Developing Low Cost Laboratory Apparatus for Hardware Interfacing System

This paper aims to present a new hardware component and software interface for a Grip Force Tracking System. During the rehabilitation process after e.g. a stroke any user needs a confirmation of his/her the treatment effectiveness. The Grip Force Tracking System (GFTS) is a system that helps the upper limb rehabilitative process and provide also a record of the improvements on a daily basis. The former GFTS has been only used under old versions of PC software operating systems (e.g. windows XP) and without any possibility to wireless collect relevant data. This new proposed GFTS system, which uses only the pinch and grip sensorial devices from the former GFTS system, has new facilities to operate under new operating systems, provides a new LabVIEW designed interface and wirelessly connects to a PC/laptop. This final design will be tested in a clinical environment aiming to help the patients with neuromuscular diseases to evaluate and train their grip force control.

BackgroundThe prevalence of bacteria producing CTX-M Extended-Spectrum β-lactamases (ESBLs) has increased around the world and some of them became a major cause of infections such as bloodstream or urinary tract infections (UTI). We developed a loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay for a simple, rapid and sensitive detection of the four most common CTX-M groups, namely CTX-M groups 1, 2, 8 and 9.MethodsLAMP primers targeting the four ESBLs CTX-M groups were designed using the Primer Explorer V4 software. The detection limit of the method was tested by serial dilution of reference DNAs. The primer specificity of the LAMP reaction was tested on DNA extracted from six strains producing various group of CTX-M and validated using DNA extracted from CTX-M-resistant clinical isolates (isolated from pus, urine, or blood). Results were compared with those of conventional PCR.ResultsWe were able to detect down to 0.1 pg/ul of DNA using the newly developed LAMP assays whereas the minimal amount detectable for conventional PCR was 50 to 100pg/ul, indicating that the LAMP assay was found to have a detection limit at least 500 to 1000 times lower than the PCR. Additionally, representative genes from the CTX-M groups 1, 2, 8 and 9 were amplified using the designed assay and no cross amplification was observed between the four CTX-M groups, demonstrating the specificity of the LAMP assay. Of the 37 clinical strains tested, the four LAMP assays showed 100% sensitivity and 87%, 97%, 100%, 100% specificity for the CTX-M groups 1, 2, 8 and 9 respectively.ConclusionBeing sensitive, specific, rapid and standard methods, the LAMP assays developed in this study have a potential to be beneficial tools in molecular epidemiology and surveillance studies of the four prevalent EBSLs CTX-M groups even in low cost laboratory.

This paper is on free and open source software architecture (FOSS) for remote labs in order to address the affordability and scalability of robotic education technology for sustainable deployments. The proposed Raspberry Pi-Arduino-based model architecture ensures lower cost while allowing some scalability, interoperability, portability and interchangeability to the low-cost online laboratory. Remotely controlled lab provides training skills in bio-inspired robotics. Our previous studies had shown that the implementation of remotely controlled online labs in the curriculum improved active learning among students, collaboration, and augmented problem solving skills. The preliminary implementation involved proprietary software, as the remote experiment accessibility platform, which was later replaced with FOSS technology. The advantages with FOSS included a significantly lower cost and scalability for concurrent usage. The paper also reports on usage analysis and common issues in both cases of implementations.

In the recent years, the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) has greatly evolved to involve new and exciting interaction paradigms that allow users to interact with their environment and with technology in a more intuitive and ergonomic way. These interaction paradigms include voice, touch, virtual reality, and more recently, the brain. A brain-computer interface (BCI) is a an interface system allowing users to control devices without using the normal output pathways of peripherals, instead, by using neural activity generated in the brain. BCIs have a huge potential in a multitude of fields, all the way from providing users with severe motor disabilities with means for interaction with the external world, to entertainment, gaming, user state monitoring, and self-tracking systems. The potentials of BCI have sparked the interest of researchers, gaming markets and healthcare providers more and more in the recent years. The is due to the emergence of new commercial lightweight, low cost Electroencephalograph (EEG) equipment that made it possible to create more portable and usable BCI systems and expanded their fields of application. This Master thesis aims to explore the state of the art commercial BCI as well as the uses and challenges related to them. Commercially available EEG equipment, namely the Neurosky Brainband and Neurosky Mindset, will be investigated. User tests will be carried out to investigate whether such equipment with low accuracy and low cost can be used to recognize various mental activities. This would be performed by first collecting a dataset of brain signals during performing a set of mental tasks, which is one of the contributions of this project, followed by applying a set of signal processing algorithms, then exploring various classification techniques to classify the collected signals.

