A safe electrical connection between the human body and the recording circuit is required for the acquisition of physiological signals such as the electrocardiogram (ECG), electroneurogram (ENG), or electromyogram (EMG). The recording chip is conventionally connected to the human body through a blocking capacitor. The capacitor avoids any DC current flowing from the recording system into the patient¡¦s body in the case of chip failure. However, the large capacitor area in an integrated chip and its effect on the signal transform function make the use of a coupling capacitor undesirable. In principle, a DC-coupled system can be used to overcome this limitation. The DC-coupled amplifier connects directly to the patient. However, a DC failure current caused, for example, by a gate-oxide short failure could harm the patient. To detect a dangerous condition, a safety monitoring system is proposed in this thesis. The safety monitoring system applies a test signal and physiological signals to the amplifier input. The disappearance of the test signal in the event of circuit failure is detected at the amplifier output. The recording system can then be switched into a safe state. The analysis of the monitoring system, its design procedure and simulation results are presented in this thesis. Moreover, the first measured results are reported for a system realized as an integrated circuit in TSMC 0.35 £gm 2P4M CMOS process technology.

Power quality has a great effect on the operation of system loads. To analyze its effects and the possible economic losses due to system disturbances, there is an immediate need of a power quality monitoring system. With an effective communication system, network disturbance data can be gathered and analyzed efficiently such that outage duration and its consequent losses can be reduced. This thesis presents communication network performance simulation results of different types of communication schemes used in a power quality monitoring system. Discrete event simulation method is used to study the end-to-end delay times of different communication architectures. Based on these simulation results, system designers can choose the best option to meet their data communication requirements in power quality monitoring.

This thesis presents an energy monitoring system to measure energy consumption of software applications to support security and power management for embedded devices. The proposed system is composed of an Actel Fusion device and a custom designed energy measurement circuit. The Fusion device measures the voltage and the current of the target device at a defined sampling rate. The energy measurement circuit is designed as a current integrator over fixed intervals using the switched-capacitor integrator technique to store energy information of the target device within Fusion’s sampling intervals. This circuit is designed to accommodate the low sampling rate of the Fusion device. Experimental results showed that the Fusion device allows the measurement of the energy of the target device at a minimum rate of 15 µs. The energy measurement circuit is implemented using the 65 nm CMOS technology. Simulation results showed that this circuit provides 91%~97% average energy measurement accuracy.

A Wearable Mobility Monitoring System (WMMS) can be an advantageous device for rehabilitation decision-making. This thesis presents the design and evaluation of a proof-of-concept WMMS that uses the BlackBerry Smartphone platform. A Java program was developed for the BlackBerry 9550, using the integrated tri-axial accelerometer, Global Positioning System sensor (GPS), CMOS digital video camera, and timer to identify change-of-state (CoS) among static states, dynamic states, small activity of daily living (ADL) movements, and car riding. Static states included sitting, lying, standing, and taking an elevator. Dynamic states included walking on level ground, walking on stairs, and walking on a ramp. Small activity of daily living movements included bathroom activities, working in the kitchen, and meal preparation. Following feature extraction from the sensor data, two decision trees were used to distinguish CoS and mobility activities. CoS identification subsequently triggered video recording for improved mobility context analysis during post-processing.

As the work force ages and workers retirement age increases, the number of workers suffering from Work-related Musculoskeletal Disorders (WMSDs) has increased. In a recent study, the U.S Bureau of Labor reported that 6.9% of all WMSDs affected shoulders. Electricians, carpenters, and related construction crafts appear to experience higher incidence of these injuries due the nature of their work that require them often to use Awkward shoulder postures. This research aims to develop a new monitoring system that measure the amount of time workers spend in awkward shoulder postures to help decrease the prevalence of cumulative shoulder injuries and to reduce the number of cases of shoulder WMSDs among construction workers. The monitoring system was designed and a feasibility study was conduct to compare the monitoring system with a state of the art motion tracking system. Overall the monitoring system was able to count the time spent in awkward posture as a discrete state sensor and it can be implemented in the field. However, results showed that the monitoring system in its current configuration require some future work for it to produce quantitatively precise results that can be used in the fields of biomechanics, robotics, and ergonomics.

