How does employer support and educational background effect an Ergonomics Practitioner’s awareness of the relationship between ergonomics and psychosocial hazard control?

There is a growning need to address psychological health and safety in the workplace. Ergonomics tends to be widely recognized for its physical applications, such as ¨office¨ and ¨manual materials handling¨ however the other domains of specialization of ergonomics (cognitive and organizational) appear to be less well known. This study evaluates the level of understanding that professionals who practice ergonomics have of the relation between ergonomics and the control of psychosocial hazards in the workplace. A survey was distributed to ergonomics practitioners and asked them about their awareness of the relation between ergonomics and workplace psychosocial hazard control. Ergonomists and human factors specialists demonstrated a greater awareness of this relationship than other allied occupational groups that also practice ergonomics, however they indicated that there may be difficulties in the “real world” applying these areas of knowledge into practice. Participants who demonstrated a high level of awareness of the relation between ergonomics and psychosocial hazard control demonstrated stronger organizational commitment than participants with a low awareness. Ergonomics practitioners who reported having employer support for professional development also demonstrated a higher degree of awareness of the relation between ergonomics and psychosocial hazard control, as did the professionals who had been practicing in the field the longest. This research provides some insight for professional associations for Ergonomists, employers of Ergonomists, and human resource professionals about how ergonomics practitioners perceive the ergonomics field and the profession as well as their employing organization.

Protein feeding of Queensland fruit fly Bactrocera tryoni and cucumber fly Zeugodacus cucumis (Diptera: Tephritidae) on non-host vegetation: effect of plant species and bait height

Perimeter-baiting of non-crop vegetation using toxic protein baits was developed overseas as a technique for control of melon fly, Zeugodacus (Zeugodacus) cucurbitae (Coquillett) (formerly Bactrocera (Zeugodacus) cucurbitae), and evidence suggests that this technique may also be effective in Australia for control of local fruit fly species in vegetable crops. Using field cage trials and laboratory reared flies, primary data were generated to support this approach by testing fruit flies' feeding response to protein when applied to eight plant species (forage sorghum, grain sorghum, sweet corn, sugarcane, eggplant, cassava, lilly pilly and orange jessamine) and applied at three heights (1, 1.5 and 2 m). When compared across the plants, Queensland fruit fly, Bactrocera tryoni (Froggatt), most commonly fed on protein bait applied to sugarcane and cassava, whereas more cucumber fly, Zeugodacus (Austrodacus) cucumis (French) (formerly Bactrocera (Austrodacus) cucumis), fed on bait applied to sweet corn and forage sorghum. When protein bait was applied at different heights, B. tryoni responded most to bait placed in the upper part of the plants (2 m), whereas Z. cucumis preferred bait placed lower on the plants (1 and 1.5 m). These results have implications for optimal placement of protein bait for best practice control of fruit flies in vegetable crops and suggest that the two species exhibit different foraging behaviours.

Design of passive methane oxidation biosystems considering their response to the presence of capillary barrier effect

