No description available.

A digital twin facilitates the means to monitor, understand, and optimize the functions of the physical entity and provides continuous feedback to improve quality of life, and Medical Cyber-Physical Systems (MCPS) is an integral part of this vision. Many studies focus on human motion to digitize data for further analysis. The literature review presented here emphasizes on gait analysis and gait events detection using wearable devices, which compare results by testing on different groups of individuals. Amongst those, there is a focus on digitizing activities for athletes and sports activities. However, there is a lack of research that address configurability for this type of MCPS. Adding new physical devices to an established MCPS requires manual configuration. Recent studies either solve the issue of users’ mobility by providing a wireless solution with local storage, or sacrifice mobility in order to provide real-time information through wired communication. However, group physical activity applications, such as sports coaching and group physiotherapy, use customized devices that need to be automatically configured in the system. In addition, these systems need to support mobility and real-time data presentation. To solve this problem, a framework is proposed to design a wellbeing Cyber-Physical System (CPS) that focuses on system configurability, providing real-time data of body sensor networks while supporting wireless and mobile communication. A communication protocol is proposed to allow seamless integration and communication of system components, and to enable bandwidth-conscious data transmission. As a proof of concept, a configurable CPS for gait activities monitoring is designed to read, visualize, and backup spatiotemporal data from one or more multi-sensory physical devices over conventional Wi-Fi and in real-time. Two experiments were performed using the implemented CPS. The first experiment was performed outdoors and tested if the CPS components would recognize each other and work seamlessly over foreign networks while providing usable information. The second experiment was performed in collaboration with the Health Sciences Department using our system and the Tekscan Strideway gait mat simultaneously to compare results and to ensure accuracy. In addition, this experiment tested configurability of the system by using different measurement devices for different users.

Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is an autosomal recessive genetic disease that leads to severe malfunction in many organs, but particularly the lungs. The primary cause of this malfunction is the decrease of the airway surface liquid layer on the lung epithelium. The lack of hydration leads to mucus build up on the epithelial lining, leading to blockage of airways. The underlying cause of CF is the dysfunction of the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR), which results from mutations in the protein. Almost 90% of CF patients are caused by the deletion of the phenylalanine at position 508 of CFTR, which is believed to affect the folding and stability of CFTR. The misfolded ΔF508-CFTR undergoes ER associated degradation (ERAD), causing the failure of ΔF508-CFTR trafficking to the cell surface. Small molecule correctors yield moderate improvements in the trafficking of ΔF508-CFTR to the plasma membrane. It is currently not known if correctors increase trafficking through improved cargo loading of transport vesicles or through direct binding to CFTR. In this dissertation, real-time measurements of trafficking were utilized to identify the mechanistic details of chemical, biochemical, and thermal factors that impact CFTR correction, using the corrector molecule VX-809, a secondary mutation (I539T), and low temperature conditions. Each individually improved trafficking of ΔF508-CFTR to approximately 10% of wild-type levels. The combination of VX-809 with either low temperature or the I539T mutation increased the amount of CFTR on the plasma membrane to nearly 40%, indicating synergistic activity. The number of vesicles reaching the surface was significantly altered; however the amount of channel in each vesicle remained the same. Therefore, a 2 step therapeutic approach might be an ideal treatment for CF. The first step would be composed of a compound that mimics the mechanism of stabilization provided by low temperature or the I539T mutation, while the second step would be VX-809 or a similar corrector compound. These studies suggest that understanding how low temperature and second site suppressors alter ΔF508-CFTR could be key to the development of future therapeutics for the effective treatment of CF. The precise pathophysiology of cystic fibrosis is not well studied. The involvement of another transport protein, epithelial sodium channel (ENaC), makes the situation more complicated. ENaC and CFTR are colocalized on the apical surface of epithelia cells. With our fluorescence microscopy techniques, we explored the effects of CFTR on the residence time of ENaC on the cell membrane. A reliable approach measuring the half-life of protein on the cell membrane is required for this study. We present a new approach to quantify the half-life of membrane proteins on the cell surface, through tagging the protein with the photoconvertible fluorescent protein, Dendra2. Total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy (TIRF) is applied to limit visualization of fluorescence to proteins located on the plasma membrane. Photoconversion of Dendra2 works as a pulse chase experiment by monitoring only the population of protein that has been photoconverted. As the protein is endocytosed the red emission decreases due to the protein leaving the TIRF field of view. The half-life of the protein on the plasma membrane was calculated upon imaging over time and quantifying the change in red fluorescence. Our method provides a unique opportunity to observe real-time protein turnover at the single cell level without addition of protein synthesis inhibitors. This technique will be valuable for the future protein half-life study.

