Identification & Mitigation of NLOS Information for UWB based Indoor Localization

Technology advancements such as GPS, automation and robotics have completely changed the world and produced new industries, once thought to be unimaginable a century ago. As with all technology, these systems come with limitations and can be further improved. At this time, all of these systems share one common problem; they cannot work together in an indoor environment. The advent of indoor positioning systems aims to create a union between these technologies such as allowing robots to be location aware. Indoor positioning is currently a new technology with no defined standard. Ultra-wideband based indoor positioning systems have become popular because of their resistance to multipath and high resolution due to a large bandwidth. The Ultra-wideband based system in this thesis utilizes the time of arrival technique to calculate distances and thus a user’s position. Time of arrival is only reliable when there is a line-of-sight between two transceivers. If there is no line-of-sight, the distances calculated are inaccurate thus impacting the accuracy of a user’s position. This thesis proposes a practical, non-hardware intensive solution to identify if there is a no line-of-sight condition and mitigates the measured range between a tag and the anchor nodes. Line-of-sight identification was implemented using the channel impulse response data. Ranging and positioning mitigation was achieved using a geometric based mitigation scheme. An accuracy of 90% was achieved for the identification of no line-of-sight and an improvement factor of 2.81 was achieved for the calculated mitigated position of a tag

The influence of Lactobacillus paracasei LPC-37 on selected properties of fermented sausages

Fermented sausages rank among non-heat-treated meat products. Their nutritional properties are similar to the raw material, simultaneously their microbial safety and stability is ensured using additives and specific microbial cultures. The use of probiotic cultures can positively affect the processing of fermented sausages, resulting in the new technological properties and beneficial effect on human health. However, commercial application of probiotic microorganisms in fermented sausages is not common yet. Lactobacillus paracasei LPC-37 is a gram-positive, non-spore forming, homofermentative rod, which according to studies may modulate immune responses in human organism and survives the passage through the gastrointestinal tract. The main object of this work was to evaluate technological properties of L. paracasei LPC-37, which have not been fully examined. Two groups of fermented sausages were analysed in this work. The first group of fermented sausages was prepared using lyophilized starter culture (Lyocarni RHM-33). The second group of fermented sausages was prepared by the combination of lyophilized starter culture and potential probiotic culture Lactobacillus paracasei LPC-37. The processing and ripening of sausages were carried out in meat processing plant to simulate real conditions of production. The changes of the products (water activity, pH, concentration of organic acids and microbial growth) were evaluated during ripening (3 weeks), while sensory analysis was carried out in the final stage of the process and during storage (3 weeks). It was found that the environment of raw-fermented sausages is suitable for the growth and survival of Lactobacillus paracasei LPC-37 and the microbiological quality of the final product was very good (absence of Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes). The counts of lactobacilli reached 107 CFU/g of the product, which meet the requirements for functional foods. The results of the sensory evaluation showed that the overall quality of raw-fermented sausages with Lactobacillus paracasei LPC-37 was satisfactory and differed mainly in two taste descriptors (meaty and sour)

Albumin–Methotrexate Prodrug Analogues That Undergo Intracellular Reactivation Following Entrance into Cancerous Glioma Cells

A family of monomodified bovine serum albumin (BSA) linked to methotrexate (MTX) through a variety of spacers was prepared. All analogues were found to be prodrugs having low MTX-inhibitory potencies toward dihydrofolate reductase in a cell-free system. The optimal conjugates regenerated their antiproliferative efficacies following entrance into cancerous glioma cell lines and were significantly superior to MTX in an insensitive glioma cell line. A BSA–MTX conjugate linked through a simple ethylene chain spacer, containing a single peptide bond located 8.7 Å distal to the protein back bone, and apart from the covalently linked MTX by about 12 Å, was most effective. The inclusion of an additional disulfide bond in the spacer neither enhanced nor reduced the killing potency of this analogue. Disrupting the native structure of the carrier protein in the conjugates significantly reduced their antiproliferative activity. In conclusion, we have engineered BSA–MTX prodrug analogues which undergo intracellular reactivation and facilitate antiproliferative activities following their entrance into glioma cells