The development and applications of serious games in the public services: defence and health

This thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University London.The latest advances of Virtual Reality technologies and three-dimensional graphics, as well as the developments in Gaming Technologies in the recent years, have stemmed the proliferation of Serious Games in a broader spectrum of research applications. Among the most popular areas of application are public services such as Defence and Health, where digital technologies realise new challenges and opportunities for research and development of Serious Games and for a variety of contexts. As with all games, the user engagement is elevated and apart from the entertaining aspect, Serious Games serve as a novel and promising alternative experience to knowledge transfer. Furthermore, Serious Games bring to the end user and the overall society a series of attractive benefits. These benefits include safety, cost-effectiveness, increased motivation and personalisation. Hence, this Thesis aims to investigate novel approaches of developing Serious Games that utilise the recent advances of Virtual Reality and Gaming Technology and facilitate the aforementioned benefits. The process of design and development of the novel tools and applications follow an iterative manner and are driven by the review of the available literature as well as end-user feedbackEPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council ) , MOD (UK), NHS (UK

Electron Damage Effects on Carbon Nanotube Thin Films

This research investigated the effects of electron damage on single walled carbon nanotube (CNT) thin films. CNT thin films were irradiated by electrons with energies of 500 keV and 1 MeV to determine what damage was created in the CNT thin film structure, how it affected conductivity, and what changes were evident in the Raman spectra

Non-destructive Testing in Civil Engineering

This Special Issue, entitled “Non-Destructive Testing in Civil Engineering”, aims to present to interested researchers and engineers the latest achievements in the field of new research methods, as well as the original results of scientific research carried out with their use—not only in laboratory conditions but also in selected case studies. The articles published in this Special Issue are theoretical–experimental and experimental, and also show the practical nature of the research. They are grouped by topic, and the main content of each article is briefly discussed for your convenience. These articles extend the knowledge in the field of non-destructive testing in civil engineering with regard to new and improved non-destructive testing (NDT) methods, their complementary application, and also the analysis of their results—including the use of sophisticated mathematical algorithms and artificial intelligence, as well as the diagnostics of materials, components, structures, entire buildings, and interesting case studies

Marshall Space Flight Center Faculty Fellowship Program

The 2017 Marshall Faculty Fellowship Program involved 21 faculty in the laboratories and departments at Marshall Space Flight Center. These faculty engineers and scientists worked with NASA collaborators on NASA projects, bringing new perspectives and solutions to bear. This Technical Memorandum is a compilation of the research reports of the 2017 Marshall Faculty Fellowship program, along with the Program Announcement (Appendix A) and the Program Description (Appendix B). The research affected the following six areas: (1) Materials (2) Propulsion (3) Instrumentation (4) Spacecraft systems (5) Vehicle systems (6) Space science The materials investigations included composite structures, printing electronic circuits, degradation of materials by energetic particles, friction stir welding, Martian and Lunar regolith for in-situ construction, and polymers for additive manufacturing. Propulsion studies were completed on electric sails and low-power arcjets for use with green propellants. Instrumentation research involved heat pipes, neutrino detectors, and remote sensing. Spacecraft systems research was conducted on wireless technologies, layered pressure vessels, and two-phase flow. Vehicle systems studies were performed on life support-biofilm buildup and landing systems. In the space science area, the excitation of electromagnetic ion-cyclotron waves observed by the Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission provided insight regarding the propagation of these waves. Our goal is to continue the Marshall Faculty Fellowship Program funded by Center internal project offices. Faculty Fellows in this 2017 program represented the following minority-serving institutions: Alabama A&M University and Oglala Lakota College

Proceedings of the 2016 Berry Summer Thesis Institute

Thanks to a gift from the Berry Family Foundation and the Berry family, the University Honors Program launched the Berry Summer Thesis Institute in 2012. The institute introduces students in the University Honors Program to intensive research, scholarship opportunities and professional development. Each student pursues a 12-week summer thesis research project under the guidance of a UD faculty mentor. This contains the product of the students\u27 research

Fluorescent enzymatic smart tattoos comprising hybrid silicate microparticles, metalloporphyrin complexes, and mass transport-limiting nanofilms

