Technological Assessment of Radio Frequency Identification Technology for Indoor Localization

Indoor localization is needed for guiding people who are not familiar with a facility. This need is more critical when guidance is needed to locate people or objects that need immediate attention. For example, an inexperienced facility worker might need to locate a building component (e.g., leaking pipe) for repair to prevent any damage to a facility or its residents. In such situations, an approach that can help the user to reach his/her destination point (i.e., a component of interest or a specific location in a facility) based on his/her current location is desired. To provide such guidance, the location of a person needs to be determined at a given point in time. This process is known as localization. The objective of this research study is to determine the technological viability of using radio frequency identification (RFID) to support localization. To assess the capability of RFID for localization, the writers conducted multiple field tests under real operating conditions within a facility at Carnegie Mellon University. Hypothesis tests and K-nearest neighborhood algorithm were used to determine the technological feasibility of RFID to support localization. The results showed that it is possible to identify the location of a user using this approach; however, some improvements in accuracy are needed.     

Effectiveness of combined sewer overflow treatment for dissolved oxygen improvement in the Chicago waterways.

An Use Attainability Analysis (UAA) has been initiated to evaluate what water-quality standards can be achieved in the Chicago Waterway System (CWS). There are nearly 200 combined sewer overflow (CSO) locations discharging to the CWS by gravity. Three CSO pumping stations also drain approximately 140 km2. Because of the dynamic nature of the CWS the DUFLOW model that is capable of simulating hydraulics and water-quality processes under unsteady-flow conditions was used to evaluate the effectiveness of water-quality improvement techniques identified by the UAA including CSO treatment. Several CSO treatment levels were applied at gravity flow CSOs to evaluate improvement in dissolved oxygen (DO). The results show that pollutant removal at CSOs improves DO to a certain degree, but it still was not sufficient to bring DO concentrations to 5 mg/L or higher for 90% of the time during wet weather at most locations on the CWS. Flow from the pumping stations results in substantial stress on DO since a huge amount of un-treated water with a high pollution load is discharged into the CWS in a short period of time at a certain location. The simulation results indicate that CSO treatment does not effectively improve DO during wet-weather periods on the CWS.     

Renovation of a Safety-Inspection Methodology for River Bridges

River bridges and related infrastructural elements need to be monitored and inspected periodically for deterioration and loss of function due to aging, adverse hydraulic conditions, and chemical attacks. Necessary protective works and related actions should then be implemented to increase safety. Types of items to be inspected would be categorized as structural, geotechnical, hydraulic, and structural material conditions. Requirements for periodic inspections and the ways of handling these activities were discussed within the framework of the aforementioned aspects. Since each bridge authority has its own inspection grading system according to variations in local conditions and the socioeconomic status of the country, a common core methodology should be implemented such that comparisons with different case studies are meaningful. The aim of this study is the renovation of the current inspection system in Turkey, in order to implement it primarily for saving human life, as well as promoting Turkey’s economy, labor, and manpower. An algorithm, based on evaluating components of the main body, earth-retaining facilities, and serviceability, as well as hydraulic aspects, is proposed. This renovation enables the identification of rank-based prioritization of events. The evaluation and interpretation steps were displayed with the help of a case study.     

Application of Mid-infrared Spectroscopy for the Measurement of Several Quality Parameters of Alcoholic Beverages, Wine and Raki

Mid-infrared (IR) spectroscopy, which is a rapid and relatively small amount of waste producing technique, was used to predict several quality parameters of two types of alcoholic beverages, wine and raki. Mid-infrared spectra of red, rose and white wines and a traditional aniseed alcoholic beverage, raki were collected and relations were established between measured chemical parameters (pH, brix, total phenol content, anthocyanin content, titratable acidity, sugar content, electrical conductivity and some colour parameters) of these beverages and their infrared spectra using chemometric techniques. Partial least square regression provided excellent prediction of total phenol (R ²?=?0.97) and anthocyanin contents (R ²?=?0.98) of wine samples and a good prediction of pH (R ²?=?0.9), brix (R ²?=?0.92) and colour intensity (R ²?=?0.93) values were obtained. Brix, total phenol and sugar content of raki samples were also estimated very successfully (R ²?=?0.99) for raki and good prediction was obtained with pH value. Mid-IR spectroscopy in combination with chemometrics could be a promising technique for determination of several quality parameters of alcoholic beverages simultaneously and rapidly.     

