A low-cost sensornode is introduced to monitor the 5G EMF exposure in the Netherlands for the four FR1 frequency bands. The sensornode is validated with in-lab measurements both with CW signals as for QAM signals and perform for both cases and for all frequency bands an error less than 1 dB for a dynamic range of 40 dB. This sensor is a follow up of the earlier version of our previously developed sensor and have substantial improvements in terms of linearity, error, and stability.
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Spectral imaging has many applications, from methane detection using satellites to disease detection on crops. However, spectral cameras remain a costly solution ranging from 10 thousand to 100 thousand euros for the hardware alone. Here, we present a low-cost multispectral camera (LC-MSC) with 64 LEDs in eight different colors and a monochrome camera with a hardware cost of 340 euros. Our prototype reproduces spectra accurately when compared to a reference spectrometer to within the spectral width of the LEDs used and the ±1σ variation over the surface of ceramic reference tiles. The mean absolute difference in reflectance is an overestimate of 0.03 for the LC-MSC as compared to a spectrometer, due to the spectral shape of the tiles. In environmental light levels of 0.5 W m−2 (bright artificial indoor lighting) our approach shows an increase in noise, but still faithfully reproduces discrete reflectance spectra over 400 nm–1000 nm. Our approach is limited in its application by LED bandwidth and availability of specific LED wavelengths. However, unlike with conventional spectral cameras, the pixel pitch of the camera itself is not limited, providing higher image resolution than typical high-end multi- and hyperspectral cameras. For sample conditions where LED illumination bands provide suitable spectral information, our LC-MSC is an interesting low-cost alternative approach to spectral imaging.
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We report the detection of tryptophan at sub-ppb levels for a fluorometer based on Fresnel lenses and low-cost electronics. These fluorometers can be used to detect fecal contamination in drinking water, indicated by tryptophan-like fluorescence.
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Toeleverende bedrijven in de Brainport regio zijn veelal te typeren als high mix low volume (HMLV) productieomgevingen. Deze bedrijven kenmerken zich door een breed aanbod aan mogelijke producten (grote variëteit in producten), die veelal in lage volumes geproduceerd worden. Vaak zijn dit klantspecifieke producten die eenmalig, of incidenteel geproduceerd worden. Deze bedrijven focussen zich traditioneel op efficiënt gebruik van resources, waarbij bezettingsgraad en kostendekking relevant zijn. De toenemende klantvraag in de regio leidt tot druk op de productiecapaciteit. Een eerste intuïtieve reactie van deze bedrijven is om de bezettingsgraad van machines verder te verhogen. Om de kosten (Cost) beheersbaar te houden, wordt niet direct geïnvesteerd in extra capaciteit. Een ongewenst neveneffect is dat tijdigheid (Delivery, zoals levertijden, leverbetrouwbaarheid, flexibiliteit) en kwaliteit (Quality) verder onder druk komen te staan. De ogenschijnlijke tegenstrijdigheid tussen kosten en tijdigheid in deze HMLV-productieomgevingen, is een vaak terugkomend vraagstuk bij praktijkgerichte onderzoeken die door Fontys Technische Bedrijfskunde studenten uitgevoerd worden. Dit resulteert in de volgende onderzoeksvraag: Welke subaspecten zijn mogelijk relevant voor de prestatie met betrekking tot Quality, Delivery en Cost (QDC) van een HMLV-productieomgeving?
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In this report, the details of an investigation into the eect of the low induction wind turbines on the Levelised Cost of Electricity (LCoE) in a 1GW oshore wind farm is outlined. The 10 MW INNWIND.EU conventional wind turbine and its low induction variant, the 10 MW AVATAR wind turbine, are considered in a variety of 10x10 layout configurations. The Annual Energy Production (AEP) and cost of electrical infrastructure were determined using two in-house ECN software tools, namely FarmFlow and EEFarm II. Combining this information with a generalised cost model, the LCoE from these layouts were determined. The optimum LCoE for the AVATAR wind farm was determined to be 92.15 e/MWh while for the INNWIND.EU wind farm it was 93.85 e/MWh. Although the low induction wind farm oered a marginally lower LCoE, it should not be considered as definitive due to simple nature of the cost model used. The results do indicate that the AVATAR wind farms require less space to achieve this similar cost performace, with a higher optimal wind farm power density (WFPD) of 3.7 MW/km2 compared to 3 MW/km2 for the INNWIND.EU based wind farm.
