Algorithms leveraging smartphone sensing for analyzing explosion events

The increasing frequency of explosive disasters throughout the world in recent years have created a clear need for the systems to monitor for them continuously to improve the post-disaster emergency events such as rescue and recovery operations. Disasters both man-made and natural are unfortunate and not preferred, however monitoring them may be a lifesaving phenomenon in emergency scenarios. Dedicated sensors deployed in the public places and their associated networks to monitor such events may be inadequate and must be complemented for making the monitoring more pervasive and effective. In the recent past, modern smartphones with significant processing, networking and storage capabilities have become a rich source of mobile infrastructure empowering participatory sensing to address many problems in the area of pervasive computing. In the work presented in this dissertation, smartphone sensed data during disastrous scenarios is extensively studied, analyzed and algorithms were built for participatory sensing to address the problems, specifically in the context of Explosion -- Events which are of interest to the current study. This work presents description of the systems for assisting people by detecting, ranging and estimating intensity of the explosion events leveraging multi-modal smartphone sensors. This work also presents various challenges and opportunities in utilizing the capabilities of the sensors in smartphone for building such systems along with practical applications, limitations and future directions --Abstract, page iii

On temporal and frequency responses of smartphone accelerometers for explosives detection

The increasing frequency of explosive disasters throughout the world in recent years have created a clear need for the systems to monitor for them continuously for better detection and to improve the post disaster rescue operations. Dedicated sensors deployed in the public places and their associated networks to monitor such explosive events are still inadequate and must be complemented for making the detection more pervasive and effective. Modern smart phones are a rich source of sensing because of the fact that they are equipped with wide range of sensors making these devices an appealing platform for pervasive computing applications. The processing capabilities of the smartphone are fairly good for its sensors to be used in building explosive detection systems on them which will make the existing systems more robust and sensing handy to the mobile users. This thesis presents various challenges and opportunities in utilizing the capabilities of the sensors in smartphone for building those systems. Using inexpensive accelerometer sensors in the smartphone, a design of Smartphone based Seismometer for explosion detection is been proposed in this work. We have evaluated the design using the accelerometer raw-data collected by the smartphone from a real explosion blasted in a mining laboratory --Abstract, page iii

Phototreatment of Water by Organic Photosensitizers and Comparison with Inorganic Semiconductors

Phototreatment of water is drawing the attention of many as a promising alternative to replace methods like chlorination, ozonization, and other oxidation processes, used in current disinfection methods limiting harmful side-products and by-products that can cause damage to the fauna and flora. Porphyrins, phthalocyanines, and other related organic dyes are well known for their use in photodynamic therapy (PDT). These photosensitizers cause cell death by generating reactive oxygen species (ROS) especially singlet oxygen in the presence of light. Such molecules are also being explored for photodynamically treating microbial infections, killing of unwanted pathogens in the environment, and oxidation of chemical pollutants. The process of photosensitisation (phototreatment) can be applied for obtaining clean, microbe-free water, thus exploiting the versatile properties of photosensitizers. This review collects the various attempts carried out for phototreatment of water using organic photosensitizers. For comparison, some reports of semiconductors (especially TiO2) used in photocatalytic treatment of water are also mentioned

Systems and Methods for Emergency Situation Communications

A system for enabling communications during an emergency situation is described. A system may be configured to generate graphical user interfaces including a map displaying a location and a status of the one or more users located at the scene of an emergency situation. The graphical user interfaces may be displayed on a user\u27s portable computing device. The graphical user interfaces may be displayed at a computing device located at a dispatcher site

Pharmacoeconomics of allergic rhinitis drugs treatment in tertiary care hospital

Background: Allergic rhinitis also called hay fever; it is a very common in India. Harmless exposing substances cause an allergic reaction. Allergic rhinitis is of the two types, one is the seasonal occurred with the change of seasons, second is the perennial means any time during the year.Methods: This was a cross-sectional study to determine the cost analysis allergic rhinitis drugs used in treatment of ENT OPD in a tertiary care teaching hospital, Kamothe, Navi Mumbai. The patients were interviewed; prescriptions were analyzed number of medicines prescribed.Results: Incidence of polypharmacy two drugs per prescriptions were prescribed 140 and three drugs per prescriptions 60. In the total number of 200 prescriptions, the cost of 43 prescriptions were in between 251-300 Indian rupees and 18 prescriptions were 301-350 Indian rupees. Patient knowledge about the drug use in this study, out of 200 pts 37% of allergic rhinitis patients knew the correct dosage of the prescribed drugs while 63% were not aware.Conclusions: Majority of the participants drugs were prescribed two to three drugs, per prescription cost was high because all the drugs prescribed by brand name and no drugs were prescribed by generic name. Improvement in knowledge about generic medicines is important factor to prefer generic medicine. Reduction in cost of drug will improve compliance