Submitted by Priscila Nascimento (pnascimento@icict.fiocruz.br) on 2012-11-12T16:41:28Z No. of bitstreams: 1 marli-melo-da-silva.pdf: 1647102 bytes, checksum: c7302fa37032bf7ffbdd181c59e1eba8 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2012-11-12T16:41:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 marli-melo-da-silva.pdf: 1647102 bytes, checksum: c7302fa37032bf7ffbdd181c59e1eba8 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005 / Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Instituto de Tecnologia em Imunobiológicos. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil / Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Instituto Oswaldo Cruz. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil. / As vacinas estão entre os produtos biológicos mais seguros, eficazes e com maior relação custo-benefício, pois têm permitido a erradicação de várias doenças imunopreveníveis. Porém, não são absolutamente inócuas e freqüentemente estão associadas a eventos adversos, nem sempre detectados nos estudospré-clínicos e clínicos. Vacinação é uma intervenção médica, da qual se espera um elevado padrão de segurança e efetividade: por serem as vacinas aplicadas em pessoas saudáveis e de forma compulsória, em contraste com outros medicamentos, a aceitação a eventos adversosse torna consideravelmente mais baixa. Com a finalidade de assegurar a qualidade e a segurança de vacinas e soros, em resposta a algumas crises e tragédias ocorridas na saúde pública, tem início no século XX, nos Estados Unidos a regulação de produtos biológicos, sendo, oincidente com o Laboratório Cutter (Cutter Incident), na década de 50, considerado como marco no surgimento da farmacovigilância, exigindo o estabelecimento de sistemas de vigilância de eventos adversos, tanto por parte das agências regulatórias quanto dosetor industrial. Nesse cenário, este trabalho tem por objetivo contribuir com proposta para aperfeiçoar e consolidar o sistema de monitoramento de eventos adversos pós-comercialização de vacinas em Bio-Manguinhos. Para atender os objetivos propostos, foram realizadas consultas a materiais impressos, como livros e relatórios não publicados, e meios eletrônicos para consulta, como por exemplo, aos portais eletrônicos de sistemas regulatórios nacional e internacional; entrevistas com gestores e ex-gestores de Bio-Manguinhos e do Programa Nacional de Imunizações (PNI); e visita a uma empresa farmacêutica privada, visando a obtenção de informações que levassem ao conhecimento e à análise crítica da vigilância pós-comercialização de vacinas. Dentre os resultados, observou-se que, apesar da vigilância pós-comercialização ser, há vários anos, uma exigência regulatória, países desenvolvidos como Estados Unidos, já possuem sistemas operando, enquanto que, países em desenvolvimento, como Brasil, ainda estão implantando seus sistemas. A ANVISA, Autoridade Regulatória Nacional, criada em 1999, ainda, não monitora eventos adversos pós-vacinação, sendo esta atividade realizada, apenas, pelo PNI. No ano de 2000, Bio-Manguinhos, unidade da Fiocruz produtora de vacinas e um dos principais fornecedores de vacinas ao Ministério da Saúde, criou setor para responder aos questionamentos e investigar, em conjunto com o PNI, eventos adversos associados aos seus produtos. Esta atividade, entretanto, vem sendo realizada de forma não sistematizada, sem orientação adequada aos participantes do processo. Estes fatos constituíram-se fundamentais para a elaboração da proposta para a Instituição, apresentada neste trabalho, que poderácontribuir para reduzir a descentralização das informações relacionadas a eventos adversos, aumentar o nível de conhecimento e participação de todos os envolvidos no processo, sobretudo na geração de informações relevantes tanto para a segurança dos produtos comercializados quanto para formulação de respostas para o público, clientes, profissionais de saúde e Autoridade Regulatória Nacional, contribuindo assim para o reconhecimento da importância desta atividade na área de vacinas. / Vaccines are among the safest, effective and largercost-benefit biological products, because they have been allowing eradication of several vaccine preventable diseases. However, vaccines are not quite innocuous and they are frequently associated to adverse events. Pre-clinical and clinical trials do not always detect all possible adverse events and reactions. Vaccination is a medical intervention of high safety and effectiveness patterns expectation, as they are compulsorily applied in healthy people, incontrast with drugs, it makes acceptance considerably lower to the adverse events. Although much has been concerned about adverse reactions since the antiquity, regulation of biological products only had began in the 20 th century in the United States, with the purpose of assuring purity and safety of vaccines and serums, in response to the crises and tragedies occurred in public health. But the incident that happened in the 50s with the Cutter Laboratory – Cutter Incident – can be considered a starting point in Pharmacovigilance. This study aims to analyze the post-marketing surveillance system activities for adverse events and also to contribute for consolidation of these activities in Bio-Manguinhos. In order to assure the quality and safety of vaccines and sera in response to some public health crises and tragedies, in the beginning of 20 th century, the regulation of biological products has been started in the United States being Cutter Incident, in the 50s, the starting point of pharmacovigilance. This has demanded the establishment of adverse events surveillance systems, not only for regulatory agencies but also for industrial sector. In this scenario, this study aims to contribute with proposal to improve and consolidate, in Bio-Manguinhos, the monitoring system of post-marketing vaccines adverse events. In order to meet proposed aims, printed materials like books, unpublished reports, and electronic media like homepages of national and international regulatory systems have been referred to; current and former managers of Bio-Manguinhos and the National Program of Immunization (PNI) havebeen interviewed; and a private pharmaceutical company has been visited in order tocollect information that would lead to knowledge and critical analysis of the post-marketing surveillance. Among the results, it was observed that, although post-marketing surveillancehas been a regulatory requirement for many years, in developed countries like the United States, developing countries like Brazil, their systems are still being implemented. ANVISA, National Regulatory Authority, created in 1999, has not monitored post-vaccination adverseevents yet. This activity has been performed by PNI only. In 2000, Bio-Manguinhos, vaccine manufacturer unit of Fiocruz and one of the main suppliers of the Ministry of Health, created a sector to respond to questions and investigate, with PNI, adverse events related to its products. These facts have been fundamental for elaborating a proposal for the institution, presented in this work, which may contribute to reduce the decentralization of information related to adverse events and increase the level of knowledge and participation of everyone involved in the process, especially in the generation of information that are relevant not only for the safety of products but also for the answers to the public, clients, health workers and the National Regulatory Authority. It may contribute to the recognition of the importance of this activity in the area of vaccines.