Implementation of the permanent magnet synchronous motor vector control implies strong time dependencies. The control process requires precise measurement of motor shaft position and winding currents to establish correct driving. The tight time dependencies are difficult to achieve using a programmatic approach. Specific controller architecture is proposed for programmable systems on chip architectures enabling operations precise timing and improved processing performance. The controller is decomposed into a dedicated hardware interface system and programmatic part for easy implementation and modification of the control algorithm. The proposed architecture offers precise and repeatable input-output operations timing and assures meeting tight time dependencies. The control algorithm is executed as an interrupt service requested by the interface system in a constant processing period with relatively weak time dependencies. Additionally, the interface system preprocesses input and output signals reducing the computation effort and saving time for algorithm computations. The specific implementation enabled improved measurement of the motor’s windings current with suppression of disturbances caused by inverter operation. There is shown an efficient implementation of Parke’s and Clarke’s transformations using specific resources of modern programmable logic devices. In opposite to the software-managed implementation presented implementation assures completing processing faster, using a minimal number of hardware resources of the FPGA platform and offering the highest flexibility of software part implementation.

Electroencephalography (EEG) is the recording of electrical activity on the scalp. Typical EEG instruments which perform such recordings are expensive, elaborated and bulky. It is, therefore, important to design a low-cost and portable brainwave recording device. The objective of this investigation is to design an 8-channel EEG system with integrated hardware and software interface. The device takes advantages of a new system on a chip (SoC) to reduce circuitry component requirements and keep the cost low while maintaining functions of advanced instruments such as lead-off detection. It communicates with a host computer via Bluetooth. The mainboard is powered by a powerful ARM Cortex microcontroller capable of processing a large amount of live stream brainwave data. Real-time view of 8-channel EEG data is presented in the software interface after passing through typical EEG signal filters to filter out environmental noise and drifting current. A variety of applications can be developed based on this new device such as low cost Brain Computer Interface (BCI), ambulatory assistive device or a quick assessment tool for brain damage on the field. We have tested simple BCI tasks as well as sensing mental states using this system.

The gas sensing performances of low cost commercial chemical sensors are compared to the ones of standardized chemical analysers. Real time measurements are performed on the field of three municipal solid waste plants (MSW). Long-term campaigns of several months have been organised during the period 2010- 2015. The sensors and the reference analysers have worked simultaneously. The selected sensors are commercial metal oxide semiconductor gas sensors (MOx, Figaro). The sensors-array devices are developed at the ULg laboratory (SAM). Analysers are certified and operated by the official Wallonia public scientific institute (ISSeP). In addition to odour, other target compounds are considered: methane, ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, but also NMHC as limonene, pinene and BTEX The laboratory has a long experience in using chemical sensors for odour in-field measurements, especially for landfills and composting plants. The aim of this study is to evaluate the performances of chemo-resistors array for continuous monitoring of compounds typical of municipal wastes in comparison to reference analysers. It highlights weaknesses and strengths of the two kinds of devices. The obtained results are considered for odour event detection as well as for chemical compound quantification and are discussed to evaluate the efficiency of metal oxide sensors for a low cost gas emissions assessment.

This paper presents a novel idea for detecting the Food Spoilage using low cost liquid sensors and acidity sensors and then transmitting the data through wireless communication. For the processing and transmitting of the data we use several components like the thin metal rods, thin cellophane sheets or starch sheets, Liquid sensors, IC CA3140 with its bias circuit and a symbol frequency transmitter and receiver with an interactive display unit. The main fact that makes this a novel idea is that the entire circuitry can be implemented at a very low cost and can be made available for commercial manufacturing by attaching the circuit to the containers used in the refrigerators in large catering and food processing industries. There are several other advantages in the proposed system, that a better interactive display can be added to the receiver so as to increase the user interaction and interface in the proposed system in a better manner.