La construction des biosystèmes d’oxydation passive du méthane (BOPM) est une option économique et durable pour réduire les émissions de méthane des sites d’enfouissement de déchets et des effets subséquents du réchauffement climatique. Les BOPM sont constitués de deux couches principales: la couche d'oxydation du méthane (MOL) et la couche de distribution du gaz (GDL). L'oxydation du méthane se produit dans la MOL par les réactions biochimiques des bactéries méthanotrophes, et la GDL est construite sous la MOL pour intercepter et distribuer les émissions fugitives de biogaz à la base de la MOL. Fondamentalement, l'efficacité d'un BOPM est définie en fonction de l'efficacité d'oxydation du méthane dans la MOL. Par conséquent, il est indispensable de fournir des conditions adéquates pour les activités bactériennes des méthanotrophes. En plus des paramètres environnementaux, l'intensité et la distribution du biogaz influencent l'efficacité des BOPM, et ils peuvent rendre le matériau de la MOL - avec une grande capacité d'accueillir les activités bactériennes - inutilisables en termes d'oxydation du méthane sur place. L'effet de barrière capillaire le long de l'interface entre la GDL et la MOL peut provoquer des émissions localisées de méthane, due à la restriction ou la distribution non uniforme de l’écoulement ascendant du biogaz à la base de la MOL. L'objectif principal de cette étude est d'incorporer le comportement hydraulique non saturé des BOPM dans la conception des BOPM, afin d’assurer la facilité et la distribution adéquates de l'écoulement du biogaz à la base de la MOL. Les fonctions de perméabilité à l'air des matériaux utilisés pour construire la MOL des BOPM expérimentaux au site d’enfouissement des déchets de St Nicéphore (Québec, Canada), ainsi que celles d'autres de la littérature technique, ont été étudiés pour évaluer le comportement d'écoulement non saturé du gaz dans les matériaux et pour identifier le seuil de migration sans restriction du gaz. Ce dernier seuil a été introduit en tant que un paramètre de conception avec lequel le critère de conception recommandé ici, c’est à dire la longueur de la migration sans restriction de gaz (LMSG), a été défini. La LMSG est considérée comme la longueur le long de l'interface entre la GDL et la MOL où le biogaz peut migrer à travers la MOL sans restriction. En réalisant des simulations numériques avec SEEP/W, les effets de la pente de l'interface, des paramètres définissant la courbe de rétention d'eau, de la fonction de la conductivité hydraulique du matériau de la MOL sur la valeur de la LMSG (représentant la facilité d'écoulement du biogaz à l'interface) et de la distribution de l'humidité (et par conséquent celle du biogaz) ont été évalués. Selon les résultats des simulations, la conductivité hydraulique saturée et la distribution des tailles de pores du matériau de la MOL sont les paramètres les plus importants sur la distribution de l'humidité le long de l'interface. Ce dernier paramètre influe également sur la valeur du degré de saturation et donc la facilité du biogaz à la base de la MOL. La densité sèche du matériau de MOL est un autre paramètre qui contrôle la facilité d'écoulement ascendant du biogaz. Les limitations principales de la présente étude sont associées au nombre de matériaux de MOL testés et à l'incapacité de SEEP/W de considérer l'évapotranspiration. Toutefois, compte tenu des hypothèses raisonnables dans les simulations et en utilisant les données de la littérature, on a essayé de réduire ces limitations. En utilisant les résultats des expériences et des simulations numériques, des étapes et des considérations de conception pour la sélection du matériau de MOL et de la pente d'interface ont été proposées. En effet,le comportement hydraulique non saturé des matériaux serait intégré dans les nécessités de conception pour un BOPM efficace, de sorte que la capacité maximale possible d'oxydation du méthane du matériau de la MOL soit exploitée.

Effect of sugarcane cropping systems on herbicide losses in surface runoff

Herbicide runoff from cropping fields has been identified as a threat to the Great Barrier Reef ecosystem. A field investigation was carried out to monitor the changes in runoff water quality resulting from four different sugarcane cropping systems that included different herbicides and contrasting tillage and trash management practices. These include (i) Conventional - Tillage (beds and inter-rows) with residual herbicides used; (ii) Improved - only the beds were tilled (zonal) with reduced residual herbicides used; (iii) Aspirational - minimum tillage (one pass of a single tine ripper before planting) with trash mulch, no residual herbicides and a legume intercrop after cane establishment; and (iv) New Farming System (NFS) - minimum tillage as in Aspirational practice with a grain legume rotation and a combination of residual and knockdown herbicides. Results suggest soil and trash management had a larger effect on the herbicide losses in runoff than the physico-chemical properties of herbicides. Improved practices with 30% lower atrazine application rates than used in conventional systems produced reduced runoff volumes by 40% and atrazine loss by 62%. There were a 2-fold variation in atrazine and >10-fold variation in metribuzin loads in runoff water between reduced tillage systems differing in soil disturbance and surface residue cover from the previous rotation crops, despite the same herbicide application rates. The elevated risk of offsite losses from herbicides was illustrated by the high concentrations of diuron (14mugL-1) recorded in runoff that occurred >2.5months after herbicide application in a 1st ratoon crop. A cropping system employing less persistent non-selective herbicides and an inter-row soybean mulch resulted in no residual herbicide contamination in runoff water, but recorded 12.3% lower yield compared to Conventional practice. These findings reveal a trade-off between achieving good water quality with minimal herbicide contamination and maintaining farm profitability with good weed control.

