This study links traffic sign visibility and legibility to quantify the effects of damage or deterioration on sign retroreflective performance. In addition, this study proposes GIS-based data integration strategies to obtain and extract climate, location, and emission data for in-service traffic signs. The proposed data integration strategy can also be used to assess all transportation infrastructures’ physical condition. Additionally, non-parametric machine learning methods are applied to analyze the combined GIS, Mobile LiDAR imaging, and digital photolog big data. The results are presented to identify the most important factors affecting sign visual condition, to predict traffic sign vandalism that obstructs critical messages to drivers, and to determine factors contributing to the temporary obstruction of the sign messages. The results of data analysis provide insight to inform transportation agencies in the development of sign management plans, to identify traffic signs with a higher likelihood of failure, and to schedule sign replacement.

This PhD dissertation reports the development of miniature ion optics components of a mass spectrometer (MS) with the ultimate goal to lay the foundation for a compact low-power micromachined MS (µMS) for broad-range chemical analysis. Miniaturization of two specific components a) RF ion traps and b) an ion funnel have been investigated and miniature low-power versions of these components have been developed and demonstrated successfully in lab experiments. Power savings, simpler electronics and packaging schemes required to operate the micro-scale RF cylindrical ion traps have been the key motivation driving this research. Microfabricated cylindrical ion traps (µCITs) and arrays in silicon, silicon-on-insulator and stainless steel substrates have been demonstrated and average power of as low as 55 mW for a low mass range (28 to 136 amu) and mass spectra with better than a unit-mass-resolution have been recorded. For the ion funnel miniaturization effort, simple assembly, small form factor and ease of integration have been emphasized. A simplification of the conventional 3D ion funnel design, called the planar ion funnel, has been developed in a single plate and has been tested to demonstrate ion funneling at medium vacuum levels (1E-5 Torr) using DC voltages and power less than 0.5 W. Miniaturization of these components also enables use of other novel ion optics components, packaging and integration, which will allow a new class of µMS architectures amenable for radical miniaturization.

<p>Text communication is often perceived as lacking some components of communication that are essential in sustaining interaction or conversation. This interaction incoherency tends to make&nbsp / text communication plastic. It is traditionally devoid of intonation, pitch, gesture, facial expression and visual or auditory cues. Nevertheless, Instant Messaging (IM), a form of text communication is on the upward uptake both on PCs and on mobile handhelds. There is a need to rubberise this plastic text messaging to improve co-presence for text communications thereby improving&nbsp / synchronous textual discussion, especially on handheld devices. One element of interaction is gesture, seen as a natural way of conversing. Attaining some level of interaction naturalism&nbsp / requires improving synchronous communication spontaneity, partly achieved by enhancing input mechanisms. To enhance input mechanisms for interactive text-based chat on mobile devices,&nbsp / there is a need to facilitate gesture input. Enhancement is achievable in a number of ways, such as input mechanism redesigning and input offering adaptation. This thesis explores affective gesture mode on interface redesign as an input offering adaptation. This is done without a major physical reconstruction of handheld devices. This thesis presents a text only IM system built on&nbsp / Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and SIP for Instant Messaging and Presence Leveraging Extensions (SIMPLE). It was developed with a novel user-defined hotkey implemented as a one-click context menu to &ldquo / fast-track&rdquo / text-gestures and emoticons. A hybrid quantitative and qualitative approach was taken to enable data triangulation. Results from experimental trials show that an&nbsp / Affective Gesture (AG)approach improved IM chat spontaneity/response. Feedback from the user trials affirms that AG hotkey improves chat responsiveness, thus enhancing chat spontaneity.</p>

The task for this master thesis was to create a specification for a second prototype of Scandilumen´s handheld gated night vision system. Current prototype is analogue and is to be upgraded with a digital interface. The specification was to contain information about manufacturers and performance on critical components such as image intensifier tube, image sensor and display. Scandilumen have previous experience with CCD cameras and wanted to know if the CMOS technology were sensitive enough to work properly in gated systems where high sensitivity is critical. Different image processing techniques was analyzed to find out the possibility to enhance image quality with an FPGA built-in into the system. When the specification is implemented, Scandilumen will have a prototype up-to-date with a digital interface and real time image enhancement. / Uppdraget i denna magisteruppsats var att ta fram en specifikation för en andra prototyp av Scandilumens grindade mörkerkamera. Nuvarande prototyp är analog och skall uppgraderas till en digital variant med display och anslutningsmöjlighet till dator. Specifikationen skall innehålla uppgifter om vilka ingående komponenter som skall användas samt vilken prestanda de skall ha. Exempel på dessa komponenter är bildförstärkarrör, bildsensor och displayer. Stor vikt har lagts vid att avgöra vilken typ av bildsensor som skall ingå i systemet. Scandilumen har tidigare erfarenhet av CCD-kameror men ville undersöka om CMOS-tekniken var känslig nog för denna typ av applikation. En jämförelse gjordes mellan de olika teknikerna med fokus på de höga krav som ställs på känslighet. Dessutom analyserades olika typer av bildbehandling som är lämpliga för systemet och som också går att implementera i en FPGA på lämpligt sätt. Om specifikationen följs kommer Scandilumen ha en prototyp uppdaterad med ett digitalt format och den senaste tekniken.