La surveillance personnalisée est une ambition émergente pour les technologies de la santé qui répond aux besoins des patients et des professionnels de santé. L'objectif de ce travail est d'aller jusqu’aux soins, en utilisant un actionneur télécommandé pour mettre en œuvre automatiquement une prescription médicamenteuse. Un système transdermique intelligent est conçu, sous la forme d’un patch, pour administrer de manière contrôlée des médicaments. Des expérimentations sont réalisées pour démontrer l’intérêt des techniques d’aide à la diffusion en termes de contrôle et d’amélioration de la quantité délivrée. Le contrôle de la dose administrée est corrélé à l’actionneur intégré via une loi de commande. Une modélisation et une simulation numérique de la diffusion transdermique est mise en place en liaison avec les résultats obtenus lors d’expérimentations sur une cellule de Franz, ce modèle est appliqué sur une structure planaire "patch classique". Différents scénarios de stimulations électriques et de facteurs de formes ont été conduits pour obtenir un profil d’administration optimal. La conception du système électronique est présentée d’adapter la dose administrée selon les besoins du patient est présentée. Un premier prototype est réalisé, intégrant des fonctions d’actionnement, et de récupération de données issues de capteurs intégrés. / Personalized monitoring is an emerging ambition for health technologies responding the needs of patients and healthcare professionals. In this regard, the purpose of this work is to propose a e-health care device offering active control and permanent actuating link able to control the amount of drug delivered. A first part presents our motivations related to the problems of the aging of the population, recalls the current approaches for the monitoring of the elderly and describes the need in the systems of actuations in particular for the aid to the taking of drugs. From these needs, a state of the art is proposed on the techniques for controlling the delivery of drugs. Experiments are carried out to demonstrate the efficiency of diffusion techniques controlling and improving the quantity delivered. The control of the administered dose is correlated to the integrated actuator via a control command. We present a modeling and a numerical simulation of the transdermal diffusion related to the results obtained during experiments on a Franz cell, and the transposition of the model on a planar structure. Different scenarios of electrical stimulations and shape factors have been conducted to obtain optimal administration profile. Finally, the last part is devoted to technological locks and to the design of the intelligent system which adapt the dose administered according to the needs of the patient. A prototype is made, integrating actuation functions, and data recovery from integrated sensors.