Studies of turbulent flows in continuous casting of steel with and without magnetic field

This thesis develops and tests various transient and steady-state computational models such as direct numerical simulation (DNS), large eddy simulation (LES), filtered unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) and steady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) with and without magnetic field to investigate turbulent flows in canonical as well as in the nozzle and mold geometries of the continuous casting process. The direct numerical simulations are first performed in channel, square and 2:1 aspect rectangular ducts to investigate the effect of magnetic field on turbulent flows. The rectangular duct is a more practical geometry for continuous casting nozzle and mold and has the option of applying magnetic field either perpendicular to broader side or shorter side. This work forms the part of a graphic processing unit (GPU) based CFD code (CU-FLOW) development for magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulent flows. The DNS results revealed interesting effects of the magnetic field and its orientation on primary, secondary flows (instantaneous and mean), Reynolds stresses, turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) budgets, momentum budgets and frictional losses, besides providing DNS database for two-wall bounded square and rectangular duct MHD turbulent flows. Further, the low- and high-Reynolds number RANS models (k-ε and Reynolds stress models) are developed and tested with DNS databases for channel and square duct flows with and without magnetic field. The MHD sink terms in k- and ε-equations are implemented as proposed by Kenjereš and Hanjalić using a user defined function (UDF) in FLUENT. This work revealed varying accuracies of different RANS models at different levels. This work is useful for industry to understand the accuracies of these models, including continuous casting. After realizing the accuracy and computational cost of RANS models, the steady-state k-ε model is then combined with the particle image velocimetry (PIV) and impeller probe velocity measurements in a 1/3rd scale water model to study the flow quality coming out of the well- and mountain-bottom nozzles and the effect of stopper-rod misalignment on fluid flow. The mountain-bottom nozzle was found more prone to the longtime asymmetries and higher surface velocities. The left misalignment of stopper gave higher surface velocity on the right leading to significantly large number of vortices forming behind the nozzle on the left. Later, the transient and steady-state models such as LES, filtered URANS and steady RANS models are combined with ultrasonic Doppler velocimetry (UDV) measurements in a GaInSn model of typical continuous casting process. LES-CU-LOW is the fastest and the most accurate model owing to much finer mesh and a smaller timestep. This work provided a good understanding on the performance of these models. The behavior of instantaneous flows, Reynolds stresses and proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) analysis quantified the nozzle bottom swirl and its importance on the turbulent flow in the mold. Afterwards, the aforementioned work in GaInSn model is extended with electromagnetic braking (EMBr) to help optimize a ruler-type brake and its location for the continuous casting process. The magnetic field suppressed turbulence and promoted vortical structures with their axis aligned with the magnetic field suggesting tendency towards 2-d turbulence. The stronger magnetic field at the nozzle well and around the jet region created large scale and lower frequency flow behavior by suppressing nozzle bottom swirl and its front-back alternation. Based on this work, it is advised to avoid stronger magnetic field around jet and nozzle bottom to get more stable and less defect prone flow.

Superparamagnetic Liposomes for MRI Monitoring and External Magnetic Field-Induced Selective Targeting of Malignant Brain Tumors

International audience

Effect of foliar application of Cu, Zn, and Mn on yield and quality indicators of winter wheat grain

Micronutrients are part of many crucial physiological plant processes. The combined application of N and micronutrients helps in obtaining grain yield with beneficial technological and consumer properties. The main micronutrients needed by cereals include Cu, Mn, and Zn. The subject of this study was to determine yield, quality indicators (protein content and composition, gluten content, grain bulk density, Zeleny sedimentation index, and grain hardness), as well as mineral content (Cu, Zn, Mn, Fe) in winter wheat grain ( Triticum aestivum L.) fertilized by foliar micronutrient application. A field experiment was carried out at the Educational and Experimental Station in Tomaszkowo, Poland. The application of mineral fertilizers (NPK) supplemented with Cu increased Cu content (13.0%) and ω, α/β, and γ (18.7%, 4.9%, and 3.4%, respectively) gliadins in wheat grain. Foliar Zn fertilization combined with NPK increased Cu content (14.9%) as well as high (HMW) and low molecular weight (LMW) glutenins (38.8% and 6.7%, respectively). Zinc fertilization significantly reduced monomeric gliadin content and increased polymeric glutenin content in grain, which contributed in reducing the gliadin:glutenin ratio (0.77). Mineral fertilizers supplemented with Mn increased Fe content in wheat grain (14.3%). It also significantly increased protein (3.8%) and gluten (4.4%) content, Zeleny sedimentation index (12.4%), and grain hardness (18.5%). Foliar Mn fertilization increased the content of ω, α/β, and γ gliadin fractions (19.9%, 9.5%, and 2.1%, respectively), as well as HMW and LMW glutenins (18.9% and 4.5%, respectively). Mineral NPK fertilization, combined with micronutrients (Cu + Zn + Mn), increased Cu and Zn content in grain (22.6% and 17.7%, respectively). The content of ω, α/β, and γ gliadins increased (20.3%, 10.5%, and 12.1%, respectively) as well as HMW glutenins (7.9%).