Sweden's drinking water quality is considered to be high partly due to a high quality of the raw water and a well developed sewage infrastructure. Despite this, there is water contamination that could be prevented by installation of a sophisticated early warning system. Some of the major players in the production of drinking water have already invested in different types of early warning systems to ensure drinking water of high quality. There are various forms of early warning systems where automatic monitoring of E. Coli is an interesting alternative. Today's technology allows for this type of measurement, but it is often expensive and sometimes slow. This work aims to investigate whether the phenomenon of Extraordinary Optical Transmission (EOT) can be used as the technology of sensors for real-time measurement of indicators of fecal contaminated water. EOT is a transmissions peak which arises due to plasmon resonance. The study was conducted by performing verification measurements by spectrophotometry to detect the EOT. After this biomeasurements where done to show that the surface of the sample can be functionalized to provide the opportunity to choose which analytes should be detected. The verifying measurements showed that EOT was detected for one of the five samples where the hole size was 400 nm and the hole spacing was 600 nm. This is due to the high signal strength and to the fact that the phenomenon occurred within the measurement range of the instruments. Samples where designated with the name sPa where s indicates hole size in nm and a hole spacing in nm. The signal strength of the sample 140P600 and 200P600 was too low to determine whether EOT occurred. For samples 400P1000 and 600P1000 calculations showed that EOT occurred outside the measurement range, which meant that EOT could not be measured. Sample 400P600 was chosen to implement bio-measurements wherein the surface was functionalized with biotin Bovine serum albumin (B-BSA) to later bind with fluidMAG Streptavidin. Both B-BSA and streptavidin was bound as shown by the kinetic measurements.

No description available.

This thesis deals with automatic localization of thin surgical tools such as needles or electrodes in 3D ultrasound images. The precise and reliable localization is important for medical interventions such as needle biopsy or electrode insertion into tissue. The reader is introduced to basics of medical ultrasound (US) imaging. The state of the art localization methods are reviewed in the work. Many methods such as Hough transform (HT) or Parallel Integral Projection (PIP) are based on projections. As the existing PIP implementations are relatively slow, we suggest an acceleration by using a multiresolution approach. We propose to use model fitting approach which uses randomized sample consensus (RANSAC) and local optimization. It is a fast method suitable for real-time use and it is robust with respect to the presence of other high-intensity structures in the background. We propose two new shape and appearance models of tool in 3D US images. Tool localization can be improved by exploiting its tubularity. We propose a tool model which uses line filtering and we incorporated it into the model fitting scheme. The robustness of such localization algorithm is improved at the expense of additional time for pre-processing. The real-time localization using the shape model is demonstrated by implementation on the 3D US scanner Ultrasonix RP. All proposed methods were tested on simulated data, phantom US data (a replacement for a tissue) and real tissue US data of breast with biopsy needle. The proposed methods had comparable accuracy and the lower number of failures than the state of the art projection based methods.

Ein hydrostatisches, hochpräzises Schlauchwaagen-Messinstrument zur kombinierten Bestimmung von Setzungen und Neigungen wurde im Rahmen eines BMWK ZIM-Kooperationsprojektes zur Echtzeitmessung entwickelt. Zunächst wird ein Einblick in das Grundlagenprinzip des hydrostatischen Nivellements gegeben. Darauf aufbauend wird das entwickelte Messprinzip sowie die Systemkonzeption der Hard- und Software vorgestellt. Anhand der Grundlagenversuche wird das technische Know-how, die wissenschaftliche Arbeit der Projektpartner zur Optimierung des Messsystems sowie die Komplexität des Messprinzips dargestellt. Die Funktionalität des Gesamtsystems „HYDRO-LaWa“ sowie die ersten Ergebnisse im Praxiseinsatz werden in drei unterschiedlichen Anwendungsgebieten evaluiert. Das hydrostatische Messinstrument wurde in der dritten Entwicklungsstufe FG-SW-V2 mit hoher Messgenauigkeit und geringer Standardabweichung von 0,1 mm bis 0,2 mm weiterentwickelt. Somit steht in sehr naher Zukunft ein robustes, langzeitstabiles sowie ein in Echtzeit messendes Gesamtsystem für den Markteintritt zur Verfügung.