Master of Science / Department of Computer Science / Daniel A. Andresen / With an improvement in technology and miniaturization of sensors, there have been attempts to utilize the new technology in various areas to improve the quality of human life. One main area of research that has seen an adoption of the technology is the healthcare sector. The people in need of healthcare services find it very expensive this is particularly true in developing countries. As a result, this project is an attempt to solve a healthcare problem currently society is facing. The main objective of the project was to design a remote healthcare system. It’s comprised of three main parts. The first part being, detection of patient’s vitals using sensors, second for sending data to cloud storage and the last part was providing the detected data for remote viewing. Remote viewing of the data enables a doctor or guardian to monitor a patient’s health progress away from hospital premises. The Internet of Things (IoT) concepts have been widely used to interconnect the available medical resources and offer smart, reliable, and effective healthcare service to the patients. Health monitoring for active and assisted living is one of the paradigms that can use the IoT advantages to improve the patient’s lifestyle. In this project, I have presented an IoT architecture customized for healthcare applications. The aim of the project was to come up with a Remote Health Monitoring System that can be made with locally available sensors with a view to making it affordable if it were to be mass produced. Hence the proposed architecture collects the sensor data through Arduino microcontroller and relays it to the cloud where it is processed and analyzed for remote viewing. Feedback actions based on the analyzed data can be sent back to the doctor or guardian through Email and/or SMS alerts in case of any emergencies.