EFFECT OF SORGHUM SEED TREATMENT IN BURKINA FASO VARIES WITH BASELINE CROP PERFORMANCE AND GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION

Sorghum [ Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] is a major subsistence crop throughout the region of Sahel. With the exception of seeds and labour, no agricultural inputs are in general used in sorghum production since the grain is of a relatively low commercial value and the risk of losing the crop to drought, flooding, etc. is substantial. A meta-analysis of 118 field experiments was carried out to identify conditions in which two protective seed treatments could support a yield increase of sorghum in Burkina Faso. The two treatments were: i) treatment with the pesticide Calthio C (thiram and chlorpyrifos) and ii) treatment with an aqueous extract from the plant Eclipta alba . Both treatments were found to produce a yield increase (Medians: Calthio C +199 kg ha-1, P<2x10-9; E. alba +90.5 kg ha-1 P<4x10-4). A strong relative effect of Calthio C on yield (+36%) was found for field experiments with a low baseline yield. A strong relative effect of E. alba extract on yield (+22%) was found for experiments with a low baseline of emergence. ANOVA of the 118 field tests showed that baseline crop performance (yield and emergence) and the effect of seed treatments were strongly linked to geographical location (twelve different villages included). Roots from sorghum in the village showing the strongest effect of both seed treatments (>40% yield increase) were found to carry a comparatively high load of the infectious ascomycetes: Fusarium equiseti , Macrophomina phaseolina and Curvularia lunata .

EFFECT OF TEMPORARY DROUGHT AT DIFFERENT GROWTH STAGES ON SNAP BEAN POD QUALITY AND YIELD

High quality snap bean ( Phaseolus vulgaris L. ) can be produced under rain-fed conditions, provided that adequate moisture is available. However, drought may occur at any stage of growth of snap bean. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of drought stress at different growth stages on pod physical quality and nutrient concentrations. An experiment was conducted at the Horticulture Greenhouse, Hawassa University in Ethiopia. Drought stress (50% of field capacity [FC]) was applied at the unfolding of the fourth trifoliate leaf, flowering and pod formation, against a control with no drought stress. The drought stress treatments and eight cultivars were arranged as a factorial experiment in a completely randomised design, with three replications. Drought stress (50% FC) during reproductive stages significantly (P<0.05) reduced pod texture, appearance, and pod curvature. Drought stress increased protein and zinc concentrations by 41 and 15%, respectively; but reduced iron concentration by 15% in snap bean pods. All the tested cultivars had relatively similar responses to drought stress.

Seasonal changes of heat and moisture fluxes from the Caspian Sea surface and its effect on synoptic systems with heavy rainfalls in southern shores of the sea during 2005-2010

Caspian Sea with its unique characteristics is a significant source to supply required heat and moisture for passing weather systems over the north of Iran. Investigation of heat and moisture fluxes in the region and their effects on these systems that could lead to floods and major financial and human losses is essential in weather forecasting. Nowadays by improvement of numerical weather and climate prediction models and the increasing need to more accurate forecasting of heavy rainfall, the evaluation and verification of these models has been become much more important. In this study we have used the WRF model as a research-practical one with many valuable characteristics and flexibilities. In this research, the effects of heat and moisture fluxes of Caspian Sea on the synoptic and dynamical structure of 20 selective systems associated with heavy rainfall in the southern shores of Caspian Sea are investigated. These systems are selected based on the rainfall data gathered by three local stations named: Rasht, Babolsar and Gorgan in different seasons during a five-year period (2005-2010) with maximum amount of rainfall through the 24 hours of a day. In addition to synoptic analyses of these systems, the WRF model with and without surface flues was run using the two nested grids with the horizontal resolutions of 12 and 36 km. The results show that there are good consistencies between the predicted distribution of rainfall field, time of beginning and end of rainfall by the model and the observations. But the model underestimates the amounts of rainfall and the maximum difference with the observation is about 69%. Also, no significant changes in the results are seen when the domain and the resolution of computations are changed. The other noticeable point is that the systems are severely weakened by removing heat and moisture fluxes and thereby the amounts of large scale rainfall are decreased up to 77% and the convective rainfalls tend to zero.