Ni/Pd core/shell nanoparticles supported on graphene as a highly active and reusable catalyst for Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling reaction

Monodisperse Ni/Pd core/shell nanoparticles (NPs) have been synthesized by sequential reduction of nickel(II) acetate and palladium(II) bromide in oleylamine (OAm) and trioctylphosphine (TOP). The Ni/Pd NPs have a narrow size distribution with a mean particle size of 10 nm and a standard deviation of 5% with respect to the particle diameter. Mechanistic studies showed that the presence of TOP was essential to control the reductive decomposition of Ni-TOP and Pd-TOP, and the formation of Ni/Pd core/shell NPs. Using the current synthetic protocol, the composition of the Ni/Pd within the core/shell structure can be readily tuned by simply controlling the initial molar ratio of the Ni and Pd salts. The as-synthesized Ni/Pd core/shell NPs were supported on graphene (G) and used as catalyst in Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling reactions. Among three different kinds of Ni/Pd NPs tested, the Ni/Pd (Ni/Pd = 3/2) NPs were found to be the most active catalyst for the Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling of arylboronic acids with aryl iodides, bromides and even chlorides in a dimethylformamide/water mixture by using K₂CO₃ as a base at 110 °C. The G-Ni/Pd was also stable and reusable, providing 98% conversion after the 5^th catalytic run without showing any noticeable Ni/Pd composition change. The G-Ni/Pd structure reported in this paper combines both the efficiency of a homogeneous catalyst and the durability of a heterogeneous catalyst, and is promising catalyst candidate for various Pd-based catalytic applications.      

Acute kidney injury after near drowning: The way from the beach to hemodialysis

Acute kidney injury (AKI) occurs in many different situations and may have a variable prognosis influenced by clinical setting, underlying cause, and comorbidity. This is important because of the high mortality and morbidity risk affecting many people around the world. Near‐drowning related AKI requiring hemodialysis is very seldom reported in literature. Although cardiovascular and respiratory disorders are more frequently seen after this entity, we aimed to emphasize this rare but dangerous complication in near‐drowning patients.     

A new approach for determining the hidden material parameters of a honeycomb

An optimization method to obtain the cell wall properties of Nomex honeycomb material is presented. There, the outcomes of physical experiments and micromechanical simulations are compared in an effort to identify the geometric or/and material parameters for the best match. Only the cell wall thickness and Young’s modulus, called here as the hidden parameters, are used in the matching as the Young’s modulus is difficult measure reliably. The mean values and standard deviations of the geometric parameters of the cell structure model are obtained through image analysis. In the micromechanical model used, the cell walls are considered as linearly elastic Bernoulli beams. The optimum hidden parameter values for the Nomex case turn out not to be unique but they appear in a combination known as the bending stiffness.     

Implementation and evaluation of wearable reaction time tests

Conducting cognitive assessment tests throughout normal daily life offers new opportunities to early detect changes in cognitive efficiency. Such tests would allow identification of early symptoms of cognitive impairment, monitor the progress of disease processes related to cognitive efficiency and reduce the risk of cognitive overload. Reaction time tests are known as simple and sensitive tests for detecting variation in cognitive efficiency. A drawback of existing reaction time tests is that they require the full attention of a test person, which prohibits the measurement of cognitive efficiency during daily routine tasks. In this contribution we present the design, implementation and empirical evaluation of two wearable reaction time tests that can be operated throughout everyday life. We designed and implemented wearable watch-like devices, which combine the generation of haptic stimuli and the recognition of hand gestures as the subject’s response. For the evaluation of the wearable interface, we conducted a user study with 20 subjects to investigate to what extent we can measure changes in length and variability of user’s reaction time with the wearable interfaces in comparison to well accepted, traditional desktop-based tests. Based on the achieved statistical results, we conclude that the presented wearable reaction time tests are suitable to measure factors that influence length and variability of reaction times.     

Poly(3-hydroxyalkanoate)s: Diversification and biomedical applications: A state of the art review

Biomaterials have played an important role in the treatment of disease and the improvement of health care. Synthetic and naturally occurring biodegradable and biocompatible polymers have been used as biomaterials. Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are promising materials for biomedical applications because they are biodegradable, non-toxic and biocompatible. We will shortly summarize the modification reactions, which include functionalization and grafting reactions, to improve the mechanical, thermal and hydrophilic properties of PHAs. The use of the modified PHAs in numerous biomedical applications, such as sutures, cardiovascular patches, wound dressings, scaffolds in tissue engineering, tissue repair/regeneration devices, drug carriers will be discussed in this review.