Polymer- and Hybrid-Based Biomaterials for Interstitial, Connective, Vascular, Nerve, Visceral and Musculoskeletal Tissue Engineering

In this review, materials based on polymers and hybrids possessing both organic and inorganic contents for repairing or facilitating cell growth in tissue engineering are discussed. Pure polymer based biomaterials are predominantly used to target soft tissues. Stipulated by possibilities of tuning the composition and concentration of their inorganic content, hybrid materials allow to mimic properties of various types of harder tissues. That leads to the concept of “one-matches-all” referring to materials possessing the same polymeric base, but different inorganic content to enable tissue growth and repair, proliferation of cells, and the formation of the ECM (extra cellular matrix). Furthermore, adding drug delivery carriers to coatings and scaffolds designed with such materials brings additional functionality by encapsulating active molecules, antibacterial agents, and growth factors. We discuss here materials and methods of their assembly from a general perspective together with their applications in various tissue engineering sub-areas: interstitial, connective, vascular, nervous, visceral and musculoskeletal tissues. The overall aims of this review are two-fold: (a) to describe the needs and opportunities in the field of bio-medicine, which should be useful for material scientists, and (b) to present capabilities and resources available in the area of materials, which should be of interest for biologists and medical doctors.</jats:p

HETEROGENEOUS GAZE TRACKING SENSOR SYSTEMS, METHODS, AND DEVICES

Systems, methods, devices, and computer program products are provided for eye tracking and gaze pattern determinations using heterogeneous sensor systems. A first sensor system may track movement of a first eye, and a second sensor system may track movement of a second eye, wherein the second sensor system applies a different tracking method than the first sensor system. Tracking information received from the first sensor and the second sensor may be correlated to determine a gaze motion pattern, such as a three-dimensional motion pattern. The heterogeneous nature of the sensors enables realization of numerous advantages, including but not limited to reduced power consumption and latency, and improved accuracy and resolution

FABRICATION OF MAGNETIC TWO-DIMENSIONAL AND THREE-DIMENSIONAL MICROSTRUCTURES FOR MICROFLUIDICS AND MICROROBOTICS APPLICATIONS

Micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) technology has had an increasing impact on industry and our society. A wide range of MEMS devices are used in every aspects of our life, from microaccelerators and microgyroscopes to microscale drug-delivery systems. The increasing complexity of microsystems demands diverse microfabrication methods and actuation strategies to realize. Currently, it is challenging for existing microfabrication methods—particularly 3D microfabrication methods—to integrate multiple materials into the same component. This is a particular challenge for some applications, such as microrobotics and microfluidics, where integration of magnetically-responsive materials would be beneficial, because it enables contact-free actuation. In addition, most existing microfabrication methods can only fabricate flat, layered geometries; the few that can fabricate real 3D microstructures are not cost efficient and cannot realize mass production. This dissertation explores two solutions to these microfabrication problems: first, a method for integrating magnetically responsive regions into microstructures using photolithography, and second, a method for creating three-dimensional freestanding microstructures using a modified micromolding technique. The first method is a facile method of producing inexpensive freestanding photopatternable polymer micromagnets composed NdFeB microparticles dispersed in SU-8 photoresist. The microfabrication process is capable of fabricating polymer micromagnets with 3 µm feature resolution and greater than 10:1 aspect ratio. This method was used to demonstrate the creation of freestanding microrobots with an encapsulated magnetic core. A magnetic control system was developed and the magnetic microrobots were moved along a desired path at an average speed of 1.7 mm/s in a fluid environment under the presence of external magnetic field. A microfabrication process using aligned mask micromolding and soft lithography was also developed for creating freestanding microstructures with true 3D geometry. Characterization of this method and resolution limits were demonstrated. The combination of these two microfabrication methods has great potential for integrating several material types into one microstructure for a variety of applications