From the field to the table: ionizing radiation as a feasible postharvest treatment for fresh and dried plant foods

Food irradiation is a treatment that involves subjecting in-bulk or packaged food to a controlled dose of ionizing radiation, with a clearly defined goal. It has been used for disinfestation and sanitization of food commodities and to retard postharvest ripening and senescence processes, being a sustainable alternative to chemical agents 1 . Doses up to 10 kGy are approved by several international authorities for not offering negative effects to food from a nutrition and toxicology point of view 2 . However, the adoption of this technology for food applications has been a slow process due to some misunderstandings by the consumer who often chooses non-irradiated foods. In this study, the effects of the ionizing radiation treatment on physical, chemical and bioactive properties of dried herbs and its suitability for preserving quality attributes of fresh vegetables during cold storage were evaluated. The studied herbs, perennial spotted rockrose (Tuberaria lignosa (Sweet) Samp.) and common mallow (Malva neglecta Wallr.) were freeze-dried and then irradiated up to 10 kGy in a Cobalt-60 chamber. The selected vegetables, watercress (Nasturtium officinale R. Br.) and buckler sorrel (Rumex induratus Boiss. Reut.) were rinsed in tap water, packaged in polyethylene bags, submitted to irradiation doses up to 6 kGy and then were stored at 4 C for a period of up to 12 days. Physical, chemical and bioactive parameters of irradiated and non-irradiated samples were evaluated using different methodologies the colour was measured with a colorimeter, individual chemical compounds were analyzed by chromatographic techniques, antioxidant properties were evaluated using in vitro assays based on different reaction mechanisms, and other quality analyses were performed following official methods of analysis. The irradiation treatment did not significantly affect the colour of the perennial spotted rockrose samples, or its phenolic composition and antioxidant activity 3 . Medium doses preserved the colour of common mallow and a low dose did not induce any adverse effect in the organic acids profile. The green colour of the irradiated vegetables was maintained during cold storage but the treatment had pros and cons in other quality attributes. The 2 kGy dose preserved free sugars and favoured polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) while the 5 kGy dose favoured tocopherols and preserved the antioxidant properties in watercress samples. The 6 kGy dose was a suitable option for preserving PUFA and the ω-6 ω-3 fatty acids ratio in buckler sorrel samples. This comprehensive experimental work allowed selecting appropriate processing doses for the studied plant foods in order to preserve its quality attributes and edibility.

Al-based anodic oxide films structure observation using field emission gun scanning electron microscopy

In the present work, the anodic oxide films of Al, Al-Cu 4.5% and Al-Si 6.5% alloys are formed using direct and pulse current. In the case of Al-Cu and Al-Si alloys, the electrolyte used contains sulfuric acid and oxalic acid, meanwhile for Al the electrolyte contains sulfuric acid only. Al-Cu alloy was submitted to a heat treatment in order to decrease the effect of inter metallic phase theta upon the anodic film structure. Fractured samples were observed using a field emission gun scanning electron microscope JSM-6330F at (LME)/Brazilian Synchrotron Light Laboratory (LNLS), Campinas, SP, Brazil. The oxide film images enable evaluation of the pore size and form with a resolution similar to the transmission electron microscope (TEM) resolution. It is also observed that the anodizing process using pulse current produces an irregular structure of pore walls, and by direct cur-rent it is produced a rectilinear pore wall. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The Effect of Architecture and Shear Stress on Endothelialization of 3D Printed Vascular Networks

Despite significant progress in the field of tissue engineering within the last decade, a number of unsolved problems still remain. One of the most relevant issues is the lack of proper vascularization that limits the size of engineered tissues to smaller than clinically relevant dimensions. In particular, the growth of engineered tissue in vitro within bioreactors is plagued with this challenge. Specifically, the tubular perfusion system bioreactor has been used for large scale bone constructs; however these engineered constructs lack inherent vasculature and quickly develop a hypoxic core, where no nutrient exchange can occur, thus leading to cell death. Through the use of 3D printed vascular templates in conjunction with a tubular perfusion system bioreactor, we attempt to create an endothelial cell monolayer on 3D scaffolds that could potentially serve as the foundation of inherent vasculature within these engineered bone grafts.