This paper concerns the study and the realization of a portable touchscreen interface designed for the control of domotic systems, in this particular case based on powerline communication. The project is fundamentally thought for disabled people with problems in manual dexterity and mobility, but its functionalities can be exploited also by able-body people. The powerline domotic system has been chosen for its characteristics of versatility, low cost and simplicity of installation, besides the opportunity to be used as an excellent tool in the academic educational field.

Background:Technological advances in the smart home have created new opportunities for supporting digital citizens’ well-being and facilitating their empowerment but have enabled new types of complex online harms to develop. Recent statistics have indicated that ‘smart’ technology ownership increases yearly, driven by lower costs and increased accessibility. Research on smart homes has also grown, focusing on technology perspectives at the expense of a user-centric approach sensitive to the smart home’s harms, risks, and vulnerabilities. Objective:This scoping review addresses the information gap by underscoring the scope of literature that exists regarding complex online harms, vulnerabilities, and risks associated with smart home technologies and citizens’ agency. The goal is to understand the state of knowledge, gaps in the literature, and areas for future study. The importance and originality of this paper lie in its interdisciplinary review and approach. It is hoped that this research will contribute to a deeper understanding of complex online harms in the smart home. Design:Three online databases were utilised to identify papers published between 2017 and 2022, from which we selected 235 publications written in English that addressed harms, risks, vulnerabilities, and agency in the smart home context. This allowed us to map contemporary literature to reveal significant gaps in our understanding of the complex online harms affecting smart home users and identify opportunities for further research. Results:This review identified emerging themes of ‘risks’, ‘vulnerabilities’, and ‘harms’ in that order of frequency within the literature on smart homes. The usage of terms is skewed towards computing science and information security, which comprised the majority of the literature at 54.6%. Human–computer interaction papers contributed 24.4%, while social sciences accounted for 16.2%. Conclusion:Risks, harms and vulnerabilities within smart home ecosystems and IoTs are ongoing issues with complexities that necessitate research. Privacy, security, and well-being are key themes that embody the scope of complex harms affecting smart home devices in the broad literature. This review establishes disciplinary research gaps, especially in user-centred perspectives, due to a heavy technology focus in the existing literature. Therefore, further research is needed to address emergent risks, harms and vulnerabilities of smart home devices and understand how user agency and autonomy can complement the design, interface, and socio-technical aspects of smart home systems.

The noninvasive brain imaging modalities have provided us an extraordinary means for monitoring the working brain. Among these modalities, Electroencephalography (EEG) is the most widely used technique for measuring the brain signals under different tasks, due to its mobility, low cost, and high temporal resolution. In this paper we investigate the use of EEG signals in brain-computer interface (BCI) systems.

Monitoring gas production with mechanical chart recorders and the associated business practices results in significant loss of earnings due to data inaccuracies, late identification of well shutdown, and operational inefficiencies. To solve this, several current technologies have now been integrated into a low cost end-to-end system called FINE. This technical note describes FINE and provides field data demonstrating the benefits. Introduction Gas flow measurement has been dominated by 100-year-old circular chart technology. "Charts" record differential pressures generated across an orifice plate (and the static pressures and inflow temperatures) at a gas meter. These differential pressures are converted into flow rates by standardized AGA flow calculations(1,2). The process of chart measurement involves a laborious cycle of collecting charts, chart integration and data entry, which often takes weeks to return information to the decision makers. This mechanical measurement necessarily involves lost earnings due to data inaccuracies, late identification of well shutdown, and operational inefficiencies. Electronic flow measurement (EFM) has been an alternative to charts for many years. It is based upon electronic gas measurement standards established by the American Petroleum Institute(3). However, the cost and construct of acquisition and dissemination with engineered SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) solutions have prevented widespread acceptance or use by a large number of stakeholders within an organization who could add value. Integrated technologies now permit practical acquisition of electronic gas flow measurement from every well, and dissemination for use by everyone within an organization. These technologies all adhere to a basic system structure T. Ito calls "FINE"(4). FINE Technology FINE stands for Field Instrument (FI), Network (N) and End user (E). FINE is a seamless system design that, in spite of the measurement complexity, simplifies data acquisition so that monitoring costs are similar to that of a chart, and dissemination is seamless to everyone from managers to investors on their PCs. (See Figure 1.) FINE's structure is revolutionary, involving end-to-end, internet- based metrology systems and preferably built on autonomous networkable transmitters. FINE integrates:transmitters with digital sensor cores,public wireless communications,high performance embedded processors, micro-power electronics (FI), and solar power operation,central digital nervous system (N), anddatabase and web interface tools (E). The transmitter connects wirelessly through a network to an Internet information delivery system using full-duplex asynchronous communication made possible by embedded processors. Increase Revenues, Reduced Costs When gas producers and transmission companies apply FINE systems to gas well monitoring, they can realize increased revenues and reduced operating costs. Revenues are increased by:Reduced downtime (e.g., by exception alarming)Improved allocations (e.g., by higher accuracy)Optimized field production (e.g., by daily monitoring of wells, well testing, and regular gas-in-place estimates) FINE reduces costs by:Improved operator efficiency (e.g., focusing on operations)