Last-Meter Smart Grid Embedded in an Internet-of-Things Platform

The customer domain of the smart grid natu- rally blends with smart home and smart building systems, but typical proposed approaches are “distributor-centric” rather than “customer-centric,” undermining user acceptance, and are often poorly scalable. To solve this problem, we propose a detailed architecture and an implementation of a “last-meter” smart grid—the portion of the smart grid on customer premises—embedded in an internet-of-things (IoT) platform. Our approach has four aspects of novelty and advantages with respect to the state of the art: 1) seamless integration of smart grid with smart home applications in the same infrastructure; 2) data gathering from heterogeneous sensor communication protocols; 3) secure and customized data access; and 4) univocal sensor and actuator mapping to a common abstraction layer on which additional concurrent applications can be built. A demonstrator has been built and tested with purposely-developed ZigBee smart meters and gateways, a distributed IoT server, and a flexible user interface

Engineering Porous Silicon for a Top-Down Approach to Controlled Drug Delivery

Nanocarriers that localize a therapeutic to a disease site and release it “on-demand” via the clinician’s control will mitigate the adverse effects that reduce a patient’s quality of life while undergoing oncology treatment. Moreover, magnetically actuated drug delivery carriers are appealing platforms in next-generation targeted medicine, yet these carriers must be compatible with scalable fabrication techniques to realize their clinical translation. In this dissertation, a magnetically capped porous silicon nanocomposite (APTESPSi@Fe3O4), that responds to physiologically relevant temperatures, was developed using cost-effective, highly scalable methods such as electrochemical etching. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), CHNS elemental analysis, and zeta potential confirmed that accelerated hydrolysis at 45 �C altered the porous silicon surface chemistry. This hydrolysis-mediated electrostatic degradation between the porous silicon and Fe3O4 caps translated to a thermoresponsive release behavior in dissolution studies with sorafenib (SFN), where minimal drug was released at room temperature and 37 �C, while an enhanced release occurred at 45 �C and 50 �C. The magnetic heat dissipation capabilities with application of an alternating magnetic field (AMF) was calculated by the specific absorption rate (SAR) through calorimetry and magnetic susceptibility measurements. Comparing these two methods revealed that the electrostatic interactions between the porous silicon and Fe3O4 do not hinder the Brownian relaxation and heat dissipation. The nanocomposite and its components demonstrated high cytocompatibility after 24 hours with RAW 246.7, MDA-MB-231, and HepG2 cells, but not with MCF-7. High cytocompatibility was also observed when the cells incubated with particles were heated to 45 �C for 15 min followed by 37 �C for the remaining 6 hour incubation period. Porous silicon and its nanocomposite improved the SFN solubility in in vitro studies with MDA-MB-231 and HepG2, resulting in increased anticancer activity in comparison to the free drug. Moreover, the anticancer activity was readily controlled from the magnetic nanocomposite by modulating the amount of SFN released with temperature. Confocal microscopy and flow cytometry showed a higher uptake of the amine-modified porous silicon in comparison to the magnetic nanocomposite in MDA-MB-231 cells. The temperature increase to 45 �C showed a reduced particle uptake, yet future studies monitoring the fluorescence from the free drug rather than the nanocarrier will prove useful. This novel system has laid the groundwork for a promising tool for clinicians to lessen the burden that millions of cancer patients face as they receive treatment

Alexa Skill Voice Interface For The Moodle Learning Management System

Most educational and training organizations today use some type of learning management system (LMS) to make course material available. Learning management system users want easy and fast access to learning materials. LMS access is typically provided through an online interface or a mobile application, both of which require the use of touch and sight on a computer or device. The last decade has brought considerable progress in voice technology, making the use of voice-enabled devices more common. Since both technology and usage are continuing to grow, voice interfaces will become even more important for modern applications. The purpose of this thesis is to develop a voice user interface for a learning management system: specifically, an Amazon Alexa skill for Moodle. The research thoroughly outlines the process of developing an Alexa skill for Moodle. An Alexa skill integration with Moodle will allow users to more quickly and conveniently access information from the LMS. Immediate benefits of the project include providing site announcements to all users, course announcements to students and teachers, and overall course grades and upcoming due dates to students. In the future, the application may be expanded to implement instructor capabilities and additional course content for students

