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Design and Validation of an Experimental Heart Model for the Evaluation of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Procedure Performance
Get PDFThis research project has two main objectives: the first one is to design and create an in vitro heart simulator that can replicate the human heart conditions during Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) procedure, and the second is to determine the optimal location and parameters for compressions during CPR by comparing the hemodynamics effects resulting from the variation of these parameters. For that, an innovative custom-made in vitro heart simulator is designed. This simulator is a novel and non-invasive method that provides numerous benefits, including the ability to gather patient-specific data without causing harm to humans or animals. The system is first proved to be reliable by comparing the results obtained from the simulator to the literature. The optimal compression area with the best aortic pressure and flow outcome is then determined by testing different locations of compression on the right ventricle. The results showed that the centre of the right ventricle which correlates to the centre of the left ventricle had the most favorable outcome in terms of aortic pressure and flow. Through a comparison of the results with current guidelines and recent literature findings, this study suggests that the compressions should be positioned down and to the left of the inter-nipple line
Conscious Beholding: Strategies, Methods, & Approaches Of Transgender & Gender-Nonconforming Filmmakers
Get PDFRepresentation of transgender and gender non-conforming (T&GNC) identities in media is crucially important - it helps to form self-identity, contextualizes personhood, and cultivates community. However, we as T&GNC people are going to have to create much of this representation for ourselves. We cannot rely on most mainstream media producers and systems for meaningfully accurate or good faith depiction, as has been routinely historically demonstrated. This research-creation thesis thus works to answer the following question: in the context of film, what are non-mainstream transgender and gender non-conforming filmmakers doing to create more reflective, self-generated representations? Specifically, what unique strategies, approaches, techniques, and mobilizations are being employed to tell novel stories about transness and gender-nonconformity? Essentially: what are T&GNC filmmakers doing differently? Garnering data through qualitative interviews and interpreting it through the framework of experiential narrative, this thesis ultimately identifies a series of production and narrative-based strategies and phenomena - including funding issues, narrative incidentalism, commercial disavowal, and a communal shift - as key dynamics informing T&GNC-made film that, taken together, help to illuminate the practices, struggles, and aims of such filmmakers
Intelligent Cyber-Physical Monitoring, Fault-Tolerant, and Attack-Resilient Control of Renewable Energy Systems in Smart Grid
Get PDFThe energy sector is facing the challenge of meeting increasing demands for electricity in a safe and eco-friendly way. Governments worldwide are investing in renewable energy systems and smart grids, such as wind turbines and solar photovoltaic systems, to overcome the limitations of traditional power grids and diversify energy sources. To improve the reliability, security, and cost-effectiveness of renewable energy systems within a smart grid framework, innovative methods for fault detection, diagnosis, and fault-tolerant control, as well as intrusion detection, diagnosis, and attack-resilient control systems, are required. The thesis research is divided into two parts. The first part investigates a hybrid renewable microgrid composed of various distributed generation systems, such as solar, wind, and battery. The research proposes innovative solutions for detecting and identifying physical faults and cyber-attacks, and offers fault-tolerant and attack-resilient control strategies for photovoltaic systems within the microgrid. The second part of the research focuses on wind farms, where an intrusion detection and fault diagnosis system is proposed, along with cooperative fault-tolerant and attack-resilient control strategies to effectively mitigate the adverse impacts of physical faults and cyber-attacks. The research ultimately aims to enhance the reliability, security, and cost-effectiveness of renewable energy systems within a smart grid framework. The main objective of the research is to develop novel cyber-physical condition monitoring, diagnosis, and fault-tolerant and attack-resilient control strategies for renewable energy resources, including smart microgrids and wind farms, to ensure efficient and reliable performance under physical faults and cyber-attacks. The proposed solutions and strategies in this research are verified through a series of simulations on advanced microgrid and wind farm benchmark models, considering their real-life nonlinear nature and possible measurement noises, disturbances, and various realistic fault and attack scenarios. Ultimately, the research aims to contribute to the advancement of renewable energy systems within a smart grid framework towards a sustainable and secure energy future