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We aim to set up a continuous low cost monitoring system for electromagnetic fields in the Netherlands, so that a trend in exposure to 5G signals can be observed. A number of options will be explored for this, such as software-defined radio and measurement nodes for specific 5G frequencies. We developed and tested low cost dedicated measurement nodes for four 5G bands: the 800, 1400, 2100 and 3500 MHz bands. Generally, the error is less than 1 dB and close to dynamic range limits (-65 to 5 dBm) the error increases to 3 dB.
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This paper compares different low-cost sensors that can measure (5G) RF-EMF exposure. The sensors are either commercially available (off-the-shelf Software Defined Radio (SDR) Adalm Pluto) or constructed by a research institution (i.e., imec-WAVES, Ghent University and Smart Sensor Systems research group (S3R), The Hague University of Applied Sciences). Both in-lab (GTEM cell) and in-situ measurements have been performed for this comparison. The in-lab measurements tested the linearity and sensitivity, which can then be used to calibrate the sensors. The in-situ testing confirmed that the low-cost hardware sensors and SDR can be used to assess the RF-EMF radiation. The variability between the sensors was 1.78 dB on average, with a maximum deviation of 5.26 dB. Values between 0.09 V/m and 2.44 V/m were obtained at a distance of about 50 m from the base station. These devices can be used to provide the general public and governments with temporal and spatial 5G electromagnetic field values.
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Background: Patient education, advice on returning to normal activities and (home-based) exercise therapy are established treatment options for patients with non-specific low back pain (LBP). However, the effectiveness of physiotherapy interventions on physical functioning and prevention of recurrent events largely depends on patient self-management, adherence to prescribed (home-based) exercises and recommended physical activity behaviour. Therefore we have developed e-Exercise LBP, a blended intervention in which a smartphone application is integrated within face-to-face care. E-Exercise LBP aims to improve patient self-management skills and adherence to exercise and physical activity recommendations and consequently improve the effectiveness of physiotherapy on patients’ physical functioning. The aim of this study is to investigate the short- (3 months) and long-term (12 and 24 months) effectiveness on physical functioning and cost-effectiveness of e-Exercise LBP in comparison to usual primary care physiotherapy in patients with LBP. Methods: This paper presents the protocol of a prospective, multicentre cluster randomized controlled trial. In total 208 patients with LBP pain were treated with either e-Exercise LBP or usual care physiotherapy. E-Exercise LBP is stratified based on the risk for developing persistent LBP. Physiotherapists are able to monitor and evaluate treatment progress between face-to-face sessions using patient input from the smartphone application in order to optimize physiotherapy care. The smartphone application contains video-supported self-management information, video-supported exercises and a goal-oriented physical activity module. The primary outcome is physical functioning at 12-months follow-up. Secondary outcomes include pain intensity, physical activity, adherence to prescribed (home-based) exercises and recommended physical activity behaviour, self-efficacy, patient activation and health-related quality of life. All measurements will be performed at baseline, 3, 12 and 24months after inclusion. An economic evaluation will be performed from the societal and the healthcare perspective and will assess cost-effectiveness of e-Exercise LBP compared to usual physiotherapy at 12 and 24months. Discussion: A multi-phase development and implementation process using the Center for eHealth Research Roadmap for the participatory development of eHealth was used for development and evaluation. The findings will provide evidence on the effectiveness of blended care for patients with LBP and help to enhance future implementation of blended physiotherapy.
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Companies in the Brainport region are often characterized as high mix low volume (HMLV) production environments. These companies are distinguished by a wide range of possible products (high product variety), which are produced in low volumes. These are often customer-specific products that are produced once or incidentally. Traditionally, these companies focus on efficient use of resources, where utilisation rate and cost coverage are relevant. The increasing customer demand in the region leads to pressure on production capacity. An initial intuitive response from these companies is to further increase the utilisation rate of machines. To keep costs manageable, the company tries to avoid investing in additional capacity. An undesirable side effect is increasing pressure on timeliness (delivery, such as lead times, delivery reliability, flexibility) and quality. The apparent contradiction between costs and timeliness in these HMLV production environments is a recurring issue in practice-oriented research conducted by Fontys Industrial Engineering and Management students. This results in the following research question: Which sub-aspects may be relevant to the performance regarding Quality, Delivery, and Cost (QDC) of an HMLV production environment?
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Author supplied: The production system described in this paper in an im- plementation of an agile agent-based production system. This system is designed to meet the requirements of modern production, where short time to market, requirement-driven production and low cost small quan- tity production are important issues. The production is done on special devices called equiplets. A grid of these equiplets connected by a fast network is capable of producing a variety of diverent products in parallel. The multi-agent-based software infrastructure is responsible for the agile manufacturing. A product agent is responsible for the production of a single product and equiplet agents will perform the production steps to assemble the product. This paper describes this multiagent-based production system with the focus on the product agent.
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