Too Busy to Be Fair? The Effect of Managers’ Perceived Workload on Their Core Technical Performance and Justice Rule Adherence

Despite the organizational benefits of treating employees fairly, both anecdotal and empirical evidence suggest that managers do not behave fairly towards their employees in a consistent manner. As treating employees fairly takes up personal resources such as time, effort, and attention, I argue that when managers face high workloads (i.e., high amounts of work and time pressure), they are unable to devote such personal resources to effectively meet both core technical task requirements and treat employees fairly. I propose that in general, managers tend to view their core technical task performance as more important than being fair in their dealings with employees; as a result, when faced with high workloads, they tend to prioritize the former at the expense of the latter. I also propose that managerial fairness will suffer more as a result of heightened workloads than will core technical task performance, unless managers perceive their organization to explicitly reward fair treatment of employees. I find support for my hypotheses across three studies: two experimental studies (with online participants and students respectively) and one field study of managers from a variety of organizations. I discuss the implications of studying fairness in the wider context of managers’ complex role in organizations to the fairness and managerial work demands literatures.

Time-Reversal Massive Multipath Effect and Bandwidth Heterogeneity

The proliferation of new mobile communication devices, such as smartphones and tablets, has led to an exponential growth in network traffic. The demand for supporting the fast-growing consumer data rates urges the wireless service providers and researchers to seek a new efficient radio access technology, which is the so-called 5G technology, beyond what current 4G LTE can provide. On the other hand, ubiquitous RFID tags, sensors, actuators, mobile phones and etc. cut across many areas of modern-day living, which offers the ability to measure, infer and understand the environmental indicators. The proliferation of these devices creates the term of the Internet of Things (IoT). For the researchers and engineers in the field of wireless communication, the exploration of new effective techniques to support 5G communication and the IoT becomes an urgent task, which not only leads to fruitful research but also enhance the quality of our everyday life. Massive MIMO, which has shown the great potential in improving the achievable rate with a very large number of antennas, has become a popular candidate. However, the requirement of deploying a large number of antennas at the base station may not be feasible in indoor scenarios. Does there exist a good alternative that can achieve similar system performance to massive MIMO for indoor environment? In this dissertation, we address this question by proposing the time-reversal technique as a counterpart of massive MIMO in indoor scenario with the massive multipath effect. It is well known that radio signals will experience many multipaths due to the reflection from various scatters, especially in indoor environments. The traditional TR waveform is able to create a focusing effect at the intended receiver with very low transmitter complexity in a severe multipath channel. TR's focusing effect is in essence a spatial-temporal resonance effect that brings all the multipaths to arrive at a particular location at a specific moment. We show that by using time-reversal signal processing, with a sufficiently large bandwidth, one can harvest the massive multipaths naturally existing in a rich-scattering environment to form a large number of virtual antennas and achieve the desired massive multipath effect with a single antenna. Further, we explore the optimal bandwidth for TR system to achieve maximal spectral efficiency. Through evaluating the spectral efficiency, the optimal bandwidth for TR system is found determined by the system parameters, e.g., the number of users and backoff factor, instead of the waveform types. Moreover, we investigate the tradeoff between complexity and performance through establishing a generalized relationship between the system performance and waveform quantization in a practical communication system. It is shown that a 4-bit quantized waveforms can be used to achieve the similar bit-error-rate compared to the TR system with perfect precision waveforms. Besides 5G technology, Internet of Things (IoT) is another terminology that recently attracts more and more attention from both academia and industry. In the second part of this dissertation, the heterogeneity issue within the IoT is explored. One of the significant heterogeneity considering the massive amount of devices in the IoT is the device heterogeneity, i.e., the heterogeneous bandwidths and associated radio-frequency (RF) components. The traditional middleware techniques result in the fragmentation of the whole network, hampering the objects interoperability and slowing down the development of a unified reference model for the IoT. We propose a novel TR-based heterogeneous system, which can address the bandwidth heterogeneity and maintain the benefit of TR at the same time. The increase of complexity in the proposed system lies in the digital processing at the access point (AP), instead of at the devices' ends, which can be easily handled with more powerful digital signal processor (DSP). Meanwhile, the complexity of the terminal devices stays low and therefore satisfies the low-complexity and scalability requirement of the IoT. Since there is no middleware in the proposed scheme and the additional physical layer complexity concentrates on the AP side, the proposed heterogeneous TR system better satisfies the low-complexity and energy-efficiency requirement for the terminal devices (TDs) compared with the middleware approach.