محدودیت منابع آب موجود از یک سو و رشد روز افزون تقاضا در مقایسه با توسعه زیرساخت‏ های شهری در این بخش و نیاز به برنامه ‏ریزی ‏های لازم از سوی دیگر، لزوم استفاده از یک تفکر سیستمی و جامع در زمینه مدیریت منابع و توسعه زیرساخت‏ های آبرسانی را روز به روز آشکارتر و با اهمیت ‏تر می‏ سازد. همچنین مواجه شدن با حجم عظیمی از داده‏ ها و اطلاعات مکانی در اینگونه زیرساخت ‏ها، استفاده از فناوری‏ های نوین جهت جمع ‏آوری، ذخیره‏ سازی، پردازش، دسترسی، مدل‏ سازی و در نهایت فرآیند تصمیم‏ سازی در کوتاه‏ترین زمان، بالاترین دقت و کمترین هزینه را مطرح می‏ سازد. در این مقاله ضمن بررسی نحوه پیاده‏ سازی GIS در شرکت آب و فاضلاب شیراز، داده ‏های مکانی موجود در این شرکت و کلیه اطلاعات موجود در پایگاه‏ های داده توصیفی، که قابلیت تبدیل شدن به اطلاعات مکانی را دارد و یا به غنی نمودن پایگاه داده GIS کمک می‏نمایند بررسی شده است. همچنین ارتباط برخط1 بین این پایگاه‏ های داده با پایگاه داده GIS از طریق یک وب سرویس با استفاده از سیستم مدیریت پایگاه داده SQL Server2008 و رابط ArcSDE برقرار گردیده است. در نهایت کلیه اطلاعات مکانی و توصیفی بهنگام سازمان از طریق سرویس‏ های نقشه‏ ای تحت وب، به منظور استفاده در تصمیم‏ گیری و مدیریت بهینه منابع، در اختیار کاربران حوزه های مختلف قرار می‏گیرد.

The traditional management system of laboratory devices is identified and recorded by manual work. Its configuration is inefficient and illogical. However, a high quality management system of the laboratory devices would actively identity devices, their position and their maintenance records. To achieve this goal, this study integrates radio frequency identification (RFID), and database technologies to develop a new management system of laboratory devices, which enables administrator to immediately identify the devices via RFID-based cards and get the complete information then actively deal with them. The user interface of the proposed system is built with Visual C# 2005 and embedded Visual C++, and the database is built on Microsoft SQL Server 2005 for Server management and statistic reporting. The UHF RFID technologies are used to transmit real-time information of each device. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed system, a series of experiments was conducted. The system test results are in good agreement with the required results. This management system solution which shows very high management efficiency and low deployment cost can be successfully extended applicable to the enterprise warehouse management, intelligent logistics, asset management and internet of things.

In building an intelligent tutoring system, researchers quest for robust techniques and suitable approaches so that intelligent and interactive communications between learners and the system can be seamlessly established. The aspects of communication encompass the four properties of articulate software defined by Forbus (2001) which are fluent, supportive, generative and customizable. The building of articulate software (QALSIC) for learning inorganic chemistry at high school level is discussed in this paper. The four properties are represented in our system through knowledge-based and qualitative process theory approaches. The interactiveness and intelligence of the system are demonstrated in its intelligent responses to unprecedented events, unknown substances, and flexibility in usage. The system can be used symbiotically with the traditional laboratory, as well as, as an independent system in which it offers a more flexible learning environment at a lower cost. The strength of the system is centred at its explanatory capabilities in using chemistry knowledge. We envisage that the system will improve intuitive learning in students while enhancing the traditional didactic learning.