The design and implementation of a smart-parking system for Helsinki Area

The strain on the parking infrastructure for the general public has significantly grown as a result of the ever rising number of vehicles geared by the rapid population growth in urban areas. Consequently, finding a vacant parking space has become quite a challenging task, especially at peak hours. Drivers have to cycle back and forth a number of times before they finally find where to park. This leads to increased fuel consumption, air pollution, and increased likelihood of causing accidents, to mention but a few. Paying for the parking is not straight forward either, as the ticket machines, on top of being located at a distance, in many times, they have several payment methods drivers must prepare for. A system therefore, that would allow drivers to check for the vacant parking places before driving to a busy city, takes care of the parking fee for exact time they have used, manages electronic parking permit, is the right direction towards toppling these difficulties. The main objective of this project was to design and implement a system that would provide parking occupancy estimation, parking fee payment method, parking permit management and parking analytics for the city authorities. The project had three phases. The first and the second phases used qualitative approaches to validate our hypotheses about parking shortcoming in Helsinki area and the recruitment of participants to the pilot of the project, respectively. The third phase involved the design, implementation and installation of the system. The other objective was to study the challenges a smart parking system would face at different stages of its life cycle. The objectives of the project were achieved and the considered assumption about the challenges associated with parking in a busy city were validated. A smart parking system will allow drivers to check for available parking spaces beforehand, they are able to pay for the parking fee, they can get electronic parking permits, and the city authority can get parking analytics for the city plannin

Deploying RIOT operating system on a reconfigurable Internet of Things end-device

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Engenharia Eletrónica Industrial e ComputadoresThe Internet of Everything (IoE) is enabling the connection of an infinity of physical objects to the Internet, and has the potential to connect every single existing object in the world. This empowers a market with endless opportunities where the big players are forecasting, by 2020, more than 50 billion connected devices, representing an 8 trillion USD market. The IoE is a broad concept that comprises several technological areas and will certainly, include more in the future. Some of those already existing fields are the Internet of Energy related with the connectivity of electrical power grids, Internet of Medical Things (IoMT), for instance, enables patient monitoring, Internet of Industrial Things (IoIT), which is dedicated to industrial plants, and the Internet of Things (IoT) that focus on the connection of everyday objects (e.g. home appliances, wearables, transports, buildings, etc.) to the Internet. The diversity of scenarios where IoT can be deployed, and consequently the different constraints associated to each device, leads to a heterogeneous network composed by several communication technologies and protocols co-existing on the same physical space. Therefore, the key requirements of an IoT network are the connectivity and the interoperability between devices. Such requirement is achieved by the adoption of standard protocols and a well-defined lightweight network stack. Due to the adoption of a standard network stack, the data processed and transmitted between devices tends to increase. Because most of the devices connected are resource constrained, i.e., low memory, low processing capabilities, available energy, the communication can severally decrease the device’s performance. Hereupon, to tackle such issues without sacrificing other important requirements, this dissertation aims to deploy an operating system (OS) for IoT, the RIOT-OS, while providing a study on how network-related tasks can benefit from hardware accelerators (deployed on reconfigurable technology), specially designed to process and filter packets received by an IoT device.O conceito Internet of Everything (IoE) permite a conexão de uma infinidade de objetos à Internet e tem o potencial de conectar todos os objetos existentes no mundo. Favorecendo assim o aparecimento de novos mercados e infinitas possibilidades, em que os grandes intervenientes destes mercados preveem até 2020 a conexão de mais de 50 mil milhões de dispositivos, representando um mercado de 8 mil milhões de dólares. IoE é um amplo conceito que inclui várias áreas tecnológicas e irá certamente incluir mais no futuro. Algumas das áreas já existentes são: a Internet of Energy relacionada com a conexão de redes de transporte e distribuição de energia à Internet; Internet of Medical Things (IoMT), que possibilita a monotorização de pacientes; Internet of Industrial Things (IoIT), dedicada a instalações industriais e a Internet of Things (IoT), que foca na conexão de objetos do dia-a-dia (e.g. eletrodomésticos, wearables, transportes, edifícios, etc.) à Internet. A diversidade de cenários à qual IoT pode ser aplicado, e consequentemente, as diferentes restrições aplicadas a cada dispositivo, levam à criação de uma rede heterogénea composto por diversas tecnologias de comunicação e protocolos a coexistir no mesmo espaço físico. Desta forma, os requisitos chave aplicados às redes IoT são a conectividade e interoperabilidade entre dispositivos. Estes requisitos são atingidos com a adoção de protocolos standard e pilhas de comunicação bem definidas. Com a adoção de pilhas de comunicação standard, a informação processada e transmitida entre dispostos tende a aumentar. Visto que a maioria dos dispositivos conectados possuem escaços recursos, i.e., memória reduzida, baixa capacidade de processamento, pouca energia disponível, o aumento da capacidade de comunicação pode degradar o desempenho destes dispositivos. Posto isto, para lidar com estes problemas e sem sacrificar outros requisitos importantes, esta dissertação pretende fazer o porting de um sistema operativo IoT, o RIOT, para uma solução reconfigurável, o CUTE mote. O principal objetivo consiste na realização de um estudo sobre os benefícios que as tarefas relacionadas com as camadas de rede podem ter ao serem executadas em hardware via aceleradores dedicados. Estes aceleradores são especialmente projetados para processar e filtrar pacotes de dados provenientes de uma interface radio em redes IoT periféricas