Are We Safe? On Violence Against Women Through Simone de Beauvoir’s Work
Get PDFThis essay titled Are We Safe? On Violence Against Women Through Simone de Beauvoir’s Work explores Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex, with the objective to con- tribute to the uncovering of the root of the normalization of male violence towards women. The contention is that we cannot understand why violence against women occurs without first undertaking the task of exploring the becoming of children born in a situation, i.e., a sexed body within a society. Therefore, the main research question which the thesis investigates is the extent to which we can use Beauvoir’s magnum opus and her theory of woman as the Other to understand this phenomenological question. The research also describes the central idea of becoming for the sexes (and becoming of the genders) and the overall pressures applied to bodies, thus encouraging them to perform because of that body. It will present the contemporary feminist philosophy that is circulating around Beauvoir’s work and its current reception. Three major chapters will be explored —The Biological Data, The Psychoanalytical Point of View, and The Historical Materialism Point of View—as well as three major concepts to understand the becoming of women as the Other to men, i. e., girlhood, sexual initiation, and heterosexual love. This idea from Beauvoir is based in a sex binary, but this be- coming is still relevant to keep in mind as social pressures apply to all genders. These chapter findings lead to the initial claim that male violence towards women — and its normalization — stem from the embodied experience that is the becoming of children
A Linked Data approach to SpokenWeb collections
Get PDFThis two-part workshop intends to explore the possibilities of Linked Data within the SpokenWeb collections. Linked Data is structured data that is interlinked with other data, in our metadata schema this interlinking occurs on different fields such as location, creator, contributors and most notably on the content’s fields. The first part of the workshop will be a demonstration of the tool we develop to make such interlinking task easier on the cataloguers, and a demo instance of a linked data database system with some examples applications and visualizations. The second part of the session would be an open dialogue to explore different possibilities of this technology that might be of interest to our community moving forward
Embedding ionic hydrogel in 3D printed human-centric devices for mechanical sensing
Get PDFFlexible sensor applications have increasingly focused on ionically conductive hydrogels due to their notable deformability and easily tunable properties compared to rigid materials. These hydrogels possess electrical properties, thanks to their high water content and porous structure that facilitate effective ion transfer. Despite their attractive features, hydrogels have limitations in terms of water retention and shape fidelity, and they are more typically inspected as two dimensional films and patches. In this paper, 3D printed thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) elastomer frames with various geometries were injected with ionic conductive polyacrylamide (PAAm) based hydrogels to create durable, robust soft mechanical sensors for detecting strain, pressure, and bending through changes in their electrical resistance. After the effectiveness of the TPU encasement in maintaining the hydrogel water content was demonstrated, hydrogel embedded frames with varying geometries were designed. Their response to mechanical loading was investigated in relation to their dimensions and geometric shape. Finally, glove-shaped frames were fabricated to fit human fingers and injected with ionic hydrogel for sensing abilities. The wearable sensors accommodated free movement of the fingers in multiple directions and were able to detect simultaneous and independent bending and stretching of the fingers. Through comprehensive observation of the electrical behavior of all soft ionic sensors in response to different kinds of mechanical stimuli, it was concluded that the resistance change following mechanical loading was dependent on the specific geometric features of each individual hybrid sensor. Thus, ionic hydrogel-embedded TPU encasement could be designed with targeted geometry to dictate the type and direction of mechanical sensing with regard to its application. This work presents a facile approach to fabricating multi-component soft geometric sensors with potential to be used for wearable electronics and human–machine interactions
Enzyme-based Tablet Sensor: A Tool for Point-of-Care Detection of Glucose in Urine
Get PDFMonitoring glucose levels in biological samples is crucial to prevent complications arising from high blood glucose, such as heart-related issues, kidney problems, and vision loss. Traditional colorimetric glucose detection in urine relies on enzymatic reactions, offering a low-cost and non-invasive method for diabetes management. However, enzymes used in these assays are highly susceptible to environmental conditions, particularly elevated temperatures, which limit their transportation and storage.