<p>Text communication is often perceived as lacking some components of communication that are essential in sustaining interaction or conversation. This interaction incoherency tends to make&nbsp / text communication plastic. It is traditionally devoid of intonation, pitch, gesture, facial expression and visual or auditory cues. Nevertheless, Instant Messaging (IM), a form of text communication is on the upward uptake both on PCs and on mobile handhelds. There is a need to rubberise this plastic text messaging to improve co-presence for text communications thereby improving&nbsp / synchronous textual discussion, especially on handheld devices. One element of interaction is gesture, seen as a natural way of conversing. Attaining some level of interaction naturalism&nbsp / requires improving synchronous communication spontaneity, partly achieved by enhancing input mechanisms. To enhance input mechanisms for interactive text-based chat on mobile devices,&nbsp / there is a need to facilitate gesture input. Enhancement is achievable in a number of ways, such as input mechanism redesigning and input offering adaptation. This thesis explores affective gesture mode on interface redesign as an input offering adaptation. This is done without a major physical reconstruction of handheld devices. This thesis presents a text only IM system built on&nbsp / Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and SIP for Instant Messaging and Presence Leveraging Extensions (SIMPLE). It was developed with a novel user-defined hotkey implemented as a one-click context menu to &ldquo / fast-track&rdquo / text-gestures and emoticons. A hybrid quantitative and qualitative approach was taken to enable data triangulation. Results from experimental trials show that an&nbsp / Affective Gesture (AG)approach improved IM chat spontaneity/response. Feedback from the user trials affirms that AG hotkey improves chat responsiveness, thus enhancing chat spontaneity.</p>

Submitted by Maria Anália Conceição (marianaliaconceicao@gmail.com) on 2016-08-18T18:29:46Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Publico-10.pdf: 2044084 bytes, checksum: eef64e9d622b35c3b0880540380f1814 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Maria Anália Conceição (marianaliaconceicao@gmail.com) on 2016-08-18T18:31:35Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Publico-10.pdf: 2044084 bytes, checksum: eef64e9d622b35c3b0880540380f1814 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-18T18:31:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Publico-10.pdf: 2044084 bytes, checksum: eef64e9d622b35c3b0880540380f1814 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005 / Intel do Brasil / Altos índices de mortalidade infantil em comunidades carentes podem ser evitados através da identificação precoce dos fatores de risco e do acompanhamento direto e contínuo da assistência médica materno infantil. No entanto, essa assistência demonstra ser complexa, com precariedade na locomoção e troca de informação das equipes da saúde, comumente constituídas por profissionais de diversas especialidades. Ainda, verifica-se uma freqüente participa- ção de voluntários de organizações não governamentais envolvidos diretamente com essa assistência. O objetivo desse trabalho foi desenvolver um instrumento digital – aqui denominado Sistema BabyCare – para a coleta, armazenamento e apoio à decisão aos profissionais de saúde, e demais envolvidos, nos cuidados a pacientes na assistência primária infantil em comunidades carentes. Esse sistema baseia-se em tecnologias de dispositivos móveis para utilização local em unidades básicas de saúde em comunidades carentes, assistidos ou não pelo Programa Saúde da Família (PSF), e ambulatórios e hospitais. Foram realizadas avaliações sobre o uso do sistema na cidade de São Paulo, envolvendo 60 usuários com diferentes formações, incluindo voluntários da Pastoral da Criança. Os questionários aplicados resultam um alto índice de aceitação geral (98,3%); treinamento in loco considerado adequado (91,9%); percepção na melhoria na rotina e na redução de tempo da consulta (100,0%), e na redução no volume de documentos (96,7%). Por fim, o protótipo apresentou-se robusto e eficiente para uso em comunidade / High infant mortality rates in needy communities can be prevented through direct and continuous follow-up of maternal and child health care. However, this assistance has proven to be complex, with the precarious mobility and exchange of information of healthcare teams, usually consisting of professionals from different specialties. In addition, there is a frequent participation of volunteers from non-governmental organizations directly involved in this assistance. The purpose of this work was to develop a digital device – referred as BabyCare System – for the collection, storage and support to decision for healthcare professionals and other concerned people, in order to assist patients in primary child care in needy communities. This system is based on handheld device technologies to be used locally in basic healthcare units in needy communities, whether assisted or not by the Healthcare Family Program (Programa Saúde da Família – PSF), as well as in ambulatory facilities and hospitals. Evaluations have been conducted regarding the use of the system in the city of São Paulo, involving 60 users with different formations, including volunteers from the Pastoral da Criança, an ecumenical institution for children. The applied questionnaires result in a high level of general acceptance (98.3%); the on-site training was considered as appropriate (91.9%); a perception of routine improvement and decrease in the time of consultation (100.0%), and a decrease in the volume of paperwork (96.7%). Finally, the prototype has proven to be robust and effective for the use in needy communities with precarious computer and telecommunication infrastructure.

