Data Acquisition Applications

Data acquisition systems have numerous applications. This book has a total of 13 chapters and is divided into three sections: Industrial applications, Medical applications and Scientific experiments. The chapters are written by experts from around the world, while the targeted audience for this book includes professionals who are designers or researchers in the field of data acquisition systems. Faculty members and graduate students could also benefit from the book

Powerline Kommunikation: Wesentliche Technologien um PLC in CE-Geräte zu integrieren

In-house PLT (Powerline Telecommunication) enables new and highly convenient networking functions without the need for additional cables on mains-powered devices. Since wireless networks are not able to reach sufficient throughput between different rooms or even floors, PLC is considered to be the ideal backbone home network medium, providing complementary and seamless interaction with wireless networks. The need to communicate information is not new. The historical overview of this thesis compares the development of PLT to radio broadcast technologies. The consumer expects technologies to operate without interferences. Today, there are coexistence problems between these two technologies. Why does this happens, and how the problems can be resolved are the main issues of this thesis. Initial calculations of the channel capacity provide encouraging results for using the mains cabling as a communication medium. Chapter 3 forecasts how PLT modems could develop in the future. The usage of frequencies above 30 MHz will increase the throughput rate. Next, the utilization of the 3rd wire (the protective earth) for communication enhances the coverage and the reliability of powerline transmissions. The reception of common mode signals and the usage of MIMO technologies enable 8 transmission paths between one pair of outlets, which improves the performance of the bad, strongly attenuated channels. Today, the main challenge for the mass deployment of PLT is the lack of harmonized international standards on interoperability and electromagnetic interference. The absence of a standard results in the undesirable situation of PLT modems interfering with technologies from different vendors and also with radio applications. Solutions for solving these problems are given in chapter 4 and chapter 5. The approach of ‘Smart Notching’ - monitoring the existence of receivable radio broadcast stations at the time and location where a PLT modem is operating, received wide resonance in the PLT and radio broadcast communities. ‘Smart Notching’, also called ‘Dynamic Notching’ or ‘Adaptive Notching’ is considered to be the key factor in solving the endless discussions about the interferences to HF radio broadcast. Details on the creation of ETSI TS 102 578 and the implementation of a demonstrator system is documented in chapter 5. Field tests conducted together with the EBU verified the efficiency of the concept. The jointly executed tests by representatives from the radio broadcast and the PLT communities became a historical event which brought the two technologies, radio receivers and PLT modems, back into one house. Finally, a vision of the future coordination of EMC and conclusions are presented.Heutige Modems zur Powerline Telekommunikation (PLT) können im Betrieb den Empfang von Kurzwellen-Rundfunk beeinträchtigen, wenn Modem und Rundfunk-Empfänger in unmittelbarer Nachbarschaft betrieben werden. Eine neue Generation von PLT Modems, in denen das Konzept von 'Smart Notching' - dem intelligenten Einfügen von Lücken in das Kommunikationsspektrum - implementiert ist, zeigt keine Interferenzen mit dem Empfang von Rundfunkdiensten. Das Rauschen auf der Niederspannungsinstallation enthält neben sonstigen Signalen - durch andere Geräte hervorgerufen - aufgrund der Antennenwirkung Information über Rundfunksender. Beim ‚Smart Notching’ erkennen PLT Modems am Betriebsort die Existenz von Rundfunksignalen, indem sie das Signalspektrum auf der Netzleitung messen. Die Echtzeit- Bewertung der aktuellen Situation am Betriebsort ermöglicht eine Adaption des PLT Systems. Damit wird die Elektromagnetische Verträglichkeit nicht a priori (zum Herstellungs-Zeitpunkt) durch Schirmung oder eine globale Reduktion des Sendepegels, sondern durch Design des Verfahrens (welches während des Betriebs angewendet wird) hergestellt. Diese Doktorarbeit beschreibt nach einem kurzen Überblick zur Historie des Rundfunks und der Datenübertragung über das Energieverteilnetz Messungen zur Ermittlung der theoretischen Kanalkapazität. Anschließend wird ein Ausblick gegeben, wohin sich zukünftige PLT Modems entwickeln werden. Dies sind vor allem der Frequenzbereich oberhalb von 30 MHz sowie die Nutzung der dritten Kupferader in den Netzleitungen: der Schutzerde. Die Verwendung von MIMO-Algorithmen (aus der kabellosen Funkübertragung (z.B. WiFi) bereits bekannt) verbessert vor allem die Wahrscheinlichkeit, eine hohe Datenrate im Gebäude sicher zu verteilen. Sorge bereitet bei PLT ebenfalls die Koexistenz mit weiteren PLT-Systemen, sowie zu xDSL. Hierfür wird ein Vorschlag gemacht, um die Interferenzen zu nicht kompatiblen PLToder DSL-Systemen zu vermeiden, ohne dass die Systeme sich gegenseitig gezielt Informationen zusenden. Das bereits oben erwähnte Konzept des ‚Smart Notching’ wird detailliert erläutert und die Implementierung eines Demonstrators auf FPGA-Basis dokumentiert. Abschließend wird noch beschrieben, wie ‚Smart Notching’ gemeinsam mit der EBU getestet wurde und wie es seinen Weg in die Welt der Standardisierung gefunden hat. Der Veröffentlichung des Standards ETSI TS 102 578 wurde im Juli 2008 einstimmig von ETSI PLT zugestimmt