A Federated Architecture for Heuristics Packet Filtering in Cloud Networks

The rapid expansion in networking has provided tremendous opportunities to access an unparalleled amount of information. Everyone connects to a network to gain access and to share this information. However when someone connects to a public network, his private network and information becomes vulnerable to hackers and all kinds of security threats. Today, all networks needs to be secured, and one of the best security policies is firewall implementation. Firewalls can be hardware or cloud based. Hardware based firewalls offer the advantage of faster response time, whereas cloud based firewalls are more flexible. In reality the best form of firewall protection is the combination of both hardware and cloud firewall. In this thesis, we implemented and configured a federated architecture using both firewalls, the Cisco ASA 5510 and Vyatta VC6.6 Cloud Based Firewall. Performance evaluation of both firewalls were conducted and analyzed based on two scenarios; spike and endurance test. Throughputs were also compared, along with some mathematical calculations using statistics. Different forms of packets were sent using a specialized tool designed for load testing known as JMeter. After collecting the results and analyzing it thoroughly, this thesis is concluded by presenting a heuristics method on how packet filtering would fall back to the cloud based firewall when the hardware based firewall becomes stressed and over loaded, thus allowing efficient packet flow and optimized performance. The result of this thesis can be used by Information Security Analyst, students, organizations and IT experts to have an idea on how to implement a secured network architecture to protect digital information

Demystifying Internet of Things Security

Break down the misconceptions of the Internet of Things by examining the different security building blocks available in Intel Architecture (IA) based IoT platforms. This open access book reviews the threat pyramid, secure boot, chain of trust, and the SW stack leading up to defense-in-depth. The IoT presents unique challenges in implementing security and Intel has both CPU and Isolated Security Engine capabilities to simplify it. This book explores the challenges to secure these devices to make them immune to different threats originating from within and outside the network. The requirements and robustness rules to protect the assets vary greatly and there is no single blanket solution approach to implement security. Demystifying Internet of Things Security provides clarity to industry professionals and provides and overview of different security solutions What You'll Learn Secure devices, immunizing them against different threats originating from inside and outside the network Gather an overview of the different security building blocks available in Intel Architecture (IA) based IoT platforms Understand the threat pyramid, secure boot, chain of trust, and the software stack leading up to defense-in-depth Who This Book Is For Strategists, developers, architects, and managers in the embedded and Internet of Things (IoT) space trying to understand and implement the security in the IoT devices/platforms