Diabetics are often required to self-monitor blood glucose levels to effectively deliver prescribed therapies. However, the pain and bother associated with traditional finger-prick measurements often result in decreased patient compliance and therefore poor disease management, which could result in the early-onset of complications. Enzymatic smart tattoos —implantable luminescent particles that may be transdermally interrogated with light—are being pursued as minimally-invasive diabetic monitoring devices, with hopes of increasing diabetic compliance by reducing excessive pain and bother associated with finger-prick measurements. These devices typically comprise an oxygen-quenched luminescent dye and glucose oxidase (GOx), an enzyme that catalyzes the oxidation of β-D-glucose. Under glucose-limited reaction conditions, local glucose concentrations can be extracted from oxygen-dependent emission spectra or luminescence lifetimes. Previously, enzymatic smart tattoos comprising enzyme-doped alginate hydrogel microsphere sensors and ruthenium complexes as oxygen indicators were reported. In this dissertation, however, the integration of a more sensitive metalloporphyrin oxygen indicator, Pt(II) Octaethylporphine (PtOEP), and the reference probe, Rhodamine B Isothiocyanate (RITC), into enzyme-doped alginate-modified silica ( algilica ) particles is presented. A particularly important feature of these sensors is the shift from traditional ruthenium-based oxygen indicators to metalloporphyrin complexes, due in part to higher excitation wavelengths which reduce the effects of tissue scatter and absorption, increased photostability, and higher oxygen sensitivity. Using the novel algilica matrix and diffusion-limiting nanofilms, glucose sensitivities of two orders of magnitude greater than ruthenium-based enzymatic smart tattoos were achieved with porphyrin oxygen indicators. Of central importance was the demonstration that surface adsorbed polyelectrolyte nanofilms allowed glucose sensitivity and range to be controlled by modulating substrate flux into the sensor, resulting in sensitivities (change in intensity ratio) of 1–5 Wing dL-1 and upper range limits of 90–250 mg/dL. Remarkably, it was shown that nanofilms only 12 nanometers thick could significantly affect response behavior, confirming theoretical predictions based on models of reaction-diffusion kinetics. To approach clinical utility, implantable smart tattoos must maintain appropriate function for at least 6 months. Therefore, to examine the effects of long-term operation on sensor function, a mathematical model was developed and the output validated with experimental results. Both theoretical and experimental results demonstrated limited device lifetime (∼ 90% loss of sensitivity over 24 hours) due to enzyme inactivation resulting from hydrogen peroxide, a byproduct of glucose oxidation. To improve longterm stability, a first-generation bi-enzymatic smart tattoo prototype was constructed via the co-incorporation of catalase, an enzyme that consumes hydrogen peroxide, which enhanced response stability two fold over time. Furthermore, to design clinically viable implantation schemes, it is important to understand how individual sensors within a population contribute to overall response properties. Thus, an imaging technique was developed to perform real-time ratiometric imaging of individual sensor function. The results indicated significant differences in sensor behavior depending on location within the sensor population and/or physical parameters, as expected. These findings demonstrate the feasibility of engineering highly sensitive enzymatic-based glucose sensors and lay the groundwork for developments of additional enzymatic analyte sensors

Investigating the Potential of UAV-Based Low-Cost Camera Imagery for Measuring Biophysical Variables in Maize

The potential for improved crop productivity is readily investigated in agronomic field experiments. Frequent measurements of biophysical crop variables are necessary to allow for confident statements on crop performance. Commonly, in-field measurements are tedious, labour-intensive, costly and spatially selective and therefore pose a challenge in field experiments. With the versatile, flexible employment of the platform and the high spatial and temporal resolution of the sensor data, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)-based remote sensing offers the possibility to derive variables quickly, contactless and at low cost. This thesis examined if UAV-borne modified low-cost camera imagery allowed for remote estimation of the crop variables green leaf area index (gLAI) and radiation use efficiency (RUE) in a maize field trial under different management influences. For this, a field experiment was established at the university's research station Campus Klein-Altendorf southwest of Bonn in the years 2015 and 2016. In four treatments (two levels of nitrogen fertilisation and two levels of plant density) with five repetitions each, leaf growth of maize plants was supposed to occur differently. gLAI and biomass was measured destructively, UAV-based data was acquired in 14-day intervals over the entire experiment. Three studies were conducted and submitted for peer-review in international journals. In study I, three selected spectral vegetation indices (NDVI, GNDVI, 3BSI) were related to the gLAI measurements. Differing but definite relationships per treatment factor were found. gLAI estimation using the two-band indices (NDVI, GNDVI) yielded good results up to gLAI values of 3. The 3-bands approach (3BSI) did not provide improved accuracies. Comparing gLAI results to the spectral vegetation indices, it was determined that sole reliance on these was insufficient to draw the right conclusions on the impact of management factors on leaf area development in maize canopies. Study II evaluated parametric and non-parametric regression methods on their capability to estimate gLAI in maize, relying on UAV-based low-cost camera imagery with non-plants pixels (i.e. shaded and illuminated soil background) a) included in and b) excluded from the analysis. With regard to the parametric regression methods, all possible band combinations for a selected number of two- and three-band formulations as well as different fitting functions were tested. With regard to non-parametric methods, six regression algorithms (Random Forests Regression, Support Vector Regression, Relevance Vector Machines, Gaussian Process Regression, Kernel Regularized Least Squares, Extreme Learning Machine) were tested. It was found that all non-parametric methods performed better than the parametric methods, and that kernel-based algorithms outperformed the other tested algorithms. Excluding non-plant pixels from the analysis deteriorated models' performances. When using parametric regression methods, signal saturation occurred at gLAI values of about 3, and at values around 4 when employing non-parametric methods. Study III investigated if a) UAV-based low-cost camera imagery allowed estimating RUEs in different experimental plots where maize was cultivated in the growing season of 2016, b) those values were different from the ones previously reported in literature and c) there was a difference between RUEtotal and RUEgreen. Fractional cover and canopy reflectance was determined based on the RS imagery. Our study showed that RUEtotal ranges between 4.05 and 4.59, and RUEgreen between 4.11 and 4.65. These values were higher than those published in other research articles, but not outside the range of plausibility. The difference between RUEtotal and RUEgreen was minimal, possibly due to prolonged canopy greenness induced by the stay-green trait of the cultivar grown. In conclusion, UAV-based low-cost camera imagery allows for estimation of plant variables within a range of limitations