Community memories for sustainable societies: The case of environmental noise

Sustainability is the main challenge faced by humanity today on global and local scales. Most environmental problems can be seen as the tragic overexploitation of a commons. In this dissertation we investigate how the latest developments within computer science and ICT can be applied to establish participatory, low-cost tools and practices that enable citizens to monitor, raise awareness about, and contribute to the sustainable management of the commons they rely on, and thereby protect or improve their quality of life. As a general approach we propose the use of community memories – as central data repositories and points of interaction for community members and other stakeholders – and the novel combination of participatory mobile sensing and social tagging – as a low-cost means to collect quantitative and qualitative data about the state of the commons and the health, well-being, behaviour and opinion of those that depend on it. Through applied, interdisciplinary research we develop a concrete solution for a specific, socially relevant problem, namely that of environmental noise – commonly referred to as noise pollution. Under the name NoiseTube we present an operational system that enables a participatory, low-cost approach to the assessment of environmental noise and its impact on citizens’ quality of life. This approach can be applied in the scope of citizen- or authority-led initiatives. The NoiseTube system consists of a sensing application – which turns mobile phones into a sound level meters and allows users to comment on their experience via social tagging – and a community memory – which aggregates and processes data collected by participants anywhere. The system supports and has been tested and deployed at different levels of scale – personal, group and mass sensing. Since May 2009 NoiseTube has been used by hundreds, if not thousands, of people all around the world, allowing us to draw lessons regarding the feasibility of different deployment, collaboration and coordination scenarios for participatory sensing in general. While similar systems have been proposed ours is the completest and most widely used participatory noise mapping solution to date. Our validation experiments demonstrate that the accuracy of mobile phones as sound level meters can be brought to an acceptable level through calibration and statistical reasoning. Through coordinated NoiseTube campaigns with volunteering citizens we establish that participatory noise mapping is a suitable alternative for, or a valuable complement to, conventional methods applied by authorities

Proceedings of the Workshop on Identification and Control of Flexible Space Structures, Volume 2

The results of a workshop on identification and control of flexible space structures held in San Diego, CA, July 4 to 6, 1984 are discussed. The main objectives of the workshop were to provide a forum to exchange ideas in exploring the most advanced modeling, estimation, identification and control methodologies to flexible space structures. The workshop responded to the rapidly growing interest within NASA in large space systems (space station, platforms, antennas, flight experiments) currently under design. Dynamic structural analysis, control theory, structural vibration and stability, and distributed parameter systems are discussed

Non-covalent interactions in organotin(IV) derivatives of 5,7-ditertbutyl- and 5,7-diphenyl-1,2,4-triazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidine as recognition motifs in crystalline self- assembly and their in vitro antistaphylococcal activity

Non-covalent interactions are known to play a key role in biological compounds due to their stabilization of the tertiary and quaternary structure of proteins [1]. Ligands similar to purine rings, such as triazolo pyrimidine ones, are very versatile in their interactions with metals and can act as model systems for natural bio-inorganic compounds [2]. A considerable series (twelve novel compounds are reported) of 5,7-ditertbutyl-1,2,4-triazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidine (dbtp) and 5,7-diphenyl- 1,2,4-triazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidine (dptp) were synthesized and investigated by FT-IR and 119Sn M\uf6ssbauer in the solid state and by 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopy, in solution [3]. The X-ray crystal and molecular structures of Et2SnCl2(dbtp)2 and Ph2SnCl2(EtOH)2(dptp)2 were described, in this latter pyrimidine molecules are not directly bound to the metal center but strictly H-bonded, through N(3), to the -OH group of the ethanol moieties. The network of hydrogen bonding and aromatic interactions involving pyrimidine and phenyl rings in both complexes drives their self-assembly. Noncovalent interactions involving aromatic rings are key processes in both chemical and biological recognition, contributing to overall complex stability and forming recognition motifs. It is noteworthy that in Ph2SnCl2(EtOH)2(dptp)2 \u3c0\u2013\u3c0 stacking interactions between pairs of antiparallel triazolopyrimidine rings mimick basepair interactions physiologically occurring in DNA (Fig.1). M\uf6ssbauer spectra suggest for Et2SnCl2(dbtp)2 a distorted octahedral structure, with C-Sn-C bond angles lower than 180\ub0. The estimated angle for Et2SnCl2(dbtp)2 is virtually identical to that determined by X-ray diffraction. Ph2SnCl2(EtOH)2(dptp)2 is characterized by an essentially linear C-Sn-C fragment according to the X-ray all-trans structure. The compounds were screened for their in vitro antibacterial activity on a group of reference staphylococcal strains susceptible or resistant to methicillin and against two reference Gramnegative pathogens [4] . We tested the biological activity of all the specimen against a group of staphylococcal reference strains (S. aureus ATCC 25923, S. aureus ATCC 29213, methicillin resistant S. aureus 43866 and S. epidermidis RP62A) along with Gram-negative pathogens (P. aeruginosa ATCC9027 and E. coli ATCC25922). Ph2SnCl2(EtOH)2(dptp)2 showed good antibacterial activity with a MIC value of 5 \u3bcg mL-1 against S. aureus ATCC29213 and also resulted active against methicillin resistant S. epidermidis RP62A