Toward DMD Illuminated Spatial-Temporal Modulated Thermography

This paper reports on a system using a Digital Micromirror Device (DMD) to modulate a near-infrared laser source spatially and temporally. The DMD can produce an arbitrary heat source varying both spatially and temporally over the target. When the thermal response of the target surface is recorded using a thermal imager, this provides new possibilities in subsurface defect detection, partially with regard to features whose orientation does not allow them to be resolved using conventional thermographic inspection techniques. In this respect it is similar to conventional focused spot detection approaches; however, the DMD allows the signal to be frequency/phase multiplexed which provides for simultaneous interrogation over a large area. The parallel nature of the process permits a longer inspection time at each point which has signal-to-noise benefits. Preliminary experiments demonstrating the multiplexing approach are presented using a low-cost thermal imager. A NIR laser is spatially and temporary modulated to generated multiple thermal line sources on the surface of a composite circuit board. The infrared response is demodulated point-by-point at each drive frequency. This permits the thermal response from each line source to be resolved individually. Beyond damage detection the approach also has applications to system identification. Initial limitations due to the test setup are discussed along with future system improvements

22π‑Electrons [1.1.1.1.1] pentaphyrin as a new photosensitizing agent for water disinfection: experimental and theoretical characterization

In view of their promising photosensitizing features, expanded porphyrins are gaining wide attention for their potential use in both photodynamic therapy (PDT) of cancer or as likely photoactivated agent for water disinfection. Herein, we report a joint experimental and theoretical investigation on the 20-(4’-carboxyphenyl)-2,13-dimethyl-3,12-diethyl-[22]pentaphyrin complex 4. The synthesis, NMR, UV-Vis and mass characterization of the new compound together with a detailed theoretical investigation of the photophysical properties are presented. In particular, type I- and type II- photoreactions have been explored by means of DFT and its TDDFT formulation characterizing the electronic absorption spectra, providing singlet-triplet energy gap, vertical ionization potential and electron affinity. Results show that title compound is able to generate the cytotoxic singlet oxygen species supporting the application of the proposed molecule as a photoactivated agent for water disinfection

Synthesis and characterization of new organic materials with potential application in water treatment

The PhD project deals with synthesis and characterization of organic photosensitizers in particular porphyrins and expanded porhyrins (pentaphyrins) for potential application in water disinfection. The growing population of harmful microbes and the development of resistance towards disinfectants/drugs calls for alternative and efficient methods of microbe destruction. Photodynamic therapy or photoinactivation is one such method that uses individually harmless components to destroy microorganisms. In view of this, we have carried out series of trial synthesis for new photsensitizers in particular expanded porphyrins. The aim is to obtain photosensitizers that can deliver broad spectrum of action against both Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria and also other pathogenic organisms. On the other hand, the immobilization of porphyrins onto solid supports like magnetic nanoparticles and polymers were also studied so that the recovery and reuse of photosensitizers is possible. The polymer supported photosensitizers have remarkable photodynamic activity against Gram positive bacteria in presence of visible light and looks promising for further study as well as application in treating water bodies to make them microbe free

An Exploration of Virtual Reality Technologies for Museums

The Cryolo 1.0 is a practice-led research project that explores the processes and challenges of different virtual reality (VR) related technologies in the context of bringing static museum exhibits “to life”. It consists of producing four different applications that can be experienced on different platforms, such as a 3DoF VR video/application and an Augmented Reality (AR) application for mobile devices, a 6DoF VR application for VR devices such as the HTC Vive, and a Mixed Reality application suitable for a HoloLens or a MagicLeap. For the production of all these applications, various software and hardware were used in creating the 3D exhibit and a working production pipeline was developed. All the technical and infrastructure challenges experienced as part of this study will be discussed