Master of Science / Geology / Matthew W. Totten / Organic-rich shales were deposited over a large part of what is now North America during the Late Devonian. North America in the late Devonian was located in the tropics (Woodrow et al., 1973), possibly in low southerly latitudes (Heckel and Witzke, 1979; Witzke and Heckel, 1988; Streel et al., 1990). This environment creates an organic-rich environment that resulted in thick, black shales. The Devonian-Mississippian Chattanooga (Woodford) shale is known to be an important petroleum source rock in many intracratonic basins of the Midcontinent (Lambert, 1993). Geochemical analysis of the Chattanooga shale, using various techniques, provides additional information on oil-source rock potential. Handheld XRF analysis was conducted on well cuttings samples, Loss on Ignition (LOI) was performed on a subset of those samples and mapping of the organic matter results of the two methods was completed. Handheld XRF still has the prospect for providing quick analysis to infer organic matter content to be used as a determination of the quality of source rock. Although slightly reduced correlation has been found within this study compared to Willey (2015), the method has still proven viable for fracking targets to be determined on site and in a more efficient manner. Loss on Ignition results have correlated with TOC data better then XRF results, making this method the better option for evaluating source rock potential. Mapping of these results provide the first known source rock potential map across Kansas and can be used by the industry for future exploration.

abstract: Three dimensional (3-D) ultrasound is safe, inexpensive, and has been shown to drastically improve system ease-of-use, diagnostic efficiency, and patient throughput. However, its high computational complexity and resulting high power consumption has precluded its use in hand-held applications. In this dissertation, algorithm-architecture co-design techniques that aim to make hand-held 3-D ultrasound a reality are presented. First, image enhancement methods to improve signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) are proposed. These include virtual source firing techniques and a low overhead digital front-end architecture using orthogonal chirps and orthogonal Golay codes. Second, algorithm-architecture co-design techniques to reduce the power consumption of 3-D SAU imaging systems is presented. These include (i) a subaperture multiplexing strategy and the corresponding apodization method to alleviate the signal bandwidth bottleneck, and (ii) a highly efficient iterative delay calculation method to eliminate complex operations such as multiplications, divisions and square-root in delay calculation during beamforming. These techniques were used to define Sonic Millip3De, a 3-D die stacked architecture for digital beamforming in SAU systems. Sonic Millip3De produces 3-D high resolution images at 2 frames per second with system power consumption of 15W in 45nm technology. Third, a new beamforming method based on separable delay decomposition is proposed to reduce the computational complexity of the beamforming unit in an SAU system. The method is based on minimizing the root-mean-square error (RMSE) due to delay decomposition. It reduces the beamforming complexity of a SAU system by 19x while providing high image fidelity that is comparable to non-separable beamforming. The resulting modified Sonic Millip3De architecture supports a frame rate of 32 volumes per second while maintaining power consumption of 15W in 45nm technology. Next a 3-D plane-wave imaging system that utilizes both separable beamforming and coherent compounding is presented. The resulting system has computational complexity comparable to that of a non-separable non-compounding baseline system while significantly improving contrast-to-noise ratio and SNR. The modified Sonic Millip3De architecture is now capable of generating high resolution images at 1000 volumes per second with 9-fire-angle compounding. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Electrical Engineering 2015

Selecting a suitable mobile application development framework is challenging. Multiple frameworks exist with respective strengths and weaknesses, and evaluations comparing the different frameworks are lacking. Each company and developer has its own demands and preferences, thereof, no single development framework poses as a suitable solution for every situation. This study is aimed at contributing to the current foundation of research by examining Android application development for handheld computers. By selecting promising cross-platform frameworks and comparing these with the native development framework for Android this study shows that cross-platform development frameworks can provide the tools required to build sufficient applications for handheld computers. This is particularly relevant for the developers affected by the termination of support for Windows Mobile. The findings of this study show that the frameworks Flutter and Xamarin both pose as promising alternatives to native development.

This thesis investigates the possibilities of implementing a location awareness mechanism for the so-called lesswire localNavigator. The author claims that it is possible to implement such a mechanism within the given prerequisites and constraints, even though with today’s technology it may not be economically feasible. Due to the lesswire’s constraints: high accuracy (67%), high-resolution (12 m2) and no hardware modification allowed to the mobile device, the suggested scheme uses Time Difference Of Arrival technology (TDOA). The main advantage of TDOA, as stated in this thesis, is the fact that it is almost totally independent of the preferred wireless technology of the mobile device. TDOA technology therefore, can be applied to a wide range of wireless networks (primarily TDMA, CDMA, FDMA – based). A disadvantage of this scheme is the fact that the network infrastructure needs to be extremely well synchronized - which in turn implies higher costs. Depending on how the synchronization problem is solved, the proposed system may well be economically feasible in the near future.