Les matériaux polymères sont aujourd'hui très présents dans notre environnement et deviennent irremplaçables pour de nombreuses applications : emballage, textile, mobilier,... La connaissance du cycle de vie de ces matériaux, de la production à leur destruction, devient importante pour nos sociétés. Par exemple ces matériaux peuvent émettre des Composés Organiques Volatils qui sont souvent toxiques et leur impact sur le milieu doit être évalué. L’objectif de ce travail de thèse a été de développer une méthode au laboratoire pour identifier et quantifier ces émissions. La difficulté provient de la grande diversité des composés qui peuvent être émis. Par ailleurs la méthode nécessite une fréquence de mesure élevée (temps réel) souvent incompatible avec les techniques actuelles. Une solution analytique couplant un four et un spectromètre de masse haute résolution associé à une méthode d’ionisation chimique contrôlée a été développée. Celle-ci est basée sur un spectromètre FT-ICR compact à bas champ magnétique : BTrap. Les points forts de cette technique sont la très haute résolution en masse qui permet de mesurer la masse exacte des composés et la détection multi composés, simultanée sur toute la gamme de masse. L’ionisation chimique contrôlée permet l'ionisation douce et quantitative des molécules d’intérêt. Le transfert de proton à partir de l’ion H₃O⁺ (PTRMS) a montré son potentiel pour la détection des COV dans de nombreux domaines. Après une présentation du contexte et du besoin, le dispositif expérimental développé est détaillé. La validation de celui-ci pour l'analyse de gaz traces a été effectuée au LPGP, sur un système de dépollution par plasma froid. Les résultats de dégradation de l'acétaldéhyde en fonction des conditions de fonctionnement du réacteur sont présentés.L’ionisation par PTR conduit habituellement à la molécule protonée ce qui simplifie l’identification. Cependant des fragmentations peuvent être observées. L’utilisation d’un précurseur d’ionisation chimique plus lourd et moins réactif que H₃O⁺ pourrait minimiser ces phénomènes. L’utilisation du diflurobenzène protoné a été testée et comparée à celle de l’ion H₃O⁺. Pour cela, des études cinétiques ont été menées sur une série d’alcools connus pour fragmenter avec H₃O⁺, et confirment l'intérêt du nouveau précurseur.Le poly(méthacrylate de méthyle) (PMMA) est un matériau très répandu : plexiglass. Sa dégradation est a priori relativement simple puisqu’il s’agit très majoritairement d’une dépolymérisation, accompagnée de la formation de produits minoritaires. En conséquence, son étude nous a paru intéressante pour la mise au point et la validation de la méthode. La dégradation du PMMA a été étudiée sous atmosphère inerte, puis oxydante. Les résultats obtenus sont présentés : produits émis, bilan en masse, et apport du suivi en temps réel de la dégradation, montrant en particulier que les produits minoritaires sont émis après le monomère.Enfin une dernière partie de conclusion présente les perspectives pour cette nouvelle méthode. / Polymeric materials are now ubiquitous in our environment and become irreplaceable for many applications such as packaging, textile or furniture. Knowledge of the life cycle of these materials from production to destruction becomes important for our societies. For instance, plastics may release Volatile Organic Compounds: VOCs are often toxic and their impact on the environment must be evaluated. The aim of this thesis work is the development of a laboratory method for identification and quantification of these emissions. The difficulty arises from the wide variety of compounds being potentially emitted. Moreover the desired method requires a high measurement rate ("real time") often incompatible with existing techniques. An analytical device coupling a furnace and a high-resolution mass spectrometer associated with a controlled chemical ionization method has been developed. This device is based on a low magnetic field FT-ICR compact mass spectrometer. The strengths of this technique are (i) high mass resolution allowing exact mass measurements, (ii) recording of the whole mass range simultaneously, allowing detection of a large variety of compounds. Controlled chemical ionization allows soft and quantitative ionization of molecules of interest. Proton transfer from H₃O⁺ ion (PTRMS) has shown its potentialities for VOC detection in many areas. After presenting the background and need, the developed experimental device is described in detail.The validation of this instrument for trace gas analysis has been performed at LPGP, using a nonthermal plasma depollution device. The results of acetaldehyde degradation according to operating conditions in the discharge reactor are presented.PTR ionization usually leads to the protonated molecule, so that identification is simplified. However fragmentations are sometimes observed. Use of a chemical ionization precursor ion heavier and less reactive than H₃O⁺ may minimize these drawbacks. Protonated difluorobenzene was selected as a precursor and its reactivity was tested and compared with H3O+ reactivity. In this purpose, kinetic studies were performed on a series of alcohols known for their fragmentation behavior with H₃O⁺. The results confirm the interest of the new precursor.Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) is a widespread material: plexiglass. Its degradation process is relatively simple since it consists in predominant depolymerization, along with formation of minor products. Consequently, PMMA study appeared interesting for method development and validation. Thermal degradation of PMMA has been studied under inert, then oxidative atmosphere conditions. The presented results include identification of minor products and mass balance under different temperature conditions. Real-time monitoring of VOC emission showed time differences in emission peaks of MMA monomer and minor products, each of them being emitted slightly later than MMA. Finally, a conclusive part presents the perspectives opened for this new method.