In response to this challenge, this thesis presents a novel solution: the development of stable and portable enzyme-based tablet sensors. In this technique, glucose oxidase and horseradish peroxidase enzymes are encapsulated within a water-soluble dextran matrix, transforming them into solid tablets. This encapsulation enhances enzyme stability and practicality, making these sensors user-friendly. The enzymatic tablet-based sensor demonstrates remarkable capabilities, detecting glucose in urine samples within a rapid 5-minute timeframe. Utilizing 3,3',5,5'-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) as the indicator, the tablet sensor exhibits impressive performance within the clinically relevant glucose concentration range of 0-6 mM, boasting a remarkable limit of detection at 0.013 mM. Furthermore, these enzyme tablets exhibit enhanced thermal stability, retaining their activity even at an elevated temperature of up to 60 ℃, surpassing the performance of solution-phase enzymes. This resilience under harsh conditions significantly expands the accessibility and application of glucose sensors, especially in resource-limited settings. The development of these tablet sensors represents a significant advancement in glucose monitoring technology, offering an effective and user-friendly solution for diabetes management
Exploring the Ethereum Merge: Pearson Correlation, Granger Causality, and Wavelet Coherence Analysis of the Lead-Lag Relationship Between Ethereum, Bitcoin, Twitter Sentiment and Twitter Uncertainty
Get PDFIn the realm of cryptocurrencies, the environmental impact of proof-of-work (POW) mining has long been a contentious issue, primarily due to its substantial energy consumption. This paper explores the transition from POW to proof-of-stake (POS) in Ethereum, known as "The Merge," which drastically reduced energy consumption and enhanced scalability and security. Leveraging a vast dataset of over 1.6 million tweets and specific hashtags, this study constructs a Twitter cryptocurrency sentiment index. Along with the Twitter-based Uncertainty Index constructed by Baker et al., 2021, this study delves into the lead-lag relationship between Ethereum, Bitcoin and the two aforementioned indexes using Pearson correlation, Granger causality, and wavelet analysis. We found that Bitcoin and Ethereum exhibit a lead-lag relationship, that the influence of social media sentiment on cryptocurrency prices appeared not to change post-merge and that Bitcoin and Ethereum remained relatively stable and less susceptible to the effects of the merge. Furthermore, the study develops a lead-lag momentum trading strategy, highlighting a robust relationship between Ethereum and Bitcoin prices, offering lucrative trading opportunities. This research contributes to a deeper understanding of cryptocurrency market dynamics and their interconnectedness with social media sentiment
Women for (Populist) Women? The radical-right gender gap under women leaders in Norway and Denmark
Get PDFThe radical-right gender gap, i.e., the fact that women vote for populist radical-right parties less than men, is a well-studied phenomenon across Western democracies. However, no conclusive answer has been reached as to why the radical-right gender gap exists. We ask whether the gender of the leader may affect the gap. We hypothesize that when populist radical-right parties are led by women, female voters may vote for these parties in greater numbers, thus reducing or eliminating the radical-right gender gap. We take a women-centered approach that considers women as full political agency and who may make electoral decisions for reasons that differ from men. Using binomial and multinomial logistic regressions, we reproduce and improve upon existing research by Nonna Mayer (2015) by applying it to the cases of populist radical-right parties in Norway and Denmark. We find no support for our hypotheses: the radical-right gender gap is neither reduced nor eliminated under female leadership of populist radical-right parties, and it is sometimes greater under female leadership than under male leadership
Three Essays on the Economics of Education and Human Capital
Get PDFThis thesis consists of three chapters. In the first chapter, I estimate a dynamic model
of schooling on two longitudinal datasets and find that the effect of relative family income
on education has decreased between the early 1990’s and the early 2010’s. After considering
a cognitive ability measure, family background variables and unobserved heterogeneity, the
marginal effects of relative income on grade progression in college have become smaller for
the younger cohort and the differences between the two cohorts are not statistically significant.
Meanwhile, in the same period, the effect of unobserved heterogeneity in explaining
the variation in educational attainment has increased significantly.
In the second chapter, I study the effect of participation in after-school activities and
working while in school on high school performance in the US. Since the decision to work
or participate in extracurricular activities is endogenous, several methods were used in this
paper to overcome this issue. The results show that working has a detrimental impact
on individuals’ GPAs. Contrary to the effect of working, participating in extracurricular
activities significantly improves academic performance.
In the third chapter, I estimate a dynamic factor model of the evolution of cognitive
and noncognitive skills and the role of the family environment in moulding these skills in
the teenage years. The results show that parental investments (both in terms of time and
money) improved noncognitive skills but not cognitive skills for the 1988 cohort. The effect
on cognitive skills has increased in the later cohort