac subtypes. This thesis establishes the ability to identify, enrich and characterize cardiac subtypes using MBs. This will provide a robust tool for clinical use of hPSCs in cardiac cell therapy and for analysis of differentiation protocol effects on cardiac subtype formation.

published_or_final_version / Electrical and Electronic Engineering / Master / Master of Philosophy

Thesis (M.S.)--Ohio University, March, 1999. / Title from PDF t.p.

Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2006. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains xi, 182 p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 151-156).

Submitted by CLAUDINES TAVEIRA TORRES null (torres.analista@hotmail.com) on 2017-05-22T18:05:43Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Torres CT- Dissertação 22-05-2017.pdf: 4034477 bytes, checksum: a562e11dc260722bc79d609df65cc0c2 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luiz Galeffi (luizgaleffi@gmail.com) on 2017-05-23T17:39:02Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 torres_ct_me_bauru.pdf: 4034477 bytes, checksum: a562e11dc260722bc79d609df65cc0c2 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-05-23T17:39:02Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 torres_ct_me_bauru.pdf: 4034477 bytes, checksum: a562e11dc260722bc79d609df65cc0c2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-03-30 / As inovações tecnológicas, a popularização exponencial da Internet aliado ao aumento no uso dos Smartphones e acesso à Web, vêm alterando a forma como vivemos e nos comunicamos, destacando-se a interatividade, redes sociais, celulares inteligentes, aplicativos móveis, Internet das Coisas, comunicação M2M, computação sobre as nuvens entre outros, aliado a isso a empolgação do mercado quanto a utilização do IoT é mencionada em 2015 pelo Ciclo Gardner Hype como a tecnologia no ápice da crista da onda para os próximos 5 a 10 anos. O presente trabalho teve como objetivo criar um facilitador para os visitantes do museu através de desenvolvimento de um protótipo App de dispositivo móvel utilizando tecnologia Beacons e QRCode para acesso as informações dos objetos do museu dos ferroviários. A importância desta pesquisa está alicerçada na estimação que representa a estrada de ferro no mundo e principalmente em nossa região. A necessidade de preservar a cultura e difundir a memória da história é encontrada no museu ferroviário de Bauru e neste cenário foi desenvolvido uma pesquisa e de um protótipo de App utilizando as tecnologias Android, sensores Beacons (IoT), QRCode, Internet, Bluetooh e dispositivos móveis (Smartphones, Tablet) para tornar mais atraente e interessante aos seus visitantes. A realização do protótipo de App e as tecnologias mencionadas acima trouxeram aos visitantes um novo cenário, unindo-se o mundo real e o virtual, melhorando substancialmente a sua experiência no museu e fazendo com que os visitantes retornem futuramente ao museu e tragam outros visitantes. / Technological innovations, the Internet exponential popularization, the increase use of smartphones and the web access have changed the way we live and communicate, with special emphasis on interactivity, social networks, smart phones, mobile applications, Internet of things, M2M communication, cloud computing among others. The market expectation in relation to the use of IoT - Internet of Things is mentioned in 2015 by the Gardener Hype Cycle and the technology is on the crest of a wave for the next 5 to 10 years. The present work aimed to create a facilitator for museum visitors, developing a prototype of mobile device app using the beacons and the qrcode technology to access information about the railway museum objects. The importance of this research is based on the railway estimation around the world and mainly in our region. The need to preserve culture and spread the history memory is found in Bauru railway museum, and in this scenario a research and an app prototype were developed using android technologies, beacons sensors (IoT), qrcode, internet, bluetooh and Mobile devices (smartphones, tablet) to make the experience more attractive and interesting for the visitors. The app prototype and the technologies mentioned above have brought a new setting to visitors, joining the real and virtual worlds, substantially improving their museum experience and having visitors to go back to the museum in the future and bring other visitors.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Breast cancer is one of the major causes of death in South Africa. About 1 in 29 South African women are at risk of developing this type of cancer in their lifetime. The global incidence of breast cancer also increases annually with over 1 million new cases diagnosed every year. Molecular diagnostic techniques such as qRT-PCR, Fluorescent In Situ Hybridization (FISH), Immunohistochemistry (IHC) and ELISA are used to diagnose breast cancer. Some of these diagnostic techniques make use organic fluorophores as fluorescent reporter molecules. The principle of all these diagnostic techniques is reliant on the detection of molecular biomarkers that are associated with the disease. In most cases these molecular biomarkers are DNA, RNA or proteins that are up-regulated in response to or as a result of the disease. The first aim of this study was therefore to identify membrane proteins that are up-regulated in cancers that can potentially be used as biomarkers for the detection of breast cancer. The second aim of this study was to investigate the application of quantum dots in the development of a molecular diagnostic test that can detect a breast cancer biomarker. The most commonly used method to identify molecular biomarkers for diseases have traditionally been gene expression analysis using technologies such as DNA microarray. These technologies have certain limitations and have therefore not been very successful in identifying useful disease biomarkers. Biomarker II discovery by proteomics can overcome some of these limitations and is potentially a more suitable method to identify molecular biomarkers for breast cancer. In this study proteomics in combination with Stable Isotope Labelling with Amino Acids in Cell Culture SILAC was used to do a comparative analysis of the expression levels of membrane proteins present in a human breast cancer cell line (MCF-7) derived from a breast cancer patient and a human breast cell line (MCF- 12A) derived from a healthy individual. This led to the identification of the transmembrane protein, GFRA1 as potential new biomarker for breast cancer. This study showed that this protein is over expressed in MCF-7 cells as compared to MCF-12A cells and that it is also highly expressed in the myoepthelial cells of the milk ducts of breast cancer patients. This study also demonstrates the use of molecular beacon technology to develop a DNA probe for the detection of cDNA encoding the CK19 gene, which is a known biomarker for breast cancer. In the development of this probe, quantum dots were used as the fluorescence reporter. This molecular beacon probe was able to demonstrate the over expression of CK19 in MCF-7 cells. This study shows that this technology can potentially be used as a diagnostic test for breast cancer and since quantum dots are used in the development of these molecular beacon probes, this diagnostic test can potentially facilitate the development of multiplex detection systems for the diagnosis of breast cancer. Molecular beacon technology can potentially also be used to detect novel biomarkers such as GFRA1.

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