Submitted by Jorge Silva (jorgelmsilva@ufrrj.br) on 2017-10-31T17:20:21Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2016 - Elisa Vila Nova de Noronha.pdf: 4419781 bytes, checksum: 0804df588af66f56621082802458f769 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-10-31T17:20:21Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2016 - Elisa Vila Nova de Noronha.pdf: 4419781 bytes, checksum: 0804df588af66f56621082802458f769 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-12-21 / For the drilling process to succeed, it is necessary the use of a drilling fluid. The measurement of rheological properties from these fluids becomes important in order to allow good hydraulic gusher maintenance and management. If these measures are taken in an on- line order that will mean agility in decision-making about the maintenance of the properties of the fluid and it will result in savings of thousands of dollars during the drilling of a well. It is in this context that this current report, developed in the UFRRJ laboratory of fluid flow, aims to evaluate the performance of a modified and calibrated process viscometer, making it a unique equipment for conducting real-time measures of apparent viscosity and thixotropy curve. The process viscometer chosen has the geometry of coaxial cylinders being, thus similar to the current workbench equipment used in drilling rigs. The modified viscometer performance was confronted with the rheometer benchtop Haake Rheostress 1. Different compositions of fluids, containing assorted concentrations of viscosifier polymers and suspension solid have been tested. The results indicated that there was an agreement on the results towards a considered error permissible for a viscometer process. The online viscometer brings a pioneering real-time measuring capacity and plotting of rheological behavior curves towards the current technology used in drilling operation. / Para que o processo de perfura??o seja bem-sucedido, ? necess?rio o uso de um fluido de perfura??o. A medi??o das propriedades reol?gicas destes fluidos torna-se importante para permitir uma boa manuten??o e gest?o hidr?ulica do po?o. Se estas medidas forem realizadas de forma online isso significar? agilidade na tomada de decis?o sobre a manuten??o das propriedades do fluido e acarretar? na economia de milhares de d?lares durante a perfura??o de um po?o. ? neste contexto que o presente trabalho, desenvolvido no Laborat?rio de Escoamento de Fluidos da UFRRJ, tem como objetivo avaliar o desempenho de um viscos?metro de processo modificado e calibrado, tornando-o em um equipamento exclusivo, para realizar medidas em tempo real de curva de viscosidade aparente e tixotropia. O viscos?metro de processo escolhido tem a mesma geometria de cilindros coaxiais sendo desta forma semelhante ao atual equipamento de bancada utilizado nas sondas de perfura??o. O desempenho do viscos?metro modificado foi confrontado com o re?metro de bancada Haake Rheostress 1. Foram testadas diferentes composi??es de fluidos contendo concentra??es variadas de pol?meros viscosificantes e s?lidos em suspens?o. Os resultados obtidos indicaram que houve concord?ncia nos resultados diante de um erro considerado admiss?vel para um viscos?metro de processo. Acredita-se que o viscos?metro online avaliado traz uma capacidade pioneira de medi??o em tempo real e plotagem de curvas de comportamento reol?gico diante da atual tecnologia utilizada na ?rea petroqu?mica.

<p>Ова докторска дисертација се бави проблемом мерења и детекције<br />асиметрије побуде торусног трансформатора прикљученог на нисконапонску<br />дистрибутивну мрежу. Анализом постојећих научних решења изведен је<br />закључак да иста испољавају висок ниво систематске грешке услед<br />флуктуације побудног напона трансформатора. Основни допринос тезе јесте<br />предложени нови интерполациони поступак за калибрацију сензора<br />асиметрије у нисконапонској дистрибутивној мрежи, који успешно редукује<br />наведену систематску грешку. Додатни допринос представља рачунарска<br />имплементација методе за рад у реалном времену.</p> / <p>Ova doktorska disertacija se bavi problemom merenja i detekcije<br />asimetrije pobude torusnog transformatora priključenog na niskonaponsku<br />distributivnu mrežu. Analizom postojećih naučnih rešenja izveden je<br />zaključak da ista ispoljavaju visok nivo sistematske greške usled<br />fluktuacije pobudnog napona transformatora. Osnovni doprinos teze jeste<br />predloženi novi interpolacioni postupak za kalibraciju senzora<br />asimetrije u niskonaponskoj distributivnoj mreži, koji uspešno redukuje<br />navedenu sistematsku grešku. Dodatni doprinos predstavlja računarska<br />implementacija metode za rad u realnom vremenu.</p> / <p>This PhD thesis addresses the problem of measurement and detection of the<br />excitation current asymmetry of a toroidal transformer connected to the low<br />voltage distribution network. By analyzing the existing scientific solutions, it<br />was concluded that they show a high level of systematic error due to the<br />fluctuation of the supply voltage of the transformer. The main contribution of<br />the thesis is the proposal of a new interpolation method for the calibration of<br />an asymmetry sensor connected to the low-voltage distribution network that<br />successfully reduces the systematic error. Computer implementation of the<br />method for work in real time represents an additional contribution.</p>