Submitted by JOSIVAN ALVES DA SILVA null (alvesjosivan2@gmail.com) on 2017-10-03T16:54:35Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao_Josivan_Alves_da_Silva.pdf: 1897214 bytes, checksum: 9d0727b421bab72e7f0e8bb11feefbf2 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Monique Sasaki (sayumi_sasaki@hotmail.com) on 2017-10-03T17:11:25Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 silva_ja_me_jabo.pdf: 1897214 bytes, checksum: 9d0727b421bab72e7f0e8bb11feefbf2 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-10-03T17:11:25Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 silva_ja_me_jabo.pdf: 1897214 bytes, checksum: 9d0727b421bab72e7f0e8bb11feefbf2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-09-05 / A automação da produção agrícola proporciona mudanças na estrutura dos custos das organizações rurais, proporcionando em geral significativa redução dos custos com mão de obra e um maior controle do processo de gestão das atividades agrícolas. Por outro lado, a automação requer investimentos contínuos em novas tecnologias e uma capacidade absortiva organizacional destas novas tecnologias. Esses fatores aliados a busca pelo aumento de produtividade, competitividade e rentabilidade faz com que as empresas agrícolas potencializem seu sistema produtivo como um todo, por meio da otimização das operações que o envolve, objetivando o aumento da capacidade operacional e redução nos custos de produção. É nesse contexto que se posiciona esse trabalho, que visa analisar a viabilidade econômica da implantação de um sistema de monitoramento das operações agrícolas mecanizadas na citricultura mediante o uso de um “Global Positioning System” (GPS). Para tanto, foi feito um estudo de caso único. O caso foi estudado ao longo de toda a safra 2016/2017 em que o sistema foi implantado em 8 tratores e dois caminhões que atuaram em uma área de 2.236 ha. A partir da metodologia do Fluxo de Caixa Descontado (FCD) associado a simulação de Monte Carlo avaliou-se a viabilidade econômica do investimento. O uso do sistema de monitoramento por GPS permitiu a gestão em tempo real o controle de todas as atividades realizadas pelos equipamentos, sendo capaz, não somente, de determinar as melhores atividades a serem realizadas como também em intervir ao longo das atividades em mudanças. Os resultados financeiros evidenciaram valores de até 23,67% menores para as operações monitoradas, sendo a eficiência mais contundente junto a pulverização de Psilídeo. A análise econômica reportou para a viabilidade do investimento com 99,5% de confiança, cujo ganho em Valor Presente Líquido (VPL) por máquina representa 15% do valor de aquisição da mesma. A análise econômica reportou para a viabilidade do investimento com 99,5% de confiança, cujo ganho em Valor Presente Líquido (VPL) por máquina representa 15% do valor de aquisição da mesma. Os resultados deste estudo são pioneiros para as operações mecanizadas na citricultura e denotam a importância em sistema de automação que permitam o melhor gerenciamento das atividades de manejo na produção de laranjas. / The automation of agricultural production provides changes in the structure of the costs of rural organizations, generally providing significant reduction of labor costs and greater control of the process of management of agricultural activities. On the other hand, automation requires continuous investments in new technologies and an absorptive organizational capacity of these new technologies. These factors, allied to the search for increased productivity, competitiveness and profitability, mean that agricultural companies can enhance their production system as a whole, by optimizing their operations, aiming at increasing operational capacity and reducing production costs. It is in this context that this work is positioned, which aims to analyze the economic viability of the implementation of a monitoring system of mechanized agricultural operations in the citriculture through the use of a Global Positioning System (GPS). For that, a single case study was done. The case was studied throughout the 2016/2017 harvest in which the system was implanted in 8 tractors and two trucks that operated in an area of 2,236 ha. Based on the Discounted Cash Flow (CDF) methodology associated with Monte Carlo simulation, the economic viability of the investment was evaluated. The use of the GPS monitoring system allowed the real time management of all the activities carried out by the equipment, being able not only to determine the best activities to be performed but also to intervene during the activities in the changes. The financial results showed values of up to 23.67% lower for the monitored operations, being the most compelling efficiency with Psilídeo spraying. The economic analysis reported on the viability of the investment with 99.5% confidence, whose gain in Net Present Value (NPV) per machine represents 15% of the acquisition value of the same. The economic analysis reported on the viability of the investment with 99.5% confidence, whose gain in Net Present Value (NPV) per machine represents 15% of the acquisition value of the same. The results of this study are pioneers for the mechanized operations in the citriculture and denote the importance in automation system that allow the best management of the management activities in the production of oranges.

A Thesis for The Department of Electrical Engineering in fulfilment of the requirements for the Magister Technologiae degree in electrical engineering, at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2011 / The purpose of this thesis was to design and develop a measurement system that would allow accurate measurement of individual cell voltages in a series cell stack. The system was initially proposed to be used in conjunction with an active cell balancer. This would allow for the efficient equalising of cells as well as provide detailed information on the cell stack and how the stack operates over time. Having a system that measures voltages accurately, with which the active cell balancer can be controlled would allow for peak cell lifetime and performance. Current battery management systems are large, complex and inefficient and a new way of battery management had to be investigated. To accurately measure individual cells in a series stack, the high common mode voltage must be negated. Different techniques that are currently used to create galvanic isolation were reviewed; circuits were designed and were simulated to find the most suitable design. The traditional methods used to create galvanic isolation did not provide adequate results. The methods were too inefficient and not accurate enough to be used. The methods that had the required accuracy were too complicated to connect in a useable system. This led to the investigation of integrated circuits created to measure voltages in large cell stacks. An integrated circuit from Linear Technology was chosen and a system was built. A system was thus designed that fulfilled the most desirable design specifications while delivering excellent results. The system allowed accurate, individual voltages to be measured in the presence of high common mode voltages. Accuracies and measurement time were well below the required system specification. Power consumption was high, but different component choice will lower power consumption to within specification. Excellent results were obtained overall with most, although not all results well below the design specifications. By including current measurements, as well as other technologies such as wireless communication, USB connectivity and a better data processor, this system will be at the forefront of current battery management technology.